The Superior Species

After 4 years of living with us, our recalcitrant calico cat (criticized elsewhere in this blog) has developed a new trick. She has figured out how to roll the paper off the toilet paper roll in the bathroom.

Why this has just now occurred to her, I do not know. Personally, I never thought she was that smart. She was a rescued cat, who spent her first year in the company of 80 other cats in deplorable circumstances. For that, I have excused much of her uncivilized behavior.

She is not a cuddly cat. She doesn't particularly like to be touched, except on HER very specific terms. She will just as soon rake you as rub against your leg. She is vindictive -- if she doesn't get her way she will lie in wait, to pounce at you later, and heaven help you if you have bare feet.

But she is also one of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen. She is always elegant and clean. She does have some endearing traits, and she is otherwise fairly low maintenance.

Now about this toilet paper thing.

As a persnickety technical writer, I know that there is only one right way to hang a roll of toilet paper on the holder, and that is with the leading edge forward for greater usability. I have trained everyone in my household to restock the holder in the appropriate fashion.

I take exception, in principle, to having to hang the roll backward just to keep the cat from unrolling it. Actually, I tried it and she still managed to get it all unrolled. I'm quite astounded that she figured out she had to paw at it the OTHER way to accomplish this.

You have to know that a battle of wills ensued. Making use of my superior mental capacity (yes, I'm smarter than a cat) and my fortuitous possession of flexible digits and opposable thumbs, I discovered that all I had to do was squeeze the full roll so that the cardboard became an ellipse. This makes it much more difficult to roll the thing once it is on the holder. Difficult for a cat; doable for a human.

I think I win!

How Do You Think?

I've always been a bit of a contrary thinker. This is no revelation to any of you who know me. I look at things from a different angle, much of the time.

A friend was looking for a cooling device for his notebook computer. He searched the web, and found a number of options. There's one with fans in it on eBay. There's an aluminium rectangle with rubber feet that sits under the notebook and conducts heat away from the bottom of the computer. There's a ridged support stand that allows air to circulate under the notebook, and a thick wire artsy-shapey thing that looks like a glorified plate stand, but for your notebook. Prices ranged from $90 down to about $12.00.

It would be a good purchase. Apparently, overheating is a major notebook killer.

He finally decided on the aluminium plate because it was lightweight. Cost, about US$30.00.

Me, I would have gone with a 14" x 9" wire cake cooling rack, about $3.00 in the housewares aisle at Wal-Mart or Zellers.

Product idea: Put them in a fancy box and sell them as notebook coolers for $20.00 each.