home alone

Since K9 was booked when I called to arrange Cartman before the Yosemite trip, I had to let him stay home alone and asking one of friends to come over to feed him and walk him twice a day. According to her, Cartman obviously knew it was not his mommy when he was walked, so he refused to move out sight of the house. :( Poor little guy.

He was extremely excited and didn't know what to do with himself when I opened the door at 2am at night coming back from the trip. I had to sacrifice my after-hike hot tub bath plan and spend the rest of night with him.

I heard some story about zoo and caged animal on NPR. Some scientists conducted an experiment to put 3 groups of monkeys into 3 different envs (all in cages): 1 "upper class": a lot of toys, a lot of play mates; 2 "middle class": less toys and less play mates; 3 "poor class": far less of everything. Then they sampled the moneys from each group and study their brain "branches". If there is more "branches" in the brain, that is a indication of a happy money: it is more engaged with the env and etc. The data showed there are a big difference between upper class and low class, 20-40%. But astonishingly there is no difference between upper and middle class moneys on brain "branches". It seems a good enough env is really good enough.

Now, at this lazy quiet summer Saturday afternoon, he is lying on the floor, sleeping, uncaged. I am not sure of his brain "branches" ...