Bits And Pieces

One of my cousins lives in Washington, DC.  A few weekends ago, she and a friend ordered cheeseburgers, fries, and drinks, and sat outside at a bistro-style sidewalk table while waiting for their order.  They were talking about the popularity of zombies on television, and the proliferation of zombie-based computer games.  A complete stranger, who was sitting several tables away from them, suddenly jumped up and ran at my cousin and her friend.  As he approached, he began yelling that he was a zombie.  He knocked the table over, grabbed my cousin's arm, and bit a piece of flesh, the size of a tablespoon, out of her forearm.  Other diners restrained the man and he was arrested.  My cousin, who had paid a little over $5 for her meal, never got the food.  She was taken to the local emergency room, and given a tetanus shot, an antibiotic shot, and a course of antibiotic pills.  In six months, she has to be tested for Hepatitis and for HIV...    So much for a quick lunch with a friend!
  My cats are normal cats.  They have their natural hunting instinct, even though they know I'm not fond of them bringing dead prey to me.  I've had to laugh over the past nine years, while in this apartment, at some of the critters my children have caught and brought in for me to see.  In the spring, they usually bring me baby chipmunks and baby squirrels, which I turn loose again.  (Actually, if the critter is undamaged, it always goes back out, once I've checked it over.)  Young birds are brought in all the time, except the dead of winter.  Grass snakes are brought in and placed in the bathtub.  While Banichi was still with us (before Nedi), he and Lovey gathered up 19 baby field mice from a nest and put all of them in the bathtub in a two-hour time period.  As the weather here has gotten slowly colder, the kits have been bringing in mice recently.  I knew that one had escaped me for several days, but Nedi was usually on patrol where the mouse was hiding, so it didn't bother me.  Yesterday afternoon, I had to used the bathroom.  As my pants settled around my ankles, I glanced to my left, and saw Nedi curled up at the back of the tub.  As he sleeps there frequently, I didn't think anything of it.  Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  I thought Nedi had shifted, but as I glanced over, I realized his fur was moving.  Then I looked even more closely, and realized the mouse was crawling all over Nedi, while Nedi slept through it.  I finished what I was doing, grabbed a jar, and caught the little mousie and turned him loose again.  Nedi has been looking everywhere in the house, and frequently in the tub, for his little buddy.
   And, just as a side note, from 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, until 12 a.m. Wednesday, I received 6 telephone calls, 2 mailed advertisements, and 106 e-mails regarding the need for me to get out and vote yesterday. Having voted on 22 October, I am happy that voting day is over!