Sadie and her Mats

My medium hair golden kitty, Sadie, weighs about 13lbs. The other (2) kitties weigh 9lbs. Problem is, Sadie's a total wussy. She backs down each time one of the other (2) kitties raise a paw or walk her way.

Now, 4lbs doesn't sound like much, but to these cats it's about 30% more girth in favor of the wussy. When she gets upset, she TEARS the other cats up, it just takes a lot to get her to that point... unless you are trying to comb out mats. Then it takes about 30 seconds.

Last night, my wife decided to pull out Sadies mats. I was given the chore of holding Sadie in place. I hold all the kitties when cutting claws, brushing, etc. and let me tell you, 4lbs of muscle makes a HUGE difference. It is way harder to hold Sadie down! She had shoulders like a linebacker and fought hard. We had to give up halfway through cause we didn't want to hurt her too much. Luckily she forgave us quickly and wanted snuggles!

Not looking forward to finishing the job...

Music and Funerals

Just read a blog from Robert of the Radish over at Yahoo (http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/yradish/15304/songs-for-your-funeral) Most of it wasn't very insightful, but the first entry actually was quite moving. The reason it is moving to me is coincidence (the name of the song and the name of his dead sister's daughter) and also the fact that a child was left behind or hurt in some way. If I read, hear, or see anything about something bad happening to a child, especially a girl, I usually start tearing up immediately. Hell, I broke down and started crying while reading "White Night", a novel in the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. A little girl was shot and I openly wept while reading! Sheesh!

Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I have a soft spot for children because I have a 9 year old daughter myself, so I am able to transfer that experience to myself and react as if it were happening to me. This helps me truly experience Television (even commercials!), Movies, and books. It doesn't help me with music.

Now, I love music, I write it, I listen to it constantly, I play in bands, but I never have been able to wrap my head around music for a my Funeral, most life experiences, or my Wedding even. I mean, does it actually mean something in the end? Will everyone remember? Some will, I know. Christine will remember ;) She's good at that. She can actually remember dates based around music. I can't. My life has mostly been about music, yet my life in no way revolves around it. Hell, the first 10 times I listen to a song, I almost never hear the lyrics.

I think that's the difference for me. I listen to movies and TV very intently. I read thoroughly. With music, I just feel it. I can float in it. It's just there. Music isn't active. You can passively listen to music and do other things. It's much harder to do that with something that involves the eyes.

So, music fails typically fails to do what it is intended to do for me because I'm a visual person and yet I play music every day. Oh well. Maybe one day I'll sort all this out in my head.