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      Saturday, March 01, 2003



06:56 AM - 03/01/2003

The topic: It’s cold right now…
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Monday, March 3, 2003  I’ve got so much to do.  Already I’ve called Disneyland reservations and made reservations for next October.  We’re going to stay at the Paradise Pier this year.  It would be different if it were just Brian and me, but with a group of people you don’t really want to spend lots of time in the room, ya know?  Besides, I really like the Paradise Pier Hotel.  The rooms are big, lots of light, refrigerators, coffee makers.  They’re missing balconies and the windows only open about six inches, but Brian can fix that.  Just as long as he remembers to put them back the way he found them.  *lol*

I also checked on new homeowner’s insurance because we just got our latest statement from Farmer’s and it would appear that they want their money back that they paid us last year for the damage done at Ranchita.  The thing went up about 50%.  Whoa!

I have a chiro appointment at ten this morning (I completely forgot about it last week and they called “you missed your appointment” so I set it for today).  A good thing after the fall I took Thursday night.  Then I have to go to WalMart to get a new food container for the outfronts.  The bottom of the current one has a huge crack in it, if someone were to pick it up, the bottom would fall out.  And I’m going to go to CostCo to get insulin needles for Junior and Vanilla Wafers, just to have in case I want to use them for a dessert. 

We had Swiss steak for dinner last night, with mashed potatoes and green beans.  We ate at the table and I lit a candle.  It was very nice and the meal was excellent.  It took only an hour and a half from start to finish.  It would have been less if Brian hadn’t been washing the car.

Yesterday, he finally cut down the tree branch that broke months ago.  And he had to move vehicles around to move the dumpster to where it was more easily filled.  When he was moving the Bronco, he decide to remove the belt for the air conditioner because it had been making such a gawdawful noise.  Well, he came in and said “good news, there’s nothing wrong with the air conditioner.”  He had called last week on getting it fixed and was quoted a price of $900.00.  Well, we don’t really need it right now, so….  Anyway, he said that the exhaust pipe was shot, needed a new one and that’s where the noise was coming from. So, this doesn’t sound too bad at all.  And then, he says “oh, and there’s water in the oil, the engine needs to be rebuilt”.  And until that’s done, we don’t drive the Bronco.  I’ll be taking the Ranger today.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Oh, and I was wondering, did anyone hear that scream last Saturday night?  The one from my house?  Aunt Flo stopped by.  She’s been gone since last July and I have to say, I haven’t missed her one bit.  Damn.  I hate her.

Well, I’d best get dressed and brush my teeth.  After I do my running around, I’ll head over to the vet’s office to pick up Oliver.  I sure hope this works out.  What a shame to survive being hit by a car, having surgery to only be put to sleep because nobody can properly care for you, which consists of not letting you loose in the streets.  I find that very, very sad.  I certainly wouldn’t be able to give up DeeJay or Annie.  Or Bart.  Or Lucky.  I feel really badly for Oliver.  I hope he’s not too upset and confused right now.  Poor kitty.

      Monday, March 03, 2003



09:17 AM - 03/03/2003

The topic: So much to do…
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Monday, March 3, 2003  I’ve got so much to do.  Already I’ve called Disneyland reservations and made reservations for next October.  We’re going to stay at the Paradise Pier this year.  It would be different if it were just Brian and me, but with a group of people you don’t really want to spend lots of time in the room, ya know?  Besides, I really like the Paradise Pier Hotel.  The rooms are big, lots of light, refrigerators, coffee makers.  They’re missing balconies and the windows only open about six inches, but Brian can fix that.  Just as long as he remembers to put them back the way he found them.  *lol*

I also checked on new homeowner’s insurance because we just got our latest statement from Farmer’s and it would appear that they want their money back that they paid us last year for the damage done at Ranchita.  The thing went up about 50%.  Whoa!

I have a chiro appointment at ten this morning (I completely forgot about it last week and they called “you missed your appointment” so I set it for today).  A good thing after the fall I took Thursday night.  Then I have to go to WalMart to get a new food container for the outfronts.  The bottom of the current one has a huge crack in it, if someone were to pick it up, the bottom would fall out.  And I’m going to go to CostCo to get insulin needles for Junior and Vanilla Wafers, just to have in case I want to use them for a dessert. 

We had Swiss steak for dinner last night, with mashed potatoes and green beans.  We ate at the table and I lit a candle.  It was very nice and the meal was excellent.  It took only an hour and a half from start to finish.  It would have been less if Brian hadn’t been washing the car.

