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      Thursday, January 02, 2003

06:03 AM - 01/02/2003 The topic: Help needed in San Diego ---------------------------------------------- I received the following in my mail yesterday: 13 of my cats were killed in a devastating fire which, also destroyed most of my personal property during the pre-dawn hours of Saturday December 21. I cannot possibly relate to you the amount of grief I have felt for the past 10 days. Each of the 13 cats had his or her special personalities and affections, my oldest, Winnie, had been with me for nearly 8 years. My grieving has been focused only on these precious 13 cats and I have yet to feel the devastating loss of my personal belongings, including all the tools, resources and environment for my occupation which, I performed from the home. Since the fire, I have been unable to produce for lack of my ‘tools of the trade’ and have consequently lost 2 weeks of income. 3 of my cats survived. Stanley was rescued by a fire- man and given immediate treatment for smoke inhalation and is recovering from 2nd degree burns on 1/6 of his body. His vet bill is $2,000 and increasing. Suzy, his littermate, escaped when I opened the front door and has since, been missing now for 10 days. The neighborhood is excessively urbanized and very densely populated and she is wandering around the neighborhood, traumatized and in extreme fear. She and Stanley were born inside the apartment and were contented with indoor life (no outdoor escapes or wanderings)for their entire 13 months of life. Finally, Mac somehow miraculously survived the entire ordeal inside the apartment! I discovered him in the burnt out shell of my apartment 3 days after the fire and began trapping efforts. I finally succeeded in trapping him 5 days after the fire and taking him to my vet, where his health was pronounced excellent and he is now being boarded at Grossmont Animal Hospital @ $10/day. I have been fortunate in being temporarily housed by my friends. This arrangement does not permit me to keep both my surviving cats, Stanley and Mac so, Mac must stay at the vet.” I don’t know how I will manage my personal finances and therefore, the care of my surviving cats. I have no immediate means of recovering my personal losses. I am anxious to re-unite Stanley and Mac in a safe environment so they can be together again. I am hopeful to recover Suzy and re-unite her with her brothers. I need lots of help and don’t know where to start. I want to give the best possible care to the surviving cats and I must also get my business up and running again. Joe   I’ve contacted Joe and advised him to open a Paypal account, for those who would like to send money.  And I’m sure that Grossmont Animal Hospital will take donations to help with the care of Mac (Phone: 619-466-0501 Fax: 619-697-7277).  After I make this entry, I’ll be contacting the local media. Now, I’ve heard from Joe in the past.  He was lax on getting his cats fixed and ended up with sixteen.  At the time he emailed me for help, his landlord was planning on tearing down the apartments where Joe lived and Joe needed to find a new home for himself and his cats.  He asked if I could help with placement.  I referred him to a couple of places and he let me know that everything would be okay.  I didn’t ask how, but I found out yesterday that his landlord had applied for permits and been turned down, so Joe got to keep his home.  Until the fire.  13 cats die in apartment fire ignited by unattended stove The San Diego Union - Tribune; San Diego, Calif.; Dec 22, 2002 Copyright SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY Dec 22, 2002 Thirteen cats died of smoke inhalation early yesterday in an apartment fire ignited by an unattended stove. San Diego firefighters used oxygen to revive one cat. Two other cats apparently escaped injury, fire officials said, but they could not be found yesterday. An adult occupant in the apartment suffered from smoke inhalation, but declined to be taken to a hospital. The blaze in a two-story apartment complex on Winona Avenue, near Trojan Avenue, was reported about 6 a.m. The first firefighters arrived four minutes later, a San Diego Fire Department dispatcher said. It took 25 firefighters 11 minutes to control the fire. The blaze caused about $80,000 in damage, fire officials said. Joe would like foster homes for his cats.  He’s devastated right now, losing so much.  If there is anything you can do to help, please let me know.  It’s the beginning of a new year, lets start it out right. ------------------------------------------------------ So, what else? Hmm…well, we had a pretty quiet New Year’s Eve.  It was our 17th anniversary, too.  Earlier last year, we’d preordered Monsters, Inc at CostCo.  It was delivered to our house along with two certificates to a Disney movie, which were to expire on December 31, 2002.  We figured we’d use them on New Year’s Eve and go see Santa Clause II, which was the only movie playing.  Brian worked in the bedroom on the tile most of the day and at 2:40 I checked for play times for the movie.  The last show started at 2:30.  *sigh*  Needless to say, we didn’t go to a movie.  Right now, we’re a little strapped for cash.  I don’t even want to use the credit cards.  Brian hasn’t been very busy since mid November, before his trip to Colorado.  And if he’s not working, there’s no money coming in.  But this was the first New Year’s Eve that we’ve actually been awake at midnight.  And it was because of the cats.  Georgie in particular.  When I first thought all of the cats were in, I was watching tv, and I took a head count.  I couldn’t find Angel.  I spent about an hour and a half looking for her, inside, outside, in the rafters, under the sofas, everywhere I could think of.  Well, I guess I missed one of the tubes by the entertainment center, because she was sitting right next to it, yawning and stretching.  She’d obviously been snoozing there and didn’t bother responding to my call.  Brian and I started watching television and Georgie started to get wound up.  Well, the only thing to do is to put him outside.  It was late when he went out, probably about 10:30.  I would get him in when I went to bed. At 11:30, I got up and opened the back door, calling Georgie to come in.  He didn’t come.  I went outside and checked around and didn’t see him.  I went into the house, got into my sweatpants, grabbed a flashlight and went back outside.  I heard the neighbor dog digging at their gate.  I went out front and checked around and saw nothing.  I went back into our house, back into the yard.  I was getting panicked about now, not knowing where George could be.  I woke Brian up and he got dressed and went out to help look.  We finally found George in the big pvc pipe back by the fence.  He wouldn’t come out.  I guess all of the fireworks had spooked him pretty badly.  I ended up turning on the water and squirting water up the pipe and Georgie ran out the end where Brian was waiting.  Georgie got past him, but Brian was able to catch up to him and brought him inside.  We watched “The Sons of Katie Elder” on AMC, well, I watched for about fifteen minutes and I was asleep.  When I woke up, Brian had shut everything off and was in bed.  I quickly followed. I just don’t know what to do about the out front cats.  This past weekend I hadn’t put out enough food so I put out more.  The next few nights, we put out more and it didn’t get eaten.  Last night, I cut back again, only to see the mama cat out there again.  I put out more food.  And the extra I’d put out, didn’t get eaten.  There was a considerable amount left this morning.  Then I split a can of junk tuna for OC and MeezerKitty this morning and they cleaned the bowls.  I guess we should just put out the smaller amount of wet at night and if it’s not enough, they can eat the dry that’s in the feeder out front.  We’re just throwing so much food out and right now, we really can’t afford to be doing that. Oh, yeah, speaking of being broke, they called Tuesday and our furniture is in.  Brian said to go ahead and call this morning and let them know they can deliver Saturday.  The bedroom won’t be completely finished but it will be done enough to get furniture in.  The closet won’t be finished and we’ll probably have a blanket up over the window, but we’ll have a bed in the bedroom! Well, I can’t think of anything else right now.  So, I guess I’ll go start crocheting. | Permalink

