But enough about you

Tomorrow and Friday I'll be at Whistler on the Google Pacific Northwest ski trip. I lead a really rough life.

On the flip side, Jon's cat Oscar is doing poorly. He has lost two pounds in the last few months, which is a lot for a cat. We've moved him into a kid-free zone in the bedroom and Jon has been coddling him and feeding him ahi tuna and mackerel, which sounds expensive until you find out what the ultrasound and feeding tube were going to cost. It seems to be working, which is great -- but my bedroom smells like mackerel.

It's good to be getting away.

Totally unsubstantiated, from http://exn.ca/cats/firstpets.cfm:

Islam's great Prophet, Mohammed, was said to have loved cats. The Hadith (an official collection of the sayings of Mohammed) says the leader condemned the practice of selling cats and told of a vision in which he saw a woman being attacked and disfigured by her cat in hell after she starved the creature to death.

"You neither fed it nor watered when you locked it up," God told her, "nor did you set it free to eat the insects of the earth." The message is clear: cats deserve good treatment because they do us all good.

Perhaps most memorable story — and certainly the loveliest — was of Muezza, Mohammed's favourite cat. It was curled up one day on the sleeve of his robe when the call to prayer was sounded. Mohammed had to leave, but rather than wake the animal he cut off his sleeve and quietly sneaked out. When he returned, the cat awoke and bowed to him in thanks. In return, it is said, Muezza was guaranteed a place in Heaven.