When Nebulous (my 25 year old cat) broke her arm

(Click to view larger image.)This happened on a very stressful weekend, Saturday August 15th 2009. It was the beginning of a fortnight full of bad news.

On that Saturday, Süheyla was out working and I was at home, trying to clean up because the owners of our house were coming on the Sunday. It was such a windy day; I was taking paper rubbish out and Nebulous tried to follow me. The wind slammed the door on her arm and she screeched.


(Click to view larger image.)When I turned around, she was twitching her arm, trying to lick it. I swore loudly and started to panic. It quickly became obvious from Neb's movement that it was serious. Talya was there and calmed me down. We rang the emergency vet and took a taxi there.

The X-rays clearly showed both bones in her foreleg snapped. The vet seemed such a hard woman. She was outlining the options (including putting her down) and kept reiterating that Neb was so old (25) and could die from the shock, pain, anaesthetic, infection.. and that her bones might not heal at all. After a while I asked her "Are you suggesting we put Nebulous down?" I was feeling pressured to make an awful decision. At this, the vet huffed up and became visibly annoyed. "I am not suggesting that - just trying to make sure you understand there are so many risks". She didn't seem so hard after that.


(Click to view larger image.)They put a heavy splint on her leg and wrapped it in a light synthetic substance that set a bit like plaster. Six weeks she would have it on before her leg was to be reviewed.

For six weeks after breaking her arm, Nebulous walked around with this heavy splint. It was so bulky and heavy that she literally dragged her arm between her back legs as she walked.


Can you just
pat me now? Please?
(Click to view larger image.)Somehow it didn't stop her from climbing up (and down) from our bed and couch. This is one tough cat! She even ventured outside a couple of times. I was horrified when I came home one day to find her peering up at me from the porch.

I could tell she was uncomfortable though - she couldn't even keep it clear when she went to the litter. Frequently we cleaned her splint as best we could. I tried out various things to wrap around it: a plastic bag fastened with rubber bands or sticky tape didn't work; glad wrap was a really terrible idea - try getting a cat to sit still while you do that! Eventually we settled on socks, changed almost every day. Süheyla's suggestion (which came too late) was to use a condom! Not sure how I was going to explain that to the vet (or chemist).

She needed lots of pats during this time..


(Click to view larger image.)After the six weeks were up, the vet removed the splint and X-rayed her leg again. The bones were still broken - no healing whatsoever! I felt so bad for her, trying to imagine what her options were.

Amputation.. putting her down.. or put a metal plate in her arm to hold the bones together. This is what we did.


(Click to view larger image.)Her leg was so tender when she first came home. She was purring a lot and I couldn't bear to touch her for fear of bumping her leg. It freaks me out that her leg is still broken, just held together.

Nebulous tried to sleep without disturbing her still broken arm, after the vet put a plate in to hold the bones together.


(Click to view larger image.)This was a very uncomfortable week for her and I was (still am) cringing each time I watch her walk on that broken leg

She seems much better now. She walks ok, no running anymore. And she still climbs up and down from the bed, but very slowly and carefully. If she sees me on the bed, she will miaow patiently until I pick her up and drape her over my chest, where she can pur and, well, dribble.

I am glad she can still do that.

Reach Access Flosser

Reach Access Flosser Refill Pack, Fresh Mint, 28 Disposable Heads

These are the indivdual Reach floss tips that are placed on the tip of the Reach Floss Holder Reach Access Flosser - there is a powered one available, but I only use the plastic "pick", a bit like a very tooth brush that these heads snap into.

I have tried and despised every flossing product my supermarket and dentist and chemist sells, until now.

Ordinary floss is terrible to use: I stretch open my mouth as wide as possible while forcing both fists down my gullet to floss the back teeth. Yuch and painful.

Toothpics? Come on! Even the plastic toothpicks with bristles and curvy bits. Come on to the power to 2!

For a while I was using a floss device my dentist sold, Xylifloss which featured floss on a wheel in a plastic dispenser that could lock the floss in place and slide quite easily in between my teeth. It had the reach right but the mechanism was bad: the lock frequently broke which meant the floss slipped (I had to go back to the dentist once when I had floss stuck between my teeth so bad it was painful). And I still had to force the thing at right angles into my mouth to get at the back teeth.

