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Shaved kitteh is shaved

by on April 9, 2012, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, my cat's cooler than yours

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after last year, when I waited until April to have King Boo shaved and wasted almost an entire month chasing around after his tumbleweeds. You’d think, after summer came in February this year and spring was hardly to be seen, that I would have just gone ahead and gotten his hair cut in early March like I kept threatening.

What you don’t know is how glorious his fur is, though. Like a rabbit’s, except that it’s attached to the friendliest and silliest cat I’ve ever known. I wasn’t aware that a personality could attach itself to fur, but apparently it can. And did. And so I procrastinated shaving it off him.

But we’re in this weird, belated spring period now, which means I want the windows open at all times. Which means cat hair that had fled beneath the couch has been unearthing itself for the past week. Which means it was time to shave King Boo.

So we did. Well, the groomer did. And now, my beautiful, sweet, silly, kind cat who’s never in a bad mood and usually looks like this:

Shaved kitteh is shaved

Now looks like this:

Shaved kitteh is shaved

He’s gotten over it quicker this year than he did last year, but I think he can tell we’re laughing at him. Poor guy.

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Making the rounds

by on November 7, 2010, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, my cat's cooler than yours

Over the past couple of weeks, every single one of our four cats has come down with the same illness: A sneezing, wheezing, eye-swelling sickness. I have had cats my entire life and have never seen an illness spread from one to the next as reliably as this one has.

Making the roundsThe first to get it was Link, and he sneezed a couple times a day for maybe three days. Then a few days later Gordo started sneezing, but he was much worse. He sneezed in spurts of five or six at a time, probably every hour of the day. Last weekend I noticed his nose was swollen and he was having a hard time breathing through what sounded like nasal passages filled with snot, so on Monday I took him in to the vet. They decided he had an upper respiratory infection, gave him a shot of antibiotics and a shot of cortisone, and within three days he was much better. He still sneezes once in a while, but he’s nowhere near as pitiful as he was a week ago.

But then, late last week, BK started sneezing. And her eyes became slits. And she acted pretty puny. She seems to have gotten over it without needing veterinary intervention, though.

Evil Twin doesn’t seem like he’s going to be so lucky. He started sneezing on Friday, and has spent the entire weekend either sneezing, wheezing, or trying to open his eyes wide enough to make us feel bad that not only does he have diabetes and asthma, but now he’s contracted the feline bubonic plague. So he’ll probably need some antibiotics to get over this, too. Damn orange cats and their shitty immune systems.

Ah, the fun of having multiple cats.

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Who peed the bed? (When four cats are too many)

by on April 3, 2010, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, jump aboard the crazy train, my cat's cooler than yours

It’s been a little more than a year since we adopted Link, and almost a year since Gordo moved upstairs. When we first got Link, Gordo was annoyed by him, much like any vaguely neurotic and particular old man would be annoyed by an always-on, always-wanting-to-play-and-be-in-your-face toddler. But he tolerated him, and they occasionally took naps together.

But then one day Link must have chased Gordo too much, or too quickly, and Gordo hurt his foot. We quarantined him in the office for a couple weeks so his foot could heal, but he never came downstairs to stay again. At first he’d sneak down in the evenings to eat and use the catbox, but then we realized he wasn’t doing that any more. More accurately, we realized he wasn’t coming downstairs anymore because after two nights of sleeping on the couch, we returned to our bed to find it completely soaked in cat urine.

We cleaned the mattress thoroughly and moved a catbox, food and water upstairs, and all seemed well. Gordo seemed pretty happy living upstairs, and while I wondered if he was lonely, he actually seemed pretty happy. He continued to sleep in the bed with me at night, and he was using his catbox and eating his food as though everything were cool.

Until last weekend.

Ian and I had the flu for a week, and then my mom came into town. We left the blankets she used at the end of the couch, and one night as we were watching TV I pulled one over me and realized it smelled pungeantly of cat urine. It wasn’t wet, like one of them had peed on it, but more like it had been sprayed. I threw that blanket and the one that was next to it in the wash and cleaned the couch, and all was OK for a couple days.

But the day after my mom left, I set BK down on the end of the couch on top of the two blankets, and she immediately started sniffing them, and when I smelled them I realized they had been sprayed again. Back to the washing machine.

