I keep an Amazon wish list, mostly to remind me what to request from Inter- Library Loan. In the "comments" fields I had written instructions (for any who happened by) not to buy these books from this source, but from Powell's or someplace instead. I looked today and they were erased, which made me chuckle.

Yesterday at the library, as I was checking out Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, I saw this kid come up to the counter and ask in the smallest voice he had, which was pretty small, if the circulation clerk happened to perhaps have a bowl. Just a small one, please. Why? "There's a cat outside", he explained, "which walks funny and so he's blind. And I think he's thirsty."

Outside indeed was a small kitty, walking slowly in circles of pathedy. His head was kept cocked to one side, listening perhaps for a sign from the wall he kept walking into.

It was one of those weird moments where a kid is more powerful than an adult, and I was glad there were some around. If I had asked the librarian for a bowl, I'm sure I would have been asked to remove both myself and the animal from the premises.

I felt kinda strange about it, walking to my car. To solve the problem as I saw it would mean calling the vet, and taking the animal home (there's no ASPCA here), which I couldn't do, so I did nothing. But the kid understood the problem better, and was better equipped to do something about it.