      Friday, January 03, 2003

07:16 AM - 01/03/2003 The topic: Feliway plug ins.. ---------------------------------------------- The Feliway plug ins I ordered last weekend showed up yesterday. (Thank God for plastic with no interest until April; otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford them.) I put one in the kitchen, one in my bathroom and one in the office. And this morning, there was no pee on the kitchen counter or in my bathroom. And there was a lot less hissing and spitting last night, Georgie didn't even ask to go outside. I hope this is an indication that the Feliway is working. Boy, wouldn't that be nice? And eventually we could scale down to just one plug in? The self warming beds got here, too. I threw the heating pad out (it didn't look good) and DeeJay immediately curled up on the new pad and went to sleep. I put the other two outside, but I haven't seen any of the ferals on them yet. Speaking of the ferals, all of the food I put out last night was gone this morning. I did see Angus out there eating, late, right before I went to bed. I only saw KittyMeeze this morning. I just went outside and looked around. OC is out there, too. Kewl. I set up a forum for Joe Pechota last night. Joe is the man who lost so many of his furbabies to fire four days before Christmas. If you'd like to leave a message or ask him a question, or just read what he has to say, the forum is at Benny's. The name of the forum is simply "Joe's". If you want to leave a message, you'll have to register. I contacted many places yesterday and I only heard back from one, Melissa Sharpe from KIFM, smooth jazz. I'll try again today. The floor is finished in the bedroom. Brian was on his hands and knees last night loosening up the extra grout. I went over it a couple of times with the big Bissell. I'll go over it a couple of more times today. I also have to wash down the walls where grout got onto them. There's surprisingly little. Brian does really clean work. I have to say the floor looks so good. And you walk into the bedroom, no pee smell. I called yesterday on the furniture and it will be delivered Saturday afternoon. We may have to have a blanket on the window for privacy (the window still has to be finished) and I'm sure our clothes will still be in piles in the exercise room. Brian stained the wood for the baseboard last night and this morning I'm going to clear it. I think I may be clearing it again this afternoon, I'll have to check with Brian. We want to get as much done as we can before the furniture arrives. Last year, I made a list of things I had to do. The only two that were left, and that were on there for months were to clean out my closet and drawers (done!) and to repair the wallpaper that had been torn when the kittens were really kittens. Daniece used to love to jump up at the walls. It took me about three or four hours. Many of the places were just ripped and I was able to glue the paper back down and the tear isn't noticable. But others, I had to actually patch. I have to find my felt pens so I can do a little cheat/blend of the patch to the new. There's only one that's really obvious, and that's only if you're looking for it. And I had to replace the entire panel at the corner by the office. The hard part was getting the old stuff off. But it sure looks nice now. And I finally cleared off my list. I got a little unpleasant surprise yesterday. Someone who had signed up for the update mailing back in 2000, reported me for spam. Geez. Right on the mailing it says how to be removed from the list. I doubt there are even a hundred names on it. The only time I even look at it is when mail bounces, then I remove the name. I've had people email me to be removed, which I've done. But I think that really stunk, turning me in for being a spammer. Luckily, my host at lisaviolet designs, Matt, owner and operator of MarkeTrend.net believes me, that I'm not a spammer. I have to admit, though, it really bothered me, being accused of sending spam. Today is the day of David Westerfield's actual sentencing by the judge. He was convicted of kidnap and murder of a seven year old girl last year. His lawyers were in the process of a plea agreement, he would get life if he told them where her body was when the searchers found her nude body out by Singing Hills Golf Course. The DA told them "we found the body, we don't need his help". During the penalty phase of his trial, the defense brought in witnesses for him and his character. When one woman came in, he said "who's that?" It was his aunt. Yeah, there you go. This woman would know a lot about his character. I think they should have just let this guy in with the general prison population. Let him feel the fear that that little girl felt the last few hours of her life, naked and helpless. On that note, I'll sign off for today. | Permalink