Yesterday, he finally cut down the tree branch that broke months ago.  And he had to move vehicles around to move the dumpster to where it was more easily filled.  When he was moving the Bronco, he decide to remove the belt for the air conditioner because it had been making such a gawdawful noise.  Well, he came in and said “good news, there’s nothing wrong with the air conditioner.”  He had called last week on getting it fixed and was quoted a price of $900.00.  Well, we don’t really need it right now, so….  Anyway, he said that the exhaust pipe was shot, needed a new one and that’s where the noise was coming from. So, this doesn’t sound too bad at all.  And then, he says “oh, and there’s water in the oil, the engine needs to be rebuilt”.  And until that’s done, we don’t drive the Bronco.  I’ll be taking the Ranger today.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

> Oh, and I was wondering, did anyone hear that scream last Saturday night?  The one from my house?  Aunt Flo stopped by.  She’s been gone since last July and I have to say, I haven’t missed her one bit.  Damn.  I hate her.

Well, I’d best get dressed and brush my teeth.  After I do my running around, I’ll head over to the vet’s office to pick up Oliver.  I sure hope this works out.  What a shame to survive being hit by a car, having surgery to only be put to sleep because nobody can properly care for you, which consists of not letting you loose in the streets.  I find that very, very sad.  I certainly wouldn’t be able to give up DeeJay or Annie.  Or Bart.  Or Lucky.  I feel really badly for Oliver.  I hope he’s not too upset and confused right now.  Poor kitty.

      Tuesday, March 04, 2003



10:30 AM - 03/04/2003

The topic: He’s here!
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Tuesday, March 4, 2003  Oliver is here.  And it looks like he’ll fit in just fine.  There was quite a bit of growling yesterday, but it’s not happening nearly as much today.  Right now, Oliver is sleeping in Brian’s recliner in the family room.  He likes that chair.  And he likes Brian.  He likes him a lot.






That’s Brian watching television last night, with Oliver in his lap.  Oliver spent most of the evening in that lap.  When Brian went to bed, Oliver stayed on the chair.  There was some cat interaction during the night, which broke into our sleep, but I don’t think we’re in for much more.

I think I’m getting sick.  My throat is a little sore.  And I’m really cold.  We’re having another one of those off again on again rain days.

Yesterday morning, I had to go to the doctor and do a little shopping.  CostCo didn’t have any insulin syringes, so I have to go back.  I’ll probably go tomorrow after I leave the chiropractor.  I have a recheck scheduled.  I’m supposed to be icing down my back.  Yeah, I really want to do that being so cold.  I also need to get more dry cat food, too.  Anyway, when I got home, Lucky was not acting healthy at all.  She kept squatting.  A “I gotta poop” squat.  I found some really runny stuff on the stove (washed it with bleach) and watched her some more.  She was peeing pink and then I saw a little clot.  Great.  I gave her an amoxicillan and went down to the vet’s office to get Oliver.

Becky was at the donut shop getting sodas and I waited for her.  I asked Kelsey about Lucky, then when Becky came in, I asked her.  She talked to the vet and he said he’d like to see her.  I made an appointment for 10:15 today, but if Brian could be home earlier, I’d try to take her in yesterday.  I was lucky, Brian could be home by five, the latest appointment they had.  He was home, I showed him where Oliver was (under the bed), told him what a sweetie Oliver was and got stuff ready for Lucky, got Lucky, then off to the vet.

I took the paper towel with the nasty poop and we figured it looked like something she’d eaten.  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what, then it dawned on me.  She had eaten a green bean Sunday night.  No wonder it looked so icky.  The vet took urine and tested it.  He found it full of struvite crystals and her pH was way off.  So, she’s on ammonil and amoxicillan for a week.  She’s feeling lots better already.

Now, it’s time to go clean litterboxes. 

I think Oliver will like it here.

