There have been heating issues in my apartment, so I was wearing my ugly Flyers hat indoors.  Then the heat came on, and I decided to take a shower and wash my hair before it stopped working again.  Alfredo is kindly wearing my hat for me, to keep it warm while my hair dries.  It's very cute, and makes me wish I had a camera.

Quixley Says: It Gets Better

As many of you may know, yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and in honour of the occasion, AJD reports, Quixley decided he wanted to have his picture taken with the gay pride zebra shirt.

It probably hasn't come up on this blog before, but the southern domicile has an iconic gay pride zebra shirt.  My parents sent it to me for my birthday a few years ago without comment - I hadn't realised before that they were actively supportive of the gay zebra community.  We hung it up in the living room in order to indicate to any gay zebras who happened to be wandering in the neighbourhood that they were quite welcome with us.  It has been worn exactly once, when AJD went to a masked ball dressed as a gay zebra.

So, anyway, Quixley decided he should have his picture taken in the gay zebra shirt.  First, however, he wanted AJD to take a picture of himself emerging from AJD's closet beneath the banner of the shirt, as a "coming out" metaphor.

Quixley "comes out" beneath the Iconic Gay Zebra Pride shirt as a Dramatic Metaphor.

 Then he wanted to have his picture taken in the shirt.  Since Quixley is an actual zebra, and the shirt is not designed for actual zebras, but rather for human allies, this did not really work all that well.

Quixley attempts to don the Iconic Gay Zebra Pride shirt.

So instead, he and AJD decided to just have Quixley photographed with the shirt.

Quixley and the Iconic Shirt

Prior to yesterday, AJD and I had not realised that Quixley is gay.  In retrospect, this is primarily because zebras are apparently very supportive of the LGTBZ community, and Quixley himself is a pretty laid-back, chill kind of guy.  He doesn't make a big deal out of his personal life (or most other things), and it's no secret, since he's been out for ages.  So he naturally assumed everyone already knew.  It was partly my fault too, because I saw a photograph he had of himself and a cute girl zebra and leapt to the wrong conclusion as to their relationship, having not got a close enough look at it.  If I'd got a better look, I'd have realised that the female zebra was Quixley's sister Quincilla.  They're really close - he's only a year older.

Anyway, AJD asked Quixley to say a few words in honour of the occasion, so Quixley paused for a second and delivered the following speech, which AJD carefully notated verbatim:

Um, everybody... it gets better.

That's a few words, all right.  It's hard to envision a speech of fewer words, come to think of it.  Very characteristic of a zebra of few words.

Quixley later said that being gay really isn't a big deal if you're a zebra, as long as you're with other zebras.  He encountered a lot more trouble when he started attending high school in a more mixed environment; not all species are as accepting as zebras.  But then he graduated, and started doing his IT training, and found that yeah, it really does get better, even when you're not living with other zebras.

Stowaway!

Beppe is in so much trouble now.  Oh boy.

I went down to visit the Southern Domicile on Friday, as well as to take care of a few things and go salsa-dancing with AJD and EHC (who was also visiting).  I opened my suitcase to take out my toothbrush, and guess who popped out?

Of course it was Beppe.  He was so glad to be there, too; the moment AJD came in to see what the deal was, Beppe launched himself at him in a flurry of excited yips.  I'm really not sure how he managed to stay quiet for the whole bus trip from NYC to Philly, although I guess he spent the bus journey proper in the baggage hold where no one would hear him.

 

 

Rochester and the Fox gave Beppe a very stern talking-to.  He was initially unrepentant, but after a few minutes he started feeling more contrite.

Beppe unrepentant

Beppe contrite

We could just see Alfredo freaking out and the temporary Northern Domicile crawling with questing fluffies.  This is every parent's nightmare, after all.  While Rochester and the Fox were lecturing Beppe, Quixley immediately hurried to the computer to email Alfredo that everything was all right.  Then we just had to hope that Alfredo got the email, as I had taken my laptop south and the new computer system won't materialise until we have a permanent NYC abode.  Alfredo has a BlackBerry, but he's not very good at using it yet.  We could only suppose that he'd have Magick and Murchison glued to their iPhones.

Here's a close up of the text of Quixley's email.  You should be able to read it if you zoom in.  Note that Quixley prefers Gmail's "Ninja" theme.

A Qmail

Barry seized advantage of the opportunity to grill Beppe about whether or not he's seen Duke Ellington.  This was a complete failure, as Beppe had no clue what he was talking about.

So this morning I left Philly on a much earlier bus than I'd intended to, in hopes of preventing Alfredo from having a heart attack.  I got to my 8.30 bus so early they put me on an 8.00 bus, and I was home a little before 11.  Quixley's email had been received, thanks to Murchison lending Alfredo his iPhone, but Alfredo was nonetheless visibly agitated until Beppe popped out of the bag.  Naturally Beppe got another series of major talking-tos, first from his father and then from Desmond, Jasper, and Lady Faraday.  Moreover, Alfredo has informed him that he's not to be allowed out of his father's sight until after we find a permanent Northern Domicile.  He seems to be finally understanding that stowing away was maybe not a brilliant idea... but he still enjoyed every minute of it.

