"THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN"

This is a very old story which is often called a fairy tale, even though it doesn't have a single fairy in it.  Maybe you heard or read the story when you were a child, and maybe you even remember what the story is about.  But just in case you don't, I will tell you.

Long ago, there was this town in Germany called Hamelin (or Hameln), and it was a real town that still exists today.  The people in this town had a huge problem with rats.  They had so many rats everywhere in town that they could have been on that Animal Planet show called Infested!  Except that, sadly, TV hadn't been invented yet.

But just when the people of Hamelin were at their wits' end about the rats, a strange man showed up in town, and he was a piper.  He did not play a bagpipe, but instead he played a little pipe that was more like a flute or a recorder.  The Piper wore old-fashioned clothes that were all different colors patched together.  That's why he was called the Pied Piper, because piebald or pied means "spotted" or "dappled."  Like for instance, a black-and-white horse is called a piebald.

In some versions of the story, the Pied Piper was wearing red and yellow.  These are the colors of the Kansas City Chiefs football team, and they only won 2 games during the whole season last year, so that should have been a warning that the piper guy who was dressed in Chiefs colors could maybe bring bad luck.

But anyway, the Pied Piper told the people of Hamelin that he could solve their rat problem, but he wanted to be paid 1000 guilders for his work.  They said they would pay him even more than that, if he could really get rid of the rats.  So he went out in the street, and he began to play on his pipe.  And all the rats in town came running out of the houses and shops and barns.  They followed him through the town to the River Weser, and they all ran into the River and drowned.

The townspeople were very, very happy not to have the rats anymore, but they wished they hadn't told the Piper they would pay him all that money.  So they only paid him a few guilders, and he got really angry.  He said they would be sorry they had treated him that way.  Then he stomped out of town.

The next time the Piper showed up it was June 26, which was Saint John's and Saint Paul's Day.  He began to walk through the town, playing his pipe, and all the children came out and followed him.  He led them to a place nearby called Koppenberg Mountain, and a cave opened in the hillside.  They all went inside, then the opening closed up, and they were never seen again.  The only children left in the town were a blind boy, a lame boy, and a deaf boy who had not been able to follow the Piper.

Artist:  Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)
Engraver:  Edmund Evans (1826-1905)

This very sad event was written down in the town register, and after that, all the town history was dated from the time when the children went away.  These words were written on the outside of the town hall:

                                                In the year 1284 after the birth of Christ
                                                From Hameln were led away
                                                One hundred thirty children, born at this place
                                                Led away by a piper into a mountain.

The oldest picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church
in Hamelin Germany (c. 1300-1633)

Okay, now that I have told you the story of the Pied Piper, I will tell you that the story might not be a fairy tale after all.  Because back in 1284, something really did happen to a bunch of children, or maybe adults and children, from Hamelin.  Historians have been trying to figure out what the event was, but they can't agree on one theory.  The earliest stories of the Pied Piper do not have any rats in them, so maybe the Piper was the symbol of Death.  Here are some ideas about what might have happened to the children:

1.  They drowned in the River Weser.
2.  They were killed in a landslide.
3.  They died in an epidemic.
4.  They were lured away to a pagan or heretic sect.
5.  They went on a pilgrimage, military campaign, or the Children's Crusade in 1212.
6.  The Piper was a psychopathic pedophile who lured them away.

Artist:  James Elder Christie
National Gallery of Scotland

Another idea is that the children of Hamelin emigrated to another place, instead of being killed or stolen away.  The area around Hamelin started running out of land to farm by the 13th century because the oldest son inherited all of a family's land, and the other sons got nothing, so they had to become serfs.  It is also possible that when families or the town could not afford to keep some of their children, they sold them to someone who took them away to settle in the Baltic region.

There is evidence that some people from Hamelin settled in Transylvania, since many of the names there are similar.  And the "children" of Hamelin could just mean anybody who grew up in that town, and not just young kids.  There were landowners who were recruiting people to go settle in Moravia, East Prussia, Pomerania, or in the Teutonic Land.  So maybe a bunch of Hamelin people all left at the same time to go live in another place, and that's how the Pied Piper legend got started.