And then came Reach's Access Flosser with disposable heads. This product is brilliant; the ONLY product I have found that makes flossing every crevice between my teeth easy. Overall, it is more expensive than all other products I have seen but I do not care. Each head lasts one use, but it so easy to get in between every tooth I am amazed this product is not made compulsory in every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, doghouse and dentist in Australia. It first showed up on the shelves of Coles (a big supermarket chain in Aus) and then all the supermarket chains - and I loved it. But a few months ago it became unpopular or something (stupid) and now no supermarket sells it. I asked Coles if they could bring it back and their only response was "it is deleted!". Purely on the basis of this response, I won't shop at Coles anymore.

So, Amazon and Reach: thank you!

See this product (and my review) on Amazon.

Cleo by Helen Brown

ISBN-10: 1741759072. Publisher: Arena

*This review contains spoilers*

I really enjoyed this book. It grabbed me from the first moment with a picture of an ultra-cute kitteh on the front (Basement cat never looked so cute), and the blurb promising a sad tale with a thread of joy. Just what I am looking for this year for some reason. Thanks to Mum for buying it for me.

Well, it was indeed a sad tale, with a joyful thread; it is in fact is Helen Brown's true story. I shared her rendered heart when Sam, her eldest boy, was struck down. I felt the warmth grow with each new antic of Cleo. I also felt increasingly annoyed each time she let loose her inner voice whining about some aspect of the budding relationship she was developing with Phillip.

It is strange that Cleo is and is not the main character of this book. She grows up with the family, and "teaches" them how to focus on the positive. Right up until the end, when she is a 24 year old queen cat!

I will always hold this book dear to my heart because of the honesty Helen showed in this telling. The most striking moment in the whole book for me is this paragraph in the first 50 pages:

It was no easier for Steve. A few days after the accident I awoke under a waterfall of his tears. He'd never cried in front of me before. I should have reached out and embraced him then, but I was half-awake, unprepared. Distraught, momentarily confused. I simply asked him to stop. I didn't imagine the request would be taken literally and he'd never express sorrow in front of me again.

This paragraph alone describes what has become of the relationship with her first husband while they are both wallowing in sorrow. I was angry at Helen here: she *broke* her man; but on a deeper level I knew it was just the skin of a bubble bursting. It is a portentous moment of stark narrative clarity in a sea of misery that can only be told in hindsight.

A wonderful book - it makes me want to write the story of my cat, Nebulous - a grand 26 years old and still kickin (purring)!

See Helen Brown's website, upon which you can read the Cleo Launch Speech, Melbourne Australia, September 2009 and a page of letters people have written to Helen.

Jedda's Story - not a Chihuahua

Jedda loves a
good belly rub!
(Click to view larger image.)One day Mum called me with a strange request. "Robert, would you like a dog? It's not a Chihuahua!" This was peculiar: Mum rescues Chihuahuas after all.

I asked Mum why she picked up a non-Chihuahua in the first place. She told me the request came from an elderly lady, Marie, who lived in a flat by herself but was being moved into a care facility that wouldn't allow pets. (Why do they break up families like that?!)

Walk now?
(Click to view larger image.)Mum explained, "The dear grandmother described the dog to me; black and white, wiry hair, medium size. Her name is Jedda. I knew it wasn't a Chihuahua and said I could only take Chihuahuas in. Marie burst into tears over the phone, 'What am I going to do? I have no one else.' My heart broke and I couldn't say no."

Marie had loved Jedda for five years; Jedda was the light of her life and beloved by her neighbours as well. But recently things had gotten bad and she couldn't walk Jedda any more. Marie couldn't even perform the most basic tasks for herself without agony. Her family were moving her into a home.

Walk on a sunny
Melbourne day.
(Click to view larger image.)Marie told Mum that Jedda was a very active dog: she needed walking every day plus she was the smartest doggie in the world. I have heard this before - the previous Chihuahua I took from Mum (since re-homed) was a "specially trained Hearing Dog" who would tell you when the phone rang or someone came to the door. We got him home and I rang our number from my mobile. The pudgy little fella sat there staring up at us while the phone rang and his tail swished once or twice. I swear the look on his face was either "what's that sound?" or "I know you can hear - answer the phone already!"

