Farewell Felines

Fancy and I found out a few days ago that our ferret-cat, Steve, was hit by a car and killed a few blocks from the house.  He had been missing for a couple weeks, but we weren't worried at first, because he tends to wander during the nice weather.

He was loved by everyone who met him.  He had pretty green eyes, a super soft coat, and was incredibly friendly.  Here he is helping me study for the LSAT, he was helpful that way.  He always purred, and rubbed against all of the dogs to greet them when he came through the house.  He also let anyone in the house pick him up, pet him, and rub his belly.  He will be sorely missed, especially by Fancy as he was her favorite cat.

Less than a week after finding out about Steve, our other kitty, Sandra Flea, was hit by a car and killed in front of our house.  It was exactly where our last striped cat, Newki was killed last year.  We are very sad to have lost two feline members of our family.

It is especially frustrating, because these are unnecessary casualties.  It is unnecessary for people to speed down these residential side streets.  I wish people would consider that people have pets who cross the streets.  We do not live on main road.  

Some people may disagree with our choice to let our cats outside, but they are animals that enjoy to hunt and prowl.  Their quality of life is much higher if they go outside and their happiness with the outdoors is apparent.  So, we say goodbye to Steve and Sandra, and hope they are enjoying hunting in the big field of catnip in the sky.

Tiger Puppy Meets the Hose

Puppy 1, water 0.

So, I have officially finished my first year of law school, and the blog is still going strong!  When you start law school they put you in a room with the rest of your incoming class and tell you all about how scary/stressful law school is.  This lasts for a week.

The next week we start our writing class, which actually scares the crap out of us.  That's supposed to be the class where they rip out your brain and replace it with that of a lawyer.  We all thought it was super funny the week before.  It's actually quite painful.  Anyway, this also begins the social experiment where they place you in the same classes with the exact same people for a year.  

At the beginning you group up with a few people and hope for the best.  By the time the rest of your classes begin in a couple weeks, the cliques have formed.  Oh, and did I mention that by the time those classes start you have already been doing roughly 20x the amount of homework you had in your worst week of undergrad?  Well, it happens, and we all wander around in a frightened fog joking about how our lives outside of the school have already been put on hold.  

Around this time our writing teacher gently explains that no class is at full workload yet, and it will all be at full workload at the same time.  She also noted that we would panic.  Also around this time, my buddy J-No noticed some people from our larger class had already dropped out.  October came and suddenly everything got crazy.  A dark cloud of fear and panic fell over the entire building.  We all wandered around going through the same thing together, but really very much alone.  Then, as suddenly as it arrived, it was gone.

At the close of the first year many of us have left our original cliques of those first weeks, or at least some members.  But, by the end, there is a sense of camaraderie among all of us, because we all went through something life changing together.  The panic and loneliness have been replaced by law school humor, and inside jokes.   And, for being able to experience this, I am incredibly grateful.

In closing, things are as hard as they said it would be, but we got used to it.  We learned to work together and to have fun.  We went from thinking "How the hell do they expect us to sit for a 5 hour exam??" to "Seriously, only 3 hours??  How do they expect us to write a decent exam in 3 hours??"  It is a strange road that culminated in days like those up there where there are law books, laptops, and random legs and torsos everywhere.  Oh, and just so y'all know what is coming up in the next couple weeks here at the blog:  awesome wedding, new sex worker interview, and a couple of Buffalo restaurant reviews, so stay tuned!

Sorry I haven't been posting much, but these couple weeks have been rough.  School is winding down to the end of the semester, so I'm down to one post per week for a little while.  

As things are still cheerful out in the country where I love to be.  See Jimmy T up there?  He lives out in the country, and her sure looks happy, doesn't he?  Well, anyway I should have some new posts next week especially since Truman is getting married.  It'll be awesome.