The Southern Domicile Celebrates Flag Day

What, you say?  Flag Day was months ago?  Well, yes, Flag Day was indeed months ago.  But the Southern Domicile had been feeling a bit glum, with most of their friends off living it up in the Big Apple, and so Rochester decided that everyone's spirits would benefit from a good Flag Day celebration.

One of Leprosy's talents is a sense of ceremony.  Give him an occasion, and he can put together an incredibly elaborate ritual for it.  So Rochester gave Leprosy charge of the details of the ceremony.  After some grumbling about how there weren't nearly enough animals to do it proper justice, Leprosy came through.  So here they are: the Southern Domicile, beflagged.

Each of them tried to choose an appropriate flag.  Rochester has the state flag of New York, of course; the Fox has the state flag of Massachusetts, where he's from; Leprosy has a Yacht Commodore flag (AJD's not entirely sure why he chose that one, but apparently he was adamant and seemed pleased with it); Quixley naturally has a flag in his own colours; and Meph has the creepy pirate flag because it's all ironic and stuff.  Look how happy he is.

Barry somehow missed the memo that the ceremony was happening.  He's been mopey ever since he found out that the Northern Domicile is in Duke Ellington's old place, and so Leprosy wrote him out of the ceremony.  Naturally he responded to this by interrupting the whole thing and dashing out into the middle of it with the most attention-grabbing flag he could find.

It's not clear whether Barry's relationship with Leprosy can ever be repaired.  Rochester's rather miffed at him too, because he's concerned that Leprosy will refuse to share his ceremonial talents ever again.

Butterfinger and Alcindarias played the role of audience; here you can see them looking on, bemused.  Neither of them really got the point, although they were agreeable enough to pacify Leprosy's need for an audience.  Alcindarias didn't get the point because in the Wild Mythic Federation, no one bothers with rituals like this.  The WMF doesn't really have any concepts of nationhood or anything like that; they're a bunch of individuals who have a loose confederacy for purely practical reasons that do not include the emotional.  Butterfinger didn't get the point because there wasn't any hugging.

Despite the hiccough in the middle, Rochester pronounced the ceremony a success, as it served its desired purpose: now no one is thinking too much about missing the Northern Domicile because they're all too busy taking sides in the current kerfluffle.  Also, Rochester got to have a moment of patriotism, and that pleased him mightily.  He's very proud of being from New York.  AJD says he doesn't want to relinquish the flag now.

Sleepyhead Gets Frisky (ish)

So when I fell asleep on this air mattress last night, I had my laptop on the right side of the pillow, and a cluster of creatures to the left: Sir Theo, Seal, Sir Tristan, Lady Faraday, Magick, and Sleepyhead.

Partway through the night, I woke up to find Sleepyhead on my right.  He appeared to be peering under my sheet; his head was mostly under it.  Shockingly, he was very clearly not asleep.  In fact, I don't think I'd ever seen him so awake.  I, however, was mostly asleep, as well as vaguely certain that if Sleepyhead felt hyper, I should not deter him; so I patted his rump and went back to sleep.

When I woke up this morning, Sleepyhead was lying there fast asleep with his head pillowed on my laptop and his back to me.  I've fallen asleep on my laptop before and it's not very cuddly, let me tell you, but he didn't seem to mind.  I moved him over so that his head is on the pillow now; he didn't wake up in transfer.  All that activity must have done him in.

I conjecture that Sleepyhead got up in the middle of the night to play with my laptop and fell asleep before he could sneak away again.  So far I haven't figured out what he was doing; there weren't any incriminating websites up or anything.  Maybe he was playing Dominion.

A Boy and His Fox

AJD and the Fox have been together for more than a few years now - not as long as Seal and I have, but a pretty long time - longer than I've known AJD.  The Fox is a mysterious fellow.  He's involved in the Wild Republic, and of high rank; this we know.  But he's not actually a member of the local chapter.  He's around because of AJD.  The Fox doesn't belong to AJD, exactly, but he seems to have decided that he ought to be around him all the same.

This picture of the two of them together might be my favourite picture of AJD.

AJD and I aren't roommates anymore.  It's sad; he's one of the closest friends I've ever had, and I'm going to miss him like crazy.  I'll miss the Fox too, and the way he likes to be kissed between the ears.

Temporary Digs

So we made it to NYC.

I don't have a real apartment yet; I'm just subletting a place for about two weeks.  It doesn't have furniture, which is kind of interesting.  Turns out that the building I'm in is an official historic landmark, because Duke Ellington used to live here.  There's a plaque on the front of the building and everything, although you can't really make out the words in this picture.

Barry's going to be really jealous.  He loves jazz, and he's a particular fan of Duke Ellington; but he stayed behind in the Southern Domicile.

Mimsy and Khamsin are NYC natives, so they're pretty happy to be back.  Khamsin really wants me to take the kittens to Central Park.  When he and Mimsy were still living in the museum, Khamsin used to peek out the window and the park and fantasise about sneaking out late at night and scampering around without anyone being the wiser, but he could never figure out how to handle the locks, so it didn't happen.

