Me Abby not an outside cat. First fing is dat propane truck look and sound like sum mad bull frog dawg. It sews scarey furr me. Ebony she just panic a wittle bit. Me I panic buckets ub cat fear and run to hide meshelf anyware away from dat monster truck fing. I just gitting ober dat when out ub dee dark ub night come sumfing screeching and hissing sumfing fearsome furr sure. Me Abby and dat Ebony lookee at each udder and den we bofe look at human bean. He done started hollering sumfing bout skitter truck ober and ober. Me fink he outa ub his mind sum, but it scared us cats really bad like. We run back and forth wif eyes wide. Ice nose sumfing was up when human bean broke up laughing. Den I member skitter is furr misskitters we hab hare. Day need sprayed ebery once in a while, but we sure were scared lots and lots no fanks to dat human fella. Me Abby and Ebony fixin to finds some cat trick to play on dee bean and dat is furr surely berrrrrrry soon!

I Ebony is an official windeer cat. I studies tom cats, dawgs - dem dummies, boidees, and hot gecko lizards. I like all dee windeers ub dee fifth wheel travel trailer, alldoe I do make deem windeer blinds bulge unnaturally when I squeeze my big cat body in dat little itty bitty space. Human bean no like it and hollers at me, but he can be safely ignored when cat business is berry important. And to set dee record straight, I not panicky when skitter truck come by. Abby telling big fibs furr such a small smartalecky kitty. And I not addicted to fings like popcorn or Whisker Lickin` Goods and silly stuff like dat dare. Well, I Ebony admit us cats are addicted to fresh catnip. It has a cat trip in ebery plant. Yum. Our furrrrfriends Ren and Gatos sent us sum nip plus sum seeds. We finally seed dees seed sprouting today. Fangue, Ren and Gatos. And we is all glad dat Daisy queencat is doing lots better after a scare.

Finally, me Ebony publicly meowing about our human bean making sounds like sum deranged dawgie. He goes rooooo oooooo rooooo and udder wolfiee sounds dat only come from dee bottomless pit ub cat hell. It not only scares us witless but ruins a good catnap. I Ebony and eben dat Abby brat cat, both ub us meows to stop it already! Da Da Da dats all . . . 

NetPublishers
The premiere internet publishers and store web site is now in beta testing. Beta testing is polite for a cross section of prospective artists and customers testing all the features of the web site.

Our web site exists, has most cgi scripts written, and is taking artists works for sale now. We have a copyright help page and some work on FTP procedures left to do. FTP is the way stuff gets into and out of the web site.

Our grand opening will be coming soon. Digital3 and Shaffer Internet Publishing Company are both working hard to make this a unique and useful web site.

Shay owns Digital3, an internet service company, while L. E. Shaffer owns Shaffer Internet Publishing Company, an internet publishing company. Larry at the beginning of 1998 proposed the idea of selling artistic works, anything downloadable, to customers interested in a high quality product for a modest price via the exciting forum presented by the internet. They agreed to terms and now are very close to a grand opening. You all are invited. Standby for the internet URL coming soon.

Internet Stuff
Diss usually is ware human bean says sum stuff sposed be interesting. But diss time us cats letting Gatos meow sumfings. Gatos meows: One of the bestest sites is called Ren's Cat Page, and the URL furrrr the main page is www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/2431 The site is dedicated to all the homeless and forgotten and to my brofurs Max and Heathcliff who are both at the rainbow bridge with Syliva and Syliva - both our friend. The page about me is www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/2431/index2.html and the one with Stimpy and the others is index3.html. Fur cat health and veerinary care you can paww ober to Ren's Den at www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/2431/meow.html There is a tribute to our furend Syliva at www.geocities.com/heartland/prairie/2431/sarcoma.html You will also find info on Post Vac Sarcomas. We also have a message board that we would like to see more furpersons paw to and leave their mews. What to say about beanie: It is her mission in life to help educate other humans about the importence of Spay-Neuter and to help put an end to homelessness and make every cat a wanted cat. Bean hasn't made a page bout herself yet.

Thank you Gatos. Now Queen Daisy mews that you can subscribe to the Kitty Tidbit by going to http://members.aol.com/Alto222/ and finding the link where it says to subscribe. (It brings up an email with Tidbit on the subject line - AOL doesn't support forms on its web pages.)

Hare dee bean: Browser differences are very annoying. Internet Explorer couldn't download zip files, enter into a java chat, and operate a java jukebox. It turns out I needed an ActiveX plugin for zips and needed to repair a bug in the program for the rest. Netscape was touchy with attributes like strong, bold, address, and italics. ActiveX and java are great but won't work all the time with either browser. I wonder when exactly we will see standardization efforts?

Hockey News
I was wrong! The New Jersey Devils [we-can't-score] lost to the Ottawa Senators. Now that was not all bad. I like Cinderella stories. I got my hopes up, then Ottawa lost. Yet the Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabers, and Dallas Stars never have won a Stanley Cup. The Detroit Redwings have, but I don't like them anyway. I hope the St. Louis Blues can come back and win their series with Detroit. St. Louis has never won a cup either. Then the final four would be perfect. Someone who has never won a Stanley Cup Championship before would surely win then!

In The Park
The park is empty and quiet during these hot, sunny, run/jog, bike days. I can't forget swimming. I have been swimming so much my neck hurts. I must be doing something wrong. Aspirin takes care of the headaches. My hours are strange, as I work almost all night. The park is really quiet and empty then, but that is okay. I am catching up on reading books and magazines. The big event here was the seaweed coming in bringing a nice smell too, but it does not last long. There is almost always a breeze from some direction. Lots of birds like the swimming pool fresh water. Last but not least was my adventure with boat agents. There are all kinds of outstanding trawlers and houseboats for sale. Now I need to sell my fifth wheel and truck for the money to buy a boat, probably a trawler, a nice live aboard with everything built-in and included.

"The Mountains of Ao"
Tears from Ao continue serialized each month in the Internet webzine (an electronic magazine) called The Outer Rim at the URL of www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1225/ Tears from Ao is also available electronically on the Internet at the web site called The Temporal Doorway StoreFront at the URL address of www.infohaus.com/access/by-seller/The_Temporal_Doorway_Storefront/ I am working hard on The Mountains of Ao, specifically chapter 10 of 22 chapters. Existing proofreaders please contact me via email/snail mail to arrange for quick delivery of the latest version of the novel.

If you want to become a snail-mail proofreader, email us.

The Dull Stuff
Inputs and letters to this journal are subject to approval by Ebony. All inputs may be edited for content and become the property of Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company.

The address follows:
Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company
PO Box 501833
Marathon, FL 33050-1833
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Internet URLs: http://RunesofAo.com
http://RunesofAo.com/aobp/
http://RunesofAo.com/ebony/
http://RunesofAo.com/abby/