kareina

 My thesis supervisor has finally had a chance to sit down and look at my thesis, and has been making comments. She asked me to wait and not act on them yet, as her work flow tends to be comment, then if she sees something later that might change the previous comment she goes back up and changes it. So now I wait till she's done for the day, which probably means I will go to sleep and check in the morning, but it does give me an excuse to check in here.

It turns out my situation is more complicated than I thought, and we don't really know where I am or what my deadline is. When she and I first discussed downgrading my degree from a PhD to a Master's due to not having funding to continue she suggested Durham's "MPhil: two years of full-time or four years of part-time research and writing, plus six months of continuation writing up time where needed, producing a dissertation of up to 60,000 words.", and I agreed that it sounded reasonable.

Much later, when I was working on the thesis document and adding things like the title page I wrote on the page "Submitted in qualification for Master of Science" (which is the degree I got from UAF when I did my Master's in Geology).  This prompted her to say "wait, aren't you doing the MPhil?", to which I replied "oops", and she suggested that I log in to the Uni and see what I am currently enrolled as.  It was good that we checked, as there it says "QUALIFICATION AIM: Master of Arts (By Thesis)".

So we asked A., the person in charge of this sort of admin work for the department, and she confirms that she changed my degree to the "MA or MSc by Research: one year of full-time or two years of part-time research and writing, plus up to six months of continuation writing up time, producing a dissertation of up to 50,000 words", as that is what she was told to do.

I haven't gone looking for the email trail to see if that is what we actually asked her to do, and it doesn't really matter, since I am already at approximately four years part time research, which means I am way over the time limit for the degree she changed me to, and seriously pushing the limits of the one we thought she was changing me to (it all depends on how one counts the time--I have a spreadsheet which lists when I was enrolled, and when I have been suspended, counts up the days for each, and converts days to years, by which count I am at 4.2 years. However, those totals don't subtract the time that I would have been on vacation between uni terms, which, assuming that it is appropriate to do so, may drop me down to "nearly 4 years" (depending on how many days a year count as vacation at Durham, and if I can subtract that many even if they fell under times I was suspended, neither of which I know).

However, she was kind enough to reply to my message tonight, even though it is well outside of business hours in her time zone (and even more so in mine), saying that she is waiting to hear back from the Academic office and from my supervisor, and we will get this sorted out.

Apparently, my supervisor had never replied to A.'s question of if my suggested thesis deadline was appropriate, and A (and the academic office), are waiting for that information, so I may not have the deadline of 24 November looming over my head--it might wind up being some other date (my supervisor suggested 15 December in one of her messages tonight, which, given the number of comments she is still making (I just checked the document on OneDrive, she's still busy), is probably a more realistic goal).
 

So, right now, I have a boatload of work to do, towards a degree of unknown level, with an uncertain deadline looming. Luckily, I do ok with uncertainty, though as I told them both, I really need to be done this winter, as it is time for me to find an income again.

In other news, one of our cats, Kalika, loves treats so much that tonight Keldor decided to see if she would do acroyoga for treats.  So as I lay on the floor, legs upraised, feet forming a platform, he picked her up, stood her on my feet, and offered her treats. At first she was very much a "what? time to hop to the floor", but with another offer of treats, and picking her up again, she stayed there, and ate treats off my foot for a bit, even after he took his hands completely away. Perhaps on another occasion he will see if it is possible to get a photo.

Our poor kittens have been bathed in special shampoo tonight in prep for their first visit to the vet, to get their vaccines and chips installed and their reproductive organs uninstalled. They both took the bathing calmly, and no one was hurt in the process, but they clearly didn't like it and continue to look unhappy, and pitiful with their wet fur.

When I was little I really wanted a cat, but mom said "no, they belong in the barn" (we didn't have a barn). When I moved away from mom's house the first time my Viscount got me a cat, because I wanted one (and one of his other girlfriends had a cat who had had kittens, and one of the kittens charmed him). He was a dog person, but since he had bonded with that cat, and I knew that I loved all cats, when I moved out, he got custody.