The very first thing we did once we had moved everything into my temporary room was open all the boxes.  Much as they all like each other, we figured they'd probably had enough of each other in close quarters for a while.  They were pretty eager to get out of there and explore the new place.  Here they are emerging from their boxes.

The box captains immediately held a meeting to confer about how the trip had gone.  

Consensus appears to be that everything went about as well as could be expected.  The kittens were rather fractious; Beppe yipped the whole time; Zebulon was apparently convinced that they were travelling through a wormhole and gave a long discourse about how the physics worked; Plouie kept forgetting that they were travelling in boxes and freaking out all over again; Magick and Murchison had a confusing conversation that no one else in their box could follow and which was presumably in code.  Pretty much business as usual.

Meanwhile, everyone else was exploring.  The kittens, Beppe, and a bunch of others immediately ran all over the living room.

You can just make out Hrithik preparing to climb up on the radiator back there; it was the highest point he could see.  He's currently settled on the shelf in my closet.  Cami and the polar bears were really interested in the Internet cables.  Rusty and Navarre took advantage of the newfound space and adult distraction to start whaling on each other again.

Not everyone went quite so far afield.  Gilly, of course, immediately laid claim to the air mattress that AM left in here for me.  That's an iPod he's got there; he was quite adamant that there was no room for it on the bed. 

At first, Gilly was convinced that I'd made his dream come true, and given him his own mattress; he was crushed when I explained that it was meant to be mine.  Then he was newly encouraged to see how empty the place is - surely, he said, now is the time to invest in dozens of mattresses - and disappointed when I told him that this place isn't really ours and that the actual tenants would probably be kind of freaked if they came and found we'd flooded it with mattresses.  He tried to convince me to agree to flood our eventual place with mattresses, but I fobbed him off with a story about how NYC has really tough mattress regulations.  Please do not tell him that I made this up.

Zebulon and Nicodemus checked out the view from my bedroom; it's a pretty nice one, although you can't see much of it in this picture.

Nicky is so excited to be here.  Like, he's beside himself.  He's always wanted to see NYC, and this is like his dream come true.  Apparently the whole way over he was pestering Seleucus about whether or not they make 'I <3 NYC' shirts in goat sizes.  Seleucus, who has never been to NYC and really doesn't care much about it (or any city that isn't in Bactria), told him rather shortly that they don't, but Nicky was apparently undeterred because he asked me the same question.  And he keeps announcing 'I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!' like out of the blue.

Not everyone took advantage of the chance to explore.  When the box captains were meeting, Jasper realised, upon saying that Sleepyhead had slept the whole time (such a surprise...), that he hadn't seen Sleepyhead leave the box, and sure enough, he was still asleep in there, curled up with the electronic equipment.  Jasper tried to get him to come out and eventually gave up.

You wouldn't think electronics would be so cuddly.  I fell asleep trying to cuddle my laptop once, and it left a dent in my forehead.

Plouie was pretty excited about the whole thing.  He was hopping around and making squee noises and stuff.  But what had him excited wasn't quite what you'd think.  Check it out:

He comes all the way to a new apartment in a new city, and what interests him is my vegetable steamer.  I'm like, 'Plouie, seriously, it's the same one we had in the old apartment,' but it didn't get through.  After this picture was taken, he started flippering through the rest of the box of equally familiar items.  I wonder whether he'll ever notice the rest of the place at all.

You'll notice that the Mini Republic is nowhere in evidence.  That's because they're having a slightly different adventure.  A bigger one, in fact.  They're all staying a luxury hotel for a month or so, and should have great stories to tell when we're reunited.  Gyork is really excited.  He's from NYC too, like Mimsy and Khamsin, and he's looking forward to showing everyone his favourite places: The Gempire State Building, the Statue of Gliberty, the Gbronx...  He wants me to take everyone to see the Gnicks play once basketball season starts, and the Gyankees of course.  The temporary place is actually quite near Yankee Stadium, as it happens, although I doubt I'll make it there.

Anyway, so we made it here, although we won't be in this specific "here" for very long.  Further updates will follow, although I no longer have access to a camera (the camera we use is AJD's), so there might not be many photos for a while.

Moving Out

Well, so the day has arrived.  This will be my last post from what will henceforth be known as the Southern Domicile.  I'm relocating to NYC (henceforth the Northern Domicile) with the majority of the local chapter of the Wild Republic.  It's just starting to sink in.  We've spent the morning getting the departing animals comfortable in their travelling cases and saying goodbyes.  Everyone is sad (except the younger ones, who are mostly just excited, except Cami).

The local chapter isn't exactly breaking up, per se, but apparently it was decided that they needed multiple locations to conduct their business; since we've never been clued in on their business, we can't really comment.  Quixley is staying here to maintain the IT equipment; Leprosy and Meph are also staying here.  Rochester has been appointed the leader of the Southern Domicile Faction.  He still answers to Alfredo in larger matters, but for daily concerns, he's the one in charge.  Here you can see Alfredo giving him some last-minute instructions.  Alfredo is confident that Rochester will do a great job.