      Saturday, March 08, 2003



09:14 AM - 03/08/2003

The topic: What a week.
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Saturday, March 8, 2003 What a week it’s been.  Oliver will be here to stay.  He’s fitting in nicely and it sure hasn’t taken long at all.  He does indeed hate dogs.  Poor Junior.  Wednesday morning, I was letting one of the other cats in through the sliding door and as gimpy as he is, Oliver jetted out the door and took out after Junior.  Junior, of course, didn’t know there was a threat and came up to the door when he saw me, leaving himself wide open to the wrath of this cat.  Junior ran backwards as fast as he could (which wasn’t very fast, seeing as he was also tripping over his back legs, which weren’t moving as quickly as his front).  Brian ran out and we both tried to get between the cat and the dog.  Oliver proudly walked back into the house.  I was concerned about Junior’s eye.  Brian said it would be okay, but I got the terramycin and put some in.  And as soon as the vet’s office opened, I talked to Becky and told her what had happened. She said she’d give me some ointment.  Fortunately, Oliver *didn’t* get Junior’s eye.  Whew.  I tried again a few days later, letting Oliver out and keeping between the cat and the dog, but he still ended up chasing Junior onto the lawn.  And this little chase seemed to have exacerbated the pain that Oliver had in his leg, because his limp was much more pronounced after the little chase scene. 

Concerned that he is limping so badly, I called the vet’s office on Thursday to get a little more information about him. The leg hadn’t been broken, it was “luxated” a word I’m familiar with from my chiropractor.  The vet had put it back into place and Oliver was put into a cast.  This happened on December 27.  Surely, he should be doing better now, almost three months after the injury.  Of course, I don’t know how bad it was to begin with, but he bites at his back legs and his lower back (there are scabs on his lower back that weren’t there when he came to live with us).  I started him on the ArthriSoothe that we got for Boney.  It may be my imagination, but after I dose him, he seems to calm down and do some much needed sleep.  (He’s still acclimating himself to the house and finding new places to sleep; last night was the first night he spent in bed with us, right now he’s on the bed sleeping.)  I mentioned his problems over at the Cat Fights II board and was given some suggestions.  Like MSM and raw egg yolk or cottage cheese for their sulphur content.  He turned his nose up at the cottage cheese and ate about a third of the egg yolk (Lucky finished it).  And a visit to a feline chiropractor was strongly advised.  I brought this up to Brian and he was reluctant at first (I think because of the cost) but he paid more attention to Oliver’s back legs after our conversation.  We’ve now agreed that Oliver should see the chiro.  I’ll call Monday to make the appointments (remember, we were going to take Lola to see him and she died before she would have had her first appointment, of which there was a series of at least four) for Oliver.  I hope it’s not too long before his first one.  It’s obvious that his back is really bothering him, since he’s getting more sensitive to the touch there.  He will turn and bite at you if you touch him wrong.  He doesn’t bite hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough that you catch the warning.




The showers intrigue him.  I first noticed that last week when I was in the shower.  I opened the door a bit and he put his front paws on the side of the tub and peered in at me.  Yesterday morning, he went nuts when Brian was in the shower.  He cried and cried, kept sniffing at the shower door.  I told Brian and he opened the door up a little and talked with Oliver.  Oliver sniffed at the shower pan, but didn’t step in.  Brian shut the door and I held Oliver until the shower was finished.  It’s interesting to watch the different aspects of Oliver’s personality come out.  I’m sure he’ll be even more affectionate once the pain in his back and legs is better.  I just wish he didn’t think he had to kill the dog.

I didn’t see OC yesterday morning and was very concerned.  And since Brian cut that dead branch off of the tree out front, the cats haven’t been staying over here during the day.  Even KittyMeeze has been leaving.  I don’t like this at all.  I saw the Little Man down the street chasing Repete from the side of his yard, not even checking to make sure there was no traffic coming.  I hate that.  At least make sure that you aren’t going to get the cat killed, you asswipe.  Gah, I hate people sometimes.  The Heartless Bastard is gone.  I think that end of the street went to the desert.  I bet the Heartless Bastard’s wife is glad he’s gone.  I don’t think she likes him very much.  Can’t say as I blame her.  But OC did show up last night.  As did KittyMeeze, Repete and Little Bit.  I think Little Bit spends much of her evenings in the entry way.  We’re going to start trapping tomorrow night.  I really hate trapping, it makes me so nervous.  I don’t know why.  Many of the other folks I correspond with online set traps and trap cats without a second thought.  Not me.  I start shaking just thinking about it.  Maybe it’s because I haven’t done all that much lately.  Whatever, I wish it didn’t frighten me so.  I’m hoping we get Little Bit right away.  She needs to be spayed before her pregnancy gets much further.  We’ll to the testing and the the spay.  And she’ll need to have her ears treated for mites and dosed with Advantage before I bring her home.  As I’ve mentioned before, we’re bringing her in.  The others we’ll just release and keep our fingers crossed that they aren’t too traumatized to enter the traps again when we finally move.