Anyway, the story is a good one because it teaches a couple of lessons.  One lesson is that you should not just stupidly follow somebody's lead into the river and drown.  This is what people usually mean when they say "follow the piper."  Of course, "follow the piper" is the name of my blog.  But I promise I will not to lead you into any rivers or caves in the mountainside.  I will just lead you to some subjects that I hope you will find interesting.

The other lesson and phrase that come out of this story is "pay the piper."  This means that you had better pay for what you said you would pay for.  If you don't, something bad could happen.  For instance, I have told Mom that she had better "pay" her own sweet little Piper by always remembering to feed me, or else I might nip her on the ankle.  And so far I have never had to follow through on that!

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HAPPY YEAR OF THE SNAKE!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Snake on the Chinese calendar, so it's time to slither into a Chinese restaurant near you and have some General Tso's Chicken or whatever your favorite dish is!  The Ancient Chinese said that having a Snake year person in the house was good because it meant that your family would never starve.  They might have said this because Snake people are really good at doing business deals, so they are likely to make a bunch of money.  Or it might mean that a Snake person would always have lots of stuff he could sell if he had to get money to buy food.

Snakes are the most mysterious, intuitive, introspective, clever, and refined of all the signs.  If you are a Snake, you solve problems in a logical and thoughtful way.  But you might be stingy and egotistical and not a very good team player because the only person you rely on is yourself.  You are attractive, graceful, and stylish, and you like beautiful things.  In your house, you might choose to have one expensive chair instead of three cheaper ones.






People born in a Snake year do not do well with stress, noise, and hectic deadlines.  They prefer calm and quiet, and they need plenty of sleep and relaxation in order to stay healthy.  They like luxury and nice things.  Since they get bored easily, Snake people might change jobs often.  They are organized and good at details and problem-solving.

Here are some careers that Snakes might want to consider:  scientist, potter, analyst, jeweler, spiritual leader, sociologist, dietician, astrologer, magician, investigator, painter.  The year of 2013 is a Water Snake year, and Water Snakes are usually lucky with finances.  They love adventure and taking risks.  They are intelligent and creative, and they enjoy making new friends.  The color for the 2013 Water Snake is black.  This is the black of outer space, Arctic nights, the abyss, or deep waters.  The Black Snake can bring unexpected changes and instability, so Water Snake people need to be careful and plan everything out before doing it.

The prediction for 2013 is that it will be a good year to start detailed projects such as investigation or research.  There is a sneaky kind of energy that Snakes have, and you should take advantage of this if you can.  One horoscope said to "look for the holes in the loop."  I think this might mean "loopholes," but it got translated funny from Chinese.

Anyway, Snake people need to have a safe place to work in 2013, where they will feel protected while they use their special analytical skills.  If they are focused and methodical, they can get a whole lot of important stuff done.

Here are a few more things to know about people born in the Year of the Snake:

1.  They get along best with Ox and Rooster people.
2.  They mostly get along with Rat, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, or Horse
        people.
3.  They don't get along at all with Tigers or Pigs.
4.  Their lucky colors are yellow and red.
5.  Lucky directions are southwest and northeast.
6.  Lucky numbers are 2, 4, 7, and 9.
7.  Lucky day of the week is Monday.


So now you know about the 2013 Year of the Snake.  I will tell you more about snakes during the coming year.  There are lots of kinds of snakes, and I think that if you meet them in person, they are mostly scary, especially the poisonous ones.  But I plan to be brave and write about them anyway, and maybe we will all learn something.

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GOODBYE TO NICKY, TOO

We are having a very sad week here, and Mom seems all kind of depressed and weepy.  But I never cry tears out of my eyes, like Mom does, so what I mostly do is just go take a nap and try to forget about sad stuff for a while.

Anyway, Nicky lay around all day Thursday, and he didn't want to eat, and he only got up at bedtime to drink some water and pee on the carpet in the bedroom.  Then he stood there for a while, like he was nervous and didn't know what to do.  And he kept panting, so he probably had a fever again.  But when the rest of us went to bed, Nicky finally did, too.

