I was able to post a comment a few minutes ago, and some new spam has also gotten through.
So it appears that the error that had been blocking new comments much of the day has been fixed.
Thanks to the support techs at Hostrocket.
5:30 p.m., Hawaiian Standard Time
After a bit of a morning delay, here’s a somewhat abbreviated batch of Friday Felines, beginning with Mr. Duke.
This was his first night back after two nights in the kitty slammer, also known as the our vet’s place (VCA in Kaneohe). He was happy to be home, anxious to check to be sure his favorite spots were still here, and then ready to find a comfortable spot and settle down.
So just click on his photo for the rest of the week’s cats.
Feline Friday is coming, but not until later in the day. With Meda out of town, and the combination of new cat responsibilities as well as a new schedule, things are out of whack.
The new schedule revolves around the 12-hour insulin cycle. We’re aiming Duke at daily 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. shots. They’re supposed to be given after he eats. Problem: Morning feeding time had previously been about 5 a.m.
So what I do now is get up and put out a small snack for the cats, just enough to take the edge off their morning appetite. Then I make them wait until about 7 a.m.
Then Duke gets a nice dish of canned special low carb food. The other cats get their dry kibbles. By 7:30, I’m ready for Duke’s shot and all the cats have been fed.
After my first fumbling attempt at giving Duke’s insulin shot at home without assistance, I went online and found some good advice. My problem was that Duke didn’t want me to hold him in place long enough to find a good bit of skin and give the shot. I don’t think he minded the shot. He minded the constraint.
The advice was to make it part of a new grooming ritual. So I did. Now, after morning and evening meals, and at least once time in between, I put Duke on our bed, sit next to him, and give him a good brushing. While I’m brushing, I scratch the side of his face or his chin with the plastic parts of a syringe, so he isn’t afraid when seeing one coming towards him. I also ruffle his fur and pinch a bit of skin while I’m brushing, similar to what I have to do to give the shot. All the while, the brush is going, and he’s loving it.
Then, at least in the post-feeding sessions, I exchange syringe for brush, pull the protective plastic cover off of the needle with my teeth, and quickly give him the shot, then resume brushing for another minute. I’ve managed this successfully three times in row, and I’m going for #4 in a minute or two.
When Meda gets back, it might not be so necessary, but it still seems like a good idea to associate the shots with the pleasure of a good grooming.
All that an extended excuse for why I’m behind on today’s Friday Felines. I apologize to those of you waiting for your weekly pick-me-up.
Last night’s Island Insights on PBS Hawaii featured a good discussion of the current campaign season.
Richard Borreca, political reporter for the Star-Advertiser and now perhaps the senior political writer among the current crop of reporters, had a couple of very good points that I jotted down.
Republicans have fielded candidates in almost every race, and, according to Richard, they say that nearly all of their new candidates are “faith based.”
That’s a bit of information that I imagine will scare you or inspire you, depending on your assessment of the political views of the communities of faith.
Then came Richard’s comment about Governor Linda Lingle. It was something close to this: “I’ve never seen a governor who was as accessible as Lingle who I learned as little from.”
He described Lingle’s technique of sloughing off questions, sidestepping with strategic “I don’t know” ploys.
It’s interesting to see how much media relations and techniques of influencing news coverage have changed since statehood. Now it’s all control by information gatekeepers, rigidly defined political messages, staying on point, holding information tight.
By coincidence, this week I heard from Paul Dommel, who was a reporter for UPI in Washington before joining the Star-Bulletin as a political reporter in the early 1960s, covering the legislature and politics in general. During the 1962 campaign, he was close to the campaigns of Dan Inouye and Tom Gill.
After Gill’s election to a term in Congress, Dommel served as his administrative assistant in Washington, comparable to today’s chief of staff.
He wrote:
I must tell you it was an interesting time to be a reporter in Hawaii.
Not to bore you, but a story I keep telling is that I was only in Hawaii for about two weeks when I got invited to play poker with Governor Quinn at Washington Place. The game also included Brian Casey and Jack Teehan who were political reporters for the Advertiser.
Where else but in Hawaii would a new arrival get to play poker with the Governor.
Quinn, of course, was the last Republican governor until Lingle’s two terms. It’s hard to think of a starker contrast between their contrasting approaches to the press. With the passage of time, the game has totally changed.
And I wonder whether today’s editors would allow political reporters to “pal around” with the governor in this way? What do you think?
You might also want to check out Dommel’s new blog, Liberal Dog (charley-liberaldog.blogspot.com), for some very good writing on current political issues.