Meanwhile, AJD and I were saying our good-byes.  Here I am saying goodbye to Leprosy and the Fox, and giving the Fox one last kiss between the ears (he really likes that).

Here's AJD with Plouie, Vim, and Alfredo.

And here I am with Rochester.

Then it was time to get everyone settled.  Alfredo, naturally, supervised the packing of the travelling boxes.  We needed three, two of which also contained other things.  Each box had a designated box captain to ensure everything went smoothly  There was some scrambling to make sure that particular people ended up in the right boxes - Lady Faraday and Sir Tristan were almost accidentally separated.  Here's Alfredo checking on the first box, which also contained electronic equipment.  Jasper and the kittens went in this one, with some others, so it made sense for Jasper to be the box captain.

The second box had a lot of random things in it, like poker chips, a book of Persian faery tales, my dancing shoes, and a pot.  This box kind of had two captains: Seleucus was the official captain, but Desmond was appointed auxiliary captain in case Seleucus has a diva fit.  Desmond is quite content as second; he noticed that the soundtrack to Grey Gardens was in this box, and happily claimed it.

Alfredo himself captained the third box, which contained most of the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, as well as Beppe, Murchison, and Plouie.  I'm not sure whether putting Magick and Murchison in the same box will prove interesting or not.  Those two are pretty cagey about whether or how they knew each other before.

After everyone was packed in, the Southern Domicile gathered around to say goodbye to their friends, and that was it.

So... we've got to take off now.  I'll post again on the other end of the trip.

Our Lovely Photographer

ML's reward for taking the group photo (not an easy task, considering that the subjects involved unruly kittens and Plouie) was to have her picture taken with whichever creatures she wanted.  So here she is with Leprosy and Plouie.

Thanks again, ML!

Everybody

I mentioned a few days ago that I'm moving.  AJD is not.  It's sad but true.  So we really wanted to get one big picture with the entire local chapter of the Wild Republic (both retired and active members), the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, the Wild Mythic Federation, and us, before I leave.  Here we are, immortalised by our intrepid photographer friend ML.

After ML had taken this, we realised that somehow Seal was missing.  Obviously this would not do, so I got up and found him and talked him into being in the picture.  Seal's not camera-shy, but he's retired, and accordingly tries to avoid anything suspiciously big and official.  This position is understandable, as he's not just any retiree: Seal was president pro tem of the Wild Republic Senate for fifteen years until he decided to retire - not just any fifteen years, mind you, but the most prosperous and well-run fifteen years of its entire history.  He is legendary: one of their greatest political figures of all time.

But when he thought about it some more, he decided we were right: this occasion was worth making an exception for.  So here is another picture with everyone, Seal included.

Look how Barry is so eager for centre stage that he's blocking my face.  That's so very typical of Barry.

Glee

 I might be sick and tired of dealing with this moving business, but this opinion is not shared by everyone in my house.  Skwidjit, for instance, thinks the whole thing is great fun, because it generates bubble wrap for her to play with.

She's managed, through stealth or luck, to keep the kittens from stumbling on her discovery, and thus have the bubble wrap experience all to herself.  

Now, I like playing with bubble wrap myself, but I really don't have the energy for it right now.  So it's possible that she would be less amused if she were relocating, but she's not going anywhere, so, unlike me, she has plenty of energy to be entertained. 

Bluh bluh Moving.

So I'm in the process of moving, which is one of my least favourite activities in the entire universe of activities.  Moving always transforms me into this insane evil demon bitch while simultaneously depleting me of all energy.  Ugh.  I'm really lucky that I have some awesome friends who have been lending me a hand.  Otherwise I'd have withdrawn my live savings, gone to Rome, and thrown myself off the Ponte Vecchio, I kid thee not.

Anyway, so after a few hours of stuffing things in boxes and reviewing logistical plans with AJD, I kinda conked out on AJD's floor.  While I was lying there, Quixley realised that I was wearing his colours and climbed aboard.  He knows a good aesthetic when he sees one, and he'd had at least conversation with us on the beauty of the black/white contrast, so he knew that we appreciate such contrasts too.  Here we are:

Then AJD and Quixley, being awake enough to have active brain cells (unlike me) had an even better idea.  Sleepyhead is both the right colours and the right affect.  So AJD retrieved Sleepyhead from the south room and he and Quixley swapped places.

I was aware that they were doing this; I don't think Sleepyhead ever noticed, even though he was moved from the south room to the north room and back again.

So yeah: moving is hell.

The Wild Republic Hits the World Wide Web

Quixley, as previously mentioned, was sent here to force the local chapter into the computer age.  He spent the first month or so of his tenure just fixing up the machines themselves, which were old and slow and riddled with spyware.  After he managed to get everything in place, he started giving the others tutorials.  Some of them were a bit hesitant, and Leprosy still grumbles about everything, but his efforts are starting to see results.  Consequently, Quixley's job is much more laid-back these days.  I thought I should share with you a few of these results.

First of all, Parsley has developed a massive crush on Sandra Day Okapi, one of the justices on the Zoo-preme Court.  Parsley caught on to the whole web-browsing concept pretty easily, and it occurred to him to look up how Day Okapi was doing on the court.  He's never met her, but he has a lot of species pride, and she is his people's hero.  She's also apparently pretty hot, if okapis are your type.

