Great horoscope today.

"Figuring out what makes you happy is tough, but figuring out what makes someone else happy is next to impossible -- and will drive you nuts. So put down this task and do something that is easier and more enjoyable."

For a trying-to-reform people-pleaser like me, that's hella good advice. Do people say "hella" anymore? I like that word. It works.

Kitty news

I found out why Dempsey stays away. Loki beats him up. All those bite wounds may not have been from mating incidents. Loki was fighting with him before the last one. Loki had been watching Dempsey fight with great interest over the last several months. I guess he was learning about fighting and figuring out Dempsey's weaknesses because he kicks butt now. Yeah, I shouldn't be surprised about a declawed cat becoming a bully. finickynarcane's cat is a declawed stray that adopted her. He was king of the neighborhood until she made him stay inside. I just hope Loki doesn't have the same bad luck of contracting FIV. That's a problem in a multi-cat household.

Lucky for girl kitty in the backyard that Loki loves girl cats. She's allowed to stay but he does supervise me with her to make sure she doesn't get too much attention. It's hard for me to slip out to feed her without him on my heels, yowing and making her growl. I'm allowed to pet her for less than a minute before he's running up yelling and demanding my attention. Loki is an attention whore.

She's getting to trust me more. At first, she tolerated my head scratches. I had to walk up to her to pet her. I was only allowed to pet the top of her head and the back of her neck or she'd growl. Then she started pushing her head into them. If I pet her whole length she growls. Last week I did that, she growled and looked like she wanted to sniff me after I apologized. She nipped my finger instead, setting a firm boundary. I set a boundary too, growling "No bite!" at her and leaving abruptly. The next couple of days she got very few scratches on the top of her head. Now she comes up to me wanting pets and allows me to scratch the sides of her face. I'm careful not to pet past her shoulders. She has issues of some type. I respect that. She is still awfully round. I don't think she's getting rounder. Maybe she was well-fed before she got lost or was dumped. Her fur is feeling much softer and she seems healthier.

It looks like Scampi does have skin cancer on her ears. The black crusty spots have reappeared. It's odd-looking, like freckles evenly spaced on the upper edges of both ears. One ear is black where the spots are but I can feel them. The other is orange so they show up. Her ears aren't all that big for her so she's going to look different if they trim them. We'll see.

Cactus is fine. Fat, sweet and sassy and fine. She's such a loving girl with Loki and Scampi. She usually slims down for summer. I think she's starting to feel her age because she's out playing with Loki at night but sleeps in the days and evenings when he's out romping. She's staying pudgy. I wish she'd try to stay with him to keep him out of trouble. He loves to run across the street to tease our elderly neighbor who has a beautiful Japanese garden in her front yard. She works in it a lot to maintain it. He runs over and she chases him off. He thinks it's great fun.][[ Speak of the devil. He just tried to walk across the keyboard. Now he's settled on my chest. Soon I'll need to hold him so I'd better stop trying to type now. Can't see! Cat in my face.