Geeky Cat Miusings

Here are some pictures from Jungle Cat World in Orono. I loved seeing the animals there, especially this baby tiger:

The llamas roamed freely:

While the monkeys swung around their cage like only they can:

Does anyone know if this is a black panther or a jaguar? Is there a specific animal that is refered to as panther or is it a genus?

Another question I have….do big cats cough up fur balls? I saw the cats in Jungle Cat World chowing down entire chickens…feathers, beaks, legs and all. Do they cough up feather balls?

When you look at the photo above are you thinking to yourself, “Sweet Kitty, why is she posting a picture of her dirty litter box?”

First of all, it is not my kitty box…. I found it on the web. And it is not dirty…not at all; it is edible and apparently delicious too. This is a photo Kitty Litter Cake and what appears to the untrained eye as poo in the litter box is actually tootsie rolls.

It is an interesting idea and some people have commented that it is great for Halloween and it is a yummy dessert. The receipe is even posted on epicurious.

I am curious to know if you would care to try Kitty Litter Cake, or would you give it a pass? Personally, I think I would give it a pass. I may even have to remove the photo from my blog before we all permently lose our appetites. But I post here for now for all of us to share in all kitty-related things.

A couple of months ago I bought a new Sony Ericsson Z750a cellphone. About a month after that I received a text message from Fido that they would give me 3 months of free video on demand and free radio on demand. Sounds very cool so I try it on my phone but the message on my cellphone says it does not support this feature. I reply to the text message that I cannot use the system, even though realize that they will never get back to me with this communication system. So a few days later I call up their customer service and ask them if they can help sort up the problem. The customer support person was not aware of the promotional offer and claims that Fido is giving me free video messaging for three months. I let it go at that.

Weeks later I get a phone call from Fido saying how happy they are to have me as a customer and if I have any questions or concerns. Of course I have questions!!! I decide to limit it to two questions so as to not scare the guy off.

First question I ask I thought would be easy: How do I stop the screen saver from coming on every 5 seconds? It is difficult to read the news when the screen goes dark to save energy. My workaround is to push the down button every 5 seconds but I’m sure their must be a setting on the phone to set an acceptable timeout period. Unfortunately, his answer was that I would need to go to the Fido retailer. Not a good answer from Mr. Fido Rep. “Hello, from which company are you calling?” I want to shout.

But I’m so mild mannered that I smoothly move on to the next question…. the one we all want to know the answer to…How do I access the Video on Demand that they have so thoughtfully provided me unlimited access to in order to get me hooked. The guy had to go talk to the tech support for this and he would come back and ask me if I could continue to hold. I patiently waited. After waiting 50 wasted minutes on the phone (in total) I was informed that my cellphone does not support this feature! Nobody can explain to me why the phone is advertised as having this feature and it has the navigation buttons for this feature. But somehow this feature is not supported on my fabulous 3G phone.

I don’t get it.

The week started off in a nasty way: When I took the escalator on the TTC, I placed my hand on a wet gooey, spot on the handrail. My hand had ketchup on it. Somehow someone got ketchup on the handrail. Yuck! You would think that if someone were to be eating on the run, they would also have a napkin for wiping their mouth, fingers, and handrail… should the need arise.

Perhaps a few people could use the $7 reimbursement from the TTC (to compensate for the strike days) to buy some tissues and wipes.

I love this animation — it reminds me of Pumpkin:

I went for brunch at Urbano on Queen Street for a little bit of socializing and catching up with some of my friends. I ordered a fritatta vegeterano which is basically an omelette with vegetables. This omelette did not come with bread and I dislike eating eggs without bread. I think eggs straight up are kind of nauseating and they need some bread or other carbs to balance the dish. So I asked the waitress for bread but a customer in this establishment can’t get a couple of slices of bread thrown in — you need to ORDER a bread side-dish which costs $5. Five dollars to get some bread to go with a $10 omelette. All I needed was a slice or two of bread to complete my meal but the restaurant wants to milk the customers out of their cash buy requiring them to buy a side dish of bread. I would say the bread should be included in the price of the $10 omelette, or at worst, charge the customer a dollar for the waitress’ trouble.

This is not good customer relations, they must rethink their service and quality of care.

