Never thought of it quite this way. Very interesting article.
Speaking of chemistry sets (and pardon me if I’ve related this story elsewhere):
Summary
We were in Germany for two years around 1960. My older brother and friends got together to make rockets. There were a number of chemistry shops around (not pharmacies) where they could easily get chemicals. Apparently once they took a bus into town and bought some acids at a shop – nitric, hydrochloric, etc. – and brought them home in a box on the bus. My brother was 9. He told me this story a few years ago and admitted he didn’t know how he survived. One of his friends did lose an eye in a mishap, however.
He wondered if some of the shop chemists were still fuming over WWII and were delighted to have the chance to give nasty chemicals to Americans.
We both went into science and engineering, so there’s two data points. He was really into anything technical, and I kind of followed along. Thanks, bro.
I wonder if she is extremely loud and persistent in her desire to go outside. We had a female cat that would jump up onto the sill of the inside of the leaded window in our front door and scratch the living hell out of the door with her hind claws, yowling the whole time.
Good point – if you get a cat who likes the outdoors I guess it’s impossible to change that. Our first cat would sometimes try to get out when the door was open, but that was about it; no yowling or scratching at the door. We’ve never let any of our six more recent cats out, so perhaps they don’t even know there is an outside. They’re always been very good about it.
Yes, Abby was a stray and I forgot to mention she had gone into heat when she did the above. She did get pregnant when my mom, who couldn’t take it any more, let her out. She got hit by a car ten days after she gave birth. She had to be put down, but there was a foster mom for the kittens. This was, 1975 or '76.
Also the first time I saw the live birth of anything up-close and in-person.
haha getting into All the Feels territory here…I’ll never forget (hope not!) the newborn kittens and their tiny umbilical cords. Just wonderful.
I had been at the roller rink that was three blocks away, and I remember calling to see if they’d started to be born yet. I musta finished out my skate time and hustled home, but I don’t remember that part, lol. It was exciting!
yeah, our latest pair have only been outside twice (aside from in a cage on the way to the vet): once when they were several weeks old, next door, and then again each once accidentally when they were very young and wondered what all that was beyond the screens and door. each of them had a bad experience (one jumped at a bug on the screen, knocked the screen off, fell out the window – ground floor, but still) and the other slinked out when the screen door was open long enough. he hit the porch and stopped dead still, looking around, with the look on his face like “WHOA, this is FAR more terrifying than i expected!” and then he ran back inside. neither have showed any inclination to go outside ever again. they are super happy to lie in front of open windows (now with VERY secure screens), and watch birds. we call it CatTV.
We just call it TV, because we mostly look without going outside too.
Once my wife went outside for some reason and when she looked back she realized that the door hadn’t latched completely, and Dyson and Lyta were just sitting quietly on the porch. Fortunately that’s all they did, and she was able to shoo them back in easily.
i suppose that’s true, but they have things that they find much more interesting than we do, like bugs, leaves blowing by, neighborhood cats fighting (or – ahem – other things)… that sort of thing. the after-dark programming is their favorite, although napping by the TV is also very popular. the worst is the winter programming. no smells, and nothing going on. they hate it.
