Cats Mostly

Right now I'm on my two week Summer Shutdown. This is an annual vacation that all members of my staff team partake in. There was a discussion on whether or not the pandemic would impact how we approach this time, and we decided that it would not.

Usually we have a staff barbecue to kickstart the vacation. This year, we still had a gathering, but it was in honour of a staff member's birthday, and we didn't invite our significant others. We all sat two metres apart from each other, and hand sanitizer was available.

The gathering took the form of a late lunch, and we ordered in from a place called Vincenzo's, which is a grocery store that has a made-to-order sandwich bar. It's a traditional location for WALES staff when celebrating.

Not that you care, but I feel like I finally perfected my Vincenzo's order.  Roast beef, on a pretzel bun, with provolone, lettuce, green olives, banana peppers, chipotle mayo and dijon mustard. Delicious.

Today, my roommate was finally able to get his operation done. If you haven't been following, he suffered from kidney failure, and because of the pandemic his operation was postponed for four months.

Recently, I've been helping a few people to adopt cats. One is work-centric and happened at the place that I adopted Kieran from. The other is being adopted by my mother and brother from a place called My Kitty Cafe in Guelph.

My Kitty Cafe, in normal times, is a place to drink coffee and hang out with cats, with the option to adopt being present. Nowadays, you have to pay an admission fee and have a limited time to meet with the cats. Last weekend, I arranged a meeting time.

Both of my family's remaining cats are elderly, and it is our belief that it is healthy to have a diversity in age between cats. The younger ones bring out some kittenishness in the older ones, although I've heard others argue that younger cats "annoy" older ones. Luna was intended to be the younger cat that provided companionship to her older brothers, and then she would be an elder that would be assisted by adopting a younger cat. Unfortunately, Luna passed much earlier than we anticipated.

So we need a younger cat to be a companion for the two remaining elders. Mom and Duncan managed to burn the full 50 minute meet-and-greet with the cats without forming a decision. They wanted further consultation with an expert. The person working there that day had opinions but suggested they wait for the head of the rescue organization.

So they booked a time with her, discussed there reasons for wanting to adopt and what they were hoping for. They had to fill out some weirdly-intense documentation, but were ultimately approved.

Between meeting the cats and consulting at least two cat experts, they have been approved to adopt Cassidy:

On their website she is described as "Adult female, loves head scratch, pretty relaxed, loves catnip, little shy".

Because the cat rescue organization leader needs to be present at moment of adoption, and because my brother is the official adopter, they needed to have their schedules align. This means she's not oficially coming home until August 8th. Something to look forward to.

Since this post is coming in on the heels of my last update, I will mention that if you glance below, I started a food blog. All it's got is a bread recipe so far, but I will be expanding.