I regretfully had to inform the owner of Gimme that I could not fulfill the office of catsitter, due to 1) my excessive travel plans this month, and 2) my roommate’s extreme unwillingness to be saddled with TWO furbags. The owner spirited the porcine princess away in her carrier, and Quarkie immediately started running up and down the stairs, howling at the top of his lungs. It may be that it’s just that time of day (when his little kitty brain wiring instructs him to freak out for no reason), but I like to believe they were just starting to become buddies.
Heading to Portland tomorrow for a few days. The weekend after that, a big bunch of us are going camping by Lucas, KS - home of the famous Garden of Eden; and then the weekend after that, I am driving my friend Louise up to Chicago, and saying goodbye - she is moving back to Belgium to marry her girlfriend.
Phew! Typing those sentences is making me tired. Off to commence packing and placating the cat, now lonely again. 
I have acquired temporary custody of a tubby ladyfriend for Quarkie.
Gimme, musing over her new surroundings.
When she arrived yesterday afternoon, she was most displeased with her new surroundings. In particular, she objected to the massive gray lump of fur moving about and attempting to sniff her lady hind (the nerve!)
She’s quickly settled in, however, and seems to be able to tolerate Quark’s presence (in that she’ll only growl at him if he’s within a foot of her). Given my observations of cat behavior, they should be chums in no time. Will post a photo once they can sit next to each other peacefully.
She grew so comfortable with her surroundings that she had little difficulty zoning in on my knitting, and sitting upon it:
Lelah top, blocking and recovering from having been sat upon all night.
I have her in my care until sometime mid-fall, when her owner’s house is finished. Simon is being a good sport about it, aside from constant sniffling and complaining, of course: “why did you have to be a crazy cat person?!” I retorted with the fact that any other animal collecting would, in our current situation, be far worse - I couldn’t exactly fit one dog in the apartment, let alone two or three, and he hates rodents. I won’t even consider the horrific winged creatures some are foolhardy enough to keep as pets.
No indeed, if one is set on apartment living for an extended period of time, cats are the proper choice for crazy animal lovers. Hopefully I can convince Simon of this impeccable reasoning, and hopefully he doesn’t mind too much that I’m leaving him, with both cats, when I go to Portland next week. Tee hee!