He's taken to doing a lot of soulful pining in front of the computer like this, gazing on the image of his goddess.  At least it's not porn?

Gilly, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, has discovered online shopping.  Here he is at his favourite site.

Since we have remained staunch in our refusal to give him a credit card, Gilly can't do more than look, but he looks a lot.  He even has a wishlist.  He also has a really irritating habit of leaving the site up when he's ended his browsing session; we assume this is a new tactic intended to guilt us into giving him what he wants.

The website that has been the biggest hit around here is LiveJournal, despite LJ's recent issues.  Every last member of the local chapter, including all of the foreigners, has opened an LJ account, friending all of the others.  Here, for instance, you can see Omri writing in his journal; the text reads, 'Hey everyone, my next dancing bear show will be on Wednesday night.  I'm playing the dancing bear!'

This is kind of cool, but also logistically problematic, because there's only one computer between them all (except for Murchison and Magick, who have iPhones).  So someone is always on LJ, and there's always a queue of others waiting for their turn at LJ.  Here is the queue behind Omri while he was taking his turn:

You see the problem, right?  Someone posts something, and then everyone else wants to check their friends-list so that they can read it and leave comments, not to mention posting something of their own; but there's only the one computer, so they're always in the queue, and then sometimes someone spoils the folk still in the queue on what was posted and those who haven't had a chance to read it yet get angry.  It's kind of unfortunate.  Meanwhile, Gilly and Sir Theo are annoyed because they have less time to play Dominion now that everyone else wants computer time.

The juveniles have things a bit better, because they have periods of time when they can be on the computer while the adults are still working - although they do still have to contend with each other.

But this means that the adults boot them off when they're done working, so their computer time is restricted in other ways.  The kittens have complained to Jasper about this, but he hasn't been very sympathetic.

Facebook has been much less successful around here.  About half of the animals have joined it.  They seem to find it overly complicated or something.  Here's Quixley giving Humphrey and Seleucus a Facebook tutorial; Quixley said afterwards that no matter how many times he went over how to "like" things and Facebook walls, they didn't seem to catch on.

Over all, Quixley's done a good job of introducing computers to the local chapter of the Republic.  He's been less successful lobbying for a bigger budget, even with Alfredo's support.  Quixley thinks they need at least five machines, preferably ten, but the bureaucracy won't give him more money for this unless he can show that the computers are being used primarily for work, which he can't, because with only one computer, no single individual can get significant work done.

Natural Disasters Edition II: Hrithik Saves Greater New Jersey

The worst of the storm is over, anyway, and Alfredo has rescinded the evacuation order.  The Wild Republic is now emerging from the closet.  They appear to be no worse for the wear, but they're all a bit cranky.  Being crammed into close quarters like that was evidently an experience:

• Rusty complained most of the time because he wanted to watch the storm.
• The kittens got bored and sang a lot of 'One Hundred Bottles of Beer' whenever Jasper's attention was diverted.
• Cami and Angel Joe were pretty terrified the whole time.
• The Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegates, plus Seleucus, Leprosy, and Desmond, spent the entire time having a spirited intellectual discourse on the nature of reality, which everyone else felt wasn't really in keeping with the gravity of the situation.
• Omri spent the entire storm trampling all over everyone in an effort to find Alfredo's clipboard, which (it was later revealed) Parsley was sitting on.
• Quixley, deprived of his usual dosage of caffeine, was pretty grouchy the whole time.  You can't really blame him, I guess, because he was worried that he'd have to configure the computer system all over again.
• Nicky fainted, but he got better.

By far the most notable happenstance, however, is that Hrithik insisted on meditating the entire time, because he was convinced that in this way he could keep the destruction outside to a minimum.  Naturally this began to wear on everyone else's nerves almost immediately, but with his Jeopardy! track record, no one could really make a compelling case against him.  Zebulon probably could have, but Zebulon, either in a show of Team Malagasy solidarity or because he's crazy, decided to take Hrithik's side.  Team Malagasy has pull, I'm telling you.

Now, of course, Hrithik is claiming sole credit for the fact that the entire eastern coast of the United States hasn't disappeared Atlantis-style beneath the waves, despite the fact that even the most alarming of the pre-storm predictions had not mentioned this as a possibility.

Oh - one other thing.  Sleepyhead managed to sleep through the entire hurricane, and quite possibly never noticed himself being evacuated to the closet at all.  Apparently this how giant pandas respond to natural disasters.

Wild Fascist Dictatorship Newsflash: DUCKS

Owing to the extreme nature of the storm presenting striking the Eastern Seaboard, Ebenezer Popcorn has ordered his entire citizenry to transfer themselves into ducks or face steep fines, thus throwing the country into panic.  Reports indicate that conspicuously non-avian animals have been seen wandering around the capital city in duck masks and fake duck flippers, the latter sometimes worn on the wrong feet or on too many feet.  No arrests have been yet made - it is possible that news of the fraud has not yet reached the proper authorities - but sources are predicting that some citizens may be forced to stand trial for duck fraud.