Yesterday morning Mom had trouble getting Nicky to stand up so he could go to see Dr. Grigsby.  Nicky yelped and cried like he was in terrible pain, and he bit Mom on the arm.  But the bite was just a little one, like a hard nip that made a bruise.  Anyway, Mom put Nicky's muzzle on him so he couldn't bite her again, and then she managed to help him get up.

After that, she took him to VCA Mission to see Dr. Grigsby, and by the time they had been there 10 minutes, Nicky's temperature was already up to 107º.  The normal temperature for a dog is between 100º and 103º, and I know this because I looked it up.

Anyway, Mom and Dr. Grigsby had a long talk about Nicky, because neither one of them understood why Nicky felt so very sick and panicky, even though he only had what Dr. Grigsby said was a superficial wound.  And he also was peeing a lot in the house, which we couldn't explain why Nicky started doing, either.  Plus he would get stuck in a pattern of turning circles on the stair landing, like he couldn't stop doing it and go on up the stairs.  Last week Mom timed him, and he spent 10 minutes doing this.

So Dr. Grigsby said maybe Nicky was senile or maybe he had a brain tumor.  And the way to find out if he had a tumor was to do an MRI, which would cost about $2,000.  Mom said she could not afford that because she already just spent about $1,900 on Nicky's medical care.  Dr. Grigsby said she understood.

Then Mom asked if maybe Nicky should be put down, and Dr. Grigsby said she thought that was something to consider, because Nicky was not having any fun anymore.  So they talked about it, and Mom decided to do it.  And she stayed there with Nicky the whole time and told him she was sorry she hadn't been able to give him a happier life, and also she was sorry that Barry bit him all those times.

After that, Mom came home without Nicky, and our house seems even emptier than it did before.  It's just so weird having Mel and me be the only dogs here.  We are even more outnumbered by cats than we used to be.  Mom says she is not going to get any more dogs for now.  And she says she will never get a big dog again, such as a greyhound, even though she likes greyhounds a lot.  In the future, Mom is only going to get cute little dogs like me, that weigh 25 pounds or less!

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GOODBYE TO MY BROTHER, BARRY

Yesterday Mom took my brother Barry to Dr. Patricia's office, and she did not bring him home again.  And the reason she didn't was because while they were there, Barry went to the Rainbow Bridge.  Usually, when dogs go to the Rainbow Bridge, it is because they are sick, but Barry wasn't sick.  Barry was just pretty much his ordinary self, which means he kept attacking Nicky and biting him.  And sometimes Barry also attacked me.  But I have thicker hair and skin, so I did not get bites and need stitches like Nicky did.

Barry in his younger days,
before his muzzle turned all white.

A few weeks ago, like maybe three, Barry bit Nicky on the shoulder.  It was not a deep bite, so Mom just cleaned it up good and put some ointment on it.  But then, the very next night, when all of us dogs were getting ready to go out in the yard to potty, Nicky suddenly got totally freaked out by something.  We don't know what it was, exactly, but Mom thinks it might have been that Nicky saw Barry's reflection in the back door.  Of course, it doesn't take much to freak Nicky out, so it could have been almost anything.

But what happened was that Nicky whirled around and went galloping through the house and stumbling up the stairs.  And while he was doing all of this, he skinned up his knee and his heels, and he cut his front leg.  So Mom had to bandage the leg and take Nicky to see Dr. Vodraska the next day, and Nicky got four stitches.

Well, it took more than two weeks for that cut to heal up, and finally Nicky got his stitches out on Monday.  But he started licking the wound and he made it bleed again, so Mom put his muzzle back on him to keep him from messing with it.

That night we all went to bed about midnight, and then Nicky got up at 1:30 or so and started peeing on the rug in the hall. Mom heard him peeing, so she got out of bed to go clean it up.  But when she opened the closet door to get out a towel, Nicky suddenly bolted back into the bedroom.  Barry was right there inside the door, and maybe he thought Nicky was coming to attack him, so he defended himself by attacking first.  A lot of dogs might have done the same thing, but Barry had a special talent for this kind of "bite first and ask questions later" reaction.