I thought maybe it was Evil Twin, since the blankets were covering the part of the couch he always sleeps on. After washing the blankets, I put them up on the back of the couch, and for a couple of days everything was OK. But then Ian woke up one night to find Gordo peeing on the Slanket. Not spraying. Peeing. Ugh.

So again the blankets were washed, I sprayed Feliway all over the couch, and we didn’t have any issues for a couple days. But then this morning, right before I got in the shower, I walked into the bedroom the find Gordo jumping down and looking at me like he did something wrong. I found a puddle of pee at the end of the bed, soaking through the comforter and onto the sheets, mattress cover, and yes, the mattress. Again.

All of the other cats were downstairs and hadn’t been up with him for a while. His catbox was fresh, and he had fresh food and water. I have no idea what he could have been upset about at the moment. He was just being an asshole.

We went to Petsmart and bought more Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer cleaning solution, and I treated the bed. And like a jackass I left the door open and tonight I discovered the little fucker pissed the bed AGAIN. Right after I had treated it and was trying to dry it out.

I realized earlier that one thing that had changed recently was Gordo’s litterbox. Since last year he had been using a small box, but because the other cats had been using it more often (they are lazy and if they’re upstairs they’ll use it instead of going downstairs), we decided right before my mom came to give him a larger box and move the small box downstairs to be the second box for the other cats. So now, after the incidents today, we’ve moved the small box back upstairs just in case he has been missing it.

I also ordered two Feliway diffusers, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, in hopes that it will calm Gordo down—and maybe Link, too, as a bonus. I bought him a feather toy, his favorite kind, and spent a bit playing with just him today. (Well, just him until Link came up and wanted to play, although he was good about respecting Gordo’s personal space, surprisingly).

I love that cat, and we’ve been through so much together in the past 11 years, but he really needs to get his shit together. And keep it off my couch and bed.

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March 3 | BABY GOAT!!!!

by on March 3, 2010, in animals, around town, happy happy joy joy, photography, Project365

March 3 | BABY GOAT!!!!

While I was checking my Twitter stream this morning, I noticed a tweet from The Green Wagon saying that they had a baby goat, named Bette, hanging out with them in the shop today. Taking into account the cuteness of baby goats plus the fact that I didn’t bring anything with me for lunch today and The Local Taco is right next door to The Green Wagon, a plan was born and Jamie, Ben and I headed out for lunch and goat-visiting.

Turns out the The Green Wagon peeps have (raise?) goats, and the mother of this little gal had triplets for the first time. For whatever reason, she didn’t clean off little Bette and rejected her. But these kind people took Bette’s well-being into their own hands and have been bottle-feeding her and making sure she’s getting plenty of love and affection. That sweater she’s wearing? IT’S A WOOL SOCK. That’s how tiny she is. Like a kitten. With hooves. Who didn’t seem to mind being held, and actually nuzzled my neck a bit.

I’m sure The Green Wagon folk thought we were a little weird, three strangers piling into their shop to play with a four-day-old goat, but we couldn’t resist. Oh—Bette had just learned to jump, and was happy to show off her new skills. She also made cute little cooing sounds at one of the shop owners as she hopped around after her.

But let me tell you: When we left that shop, the gray sky, the bone-chilling wind, the crabby mood, the stressful day—it was all gone.

That cute little goat made my day.

(See all the pictures from our visit with Bette)

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Neighbor kitty won't leave us alone

by on January 13, 2010, in animals, I hate my neighbors, photography

Neighbor kitty won't leave us alone

This cat started coming around our house — front and back door — sometime before Christmas. He would stare in the doors’ windows and meow deeply and pitifully at our cats. And at us. We assumed that he had a home since he’s wearing what appear to be two collars, but he won’t let us close enough to examine if there are tags.

Last week when temperatures got down to single digits he was still out — day and night — which makes me wonder just who is responsible for him. If anyone. But he’s not scrawny and always looks clean and tidy, so I want to believe he’s going inside at least some of the time.

But the fucker woke us up before dawn this morning howling through the back door at Link. And then again about 30 minutes later. I took this picture (which I know is not good but it’s hard to get a good shot of a cat that runs every time you approach it) because I’m going to make a flyer to hang up in the neighborhood that says something along the lines of: Is this your cat? He’s very cute, but please keep him the fuck inside.