The next house I lived in, with my SCA parents, had cats, but since moving from there (in 1990) I haven't shared my home with any animals, and contented myself with petting other people's cats and then enjoying going home to a house with no fur everywhere, and no litter box.

Now, as I sit here, and try to type, with a cat snuggled up between my arms, encouraging me to pause typing often for the giving of neck scritches, I am pretty happy we brought them home. However, I do miss living in a home that didn't need a litter box!
( cut for more info on litter box use than you may want to read )

I have always been a cat person (which one might guess from my coat of arms/profile pic), but I have very rarely lived with one. When I was little we wanted a cat, but mom, who was raised on a farm, always replied "cats belong in the barn", and it never happened. When I was 18 my Viscount and I moved to Atenveldt, and we got a kitten that winter. Tabatha was a half Persian, half tabby sweetheart, which Donnan brought home because I wanted a cat (he was a dog person). However, he bonded with Tabatha, so when I moved back to Alaska a year and a half later he kept the cat, who lived to a ripe old age (for a cat).

That first year I was back in Alaska I lived with my SCA parents, who had a cat, but since 1997 I have never lived with a cat. Until yesterday.

Keldor, on the other hand, has lived with cats for the past 30 years, until we moved into this house last December. We both knew that we wanted to get a cat, but not when the house was still so full of the previous owner's stuff, much of which was probably dangerous to cats. Even after we got the upstairs reasonably cleaned out we knew that we shouldn't get a cat yet, as we were about to head to Norway for a month of summer job. After getting back from Norway I had some weeks I was working in Luleå, and we had a fair number of SCA events we were attending. On Friday, when I got home from my most recent week in Luleå, and realised that I have seven weeks before I go back for another week we discussed the fact that, if we were to get a cat, now might be a good time. But I didn't think we actually would.

Never mind that we were browsing Blocket (Swedish second-hand marketplace and a popular place to list pets needing a new home) Friday night, looking at photos of cute cats. Saturday morning, we slept in, and once we woke up somehow Blocket was opened again. Before even getting out of bed we sent one note asking if one little darling was still available, but that one had been claimed. Then Keldor saw some photos of some lovely long-haired cats which are mostly black, with chocolate brown tips to the fur, making a wonderful rich colour, so he sent a message. Meanwhile I also sent a message, to people with a beautiful five-month-old Persian/Ragdoll/Norwegian Forest Cat blend that they'd recently adopted, intending it to be long term, but now they are moving out of country and can't take her with them.

Over breakfast, as we were planning the day, he got a reply from the chocolate black cat person, who lives 1.5 hours southwest of here, in Vindeln. Change of plans, go meet her kittens. The three she'd posted photos of were already ready to go to new homes, since they are 10 weeks old. We saw two of them, one who was already claimed, and Frodo (who has an awesome name!), a short haired black cat. However, she also had two litters of smaller kittens, and they were super adorable. She handed us a cat-fishing rod, with feathers on the end of the string, and we spend time playing with an impossible to count number of small balls of fluff. One, short haired black one decided that my toes were the best thing ever, and spent quite a while holding them, and gnawing on them so gently that it didn't even tickle. One, a medium-long haired black one, was bold enough that when Keldor picked her up she sat happily in his hands:


Two of her brothers were impossibly cute, with their extra long black hair, tipped with chocolate brown, giving them the effect of glowing in their blackness. However, neither of them had any interest in coming into reach of our hands, and on the rare occasion they accidently did, if we touched them (or tried to), they scampered back out of reach, and waited for another chance to attack the feathers. Beauty alone isn’t enough, and a cat that doesn’t want to cuddle isn’t so appealing, so those two can await some other people. But the little darling who sits in hands, and happily stays inside Keldor’s over-shirt when tucked here, she can follow us home. In two weeks, when she is a old enough to be able to leave her mother, her siblings, and all of her cousins from the other litters (15 cats total in that house just now).

