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      Monday, August 01, 2005

12:18 PM - 08/01/2005 The topic: I had a really bad night last night ---------------------------------------------- Besides the heat, my mind just wouldn’t stop. It’s about DeeJay.  He still isn’t eating much.  He likes the baby food, but it’s not enough.  Because he’s not eating much, his stool isn’t getting any better.  Brian went to bed around ten last night and I stayed up. DeeJay ate a half a jar of turkey baby food.  I watched “Harold and Kumar” and went to bed afterwards.  DeeJay followed me in.  Brian had been having a difficult time going to sleep and we both heard the squirts of a cat with diarrhea.  I got up and got the flashlight to check it out.  Brian thought it was in the bathroom, but it wasn’t, it was at the foot of the bed. I cleaned it up. When I got back to bed, DeeJay was in bed and he eventually ended up on my pillow.  As I stroked his chin and rubbed his head, he began to lightly purr. And I started going over that hard question.  Was it time?  I thought back to the other cats that passed.  How had they told me they were ready?  Lola and Lucky quit eating.  Rusty walked like a drunken sailor and had nasty, nasty ammonia breath.  Pepper’s mouth bled constantly.  Bobby was just fading away, had no interest in anything. But DeeJay was on my pillow, purring.  DeeJay begs for food in the kitchen.  DeeJay sits by the table when you’re eating dinner.  He cries for bits of our dinner.  DeeJay pees.  And up until I gave him the Nutrical, DeeJay’s stools were better than they’d looked in years.  In my heart and mind, I don’t think DeeJay is ready.  Yes, he’s skinny as a rail.  Yes, his back legs are most likely arthritic.  This morning, we didn’t go for a walk. I was too tired, I just didn’t have the energy.  I want to sleep and not think.  While we were eating our breakfast, Brian in his chair, me on the sofa, I told him that one of these days, when he comes home, to not be surprised if DeeJay wasn’t here.  I asked if he wanted to be there when we said goodbye.  He said “no”.  Then he brought up all of the things that I was thinking during the night when I should have been sleeping.  He likes affection. He likes to eat.  He’s been okay with his eliminations.  I tried to see if Deej would be interested in some canned cat food.  I opened a can of Fancy Feast and let him sniff it.  He started lapping at it.  I took the can into the kitchen, emptied it into a small Tupperware bowl, added a little bit of digestive enzymes and water.  I used the little handheld processor on it.  Pureed it.  DeeJay had come into the kitchen and I picked him up and took the food and Deej into my bathroom.  I set the food on the floor and gently placed DeeJay down close to it.  I picked up Mickey and carried him out of the bathroom and shut the door behind me.  I left DeeJay in there for over fifteen minutes and was pleasantly surprised to see that he’d eaten at least half of what I’d put down for him.  He’s eaten almost all of it at this point.  It’s not running through him like stuff was Saturday and yesterday.  His body is working a little better on processing the food.  But he doesn’t look like he feels good at all.  I’m sure he doesn’t.  Hopefully, after he’s gotten a decent amount to eat, he’ll perk up. One of these times, when he has one of these episodes (and I know this one is my fault), he’s not going to get better.  I’m preparing myself for that. | Permalink

      Tuesday, August 02, 2005

10:18 AM - 08/02/2005 The topic: I haven’t heard from our petsitter ---------------------------------------------- and this worries me.  I can’t get a hold of her.  I called her phone number and it was someone else (she had a cell).  I mentioned this at the vet’s office and was told she moved. She moved next door to one of the techs at the vet’s office. Great!  So, I ask her to tell Becky to call me.  I also called the place where Becky’s mom works and asked if she could pass on my phone number to Becky.  This was two weeks ago. So far, nothing.  Last Friday, I took a card to the vet’s office for Elena to deliver to Becky.  I had my phone numbers on the card.  No word yet.  I know that October is two and a half months away, but I’m getting nervous.  My big worry right now is DeeJay.  He’s doing a lot better this morning, almost back to normal.  He needs to get his fluids every day. I guess if I don’t hear from her, we’ll just have to drive back to San Diego every day. That should be fun. Not. | Permalink