It is worth pointing out that the Wild Fascist Dictatorship is located somewhere in Austria, and that at this time there have been no reports that Austria has been unduly affected by Hurricane Irene.

Natural Disasters Edition

Well, so there's a hurricane.  Exciting, right?

At the first signs of severe weather, Alfredo ordered the entire local chapter evacuated into the closet to wait out the storm, ambassadors and all. This isn't actually a sign that he's an alarmist so much as a practical matter; Alfredo may be neurotic, but he rarely panics.  His objective was mostly to ensure that everyone kept away from the windows and stayed in one place, so that the more easily scared animals - Plouie, Cami, Angel Joe - were neither staring at scary weather nor being tortured with it by animals made of sterner stuff.  He did let Rusty watch for just a little bit, though; Rusty loves storms.

Several hours after the evacuation, I discovered that Murchison wasn't in the closet.  Whether he stayed behind on his own initiative or Alfredo's is not clear; he's not saying.  I persuaded him to move further back from the windows, anyway.

Self-Portrait

Yesterday, AJD asked me where I'd put his camera, since I'd been the last to use it.  I said I'd thought I'd put it  back where I'd found it, but obviously it wasn't there.  This set off a flurry of searching with no success: we had no clue where the camera had got to.  I was particularly baffled, because I was dead certain I hadn't even taken it out of the room.

Well, it turns out Navarre has suddenly developed an interest in photography.  We finally found the camera in his clutches, and he confessed.  He swears he was going to put it back when he was done; he says he's borrowed it a few times before, but he'd been able to replace it before anyone had noticed.

You know how a lot of people with cameras want to take pictures of themselves taking pictures of themselves?  Navarre is one of these folk.  The results are extremely adorable, although I have to admit that they kind of all look exactly like this.  He hasn't expanded his repertoire yet (assuming he's not a photographic Frida Kahlo).

Jasper has sternly reprimanded Navarre for taking the camera without permission; we've told him that it's okay if he borrows it provided he asks first, but he's not allowed to for the next week.  Jasper suspects that he was sneaking around with the camera rather than asking because he was embarrassed to admit that he'd become interested in something that didn't pertain to preparing for his future as a monarch.  Like AJD and myself, he's delighted that Navarre's found a hobby.  He's always so serious and so intent on studying, and it's great to see him lightening up a little. 

The Many Guises of Seal

Sometimes you can know someone for years, and think you know pretty much everything there is to know about them... and then they surprise you, and you realise that there are still things about them you never even suspected.

I went to take a nap a bit ago, by which I mean, I sort of collapsed facefirst onto my mattress.  Immediately a problem revealed itself: I was wearing an oversized T-shirt that I'd tied with a scrunchie, and if I insisted on sleeping in this fashion, the scrunchie was going to make it uncomfortable.  So I sort of heaved myself up just long enough to pull the scrunchie off the shirt, and then I stuck the first place I could think of that it wouldn't get lost, which happened to be around Seal's neck.

This had a most unexpected consequence: observe.

Seal is an Elizabethan!  Look at how naturally he wears the ruff and how well it suits him!  I never guessed!  Here we've been together twenty-seven years and counting, and I never realised that my sea lion companion is Elizabethan.  I felt pretty embarrassed, let me tell you.  How could I have failed to notice it before?  But Seal was very nice about the whole thing.  He said that it took him quite a long time to realise it himself, and in fact hadn't twigged to it until I put the scrunchie around his neck.

Sometimes we surprise ourselves.  It's true.

Despite what you may think, Seal is not a stranger to cosplay.  Nope.  I'm a Jew-by-choice, not a born Jew, and I was raised Catholic.  Every year at Christmas, I used to torture poor Seal by dressing him up in the little Santa Claus costume my mother made for him when I was three or four.  I still have this costume, and Seal graciously agreed to be photographed wearing it (the things one does for love, right?).  

See, he's a Christmas Seal.

Come to think of it, he was awfully delighted when I told him I was converting.

Laura's Eyes

As I said in a recent post, Alfredo worries about Beppe a lot, because e's convinced that he's dooming his son to a lifetime of psychological problems because he's a single parent.  Beppe, as far as we can tell, shows no signs of deep psychological damage; he behaves just like any puppy of his age should.

Nevertheless, Beppe has of course been affected by his mother's death.  He was telling us the other day that he can't really remember her anymore, and he feels pretty sad about that; he wishes he had at least one clear memory of her.  So I pointed out to him that he has his mother's eyes.  

Alfredo's eyes are amber, but Beppe's are very blue, just like Laura's were; Alfredo has told us before that he's very glad about this, because he can see a little bit of Laura whenever he looks at Beppe.  I told Beppe what his father had said, and suggested that whenever he feels a bit sad because of his mother, he can go look at himself in the mirror, and know that his eyes are just like hers.  It's not the same as havivng real memories of her, of course, but it's similar, and he'll always be able to do that.

