Exporting the cat

I am back in Michigan at the moment, theoretically trying to get my classes ready for the next semester and also getting the poor innocent cat ready for her journey to Berlin. She needs a harness to go through security, a carrier that fits under the seat, a rabies certificate that shows her vaccinations, and a chip implant that provides an id number -- the latter to conform to a new European Union directive. She actually already has one identifying chip, but the format is apparently not EU-compliant, so she either needs a new chip or I need to carry a special scanner to read her old chip.

She likes hiding on a chair under the table (see picture) and would hide more earnestly if she knew what will happen in 8 days.

Joan and I actually saw a movie in a movie theater today. Since "Becoming Jane", which had been recommended to us, was not in town, we saw "Amazing Grace", which describes the campaign of William Wilberforce to end the British slave trade. This is the sort of topic that veers readily into the sentimental or overly heroic, but director Michael Apted avoided both. The portrayals of political figures like Pitt and Fox seemed in keeping with what I learned in my British history classes, as also was the Duke of Clarence.

I wonder a bit how this movie will be received in Germany, which has no slave trade / slave owning past and therefore perhaps less immediate sense of the shame and eventual triumph when the bill to end the slave trade ends.