On the horns of a dilemma

Random launched a serious attack on Nima Wednesday night. I was in the other room, when I heard the type of yowling that is consistent with a cat fight. I ran to where they were, and Random ran away. Nima was lying on her back perfectly still, and at first I thought that she had been seriously hurt. I talked to her, and she looked around and realized that Random was gone, and she ran and hid. Unfortunately Harlee was right above where Nima hid, and Nima was hissing and growling at her, so I had to coax Harlee out of the room. I checked Nima over and she seemed okay. She's bounced back, but for the first time in a long time, she shows no interest in leaving "her" room. (I've been separating her and Random.)

Clearly I can't trust the two of them alone together--ever. Random knows her and her scent, and most of the time, he gets along with her. However, Nima stares, and Random takes her stares as an indication that she's going to attack (which is furthest from her mind). Then he launches a preemptive attack.

I don't know what to do. It doesn't seem fair for Nima to have to stay her in her room whenever I'm gone until Random dies, which could be 5 years or more. However, she seems to have bonded strongly with me. Random is probably unadoptable: he's older, aggressive, and has a funny looking ear. (Besides, I've had him since he was a kitten, and giving him up for adoption would devastate him.) Nima is adoptable: she's young, cute, and affectionate. However, my mom said that I should keep trying to work with them because she doesn't think that I could handle giving up Nima. Giving her up would rip me up, true, but I'm not certain what is the right thing to do as a mom.

What a mess.

Random keeps trying to get it on with Harlee. (Got to wonder if something went wrong when he was neutered.) Harlee goes along with it for a while, and then starts biting him and pushing him off of her. I've been fascinated, watching the two of them. They seem strangely human: Random on top of Harlee, and Harlee tenderly licking Random's ear.

Body in motion

I'm in the process of booking my trip to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, which will take place around the end of May. I'm looking forward to it; I keep adding places to my list of places to see. I'm getting interested in travel writing, so I plan to write some practice articles about the area.

I also plan to take a lot of pictures. Photography has been an interest that I've had since I was a kid, but never really pursued it, so I bought an SLR camera (Minolta Maxxum 5). I'm planning to take an adult education class in photography this summer, and am considering taking a correspondence course from the New York Institute of Photography. I've also replaced my evil digital camera with a better one (Minolta Dimage F100).

I received my watch repair supplies and my practice watch. However, the practice watch is pretty, and it works, and I can't quite bring myself to dissect it. So I'm buying broken watches on eBay, figuring that I can't break them if they're already broken -;)

It's obvious that this is a transition period, but some interesting things are happening.