Day One at Home

The cats are only in mild revolt. They expected wet cat food at night, which they know they only get in the morning. And the orange cat is throwing things on the ground.

The new kitty (which the Butcher insists he’s going to call her, even though I had to name her something on Monday, so Pumpkin it is) was sleeping happily on the Butcher’s bed and I was visiting with her when Mrs. Wigglebottom came barging in because it is against her religion to not be where something interesting might be happening. (I don’t know for sure what religion that is, but a lot of dogs seem to belong to it.)

Mrs. W. stood at the door, sort of confused. Then she came in and began to sniff eagerly at the new kitty’s things. And then she began to sniff at the new kitty, who was like “Oh HELL no!” (which was also the shape of her body). New kitty smacked Mrs. W. on the nose and hissed at her. This, of course, is about 150 times more attention than she normally gets from any cat so she was so excited, like “OMG!!! A playmate!!!!” while the new kitty took the opportunity to lumber off the bed and hide under the headboard.

So, I don’t know. I feel like it’s going pretty well.

The new kitty seems okay. A little stiff, but friendly and sleepy.

It tickles me that the Butcher has moved the new kitty into his room. I should have guessed that he would take her welfare to heart.

Since I’m Speculating…

In academia, when one sees that a person has been unable to replicate his previous successes and has to hire someone to co-write his own memoirs, one wonders if there isn’t a brilliant but unheralded ex-wife or two who “helped” with the earlier work and that’s why it’s been unreproducible.

I Did Laugh When I Read This

One of Say Uncle’s readers is all “Kelsey won because of guns!” which, I have to admit, is better than, “… because progressives can’t win elections.” or “…because bloggers have no real influence.” which is what our side has been hoping they can pedal.

Let’s Speculate about Tennessee Politics!!!

So, John Tanner is retiring. And Roy Herron is no longer running for governor; he’s going to run for Tanner’s seat in the House of Representatives.

How’s that going? I’m going to give it a C-. Now, I know you’re saying “A C-? But I just heard about this. How could he already be failing to impress you?”

Well, it’s like this. Herron is failing to take Newscoma‘s advice. As she says, you’ve got to be ahead of the story.

I have had a sick cat and I have been in sick cat hell for two days and even I knew early this morning that Herron was running for Tanner’s seat. When did Herron send out his press release to the people on his email list? I got mine at eleven o’clock this morning. Online, that’s a million years too late. His website still says Roy Herron for Governor. Did Kleinheider know before his own webmaster? Embarrassing.

Stay ahead of your story, Herron. If you don’t control the story, it will control you.

And what’s the buzz on Herron? People who follow politics find him a little boring, saying he gives the same speech over and over again. He’s annoyed some powerful folks and the people who were failing to step up to support his gubernatorial campaign were interesting to say the least. A run for Tanner’s seat is probably a little less problematic than a run for Governor, since you just have to manage expectations and revelations in your own area, not the whole state, and there are a lot fewer speech-making opportunities.

Herron’s got to come out of the gate like he is the obvious person to fill Tanner’s seat. That hasn’t happened. I don’t think his chances are ruined or anything, but you don’t want to give the impression that you’re late for your own party. You’ve got to seem like you have a command of things. Nothing that happened today is a deal-breaker, by any means, but it does indicate where Herron’s campaign is going to have to strengthen itself.

So let’s look at whose campaign is going in an interesting direction–Lowe Finney (speaking of people who I didn’t notice stepping up to support Herron). This is a little harder to do because who the hell even knows if Lowe Finney has a campaign? But I like the idea of U.S. Representative Finney, so let’s just assume he is running. How’s it going? I’m going to give him a C+/B-. I mean, on the one hand, there is no campaign (Is there? Did he announce very quietly, because that would affect my grade) and, therefore, nothing to grade. On the other hand, for a man with no campaign, the buzz around his campaign is pretty loud. Is this generated by Finney himself? Hard saying.

My feelings about Finney are complicated. I, after all, still feel like it’d be nice if a small group of Democrats walked behind him at all times, clapping when he does Democratic things and clearing our throats loudly when he acts like an asshat, hoping that a little positive reinforcement would go far to shape him into an honest to god Democrat, albeit a conservative one.

But he is intensely curious and at least gives the impression that he’s listening and considering what you’re saying and judging whether it’s useful to him. He looks kind of dorky in pictures, but in real life comes across as genially smart. And I feel like he could be a leader. Yes, he’s got some head-out-of-ass pulling to do. I know.

But Herron comes across like “Hey, I’m a politician. What’s the next office I could run for?” and Finney comes across like “Hey, I can make a difference to the people in my community. What is the best opportunity I have to do that?”

And those are pretty powerful first impressions to give.

A Quick Cat Update Update

So, we picked up the cat from the emergency care place, and she is doing much better. She is not out of the woods yet, but she is lurking around the edge of the woods, peaking at “good.”

Ha, that’s not a great metaphor, is it?

But she is eating and peeing. She’s at the regular vet’s now and she’ll be evaluated by her momentarily and if she checks out, the Butcher will bring her home. We’re going to keep her in the bathroom for a few days. The floor is warm and she can be separated from the other animals.

I won’t even tell you how the Butcher’s first act when he thought I wasn’t looking, was to open the cage and coo at her and rub her belly. Nor will I tell you how he stayed up all night, last night, in case the phone rang.

I will say, however, “Shhhh. The Butcher is sleeping.”

And, hey, listen. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that people have requested a way to donate. But, really, as dizzy as the amount makes me, her overnight stay last night ended up being $400 less than what they quoted me, and we really can swing it. It won’t be fun, but we can do it.

And, frankly, your deep and heart-felt support has meant more to me than anything else. Being able to read your words in the middle of the night and know that we weren’t going through this alone is so generous, so very generous and I don’t need anything else from you. That has already been more than a person could hope for.

And words are really not enough to express my gratitude towards y’all for that. I love you guys and am thankful every day that you read here and comment.

It’s really incredible and I feel very, very lucky to have you guys in my life.