Anyway, Barry bit Nicky in the side, and Nicky yelped, but he couldn't bite Barry back because he was wearing that muzzle thing to keep him from licking his other wound.  When Mom saw the bite wound, she thought it would have to have 8 or 10 stitches.  She tried to bandage it by wrapping the bandage all the way around Nicky's big greyhound ribcage, but the bandage didn't want to stay there.

So then Mom put her clothes on and loaded Nicky in the car and drove over to VCA Mission, which used to be called Mission MedVet, but we are almost used to the new name.  Mom ended up leaving Nicky there so he could get stitched up, and also so that Dr. Grigsby, the internist, could see him later that day when she came to work.  Then Mom came home, and we all went back to bed about 3:00 a.m.

Nicky's bite wound.  We think there are 10 stitches, but it's hard to tell.
That red skin is the petechia.

We slept just fine until about 5:00, when the emergency vet called to tell Mom that Nicky had a high temperature, and he seemed very nervous and stressed.  Well, Nicky is often nervous and stressed, so this was not big news, but the high temperature was.  The vet said they were giving him IV fluids and antibiotics.  She also said that Dr. Grigsby would call later, after she had seen Nicky.

Anyway, to make a long story a little bit shorter, Nicky stayed at the vet hospital all day Tuesday and also Tuesday night.  He got this stuff called petechia, which means that there were all sorts of little tiny blood vessels that were leaking blood, so it makes you look like you have a rash or a very bad sunburn.  Dr. Grigsby thought maybe it was probably the high temperature that first night, which went up to 109º, that gave Nicky the petechia.  She was worried that his blood wouldn't clot properly, but when they tested it, it did.

Mom told Dr. Grigsby that she could not go on having both Barry and Nicky in the same house, because it wasn't working out very well.  Mom didn't think either dog could be adopted by anybody else, and this was because Barry was 11 and had so many fear-aggression problems, and Nicky has so many physical problems.  And also, he is a totally weird and neurotic dog.  So Mom said maybe one dog should be put to sleep, and maybe it should be Barry.  And Dr. Grigsby agreed, except there was a little time when it seemed like Nicky might not get through this medical crisis, and in that case, maybe he was the one that should be put to sleep.

But by yesterday morning, Nicky was doing better, and Dr. Grigsby said he could go home.  So Mom made an appointment to take Barry to Dr. Patricia's office.  But she had time to take Barry and Mel for a walk, so Barry got to do that one last time, which I hope made him happy.

Barry at Shawnee Mission Park

Now Barry's not here, which is really strange because it seems like he has always been here.  And mostly he always followed Mom around because he was such a mama's boy.  He thought Mom needed protecting at all times, so he lunged at strangers and really scared them and even nipped some of them.  But he never ever growled at Mom, and he didn't bite her either, like Gabe did a couple of times.

Nicky is home now, but he is feeling lousy, which you can tell by just looking at him and listening to him pant.  His temperature went up yesterday evening, and it was 108º, so Mom called the emergency vet clinic, and they said to bring Nicky there, but Mom said she couldn't get him in the car because he was too heavy, and he was so shaky and weak that he couldn't even walk.

Poor Nicky.  You can see the petechia on his legs, too.

So they told Mom how to use cold compresses and a fan to cool him off and bring his temperature down.  Mom did this, and it worked, and it was lots cheaper than going back to the emergency clinic.

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THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN HAPPENING

Thing Number 1:  Birdwatching

Chloe and Jason like to watch the birds in the sweetgum tree.  These birds are mostly sparrows, and they are eating the seeds out of the annoying, spiky sweetgum balls.  We wish the birds would eat every last seed, so there would never be any more sweetgum trees.  The balls are so thick on our driveway and front yard that we can hardly walk there.  Mom had to get out her snow shovel and shovel the balls off the driveway because she was tired of driving over them.  She said it was like driving on a cobblestone road.

But getting back to the birdwatching.  I don't know why the cats bother to do it because they will never be able to catch one of those birds they see through the window.  But you can't tell them that.  They just sit there, and they get all excited, and they make funny little chattering noises.  It's really dumb, if you ask me, but don't tell them I said that, because they might scratch my eyes out!