      Thursday, August 04, 2005

12:19 PM - 08/04/2005 The topic: There comes a time ---------------------------------------------- When you have to be honest with yourself and see things as they are. I don’t think DeeJay will be with us much longer.  I’ve felt like this before and been wrong, it’s possible this will happen again.  But he’s just not doing well.  Tuesday, he was walking all over and pooping.  He was working really hard to push it out.  And there’d be just a little bit.  And sometimes, he didn’t get it all out, but it just kind of hung around his butt.  Then he’d climb up on a piece of furniture, say the coffeetable, sit on it and get crap smeared all over it. This is so hard for me.  I was getting incredibly frustrated because I knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose.  I was in tears.  But I just was having a hard time with it.  So, I set him up in my bathroom.  I put a blanket in there for him to poop and piddle on, just like we’ve got in the laundry room.  I gave him fresh water and a couple of different types of food. I put a carrier in there, took the door off and put in fresh blankets. And then I put him in there and shut the door behind him.  He did okay. I gave him fluids around three in the afternoon and in the early evening, he hadn’t peed, which concerned me.  Maybe he was blocking on top of everything else.  Bobby did.  And I almost caught that too late.  An hour or so later I checked in on him and he had gone, so that was a big relief, to both of us, I’m sure. Yesterday I let him out and checked his stool.  It was firming up even more. There was one decent turd the size of the tip of my little finger.  Well formed, the consistency what you’d expect normal feces to look like.  But this wasn’t consistent with him.  I ended up putting him back in the bathroom with a fresh can of Hill’s A/D.  He ate over half of it.  I like this, it looks like something positive.  As the day progressed he seemed a little more with it, so I let him out late yesterday afternoon.  He slept deeply on the bed, then when Brian got home, DeeJay came out to be with us.  He fell asleep on the sofa, right in the middle. I’d told Brian yesterday that I’ll do the same thing with DeeJay that I did with Lola.  If DeeJay is on my pillow or on my side of the bed at night, he can stay there, I’ll sleep on the couch.  Last night, DeeJay slept on the sofa, and I slept on the loveseat with the fan aimed in my direction because the bedroom is incredibly warm at night. When I got up to let the cats out this morning, I went back to bed.  Sometime before I got up for good, DeeJay had gone into Brian’s bathroom and pooped on the floor.  I found this when I put my heel in it.  I closed the bathroom door, wiped up the poop, cleaned the floor and cleaned my foot.  Then I went back to bed.  When I got up this morning, I checked the kitchen and laundry room.  There was stool in both rooms.  This wasn’t firm.  It wasn’t really runny, but it wasn’t normal.  More like pudding that’s not quite set.  I figured I wasn’t going to have another day of following DeeJay so I decided to set up the bathroom again (I’d taken everything out yesterday because the cats had peed on much of the stuff the day before when they were able to get in).  I’d cleaned the carrier yesterday and this morning put down a clean towel and clean bedding.  I put DeeJay in the bathroom again. Brian went to the grocery store last night to get meat for his lunch today and he got roast beef, something DeeJay has always loved.  I thought “maybe I’ll give him some and see if he is interested”. He was interested, but he had a very hard time chewing it and he gave up.  I tried some Wellness turkey and salmon food and he wasn’t very interested in that, either. Bad sign.  Very bad sign.  Not eating.  I’ve always said when he quits eating, I’ll know.  I tried one other thing.  A jar of beef baby food.  It took him forty minutes on his own, but he ate the whole damned thing.  And he’s polished off close to another jar of turkey since he ate the beef.  Then he cleaned his face. So what do I do? What do I think?  If he’s willing to eat, that’s a good sign.  And if he’s willing to wash his face after he’s done eating, well, that’s a good thing, too.  He hasn’t pooped since before eight this morning. It’s been over three and a half hours.  He’s out in the house right now.  His eyes look weird. *sigh* There is one load off of my shoulders.  October.  If we don’t hear from Becky, if she blows us off, my mom will take care of the cats.  She’ll come over twice a day to check on them.  Her big fear was one getting out, but I told her that since there are no dogs to take care of, there’s no reason to go into the back yard.  And my good friend Allyson, who lives about five minutes away from the Disneyland resort, has agreed to let us, if he’s still alive, bring DeeJay over to her house.  That way, we’ll be able to visit with him and give him his fluids. I’m still hoping to hear from Becky, but if I don’t, at least we’ve got a plan. | Permalink

01:20 PM - 08/04/2005 The topic: The babies turned ---------------------------------------------- a year old yesterday. I sang happy birthday to each one and gave them new mousies for their birthday. Phoebe was the only one who played. | Permalink

      Saturday, August 06, 2005

10:08 AM - 08/06/2005 The topic: Blogathon reminder ---------------------------------------------- Just a reminder that today is the start of the twenty-four hour blogathon.  I’ve linked to the pledge page for Laurence Simon’s isfullofcrap.com blog.  He’s blogging for the Cat Welfare Society of Israel. You might want to pop over there occasionally during the next day to check out what’s going on.  He’s planning on having many “Ask The Cats” questions and I know I’ll be submitting photos of the cathouse cats for inclusion.  Some of these pictures will be online for the first time, so enjoy.  And if you’ve got a picture that you’d like to submit with a witty caption, send it over to Laurence, he’ll take care of resizing and he’ll host the photo in his gallery. So, git yer little buttocks over to isfullofcrap.com and join the party and help those homeless kitties in Israel. | Permalink

06:31 PM - 08/06/2005 The topic: Looking through pictures ---------------------------------------------- for the blogathon’s “Ask The Cats” segments, I came across some pictures that I didn’t really care for at the time, or overlooked because I’d taken so many.  I’ll do that, you know, take about forty or fifty during a day for a couple of days in a row and then go through them later.  And I don’t really check out each and everyone, I kind of glance at the thumbnails. So, it’s always a pleasure to find photographs that I hadn’t really paid attention to before.  Here are some that I found today.       This is one picture I’m glad I didn’t delete.  I kind of remember seeing it and thinking “well, that one didn’t turn out”, but looking at it now, I like it.  That’s Rachel on the move, by the way.   This is Katie.  Katie loves to try to become one with the camera.  And she’s got such pretty eyes.   This is Richie. For some reason, he takes much better pictures than his brother Opie, who is behind him.       Here are a couple of pictures I took of Rachel when she was just a kitten.  She’s got such an expressive face.   This is Bart, who found the perfect way to get my attention.  I had a really hard time getting this picture, because I’m right handed and nowhere near being abidextrous.  I had to use my left hand and I’ve got short stubby fingers.  I couldn’t reach the button, so I turned it upside down and took the picture that way.  Bart really didn’t give a spit what I did, as long as I left my right hand where it was. Wasn’t that fun? | Permalink

