Animal House

I have been appointed temporary guardian of an attention-craving three-legged cat named Nubbins. She'll be here for about a week or so while her owner is off visiting his mum in England. I didn't do much catproofing before she arrived, so I'm just hoping for the best. So far, she's been pretty good; at least I think she has been. Who knows what these little critters do while you're away.

The only thing I'm a little concerned about is that she doesn't appear to have used her litter box yet. I'm hoping that doesn't mean she has come to prefer some remote but appealing spot on my carpet. If so, there's a strong chance that I may not notice it for awhile. First of all, there are only a about two square feet in my apartment where the carpet is actually visible. Secondly, for me to be able to detect a new smell around here, it would first have to overpower the various others that it would have to compete with. I'm not the tidiest fellow in the world, to say the least. It's a trait that seems to run in my family, at least among the males. Just a couple of weeks ago, my dad was talking about his own lack of organization skills. (I believe the subject came up because he and mom had just visited me the weekend before.) Anyway, he mentioned how he'd like it if he could just put lines of nails along every wall in the house to hang things on so as to actually be able to find them at a glance instead of having to remember what drawer or cabinet they are stashed away in. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, although not very aesthetically pleasing - I'm sure mom would never go for it.

At least the cat doesn't seem to mind the state of things at my place; in fact, I'm pretty sure she sees it as a kitty playground. We should be able to tolerate each other just fine.