The Worst Indignity

There's nothing quite like a cat that's just had a bath. Let's just say this has not been the happiest day for Alice. (For those of you who don't know, Alice is the (very large) cat currently residing with me. She belongs to my friend Paul, who lived in this apartment before me, but he can't have cats in his new apartment. So Alice is living with me until the end of the summer, at which time she will go to her new permanent home, once her new owners get back from Viet Nam.) But back to the story. Paul came over this afternoon to do some Alice-grooming. First, he shaved her belly. No, I am not kidding. It has been extremely hot here lately, and she gets overheated with all her fur, so she actually doesn't mind it. She just looks kind of funny for a few days. :) Then he shaved a couple of little random spots of matted hair that I haven't been able to get out with the brush. She was really not very happy about that, and that was before the bath. Yeah, he gave her a bath. I have never seen a cat being fully bathed by a human before, but she seemed to take it remarkably well. She yowled and growled and struggled a bit, but she didn't really try to escape, and she didn't claw or bite, which I found quite remarkable. But, boy, was she a pathetic and bedraggled sight when she emerged from the bathroom! Poor kitty. I refrained from taking a picture because that just seemed too cruel, so you'll just have to imagine it. She's almost dry now, after about five hours, and she'll probably be really nice and soft when she's fully dry and sociable again (yeah, she got a full shampoo job). But she's been an indignant cat for most of the afternoon, demanding extra attention because she obviously deserves special treatment after being put through such an ordeal.

In completely different news, Paul and I spent the rest of the afternoon after bathing the cat in building a lovely brick retaining wall for the garden. It's wonderful! And I found another very good use for my archaeology trowel. :) Brick laying is kind of fun -- frustrating at times when you're trying to make a curved wall and your mortar is oozing out the angled cracks, but still a fun challenge. And now the soil won't all wash away onto the path when I water -- hooray!

And a jam update: the peach jam was tasty, but very dense. No worries about runny jam here! I made rhubarb-strawberry jam this afternoon, which I think turned out better (though still a bit too sweet, even though I cut the sugar by 2 cups), and will do marionberry-blueberry tomorrow. And then I'm hoping my jam craze will be satisfied, because it's way too hot here to be making jam!