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A monumental Fluffdate before the solemn link roundup
Earlier this afternoon...a breakthrough.
I keep the fluff's brush on the couch, so when he comes close enough I can hold it out for him to sniff. Sometimes even get away with a light stroke -- not enough to actually reach any tangles, all it achieves is reassuring him that it's Not Dangerous -- before he darts away.
So he hops down from the windowsill, and I offer the brush for the usual investigation, and...
For a solid five minutes he just rolled around under the brush, twisting so I could get different angles, head butting up against my arm. There was, briefly but unmistakably, purring.
At first I was sure he'd lose his nerve if I reached for the phone to take any pictures. Then I risked it. He stuck around. I snapped these adorable shots. He kept it up.
It has been almost exactly 51 week since I brought him home. Just shy of a solid year. Six months ago, when people asked if he was letting me pet him yet, I told them it would be at least another six months -- well, look at him now.
I got a fair amount of loose fur out of his coat. Even managed to do a bit of bare-handed skritching, long enough for me to confirm that he is Very Soft, before I got a light swat to let me know he was Done. (He sat around on the couch with me for a while afterward, though, so it wasn't like he was mad about it.)
Wonder how long it'll take before he comes back for more. I guess we'll find out. Bet it won't be as long as 51 weeks this time, though.
...the rest of this is COVID-19 news links, ordered by date.
(So, a timeline of what it's like to live through the point in every disaster movie where the experts say "we've scienced up some great preventative measures here, but please, you have to do them Right Now or it'll be too late.")
March 11: "From a woman whose symptoms started with a fever, to a man who said he was an inch from death, coronavirus survivors have begun speaking out about the worldwide pandemic."
March 18: "Gen. Dave Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, confirmed that military cargo planes were moving coronavirus testing kits, but did not give specific details during a Wednesday briefing at the Pentagon. The general acknowledged that 'we’ve just made a pretty significant movement into Memphis.'" ...From Italy. You know, they need those in Italy.
March 22: "People say Contagion is prescient. We just saw the science. The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn't a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when." Interview with Dr. Larry Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox.
March 23: "Product distributed by Diamond [i.e. comics, especially floppy single issues, to local comic shops] and slated for an on-sale date of April 1st or later will not be shipped to retailers until further notice."
March 24: "This particular group of Chicago workers was fed up with [Amazon] failing to provide paid time off or vacation it promised to part-time workers. They organized; Amazon resisted -- and at last, the coronavirus acted as tiebreaker." Good for them.
March 24 again: "'We saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually,' she said. 'Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.' [...] They mixed a small amount of the substance with liquid to drink. Within 20 minutes, both fell ill. Her husband could not be revived in hospital and she remains in critical care." It's been obvious for years that Trump is a compulsive liar, and everyone who's still ignoring that gets horrifically damaged by it eventually, but this must be some kind of record for the fastest trajectory from "trusting something he said" to "horrible consequences."
March 25: "A 52-year-old man [from Durban, South Africa] who allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 but went back to work, has been arrested for attempted murder. " Sounds right. If a country has specific bioterrorism laws, time to start charging people under those, too.
Various dates, on each individual photo: Reuters slideshow of the temporary hospitals and medical facilities being hastily set up around the world. It is tragic that we need these, but amazing to see the competence and dedication that's getting them up.
I keep the fluff's brush on the couch, so when he comes close enough I can hold it out for him to sniff. Sometimes even get away with a light stroke -- not enough to actually reach any tangles, all it achieves is reassuring him that it's Not Dangerous -- before he darts away.
So he hops down from the windowsill, and I offer the brush for the usual investigation, and...
For a solid five minutes he just rolled around under the brush, twisting so I could get different angles, head butting up against my arm. There was, briefly but unmistakably, purring.
At first I was sure he'd lose his nerve if I reached for the phone to take any pictures. Then I risked it. He stuck around. I snapped these adorable shots. He kept it up.
It has been almost exactly 51 week since I brought him home. Just shy of a solid year. Six months ago, when people asked if he was letting me pet him yet, I told them it would be at least another six months -- well, look at him now.
I got a fair amount of loose fur out of his coat. Even managed to do a bit of bare-handed skritching, long enough for me to confirm that he is Very Soft, before I got a light swat to let me know he was Done. (He sat around on the couch with me for a while afterward, though, so it wasn't like he was mad about it.)
Wonder how long it'll take before he comes back for more. I guess we'll find out. Bet it won't be as long as 51 weeks this time, though.
...the rest of this is COVID-19 news links, ordered by date.
(So, a timeline of what it's like to live through the point in every disaster movie where the experts say "we've scienced up some great preventative measures here, but please, you have to do them Right Now or it'll be too late.")
March 11: "From a woman whose symptoms started with a fever, to a man who said he was an inch from death, coronavirus survivors have begun speaking out about the worldwide pandemic."
March 18: "Gen. Dave Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, confirmed that military cargo planes were moving coronavirus testing kits, but did not give specific details during a Wednesday briefing at the Pentagon. The general acknowledged that 'we’ve just made a pretty significant movement into Memphis.'" ...From Italy. You know, they need those in Italy.
March 22: "People say Contagion is prescient. We just saw the science. The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn't a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when." Interview with Dr. Larry Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox.
March 23: "Product distributed by Diamond [i.e. comics, especially floppy single issues, to local comic shops] and slated for an on-sale date of April 1st or later will not be shipped to retailers until further notice."
March 24: "This particular group of Chicago workers was fed up with [Amazon] failing to provide paid time off or vacation it promised to part-time workers. They organized; Amazon resisted -- and at last, the coronavirus acted as tiebreaker." Good for them.
March 24 again: "'We saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually,' she said. 'Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure.' [...] They mixed a small amount of the substance with liquid to drink. Within 20 minutes, both fell ill. Her husband could not be revived in hospital and she remains in critical care." It's been obvious for years that Trump is a compulsive liar, and everyone who's still ignoring that gets horrifically damaged by it eventually, but this must be some kind of record for the fastest trajectory from "trusting something he said" to "horrible consequences."
March 25: "A 52-year-old man [from Durban, South Africa] who allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 but went back to work, has been arrested for attempted murder. " Sounds right. If a country has specific bioterrorism laws, time to start charging people under those, too.
Various dates, on each individual photo: Reuters slideshow of the temporary hospitals and medical facilities being hastily set up around the world. It is tragic that we need these, but amazing to see the competence and dedication that's getting them up.
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As for the rest... oof. D:
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...although only on one side, for some reason. If I move the brush toward the other half of his ruff, he rolls over to make sure the preferred half is the one facing me.
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