Cat rescues boy from dog attack

Catching up on the latest news today I saw the story of a cat rescuing his young master from a dog attack.  It had all been caught on CCTV from a house.  The child was a small boy of 4 years, he ambled along on his little bicycle at the front of the house.  When from around a car the dog looking like a taupe coloured Jack Russell breed trots up to the boy, shows interest in the boy's left leg and then immediately bites it and swings his head rapidly from side to side.  Then from the front of the house a cat similar in size to the dog bounds at speed and jumps at the dog. Although difficult to tell from the video I would think the cat (a tabby called Tara) had pounced with all claws out on the head or neck of the dog.  The dog released the boy and ran off, at which the cat also ran after the dog to see him off as well.  The boys mother ran out of the house and is seen on the video.  It is remarkable to watch the video, but it is also a reminder that even small dogs may attack children.  To the point you would be wary of being with any dog and child in close contact.  I grew up with dogs as a child and can think of one occasion where a over exuberant dog decided to bite my arse while running about in a garden. It was a sharp nip and hurt, my arse recovered from it, but it is a painful place to be bitten.  In this more serious case the boy had puncture wounds on his leg and had to receive stitches.  Both cat and boy are very brave. If you happen to be in California keep your eyes open for a tabby cat on the watch out and who is best friends to a boy.

I think there is something about tabby cats which makes them more loveable than other cats.  I think of Tigger my own cat who was the friendliest cat ever.  He was friendly to everyone and didn't mind just going up to strangers or children with his tail held high and then rubbing himself against them looking to be stroked.  He wasn't quite so keen on very small children but those who had grown up a little bit he treated just like anyone else.  Every morning when I had breakfast and opened the kitchen door there he would be and he would meow in a perfect cat hello sound. I'd say he really was trying to say hello exactly the way he heard it.  I have no doubt, cats are just as much friends to their owners as dogs can be and may even be a little smarter. Than both dogs or owners.

Don't jump out the window, become a broom stick maker

So taking a crafty break from the bedlam of the Fish Factory I sneaked a phone call to Sparkling Eyes, not just to tell her I love her and miss her, but to have a good moan about work in the Fish Factory. It is getting out of hand especially when you go to a meeting and enter the room then a little man jumps out with a tape measure to check the size of your anus.  This is always a bad sign for it means the last set of brooms they shoved up there are about to be renewed with another set.  All you can hope is the handles are not as wide as they were last time.  And of course it gives a chance to audition for a high pitched tenor vocal range at an Oprah House.  So I says to Sparkling I think I could just jump out the window with the amount of crap they are now piling on.  To which she replies "no you can't you have to get your Will sorted out first." Wonderful I would be better thought of as a rich dead dude than a poor overworked, stressed out alive dude. Of course she didn't mean anything by this comment, well, I hope not. I know she would rather be a full time GaGa to Princess J rather than be a hard working undervalued, underpaid stressed barmaid.  The two of us being stressed isn't a good combination, yet finding humour in it is.  For it seems every employer now days is out to get a few ounces over their pound of flesh?  Yes, is the answer.

Mind, there would be quite a mess if anyone fell out of the window, it's 4 stories or more from the ground, and the landing is on hard concrete.  No walking away, maybe this thought I have shows the need to mentally escape.  I sit there and wait to see if any of the other middle management fish are about to have a mental breakdown, the only person I think is close to it is me.  Then I carefully consider, these people don't give a shite about the broom sticks, in fact they stand around the corner making phone calls to Stationary asking if they need to get more broom sticks on order. Currently the world's supply of broom sticks is a booming industry.  A growth industry with lots of broom stick makers popping up all over the place. They are now more frequent than Pound shops in the high street.  Except these companies do their business behind closed doors and direct to employers.

