Good Bye, Mr Kitty

It is with sadness and a sense of loss that I sit Between Keyboard and Chair writing these words. I feel as if I've lost a good friend.

Mr Kitty

Mr Kitty was a cat. He wasn't my cat. He was a neighbour's cat. Or more accurately, he was the neighbourhood's cat.

Mr Kitty came into our lives when his owner, Frank, rescued him when his mother had abandoned him. Frank fed the kitten from an eyedropper every few hours and Mr Kitty survived to become a beloved character amongst most of the neighbours.

The young Mr Kitty

The Alpha Cat

Mr Kitty was neutered and de-clawed but he was very much the Alpha Cat at our end of Ariel Court. Other cats knew to keep their distance when Mr Kitty was making the rounds of his domain and if they didn't show the proper respect they were quickly brought into line. He certainly knew how to use his teeth and his back claws.

The Food Circuit

Mr Kitty knew exactly where to go on the Court to get fed. He made his rounds to all the accommodating houses every day. At 5:00 AM he would be on our kitchen window sill waiting for his breakfast. He'd return a few times a day for a snack. If you didn't notice him or didn't pay attention to him he'd stand on his back legs and paw against the screen until you fed him. Anytime our van turned onto the Court, we'd likely see Mr Kitty making a beeline for our doorstep to greet us. At those times he likely wasn't hungry, he was just dropping by to get his head scratched.

King of the Court

When it came to petting him, you had to show the proper respect. If he felt you were getting too familiar he'd quickly warn you with a little nip on the fingers. After all he was the King of The Court. He was quite picky about his friends. If you were his friend, he'd rub up against your legs and let you pet him lightly. If you weren't his friend, then beware. He wasn't adverse to giving you a little nip just to show you your position in the pecking order.

A Fatal Weakness

Mr Kitty had a fatal weakness. He wasn't afraid of cars. He would sleep on, in or under vehicles. If you left a car window open you would likely find Mr Kitty sleeping in the car. If he was lying on the hood or roof, he wouldn't move even when you started the vehicle. He once spent two days locked in the trunk of a car because he had crawled in and gone to sleep. He was found when the owner took the car to a garage for maintenance. That attitude can be deadly and unfortunately, fate caught up with Mr. Kitty a week ago. He was lying under a vehicle and was accidentally run over. His injuries were too severe and he had to be euthanized the following day.

Mr Kitty on April 23, 2010

During the years Mr Kitty was with us, he became a habit for us. First thing in the morning we'd put cat food out on the window sill for him. If we saw him coming across the walk between the houses we'd go to the door to greet him. He certainly had trained his subjects well over the years and we all had learned to show him the proper respect for one in his position.

Bless you Mr Kitty. You are sorely missed.

At least that's how I see it from Between Keyboard and Chair.

Don

Plurk And Me

Back in September of 2008 I wrote a guest blog on a website that has since changed it's focus. After a bit of creative searching I managed to track down the article and have brought it home to Between Keyboard And Chair. So after some minor changes and with no further ado here is Plurk And Me

I assume if you’re reading this article you may already know about Plurk. If not, there are plenty of other articles online that will explain Plurk. As for the “me” in the title, I’m a 67 year old, retired Public Servant, Linux advocate, computer aficionado, avid Internet user, social networking junkie, photographer and musician (see Grateful We're Not Dead) - all of which I engage in with varying degrees of success. But the only thing I intend to talk about today is social networking: Plurk and me.

I originally became involved with computers in 1978 when I purchased a Commodore PET 2001. By the early 1980s I had my first exposure to what could be called “early social networking” via Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and I actually ran a BBS out of my home for a number of years. By the early-90s Internet access had become available at home and I started using email and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to communicate with people.

Then along came ICQ in the mid-90s and I started to connect with people world wide. I used various Instant Messaging Services until 2007 when I was introduced to the social networking / micro-blogging service, Twitter, during Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge. I started using Twitter on a regular basis meeting more and more people around the globe. One of these, Allan Cockerill, a friend in Australia, introduced me to Plurk in June 2008.

Once I saw Plurk’s horizontal, scrollable timeline of time stamped messages (Plurks) along with the drop-down window containing all responses to the Plurk, I was hooked.

Plurk has become my main means of communicating within the social networking milieu mainly because of the ease with which I can track ongoing conversations (Plurks and responses). I quickly came to realize that Twitter was good for making announcement but Plurk had put the “social” back in social networking. I build my network of connections (friends) by checking the timelines of those who have responded to a Plurk, if I have not encountered them before. If the content of their timeline looks interesting I will either add them as a friend (once they have agreed to the request) or simply follow their Plurks. And in turn, I receive friendship requests from Plurkers who have come across me in a similar manner.

The one thing I find within Plurk is a sense of community that quickly builds up amongst the users. You can quickly become emotionally involved with the successes and failures, the joy and the sorrow of these on-line friends. If they disappear for a number of days you begin to worry about them and make inquiries of common friends. If they have a birthday, get a new job, have a baby, get married, etc., you celebrate with them. If they feel down you try to raise their spirits. As in any relationship, occasionally there are disagreements and arguments but as in most friendships these are usually resolved in an amicable manner.

As my group of friends has grown it has become virtually impossible to respond to every Plurk that appears on my timeline. However, there is a core group that I normally converse with, however briefly, each day. I then scan the timeline looking for interesting Plurks for which I may have a response. After that, I must confess, the remainder get MAAR’ed (Mark All As Read). But I do try to respond to every active friend at least once or twice a week.

Will I continue to use Plurk in the foreseeable future? I believe so, simply because of the emotional connections that have developed in this community of users. These are people I would miss if I didn’t hear from them occasionally. These “digital world” friends do not replace those in my “analogue world” but strongly supplement them.

I imagine I’ll continue to build my network of friends and acquaintances for quite awhile to come. And hopefully, if you’re interested, I’ll meet you in Plurk as well.

And if you want to link up with me on Plurk you'l find me at http://www.plurk.com/user/donwhite