Update: No shit—as I was typing that last paragraph he started howling at our back door again. He’s still doing it.

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Morning sun ritual

by on December 9, 2009, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, my cat's cooler than yours, photography

Morning sun ritual

I wish Link would let me photograph him more often, because he really is a pretty cat. Or I guess I should say handsome.

This is him right after he smelled the area on the bed we had to treat AGAIN because Gordo peed on it. I’m starting to worry that he’s never going to get used to Link being in the house.

I feel guilty, like a bad mom, for bringing in another cat, especially one that upsets Gordo so badly, but it’s not like I can just get rid of Link. I mean, we really like him. A lot. And he needed a home.

I wish Gordo would understand that. I mean, come on, he came from a shelter, too. But that was a long time ago, and he’s an old, crotchety man now.

And a cat. And I guess cats don’t understand things like “charity,” “getting along with people you don’t like,” and definitely not “stop peeing on the bed.”

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The vegetarian thing

by on November 16, 2009, in accidental vegetarian, animals, food and/or beverage, health, or something like it, life etc., movies

Several people have asked me how “the vegetarian thing” has been going, so I thought it might be nice to post an update here. As a recap, I’ve not eaten meat since Aug. 10, 2009, and I made the conscious decision to not eat it anymore on Aug. 13, 2009. (For three days I had just accidentally not eaten it. I wasn’t actually trying to avoid it.)

For the first month or so, my biggest problem was the gassiness that comes with eating vegetarian. Beans are a great source of protein and I was eating a lot, and I guess my body just wasn’t used to it. So I hit the simethicone hard, and things have pretty much worked themselves out now. I do still take simethicone after I eat a meal that mainly consists of beans, just to do everyone around me a favor.

After about six weeks, I realized I had gained about five or six pounds. Whether it’s my scale or my body, my weight always fluctuated by a pound or two, usually coming in at 124 or 125 pounds. Now I’m a constant 130. Which I suppose isn’t really that bad, seeing as how I’m 5’8″. But there are a few shirts I can’t wear anymore, and I’ve had to relegate a few pairs of pants to the “weekend” pile, if you know what I mean.

At first I was pretty upset about the weight gain, but in all honestly I feel really good. I don’t feel fat, and if I have to go out and buy a few new pairs of pants, oh well. There are bigger things in my life I could spend my time worrying about, and five pounds really just don’t seem worth it. Even at 125 I felt like I needed to tone a bit, and I still do, so I’ll probably end up using the gym membership I have until February. Maybe. I’ve had it for a few weeks and haven’t gone, though, so we’ll see.

As far as the difficulty in not eating meat, there really isn’t any unless I’m super starving. And even then it’s not that I miss meat, it’s just that I feel like I’m on the verge of a low-blood sugar crash and it would be so much easier to stop at McDonald’s and grab a cheeseburger instead of going home and fixing spinach or a veggie burger.

Some people have suggested that instead of keeping with the vegetarianism, I instead seek out locally grown beef, chicken and pork so that I don’t have to worry about the way they’re treated or the hormones that are pumped into them. And while I think that is a great way for meat eaters to get their food, I just don’t think it would work for me. I know myself, and that would be a slippery slope. It would not be a stretch for me to be out at a restaurant and order a meat dish just because I was a meat eater again. Years ago I stopped eating beef after I read My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki (a great book, by the way—one of my favorites), but it didn’t take more than a few months before I fell off the wagon after numerous dinners with friends and family members where beef was served.

Ian and I just watched Food Inc. tonight, and I will say that if I wasn’t a vegetarian already I would have made the commitment tonight after seeing that film. I know there are a lot of problems with genetically engineered vegetables, and I understand, as Ian put it, that I’m not doing the world any favors by eating them.

But I do know that I am not encouraging the inhumane treatment of chickens, pigs and cows. I am not responsible for the way they are crushed to death, made to walk on broken legs or thrown into grinders while still alive and crying, scared and helpless.

