inked_gemini

…and to answer polenta’s previous question, hyphenation for the purpose of separating words at the end of a line is entirely a matter of style and often dependent on typesetting. There is not really a definitive rule for using hyphens in this way. It is really just an issue of making words on a page easier to read…or rather…more pleasing to the eye.

A lot of books are published with justified spacing to spread words evenly across a page which makes for smoother reading (I am guessing that would be the logic in mind). This is where separating words with a hyphen would be favored since it allows for the spacing to remain even. It is also a common practice in newspaper columns where space is limited.

It is all a matter of preference, polenta. Some would say separating words is better because it keeps the text nice and even which makes it easier to read. Others would say not to separate words because that hyphen breaks the flow of reading, making it harder to read. It is up to you which method to use.

The rule for separating words is to divide them at the nearest breaking point between syllables.

Personally, I like to use hyphens and line-wrapping for the sake of the margins. Otherwise, the right side margin can get quite out of hand.

lilalee

inked, take her home. She was probably a inside cat, and either was dumped, or got out somehow, and lost her way. Take her to a vet, and no doubt she has probably been spayed, and they will take care of her shots. She wants a home and is trying to send a message to someone there at work. I recently had to have my stray put down after 10 years, and have to say he was the best cat. My other boy was also a stray, and he is a darling!! Plays all the time, and he is 12. Cats love family, and she will probably take to one of you right away. So have everyone take turns feeding and playing, and you will all enjoy, I'm sure!!

Dragon

inked_gemini, in answer to your questions on cat health. You can have bloodwork done to check if the cat has been vaccinated but it is often more expensive than simply vaccinating. I would recommend to go ahead and vaccinate the cat as it won't hurt her at all even if she has just had them done. There are a number of products used for parasites like fleas and ticks that are quite simple to use. At our clinic we use Revolution, but there is also one called Advantage as well. These have the added benefit of covering a number of worms as well as fleas and ticks. I would suspect that she probably wouldn't have to large a flea problem simply because of the cold, but you never know. Most vet clinics will sell these over the counter. I hope you enjoy this new kitty, sounds like she's quite a peach and will probably appreciate a nice warm home with a loving family. (I will note also that most orange cats are male but that is certainly not a rule, I've met a great many orange females in my time at the vet clinic)

Login

My own sentiments, lilalee. Scoop her up, inked, and give her all the love she's been missing.

Baldur, you have my sympathy shovelling all that snow. It reminds me of a trip to Norway many, many winters ago. We visited friends and they took us up into the hills to their holiday chalet. We had to shovel waist-high snow for about 40 yards, to get to the front door. Once there, everyone piled in through the doorway ... all except me. I carried on shovelling until I reached the ' lil old shack out back ' ... exhausting but necessary.

Dragon

Must say, I very much enjoyed hearing the tales of Baldurs feline family. I know just what he means about it such a small animal seeming to make so much noise! I'm constantly amazed at how one animal can sneak up on you silently on those soft little paws one moment and then sound like a herd of wildebeests tearing down the hallway the next.
I do lament the crashing pottery though, I hope Boughbreak doesn't lose all its precious things before the kittens learn to curb their smashing habits.

Hopefully this habit will be curbed, you never know, my 6 yr old cat is facinated by vases and can't seem to leave them alone. The beautiful arrangement I got for Christmas was on the kitchen floor in 20 pieces not 10 minutes after arriving home. I thought I'd put it on the kitchen counter instead of the table to keep it safe but it appears that only gave a longer distance to fall.

inked_gemini

Thank you lilalee and Dragon and Login for the advice. I was not sure if a cat could be over vaccinated or not and I did not want to make her sick. So thank you for clearing that up for me.

I also did not know that orange cats are usually male. I call her a "her" simply because I don't see any male evidence when she trots along in front of me. But I have not actually taken a closer look to make sure. I've held her many times but never bothered to peek. Seems I made a rather haste assumption about her gender and just stuck with it. I will have to check.

For whatever reason, most of my co-workers have christened her Himalaya. I think I will keep that name. She is most certainly used to it by now.

Baldur

We did have Shakira vaccinated just to be safe. She seemed well cared for but we felt it better to be safe than sorry.

Qsilv

Gotta love an animal that's intelligent, affectionate, and bloody determined!

One of the most interesting cats I've ever had (and I've had a LOT) was a huge orange female. An extraordinarily people-oriented character, and not just in a "feed me, pet me" way, but more curious... she had to know what we were up to and how it worked. She'd come watch us gardening, building things, cooking, cleaning, cataloging... and whenever we stopped for a bit she'd prowl around and into the items involved, for all the world as if she were taking measurements and figuring it all out for herself. We inherited her with the name of "Marm" (Marmalade) but we mostly called her The Inspector.


;>

polenta

Thanks inked. That's why we aren't taught about hyphenation. It's so different to Spanish where it's based on symple separation of syllables and therefore on pronunciation. I see I have a very good and learned teacher on TD. Thanks.

polenta

sorry, should've said DIFFERENT FROM or lol, DIFFERENT THAN like many Americans wrongly(???) use.
LOL

Brunnhilde

Torn between cat tales - makes me remember my beautiful marmalade Ross - and hyphenation, but must go with the latter, which misuse of drives me incandescent with rage here in the UK. Somehow I missed out on grammar teaching, but remember some hyhenation rules: never in a real name or place; never at the end of a page; always after a vowel and before a consonant, though exceptions do exist (e.g. mis-use above). Some are always permissable such as: con- and -tion. What annoys me most is any hyphenation that stops one's reading because one's eye lands on a nonsense word (can't think of an example). But enough for now: I look forward to hearing more about Himalaya and how he settles in (I too thought all ginger moggies were male and the only ginger females were pedigree reds).