I did get the prices changed on the lvdesigns store.  I dropped the price of the shirts $2.00 each.  So, now they start at either $12.99 or $13.99, depending on the shirt.  I’m also going to redo the index page, then start submitting it to search engines.  I really need to start making some money here.  I hate not having my own. 

Lucky is doing much better after her trip to the doctor last week.  She doesn’t fight me really bad about taking her medicine, but she doesn’t like it. 

Gracie in inside now, about 90% of the time.  She only goes into the garage when it’s dinnertime.  Lone is almost back to her sweet self, the way she was before the kittens came to live with us. And the boys don’t chase her nearly as much as they did.  One of the cats did have Gracie in the hole in the entertainment center yesterday and I caught Oliver over there joining in.  Oliver is pretty funny when it comes to interacting with the other cats.  He can’t seem to decide if he’s going to take anyone’s side.  The other morning, Mickey and DeeJay were having a small, but heated, discussion and Oliver went up and pushed Mickey (there’s no other way of putting it, he put both of his front paws on Mickey’s side and shoved).

I’m washing kitty linens today.  Well, just their bedding.  It’s time.

      Thursday, March 13, 2003



10:29 AM - 03/13/2003

The topic: He bit me!
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Thursday, March 13, 2003  Oliver bit me this morning!  Ow.  He’s been getting a little rougher and this morning, he grabbed my arm and just laid into me.  Fortunately, I was wearing a thick sweatshirt.  I couldn’t figure out what I’d done.  I let him know I wasn’t angry and I rubbed his head.  Then he grabbed my arm and sunk his teeth into the palm of my left hand.  It took about a minute before it started to bleed.  My, oh, my.  I know that part of this is because he’s in pain.  I’m also thinking another part is he really needs to let off some steam.  I figured today I’d put Junior in the shop for a while and let Oliver out in the yard.  Maybe smelling Junior around will help with the introductions.  Junior just sleeps most of the day anyway.  Brian is concerned about the biting.  Oliver loves to be held, but I’m reluctant to have him that close to my face not knowing if he’s going to bite.  I can only imagine how uncomfortable he is.

I made the appointment for Oliver’s chiro.  I called them Monday and the earliest they can get him in is April 24.  Boy, that’s a long time to have to wait.  I’ll have to pick up his x-rays from my vet and take them with us to the new vet.  Then bring them back to my regular vet.  What fun

I’ve been worried about Angus, not having seen him in a couple of weeks.  It’s amazing how when I verbalize these worries to Brian, that so often, that same night, the cat I’m worried about shows up.  Last night was no different.  Angus was back.  So, I’ve seen all the cats except the tortie.  SpotTee isn’t around as often either.  We had the trap set three nights this week with no luck.  The first two, it was covered and the food wasn’t touched.  The third night Brian removed the towel and the food was eaten but the trap didn’t spring.  We’re going to set up the other one instead of this one.  I really want to get Little Bit and soon.  If she’s pregnant and I’m pretty sure she is, we need to get her to the vet before it’s too late.  She’s so very small, I don’t think she’d be able to give an easy birth.  I think it could kill her.  Anyway, I was told that Vienna Sausages work quite well for trapping.  I’d have never thought of those.  We’ll get some on our next trip to CostCo.  We’re going up to Disneyland for the day Saturday, so I don’t want to try trapping the rest of this week.  I want to be around for the recovery.

I got an email yesterday asking if we could take in a special needs feral female.  She was recently trapped.  Her special needs?  She has no back legs.  She walks on her two front legs with her back up in the air.  Wow!  She should be put in a home that’s low energy, no dogs, and with no expectation of ever cuddling or being a snuggler.  Just a place for her to be fed and kept comfortable.  As much as I’d like to, we just can’t do it now, not with Oliver and, potentially, Little Bit.

Some kitty is peeing on the bed again.  The pillow area to be exact.  I’ve got the pillows in the washer right now and I’ll be changing the sheets, bedspread and comforter later.  *sigh*  And someone has puked on the cover on the loveseat in the family room two nights out of three.  I’ll be washing those covers again today.

