joy!

Here she is, home at last. For the past several hours the vets' progress notes read "Angry." Sometimes "Angry!!"

"Is that a good sign?" one of them asked when she called to give me an update.

"Yes," I said, "that's absolutely business as usual. Not a big fan of stuff she doesn't like."

And so today I celebrate with a poem a thousand years old about a wise man and his values:

Chang Tuan's Cats

Scholar Chang Tuan was fond of cats,

And had seven of them,

Wonderful beasts with wonderful names. They were:

Guardian of the East, White Phoenix, Purple Blossom, Drive-Away-Vexation, Brocade Sash, Cloud Pattern, Ten Thousand strings of Cash

Each was worth several pieces of gold

And nothing could persuade Chang

To part with them.

After Wang Chih, c. 1100 C.E.