The Curious Case of the Prolapsed Kitten
Got bit yesterday, HARD, by a prolapsed kitten. Hope I don't get that ol' cat scratch fever.*

The kitten had been bitten by a dog and squeezed so hard that his colon popped out. It looked like a red onion attached to his butt. Doc had to push it back in, using his little finger and a gentle swirling motion. Kate and I helped to hold the kitten down, and he was at such extremes of distress and terror that he sank his teeth clean into the meat between my thumb and finger. Ouch. My glove filled up with blood but I was cool with it, just grabbed the kitten by the throat and asked him politely not to do it again.

Doc says the kitten will probably live. I hope so. Apparently a prolapse is quite survivable and we will be feeding him a nutritive tea for the next few days instead of solid food.

I have to say that watching the look in the cat's eyes as Doc squished his intestines back into place was a strange, sick sort of funny. At first his pupils were completely dilated, all the way back to the sclera, as he was touched in a way that he has certainly never been touched before. But after the doc managed to get the colon in back past the rectum, and he bit me, he calmed down substantially. On the whole, the kitten was very well behaved through a very unusual and traumatic experience.

Here are some pictures of CALM this year:









That hut in the first two pictures is the CALM wikiup.** It's clean, dry, and seats nine comfortably -- we use it to store non-essential supplies, store food, and as a sort of lounge. It was a lot of fun to build and I'm pretty proud of it. This has been the best year for CALM construction since I've been doing it. We've had a paucity of materials but made it work just fine -- the entire wikiup took two tarps, about twenty garbage bags, three coils of rope, and a quarter-roll of duct tape. That's pretty darn good for an entire house.

So now we have a CALM wiki. Kelly wanted to set one up for a while, so here it is. It's a open-source pile of sticks that anyone can edit.


CALM has been very nice in the last week. We've got a lot of people in and things seem to be taking care of themselves. For once in our organization's history we have more storage space, food, and construction help than we can use. Sorta strange, but I like it.

I've been hanging out with a woman named Mackenzie and eating a lot and trying to stay out of the way. My focus this year has been to enjoy the Gathering, and I've done a pretty good job, but all the same enough is enough. There's a ride to San Diego that leaves the 6th, I believe, and I can't wait to go. I need some ocean.

*no, there really is such a thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat-scratch_disease

**It was meant to be a wigwam but it turned into a wikiup. Apparently a wigwam is more of a teepee and less of a hut.