The paperwork was signed quickly and Marie said she wanted to let Jedda say good-bye to her favorite neighbour. She said "Let's say good-bye to George!" and opened the door. Jedda bounded out and down the driveway - her tail wagging fast enough to blur - turned left and waited at the gate to George's house, two doors down. Well, that sounds smart to me.

In our local dog
park, looking out for
other doggies.
(Click to view larger image.)So we took Jedda, who is not a Chihuahua, but a scruffy, wire haired terrier. I walk her often through our local dog park. When she meets any doggie bigger than her she tries to boss them around. There is the initial "I smell you, you smell me", then she puffs out her chest and attempts to stare down (up) the other doggie, and sometimes gives a bark and growl! Off the leash I have never seen her do this, which I think attests to that intellect of hers.

Patiently waiting for
us to finish a coffee and
continue the walk!
(Click to view larger image.)When I come home she is the first to greet me, barking and jumping and so outrageously happy that I cannot help but smile and play with her, no matter what sort of day I have had. She is 10 now, and deaf enough that I have to shout to be heard - so some days I have to search her out for that first greeting, which is nevertheless just as ebullient. Her sight is going too. Walking her at night, she does not bound out in front as much as she used to, and often stays so close to me that she is underfoot.

Whenever I am putting shoes or shorts on, suddenly she is there, sitting and looking at me with expectant eyes and tremulous tail, knowing the next step is to get the leash. I try and trick her by hiding the leash and holding out empty hands. She isn't fooled: she has worked out that if I am teasing her about it, I will end up walking her, irrespective of whether I have the leash in my hands. After each walk, she gets a Schmakos, and looks at me just as expectantly every time we get inside the house again.

Belly rub now?
(Click to view larger image.)Like most other dogs, she doesn't like to be bathed and will hide under the lounge room table when she hears me knocking around in the laundry. Once in the tub she is pliant enough, except that if I don't keep one hand on her at all times she will very deliberately shake water all over me! After a bath comes a long brushing, which she loves even more than walks. Each time the brush goes down her spine and touches that sweet spot on her back where her tail bone starts, Jedda shivers in such a way that I am rather jealous!

Oh, you want to take
more photos.. ok. *sigh*
(Click to view larger image.)I have had dogs around me most of my life, cats too. It is marvellous how different they are, and how each fits so perfectly into my life and family. Jedda is an endless source of boisterous joy, bringing laughter to us every time she wags her tail or rolls over to show her belly. My cat, Nebulous, on the other hand, is a much calmer source of contentment. Whenever I lie down on the couch, she curls up on my chest, purrs (and dribbles - she is 25!) and snoozes like a small furry massage device for the soul. Whenever I am not lying down she sits on the floor in front of me and miaows until I do!

I often wonder about Marie; how is she doing, does she miss Jedda - and I find myself wondering the same about Jedda. Does she remember Marie, and miss living with her? Once, while walking down the street with Jedda I passed an elderly lady with white hair and a very friendly face. Jedda jumped and ran up to her in a way I have never seen her do with any other stranger. I think she does remember Marie, and if that's a conceit on my part, I am glad for it. Because when I look into Jedda's eyes, I see someone looking back at me. My friend.

I dedicate this story to my Mum and Dad, who rescue Chihuahuas (and the occasional non Chihuahua). Find out more about them at the Chihuahua Rescue Victoria website.

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell
by Warren Ellis and Guice Jackson.
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: DC Comics (30 Jun 2006)
ISBN-10: 1401209440
ISBN-13: 978-1401209445

Find this on Amazon.

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell is a Justice League of America comic by Warren Ellis and Guice Jackson. It features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter. It also features some of the most stunning artwork I have ever found in a comic book.

Like I said, the artwork is amazing. There is a thoroughly realistic look to the human characters, and Lois in particular is striking: smoking hot facial expressions and exquisite depiction of her posture, even reclining on a couch. She is truly beautiful, and not in a smutty way. From the first few pages I was hooked on the treatment of Superman and Lois; more adult and serious - not dark per se, just "down to earth" (pun intended). However, Lois and Superman were the only characters I got this good feeling for, probably because none of the other characters had a "partner" of any sort to contrast with.