And like I’ve told a few people who have told me that my not eating meat doesn’t matter: Just because I can’t fix the entire problem with our food industry doesn’t mean I shouldn’t stop eating meat. Not being able to do everything perfectly doesn’t mean I should ignore what feels right to me.

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Someone call Wilford Brimley

by on September 9, 2009, in animals, around town, life etc., my cat's cooler than yours

Someone call Wilford BrimleyAs if today didn’t suck enough already, at five minutes to 5 p.m. I realized that the vet double-charged me for Evil Twin’s insulin and prescription food this weekend. The receptionist was on the phone while she was ringing me up and told me the charge didn’t go through and needed to swipe my card again, but it must have worked once she hung up. I knew it was going to happen; I even told Ian that in the car.

I called the vet and was told I’d need to bring in my debit card and a bank statement, which sounds reasonable except that I don’t get paper statements and the online ones don’t show my debit card number (or even my name, for that matter), just the last four digits of the checking account. But they all know us at the vet, so hopefully they won’t give me a hard time tomorrow about it. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to call Regions and file a fraud report.

I know it’s not a huge deal, but I want my $100 back, dammit!!

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Disharmony in the crazy cat house

by on June 23, 2009, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, jump aboard the crazy train, my cat's cooler than yours, quandaries

I’m not really sure what to do about Gordo.

Disharmony in the crazy cat house

Link and Evil Twin put up their dukes

See, back when we first got Link, I knew Gordo would have the most trouble adjusting to him. He’s the oldest, crabbiest cat we’ve got. But he did adjust to Evil Twin, an already grown male cat, so I figured adjusting to a kitten might not be as bad. It took him about three weeks to adjust to BK, so I figured maybe a month and a half tops.

Well, the only thing I didn’t take into consideration was that Link is totally and completely insane. Instead of just wanting to play with Gordo, he stalks him. And chases him. And jumps on him. Every single time he sees him. For the first couple of weeks Gordo tolerated him, but then he hurt his foot, most likely from running away from Link.

So we kept him upstairs in the office for a couple of weeks, allowing his foot to heal without him having to worry about running away from Link or jumping on/off the bed to get away from him.

His foot has been healed for a few weeks now, but he won’t come downstairs. At first I thought he wasn’t eating/using the litterbox, but one night I was up late and after Link passed out (he plays hard every night until about midnight), I saw Gordo come slithering down the stairs, grab a quick bite to eat, use the litterbox, and then hot-foot it back upstairs.

:(

When we see Gordo upstairs, he acts normal. He meows, purrs, sleeps next to me, etc. But it sucks that he won’t just beat the shit out of Link until Link gets the picture. That’s what BK did, and Evil Twin has done that to a certain degree (most of the time he just runs to the other side of the room and eventually Link leaves him alone).

So what can I do? Lock the two of them in a room together and let them fight it out? Gordo is declawed and none of the other cats are, but he has no problem being the Alpha Cat when it’s just him, BK and Evil Twin in the room. Hell, BK is a lot bigger than him but he shows her who’s boss all the time.

I just feel bad because I thought I was doing the right thing by taking this stray cat into our home—a cat who BK now loves, and who really is a fun (albeit patience-trying) little kitty. But Gordo is my baby—I’ve had him for 10 years now. And I feel horribly guilty that I’m letting Link push him around. But then again, all he needs to do is stand up for himself.

Ugh. What can I do? I miss my little guy.

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Meet Link

by on March 26, 2009, in animals, but in our house we never get bored, my cat's cooler than yours, photography

Meet Link

After a night that involved getting stuck in a bug glue trap (Ian freed him), tearing up Kleenex and putting it in his food bowl, snuggling with me in the bed and purring the whole time, the newest kitty is getting a little more comfortable here.

We let BK into the bedroom when we got home from work, where she tried to hide her extreme curiosity by hissing at him. We let him explore the house a bit, too, but Gordo is still really freaked out and cougared out a bit on him. So I think we’re just going to let him out a little at a time and hope everyone just chills the F out in a couple days.

Also, I just wasn’t feeling the name Elliott. It just didn’t really fit his personality—which is a brave, charge-on-ahead, curious, tiny little guy with a good heart. Ian and I both had thought about calling him Link because of this, and as Ian pointed out: It’s about damn time we had a cat named after a video game character.

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