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cimoreneSnookums appears to have sprained or strained a hip, or slipped a disc, or given himself lumbago, in defense of Tristana's tiny honor (well, more like in revenge for offending and fighting with her, but definitely after the fact in each case). He has been quite vigorous in yelling at Anubis when given the opportunity in recent weeks and apparently TOO vigorous, because Sunday he got up from a long nap and announced abruptly "OW!" and then a sort of little thump, grumble as he stumbled, holding one of his back legs all stiffly. Losing sensation in the back legs can happen as a result of Very Bad Diabetes Stuff (diabetic neuropathy), so that was an emergency 8 am vet call and Wax had to take off to take him to the vet in the next town, but his symptoms are more in line with a rather sudden/acute pain situation. Or possibly arthritis that's been slowly accumulating, but if so, he still did something to set it off suddenly, so now he's got a week and more of pain medications and is getting fussed over and tucked in with microwavable wheat and rice cushions. Tristana is still a big fraidy cat. She and Anubis are both fine but both recovering from scratches on their faces.
Also I'm still completely flattened by January and without any executive function. Too tired to think about it. Too tired to meal plan. Too tired to figure out the requisite steps to go to bed early. You know.
The Mrs Bradley (Golden Age) mystery I finished recently had the hook that this guy is camping on a town common in the New Forest and comes back to his tent after dinner to find a corpse in it. So he freaks out and hikes away to call the police and by the time he gets back there with the police and they confirm the corpse-finding, it has been swapped out and is now a different corpse. So he tells the cop that and they don't believe him, but the next day his friend comes to join him for his week of vacation and his friend is like, "If we find the body they'd have to believe us, right? Let's go for a hike and maybe we'll find it," and when they go for a hike they almost immediately stumble upon the corpse and a friendly lumberjack is like "Hey, watch out for that corpse there! Had to move it, it was in the way of our tree!" ... I'm a connoisseur of setups or hooks in mysteries, and this is one of my favorites so far. However, in this case it is let down drastically by the rest of the book: the solution is that these corpses were members of a track and field club and were employed because they were cross-country runners to "spot" New Forest ponies for theft because the boss guy... get this... was in ESPIONAGE (1960s Britain, so presumably Soviet, or maybe Chinese) and had an elaborate system of STEALING the protected free-roaming New Forest ponies, clipping coded messages by the pattern of weird cuts in their manes and tails and then exporting state secrets in the format of... stolen protected pony hair, with pony attached. And the spotters had tried to blackmail the spy and been axed. The whole espionage angle is just casually dropped in Agatha Christie Scene style towards the end, not seeded throughought the plot or explained in any detail. (The book in question: Adders on the Heath by Gladys Mitchell, 1963.)
Also I'm still completely flattened by January and without any executive function. Too tired to think about it. Too tired to meal plan. Too tired to figure out the requisite steps to go to bed early. You know.
The Mrs Bradley (Golden Age) mystery I finished recently had the hook that this guy is camping on a town common in the New Forest and comes back to his tent after dinner to find a corpse in it. So he freaks out and hikes away to call the police and by the time he gets back there with the police and they confirm the corpse-finding, it has been swapped out and is now a different corpse. So he tells the cop that and they don't believe him, but the next day his friend comes to join him for his week of vacation and his friend is like, "If we find the body they'd have to believe us, right? Let's go for a hike and maybe we'll find it," and when they go for a hike they almost immediately stumble upon the corpse and a friendly lumberjack is like "Hey, watch out for that corpse there! Had to move it, it was in the way of our tree!" ... I'm a connoisseur of setups or hooks in mysteries, and this is one of my favorites so far. However, in this case it is let down drastically by the rest of the book: the solution is that these corpses were members of a track and field club and were employed because they were cross-country runners to "spot" New Forest ponies for theft because the boss guy... get this... was in ESPIONAGE (1960s Britain, so presumably Soviet, or maybe Chinese) and had an elaborate system of STEALING the protected free-roaming New Forest ponies, clipping coded messages by the pattern of weird cuts in their manes and tails and then exporting state secrets in the format of... stolen protected pony hair, with pony attached. And the spotters had tried to blackmail the spy and been axed. The whole espionage angle is just casually dropped in Agatha Christie Scene style towards the end, not seeded throughought the plot or explained in any detail. (The book in question: Adders on the Heath by Gladys Mitchell, 1963.)
(no subject)
Date: 26 Jan 2023 10:48 am (UTC)...by the time he gets back there with the police and they confirm the corpse-finding, it has been swapped out and is now a different corpse.
This by itself is fascinating.
(no subject)
Date: 26 Jan 2023 05:00 pm (UTC)