I gave Hope her first dose of "Mirataz" (mirtazapine) transdermal ointment in her ear this afternoon. I walked to the vet's office yesterday to pick it up. It's supposed to increase her appetite, so maybe she'll eat more solids instead of just lapping up the available liquids.

She was down to 4.1kg/9.0lb, which is still in the okay range, except that I can feel bones on her haunches now. The blood tests came back healthy all around, so at least that's some good news for an old cat who is about 13 years old. She doesn't otherwise show her age. She takes flying leaps over the last steps when she bounds down the stairway, which is cute. She also leaps onto the middle of my belly in bed at night, which isn't cute.

We both, of course, like spending as much time as possible under blankets on the recliner in front of the tv. I wish we were both free to do that together for many years.

I mentioned a year ago that I lost some weight after ending my job. I regained much of that weight during winter in Minnesota, which is part of the typical cycle, but I'm now back down again. I weighed 88kg/195lb this morning. Extreme stress is normally not supposed to be part of a weight loss regimen, but I'll take it as an improvement for my long term health. It's been many years since I weighed this little.

Somebody here on Dreamwidth runs a Little Library program. I'm sorry, I'm not remembering who. Dreamwidth isn't helping me search for them. (Maybe these were private posts instead of public?) For nearly a month, I've been wanting to share this photo I took about 2 blocks from my house. While the Little Library is nice (although somebody ripped off the front door already *sigh*), but look in the background. They've converted their entire yard to clover! I'm so glad that the Minneapolis #Lawns2Legumes program is spreading. There's no need for "grass lawns" in cities. I hope people xeriscape with more plants that don't require frequent watering and mowing.

It's old news making the rounds again, but bison have been reintroduced to the Native Wise farm with ties to the Lake Superior Chippewa. The farm is in northern Minnesota. The farmer's great grandfather was Chief Buffalo (which I think was a name, not a title). The bison were a donation from The Nature Conservancy (my former employer).

Minneapolis was ranked #1 city for "Best Places to Bike" in the USA. Minnesota entered the 5 "Top States For Business" ranking, pushing out Texas for the first time. As I keep saying, people really should consider moving to Minnesota. While still being part of the USA (and the downsides that involves), life here is pretty good.

I still have a few small piles of snow left in the shadows, even after recent days of 21C/70F weather. I expect them to disappear today, though. Our forecast includes 28C/83F temperatures or higher today, perhaps setting a new daily record for Minneapolis, then fresh snowfall returns.

The great thaw is upon us. I've used my small handheld vacuum to suck up dozens of box elder bugs in the house. I despise those creatures more each year, I think. My allergies are back, so I'm on antihistamines again for a few weeks. Those rotting leaves outdoors are exposed to air again, so mold is in the air in this new warm season. I never saw any snow fleas this year, though. Maybe the melt was too sudden for them to show up on the white snow after the leaf rotting resumed?

The deep snow this year might have been a blessing in disguise. All of this sudden snow melt is not producing the expected floods. Maybe the ground was protected from harsh cold by the thick snow blanket, so it let more of the melt percolate into the ground rather than run off? That seems to be how this spring is working, at any rate, because...

I've been able to dig into the ground with a shovel much sooner than expected. I spent hours Monday and Tuesday digging (instead of job hunting, like I should have done) to transplant a lot of things. From small flowering bulbs that I want to spread (they're too small to find before they sprout) to large trees. I moved my apricot tree that sagged under the weight of the heavy snow. I hope it and the even larger mulberry tree survive the experience, although their growth might be stunted this year from the shock. We'll see. Birds appreciated my digging, though, with a few different species coming to see if I unearthed any yummy worms to eat. All over the back yard, I saw lots of rabbit droppings, so clearly they spent time here this winter nibbling on the flora.

Unfortunately, with warmer weather comes human intrusion too. More than once I heard local gunfire while I was outside. This incident less than 1 block away is the only gunfire I could document, although I heard the sirens from this police chase farther away. I'm getting significantly less sleep than I should, thanks to all the yelling, fireworks, and gunfire at night.

I still want to stay, though. I like my garden too much, it seems. I hope to find a job soon.

This week, Minneapolis had its 14th largest snowfall since records began in 1884. (Or, if you prefer video news.) It was 6pm last night before I saw the first snowplow drive down my block. I moved my car back into its usual location immediately afterwards. In this photo, you can see 2 large snow piles about 2 meters to the left and right of the sidewalk intersection. Each pile is up almost to my armpits. The snow drifts by my front and back doors are up to the main deck (5th step) now.

