Lev Lafayette's journal

On the first morning of some time in the Territory to see various Fringe Festival events, I find myself putting finger to keyboard to note the passing of Sabre cat who was euthanized less than an hour ago, with Erica H and Mel S being thankfully present. It was all so fast - in well under 48 hours she went from being her usual self to being a bit grumpy about her temporary accommodation, to being unable to stand. Neurological issues were the diagnosis, and with the same affecting the recently departed Manannan mac Lir, I can but note that twice is a coincidence. I am not a cat neurologist, and I hope that the shift in location was not the cause of her rapid decline.

Sabre's entry into the world was probably around 2006. She was found in a back alley of North Fitzroy by Tojo V. She was a tiny and desperate ball of fur and fury, almost certainly the runt of a litter, and would have had to fight for every scrap of food she could find. Tojo adored her, despite her anger management issues, and I used to joke that she was so named on account of her behaviour, like a sabre-toothed tiger. For over ten years, Tojo acted as Sabre's carer until one day his own life came to an unexpected end. I'll never forget the 'phone call I received one evening: "Have you heard about Tojo?", "No", "He's dead!", "Who is looking after his cat?", "He has a cat?!".

Turns out, I was looking after his cat. So for the past four years, I have been a provider to Sabre. She was quite the grump at first ("Miss Hiss", and "Miss Cranky Pants" were two nicknames), but calmed down significantly when we moved into The Rookery, with people remarking that she was quite the changed cat. She would certainly let you know if she was unhappy with something, but she'd also become far more prone to show affections through her little headbutts, and engaged in a great deal more play. She certainly had her time in the sun, resting on the balcony chair in the summer months or watching dove television for my semi-wild flock. But those times are gone now. Whilst death is inevitable and she was already old, I would have enjoyed another couple of years with her. All I know is that I loved the little ball of trouble and I did my best to give her a comfortable life.

Yesterday I bid farewell to Issac Yertle, an eastern long-necked turtle that I've had as an animal companion for around twelve years or so. If I recall correctly, I was the third owner of the turtle and have now passed it on to a family that already has two others, so I am pretty confident that he'll be cared for. Whilst vaguely interesting to watch, a turtle is not exactly an empathic creature and of course, one gains a great deal more from the mammalian species; with guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, and cats being les animals de compagnie in my abode in the past decade. In part the empathy we feel towards other species is associated with how close that species is to us, in evolutionary terms. The degree that a particular species has empathy itself comes from multiple vectors, but important discoveries suggest to be the presence of "mirror neurons", providing the ability to mentally construct the feelings that another person or being is feeling, as well as possibly providing for a range of other aspects of socialisation. It is, of course, early days yet in such research.

With the departure of Yertle, my only animal companion is Sabre the cat. Now she's quite a colourful character. She came into my life via Tojo who sadly died too young and when informed of his demise via 'phone my first response was "who's looking after his cat?"; it turned out that I was. Tojo adopted her as a street cat from the alleys of North Fitzroy and I can only guess what her life had been like up to that point; she's quite small, probably a runt, and probably had to fight for every scrap of food she could find, the poor dear. When she was brought in she did not react well to the fact that she had to share the domain with Mac the cat and would attack him on sight. Mac, being a creature of a much more gentle demeanor, would seek sanctuary despite the fact that Sabre was half his mass. "A tiny bundle of fur and fury", was how one visitor accurately named her and she received appropriate nick-names; "Miss Hiss", "Miss Grumpy-Breeches", "Miss Swipey-and-Bitey" etc.

Whilst it is true that her behaviour and impulse-control issues have improved over the years, the last several weeks have witnessed an incredible transformation. Now she's the only cat in the house and can travel through the domain without feline negotiation her personality is completely different (environment changes personality, who knew?). She's become thoroughly charming, a lot calmer, and downright smoochy. Every evening and morning she tries to get under the doona to curl up next to me or sleep on me, and if I'm already asleep licking my nose brings me to attention. Now I know a lot of this is pretty normal cat behaviour, but to see this in Sabre is thoroughly unexpected. Sure, she's not quite beyond giving a hiss of disapproval or a swipe (minus claws) if she gets herself underfoot, but it's a very far cry to what she has been like in the past.

Which troubles my thoughts somewhat when I think about my own future. It is probably to nobody's surprise that I don't intend to stay in Melbourne for the rest of my life, least of all after the recent tumultuous and painful life changes. I also have a personal motivation to apply what skills I have across the disciplines of project and quality management, systems engineering, and a concern for environmental health to do something significant and at a scale that will improve the lives of the many (c.f., The Wild Geese Flying project); that will indeed be my life's work. But on this personal level, I have an animal companion to care for, and I don't think she'll quite be up for overseas travel, let alone an international move. That is the thing, she is my responsibility now. Whilst others my have family to care for their felines when they relocate, I am not in the circumstance where I have that fairly common privilege, and I am unsure if any of my friends would wish to care for a cantankerous aged cat who demands to be in a single-cat household.

It's been quite a busy past few days and across a multitude of activities. At 1am in the morning no less I had an online meeting with some colleagues in some European universities for developing an international certification for high performance computing. It comes just after the university finally decided to confirm my trip to the International Supercomputing Conference, but all the other activities I will have to take as leave, which isn't great, but I can live with it. Flights have been booked and conference registration fees paid. That itself comes after the NTEU organised a strike at the University over agreements, superannuation, and academic freedom. The strike coincided with others, and ended up being part of 100,000 people strong march through the city; I've penned a few words on labour markets and the importance of unions.

On a related topic the Victorian Secular Lobby held its annual general meeting today with Meredith Doig from Reason, a new political party. A great deal of discussion was generated on the current takeover of the Victorian Liberal Party by Christian theocrats, and the tax exemptions that religious organisations receive for their commercial activities, which really is an extraordinary situation. The Victorian Liberal issue is quite a worry as it suggests that they're going for a polarising and rather nasty election, which will target the safe schools programme, voluntary euthanasia, abortion decriminalisation etc, which is really going to make things uncomfortable for traditional liberals in the party.

I've managed to get a bit of gaming in the past few days as well. Played Megatraveller on Wednesday where we allocated our six-ship fleet on various tasks and set up the next target for our expanding commercial and military protectorate. Last night played Eclipse Phase dealing with some especially explosively cold environs. For my own EC game which I'll run tomorrow, did a write-up today of the last session; I've gotten into the habit of making puns for the chapter and subchapter headings. Also, in fairly big news, have released RPG Review Issue 38 which has Space Opera subject, and with Terry K. Amthor as the interview subject. My own contributions include a Spacemaster scenario, and reviews of several SF RPGs, including FASA's Star Trek (1983), ICE's Spacemaster (1988), WEG's Star Wars (1996), Mongoose's Traveller (2008), and Piazo's Starfinder (2017).

Finally, a number of people expressed their condolences for the loss of Tojo, which was the topic of my last post. In that, I expressed concern for the state of his cat, Sabre. Well, being the big soft sucker that I am, I couldn't bear the thought of homeless ageing cat so we've taken her in. As it turns out this is going to take some work - she's never seen another cat since her kittenhood and she freaked out a bit when she discovered Mac was cat number one. Mac, of course, is confused by her reaction. She's currently staying in the bathroom, having hissy fits if anyone approaches her. Hopefully, she'll calm down in a few days as she's suffered a bit of a shock. But I can tell this might take a while.