A while back, our router melted, and I couldn't get online, and you could say I was prompted by that event to take a week off computer. (Have you ever done that? It's the strangest sensation!) But in case you didn't believe me, because it kind of sounds like "the dog ate my homework," here is a an unbelievable picture taken by Nik:
 |
| the dog really did eat my homework |
me
+
 |
| Minnow (in her mugshot), "NOT GUILTY!" Nik took this awesome picture. + |
 |
| A halogen floor lamp - (Mandy, here, is not guilty of anything, except being cute - this just happens to be the only picture I have of the lamp) |
I smelled something burning, and I was a little concerned at first, until I remembered how often I smell things burning in Cyprus, particularly now since I live near agricultural fields, where they are often burning their debris, including fragrant plastics, in great ritual pyres.
I was on the Internet at the time. And I kept wondering why it was going in and out. But I didn't get up to look at the router to see what the problem was until it quit working completely. And that is when I saw the funny shaped little man:
 |
| He looked like Freddy Krueger |
But what's really amazing? How long the router kept working while it was melting. I have to hand it to Cytanet for that. Or whoever makes these routers.
The other promised story: I mentioned here that early one weekday morning, Nik trapped a cat at the apartments that turned out to be a huge mistake. He trapped a nursing female, possibly Braveheart (it's hard to tell with the plethora of black cats at the moment, and here), thinking she was another, male cat; then he stopped by the park where I was feeding cats to show me his catch on his way to Nicosia (an hour away). I haven't seen Braveheart in the daylight in months, so I didn't recognize it could be her either.
 |
| We mistakenly trapped a nursing mother - possibly Braveheart |
It wasn't until our vets, George and Christina, phoned Nik at work to tell him we had trapped a nursing female that it dawned on me who it could be. It was harrowing news. When Nik phoned mortified, I was down by the sea taking Muji for a much desired swim (it's getting hot these days), and some time off-leash.
 |
| Muji swimming |
A disappointed Muji had his swim interrupted abruptly, and I took him straight home so I could hightail it up to Nicosia. I had to get mama cat and bring her back to release her ASAP so she could attend to her kittens.
It was a great relief to see when I released her, after a morning imprisoned, she didn't go urgently running off. She wasn't even mad. She swiftly and without ado exited the trap, but then she surprisingly stopped about ten paces away. And she turned around and looked at me shyly and questioningly. Did she want food? What was she trying to say? Well, I had a small can of mackerel in the car. Certainly she deserved it! So I got it out for her and put some down. I had to hurry, because I was totally where I wasn't supposed to be and it was broad daylight out. So I put it down and she ate, and then I had to disappear. I apologized to her profusely and left the can of mackerel.
So what is the lesson of these stories? Well, I've learned it really is true halogen lamps are dangerous, which is why ours recently got moved to the doorstep, because it is on its way out of our lives for good, as much as we loved to read by it. And I've learned as much as we would like to get these lovely cats altered as soon as we can, we have to pace ourselves and be more careful.
And it is terribly important to catch things in time before something really bad happens. In both cases we were very lucky.
 |
| We are glad whoever this cat is, she forgave us. We pray all is well with her and her kittens. |
No comments:
Post a Comment