I'm Too Busy For My ... Whatever...

I couldn't connect to Google earlier today, so this post is a little later than I had planned. The sunrise this morning looked like layers of molten magma spread across the sky; it was 27 degrees, with a wind chill of 17, and the humidity was 96% - it actually felt cold! We even had a few flakes of really frozen snow fall. The sun has been able to shine fitfully through various clouds carried by the south-westerly winds, and it's very bright out right now. The kits were ecstatic when I returned home this morning, and were upset when I left to return to Alexy's. In between, we had a good snuggle and nap together, as well as food, loving, and catnip. I stopped by Barnes and Noble today and used my gift card from Christmas - I was amazed to find that they do not carry any of Lillian Stewart Carl's books in the stores, and that one must always pre-pay for any of her books. Pre-paying was fine with me, as I plan on keeping the books for the rest of my life, but it made me wonder why they don't have any in the stores and why one must pre-pay for all of her titles. - Do the books have a tendency to "walk?" Do people order and then return them? Are other readers unhappy with with her slow romance story? Or are they so popular they are frequently stolen from the shelves? - I ordered the fourth Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron book, as well as the three books that deal with Michael and Rebecca Campbell-Reid (who are minor characters in the JF/AC novels).

A friend's niece has just been diagnosed with leukemia (the girl and her family live on the West coast), and I've agreed to move from Alexy's house over to take care of Yoshi and Aiko upon Alexy's return. Mary says she has someone else she can call, but she just doesn't trust him with the little guys like she trusts me, so, of course, I said yes. I am now solidly booked through mid-July for pet-sitting; and unless it's a family emergency, like Mary's, I'll not be scheduling any more dates until August. All of the "kids" I take care of are continuing in good health - Ooch just lost his last tooth, so he gets canned food at all times now. Smiley has been found a new home with people in their 20s, who have time and energy to play and fuss with her. Suki was favoring her left foreleg all last weekend - she is 12, but I don't know if it's just the aches and pains of old age, or if she pulled something in her last run with Kathy and Jim. All the other cats, dogs, frogs, lizards, tortoises, horses, chickens, goats and sheep I take care of are doing well. It's hard to realize that Mike, the African clawed frog is going to be 21 in a couple of months. - And today I met two other families in the neighborhood that are interested in my services as a pet-sitter - one family has German Shepherds, the other has two rescue dogs from southern reservations... so it looks like I'm gonna stay in business (at least for a while).....