Beppe immediately brightened.  His father doesn't tell him constantly how much his eyes are like hers, and so he'd forgotten it.  He says he feels much better knowing that he has her eyes, even without the mirror strategy.  This didn't stop him from trying the mirror idea too.

Happily, this experiment was also a success.  Beppe was so delighted that he hurried off to tell Alfredo about it, which made Alfredo conspicuously misty-eyed.

A Bored Libertine

So Magick is bored.  Extremely bored.

Few things aggravate Magick more than monotony. There's a higher-than-chance probability that this is directly relevant to a certain poker game that took place not long ago.

It's not entirely clear why Magick is with this delegation at all.  There's some sort of mystery surrounding it.  We more than suspect that he's involved in covert operations (although everyone is too polite to inquire directly), but from hints that some of the others (mostly Nicky) have let slip, we've concluded that this does not explain why he is here as opposed to somewhere else, because there seems to be some sort of scandal connected with his current job.

This explains a number of things, actually.  Magick likes challenges and action; this sort of job, which mostly limits him to hanging around a group of colourful but largely sedentary characters, is clearly not well-suited to his temperament or abilities.  Sure, Murchison is here, and they clearly have a working history of some kind, and it's probable that Murchison's presence is a partial explanation for Magick's... but only a partial.  Magick is quite obviously wasted here, and he knows it.

From what Nicky's let slip, we suspect that there's a female involved here.  Magick's reputation with the fairer stuff is quite notorious.  Not that this is surprising, given his rank, his looks, and his innumerable talents.  According to Sir Tristan, female felines have never been able to resist Magick, and he's never been able to resist them either, even the ones he really should resist.  So our current working hypothesis is that he got a bit too intimate with the wife of the wrong cat.

If females are indeed the source of Magick's current exile, he's paying for it now, because there are virtually no females here, and definitely no available ones.  Lady Faraday is his best friend's girlfriend, and anyway that boat has long since sailed; there's no interest on either side.  Sithri is quite firmly attached to Skandar, such that it would likely require surgery to detach her, and Skandar gets pretty possessive whenever Magick is around.  Magick and Sithri actually have some sort of history together, although it's not clear whether he was involved with Sithri herself or with her sister-cum-rival-cum-best-friend Smitra or with both of them; whatever happened appears to have ended badly.  I don't really know what would have happened had Skandar not been around to keep Magick away, but from the sound of it, history is unlikely to repeat itself.

This leaves Skwidjit the grey cat, who spends most of her time on AJD's window, often on top of the A/C.  She's not really his type at all, but she's the closest thing to an available female cat on the premises, so Magick can often be found checking her out anyway.  He's been here long enough without putting any moves on her that I don't think he's going to, but checking her out appears to alleviate his boredom somewhat.  She doesn't seem to mind; he's not her type either (she told me once that she fancies ginger toms), but she finds the attention flattering.

This arrangement is less satisfying to one member of the Wild Republic, for whom one really must have sympathies.

Poor Mahler.  He's had a crush on Skwidjit ever since he got here, and seeing Magick - his idol and hero - with her apparently in his sights... well, that's shot all his hopes to pieces.  Never mind that he's much too young and callow for her, nor that she showed no signs of returning his interest before Magick got here... nor that in all honesty Mahler's reasons for being interested in her are probably not that different from Magick's, in that he's a horny adolescent and she's the only available female around.  Mahler is all gooey over Skwidjit in the way that only adolescent males can be.  He probably writes her poetry in secret and everything.  So he's been pretty mopey over the whole thing.

The only other female around here is me, and, well, I'm not a cat, so the chemistry just isn't there. 

Magick and I get along pretty well, I have to say, and he has a lot of the qualities that attract me in a man, and I appear to have a lot of the qualities that attract him in a female... but I'm not a furry and Magick prefers his females fluffier and with more pairs of breasts, and these are obstacles neither of us can get past.  If he were a guy or I were a leopardess we'd totally run off together, but we're not.

So the upshot of this is, Magick is really bored, and much as I love having him around, I do hope for his sake that whatever scandal he's been sent away to avoid resolves itself with due haste so that he can get back to doing things he finds more fulfilling.

Psychiatrist Wanted

Alfredo is fighting with his superiors over adding new members to his staff again.  He only won the battle for legal counsel and a full-time supervisor for the kittens about two months ago, but this isn't stopping him.  This time, he's trying to convince them that his chapter needs a full-time psychiatrist.  He is, in fact, probably quite correct; but not for the reasons he thinks.

See, Alfredo has two chief reasons for getting a mental health professional here.  The first is Zebulon.  He's yet to see a firsthand demonstration of Zebulon's legal prowess, because although Zebulon's taken several cases since he got here (and won them all), they were all cases on the side; he's too good a lawyer for his post here to be the sole extent of his responsibilities, especially when you add his personal ambitions to the mix.  So Alfredo remains highly skeptical.  He'd feel better if there were a shrink on site to maybe make Zebulon a little less crazy - or even declare Zebulon unfit, although he doesn't think this is likely to happen.

Unfortunately for Alfredo, Zebulon doesn't really need a shrink.  He's insane, but all aye-ayes are insane, and he's highly functional despite his insanity; it doesn't interfere with his job, and it bothers other creatures much more than it bothers Zebulon himself.  So getting a shrink on-site is not likely to alleviate Alfredo's fears.