It's odd, I mean, organizations have stress policies and they have Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) but this means nothing if those policies are not acted on.  Someone who may be on the edge of a breakdown is just left to see how they get on. They are left to see if they do actually break down. To see how much stress they can take. There are few if any Stress assessments, because being stressed out is like having  a mental illness and it is a marker of someone not being able to cope.  Employees don't like to admit they are having problems.  They don't want their cards marked. Then employers throw another spanner in the works and up the ante by bringing in more stringent sickness policies, or if they don't like to use the word sick they call them Attendance policies.  Gone are the days of saying exactly what you mean because this is a taboo subject.  Employees have got to show blood sweat and tears and be pushed and worn out like a part to an engine.  And then ultimately they say it is the employees own fault, because it is they way they view the world.

I wonder if broom stick makers have the same problems as these organizations which run a common practice of over working employees and getting as much unpaid overtime out of them as possible. If only we all got bonuses equal to the degree of stress we felt. I don't though whether these would be much good to those individuals who have been to hell and back. The ones who have stepped on a precipice and fallen. Only to land in a large dung heap, left appropriately under every open window.  Get up, shake yourself off and don't let the broom sticks change the way you walk down the road.  Just sweep your troubles under the carpet, and while your sweeping there could you just....

The end of one week and start of another

Ever since I started to read a book about improving memory, there has been a few times where I've  forgotten things and also how difficult it is to improve memory.  See my other blog on this topic http://whatsmemory.blogspot.co.uk/  but it doesn't stop me from trying. This afternoon I spent an hour and a half on the doorstep as I'd forgotten my front door keys.  Typical.  I rang up Sparkling Eyes to tell her about my predicament and she thought it funny.  It seems any inconvenient predicament I get myself into the funnier it is.  If only I could get this brain to work a bit faster and be more efficient. Hence reading a book on memory.  Years ago when I used to do a lot of running I considered myself an athlete, and now I am becoming a brain athlete, which fortunately doesn't mean spending so much time on the streets pounding the pavements. But I'm still pounding the pavements and fortunately now it is at a slower pace.

It's been good taking an extra day off from the Fish Factory.  Except I've actually done a seven day week so this is the eighth day and it's my day off.  This evening has been  a catch up session on the week's politics programs, my last post said I was going cold turkey, but it got broken after 16 hours.  Not too bad, but I got to try harder.  I really have no doubt in my mind I'm a TV addict, I need therapy, but where to they give you therapy for watching too much TV?  Tomorrow is Tuesday, which inevitably comes after Monday unless it was the end of the world. Take my word though the world will not end on Tuesday. Wednesday I can't be so sure about unless I'm in rehab with the other TV addict junkies.  They say humans use only a fraction of their brain, it's like the human brain has been made for some future event or circumstance I'm sure TV isn't it. If only I could remember my keys and keep the memory in some other part of my brain a bit where it obviously doesn't leak. 

Oh well, back to sitting on the steps.

TV addiction, what about a day of cold turkey

Too much of a good thing is bad, sometimes it might be what you want but not what you need. Too much of a good thing is an addiction, I'm an addict, a TV and internet addict. I can't get enough of it, I spend hours of my life watching TV series after TV series, it's usually Sci Fi based, but it doesn't have to be. It can be drama anything as long as there is amusement and fixation. I know it's not good but I can't help myself.  Episode after episode is watched and I could be doing something else with my time. Sometimes I will get captured by a book and then the book becomes my addiction. I can't put it down and just continuously read it at every opportunity, especially if it's good.  I joke to myself if it is a book then it is fine, a book includes some form of education.  At this moment though my TV habit is approaching out of control. I don't know what to do about it.  At the same time it is like it is not a recognised addiction. There is more to life than watching TV, being on a laptop, viewing video after video there is more to life than passively viewing.

So I plan to go cold turkey for a day starting from midnight tonight. The compulsion to switch on this computer will begin sometime in the middle of the day. However, if I take a nice long walk tomorrow then I shall not be in the house and have access to the box.  I don't know even if it will work, but I got to try. Perhaps even try again if it fails tomorrow.  A day without TV might be a day without air. But I've had so much air lately I got enough to last me a couple of months and not worry about it.  Lets see what happens.

The day will begin shortly.