      Monday, January 06, 2003

11:10 AM - 01/06/2003 The topic: Warm weather predicted for today ---------------------------------------------- We’re in for high winds and record temperatures today.  If your connection can handle it, check out the live weather cam during the day. I’ve already been to the vet’s office.  Saturday, Brian finished the window treatment and put in the baseboard in the bedroom.  He used his nail gun that’s run by the compressor back in the shop.  It’s very noisy, very loud.  Before he finished the furniture was delivered and my job was to stand guard at the door as the furniture was brought in.  The men had set the screen door to stay open, but that would never do.  We couldn’t have cats leaving through the front door, could we?  Anyway, it was a pretty hectic day.  Last week, remember, I had refilled Annie’s amitriptyline prescription and have been giving her a pill a day.  Well, this morning, I see she’s been so stressed by the past few days, that she’s peeing clots again.  I called down to the vet’s office to see if it would be possible to refill her torbutrol prescription and Becky said no problem.  I went right away to get it.  If Annie is peeing clots, then she most definately doesn’t feel good.  She’s eating and drinking okay, it’s just her pee. Dang. I just gave DeeJay, Boney and Lucky some food in my clean bathroom, split it up between them.  I checked in on the and Lucky puked all over my counter.  I mean, all over. There was some grass and little pieces of fur, so I don’t doubt she was bringing up a furball.  If it wasn’t her, it was DeeJay.  His belly has been bubbling this morning again.  It could be him.  *sigh*  It took about a dozen paper towels, but now it’s all cleaned up. Note to self: from now on, only feed one cat at a time in the bathroom. I really like our new bedroom suite.  Once everything was in place, the first thing I did was put my jewelry in the jewelry drawer.  There was even room for all of my Disney jewelry.  I found all of my Disney earrings and now they’re laid out nice and neat.  I have one pair that I really like and I’d misplaced one of the earrings.  I found it yesterday after a year of looking and I’m all set.  I still have to move my clothes to the drawers.  I don’t know if I want to line them or not yet.  Brian climbed up into the attic last night and moved the cable for the television.  Then we put the tv in the armoire, but the tv was too big to go in from the front (sounds like what happened in the other room earlier this year) and we had to pull out the armoire to get the television in place.  Then I turn it on and there’s this humongous purple spot that isn’t that noticible unless it’s on a face.  That went away, though, after the televsion had been turned off, then back on.  I have to figure out how to do the antenna through the 4DTV receiver now, since there’s only one spot to connect anything at the back (for coaxial cable).  As it is, we can’t get local stations. Last Friday, one of the first places I ever posted when I came online shut down. Acmepet is no longer.  There was a threat of closure in April of last year and a few people started up new boards, in case Acme did close. Well, they finally did it Friday, with no fanfare, no notice.  Of course, I have Benny’s Forums and all are welcomed there.  I know that some won’t frequent anything that I have a hand in (I admit I’ve stepped on some toes), but I think there will be a fair amount of new posters at Benny’s.  If you’d like to join the community, go on over the Benny’s Forums and sign up.  You may make some new cat loving friends there. Now, I know that some want to recreate Acmepet, but it’s not going to happen.  You can’t recreate something as wonderful as Acme could be.  Change happens.  You can have the board look exactly like the Acme board, but it won’t be Acme.  There will never be another Acme. I’ve had a couple of inquiries about the success of the Feliway plugins.  Well, right now, I think it may be too soon to tell for sure, but I do know that Georgie has very much calmed down at night.  He hasn’t gone after anyone since I put them in.  And the spraying on the kitchen counter has been cut back considerably.  I can’t tell on the windows because I need to clean the windows first, something I’ve been planning to do since last week. (I try to do them once a week now, at least.)  It doesn’t look like there’s anything new though.  I am curious about how well they work when I’ve got the house open, like right now.  Ciara was behaving quite badly yesterday morning, stalking Georgie, not stopping even after we put her outside.  She came right back in and kept after him.  She got one of her nice pills, a half a tab of Buspar that we keep on hand for such occasions.  Like I said, it’s too soon to tell right now, but indications are that the Feliway plugins will be a big help. Last night, one of the cats ran through the screen in the living room.  Ripped it right up.  I don’t know who it was and none of the cats showed any signs of injury.  We don’t quite know what happened.  And I don’t have any idea why one of the cats would try to go out that door, since it’s been kept shut for months now.  It’s a mystery to me.   Well, laundry has been piling up (what’s new?) and the windows should be cleaned.  I’ll be getting busy now. | Permalink

      Friday, January 10, 2003

01:13 PM - 01/10/2003 The topic: La la la lala la la… ---------------------------------------------- Yoohoo!  It’s me!  I’m still alive!  I’ve just been busy futzing around with stuff on Benny’s Forums.  Amazing how I can lose time when I’m playing around with script hacks.  I added an event calendar and a new icon/link for people’s home pages and when you go into a user’s profile you get a link to their last post.  There was another hack I added but I broke the admin so I had to back everything out.  Actually, adding the hacks wasn’t all that hard, it was undoing the damage I’d done that took the work.  Anyhoo…. I have to admit I got a little irritated when there was a push for a vote on boards for the Acmepet refugees.  WTF?  Why a vote?  Why an “official” board? There was never an official board before, people just posted where they were comfortable.  The point was made that people had said they wanted to be told where to go.  I think that was extremely misread, I think what was meant was “just let me know where the majority of people will be”.  And I think that would be pretty apparent by just visiting the various boards and seeing who was posting at each one.  I know that I’ve offended a few folks in the past, I’m not one to mince words, but the webmaster of the other board, “Tigger’s” is not what I would consider an abrasive personality (unlike myself) and she’s put tons of work into her forum.  Lots of people, though, are very resistant to change (a couple of women were heard to whine “but I’m too old, I can’t learn something new”; hey, if I ever get that bad, where I use my age as an excuse not to exercise my mind, I’ve asked Brian to take me out back and put a bullet in my head) and want to stay with that tired WWW bulletin board format, the kind offered at Boardhost.  Different strokes for different folks.  I mean, you’ll never hear me singing the praises of doo wop music or hip hop music.  Give me light jazz or stuff from the Eagles era. So, what’s new at the cathouse?  Well, the furniture was delivered last Saturday, but the mattress wasn’t put on the bed until Tuesday night.  Fresh mattress pad, fresh sheets, fresh bedspread and when we went to bed, what did I find?  Yeah.  You guessed it.  Fresh pee.  Somekitty sprayed the headboard and it dribbled onto Brian’s pillow, which would lead me to believe it was done by the penisless boy, Kirby.  Too tired to do much about it, I pulled off the spread and put an afghan down,  and switched my pillow with Brian’s and turned the pee spot down.  Yeah, yeah, I can just see some of you gagging right now, but I guess you get hardened to cat piss.  (What I’ll never get used to is the taste… :puke) So far, though, it doesn’t seem to be really bad.  I haven’t seen any puddles on the floor of cat pee like we saw in the family room.  That’s nice.  Mystie did jump onto the armoire last weekend and peed against the wall, but with the two coats of top coat Brian had put on, the urine came right off, cleaned up very nicely. Annie finally seems to be getting over her recent episode.  Brian foolishly decided to try to see if she’d go back into the bedroom and he picked her up from her spot on the scanner.  He walked her in there and she started to freak.  I was at the other end of the house and came running to see what was going on with her.  Dang, I was upset.  Just leave her be.  If she wants to go into the bedroom, she’ll go into the bedroom.  She found the office, she can find the bedroom.  Oh, for those of you on the mailing list who use AOL, the email address that turned me in started with mrs.  I doubt it was anyone who is still reading the journal or checking up on my site. I took this picture this morning.  Richie was helping hubby with breakfast. Well, I guess that's it. It would appear that I'm much yappier when I make entries more often. Hmmm... Well, now that I've done as much as I can at this time at the forums, I'll be posting here on a more timely basis. Going to go check on laundry. Been married over 17 years now and I've only caught up with the laundry less than ten times. Go figure. | Permalink

