Why We Love Cats and Dogs

Last night I watched "Why We Love Cats and Dogs" on the PBS show Nature, and I was enchanted. Near the end of the program, I began to cry when Jerry was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, and immediately Lovey came into my arms, curled up high on my chest, and let me hug and cry all over her. Banichi had been sleeping, and he awoke and came to me to curl up in my lap... My kits and I definitely share empathy. (And last night, when I went to bed, Banichi brought me his favorite shoestring and laid it on my chest.... he's such a good, thoughtful boy!) I thoroughly enjoyed the first segment about dogs and owner "types", and then I was startled to see a man sitting in Chautauqua Park in front of the Flatirons here in Boulder, discoursing on animal and people relationships. His name is Marc Bekoff, and he is a professor here at CU - If you're interested in him, his personal website is at http://literati.net/Bekoff/ And, of course, there's more info on the PBS Nature site, too, (including the entire story of Jerry, the dog with cancer) at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/why-we-love-cats-and-dogs/introduction/4538/ I recommend this episode to anyone who has pets and to any animal lovers in general.

It's 25 degrees outside, there are few clouds in the bright blue sky, and the sun is shining warmly. We're supposed to reach the mid-40s today, while on the west slope they are expecting 8 to 16 inches of snow; that system is supposed to reach us on Wednesday, but we'll only have a few flurries, if that, so the weather folks say... The kits are running around like maniacs this morning, chasing one another, attacking leaves and just being playful kits; I tossed one of their plastic bell balls out into the yard this morning and it's disappeared from view. I don't know if the kits have chased it about in the yard, or if a squirrel decided it was a neat treasure and absconded with it. The birds and squirrels are once again flocking to the feeders, even though the kits are out and about...

Not much else going on with me. I just started a book about Restoration London, having just finished one about Henry VII. I think I'll spend the day doing genealogy research before I head off to the Boulder Bookstore to see Dr. Temple Grandin's presentation. - Oh, I did have to laugh today: MSNBC released a group of current historians' ranking of the first 42 Presidents of the United States; Lincoln was number one,Washington was number two, and third was FDR; their ranking of the worst Presidents was headed by Buchanan, then Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce. The reason I laughed? I'm a distant cousin of two Presidents - Grover Cleveland and Franklin Pierce... Have a Happy President's Day holiday!!