Bad things are bound to result when friends bring digital cameras to my house. In this case, many cute kitty pictures were taken. My original intention was to make a skin based off of an interesting road sign near my house, but as usual, the creative muse doesn't always listen to sound advice.

In the land of the cats, it's always best for the two-footed beasts of burden to remember that everything, in the end, is always about the cats. Any two-footed beast of burden that believes themselves the sole owner and proprietor of their place of residence has never run out of cat food on a weekend.

Today, spouse and I attempted to reassert eminent domain upon this building we live in.

In other words, we tried to give the cats a new litterbox.

It really must be difficult to be a cat, you know. Every little thing that the humans do just upsets your perfect little feline world. Case in point: Edmund. This cat wakes up in an entirely new world every ten minutes or so, yet the silly feline has a royal conniption when I change something that he cares about.

When Dad answered the phone, I was surprised.

"I didn't expect to get you. I figured I'd get Mom. So, you been doin' okay?"

"Yeah, mostly. Glad to be—"

"Mrooooooooow?"

"Thank you, Little Bit, I'm just fine." Dad laughed; a dry, raspy chuckle. It told me everything I needed to know—that there were still things worth laughing about, but that even with the constant morphine IV, belly laughs still weren't pain-free.

I present to you photos of what may possibly be the most rotten cats in the history of the world. Edmund on the top shelf of my computer desk during the day:

Always good for an or two.

My favorite, though, is when his head and he keeps on sleeping.

Tenzing is more demanding. When he wants scritchies, he lets you know, and he usually gets what he wants:

Tenzing was the first to throw caution to the wind and creep in.

I followed behind him a moment or two later, flashlight clenched firmly in hand, and then I started howling with laughter. "Jeff! Come see! Tenzing's scoping out the computer room, and you should see the bottle-brush tail he's got!"It took Jeff a few moments to make his way to the computer room, where I shone the flashlight on Tenzing's still-puffy tail. He was crouched down, still wary, still suspicious, but his curiosity had once again gotten the better of him.