      Tuesday, January 14, 2003

11:35 AM - 01/14/2003 The topic: The laundry is still waiting… ---------------------------------------------- Tuesday, January 14, 2003 This weekend I laundered bed clothing as the cats peed on it. Remember I traded pillows with Brian? Well, I washed the pissy pillow that day and that night, I saw that someone had peed on the pillow I'd traded with him. So, I took the pissy pillow and gave him the clean one. So far, so good. But when the machines are in use with bed clothes and blankets, they aren't in use with clothes. This morning, Brian asked if he had any clean Levis anywhere. Not down here. So, today, I have to do clothing laundry. And I know my major block to doing laundry right now is the exercise room. The fact that I can't hang anything up because the bedroom closet isn't done gets in my way of wanting to do laundry. Brian has been working on the wood frame for the closet doors and he needs to get the wood for the shelving (he's going have the bar for hangers lower, which will give room for two shelves; which I'm excited about because I can put bedding there and that will give me extra room for towels in the hallway closet). I digress (what's new?) I've also fallen behind in paperwork, something I have a tendency to do when we don't have any money to pay bills. So, those are two things I want to get done today. Laundry and paperwork. With the paperwork done, I should be able to start cleaning out last year's files and set up this year's. We've been doing good on keeping up with walking. Except yesterday, Brian kept going at the corner light instead of going right. We started out in cool clear weather, ended up going into a deep fog. Then by a school where the sprinklers were on and we had to walk in the street in the fog with people in cars on the road going to work. I didn't like that one little bit. I think we walked about five miles, but Brian said it was only a mile and a half. The last couple of little hills were really hard on me. Not breathing hard, but my legs were killing me, especially my thighs and even my buttocks. I was glad to get home. Then I was too hot and I sat in my office chair in just my sweatpants and bra. This morning, we didn't walk quite so far. This morning I went to the vet's office already to pick up more needles for DeeJay's fluids. I went over to the local donut shop and bought a box of donuts (14 for $3.99) and I had them put one in a seperate bag for me and I walked up to the vet's office and gave them the box of donuts. Liz asked how many needles I needed and I told her two week's worth, which is twelve needles (two per fluid session, three sessions a week). She came from the back and asked if I'd like to just buy a box and I asked how much. She told me a figure, less than $7.00, so I said sure. I'd gotten $20.00 back at Wal-Mart yesterday after buying 9 lives cat food (I hate this stuff, but if DeeJay, Boney and Lucky will eat it, and ask for more, I'll buy it; besides, the out fronts also get a can of it in the morning) and I'd spent less than three of that on a slice of pizza and a soda at CostCo. So, after lunch, donuts and needles, I still have over five dollars left. And if I don't go anywhere, that should last me a month. Brian finally decided to not buy anything unless we had the money to pay for it. No more plastic. Sounds good to me. (Hey, if you're feeling sorry for me, you can make a donation...*grin*...nah, if you want to donate to a good cause, donate to Joe's cats; which reminds me, go check out the forum I made for him, there's been a Suzy sighting!) I found when I was single being broke brought out my more inventive side, I found things to do that didn't cost anything. Re-introducing myself to things I'd set aside during flusher times. Like right now, I can burn CDs (either audio or computer), learn more about computer programs I've got and never made myself learn, make candles, crochet, gosh, all sorts of creative things that I've already paid for the materials...lots to keep me busy and to tap into my inner talent. If there is any, that is. Want to see a couple of very handsome boys? That's OC at the top, MeezerKitty on the bottom. I took that Monday. OC is spending more time with us. And he's getting more used to us walking around. Sometimes I can even make it up to the mailbox without him running under the juniper on the bank. Other times, he runs as soon as he hears the door open. *sigh* I haven't seen Repete in a while. I have seen the tortie and the little black kitten was here this morning. I think he's getting more used to me, too. He'd start to run off and when Meeze and SpotTee just sat where they were, kept eating, he'd come back up to a food dish. I've seen where he's living, down the street on the Little Man's property, under his juniper. I'd like to get this guy and his mom. She sure doesn't seem way feral, more like a dumped cat. Way ferals run when they hear or see humans. She just keeps eating. But talking to her doesn't seem to affect her any. Hmmm..... Okay, Levis are in the wash. The six inch pile of unopened mail is still sitting there, to the left of the keyboard, waiting for me... This morning, after Brian left, I called my mom. Then someone rang the doorbell. I told mom that someone was at the door, please hang on. I went to the door, it was Brian and I could hear the truck running. He said the neighbor was trying to give their dog her insulin by herself (hubby usually does it) and she couldn't do it, Munchkin wouldn't cooperate (this is the same house where the guy called me up last year screaming and cussing about the ferals in his yard). Well, Brian offered to help, but she wanted to be the one to hold Munch and he give the shot. And we all know that's not going to happen. If he can't do Junior, he most decidedly won't be able to do a dog who isn't ours. So, he came home and asked if I'd do it. I told my mom what the deal was as I was putting on my shoes. I went next door, and the neighbor held Munch and I gave Munch what was left of her insulin (she'd gotten half of it). I looked at the syringe and it's a 100cc syringe and I don't think the needle is as fine as the one we use for Junior. I asked the neighbor where she gets her syringes, told her about the 30cc syringe we use for Junior and that I thought the needle was finer so it didn't hurt so much. We walked outside and she asked if we still had three dogs (it's been a while since we've spoken) and I told her about Buddy and Sandy, and about Rusty and Lola. She talked a little about her father and I finally told her that I was kind of cold. I had on sweatpants and a thermal shirt, that I'd worn while walking. Although it was warm enough inside, it was still a little damp from our walk (I had a sweatshirt on over it which came off when I walked in the house) and I was definitely losing body heat. Speaking of needles, when I got the needles for DeeJay this morning, Liz made it a point to ask if I was going to use them for illicit purposes. That got me to laughing. I don't think so, those suckers are HUGE! She said that they'd gotten a call from a pharmacy about one of the clinic's clients, that the pharmacy would no longer sell insulin syringes to this client because they were using them for themselves. I thought this was odd, because I've gotten syringes at RiteAid (the first box) and after that at CostCo and they've never asked me who prescribed them. I have to give my name, address and phone number when I purchase them and it's always stated they're for "K9" use. But no one ever asked who the vet is. I guess if I were to get them more often than every three months they'd question it. It would appear that the pharmacies turn in these logs to state agencies, where they're checked over. Anyway, Liz was told by the pharmacy that they'd no longer sell to this particular client. I wonder if the client went to purchase more syringes and they were told "no" by the pharmacy at which point the client told them to call the vet. It seems curious based on my experience. Well, it's 11:30 now, I guess I'd best start opening mail and processing it. Not something I'm looking forward to at all. | Permalink