      Sunday, August 07, 2005

10:30 AM - 08/07/2005 The topic: Remember Beanie and Cecil? ---------------------------------------------- Remember that song they’d sing?  R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P Ragmop. Ragmop. Well, I sing that to Bart. Except I change the words. B-A-R-T-F-A-R-T Bartfart. Bartfart. | Permalink

otherstuff 06:25 PM - 08/07/2005 The topic: Red x where the image should be… ---------------------------------------------- I’ve had a couple of people complain that they’re not able to see pictures here and sometimes on the catcams.  I suspected it was their firewall/virus program, but I wasn’t having any problems here, so I really didn’t know how to address the problem.  I usually just came up with “sorry, I wish I could help you”. Now, the laptop has Norton.  It came with eighteen months of Norton.  Brian’s computer has Norton.  But my Dell and my Gateway both run TrendMicro’s PcCillan.  And last week, I sat down to figure out why some people can’t view the pictures.  I turned on the laptop and cruised over to the catcam page.  And what did I see?  A bunch of boxes with a red x in them.  Hmm.  And no live video on the streaming portion of the catcam pages. I checked Brian’s computer. Same thing.  Wonderful.  There are two separate issues here.    The streaming video doesn’t work The pictures aren’t there For the streaming video, I went over to the Surveyor Corp website, the site where I got my webcam software, software that’s old and isn’t supported any more.  But I like it, I’ve got some other stuff that I tried out, even purchased, but I was familiar with the Webcam32.  Us old people are like that, we like what’s familiar. I searched their forums for help with the streaming not being visible and I realized that it’s probably a Micro$oft Windows problem.  Because I vaguely remember having problems when I got this computer, the first one with Windows XP.  But now I had to find out what I did to get the live cameras to show on this machine. And I found it.  I tested it out on the laptop and it worked like a dream.  What you need to do if you can’t see the streaming cameras is download an older version of Java.  Fortunately, Sun still has the version needed in its archives.  Just click here to download it.  Now, for the other problem.  It was pretty late by the time I’d gotten the streaming figured out, so I put off the unviewable pictures until I was fresh.  Which was yesterday morning.  I spent over an hour looking for “how to” on the Symantec website.  Their support is nonexistant.  If I wanted real help, it would cost me $29.95 for one incident.  Screw that.  I was positive that the answer had to be out there, for free, somewhere.  I did avail myself of the “send us a comment” link on the Symantec website.  After spending all that time looking for the answer to my question (a question that I asked at least ten different ways with the same unsuccessful result each time) I was, needless to say, frustrated, annoyed and irritated.  And I told them as much.  I told them their support (and I quote) “sucked”.  Pretty professional, huh?  I didn’t feel any better, because I held back, I had much more colorful adjectives about their tech support quality that I felt best not to use.  Now, I’d figured out that Norton was the culprit, because when I disabled it, I could see the pictures.  It was only when it was on, that I couldn’t.  But I didn’t know what to set.  The help files were no help and, as I’ve already mentioned, their website support was no support.  It seems that Norton likes to automatically prevent the viewing of images that are drawn from a site other than the one you’re looking at.  Since this is a big portion of how advertisements are served up, it’s probably a good thing.  But when you’ve got a webpage that pulls from a pool of images on another domain, it’s not a good thing.  I didn’t take the time to check, but it would seem that if you post a picture on a forum that resides on a different website, you won’t be able to see it, unless you adjust your Norton settings. Anyway, I did another bunch of Google searches, using slightly different terminology with each try.  And I finally found it.  On a newspaper website, for it’s comic section no less.  And here it is.  There are instructions for all versions of Norton. The sites of mine you’ll need to set are as follows: www.catcam.us catcam.us (odd that it takes these as separate domains) occasional.catcam.us patio.catcam.us office.catcam.us weather.lisaviolet.com lisaviolet.com lisaviolet.net (where the family album is) journal.lisaviolet.com And, hopefully, that will resolve the problem.  It did for me. | Permalink

      Tuesday, August 09, 2005

01:31 PM - 08/09/2005 The topic: Remember the blogathon ---------------------------------------------- From last weekend?  Well, in terms of toonas, isfullofcrap.com raised more money for his charity than any of the others.  And even though the people that ran the blogathon never once mentioned Laurence’s cause, the Cat Society of Israel. Well, now, it’s time for a little turnabout.  Laurence needs nominations for awards.  Not because he wants the awards, but because he wants people to see how great the cat folk are.  How much we stand behind what we love.  Laurence thinks it’s political/religious.  I think it’s because people don’t like cats. So, get over to And now, the insane plan for revenge and read more about it. Then nominate, nominate, nominate. | Permalink

