And They Called It Puppy Love

I’ve been very busy (here’s why) and have missed a lot of things I normally would be blogging about. However, this is too cute to let it pass unnoted:

Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat who has willingly adopted a six-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother.

The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, nurses alongside a jumble of black and gray kittens recently born to Satin, who was surrendered to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.

Charlie’s mother was found by the side of the road in Meriden a couple of months ago. She gave birth to two puppies, but one was stillborn. As sometimes happens with a stillborn in the litter, the mother dog refused to accept Charlie.

Volunteers bottle-fed him every two hours, but the effort was both exhausting to humans and insufficient for the puppy, who needs to feed when he wants, said volunteer Chris Chorney.

Research indicated that a suitable substitute could be Satin, who had given birth to four kittens that have quickly warmed to Charlie.

“The kittens scrum up with him and the kittens treat him like one of their own,” Chorney said.

Aaaaaw.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

Not Safe Even in San Francisco?

By way of new blogroll member Skippy, this bit of scary news from just up the road in San Francisco tonight:

Elie Wiesel, the renowned Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was attacked and dragged out of a San Francisco hotel elevator last week, possibly by a Holocaust denier who claims to have stalked Wiesel for weeks, police said.

Wiesel, 78, was at the Argent Hotel Feb. 1 for a conference on “Facing Violence: Justice, Religion and Conflict Resolution” when he was confronted in an elevator by a man insisting that he wanted to interview the author, according to San Francisco Police Department Sgt. Neville Gittens.

Wiesel said he would do so in the hotel lobby, but the man insisted on going to Wiesel’s room. The man then stopped the elevator at the sixth floor and tried to force Wiesel into a room there.

“That’s when the victim started yelling,” Gittens said.

Wiesel escaped unharmed, made his way down to the lobby and called police.

I’m relieved that Wiesel is safe, and disgusted that someone should try to use physical force on him. It’s bad enough that there are people who refuse to believe the Shoah happened. It’s even worse that these revolting examples of personhood are so wrapped up in their hate and lies that they think they can use physical force on the living reminders of the truth.

UPDATE 2/18/07:
A suspect has been arrested in this case:

Montgomery Township police arrested Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J., at 1:30 p.m. EST Saturday. He faces charges that include attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime, according to San Francisco police.

He was being held without bail in the Somerset County Jail in New Jersey, awaiting extradition to San Francisco.

Picking Sides and Horses

The ‘silly season,’ as Atrios likes to call it, has begun in earnest. One of my favorite bloggers, Shakespeare’s Sister, has been hired by the John Edwards campaign, and she’s not the only one. Undoubtedly other campaigns will start lining up to recruit other bloggers in the near future.

Although I’m pleased that Shakes got the gig, my happiness is not unalloyed with a little sadness. Although things are very nice and collegial around the left blogosphere so far, a day will inevitably come when the picture won’t be so pretty.

My crystal ball is too cloudy for me to see who will be involved or exactly what will cause it, but the time will come when loud accusations of backstabbing, lying, and bad faith will start to fly. People will choose sides, write long, passionate denouncements, pick fights in comment threads, bring out the sock puppets, and rearrange their blogrolls, all because they’re backing different candidates.

It will happen, and it will suck. Mark my words. I hope I’m proved wrong, but somehow, I doubt I will be.

As for me, it is way, way too early in the race for me to pick a horse. For one thing, so far, there doesn’t seem to be any significant difference between the various Democratic candidates in the field. Six months from now, maybe, the distinctions will be more obvious and I will be ready to make a choice.