The cats have been investigating a couple of holes back by the pool.  They obviously found what they were looking for.  Tuesday morning, I went out to check on them and Junior followed me.  We were down by the pool and he was sniffing at something, took it up and lay down by the garage.  I looked around for some of the cats, making sure everyone was accounted for and walked up the steps, towards the house.  Junior was chewing on something, I thought “man, that’s gotta be a big cat poop for him to still be munching” and I looked a little closer.  Oh, ick, it wasn’t a poop at all (which is bad enough) but what I saw was the front end of a gopher (meaning he’d already eaten the rest of it).  :puke

I deleted all of the printer drivers from the Gateway now that I can access them via the Dell.  I’m freeing up all of this room!  I’m considering putting all the other stuff I bought to connect the two computers up for auction on eBay.  I’ve got switchboxes, cables, I’ve got one brand new ethernet card, the network hub that came in the kit that I used the cables and one of the ethernet cards.  I’m getting tons of room on the old Gateway, I think I’ll use it for the photos and things that I take.  I don’t intend on running any programs on it, other than the cameras.  Might as well make use of it.

We started walking again on Monday.  We hadn’t walked for a month, I’m sure.  Brian had a job that he was leaving early to get to, then we got the rain.  Now we’re hoping to be back on schedule.  My legs are killing me, though.

What else has been going on?  Not much.  I guess that’s it for today’s entry.

      Monday, March 17, 2003



12:26 PM - 03/17/2003

The topic: Happy St Patrick’s Day!
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Monday, March 17, 2003 Happy St Pat’s.  It’s cold and I’m tired.  We ended up going to Disneyland yesterday.  We hit rain on the way up, but it had ended by the time we came home.  We had a really nice time.  Only went on three rides.  *lol*  The Sun Wheel and Soarin’ Over California at DCA and the train at Disneyland.  We actually had a good meal at DCA.  I can’t say as I’ve been too thrilled with many of their offerings.  We ate at the bakery in the Wharf area and I had a Sonama apple/chicken salad.  A loaf of sourdough bread has a large portion cut out and the salad is put in there.  It was really good, although there’s no way I could eat my bowl, there was so much there.  And Brian had the vegetarian chili.  He liked it, said he’d have it again.  We didn’t spend much money.  I did buy some tiny Mickey Mouse head crystal earrings.  I think they’ll look nice in the sun when my hair is pulled back and will be a surprise for anyone looking at my ears if I’ve also got my Diamonique earrings in. 

I was really surprised how many people were at DCA.  At one point, the lines were longer to get into DCA than Disneyland.  I kind of miss having the park to ourselves.  *grin*  We left before three and we were home by five.  I made dinner, we had cod in garlic butter sauce, noodles and mixed vegetables.  I was concerned about leaving Oliver here with the other cats for so long without supervision, but it looked like everything was okay.  No big piles of cat hair anywhere.  One thing I did do was to close the catdoor to the garage, because Oliver doesn’t get the catdoors yet.  I wonder what goes on in his head, because he doesn’t act quite right for a cat.  I don’t know how to explain it.  Like the biting with Brian and me.  And how he interacts with the cats is a little odd.  He’ll go up and smack them, then try to bite them, the red boys especially.  He’s not being extremely aggressive at all, just a little bullying going on.  I’ve not seen him actually do much chasing of another cat (not like he did with Junior).  The slapping is about as much as I’ve seen.  But he doesn’t go for the head or belly, he slaps whatever is closest.  And he does pull out fur, so that would mean his claws are extended.  But he’s not in the cat fight mode that I’m familiar with.  And last Friday I saw that he has tapeworms.  I called in this morning and have to go pick up some Droncit, but not today.  I’ve got too much else to do.

I have to make Oliver’s webpage for one thing.  And something else I noticed, I never updated Boney’s when he’d died. I’m not even sure if I updated Lola’s.  I think I got tired of death notices.  I got all of my filing caught up last week, got the business account balanced and set up this year’s files.  I’m ready to do the taxes now.  I also got the puzzle finished for Melanie of Somemoorecats.com.  It really turned out nicely.  I’ve not sold one puzzle yet.  *sigh*  If you’d like to have your own puzzle, the cost is $12.50 for a picture that’s emailed to me, or $15.00 for one sent via snail mail.  You need to go to lvdesigns.com which I revamped this weekend.  Now I’m ready to add it to search engines.

And today, I see the laundry has grown immensely.  Ack!  I never did finish what I started Saturday.  So, I have clothes ready to be folded/put on hangers and put away.  And I have litterboxes to scoop.  I’d really rather take a shower.

That’s it for now.