Secondly, I was pleased to find a decent level of science fiction in this comic. I readily admit that I am not well read in comics, so maybe this is a norm for super hero comics, but I don't think it is. Superman uses his super-vision to see his environment at a microscopic level; he discovers a weakness in the antagonist by analysing the wavelengths of visual signals. The Oracle at the Bat Cave uses a network of super-hero analysts to decode messages. Some of the sci-fi elements seemed natural to me, like Superman using his super vision to look at the microscopic world. Some elements seemed a bit dodgy, such as telepathic broadband! Does that mean there are some super heroes stuck on telepathic dial up??

A third element I enjoyed was the brief introduction to Lex Luthor as a hard hitting business man who had made himself president of America. I imagine he will be a serious antagonist in this role in future issues.

What I didn't enjoy so much was the overall story. It was too short. There wasn't enough of it to really suck me in, to involve me emotionally in what the characters were going through. Perhaps it is simply a reflection of the relative brevity of the comic. Maybe it needs to be "novel" length to get really serious with the story. Or perhaps Watchmen spoiled me; having read Watchmen recently, I secretly expect the same depth in every comic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this comic for the artwork and science fiction concepts used. I found the story deficient, but not so much that I regret buying the book. 4 out of 5.

Deep Red, Lala Salama, Cup and Table

A couple of brilliant stories I listened to recently.

Pseudopod 117: Deep Red, written by Floris M. Kleijne and read by Ben Phillips is a chilling horror story that reminded me a lot of Stephen King's Misery. Some might think it predictable or reliant on too great a co-incidence, but I was able to let myself go and really enjoy this story. The horror is chilling, and Kleijne does a very good job of building up the same feeling of creeping horror that movies like The Shining by Stanley Kubrick use. Ben Phillips' execution (so to speak) is flawless. He and Cheyenne Wright are my favourite horror narrators.

Another favourite horror short story I listened to recently is Pseudopod 118: Lala Salama, written by Gill Ainsworth and read by Heather Welliver. It features black magic. The ending was creepy, but somehow not shocking. It seemed to fit, to show that in the end, she realised the warnings she had been given were valid; the magic was black.

This has been done before of course, but I was ok with that. Gill Ainsworth portrayed the black magic very effectively, mixing dream scapes and time warps in a very imaginitive way.

But my favourite aspect of this story by far was Heather Welliver's reading. She made me feel for the character so much - her voice was perfectly pitched: so happy when she announced the new baby, even though I knew it was going to go wrong.

The next story could well have been in Pseudopod too. PodCastle 20: Cup and Table, written by Tim Pratt and read by Stephen Eley. It's an Arthurian tale, my favourite PodCastle of all time, and in my top 5 of any Escape Artist story. The pure fancy of it all is astounding. Tim Pratt captured the very essence of speculative fiction within a relatively modern day Earth setting in a way that pushed all the right buttons for me and brough to mind a few others in a similar modern day almost sword and sorcery vein: Pseudopod 045: Goon Job (by G.W. Thomas, read by Ben Phillips), Pseudopod 052: That Old Black Magic (by John R. Platt, read by George Hrab) and Pseudopod 77: Merlin�s Bane (by G.W. Thomas, read by Ben Phillips).

The Aurthurian roots of this story give it an edge of despair, added to the horror of what the main characters are actually trying to do. The Table appears as an ancient, venerable secret and shrinking society that has essentially come to ruins. Its ultimate purpose having been waylaid by the vicissitudes brought on by the need for making money and the disparate goals of the latest members of the group.

My favourite misquote of the day is from the character Carlsbad, with the line: "That's it then. Only the evil in YouTube is keeping me alive".

Brilliant!

This Weekend in Entertainment

The Deaths of Ian Stone was a promising but ultimately un-engaging horror movie. The initial premise is that Ian Stone keeps getting killed by some black spectral entity, and each time he wakes in another life, and I found this fascinating. It was what made me pick up the movie in the first place. However, the story becomes confusing as it tries to fill out a back-story for a race of spectral vampires that feed on fear - and it just didn't seem consistent. I wasn't engaged by the movie beyond the initial premise.