      Thursday, January 16, 2003

11:36 AM - 01/16/2003 The topic: I’m depressed ---------------------------------------------- I’m depressed.  There was very little food touched for the out fronts last night.  Considerably less than the previous night.  I asked Brian last night when the last time he saw Repete was and it’s been weeks.  *sigh*  Now, when Peter came to live with us, he used to come down here from up the street.  One of the neighbors said that he’d seen Pete quite a ways from our house.  Well,  earlier this week, Brian pointed out that this one property has really been cleaned up.  I think the people moved and it’s a possibility that is where Repete lived.  Maybe he moved.  I saw the kitten a couple of mornings ago, but haven’t seen him since.  I haven’t seen the tortie in a few days either.  SpotTee, KittyMeeze and OC were all here this morning, but that’s it.  Yesterday morning on our walk, there was a big neutered male dog running around.  He had a chain collar, but no tags.  I chased him away from the area where I’d seen the kitten earlier this week.  I don’t know if he stayed away, though.  *sigh*  I’d sure like to see the kitten or the mom.  One thing, though, the other woman who feeds house is closer than ours, so (fingers crossed) maybe the cats are going over there to eat. Since New Year’s Eve, Georgie has been afraid to go outside.  Well, the past week, he’s been slowly spending more time outside.  He still won’t go out at night, though.  Fortunately, he hasn’t been fighting with any of the other cats.  I think Ciara has picked up on his unease, though, because she’s still stalking him. Well, not much is going on.  There’s much to do here and I just don’t feel like doing any of it.  Maybe I’ll go take a nap. | Permalink

      Saturday, January 18, 2003

11:34 AM - 01/18/2003 The topic: I should really know better. ---------------------------------------------- Saturday, January 18, 2003 I should really know better than to take on a new to me forum full of people who are anti-clawers. Or at least people who don't understand. Yet. And the stupid analogies they make (human circumcision, feline spay/neuter, human plastic surgery).... :bonk:  You may have heard that the West Hollywood City Council is going to ban declawing in West Hollywood. It's supposed to be up for a vote this coming Tuesday. Well, my stat tracker showed a couple of hits from a Yahoo forum and stupid, stupid me, I went over and just had to try to clarify some things about declawing. But it's about fifty of them and one of me, so I'm not going back. And they don't debate right, they get nasty. Hey, good news! Guess who I saw early Thursday evening? And again on Friday morning? REPETE! And I also think I saw the kitten. I haven't seen the tortie, though.  Hubby needs to go to Home Depot and said he might as well go to CostCo. Did I want to go? So, I'll be back later and share more of my very exciting life with you. | Permalink