polenta

Do you know what I did Brunnhilde? I copied and pasted your rules in my English grammar files. Thanks a lot. I had never seen these rules . Thanks.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Kelly Kelly, Drew Brees, Eddie Cahill, Kobe Tai, Shane McMahon, Chad Lowe, Lisa Lisa, Sister Carol, Mario Van Peebles, Randy White, Ronnie Van Zant, Captain Beefheart, Margaret O'Brien, Eddie Graham, Martin Luther King Jr., Phyllis Coates, Lloyd Bridges, Gene Krupa, Jean Bugatti, Aristotle Onassis, King Saud, Princess Margaret of Sweden, Marie Duplessis! and Moliere.

clorophilla

Inked, I agree with the advices you had; I hope the cat is still here for bringing her home. But I want to add take a picture of the cat and put it on some website of lost animals, b/c she could be a missed one, and there would be owners anywhere, desperately searching for her.

I'm one of them, I missed my beloved she-cat Kim, 8 yrs in our home, escaped from vet on 28th dec 2010 from a not-well-secured cage and not yet found at present day. I'm going nuts calling and walking and spreading leaflets everywhere but nobody called and aparently the cat is vanished... So, try to leave a printed picture of the cat and wait, while keeping her safe in your house: may be you could make a family rejoining...

mdawrcn

I was thinking the same thing clorophilla. It is a terrible thing to loose a pet. I lost two cats when I moved to where I live now, and called and called for them for months. They never came back, but I have three new ones that I adore. I hope that you find your Kim safe and sound and soon.

I am paranoid about my punctuation now with all the experts reading what I post.

inked_gemini

Clo and mdawrcn, you are correct. We have two free publications that circulate in this county. They work as a sort of classified advertising (much like Craig's List but on paper), and they also reach a very wide audience. Shops give them away for no cost, and they usually get delivered to your home whether you want them or not. I will put an ad in both with a picture and a description of the area where I found her. Someone could be missing her terribly.

And mdawrcn, I wouldn’t fret if I were you. When I was in college, I focused my efforts on writing papers with profound subjects or appealing ideas. Often I would think I had written something brilliant. Seems my professors only saw misplaced commas or incorrect spacing after periods (and they would make sure I saw them too with their red ink pens). So now…punctuation shmunctuation. I use it, but I don’t care if I—or anyone—is using it correctly. As long as the idea gets across…

inked_gemini

I learned yesterday that Himalaya is indeed female. When I left work, she was lying on a cardboard box in the storage shed next to the building. She let me pick her up and scratch her behind the ear a bit, but then she decided she wanted to be put down. I started to walk away, and she walked right along with me. It's as if she already knew that she was going home with me. She accompanied me all the way to the parking lot and right up to my car.

It was when we got to the car that she changed her mind. My plan was never to simply put her in the backseat and try to drive with her loose in the car. I realize the dangers of that. But I did want to see how she would react. I have had cats in the past that were very content to go on a road trip. Himalaya is not one of those. Luckily, one of my co-workers saw my dilemma as he was leaving and offered to drive to his house and fetch me his pet carrier. Himalaya and I had to wait in the parking lot for fifteen or so minutes for him to return; it was good time spent getting to know one another. She was a bit hesitant about the pet carrier, but she did go in semi-voluntarily.

When we got home, she didn’t really seem too distressed, but she was definitely unsure of this new environment. I was certain that she would run off into some dark corner and hide until it seemed safe to come out. Instead, she gingerly tiptoed throughout the whole house, smelling everything. She would take one or two steps and sniff the carpet, then three or four steps and sniff the houseplant, then the coffee table and the throw pillows and the television….

I didn’t see her for the rest of the night. I believe she was taking refuge beneath my bed. I could hear her moving around throughout the early morning hours. When I awoke today, I could not find her and I looked for her everywhere. Finally, I noticed a pointy-eared shadow behind the curtain in the living room window. Himalaya was stretched out on the sill, happily catching some morning rays. Hopefully she is becoming more comfortable with her new surroundings. We’ll see what happens…

mdawrcn

Inked Gemini, thanks for words of encouragement about the punctuation. I write for a living, semi-scientific stuff, and used to be good in English, but have forgotten most of what I learned and just wing it. I look things up if it is critical, but I seem to get by. I hope it is not terribly obvious that i don't know it all.

I am so glad you got the kitty home safely and that there are people like you out there looking out for those little lost things. I also hope it all works out for the best, whether you get to keep her, or she is reunited with her family. Best of luck.

Dragon

Good luck to you inked on your new housemate. It sounds like she's already starting to ease into her new surroundings.

Clorophila, my heart goes out to you for your lost Kim, I hope she is found safe and well and that you get to have a wonderful reunion. Not securing a cage properly is one of our dreads at the vet clinic. I know I always try to test the carrier door when I take an animal back out to someone, I would be just horrified if a pet was able to run away and get lost because I hadn't secured it properly. I hope you get to see her home soon.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Joe Flacco, Aaliyah, Kate Moss, Roy Jones Jr., Sade, Jerry M. Linenger, L. Blaine Hammond, King Faud II of Egypt, Robert Schimmel, Debbie Allen, John Carpenter, Ronnie Milsap, Jim Stafford, A.J.Foyt, Marilyn Horne, Susan Sontag, Dian Fossey, Francesco Scavullo, Elliott Reid, Allan Ekelund, Stirling Silliphant, Carl Karcher, Roger Wagner, Dizzy Dean, Ethel Merman, Frank Zamboni!, Fulgencio Batista, Harry Carey and Andre Michelin.