I got fan mail! Someone wrote in to the Humane Society just to say this:

I would like to congratulate the person taking the recent cat pictures on the website. The cats look so animated that I know the camera person is a cat lover! I'm sure this will help the cats find new homes. Thank you. With 3 cats myself, I'm sure this took some time!

Awwww. I feel all warm and fuzzy now, which is a nice counteraction to the possible trouble I'm having with my new apartment.

I should explain... last week, I finally contracted with a rental agency down in Ithaca for a nearly-perfect apartment. It's within walking distance of the law school, but not next door (thus forcing me to get some exercise), it's a spacious one-bedroom in a small building housing mostly other grad students, and the rent includes all utilities except electricity and phone. It's a little expensive, but a good deal all around, and best of all, it's cat-friendly.

Or maybe not. Upon receiving the check for my security deposit today, the agency faxed me the official lease to sign, and in checking it over, I saw the horrible words, "no pets." I phoned the office to ask what was up, even though I was 99% sure it was just a standard lease that had inclusions not necessarily applying to this specific property; I've been working with a head agent from the rental company who specifically recommended this complex to me when she heard I had cats.

The girl I talked to today was not the one I usually speak with, and she seemed to think that the lease, not the other agent, was correct. So I left a slightly panicked message for the other agent to phone me tomorrow and let me know for sure what's going on.

However, even if this place turns out not to allow cats, the other complex managed by this office definitely does. (There are two complexes, one allows cats and the other doesn't, so the confusion is just over which one of them does.) I took a look at the website, and while it's quite a bit farther from school (i.e., bus or drive commute), it's bigger, has more amenities (dishwasher!), and is actually cheaper than the original place. So it's not like I'll be homeless or have to give up my cats. It's just going to be a bit of a pain in the ass to straighten all this out.