      Monday, January 20, 2003

02:49 PM - 01/20/2003 The topic: Ah…Monday, Monday… ---------------------------------------------- It's Monday. I'm sure you've realized by now, I never did make it back Saturday. One of those things about getting sidetracked. We went to Home Depot and made a mistake of looking at lamps for the bedroom. At that point, we only had a little Mickey Mouse lamp and it didn't cast much light. Of course, there are the lights in the ceiling fan, but I've never liked overhead lighting, it's not soft enough or something. No matter how beautiful the fixture, I always think of warehouses or filling station bathrooms. Well, we saw some lamps that would really look nice in the bedroom. A floor lamp for my side of the bed and a table lamp for on top of the armoire. Then we looked at hanging lamps for the dining room and found one that matches all of the new stuff we've gotten. We thought about putting off the purchase, but Brian pointed out that the shelves were being emptied and that probably meant they were clearing out stock for new. So, we spent way too much money, once again. That should be it, though. There's nothing else we need. We've got all the tile that we need for the rest of the house, we've got all of the paint. Well, we might have to come up with something here in the office. We got some new office furniture years ago at CostCo, I think it was so long ago it was still Price Club. It's in the original boxes back in Brian's shop. We've just never gotten around to the remodel of the office. We have dark grey tile for in here and I'd like to have the walls a light or medium grey. The furniture we got is dark grey and light grey, if I remember correctly. So, we'll probably only have to buy paint for in here. Well, there is one more thing we need. Bedspreads. And that's looking like a tough thing to find. We can't use ruffles or that bed skirt because it has to go under the mattress. And to put something under our mattress, we have to disconnect the air. And besides, it's not practical when I know how often I'm going to be washing the spread, you know? Having something hanging onto the floor is just asking for more work anyway. I did find some solid spreads, good sized. They're long enough and wide enough so that I won't need pillow shams, I can make the bed the old fashioned way and tuck the spread under the pillows. Blair has them and Sears has them. I figure I can get different colors and to change the look, put a patterened comforter or afghan on top. And obviously, we'll need more than one spread, because of the urine problem. The ones I found are $59.99 a piece. Gah! They look just like the ones I got at Spiegal over twenty years ago for $20.00. And those are still around, but they're ready to go to that big spread heaven in the sky. I received an email from the Paw Project this morning. They were instrumental in the law that is being considered by the West Hollywood City Council. Keep your fingers crossed that it passes. Last week, Brian made cook and serve sugar free chocolate Jello pudding. Something I've never really paid attention to is the type of milk that's supposed to be used. We use non-fat. The directions call for 1%. There's never been any problem with it before. Well, Brian dished it up and mine sat on the table for a while. Brian's didn't. He kept stirring his. And what's really strange is mine firmed up to nice pudding firm. His stayed a watery consistancy. He ended up pouring his down the drain. I offered him half of mine, but he declined. Yesterday, I wanted to watch the playoffs. So, I did. But Brian wanted to watch Monte Walsh on TNN. So, I watched the Titans/Raiders game in the bedroom. It was nice. I had cats all around me, even Red came in and laid in the crook of my arm and let me scratch him behind the ears and on the back of his neck for a really long time. When I stopped, he started headbutting me. I guess it was probably twenty minutes before he decided he'd had enough. The cats really seem to like the new arrangement in the bedroom. Spraying has been at a minimum. We've had a couple of places that have been sprayed, but since they're easily seen, they're easy to quickly clean up. And I have to give the Feliway a thumbs up. Even Brian said it's made a difference. We still have some spraying, but it's decreased considerably. There's not nearly as much as often on the kitchen counter. The back of Brian's chair still gets sprayed, but I think maybe we should try spraying Feliway directly on it. And at night, because that's when it gets hit the hardest. But we like the plug ins. The have the cathouse four paw approval rating. The roots have grown long on my hair and there still isn't enough of my natural white to suit my tastes. Brian got a late start today and we did my hair this morning. I used the toner crap that came with it and when I tried combing it out, it wouldn't. It was dry and breaking off. I ended up washing it again and put lots of conditioner on it. Then I put some of that Frizz-Ease stuff on it and carefully combed it out. It looks and feels a lot better now. Well, I've seen the little one (I called him "Little Bit" the other day to Brian) and Repete has been back around. This morning we had KittyMeeze, OC and SpotTee. But no tortie and we haven't seen Angus for a while. We've only been putting out two cans of food at night, not mixed with dry. And they've been eating it all. The dry in the feeder isn't going down quickly. At least we're not throwing food out every morning. That's it for now. | Permalink

      Wednesday, January 22, 2003

03:18 PM - 01/22/2003 The topic: Yesterday was a Disney day ---------------------------------------------- Yesterday was a Disney day.  We went to Disneyland.  We left before 9:30 and got up there around 11:00.  The drive was nice, uneventful.  We came home about 2:15, hit a little traffic, but it wasn’t too bad.  The parks were almost empty.  Looks like I’m going to mark the day after the Martin Luther King holiday as a good Disney day.  Maybe even book a room for the night. We got home right at sunset, so the cats didn’t go without their regular feeding.  I fed the dog and the inside cats and Brian, who was watching television asked if I’d fed the outfronts.  No, I didn’t.  Didn’t you tell me that it would be your job, no more taking turns?  Just if you were busy I would do it?  Well, I don’t consider watching Gilmore Girls being busy.  Sorry, but feeding animals takes precedence over the lives of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore.  :yes What was really nice was to hear Brian greeting Angus.  “Hi, Angus!” he said.  He told me that Angus was sleeping sitting up.  Said he looked good.  Brian thinks SpotTee and Angus must be getting food somewhere else because they look really well fed and healthy.  Boy, was I happy to hear that Angus is still around.  This morning, there were no cats at all, not even KittyMeeze when I put out the food for them.  I did see some big pawprints outside of the water fountain, so my guess is there was a raccoon or two out there and the cats beat feet.  Around six this morning, I went out with the flashlight because the food had been out for forty five minutes and didn’t look like anyone had touched it.  KittyMeeze was in the driveway, OC was in the heartless bastard’s yard.  Relieved, I went back inside.  When I looked out a quarter of an hour later, there was KittyMeeze, OC, SpotTee and Little Bit, all eating.  Little Bit didn’t know if he wanted to stay around, he kind of would run off but when the adults didn’t, he’d come back.  When they’d emptied the bowls, they left.  KittyMeeze and OC stuck around, hung out on the bank and I guess SpotTee took Little Bit back to the juniper home. I can’t even believe how out of it I am today.  Talk about having your mind being a million miles away.  I have no idea where mine is, but it’s certainly not close by.  I got a new watch yesterday, but I think it was for a much younger female and I could barely get the band around my wrist.  I rarely like the bands they come with anyway, I like them loose and I like them so that I don’t have to hook them.  Much less chance of accidentally losing one, you know?  Anyway, I figured I’d just buy a new watchband.  There was a really pretty watch in the watch store at DL, it looked like a tennis bracelet.  I didn’t really care for the watch, but I like the band.  So, last night, I looked for one online and found none that were that fancy.  I found some Spiedels that would do and I figured I’d go to Wal-Mart to see if I could find one there.  Brian gave me a list of stuff he needed and I had to stop and get more Sensible Choice dry for the insides (I can’t believe how much they’re going through) and frozen chicken at CostCo.  I was almost at the pet store in Santee when it dawned on me I’d not brought the watches.  *sigh*  Well, at least I remembered the measurements from last night.  Then after I left the pet store, I wasn’t in the far right lane to turn onto the road where Wal-Mart is.  Luckily, there was no one in the far right lane, so I just turned right.  Maybe I’m just really tired.  Disneyland and riding for hours really takes a lot out of me. I weighed DeeJay this morning.  Seven pounds, fourteen and a half ounces!  That’s really good!  And I’ve noticed that he’s also retaining more body heat.  After he was first diagnosed with the kidney disease and had lost all of that weight, his ears and paws were always cold, like he had a hard time keeping warm.  I just noticed this past weekend that his ears weren’t cold to the touch.  I’m wondering if maybe some of the homeopathic stuff I’m doing is working.  I’ve been adding a half a cap of digestive enzymes to the junk moist food that I split between Lucky, Boney and DeeJay.  And it’s been about three weeks now that DeeJay has been lapping up his probiotics every morning.  Something good is going on with him.  When he weighs more than eight pounds for a couple of weeks, I’ll take him in and get him retested.  See how his values are now. Hey, did you hear that the law passed in West Hollywood?  This is a good thing.  Maybe now, people will begin to question the declaw surgery.  Why do some consider it a bad thing?  And maybe, they’ll become more educated about it.  And decide not to do it and hop on the anti-declaw train. Well, Brian just got home and mentioned the incredible lack of energy he’s experiencing.  I reminded him it’s always like that the day after a Disney trip.  I think I’ll go take a nap. I almost forgot to mention a few things.  First, my hair.  I killed it.  I’m sure everyone is familiar with troll dolls.  Well, after I had rinsed my hair I started to comb it.  And it started coming out in clumps.  I let it dry more and the hair that was in my comb resembled troll hair. Fine and frizzy.  I ended up cutting quite a bit of it off (back to layered).  I put it on my head in a ponytail and cut straight across.  It still has length, although it’s not as long as it was and it’s not so thick (which should help keep my head cooler).  Monday afternoon, I was ready to shave it all off and wear a wig.  Today, I like it again.  Go figure. The second thing happened at night, when Brian and I were in bed.  This was last week sometime, I don’t remember what night.  Now, the cats like the new bedroom set.  They like the new bed.  And we’ve been getting more into bed with us every night.  Boney usually sleeps between Brian and me, by our heads.  I had to get up to do a nightly toilet visit and when I came back, Daniece woke up.  She started purring and came up to where I could pet us.  She was by Boney. She started cuddling and headbutting Boney.  When I rolled over to go to sleep, I started hearing a sucking noise.  I turned back to see what she was doing and she was sucking on one of Boney’s paws.  He finally got tired of it and pulled his paw back.  She went after it.  He finally ended up smacking her and kind of growling at her.  It was really funny. That’s it! | Permalink