      Thursday, March 20, 2003



10:28 AM - 03/20/2003

The topic: Scream!
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Thursday, March 20, 2003  Argh!  What a day I had yesterday.  I could do just fine without days like that.

Tuesday, I let Oliver out.  Junior was also out.  Oliver eyed Junior quite a bit, but never made a move in his direction.  Of course, I kept myself between the two to begin with, but it did get less tense.  Junior was able to lie down on the patio and Oliver sunned himself.  Well, yesterday was such a nice day, I opened up all doors and windows and let Oliver out.  Of course, I kept an eye on him, but he didn’t seem the least bit interested in Junior. All was good.  Eventually, Ollie came back into the office and jumped up on the office chair.  That was good and I left the doors open, just in case he wanted to go back outside.  Plus it was really nice for me to not have to get up and down to let cats out.

I was writing out checks, paying bills, when I heard a spat in the kitchen.  Instead of going the long way to the kitchen, I went across the patio.  And Oliver followed.  He’s always interested in cat fights.  Unfortunately, Junior got up at the same time and was walking toward me.  Bad idea.  Oliver went after him.  He chased him halfway across the yard.  Junior had beat feet back to the side of the shop and Oliver was just sitting there, watching. I ran inside the kitchen to see who was fighting.  It was Jackie and Lucky.  Lucky can be a real pill, not even liking other cats to look at her.  Things would have been better off if I’d not even have looked.  Because Oliver was still waiting for Junior.  I got between them and Oliver backed off.  And DeeJay came running over to pick up where Oliver left off!  He was going after Junior!  Poor Junior!  He didn’t know what was happening to him.  I scooped up DeeJay in one arm, Oliver in the other and brought them both into the house. I went through the house shutting doors.  Oliver was limping, but I thought maybe it would get better if he just stayed off of it for a while.

Well, he slept for a couple of hours, then when he got down, he was putting no weight at all on the bad leg. None.  So, I called the vet (the regular vet is on vacation) and talked to Becky.  She said to give him pain killers and just then he walked by me and that’s when I noticed he wasn’t using that leg at all. She said to bring him down.

So, I put on some socks and shoes, got the carrier and got the cat.  He really didn’t want to go into the carrier, but I was finally able to get him in.  I had to be careful that I didn’t bump that bum leg of his.  We got down to the vet’s office, then proceeded to wait.  Becky finally called us back into a room and she looked at his paw.  It didn’t seem like the office was all that busy, but I waited for quite a while for the vet.  Becky took x-rays of the leg and we waited for the film to develop. The vet looked at the pictures.  He was obviously unsure of what he was looking at.  He brings up “referring Oliver to a specialist”.  He thinks he sees a break and infection in the leg.  Alarmed, I look at Becky.  There’s nothing that Oliver has done in this house that would cause the leg to break.  If anything, it was an existing problem.  She rolls her eyes and says very quietly “just wait until the doc is back from vacation”. The temp vet leaves the examining room and goes into another room.  Becky wonders if he’s going to look in a book.  I ask if they still have Oliver’s original x-rays, that maybe it would be a good thing to compare the two.  She says that’s a good idea, surprised that she didn’t think of it.  She started looking and unfortunately, she wasn’t able to find them right off.  She found the envelope they should have been in , but they weren’t there.  But she did locate them and the doctor compared the two sets.  The leg didn’t look that much different now than it did then.  He and I kind of got into it when he suggested (again) that I take Oliver to a specialist.  I’m sorry, but I’d much rather get this advice from my regular doctor, not a temp, who obviously didn’t know what a cat’s leg is supposed to look like.  Since this wasn’t life threatening, I’d much rather wait the week and a half until the regular (I keep wanting to say “real”) vet was back.  If there had to be surgery on Oliver’s leg, he can do it.  After all, Oliver has been like this since December, I don’t see the urgency of it now.  I did ask where the specialist was and he said “Kearny Mesa”.  Well, I’m not driving that far.  I get so nervous.  Like I said, if it had been a life and death situation, I’d have gotten Brian to drive, but it wasn’t.  “Well, is your husband afraid to drive?”  Need I say I was about ready to poke this fella in the eye with my index finger?  As it ended, he was having all of the x-rays, dated and with an explanation of the situation sent to the specialist. 

