*It's Not a Tuma!* and other upbeat news

Those of you who have seen Murphy in the last six months know that he's been toting around a little something extra. Called his sidecar, his friend, Mr. T, his copilot, his backpack, etc, he had what we took as a fatty tumor protruding off his left side. In the last month or so it had gotten as broad as his back and was really starting to encumber him (it never hurt him or really bothered him except when he misjudged his width or perhaps to slow him down a bit). The vets at Metro Paws didn't want to take it off because of 1) his age, and 2) how huge the incision would be be to get it all off. Anyway, Mom and Dad took him to Dr. Myers yesterday because it was finally getting SO big and had a couple new developments and they wanted a different set of eyes to look at it. Well, long story short, it ISN'T a fatty tumor, it is a cyst with a great deal of fluid accumulation (so all that mass wasn't dense fatty tissue) and Dr. Myers isn't concerned at all about negative side effects to him taking it off. So next Tuesday Murphy will lose his grapefruit-sized pal and we can all rejoice that he will be more comfortable and will no longer cause people to shriek in terror. Yay!

In other news, my cousin Katie spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights over here and we had a smashing time. We watched "Spirited Away," played video games, ate restaurant food, played Quiddler with Matt, went swimming, climbed the mulberry tree, dance dance revolted, and played Luke's Wii. It was really fun and I think we're doing it again after we get back from Colorado. I took a few pictures, as well as some house-related photos, and they are in the normal place.
I just finished reading my latest book today and it was really interesting. When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy examined emotion in animals and addressed how it is often considered the worst kind of science to make any mention of an animal having emotions. The fear of the accusation of anthropomorphism keeps many people who work with animals on a scientific level from ever talking about fear, love, grief, altruism, shame, or an appreciation of beauty by a non-human. But the book was full of accounts of just that both in nature and by animals in captivity. It was very interesting! Like the chimpanzees who climbed up a hill to watch a sunset, or the elephant to tried to free the baby rhino from mud, or gorillas with pet kittens.