      Tuesday, January 28, 2003

12:42 PM - 01/28/2003 The topic: I’m back! ---------------------------------------------- Well, I wasn't really even gone, but I'm back here, making a new entry. I guess what they say, "no news is good news" is kind of the way it goes. But there is some GREAT news! Joe has Suzy back! Here is his latest post. This is such wonderful news. I hope he can find a place to live soon. Housing is really bad here in San Diego. DeeJay had a little setback this weekend. I don't know what was going on with him, but he wasn't lapping up his probiotics and he threw up a considerable amount. We did catch him eating dried up cat puke and I think that may have upset his intestinal balance. But he's getting back on track now, he's back to eating again. Life has been pretty uneventful around here. Saturday, I crocheted a good part of the day, got quite a bit done on the loveseat cover. Brian worked in the shop on the shelves for the closet (I want my closet back!). Saturday night, we watched some movies. I watched "Dragonfly" starring Kevin Costner and after that we watched "Original Sin" with Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie. Sunday morning, Brian got up early and went up to Ranchita to help Mark bury more pipe. I cleaned the house and watched the Super Bowl (yay, Tampa!). Brian got home after the game was over. Yesterday, I had a chiropractor's appointment and I was face to face with my very first racist bigot. Live and in person. Holy moley! I've seen these brainless wonders on Jerry Springer and that ilk, but never in a waiting room at a doctor's office. And for pity's sake, at least have the consideration to keep your very, unpopular inane beliefs to yourself. This room has room for maybe eight people. I saw this guy last month, and for some reason, he gave me the shudders. Not that he said anything last month, but he sure made up for it yesterday. He was saying that white people are descended from different ancestors that black people. He never said "black people" but it was obvious that was his intent. He talked about race mixing and stuff like that and the women around him were incredulous. You could see it in their faces, hear it in their voices when the spoke to him. Me, I just got up and told the receptionist I'd be outside when it was my turn. Fortunately, they got him back into a room ahead of everyone else, so no one had to listen to his idiocy. Yeah, buddy, it's apparent that we all didn't descend from the same ancestors, your ancestors must have come from under a rock. Man, would I have loved to tell him he could kiss my big fat white butt :-moon. I said something to the doctor about that man, about how I felt sorry for his kids and I found out the man didn't have any children (thank God) and his first wife left him (the doctor said "you can understand why"). The doctor doesn't think too highly of him either. Ish, I can't even imagine having to touch him. I'm having fits with my Gateway computer. I finally decided I'm going to get an ethernet card for the Dell and use it with the cable modem. I called Dell last night to see what I'd need and I was on hold for at least an hour. I finally hung up and got the model of the ethernet card in my Gateway, searched on line and found a kit for less that a hundred dollars that has a hub, software, two ethernet cards and cables. I spent more of the money we don't have and I'll try setting it up after the stuff gets here. Then I'll move the cameras over to the Dell, the remote for the roofcam over to the Dell and maybe move the weather station information over there, too. I'd like to not have to have both computers on all the time. Then I think I'll delete a bunch of programs on the Gateway and just use it for website stuff. I'm seriously considering completely reformatting the C drive and starting over from scratch. There's obviously some major software problems somewhere. It's the end of the month almost. I haven't done paperwork in so long. I must get it finished today. I still have the year end payroll reports to do. So, I guess I'd best get busy. I hope it doesn't take too long. I got W-2 forms for the laser printer this year, so I don't think I'll need to drag out the old typewriter. That's nice. More later if I think of anything. | Permalink

