Tamanya update

Tamanya’s babysitter writes:

“She is more than wonderful and you have to hurry back as I started to love her more. She plays a lot but loves biting my toes with her sharp teeth.

I am so surprised that you are asking now. It sounds as if you felt that I stepped on her paw by mistake today. She did not like it, of course, but I kissed her and apologized and she is fine. She just follows me everywhere and I did not notice that she was so close.”

That’s my little kitten. All of this is recognizable.

*I learned very early that wearing shoes, or at least socks, is essential around her, because she does tend to attack bare feet and it’s quite painful. (Incidentally, I mentioned that we had pet ducks for awhile when I was a teenager. The white duck was an extremely aggressive and painful attacker of bare feet.)

*I’m also not surprised that the babysitter stepped on her paw by accident. It’s hard to avoid dong that at least once every couple of days, since she does stay so close to your feet.

*Further, I’m not surprised that giving her a kiss and an apology worked. That’s what I do too. It’s a nearly automatic response, because she always seems to take it personally, as though you had stepped on her deliberately (even though her own foolish kitten behavior is to blame). So you feel this deep need to reassure her that it wasn’t on purpose, and the kiss and the soft-voiced apology always seem to provide the needed reassurance.

*And yes, I’m not surprised that the babysitter is getting more and more attached to the cat. You couldn’t possibly take her for a week and not wish to keep her; she’s really just about the cutest kitten I’ve ever seen, and there are many very cute ones in the world.

That’s going to be my biggest danger with leaving her with anyone for six weeks this summer. I just don’t think I can take her to the U.S. on the summer trip, and the trip was already scheduled and a number of people are relying on me to show up. So, Tamanya will have to stay in Egypt, but I also have to be careful of not making an implicit transfer of ownership, since almost anyone would get emotionally attached to her after six weeks. Heck, I only had her for 13 days before this trip, and she was already my little sunshine and made me smile every time I thought of her.

Day Four wrap-up

Today’s activity was two very long panel discussions. There’s a final summation tomorrow morning, but in a sense today was the climax of the week. They also invited an additional 6-8 people for today.

Today was no longer in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, however. It was in Oxford’s Keble College, which is directly across the street.

I almost skipped lunch to go back to the hotel and take care of some things, but am very glad I didn’t– the schedule didn’t say so, but lunch was inside the Keble College dining hall (see photo below). I’d never eaten at an Oxford College before, and very much enjoyed it. I also sat next to two young Oxford graduate students who answered all of my many questions about how the university works.

Tonight, dinner with an Oxford-based friend I haven’t seen in nearly two years.