07:28 PM - 08/09/2005 The topic: Gross out matter ---------------------------------------------- Before I married Brian, back when I worked, there was a woman in the office who said she loved to squeeze pimples.  Not just hers.  Okay? This just grossed me out.  Brian has asked me to do a few in the years that we’ve been married (I can count the times on one hand and we’ve been married less than six months shy of twenty years), they were on his back, out of his reach (not that he has very many, he’s blessed like I am with a good complexion).  I don’t mind if I know they’re an ingrown hair, but if it’s a pimple, I just can’t do it.  It just gives me the willies. How do you feel about it? | Permalink

      Wednesday, August 10, 2005

06:51 AM - 08/10/2005 The topic: Weird dream ---------------------------------------------- I’m in the process of getting comfortable with my new laptop computer. In my dream, I wanted to print something out and I kept hitting the screen.  It wouldn’t print, so I tried it with a fork. And the monitor cracked, all the way down to the case. Then I remembered the “print” button. Then I wondered how I could get the laptop in for repair so that Brian wouldn’t find out.  I wondered if the warranty would cover anything so foolish. Then I woke up. Thank God. | Permalink

      Monday, August 15, 2005

09:36 AM - 08/15/2005 The topic: And the winner is…. ---------------------------------------------- PJ's submission, the undercover cat. Once again, thank you for your submissions, they were all great. | Permalink

      Friday, August 19, 2005

10:03 AM - 08/19/2005 The topic: It’s been almost a year ---------------------------------------------- Since Marco broke his leg. It will have been a year Sunday.    He’s gotten over it nicely.  The fence has been a wonderful addition, I’m glad it’s there, I wish it had been there a long time ago. And the neighbor no longer speaks to us.  Boohoo, boohoo. | Permalink

11:00 AM - 08/19/2005 The topic: The Catcam chair ---------------------------------------------- I get this catalog from a little company of the name by the Lakeside Company.  This catalog has some excellent deals in it, for lots of different types of things. I got a little Tigger shorts outfit and it fits me.  Very comfortable.  I got two new cookbooks, one for crockpot cooking, the other for canned soup recipes.  They were less than eight dollars each.  When I got them and took the plastic off, the original price was $19.95 each.  I also picked up a couple of blankets. They’re small, lightweight and they came in little cases of matching material.  And they’re perfect for the catcam chair.  They were less than $8.00 for two and I got one of each set, so I’ve got four new blankets for the chair.  I was using old bedspreads and the problem with those is they were so big, the hung on the floor and got peed on. Anyway, be watching for my cool new blankets, live on camera.  Today I have the cream blanket on and Lisa seems to like it.  I did catch her sucking on it earlier. | Permalink

01:28 PM - 08/19/2005 The topic: Man in the doghouse ---------------------------------------------- Well, not anymore, but there sure was one last Saturday.  He spent most of the day there, too. I downloaded pictures from my camera last night and Brian was sitting next to me.  I pointed out this one.   He said “oh, who’s the wet cat?” I said “not a wet cat, an oily cat.” Brian just looked.  He got quiet.  See, last Saturday, Brian left his shop door open while he vacuumed the pine needles from the street. Easier to just put the vacuum away, I guess.  Something I’ve asked him time and again to not do.  Why? Because his old tractor is in there.  And below the engine of his old tractor was a oil pan, about two feet in diameter. And it had an inch or so of old engine oil in it. Now, I’m not much of a nagger.  I don’t see any purpose in it.  I don’t like nags and I don’t ever want to be considered one.  But this was one thing I repeatedly requested.  Please shut the door if you’re not going to be around.  Because that oil pan is just an accident waiting to happen. And last Saturday, it happened.  Brian was done with the vacuuming, had the machine put away. I went outside to check on the cats and Ross looked like he’d fallen into the pool.  I looked down by the pool and saw no wetness where a cat might have climbed out.  Odd.  I went over to pet Ross, and ran my hand down his back and all the way to the end of his tail.  My hand came up dripping wet with oil.  SCREAM! I immediately went into the house and out to Brian, who was washing my truck.  I read him the riot act.  Then I went back into the house, grabbed the Dawn dishwashing detergent and got some clean towels from the hallway closet.  I turned on the hot water in the bathtub, so that it would warm up.  While it was doing that, I went in search of Ross.  I finally found him and brought him into the bathroom, shutting the door behind us.  I turned off the water, let the tub drain, then started it up again, this time adding some cold water so I ended up with about an inch of warm water in the tub.  I set Ross in it. He didn’t like it very much.  I got his back wet and squirted Dawn on him.  I suds him up really good, getting his back, his belly and his legs.  I did a double dose on his tail.  He kept trying to get out, but I’d just block his way with my legs.  When I’d gone over him a couple of times, I drained the tub and had a gentle warm spray of warm water that I used to rinse him thoroughly.  Then I lifted him onto a clean towel and rubbed him vigorously.  I used all three towels to dry him.  Then I opened the door and out he ran. I took the towels, put them in the laundry room, then went back out to yell at Brian some more, after I called Poison Control to make sure there was nothing else I should do. Then I went into the house and noticed spots of oil all over the tile floor in the family room and dining room.  I got the Floormate out and ran it over those areas, getting most of the bad spots up.  I cleaned up the machine, then went back out to Brian again and gave him a little more of my mind (I gave him so much, I’m surprised there was any left). He promised to get the oil taken care of as soon as he finished washing the truck.  Then when the truck was finished, he came inside and asked if I could take him down to Ford to pick up his mom’s van.  I asked “did you get rid of the oil?”  He acted all put out “I didn’t want to get dirty.”  Gah, that set me off again.  He walked out of the house, back to his shop and took care of the oil.  He didn’t get dirty.  Ten minutes.  It didn’t even take him ten minutes to get rid of something I’ve been asking him about since last year.  I took him down to Ford, not saying much.  Later on, when he got home, he asked if I’d pick him up from Ford, since they could take care of a problem he was having with his truck that same day.  I guess my response wasn’t a positive one and he walked home.  I can be pretty scary, you know. Anyway, Ross is better, I was speaking to Brian by late afternoon, he admitted there was no excuse, he was just lazy.  And we all lived happily ever after. | Permalink

