When was the last time you had an awesome day?

[rah]

Yep, a crappy pope is one day closer to being retired.

[Sava]

crappy pope... redundant

[Ben Kenobi]

Yep, a crappy pope is one day closer to being retired

Well sure. They aren't all going to be awesome. Eventually the Church is going to nominate a dud.

[MichaeltheGreat]

January 25, when my cat Vlady had gained almost half a pound, you couldn't feel the gap between his ribs any more, and it seemed like he had a chance to recover.

[Ben Kenobi]

Aww, cute.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Among other things, he was my office cat. When enconced in front of the computer working, he'd sit on my lap and sleep with his chin on my forearm. If I had to get up and move around a bit doing stuff, he didn't like that as much, so I set him up his own chair next to mine.

[Ben Kenobi]

So he's passed on? Sorry to hear that MtG. I had two tuxedo cats, one was close to 30 pounds. Excellent mousers, but the last one died a couple years ago.

I'll see if I can get some pics of my new pets. I have shared custody of two sugar gliders.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Yeah, he'd been sick for several months with what turned out to be a diffuse GI cancer - very close to normal values on his blood work, good urinalysis, no discernable masses by palpating or ultrasound, so almost impossible to diagnose. He just had a hard time retaining food long enough to get any nutritional value out of it - he was never more than 10lbs, which makes his management of big dogs hilarious (he had a great "Go ahead, make my day" moment with my sister-in-law's 80lb champion-to-be Rhodesian Ridgeback "puppy" a couple of years ago. Dog didn't know what to do when Vlady just crouched and dared him to bring it - so the dog backed down. The dog in the cat bed in the cats thread is just under 60 lbs, and Vlady got her trained.

He went from 10 lbs 15 months ago, to 8 last May (but he was pretty athletic still), to just over 6 in January. He was a super empathetic cat - any time someone was sick, he'd hang out with them almost exclusively, although he was otherwise friendly with everybody. For about three weeks in January, he seemed to be on the road to recovery, then he lost back all the weight he'd gained back, and ultimately, I couldn't stabilize his weight because the cancer started aggressively spreading. He was still pretty comfortable and active overall until Valentines day, then he bounced back yet again for a little over a day. On the 16th, things went real downhill real fast, so I had to call the vet and get him in there on an emergency basis so he didn't suffer too much. He really didn't want to go - he was still responsive and engaged and friendly and moving around, but his body just gave out on him. Usually they just sort of let go.

[rah]

Well sure. They aren't all going to be awesome. Eventually the Church is going to nominate a dud.

Let's hope they don't do it twice in a row.

What are the odds it won't be a European? It would be nice if they recognized the fact that the majority of Catholics are elsewhere in the world.

[Ben Kenobi]

Good thing the Church isn't a democracy.

[rah]

Why. Do you think the next Pope should be another European?

[Ben Kenobi]

Why. Do you think the next Pope should be another European?

If that's the will of the Holy Spirit, sure.

My personal preference is Cardinal Burke.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oddsmakers don't think he has that great of a chance.

[Ben Kenobi]

Neither did Ratzinger.

[PLATO]

Yeah, he'd been sick for several months with what turned out to be a diffuse GI cancer - very close to normal values on his blood work, good urinalysis, no discernable masses by palpating or ultrasound, so almost impossible to diagnose. He just had a hard time retaining food long enough to get any nutritional value out of it - he was never more than 10lbs, which makes his management of big dogs hilarious (he had a great "Go ahead, make my day" moment with my sister-in-law's 80lb champion-to-be Rhodesian Ridgeback "puppy" a couple of years ago. Dog didn't know what to do when Vlady just crouched and dared him to bring it - so the dog backed down. The dog in the cat bed in the cats thread is just under 60 lbs, and Vlady got her trained.

He went from 10 lbs 15 months ago, to 8 last May (but he was pretty athletic still), to just over 6 in January. He was a super empathetic cat - any time someone was sick, he'd hang out with them almost exclusively, although he was otherwise friendly with everybody. For about three weeks in January, he seemed to be on the road to recovery, then he lost back all the weight he'd gained back, and ultimately, I couldn't stabilize his weight because the cancer started aggressively spreading. He was still pretty comfortable and active overall until Valentines day, then he bounced back yet again for a little over a day. On the 16th, things went real downhill real fast, so I had to call the vet and get him in there on an emergency basis so he didn't suffer too much. He really didn't want to go - he was still responsive and engaged and friendly and moving around, but his body just gave out on him. Usually they just sort of let go.

Wow. That is so sad. Condolences Mtg