I was hoping to climb the CN Tower again this year to raise funds for the WWF but, since my toe doesn’t seem to be doing all that well even though I have been carefull with it, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the climb. It would not be wise as the toe can still ache and, sometimes, really pains me.

Since I need to wear flat shoes for my toe to heal and most of my shoes have heels, I’ll need to go buy some shoes. What hardship;-)

Perhaps you remember my ordeal last winter when I suffered very much when I waited a very long time for the bus on the day of the bad snow storm. Fortunately I learned a few things from that ordeal and was able to use my knowledge today. I had heard that there was going to be a bad snow storm today so I made sure I listened to the radio for any special announcements on closures that may have impact on me (e.g. TTC problems or place of work closures). They announced some closures on the radio and television, but not that affected me. So I packed my lunch, snacks, chocolate, hand warmers, book and iPod in my bag and I left for work at my usual time, dressed very warmly from head to foot. I was carefully prepared in case I should be stuck standing outside for any length of time. I think the only thing missing was hot thermos but at least I should not go hungry. The remembrance of that horrid day last winter is still painful on my mind that I shudder to think how I suffered in those thin boots — today I should be able to survive such an ordeal with my warm boots and socks.

So, going to work took a bit more time than my usual commute — it took about 2 hours to get there, but it did not seem overly long compared to the 1.5 hours it usually takes. But when I got there the sign on the door said all campuses are closed! Oh joy!!! I was pretty upset because I wasted all that time getting into work when I could have stayed home and slept a little more plus tackle a few of the things I really need to do. There was a notice posted by e-mail at 8:15 am regarding work being closed for the day. The message came too late for all the people who leave for work early in the morning. After venting my frustration with some co-workers, I commenced my journey home with the firm avowal that I will never leave for work early when there is a snow storm but wait until 9:00 in order to give people enough time to post messages about the work place’s closure. Lesson learned.

I was able to make myself feel a little better by stopping at the library that was on my way home, to pick up a DVD I had on hold for me. I felt that at least I had accomplished something with the time spent commuting which alleviated my frustration a bit. Well, at least I was able finish “House of Mirth” for my book club meeting and I can watch the DVD as well. There are always ways we can make ourselves better if we only look hard enough.

With every experience, there comes a lesson.

Some of you may remember that I broke my toe on December 10. It hurt a lot at the time but it slowly improved but it is still hurting me, though the pain is usually not that bad. I thought I would consult the doctor about the pain and the slow healing of the toe because she said it is possible that I may be wearing high heels again by New Year’s Eve. Well, that day has come and gone and wearing heels still hurts. I know it is not good for my toe if I wear high heels but my toe hurts even in my flat boots. So I went to my doc today and she asked me to take off my boots so that she can have a look. So I removed my socks and quickly brushed off the sock lint that gathered between the toes while she looked at her notes to see which toe was fractured, even though it should be obvious to anyone which toe is affected because of the misshapen lump. She touched it and bent it and she asked me to curl my toes. She then wrote down some notes in my file and asked if I would like an x-ray. I asked if she thought getting an x-ray was a good idea…what would we do with the information after all? She agreed — the x-ray report would only state that the toe is improving and we would do nothing but stay off high heels and avoid kicking tires for a while. She suggested I wait another 2 weeks (which is the 2 month anniversary of the injury) and return to her if the toe still hurts. I am not sure what we would do if the toe continues to hurt but in the meantime, I will sit and wait.

Happy New Year everyone!

It has been cold in Toronto. It has been cold outside so I am bundling up in many layers whenever I go outside. It has been chilly on the TTC as well so my many layers keep me warm there too. And it is cold at work. I have a little heater at home so I thought I could bring it in to work to warm me up. I noticed other people in the office had their heaters going, so I didn’t think there would be a problem. I turned on my heater and set it at a low setting. A half an hour later everything went off. So I had to wait in my office for facilities management to switch the fuse back on. I had no computer to work on and no heater to keep me warm. I do dress warmly….I wear a tank top, a sweater, and a jacket…and yet I’m still chilled. The next day I wore a shawl over all my layers to keep me warm. It is not good being cold all day long and the only break I get from the chill is at night when I am under many layers of blankets and kitties.

I can’t wait until summer.