Prey and Progress

Well, it's just after midnight, and all the papers have grades which I've triple-checked. They do not have comments yet, but I think I can manage to do that in a couple of hours if I rein myself in a bit. It appears that all those office hours I scheduled a few weeks ago paid off, because my students' papers were almost astonishingly good (particularly in contrast with the first set of papers). I am feeling accomplished.

The key to success today lay in shared misery: two friends with similarly onerous tasks came over to work and chat a bit and drink tea with me. This made things easier. I guess it was about time I took the advice I'd been giving my students all quarter about how working in groups makes the load lighter.

Mouse is making progress too, clearly feeling a bit more confident, though he still doesn't like people standing up and walking around, especially when they're moving in his direction.

----------------NEWS FLASH!---------------------------------------

As I was typing this, Mouse caught and killed a mouse in the kitchen! All hail Mouse the Mouse-Killer!

I thought I heard some suspicious noises in the walls last night. Apparently, I was right, and Mouse was comfortable enough with his terrain tonight to track the little culprit down.

Honestly, though I have a soft spot for mice, I'm not fond of sharing living space with them when they're not in cages, so I'm very pleased with Mouse.

He, however, is not very pleased with me, because I had to take his kill away from him, lest he disembowel it all over the carpet. He keeps lurking over the spot to which he'd dragged his prey and looking at me reproachfully, even though I offered him some treats in exchange. He clearly is not satisfied with the trade.