11:25 PM - 08/19/2005 The topic: It’s late ---------------------------------------------- Well, I spent the last ten hours trying to get an RSS/XML feed set up for this blog, whatever you want to call it.  I tried one way and it didn’t work, but I can’t do anything until the entire site is rebuilt.  But I finally got it working.  I think.  *sigh* | Permalink

      Wednesday, August 24, 2005

01:21 PM - 08/24/2005 The topic: I’m still around ---------------------------------------------- Everybody is doing well, I just haven’t felt much like sitting here and posting anything.  The weather is so nice right now that I’m spending a lot of time looking out the window and daydreaming. I’m trying to get my work done (house and paper) in the morning so that I have the afternoon free. Anyway, to make this cat related…. I’ve started moving the ocam into the garage when I feed the cats in the evening.  So, if you’d like to watch cats eat instead of sleep, check in around seven, Pacific time.  I’ll leave the light on until I see there are no more cats eating (which means they’re all inside).  I chase the stragglers in around 7:30, sometimes later. So far, it seems that if I leave it on for an hour, then you’ll have a chance to watch at least two cats eat. Well, back to staring out the window.  Then I’ll be staring at a paperback book as I lay by the pool. Wonderful weather, the cats are loving it, as am I.  It’s actually cool in the shade, hot in the sun.  Perfect. | Permalink

      Friday, August 26, 2005

11:00 AM - 08/26/2005 The topic: The early bird ---------------------------------------------- The early bird catches the worm?  Isn’t that what they say?  Well, the early birds are too smart to catch worms in our yard, because of the early cats. Around here, it’s the early cat who catches the worm, as Phoebe, mighty worm hunter, can attest to.   They really like it when the worms wiggle. | Permalink

11:34 AM - 08/26/2005 The topic: Woo hoo!  Woo hoo! ---------------------------------------------- The catsitter called yesterday!  She also called me a “dork”. She said “You know I wouldn’t let you down.”  Well….obviously I didn’t know that, otherwise I wouldn’t have been so darned nervous. They’ve been really busy with their new house (new to them).  It needed a lot of work to become liveable for the family.  And she’s got the foster kids and has a baby that they’re in the process of adopting.  He’s only about three weeks old now, they got him when he was two days old, I think. Anyway, I’m just thrilled that she called because now that’s one less thing for me to obsess over. And I do that.  I just worry things to death.  I can relax! Kitties are taken care of. Whew! | Permalink

      Monday, August 29, 2005

09:05 AM - 08/29/2005 The topic: Shutting down ---------------------------------------------- Sometime in the next week or so, the cameras will be shut off for a while.  I’m getting tired of all of the wires and cables and cords running behind my machines, in front of my machines and over my machines.  So, I’m going to do a little rearranging. I’ll be disconnecting everything, leaving the cables attached to their respective equipment.  And I know I’m going to find a couple of cables back there that are connected to nothing.  Things die and I got rid of the things, but the cables are still there.  Power cords, USB cables…you know how it gets. Besides, when I first put my shelves together, I put one of the boards on backwards and I hate it.  *lol* I’ll do it as quickly as I can and if it stays hot, I may just put it off until it cools off.  I’ve got lots of stuff and I need lots of room. | Permalink

