minxy | Right!

Okay, I'm posting. It's really hard to break the radio silence when you really mean it. So, I'm going to start with small stuff:

My cat has it in for my purple basil. True facts.

I really think his list of good vs. bad things in Otis's world for a while there included purple basil right underneath "snow", and that's only because it's early in the season and he still remembers turning into an indoor cat for several months. He pounced the hell out of that one plant out of dozens (ignoring the cinnamon and traditional green basil) in favor of really removing every leaf, stalk and remaining tidbit of the purple stuff.

If you were interested, good things include interrupting all grading whenever possible. Also he's developed an incredibly polite way of requesting a mock fight with me: he gently, and carefully puts his teeth on my hand. Then he waits for me to cover my delicate hand with my sleeve, and we go at it. Cat wins (this is a rule.) If Otis wants to smack it down with E? He just attacks (and wins.) There is a distinct difference of approach based on which human he's dealing with. Smart cat, eh?

Except for the purple basil thing. Alas, but that battle is already lost. Lucky for me, the green basil is not an evil plant.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The question is whether the purple basil is evil, or really really good. Like catnip goooooood.

Otis is clearly a highly intelligent cat, and good at communicating with his peoples.

Oddly, we have catnip too; he waits for a branch to be presented to him before delicately eating a leaf or two (these days--but he chooses his grass blades personally.)

He's been known to chew thoughtfully on bits of my lemongrass plant.

He went at the purple basil with stealth and CLAWS. He just knocked the thing over. Then looked smug.