The cat food and water kept getting buried under snow. After hearing one friendly (the only one I've succeeded in petting so far) orange tabby male howling one night near my front door, I finally propped my porch door ajar, so cats could get inside the porch to eat and drink in dry conditions. I've seen at least 4 different ones so far. The poor things have a hard time navigating the snow. I've seen them. When I step in fresh areas, my foot sinks with snow up to my knees. It must be exhausting to leap above walls of snow taller than you are. I've created easier paths in my front and back yards for them to walk across my property.

It makes me sad that some neighborhood cats will not survive the winter. Our traditional cold season is still ahead of us in February. Or, perhaps a worse fate, these cats will bring litters of new kittens to the same hardship. When humans domesticate a species, they really should be responsible for their wellbeing, especially in climates those animals aren't adapted for. The local AHS does provide spay/neuter services for people who want to catch and release on their own initiative. I don't have a trap large enough for a cat, and I doubt I'll spend money on that expense until I find a job. These events make me think of my own cat, petting her comfortably on a warm electric blanket in bed, many years after she nearly died on a cold night (not this cold) outdoors when she was a kitten.

It wasn't an easy drive, but I made it last night to the free clinic for my 2nd monkeypox vaccination. This time, I had them use the other arm, since the original is still bruised from the first vaccination, a month later. I continue updating that thread with photos.

In happy news, my Venus flytrap is putting on new leaves since I switched to distilled water, and those leaves are all green. All of the older leaves are black, and I already trimmed away several of the black stems too. The large leaf I used for the box elder bug stayed healthy the longest. Its stem is still green, at least.  You can see it in the background on the far right, still bulging slightly.

I got my first dose yesterday of the Jynneos vaccine against monkeypox. I don't know why the name is usually in all capital letters. It's a trademark name, not an acronym. I go back in 4 weeks for the 2nd and final dose. The free clinic sets up in the community room of the local Cub grocery store. There are 8 differently qualifying criteria for the free healthcare. I especially liked item #4 (of 8): "Are you experiencing homelessness and/or have you been in contact with the justice system?" I don't know how I managed to avoid Covid during my 1.5 days in jail, but I'm very glad they allow for this condition for some free community care. I also qualified on another point, just for being gay.

I don't know what this squirrel thought they would uncover, but I watched them outside my house for a minute or two, digging fruitlessly in the snow.


I woke up a few days ago to Hope sitting on my chest. She doesn't usually hang out there for long, and this is the first time I've found her there while I was sleeping.  I managed to not disturb her much while I reached for my smartphone to take this picture.

And, finally, the continuing jobhunt.  It's been a few weeks since I found a job listing for something that I really wanted.  One site never responded to either my job application or my followup contact about 2 weeks later.  The news is noticing that fewer remote jobs are available now.  I may eventually have to take something less than ideal (but still remote)... otherwise I'll resume preparations for selling the house and returning to school up north.  I've got many months of wait time still available to me in bank savings.

This is the kind of stuff I enjoy posting. It's not intended to be scary, so I'm not waiting for next Moody Monday.  And, yes, I'm posting at 4am today because my rambunctious cat woke me at 1am and I was unable to get back to sleep.  Welcome to my insomnia.

I asked yesterday for automated ways of dealing with box elder bugs, maybe a bug zapper or something.  Well, somebody trained an A.I. to recognize cockroaches, then automated a laser to zap them dead.  (What could go wrong?)  Ooh!  Ooh!  Do box elder bugs next!

I've mentioned syncytia a few times already. An Australian professor tweeted this video of cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 (probably a BA.5 lineage) forming syncytia. You see cells clumping together and being joined by long connecting filaments. Look 2 tweets above this one for a higher resolution photo, but you'll have to zoom in to see the filament. This is one way that SARS-CoV-2 gets into new cells and tissues that it wouldn't normally infect via ACE2 pathways. It's really talented at forming these syncytia.  And now there's video!  :)

In another Twitter thread, someone points out that Blaschko's lines are visible in ultraviolet light, and since some animals (such as cats and dogs) can detect light in the ultraviolet spectrum, they might see us with these unique patterns on our body.

I enjoy the video clips posted on Twitter by the Wolf Conservation Center in New York.

A local newspaper, though, recently printed an article about wolves in Minnesota and the International Wolf Center here.  Reminder: These are wild animals, not pets-in-waiting. As the article quotes a worker, "It's the bottle-fed wolves that will kill you. The ones that were born and raised wild never seem to care enough about a human to try."

Some fun wolf facts:

• Minnesota is the only contiguous-48 state to never murder all of the wolves to extinction within its territory.
   
• Minnesota now has almost as many wolves as all of the other lower-48 states combined.
   
• Minnesota wolf pups are featured in a new Disney series, "America the Beautiful".
   