Thing Number 2:  Keeping Warm

When it's cold, Mom makes me wear a sweater sweater to bed, which I don't like to do.  This tan sweater is very stretchy, so I can worm my way out of it pretty easily.  But I also have a red one that I can't get out of, and I have to leave it on all night.  On cold mornings, I even wear it when I go out to pee and poop.

Chloe likes to keep warm by snuggling under the covers.  Sometimes she doesn't even leave her head out.

On sunny days, we can sleep in the sun on the bedroom floor, which is another good way to keep warm.  You can see a little bit of me in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo, but Mom thought the cats looked cuter, so that's who she was mostly taking a picture of.

Thing Number 3:  Foster Cats

Dunlop the kitten still hasn't been adopted.  He has been out at PetSmart for over a week.  Aunt Tania was going to put him in with the shelter cats, but then a whole bunch of cats at the shelter got Upper Respiratory Infections.  So Aunt Tania doesn't want to take Dunlop there yet.

Meanwhile, we still have our Ragdoll foster kitties, Achilles and Astrid.  Last week, Astrid got spayed, and Dr. Regan had trouble finding her ovaries and stuff.  At least she couldn't find them at first.  Mom got to watch Dr. Regan do the spay, and Mom said it was very interesting.  Dr. Regan poked around inside Astrid until she finally found one ovary and what's called the horn of the uterus.  But she couldn't find the second ovary until she had pulled out all of Astrid's intestines, and then she found it.  But the horn for that ovary seemed to be very short, so either Astrid was born without one, or else it got damaged when Astrid was pregnant sometime.

Anyway, Dr. Regan put all the intestines back, and then she cut off the ovaries and the one horn, sewed Astrid up, and the spay was all finished.  Ever since then, Astrid has been taking Cephalexin, which is an antibiotic, but she is mostly taking it for her mouth, and not for her surgery.  And this is because Astrid still has some infection in her gums.  We hope the Cephalexin will cure the infection, so that Astrid doesn't have to lose any more teeth.

Achilles got some bloodwork done, and it showed that he is anemic.  We think this is because of all the fleas he used to have on him, sucking the blood out of him.  Achilles doesn't have a lot of energy, which is why Mom thought maybe he was anemic, and it turned out that Mom was right.

Jason doesn't like Achilles, for some reason, so they scream and yell at each other, and sometimes they get into fights.  Mom finds this annoying, which is why she went back to keeping Astrid and Achilles in their own private room a lot of the time.

Okay, well, those are all the Things I am going to tell you today.  Maybe there will be more Things on another day, but right now I think it's time for a nap!

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ABYSSINIAN CATS

If you look at a modern map, you will not see any country with the name of Abyssinia.  And that is because the country that used to be called Abyssinia is now called Ethiopia.  I guess we could change the name of Abyssinian cats to Ethiopian cats, but there wouldn't be too much point to that, because Abyssinian cats didn't really come from Abyssinia anyway.

Zula

Actually, some people thought that Abyssinian cats came from Egypt, because they looked just like those cats that the Egyptians made carvings and murals of.  Other people believed that British soldiers brought home a cat named Zula at the end of the Abyssinian war in 1868, and that Zula was the Mother Cat who started the Abyssinian breed.  But genetic studies now show that the modern Abyssinian is probably most closely related to cats in the coastal area of the Bay of Bengal in India.

Anyway, even though we don't know where the first Abyssinians came from, we do know that a bunch of them ended up in Great Britain, and that's where the breed was developed.

Abyssinians came to the U.S. in the early 1900s, and were first exhibited here in 1909.  Later on, in the 1930s, more breeders got interested in Abyssinians, and pretty soon these cats became one of the most popular American breeds.

Ticking macro; photo by Martin Bahmann

The coat of an Abyssinian is medium in length, and it is very dense and silky.  There is a similar breed with a longer coat, and it is called the Somali.  Both of these breeds have special, very interesting coats because of a dominant mutant gene called Ta.  Each hair of the cat's coat has what is called "ticking," and this means there is a light color at the root, with 3 or 4 bands of darker color as you go towards the hair tip.  Only Abyssinians, Somalis, and Singapuras have this ticking in their coats.