10,000 BC, a prehistoric normal man becomes a hero story that again looked promising - especially when I saw a preview of the special effects. But the story fell flat. I just didn't find myself caring about the characters. I stopped the DVD half way and looked this up on IMDB because I had a few questions in my mind... and found that pretty much every single detail of the movie was historically inaccurate. The metals, boats, mammoths, sabre tooth tigers, pyramids, and even the lands they crossed to get where they wanted to go.. all of these details were historically impossible for 10,000 B.C! I found it hard to suspend disbelief for this. Just like Gladiator or 300, some people might go away with this movie in the back their minds, informing just a little bit of their opinions on these times past. It is a little bug-bear of mine. :)

Street Kings with Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. This was biggest disappointment for me this weekend. I usually enjoy Forest Whitaker's acting, and always look forward to Keanu, but the story sucked and the script didn't give them a chance to do their jobs properly. It is a bad cop makes good story, but there were too many holes in the plot for me. From the start, I just wasn't buying Keanu as a veteran bad guy cop when contrasted against the other weasels in his team. The motivations didn't make sense. Reeves was a bit of a "one note" actor in this, playing the depressed guy all the way through. Forest Whitaker was too nice to be the evil guy he was meant to be. And Hugh Laurie (House) was the most disappointing. Little more than an extended bit part - they used his character to wrap up the ending in a way that really made no sense. How the writers seriously thought that the whole plot of the movie could be construed to be House's plan is beyond me. Worse, his character was just a shade of House - as though they said to him "do like you do in House, only boring it up a little".


I also saw One Man with Steve Berkoff on Saturday night with Dad at the National Theatre. I loved his one man play in two acts. The first was Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" and the second act a story of his own called "Dog" about a British soccer hooligan with a pit bull. He was brilliant, using mime to incredible effect to show both drama and comedy. I greatly admire the courage it takes to do a single person play - to maintain a dramatic monologue that succesfully draws the audience in and makes them forget the actor and focus on the characters - and this is just what Steve Berkoff did!

Men Martians and Machines

Men Martians and Machines (Classics of Modern Science Fiction Volume 1)
by Eric Frank Russell
Hardcover: 216 pages
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (February 1, 1984)
ISBN-10: 0517551853
ISBN-13: 978-0517551851

Find this on Amazon.

A fascinating read! Interesting how dated the writing is. There are tentacled Martians as first order heroes, but no female characters. The narrator doesn't seem to have his tongue in cheek when referring to the only black character as a Negro. Every planet they go to has a challenging range of flora and fauna which they un-failingly get to have a right old punch-up with! Radio is still an advanced technology, as is plate photography. Morality is explored often in terms of how the intrepid adventurer's exploration impacts upon the cultures they find, and on the differences between the aliens they encounter and the humans and Martians doing the exploring - yet in every encounter they still drop a few mini-nukes on the aliens in order to get away rather than finding some less violent solution.

This was originally published in the 50's in serialised form in an SF magazine, and this fascinates me most - wondering how it was accepted at the time. The irreverence of the narrator is refreshing to me, giving the story a comedic style that doesn't get in the way of drama and the more philosophical musings. The problem is that the drama and more philosophical musings aren't as effective as I wanted them to be - something about the way they reveled whenever they dropped a few mini-nukes just bothered me.

Two particular elements I was very fond Of: Jay, the seven foot tall predecessor to Data. And the Martians: tentacled, chess-loving, they can't stand the smell of humans and need a lower pressure atmosphere than we do. The Martians really made the story for me - and I would have liked more just for them.

A review of "Atatürk - The Rebirth of a Nation", by Patrick Kinross.

"Atatürk - The Rebirth of a Nation" by Patrick Kinross. First published in 1964, the current edition is available from Amazon at this URL: http://tinyurl.com/55qawk.

Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co (August 26, 1993)
ISBN-10: 0297813765
ISBN-13: 978-0297813767

I found this book to be a highly compassionate view of Atatürk's life.

