Days...

So, remember when I told you that Totsi the Dog had taken the kitten as her own, and was serving as his surrogate mommy/bodyguard/playmate? Their days revolve around mad dashes up and down the hall, around the living room, and back again. They'll play couch-based games of peek-a-boo for hours, and then retreat to their dishes in the early evening for their respective suppers, after which Totsi gives Jupiter a bath. (He smells a bit like dog food now, oddly enough.) When they're good and tuckered out, they have a nap curled up together - the kitten has actually used Totsi's tail as a pillow. We are having one small area of difficulty, though...

He's been trying to nurse from her. And true to form, Totsi proved a model of somewhat confused but highly tolerant patience, almost like she thought he would eventually figure out that what he was trying simply wasn't going to work. But that wasn't to be. Didgeridoo Boy said we should let nature take its course - sure enough, yesterday morning our dog began weaning her kitten in earnest. (Did you hear that strange pop? The lid just completely blew off our surreality meter.)

I can't come up with a graceful lead-in to describing his reaction, which has not been at all pretty. Jupiter Jones is *peeved*, and let Totsi know when she first refused his attempts by peeing all over her bed. Later in the day, after another thwarted attempt, he soiled it again - - but did so the other way. While they played together as well as always last night, once it came time for him to try to nurse and Totsi refused, he walked right up to her and slapped her right across the face. She turned her back, and he found a way to bite one of her front paws, and then took to gnawing on her tail. He clamped down on her ear so hard at one point that she jumped, and then tried to take a bite out of one of her back paws. Then, for good measure, he hauled off and slapped her in the face again. Totsi curled up very, very tightly to me (so much she started putting my arm to sleep), and for the most part hasn't left my side since.

Right now, Totsi and I are camped out in the bedroom with the door closed. Occasionally, she will go out into the rest of the house to play with Jupiter, but then she wants to come back here - and fast. Didge just popped into the room to try to get her to come back out, and she cocked her head to the side in that way that dogs do when they're telling you that you're crazy and need to consider other options. Jupiter Jones was on Didge's shoulder, and when informed he could not go to nurse on Totsi, attempted to jump into the (running) ceiling fan and bit Didge's thumb.

Is there any question as to why this has been on my mind all morning?