Somali cat

Here are the colors that Somalis and Abyssinians can have:  Ruddy, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Blue, Lilac, and Fawn.  And each of these colors has a silver version, where the color of the hair closest to the skin is an icy white.  Kittens are born with dark coats that lighten as they get older.  It takes several months for them to get to their final coat color.

Abyssinians are very active, playful, and intelligent cats.  They like to go everyplace and check out every nook and cranny, which is what my sister Latifa also does.  Except that she is black, so I'm pretty sure she's not an Abyssinian!  Abys are not very good lap cats because they are always too busy playing and exploring.  Some of them make good show cats, but others are too shy in public.

At home, they like to check out what everybody is doing.  If they can get a good view of what's going on, like from the top of the refrigerator or by looking out a window, they will be happy.  And sometimes they really do come and snuggle under the covers with you.

So if you want a cat who is outgoing and lots of fun and very active, you might want to get an Abyssinian.  But if you want a cat who will mostly sit in you lap and purr while you watch TV, you should maybe get a different breed.  And if you want a pet who will go for walks with you in the park, then you should get a dog!

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A CIVIL WAR DOG FROM ILLINOIS

Early in the Civil War, a Chicago man named Louis Pfeiff joined the Union Army.  And when he went off to war, he took his dog along with him.  The other men in the regiment really liked the dog, so they made him their mascot.  I wish I could tell you the name of this dog, but I guess the historians forgot to write it down, and now nobody remembers it.

The regiment that Lt. Pfeiff was in joined up with a whole bunch of other regiments, and they formed the Army of West Tennessee.  Their commander was Major General Ulysses S. Grant.  They went down into the south part of Tennessee, to a place called Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River.  While they were there, the Confederates, whose leaders were Generals Johnston and Beauregard, made a surprise attack on them, and there was a huge, bloody battle.  The battle was called the Battle of Pittsburg Landing or the Battle of Shiloh.

The date when the battle started was April 6, 1862, and on that day General Johnston got killed, which made the rebel army less confident that they could win.  So on the second day, April 7, General Grant pushed the Confederates back to Corinth, Mississippi and defeated them there.

During the Battle of Shiloh, about 23,746 soldiers died, and 13,047 of these were Union troops.  Sadly, one of the dead soldiers was Louis Pfeiff.

I would just like to stop here and mention that one of Mom's great-grandfathers, William Lee, fought on the Confederate side in the Battles of Shiloh and Corinth.  His brother, James Lee, was in the same Arkansas regiment.  Neither of them got killed during these battles, and in fact, both of them survived the whole war.  It's strange to think that if William Lee had been killed during the war, Mom would not have been born, and then I wouldn't have been adopted by her.  In fact, it's so strange to think about this that I try not to!

But anyway, now I will go on with the story of Louis Pfeiff's dog.  After Lt. Pfeiff got killed at Shiloh, his widow traveled by herself all the way from Chicago to Tennessee to find her husband's body and take it back home to be buried there.  Mrs. Pfeiff spent lots and lots of time looking at all the markers where the dead soldiers had been buried really quickly after the battle.  She asked everybody if they knew her husband or if they had seen his name on one of the markers, but nobody could help her.

Mrs. Pfeiff was getting very sad and frustrated when suddenly she saw a dog, and the dog saw her and started coming to meet her.  Mrs. Pfeiff realized it was the dog her husband had taken with him to war.  She hugged the dog and was very happy to see him.  He was happy to see her too.  Then, guess what!  The dog led her to Lt. Pfeiff's grave, which turned out to be way down at the end of a row, under a tree, and it didn't have any marker on it.

Then Mrs. Pfeiff asked for the grave to be opened, and her husband really was inside it.  I don't know what condition the body was in, but I think it probably did not smell very nice by then.  Mrs. Pfeiff was happy to be able to take her husband home, though, so he could be buried in Illinois.  Later on, she learned that her husband's dog had been with him when he died and had stayed by his grave for 12 days.  He was a very loyal dog, and I hope he had a long and happy life back home in Illinois with Mrs. Pfeiff.  Plus I still wish I knew what his name was.

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