I did have the vet weigh Wuss when I picked him up. They'd weighed him a few days earlier and written 6.4 pounds on his chart. Six point four pounds and Wuss would not be walking. The second weighing was better, but he's lost half a pound in these last three months, from 8.3 to 7.8 pounds where he'd weighed over 10 pounds a year ago when we moved.

Not good. If he even looks down at the mouth I'm taking him in for a blood test, if he has any blood. Jesus, 7.8 pounds. I lose that in water every night just breathing. I hope he's not hiding any pain. I don't think so, but just thinking about it makes me wonder. He seems OK: bright eyed, bushy tailed, but the brown in his brown and black tabby color is looking more grey and he feels boney when I pet him. He keeps rubbing his head against hard objects on my desk, the pens in the coffee cup, the edge of the Wacom tablet, and he wants me to scratch him as often as he can get me to scratch him before he finally settles down in front of my keyboard as he is now, purring. No fleas. He doesn't scratch, but he's fidgety and he hasn't eaten very much this evening.

We'll see. I wonder how traumatic being boarded is for a cat. My cousin Vickie arranges her flight schedules so she's never gone more than three days at a time. She will not board her cats. One minute you're in familiar surroundings, the next minute you're in a strange place filled with carnivorous animals and your owner is ducking out the door in a hurry with a hasty wave goodbye. How am I going to handle this two week vacation coming up over Thanksgiving? Maybe I'm not.

I wrote the above yesterday. Wuss is looking better. I ordered some film and a lens shade to replace the one I'd broken (Broken lens shade, $16.95 from B&H Photo, f 2.8 Nikkor zoom, which was saved by the lens shade, about $600 from B&H Photo. Whoop!) and they arrived today around noon. I always order film shipped overnight, particularly if any of it needs refrigeration. Most of the professional color film is designed to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer. They age it in batches and release it to the market when it reaches a certain color balance. Refrigeration keeps that color balance from shifting as quickly as it would at room temperature. Even with the shipping you save a bunch on the price, $2.59 for a roll of Kodak 36 exposure black and white, for example, when locally it will sell for a dollar or so more. Adds up if you order it by the hundred. The day to day musings of an amateur photographer. The excitement, the excitement!