His second reason for wanting a shrink is his son.  Alfredo is absolutely terrified that Beppe is going to have serious psychological problems because he's motherless.  He's sure that he's being too strict a parent, or maybe too lax.  It's bad enough that Beppe's mother died; now he's stuck with a father who is an incompetent parent.  At least, that's how Alfredo sees it.

Actually, Beppe seems to be doing just fine.  Certainly his mother's death has affected him, but he appears to be quite well-adjusted despite that.  Moreover, Alfredo, despite his anxieties, is doing a perfectly good job as a single father, and Beppe seems to enjoy having a bevy of doting uncles, kittens to play with, and Lady Faraday to lick his fur every now and then.  Sure, he could probably benefit from some counselling, but his situation isn't very urgent.  All things considered, he's in good shape.

Despite the fact that Alfredo's two main reasons for getting a shrink aren't really as urgent as he thinks they are, the local chapter really could use a shrink anyway, because plenty of other locals could use some help.  Take Sleepyhead; Pedro has concluded that there's nothing physically wrong with him, but maybe a mental health professional would find reasons for his persistent somnolence.  All three of the Ice Age creatures could use some help with their extinction issues, especially Mimsy, who is slightly batty.  At least three of the kittens could use counselling: Navarre because he takes himself far too seriously; Rusty for his ego issues; Cami for his anxiety.  Parsley and Nicodemus have insecurity issues.  Angel Joe has been doing much better lately, but he still has some lingering trauma and would definitely benefit from some professional help.  Omri, we suspect, has made poor career choices.  And then there is Alfredo himself: neurotic in the best of times, uncertain of his abilities to parent his son, and still deeply grieving for his beloved wife.  All of them would benefit from the presence of a skilled therapist.

Plouie, of course, is probably a lost cause.  But never mind that.

It's probable that Alfredo's current lobbying campaign will not meet with immediate success, but he's confident that it will ultimately prove successful.  He has cards he hasn't played yet: he's willing to offer to take a pay cut if they'll send someone qualified.  They would never force a pay cut on him - for Beppe's sake alone - and he knows it, but he also knows that they'll realise he's serious.  He's a wily one, our Alfredo.  Anyway, so we're likely to get a new psychiatrist around here eventually, although it might take a while.

Another Emissary

Somehow I have been remiss in mentioning that the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy are not alone in sending emissaries to our local Wild Republic chapter.  There is another emissary: Alcindarias the gryphon, who comes to us from the Wild Mythical Federation. We don't often have cause to mention him, as he has a history of remaining rather aloof.  He's formidably intelligent and doesn't play well with others, so to speak - gryphons don't, as a general rule.  I can't say I blame him, really; he's ancient, after all, so dealing with the Wild Republic and with us must feel like dealing with infants to him.  That said, he is a little stand-offish.  For a very long time he wouldn't even tell us his name.

He's also very well-educated, as you can see from his surroundings and accessories.  He holds so many illustrious degrees that I can't remember them all, and he speaks a ridiculous number of languages, from the various mythic tongues to some cryptic dialects to several regular animal languages and a number of human languages (yes, including Classical Greek).

Alcindarias has made his presence felt a bit more strongly since the delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy got here, because he and Sir Theo really hit it off.  They're of similar sizes and a similar degree of gravitas, and Alcindarias has some affinity for felines.  One finds them sitting together like this a lot, near the window away from the rest of the mob.

Alcindarias likes us okay too.  We're immensely flattered, actually, because he doesn't seem to have a particularly high opinion of humans - not that he seems to entertain particularly high opinions of non-mythics in general.  Here he is with me:

We have no idea why he decided to come here, to be honest.  It's not typical for the Wild Mythical Federation to send ambassadors; they're not really a political organisation per se, so much as a group of allied species who are fiercely protective of their privacy and of each other.  One suspects he's here for motivations of his own that he's unlikely to tell us.

Desmond Studies

It's been mentioned before that Desmond is a rabbinical student in his spare time.  He's been studying for quite some time now, and his teachers have told him that he'll be ready for his ordination soon.  The problem is in the scheduling.  There's going to be a lot of upheaval in the Wild Republic over the next month or so, which is going to leave him without a lot of time for studying, and is also going to make scheduling the ordination quite difficult.

Desmond is taking this very philosophically, because that's the way he is.  Alfredo has agreed to let him have a few days off for study while there's still a lull in activity, and he's been making the most of it.

He's not studying Torah here, actually; he's reading the section on the four Parashiyot in A Guide to Jewish Ritual Practice.  I've embiggened this picture so you can see the text if you squint a bit.

Desmond's of the opinion that he knew his rabbinical studies would take a very long time, since he has to do them in his spare time; and in fact he's progressing much faster than he'd anticipated.  So a minor delay in the date of his ordination isn't something to fret about.  I wish I had his equanimity.

Mass Snuggling

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm just going to give you the picture:

AJD says he highly recommends participating in group snuggles of this nature, if you can find an opportunity.