      Friday, January 31, 2003

10:03 AM - 01/31/2003 The topic: It feels like summer ----------------------------------------------  It's 7:30 am right now and all the doors and windows are open. It's 57.6° outside and 66.7° inside. When we went for our walk this morning, I passed over the gloves and sweatshirt for just a teeshirt. I think we're in for a warm one this afternoon. Heh heh...you know how I said it's so nice this morning? Check out this picture from the catcam I saved: It would appear that Lisa doesn't agree with me. So, what else. I was getting a little worried about SpotTee, as I hadn't seen him since this past weekend. Little Bit still showed up and, amazingly, Repete was his escort. These cats never cease to amaze me with how they take care of one another. Now, the food has been getting eaten at night, it's been since the beginning of the week when there was a substantial amount left over. Last night I only saw OC and KittyMeeze at dinner, but almost all of the food was gone this morning. I opened a side window by the front door after I put out their morning food and I did see SpotTee and Little Bit, as well as OC and KittyMeeze. *whew* Figure it's that time of the year again, I guess. And since there aren't any females close by that I know of, the intact males have to travel farther to find a queen. Over at the park my mom lives in, there's an obviously sick coyote wandering around. They've seen it in the daytime and it looks really bad. Mom said that she was told it's bleeding from its neck and the fur is all ratty looking. Because the coyote is acting out of natural coyote behavior, the county is going to set traps next week to catch it and euthanize it. They're afraid it may be rabid. I'll be glad to hear of its demise. I hate coyotes. I don't think I hate them as much when they're in the wild. But I really hate them when they're walking up my street. I think they should go live with the developers who displace their homes. That's what I think. All of our furry ones are fairly healthy, which is very fortunate right now since we are brokola. Work hasn't picked up at all since Brian took so much time off the end of last year. His main supplier is pretty busy, so that's good, means that this end of the economy isn't in the toilet yet. And here in San Diego County, there's not a whole lot of room for new construction (Brian doesn't do tract housing, he does custom homes) so hopefully the remodeling area will pick up soon. I kind of figure the end of the year bills are hitting and people are being careful with their money right now. I hope I'm right. This might be kind of scary. And of course, our old spending habits are hard to break. Although we've been really good at only getting what we need at CostCo. No extras like movies or music or yard tools or stuff like that. A place where we had a hard time leaving without having spent close to $200, well, we've been keeping that tape under $60.00 and we're not going as often. Brian is depressed because of the money situation, I know that's his problem right now. It would be great if he had the time to go up to Ranchita and just work, but I'm pushing to get the closet finished. And that should be this weekend, that should free up the weekends so he can go work in the dirt. It's almost miraculous how much that does for his spirit. I've been so frustrated with the Gateway lately, you know, I added all of that memory late last year just knowing it would take care of the problem, but it didn't. Not at all. I'm having to reboot at least once during the day and I hate doing that and disrupting the flow of the cameras and weather station uploading to my site. It's very, very frustrating. As I mentioned in my other entry this week, I finally broke down and ordered what I'd need to be able to connect to the internet with the Dell using the cable modem. And once that's set up, I'm going to see if it's possible to run all of the cameras from that computer. If it is, I'll move all of the cameras and the weather station to the Dell. And I want to format the C drive on the Gateway and start over from scratch. I know there's a software conflict somewhere and I have no idea how to find it. Plus there's a lot of garbage on the system, so I figure I'll just completely clean it out. I'm really kind of nervous about it, though. I used to reformat all the time with my first computer, didn't scare me a bit. Now it does. I'll have to go through and find what I absolutely can't lose, like my emails from both Netscape and Eudora, because they have registration information for most of my software. My hands get shaky just thinking about it. Or maybe that's the coffee. I have a bunch of stuff I could do to the website. I just downloaded some pictures from the camera and there are a couple of awesome ones of sunsets. Really nice. And a cool one of the fog coming in. Quite a few of the remodel (finishing the family room and of the bedroom). I've got a bunch of stuff to add to the card shop, more pictures and Fran's globes. Maybe after I get the new computer stuff set up, I'll work on that. Wednesday, I got all of the year end payroll reports done and in the mail. I thought I wouldn't have to get the old typewriter out, but I was wrong. Now, though, with the office closet cleaned out, I'll have a much more accessible place to store it and keep it out of reach of kitty urine. I had it in a plastic trash bag, taped up, but the cats had put little holes in the bag and some urine got through. Now I won't have to worry about that. Early Thursday morning, I woke up with a really bad pain in my butt. I think I might have a spastic colon or something. I've been having it off and on since I was in my early twenties. If you've ever had a cramp or a charley horse, think of one of those in your colon. Really, really painful. Luckily, they don't last all that long for me like they used to. At one time I figured there was a cause and effect of what I'd eaten, but I can't see where the sandwich at Boll Weevil could have caused this. I'm thinking this was stress related (no money=stress). I know that we shouldn't be spending money on dinner out, but I really need to get out of the house every once in a while and eat someone else's cooking. I was pretty tired all day long yesterday, got very little done. So, I'm trying to make up for it today. I have laundry to fold and I'm going to wash the pissy windows again. As if the pee isn't bad enough, there are big stoneware crocks full of water for the cats in the window and for some reason, the boys always wash their paws before they drink. Then they shake their paws off, getting water spots all over the windows. *sigh* Some spammer used my addy lisaviolet.at.catlover.com as a return address yesterday. I started getting all of this bounced mail, probably ended up with close to 500 pieces of it. Then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. I'm thinking that some IP had an open relay and the spammer was taking advantage of it. Then they closed the relay and the spam stopped. I haven't gotten any residual bounces. I might have gotten more, but I got busy on my filters, having much of the mail deleted before it reached my inbox. Gah, I hate spammers. And to add insult, it was for penis enlargement. We know how I feel about penis enlargement spam. That's all for now. Have a beautiful day! | Permalink

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities. In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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