12:41 PM - 08/29/2005 The topic: I started using a five button ---------------------------------------------- Microsoft Optical Intellimouse years ago.  Brian never knew the other kind of mouse.  When we went back to Colorado and I used my sister-in-law’s computer, I was surprised at how much I missed my five button mouse.  I told her how nice they were and we went to eBay and ordered one for her. I switched to optical because there was nothing to take apart and have to clean, which I had to do quite often with the original mouse.  Lots of cat fur and crumbs got caught up in it and it would greatly slow down.  And the one I got had five buttons.  I didn’t know what the buttons were for, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out and I came to appreciate those buttons for surfing the internet.  Just using a thumb click to go forward or back, just made it so easy. I got a Logitech mouse when I got my first Dell computer.  It’s optical and has programmable buttons, but it doesn’t have five of them.  So, I switched them out, the Gateway has the Logitech, since I don’t run much on the Gateway, just three of the cameras.  And I used the Microsoft optical Intellimouse with my Dell.  One of the first things we did when Brian got his Dell was get a new keyboard for him, an internet keyboard.  And it came with a wireless mouse.  Well, it’s a Microsoft optical mouse, but it’s not five button.  So, his keyboard is wireless and his mouse is not.  And his mouse has five buttons.  Like mine. Those left side buttons have spoiled us. So, when I got my new laptop, I was surprised it didn’t have a mouse.  Oh, I can just run my finger over this little pad to move the cursor?  What fun!  Except it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.  So, I ordered a new mouse.  A Microsoft wireless optical Intellimouse.  And I like it.  Last week, I noticed that my old mouse back button wasn’t working properly.  It didn’t respond as it should. It was taking a couple of clicks to get it to work.  So, I did a little research on mice and decided I was going to switch out the wireless laptop mouse with the old wired mouse on the Dell.  And get a new mouse for the laptop.  Since the laptop isn’t my primary surfing computer (the Dell is), the Intellimouse isn’t really a necessity.  Well, I found the most adorable little mouse.  It’s optical, not five button, but that’s okay, it’s for the laptop.  It’s an Iogear Optical 800 DPI USB Mini Mouse and the scroll button is pink!  How cute is that?  As soon as it gets here, the mouse I got for the laptop will be attached to the Dell.  And I can put it up when I’m not around.  I think cats knocking my current mouse to the floor on a fairly regular basis shortened its life somewhat. Another thing I got was a keyboard cover for the laptop.  I was reading on a forum about a woman spilling milk onto her laptop’s keyboard and it cost more than a couple of hundred dollars to fix, and she was without her laptop for the time it took to fix.  Ever since I knew there were keyboard condoms, I’ve had one.  But I didn’t know if they had them for laptops or not. But after reading her post, I decided to find out.  And I did. They have all sorts available at protectcovers.com.  I ordered one for the laptop and one for Brian’s keyboard.  He said he won’t use it.  Tough, I’m putting it on anyway.  He said his keyboard doesn’t get dirty. Bet me. His keyboard doesn’t have some sort of magic force field that repells cat hair and pine pollen and dust bunnies. | Permalink

01:20 PM - 08/29/2005 The topic: In the news ---------------------------------------------- Does a cup of coffee get you going in the morning?  Guess what?  It’s also good for you! First they find a little alcohol a day is good, now the same for coffee.  Next, let’s hear how wonderful those French fries really are! | Permalink

02:12 PM - 08/29/2005 The topic: It was great in theory ---------------------------------------------- The people behind us, the people with the dogs, the people who have never taken any pride whatsoever in their backyard, have started cleaning it up and doing things to it.  This is the yard where Hollywood spent the last few hours of her free range life.  The yard where Brian climbed our fence, with heavy gloves and a ladder, and went into their almost empty above ground pool to save the life of a feral. The same yard with the cocker spaniel that liked cats until the son moved back in, bringing with him an unspayed female weim, who got pregnant at least twice that I know of.  There may have been a third time (I saw the visiting male in the yard), but if there was, she was spayed before she came to term.  And that weim has a pretty strong prey drive.  On more than one occasion, I saw a possum in their yard, just playing (?) dead. For the longest time, the dogs had the run of the yard. Then, the people redid the fence and made a dog run at the side of the house.  I think that was last year.  Well, they recently got hot on doing something with a nice sized backyard.  The old pool has been gone for a long time.  And a couple of months ago, they brought in a little bobcat and started digging and moving dirt.  Behind their garage, they’ve finally put in a lawn.  Complete with sprinklers that they actually have on timers that work.  (We used to joke that they must be expecting company, because they’d start watering the backyard for days in a row after months of not watering it.)  And they moved their dog run.  Back to the fence.  Right behind our pool area.  Their dogs hear our cats back there and they run back and forth, whining and scratching, but that’s okay, because there’s a double fence.  Chainlink on their side, wood on ours.  But one of the problems is that the dog run is right where the water runs when Brian cleans out the pool filter.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with this, but it’s very, very nasty, dirty icky water.  All the crud that the pool has in it that is filtered out is here.  And it builds up to the point that the pump isn’t as efficient and it has to be flushed out every once in a while.  And Brian, being the considerate man that he is, thought of something else he could do when he flushed the filter.  He would attach a heavy duty hose to the outlet and the water would go through the outlet at the house into the sewer system.  The outlet is off of the laundry room, the same drain where the washing machine empties. So, he got it hooked up.  And he started it.  It worked until the force was so strong, the hose split.  He needed to get a bigger hose, but this did the trick.  All set. He stayed by the pool, putting diatomaceous earth into the skimmer for the filter, watching the water level, adding chlorine and making sure all was working as it should.  I heard him a little later in the kitchen, talking.  I thought he was talking to the cats. Then I heard him bellow “WHERE ARE YOU!?!”  Oh, my, this can’t be good.  “I’m in here!” (the office). “Get out here!” I go running into the kitchen.  I look into the laundry room.  The laundry baskets, all four of them, are gone, out on the lawn.  There is dirty, nasty, icky water all over the floor.  It’s deep and it’s into the kitchen.  It came in via the drain where the washing machine empties.  This is pool filter water.  And it isn’t pretty.  He told me to look into the kitchen sinks.  They were horrible, covered in muck.  The dish drainer was full of this crud.  It not only came up through the laundry room drain, it also came up through the sink (I hope the rest of the house is okay).  Brian goes the shop vac and started vacuuming up the water.  I helped for a while, then he pulled the washer and dryer out and I vacuumed out quite a bit, then he came in behind me and started.  I noticed all the cat pee on the wall (thank you, Georgie and all of your kitty cat friends) and got a dust cloth wet and added some Simple Green.  When Brian left the house to empty the water from the shop vac tank, I wiped down the walls and the side of the dryer.  There really wasn’t much room for both of us out there, so I left and started cleaning up the kitchen. And as luck would have it, it was time for DeeJay to get his fluids.  But I couldn’t very well put him up on the counter, because it was pretty gross and I didn’t want him ingesting this stuff when he cleaned his paws.  I got the counter cleaned, he got his fluids and his treats. I had to dump out the litter box that was in there, because it had gotten a lot of water into it.  When Brian finished, I started putting everything back where it belonged.  And I started a load of laundry, because there were towels that needed to be washed.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the drawer where I keep the towels that are put down for DeeJay to pee on and where I keep my dryer fabric softener sheets to find it, too, got hit pretty hard.  I pulled out all of the towels that had been laundered the day before and salvaged as many dryer sheets as I could.  The rest got tossed.  Then I had to clean the drawer (my washer and dryer are front loading machines that we got for a real good price at the Sears outlet store and they’re on pedastals which double as storage. This morning, the kitchen smelled kind of funky, so I ran water down both drains for a while, figured I’d put the dish drainer in the dishwashing machine and plugged both sinks and put bleach into each one.  I let it set for a few minutes, then I pulled the plugs.  I rinsed the sinks out well.  So far, that smell is gone (it was the smell of wet laundry left in a pile for weeks, stale and moldy and just unclean). And I have to wash the floor, it’s still pretty dirty. So, in theory, it was a good idea.  It just didn’t work. | Permalink