So, we paid a deposit (500 kr of the 1500 total asking price) and started home again, stopping first at the pretty Vindeln rapids to admire the view, and get a selfie.

As we drove, I got a reply from the person looking for a new home for her cat before leaving the country—yes, the cat is still looking for a home. So, I replied saying that we had just agreed to take home a kitten in two weeks, but it is often a good idea for a cat to have another feline companion at home, so can we come look at her cat? We thought she was in Skellefteå, so I told her that we were on our way from Vindeln to Lövånger, and she could call us at (number) and we’d change direction to her, if the timing suits. Shortly after we drove through Burträsk she called, and said that she lives in Burträsk, and yes, please come over. She is sick, but her boyfriend can show us the cat.

So we turned around, and 20 minutes later met a beautiful, graceful, poised young cat that they called Kelly:



She cuddled from first meeting, and won our hearts in an instant, yes, of course she can come home with us. So, we paid 1500 kr and took the cat, her cat travel crate (with blanket), her litter box (and a box of fresh litter), food, and a couple of cat toys. As we drove, we discussed her name. Kelly didn’t sound quite right to us, and we wondered what we should call her. Keldor mentioned Kali, and, since I don’t know much of that goddess, I looked up her Wikipedia page. One of the alternate names given was Kalika, which I thought was a pretty spelling and a nice sound, and can be shortened to Kali if one wants, and is similar enough to Kelly that, if she knows her name, she can probably cope with the change.

Forty-five minutes later we were home, and she promptly set to exploring all of the first floor of the house (the plan is to always keep the doors to the attic and basement closed—the basement still has stuff that isn’t safe for cats, and the attic has those side bits insulated with exposed sawdust—in other words, a giant cat box. Nope. Just nope). If she was at all disturbed by the change, she was much too busy to communicate that part—it was all explore, all the time, returning now and then to check on us for a split second, before hurrying off to sniff the next thing.

She paid us a bit more attention when we did yoga (what are you doing?), but when we went to bed she was still much too busy investigating all the things to do more than swing by to look that we were, in fact, under those covers, before hurrying off. However, when I got up at 03:00 to go to the loo, after I returned to bed I decided that it was much too hot under the heavy feather blanket, and threw it off and snuggled back up to Keldor under just the sheet. A short time later, just before I fell asleep, I felt Kalika snuggle up to the side of my leg, and I happily fell asleep. When the dawn light became bright enough to wake me, at 05:00, she was still there, and when she heard us speaking she came up to say hello.

We got up, dressed, and put out some fresh food for her, of which she ate a tiny portion, and then I walked him out to the car for goodbye kisses before calling him for the half hour phone call as he drives to work (as we always do). Kalika was playful, so we played a bit, and then I was hungry and sat to the computer and tried to accomplish things. She gave me perhaps a half an hour after I had finished eating before she declared that now is the time to cuddle, and I, of course, obeyed her and spent a delightful half an hour or so petting her silky softness before she decided that I could resume computer stuff.

I think I will like living with a cat, and hope that they get along well when the next arrives. Luckily, we have Kalika’s cat travel crate and blanket, which we will take when we go get the kitten, so she will have the whole 1.5 hour drive to get used to Kalika’s smell. Given that she has lived with so many other cats, I suspect that she won’t have any troubles adapting to Kalika. Hopefully this will make it easy for Kalika to adapt to her.

We mentioned on FB that we are accepting name suggestions for the black kitten, and so far have had plenty of good ones, and plenty of terrible ones, too. If you wish to participate in the suggestion frenzy, feel free to leave a comment!

Edited to add: oh, yah! On the way to visit the Kittens, we did a spur of the moment stop at a second hand store, which yielded lots of loot. Kalika approves of (at least) some of it:

(British Library, Stowe MS 17, Folio 34r)