dumb ass the cat

In pet related news, our cat's name is now Dumb Ass. It has got to be *the* stooopidest cat ever. It's scared of the dog that lives at Ae's house (their house is, like, 2 m from ours). This dog, Yi Li, is about the nicest dog ever. Anyways, it rarely barks and has only chased the cat once. So we are now forcing the cat outside. I mean, we have to throw it, heave it out the door and smash the screen door closed before it can barrel back in. Then, instead of lying around like a normal cat, it jumps onto a window screen, claws up the window, hefts itself onto the top of a wooden shutter, and drapes itself like a sloth over the shutter and then meowls into the window for hours on end.

Does its idiocy stop there?

Oh no, that would be too easy. If we try and get the cat to come down, by whistling, calling, beckoning, or even lifting, it screeches, and claws itself onto the shutter even harder. Dumb Ass. So we have a scratchy sloth for a house pet. Great. Fortunately it's very well house trained. Unfortunately since it lives up on the shutter, it will ONLY pee in its litter box, and will not stay long enough on the ground out in the yard to urinate. But we have faith and hope it will learn.

Ha.

In other fun news we went to the Russian embassy for their end-of-winter festival. Kind of silly in Laos. "Hey guys, it's finally over 28 degrees, it's not winter anymore! Break out the vodka!" Sure it all makes sense on the steppes. The compound was totally, completely surreal and bizarre. Out behind a Wat in the middle of a neighbourhood near our house, with these HUUUUGE Russian / Hanoi style buildings 5 - 7 storeys high. Freaky. We walked into the auditorium late where there were many very large Russian ladies dancing in strange, fluorescent "stage" costumes in the traditional style. However, the tasty crepes with sour cream and jam, and these little wee buns with dill and cabbage kind of made me feel better. [Laos-February-2001]