Becky tried to get Elena to come help her splint the leg, but the doctor got in there first.  *sigh*  He put on a soft cast and I feel so sorry for Oliver.  Becky told me to come back in on Friday and she’d redo the leg.  The doctor wouldn’t be in, just two of the techs.  She also handed me an envelope with two weeks worth of torbutrol for Oliver.

There was no charge and I took Oliver out to the truck.  I set the carrier in the passenger’s seat and was annoyed when I realized that I couldn’t back out because of the truck that had parked next to me.  It was a full sized Ford 350 Diesel and the jerk had parked diagonally.  He was at the cleaners.  There was no way I was going to take the chance of backing out and hitting his truck with any part of mine.  If I’d had backed straight out, I would have hit the truck with the Ranger’s mirror.  I waited outside of the truck when he came out of the cleaner’s.  “Are you waiting for me?”  Yes, I said irritated.  “You’ve got plenty of room.”  I hate being told that.  I replied “I’m not real good at backing up and I don’t want to hit your truck.”  When I pull into a parking lot like the one at the vet’s, I make sure I choose a spot where I can back straight out, a spot where I won’t need to maneuver around any other vehicles, a spot where there won’t be any vehicle behind me.  He said “well, I’ll only be about thirty seconds more.  I got into my truck and waited for him to leave.  He ran back into the cleaner’s, did what he had to do, then left.  Moron.  “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a big truck I can do what I want to do.”

It was getting late and I just knew that when Brian got home, he’d see that I was gone and so was Oliver.  And I just knew that he’d worry that Junior finally fought back (Brian had come home earlier to pick up something from the shop and saw that all the doors were opened).  Much to my surprise, when I drove down the street I saw that his truck wasn’t in the driveway, meaning he wasn’t home.  Huh.  It was almost six, where could he be?  I pulled in to the driveway, got out of the truck and checked the mail.  I went back to the truck and got the carrier with Oliver out.  As I was locking the truck and getting the housekey ready, I saw Brian’s truck coming down the street.  I waited.

Brian got out of his truck and locked it, alarmed when he saw Oliver in the carrier.  “Did Junior get him?”  What did I tell you?  I explained what had happened.  Brian was upset.  Especially when he saw Oliver.  That soft cast is huge on his leg.  It makes the leg about an inch longer than his other leg.  I can hardly wait until tomorrow.  And Oliver is really pissed off this morning.  He did make it up into the recliner last night, so I know he’s got a good spot to snooze.  I gave him one of the pain killers this morning, but he’s still mighty uncomfortable.






Life slowly calmed down, although some of the cats are really curious about this new cat with the weird looking leg.  Katie will go up to the recliner, put her front paws on the seat and stretch as high as she can to look at Oliver.  Then she’ll hiss.  Ciara isn’t quite as bad, but she keep staring at him, too.  I fed the inside cats, Brian fed the dog.  Then he made us sandwiches and I fed the outfront cats.  He’d said something about going back to the shop to paint wood and I said “it’s too late, stay home”.  He did.  We watched some television, a little on the war.  I got all of the cats in and laid down on the loveseat with an afgan over me.  Brian turned off the television around nine and went to bed. 

I heard a very loud exclamation of “:poop!”  I yelled “what?”  Well, some cat had peed on Brian’s pillow.  It was even on the bed between the pillows.  He took the bedspread off and used one of the new pillows.  I used the stockyard strength odor killer.  Sleep wasn’t real smelly, thank goodness.  The spread is in the washer right now and I’ll strip the bed later.  What a great way to end a crappy day.

Hope today is better.

      Sunday, March 23, 2003



10:31 AM - 03/23/2003

The topic: I don’t often get political
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Sunday, March 23, 2003  I don’t often get political.  Brian and I bounce things off of one another, but I won’t post much on the current situation.  I don’t like war.  But I know sometimes it’s necessary.  I didn’t vote for George W. Bush.  I’m saddened that our kids have been sent to fight.  But Saddam needs to be gone.  And I hope that once he’s gone, we don’t leave the people of Iraq without help. 

