Misgendering : ¡

Can you believe it? Moi?

When we adopted Matisse, Marie-Charlotte told us he was a boy, and we had no reason to disbelieve her. A month has passed since then ... yesterday, I happened to catch a glimpse that made me doubt it. So while we were sipping our crémant de Limoux to celebrate the sale of the building yesterday evening, I grabbed "him" and shone a light on "his" private parts*. Ahem ... Miss Matisse it is! How lucky that the name is gender-neutral.

As it happened, today we had an appointment at the vet for her second jab. I may remind you that we'd already been to the vet four days after we adopted him, I mean her, and no-one questioned or checked her sex. Today we saw the same vet. I told him the news: "Are you sure?" he asked. So I showed him the evidence, and he concurred and said, "So no-one noticed last time you were here?" ::cough:: It was you. Anyway, now Miss Matisse is jabbed and microchipped, with the correct sex, and we are revising our gender stereotypes :-D

In less jolly news, at 5 pm today we heard the unmistakable sound of Canadairs. I went out to investigate with the camera, and immediately saw a gigantic fire alarmingly close (extras), with a strong gusting wind. Fortunately it's blowing away from us, but the main road between Fabrezan and Ribaute is closed, and this afternoon there was a full complement of nine (!) Canadairs, four Dashes (I didn't even know they had four Dashes), two helicopters, and 1,000 firefighters. The latest news is that 4,000 hectares have burned, and it's still not under control :(

Pizza night, convivial as usual, was enlivened by the sound of a constant ballet of low-flying aircraft passing directly above us. By the time we came home at 9:30 the sky had cleared and there were no more planes, but that's because it has completely progressed to the other side of the ridge in the extras.

* Public service announcement: male cats' private parts are a colon, and female ones are an upside-down exclamation mark. If you know, you know.