New Music

My good friend Joaquin is an amazing musician. He now has a band out in Tucson, AZ and they have released a few songs online at MySpace: ThreeFingeredJack - please check them out and share your opinions with them. I guess you would classify them as acoustic since nothing else really fits. One song, "A Busy Day," sounds very much like Donovan, but when I looked Donovan was merely classified as "altered-state-inducing music". From what I remember of time spent with Joaqo, that would fit. ;-]

My favorite song is "Intruder" - what a great love song. But they are all worth a listen. He has a beautiful voice and I'd love to see him get more fans than just little ole me.

Feline Cutaneous Asthenia

You are going to notice a decrease in photo-postings for a while (not that there hasn't been a decrease when we stopped fostering/volunteering with the Humane Society anyway). My digital camera broke, so we have to rely on taking REAL photos, finishing a film roll, processing, and scanning them into the computer before we can post.

So, the pictures here should seem a little strange to you. We've discovered that Peach has Feline Cutaneous Asthenia, the cat version of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (aka Rubber Man Syndrome; same thing all the pretzel people in circuses had). It is an extremely rare hereditary condition (don't worry, Peach is fixed and won't pass this on to anyone) that causes the skin on the cat's back, shoulders, and haunches to be abnormally elastic. It is hard to find good information on the syndrome as there are so few recorded cases (perhaps Peach has a destiny to be in a Vet Journal?). There does appear to be a defect in the collagen and most report that the skin is also excessively fragile, breaking even when the cat is simply petted. Thankfully, Peach's skin seems hardy enough, just super-stretchy. We're hoping it stays that way.