• Our state Department Of Natural Resources notes that wolves account for only about 5% of our deer mortality, but limiting deer is vital to maintaining a viable ecosystem for many other species of animals and plants here.
   
• The idea of the "alpha wolf" is wrong, and the researcher who helped popularize the phrase now regrets it.  The alpha pair is likely the mother and father of a pack, and they work to ensure fairness within the group, not mere submission to their whims.
   
• Wolves are actually quite benevolent, with males raising other pups as their own.  They are also very cooperative.  The story of "wolf 21" is an interesting study in these ideas, including death-by-bereavement for a lost mate.

They're still beautiful animals, though, and significant to the co-evolution of humans and dogs... and it may have been woman rather than man that facilitated this process.

The Nature Conservancy had a booth at Twin Cities Pride last weekend. It's a natural convergence of values, since diversity is essential in healthy ecosystems. I stopped working there earlier this month, but I helped at the booth as a volunteer.  I took the Saturday morning shift, since there would be fewer people.  Sadly, though, very few visitors wore masks like I did for this event.  I heard afterward that it was a success.  We signed up almost a 1/4-thousand people to receive legislative alerts, so we can get some community help to convince legislators when it's time to prioritize a bill under consideration to protect water, land, and biodiversity in Minnesota.

Conveniently, ducks decided to rest directly behind our booth.  Occasionally, we also had geese and pigeons join them.  Strangely, we were located between two religious organizations.  One I'd never heard of, the Disciples of Christ ("a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world"), but the other I've known about for decades, Dignity ("Celebrating the wholeness and holiness of LGBTQI Catholics"). 



There was no violence at Pride itself, but there was a mass shooting nearby at night. No mention in reports I've seen of a machine gun.

Animal Humane Society, another former employer of mine, received a record $6 million donation as an estate bequest.  They are using it to build a new facility in St. Paul.  The old one in that city definitely needs replacement.  I think it was the oldest and smallest of all of them here in the Twin Cities.  It's also where I encountered Hope.  She is now my 12-year-old cat, after I first fostered her until she was large enough for spay surgery.

I don't get rich working for non-profits, especially at part-time jobs.  I do, however, feel pretty good about half my life spent at non-profits and a government agency.  I was pleased with the efforts pursued at each place, and I'm glad to exchange a portion of my life to advance their work in this world.

Today's theme music is "The Sound of Silence". No lyrics here, just a harp.

And a deer.

Watch, listen.


I pity the people who fail to recognize in ourselves the same thoughts and motivations found in the brains of our 4-legged distant kin. They differ in degree, much more than they differ in kind.

From the original song's lyrics:

Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells
of silence.

It's not stoicism that makes a mind resistant to compassion. I've found that simple ignorance is one cause (more easily cured), and authoritarianism is another. That one is much more resistant to change.

Last night, a stray cat was wailing loudly outdoors.  I was under a blanket in front of the tv with my own cat, so I didn't respond right away.  It was so persistent, though, that I finally got up to investigate.  As soon as I opened my back door, this young cat dashed inside like it owned the place.  He's a male ginger tabby, about half grown.  My own cat was immediately hissy and ran away, while this one ran after her to investigate.

Even while rushing to eat food, this young guy kept running back to me to insist on hugging my neck with his arms and rubbing my face and chin.  It refused to be out of my reach, so I slept downstairs in the chair last night, to avoid further bothering my cat by its presence.  It doesn't seem the type to let a closed door defy its intentions.  Here it is this morning, after a whole night of this same behavior.  If this cat has covid, I am so very exposed right now.


It was very hungry although not starving.  It knows no fear, exploring every space immediately.  I've had to chase it and bring it back downstairs so it avoids pestering my own cat hiding upstairs.  It doesn't behave like any stray cat I've met.  It must belong to somebody?  Last night, I already posted a found cat to NextDoor.  Today, I'll continue posting at the other resources that AHS recommends.  They were my former employer for 5 years, where I used to make my FurryFriday posts about animals that hadn't been adopted yet.

If my own employment status was reliable, I would just adopt it as my own right now (pending eventual approval by my current cat).  I suspect I'll eventually have to surrender it to AHS for adoption.  Sooner, if my own cat doesn't adjust.  She hated the dog for 2 years straight and lost weight because of it, so I'm not putting her through that stress again.  I've already opened the back door (it went outside only a moment before dashing back indoors) and the front door (where it meowed loudly at being left alone on the enclosed porch), but it wants to be indoors with me.

He's already decided that he lives here, but we don't yet concur.  I've got a 2pm Thursday appointment with my vet to get it checked for microchip and test a stool sample for worms.  I guess he's staying here at least that long.

I do not miss the kitten years.  That part is already annoying.