02:27 PM - 08/29/2005 The topic: It’s been really hot this past week ---------------------------------------------- I don’t like it.  The cats don’t like it.  And they’re getting snarky with one another when it cools down to where they feel like moving.  And poor DeeJay has a cold.  He’s been sneezing so much, he’s shooting out blood.  And his breath smells like the breath of someone with a sore throat.  I started him on the l-Lysine paste I got back in March for Handsome.  I figured he’d like it because he likes the Nutrical.  Huh uh, not gonna lick it.  He tried, and it just didn’t float his boat. So I grabbed his little body, put him up on the counter and wiped my finger off on the inside of his cheek.  This didn’t please him, but he got the l-Lysine. He’ll get some again tonight and again tomorrow.  The cold hasn’t affected his appetite, he’s still begging for food.  And he must be eating quite a bit, because he’s pooping a lot, too.  I wish he’d poop in one spot.  But he doesn’t, he poops like a dog.  *sigh* Damn dogs. | Permalink

05:07 PM - 08/29/2005 The topic: Fun little exercise ---------------------------------------------- I found this over at isfullofcrap.com.  Go over to Music Outfitters and put the year you graduated from high school in the search box.  Copy and paste the list.  Strike the songs you hated, bold the ones you liked and leave the rest alone.  And if you find a very favorite, make it bold and underline it. Truth be told, I don’t even recognize some of these songs. 1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack 2. Alone Again (Naturally), Gilbert O’Sullivan 3. American Pie, Don McLean 4. Without You, Nilsson 5. Candy Man, Sammy Davis Jr.       6. I Gotcha, Joe Tex 7. Lean On Me, Bill Withers 8. Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me, Mac Davis 9. Brand New Key, Melanie 10. Daddy Dont You Walk So Fast, Wayne Newton 11. Let’s Stay Together, Al Green 12. Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl), Looking Glass 13. Oh Girl, Chi-Lites 14. Nice To Be With You, Gallery 15. My Ding-A-Ling, Chuck Berry 16. If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Want To Be Right, Luther Ingram 17. Heart Of Gold, Neil Young 18. Betcha By Golly, Wow, Stylistics 19. I’ll Take You There, Staple Singers 20. Ben, Michael Jackson 21. The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Robert John 22. Outa-space, Billy Preston 23. Slippin’ Into Darkness, War 24. Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress), Hollies 25. How Do You Do, Mouth and MacNeal 26. Song Sung Blue, Neil Diamond 27. A Horse With No Name, America 28. Popcorn, Hot Butter 29. Everybody Plays The Fool, Main Ingredient 30. Precious And Few, Climax 31. Last Night I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All, 5th Dimension 32. Nights In White Satin, Moody Blues 33. Go All The Way, Raspberries 34. Too Late To Turn Back Now, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose 35. Back Stabbers, O’Jays 36. Down By The Lazy River, Osmonds 37. Sunshine, Jonathan Edwards 38. Starting All Over Again, Mel and Tim 39. Day After Day, Badfinger 40. Rocket Man, Elton John 41. Rockin’ Robin, Michael Jackson 42. Beautiful Sunday, Daniel Boone 43. Scorpio, Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band 44. Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens 45. The City Of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie 46. Garden Party, Rick Nelson 47. I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash 48. Burning Love, Elvis Presley 49. Clean Up Woman, Betty Wright 50. Hold Your Head Up, Argent 51. Jungle Fever, Chakachas 52. Everything I Own, Bread 53. In The Rain, Dramatics 54. Look What You Done For Me, Al Green 55. The Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A., Donna Fargo 56. Bang A Gong (Get It On), T. Rex 57. Mother And Child Reunion, Paul Simon 58. Where Is The Love, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway 59. I’m Still In Love With You, Al Green 60. Layla, Derek and The Dominos 61. Day Dreaming, Aretha Franklin 62. The Way Of Love, Cher 63. Black And White, Three Dog Night 64. Sylvia’s Mother, Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show 65. Hurting Each Other, Carpenters 66. Coconut, Nilsson 67. Puppy Love, Donny Osmond 68. You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, Jim Croce 69. Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen 70. A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done, Sonny and Cher 71. Joy, Apollo 100 72. Anticipation, Carly Simon 73. Never Been To Spain, Three Dog Night 74. Kiss An Angel Good Morning, Charlie Pride 75. School’s Out, Alice Cooper 76. Saturday In The Park, Chicago 77. Drowning In The Sea Of Love, Joe Simon 78. Use Me, Bill Withers 79. Family Affair, Sly and The Family Stone 80. Troglodyte, Jimmy Castor Bunch 81. The Witch Queen Of New Orleans, Redbone 82. Freddie’s Dead, Curtis Mayfield 83. Power Of Love, Joe Simon 84. Ain’t Understanding Mellow, Jerry Butler and Brenda Lee Eager 85. Taxi, Harry Chapin 86. Don’t Say You Don’t Rememeer, Beverly Bremers 87. Sealed With A Kiss, Bobby Vinton 88. I Saw The Light, Todd Rundgren 89. Motorcycle Mama, Sailcat 90. Day By Day, Godspell Soundtrack 91. Roundabout, Yes 92. Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Browne 93. I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, New Seekers 94. Vincent / Castles In The Air, Don Mclean 95. Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms), Detroit Emeralds 96. Speak To The Sky, Rick Springfield 97. I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, Hillside Singers 98. Walking In The Rain With The One I Love, Love Unlimited 99. Good Foot, Pt. 1, James Brown 100. Pop That Thang, Isley Bros. You know, I’ve read that as an adult, your favorite music is what you listened to in high school.  I have to disagree.  *lol* | Permalink

      Tuesday, August 30, 2005

05:22 PM - 08/30/2005 The topic: Helping another catlover ---------------------------------------------- Her family had to evacuate (they lived in the New Orleans area).  They’re enroute to her father in law’s home in Florida, but he put his foot down on the amount of animals she can bring.  This post is from sweeney, who spoke to Tammy earlier: “I spoke to her she is traveling to Tampa with 7 dogs & 14 cats. She is expecting not to be able to return for 3 months. Her FIL will only allow her to have 4 dogs & 5 cats (He is an SOB & has picked the ones he will allow her from earlier visits. The FIL has already contacted the animal shelter to force her animals in. Dogs: the the three she can’t keep include a pit mix & a border collie—both are very hyper & she only has them because the shelter wouldn’t keep them. She is thinking she will have to put those two down. The other dog she can’t keep is her son’s dog. She is hoping a dog board will take it. The 9 cats she can’t keep include kittens & Carla (remember the cat transported from NJ after being in a shelter for 2(?) years - she bit the FIL when he was visiting (so would I if I could) so he hates her). Tammy doesn’t have a Paypal account & her bank is underwater. She doesn’t have much for clothes so we should get their sizes. I told her to call the church and the newspaper for help & to look for someplace to board the cats & let us know where they can be boarded.” If anybody reading this can foster any one or all of these animals, please let me know. Unfortunately, the air conditioning went out in their car and they lost all three of their ferrets.  If it was out here on the west coast, I’d offer in a minute, but that’s not the case. UPDATE (8-31-05, 9:27AM): She’s found a place that will take the pets she can’t keep.  Unfortunately, she’s having to put them up for adoption, since she doesn’t know what is left of her home.  She’s keeping Carla and one of the dogs (I think maybe her son’s) as her father-in-law is giving her some additional time to find homes for them. (He does not like Carla, a cat who lived for years in a shelter until someone took pity on her and pulled her and arranged transportation from New Jersey to Louisiana where they thought Carla would have a forever home.  During one of his visits, Carla bit him.  He holds this against her.) As for sending money, if you like, you can donate it to Benny’s Fund and I’ll add it to what I’ll be sending to her via the fund. UPDATE (9-01, 2:11pm): Tammy has settled in.  Her son’s dog is being tranported to a foster home and Carla is headed back to the state from which she came, where she’ll live with her original adopter’s father. So far, over $1000.00 has been donated to Benny’s Fund.  Earlier today, I ordered Visa Gift cards which I’ll send to her once I get them.  Thank you for all of your help and concern. Animal rescue organizations: Noah’s Wish Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS) The Humane Society of the United States | 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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