Author: catsynth

Sad News: TeaCup

We just got the sad news, TeaCup passed away this evening.

At 9:12 tonite Dr. Duke called and said TeaCup was gone… Thank you to everyone who purred and prayed for my sweet baby. He isn't suffering now, but the pain is so great in my heart. TeaCup was special, and he will be missed dearly.

We've only briefly known TeaCup over the past two weeks or so, and he's gone just as we were getting to know him. It's a reminder to value the time with your friends and family. I'm certainly spending extra time with Luna right now.

You can leave your condolences for Megan and The Bad Kitty Cats here. We are also going to continue our CD offer to help support them.

UPDATE: A really lovely rememberance at the Cat Blogosphere by Sophia with a great poem and photo.




Teacup's race against time, and CD sales to benefit his family.

Our little friend Teacup isn't doing very well, and Megan says it's a race against time. He continues to receive surgeries to combat his gangrene infection, but now he has been diagnosed with the parasite Hemobartonekka Felis, which essentially destroys red blood cells. He received a blood transfusion, and now is attempting to recover from that in addition to his infection and surgeries. He is but a shadow of his former handsome self.

You can read more about Teacup's struggles, and the efforts being made to save him, and all the warm thoughts from other humans and cats being sent his way.

We also continue to send him our thoughts and hope he recovers. A sad truth, however, is that whatever happens, there will be huge vet bills for Megan and the rest of TeaCup's family. Several auctions are helping to raise money for his bills. You can find out more at the Cat Blogopshere, where you can also donate directly.

We are also going to donate all proceeds from CD sales during the month of May, so please do consider helping out if you enjoy both new music and animal companions. This will cover both direct sales and sales via CDBaby. Unfortunately, we cannot include digital download sales, it just is too complicated to manage. Click on the CD cover to the left for more info (I will update the page tonight with benefit info).






Mills College Musicology Professor Detained and Deported

The usually staid American Musicological Society is suddenly in the midst of an immigration and profiling case:

In August 2006, British citizen Dr. Nalini Ghuman was detained for 8 hours at San Francisco airport after returning from a month-long research visit to the UK. Professor Ghuman had previously held F1 student visas since September 1996 while earning a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been employed as an Assistant Professor of Music at Mills College since 2003, and was in possession of an H1B visa, issued in London, valid until 31 May 2008.

Instead of being allowed to return to her home in Oakland to start her fourth year at Mills, Dr. Ghuman had her visa revoked and was denied re-entry to the country where she has lived, studied, and worked for 10 years. A distinguished music graduate of Oxford University and of Kings College, London, Dr. Ghuman is completing her book focused on the influence of India on English music in the early twentieth century.

Mills College has an excellent program in new music, avant-guarde, electro-acoustic and otherwise. But I gather Dr. Ghuman's focus was much more traditional – she was a “classicial musicologist.”

The most plausible theory about this case is that we have yet another case of mistaken identity with someone on a security watch list. It's probably not a case of running afoul of some guard's taste in music, though we at CatSynth recommend that you say country music and hip-hop if they ask.

The site includes a sample letter that people can send to their representatives, and to Mills (which has been quite supportive of Dr. Ghuman and probably a bit bewildered by the whole case).




New Podcast: "Mission Accomplished (again)"

Some of you may have seen my parody of Bush's May 1, 2003 “Mission Accomplished” theatrics, and a few of you may have even gotten the joke.

In any case, I posted a version to YTMND complete with remixed clips from the speech. Tonight's podcast is an extended version of that speech remix. As always, click on the podcast icon to the right, or the “Podcast” item in the right-side menu, to subscribe.

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WCB100: TeaCup

A serious note to accompany Weekend Cat Blogging #100. TeaCup at “Bad Kitty Cats”, has been very ill. He suffered an unknown injury to his leg that became infected, and he has had several operations to remove the infected tissue. He has been very tired and weak, and is currently back in the hospital. We learned about TeaCup through Weekend Cat Blogging and we've been sending our thoughts to him and Megan, and hope other readers will do the same. Fellow WCB'ers Pet's Garden Blog are holding an art auction for TeaCup and Megan, and he is among the animals supported this week at the pet prayers and praise blog.

We at CatSynth hope that TeaCup gets well soon.






Weekend Cat Blogging #100: The Big One Hundred

Well, it's Weekend Cat Blogging #100. The honor of hosting this milestone goes to Puddy and Kate at A Byootiful Life.

Once again, we turn our attention to he world outside of Luna's window. Remember this photo of Luna staring at an outside cat?

Well, the cat is a frequent visitor to the yard. He's been living here longer than I have, and was roaming the neighborhood long before Luna was born. He's actually quite friendly, and handsome as well:

We don't know his name because he doesn't have a tag, but he seems very healthy and sociable, so he probably has a home. He enjoys cruising the tops of fences and finding comfy spots to chill out:

He almost looks like a wild cat in that photo.

Although I don't have a photo of this, I have caught him staring in at Luna a couple of times, with that same frozen slack-jawed look that all the tom cats in the neighborhood, seem to get. Remember this tuxedo visitor?

Luna has all the neighborhood boys looking. It's kinda fun getting to play the role of proud but protective dad for her…