Patrick Kinross’ narration is insightful and reads like a story; very different from a dry historical text presenting fact after fact. He draws a rich picture of the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in terms of the changing political, religious and social landscape of his country in the first quarter of the 20th century. Atatürk literally created the nation of Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire as World War 1 re-drew the political lines of Europe.

He gives the reader a very personal understanding of the intense sense of purpose and duty that drove Atatürk throughout his life, and also how it led to many contradictions in his life. Atatürk created a secular nation by first engendering the support of eminent religious authority figures, without telling them his aim was a secular nation. Atatürk wanted Turkey to become just like a “modern Western democratic republic”, but became a benign autocrat, leading a one party system where all representatives were hand picked by Atatürk.

Kinross begins with Atatürk’s birth in Salonika and traces his troubled early school years and enrolment into the Military Secondary School where Atatürk discovered himself as a soldier and was given the first name “Kemal”, meaning “perfection”. From his portrayal of Atatürk in his younger years, we are given to understand that Atatürk developed very early a fierce sense of dedication to a country he recognized as flawed and in need of change. He demonstrates an astounding prescience, has a sharp mind, a passion for rakı and debate, and an abiding abhorrence for what he saw as the role of religion in the decline of his country.

We follow Atatürk through the despairing times of World War 1, where Atatürk’s actions and leadership are nothing short of heroic. The insights he develops into the military and political situation of the time picks him out as a potential threat to his superiors, but also identify him as an invaluable commander. For many years he works in the background to develop a network of resistance against the self serving Ottoman authority. Instead of bringing about a change of government, he finds himself pushed to the side as several revolutionaries take the fore, become despots in their own right and are then torn down – such as Enver Pasha. “Enver Pasha killed Enver Bey” is a telling quote I remember.

Eventually the situation for Atatürk comes to a head when the allies of the First World War begin plans to dismantle Turkey and occupy the country. Atatürk, using all his skill and cunning as a diplomat, soldier and hero rallies a new line of defense that pushes the allies out of Turkey and forms a new government, the first Republic of Turkey.

I found some important subjects were left out or not given sufficient attention. There was only a passing reference to the swap of Greek and Turkish population in 1923. And although the Kurds’ role in the independence war was described in some detail and the conflicts between Armenians, Kurds, Greeks and Turks over land was much discussed, there was no evaluation of Atatürk’s attitude towards each group as a people or how this affected his actions.

At times, Kinross seemed too compassionate towards Atatürk, almost apologetic. The book made much of the contradictions within Atatürk, but rarely explored the darker side of his character. Instead, his actions were repeatedly explained or justified by his admirable sense of duty to his country. Nowhere was this clearer than in the portrayal of Atatürk’s involvement in the Independence Tribunals of 1927. These tribunals were brought in to punish the leaders of a Kurdish revolt, but were also used to summarily round up all of Atatürk’s political enemies at the time – including former friends and compatriots without whom the Republic of Turkey may never have come about.

I understand now, why there is still a deep reverence throughout Turkey for this politician and leader, Atatürk, who people still call the Father of Turkey. For he was truly the father of Turkey: he led a movement that completely and permanently changed the political and social face of the nation. Turkey changed from a caliphate to a republic, and that was just the beginning. After that, Atatürk gave the people a new language (yes, “gave” – he helped create it and personally taught it); laws were introduced changing the national costume; and women were made equal to men – all this in less than fifteen years!

I also understand that a major part of Atatürk’s legacy is the shock of such massive changes introduced in such an extremely short time – a shock that still resonates today. At least one of the multiple coup d'état in the latter half of the 20th century (after Atatürk’s death) were instituted by people who felt empowered to act by a sense of duty and revolution that Atatürk himself encouraged. The fact that religion lost its primacy under Atatürk also left his country with a deep and lingering conflict between religious and secular life that is at the forefront of Turkey’s political situation today. Much like present day Indonesia, religious parties have gained prominence and seek to re-assert religion as part of government.

I began reading this book on the plane trip home from my first holiday in Turkey to visit my partner's family. It took me six months to finish the book and has given me a much deeper connection with this beautiful country and the people I met.

If you are a student of history, or if you have ever visited Turkey and wanted to know “how”.. I highly recommend this book.