Baseballs and kittens...

So was anyone else more excited about Arod’s 500th home run than they were about Barry Bonds 756th? I was rather peeved by the fact that the Yankee game was blacked out on Saturday (apparently Fox has a monopoly on baseball every Saturday – so unless the Yankees happen to be playing the Rangers or the Astros, we never get to see the game) – and of course that’s when Arod decided to break his long stretch of homerunlessness (yeah, that’s right – homerunlessness. It’s a legitimate word. A legitimate word I just made up.). So I had to watch the replay on MLB.com later in the day. It made me think of how much I miss going to Yankee games…

But when I heard that Barry Bonds finally hit number 756, I was overcome with a case of “I don’t really care that much.” I was, however, interested in the crazy melee that ensued immediately after the hit. You’d think that ball was encrusted with rubies and emeralds, or stuffed with endless wads of money. Although I suppose it will be WORTH quite a lot of money, so maybe a plain old baseball that happens to be someone’s 756th homerun is exactly the same as a money-filled baseball that happens to be someone’s, say, 127th homerun. The reaction of the crowd was just insane – I mean, once the ball had landed where fate decided it would land, and the people from two or three rows in all directions had formed an impenetrable mass of humanity, there were STILL baseball-seekers throwing themselves on top of the crowd – as if the person with the ball on the bottom of the pile would eventually emerge and toss his prize into the air once again. People seemed unwilling to accept the fact that if they happened to be ten or twelve rows away from where the ball landed, they were NOT going to be lucky enough to leave that stadium with it. These tenacious (or perhaps simply idiotic) fans were crawling around like ants on top of a dirt pile. It was ridiculous. I was watching the TV and thinking, “dude, just give up already… someone else has it… accept it and move on…”

But I absolutely LOVE that the guy who ended up with the ball is from Queens. Leave it to a New Yorker to determinedly fight their way through a sardine-packed crowd of people and reappear battered but victorious. Did anyone really think a San Franciscan would end up with that ball? C’mon – San Francisco? Peace, love, hippies, rainbows, hybrid cars, environmental responsibility? Yeah, right. New York rules. (Hey, don’t get me wrong – I love San Francisco. It has great chocolate. It’s just… not New York. :))

Well, on a totally different subject… we may have a new addition to our little family – one of the many “outside cats” from mom and dad’s backyard. Mom has decided she will never again feed a stray cat, because they have an uncanny way of multiplying rather rapidly. What began as one homeless cat on the back porch eventually turned into a couple of kittens, which eventually turned into a few more kittens. Right now, there’s a Mom Cat who has pretty much made mom and dad’s backyard her home, and she had four kittens a few months ago. One of them eventually disappeared (snatched away by a hawk? Or a snapping turtle? There are all sorts of critters wandering around that backyard…) but the other three have been happily romping around the backyard for the last few months. And while all three of them are cute, Rick particularly liked one that looked like one of his parents’ cats – a whitish, brownish cat with blue eyes named Simon. So my mom started calling the little kitten Simon/Simone (since we weren’t certain whether it was a boy cat or a girl cat…), and yesterday, she was able to catch it and carry it off to the vet. Turns out it was a Simone. And after the vet, mom brought her over here, and we’re going to see if we can integrate the new kitten into the rest of the brood.

But since Rick and I have this sort of “musical” theme happening with Echo and Allegro, we’re thinking of naming the new kitten “Dolce,” which means “soft and sweet.” So far, “Dolce” seems to fit her quite nicely – she has been sweetly sequestered underneath one of the futons in our extra room, probably traumatized not only by her vet visit, but also by her brand new surroundings. And she has a very soft little meow, which I hear every so often when I stoop down to check on her. So right now, Dolce does seem to have a “soft and sweet” temperament. Of course, who knows how she’ll be acting once she gets used to things and meets the resident dog and cat. We may end up changing her name to Fortissimo eventually (“very loud,” for those not familiar with the term… :)).

Anyway, once she gets to be a bit braver and starts to venture out from under her protective futon, I’ll take some pictures and post them. I’m a bit worried about the new cat’s introduction to the old cat – will Allegro be okay with this curious little interloper? I’m actually not worried at all about Echo – Echo isn’t a bit bothered by new cats or dogs, as is evident when she stays with mom and dad or with Rick’s parents. But Allegro is used to being the one and only cat. The queen of the house, or so she thinks. I guess we’ll see what happens…