things the cat is afraid of, part I

Say, what is that thing you're holding there, Dee? Little rectangular thing... not really sure... pointing it at me... blinking light thingy...

ARGH ARGH ARGH MY EYES ARGH!!1!!!@!

So here is a photo of Nemo on one of the rare occasions where he isn't hiding under the bed. The journey from Boston was rough on the cat, it was tough on all of us, but at least we had, like, free will, not being from some sort of Calvinist school of thought, so were nominally in charge of our own destinies and had the consolation of having made the choice to move. To Nemo it was all just so much I Am Totally NOT At Home On My Sunny Windowsill, How Much Longer Do I Have To Spend In This Freakin Crate, OMG DARK IN CARGO HOLD OF AIRPLANE HELP HELP, and 30 days in quarantine.

And then, of course, we were in uni temp housing for a month and then we had to move AGAIN and now, right when all should be peace, and things settling down again, we realize that we are in Singapore, Land of Tiny Yapping Dogs.

So, things the cat is afraid of:

• tiny yapping dogs. Specifically, the corgis next door. Meanwhile, a corgi is 6 inches tall, right? And REALLY CUTE. It's Ein, am I right?? And at 18 pounds the cat is actually BIGGER than the dogs. True, they outnumber him 2 to 1... still. (Let me just digress a sec and tell you about the sound of 2 tiny, excited corgis freak-barking at 7am in the corridor of our apartment building which has this amazing acoustic ECHO Echo echo reverb going on so that after a few nanoseconds it sounds like an army of Defcon Frenzy corgis are percussing straight into your skull with the sheer irresistible power of their acoustic Yap Beam, earth-quaking you out of a sound sleep and making one eyelid twitch Inspector Clouseau's boss-like all day long... well, it's better than an alarm clock, I can tell you.)

• things falling down the trash chute (I love the trash chute, you just pitch your trash... down the chute! And listen for the satisfying CRASH of an empty bottle of pinot greeze hitting the ground from 14 floors up, yay!)

• the wind. Up so high, the wind whips through the open door and windows and exits through the windows on the other side of the apartment thus keeping us alive at average temps of 33C. But it also blows things off the tables and whatnot and startles the cat.

• people walking down the corridor outside (fortunately not many people do this as we're almost at the end of the block)

• the mosquito truck (also the street sweeper. And the guy with the leaf blower. Do street sounds get louder as they disperse upward??)

• the camera flash (now)

It's tough being a little animal with only 2 functioning brain cells with which to understand your environment. I think it's getting better, though, gradually.