Boofymum

At this very moment I have Topaz (Artro Blue Topaz - Showday name) on my lap. She has just been rather inconsiderately handled because we desperately want to know if she is with kittens. Or rather - we want some evidence to inform our decisions as to her care over the next few weeks. The whole process of encouraging reproduction in Topaz is epistemologically enlightening. We are novice cat breeders. Those parts of our conceptual web(s) concerned with cat breeding would at first pass seem to be almost completely formed from arguments from testament; to whit "Janet is reputedly a very successful breeder and says ...". Taking a Quinean view in its broadest sense helps me to see things in what I personally consider the most useful way, but only if I subscribe to a materialistic view that accepts the premise that memories are physical, or energetic, representations of real events; and perhaps consequently that dreams are distorted or synthesised views of real events. It seems to me that Russell's argument about a universe created a moment ago must be set aside as axiomatically useless. I am all for skepticism, but only to the point where it renders decision making difficult rather than impossible. To come back to Earth - it seems to Max and I that Topaz has more prominent nipples now than she had a week ago. We remember both testamentary and sensory evidence that she has had a romantic dalliance and that such doings often lead to pregnancy, and that Janet told us that prominent nipples in a female moggie are a sign of pregnancy. Are we warranted in thinking she is probably with kittens?