I’ve had MSNBC on almost continuously.  If Brian turns on the television before me, that’s where he aims the satellite dish.  Satellite G1, transponder 10.  And I’ve seen a couple of things that bothered me.  One was the pictures of the American troops taking down the Iraqi flag and replacing with the American flag, as if we were ‘conquering’ their country.  As I’ve understood what we’ve been told, we’re taking away bad management.  Like Enron.  Except much, much worse.  Rip down the pictures of Saddam, by all means, but let the citizens of Iraq take their own flags down, if that’s what they want to do.  The other, was last night they were showing some of the Iraqi POWs.  They looked well.  Some were happy, smiling, grinning at the camera.  I’m sure that many of the Iraqi soldiers weren’t soldiers by their own choice, more like they were conscripted.  I don’t know how well Hussein took care of his army, but I can’t imagine it was good.  But that’s just my impression. Anyway, the camera was following the reported and there was video of one man lying down with a blanket over him.  Then they went to a fellow who was sitting and had a blanket over him.  They were shining this light at him, the reporter within two feet and the reporter bent down and picked up a food wrapper and was saying something about it.  For some reason, this entire segment upset me.  It did the same for Brian.  It was as if the reporter was visiting the local zoo and pointing out things about one of the animals in a cage.  Damn, sure the man was fighting for the enemy and was now a prisoner, but please, he’s still human.  Give him a little bit of dignity.

Our nephew is over there.  He’s in the Marines, works with helicopters.  We’re worried for him.  He’s young and he’s a great kid.  I remember not that many years ago, going up to Disneyland with the whole family.  He was a lot of fun.  He just got married earlier this year.  I hope he comes home alive and in one piece.

And I hope Saddam gets his ass kicked from one side of Iraq to the other.

Oliver is doing much better since the cast was cut down.  They didn’t redo the cast, just cut it down the leg about an inch or so.  Imagine having a cast up to your hip for a sprained ankle.  Well, now it’s just above the knee, so it’s more comfortable for him.  And I notice that he’s putting more weight on that leg with the cast than he did without it, before he re-injured the hock.  Becky told me that she didn’t send the x-rays to the specialist like the vet said.  She just put them back in the sleeve and when the doc gets back from vacation, she’ll have him look them over.  Then we’ll decide what to do.  And to show how small the world can really be, it turns out that her mom works at the clinic that I’ll be taking Oliver to for his chiro.  I asked if there was anyway to get him in sooner and she said she’d see if her mom could do anything, but she can’t.  The doctor usually works with horses four days a week, leaving only one for small animals.  She told Becky that they can’t even get their own pets in early.  But it didn’t hurt to ask.

I was playing around with my store yesterday and realized why I was getting an error message when I tested buying something with PayPal.  The script was dropping the last number of the amount due when it ended in zero.  I emailed the script author about that and he fixed it for me.  Another thing I did was to add my logo to the PayPal page.  I did a bunch of test orders to see if it was working.  So, done, I start deleting all of the test orders, probably about ten.  I didn’t look at any of them.  While I was deleting, my head voice said “what if one of them is a real order?”  Ah, shut up, head voice, I haven’t had a real order in over two years.  Then I get an email from the site who handles the credit cards.  Someone had place a real order!  Argh!  I lost it!  I know it was a puzzle that was ordered, but I don’t know which one.  I know who ordered it, I have an address, a phone number and an email addy.  I emailed her yesterday and I’m waiting to hear back.  I can’t even believe my incredibly sucky luck.  I mean, what were the chances?

Friday, I decided to unlatch the catdoor so the cats don’t need me to open the doors for them.  I figured there’s no way that Oliver is going to learn them just yet.  He has no idea about catdoors, latched or unlatched.  Well, once the cats realized they didn’t need me anymore and have had better access to getting outside, I think some of the inappropriate peeing behavior may lessen.  Like last night.  Nobody peed on the bed.  Pretty nice when you figure that they peed on the bed at least four times last week.  I was doing laundry every day, bedding laundry.  Friday morning, I washed the spread that had been peed on the night before (luckily I caught it before it soaked through to the blanket and it was only on the spread, not the pillow).  Then, Friday night, I saw that some cat had peed on Brian’s pillow and the bed in front of it.  The pillow needed to be washed, the spread needed to be washed, the blanket and top sheet needed to be washed.  We have extra pillows, so I didn’t need to wash that, but the bed didn’t get finished until after ten o’clock Friday night.  I used the spread that I’d laundered that morning.  And because I’d spent so much time doing bedding laundry, we were running out of clothes.  I did seven loads yesterday.  The shortest time for a wash is about an hour.  Express wash is forty five minutes, then I do an additional rinse where I put in the fabric softener, which adds twenty one minutes.  I was washing all day long and it was nice to be done.  I kept checking the bed for pee, though.  Knock on wood, there was none.

I cleaned out the refrigerator freezer Friday, got rid of a bunch of open bags of frozen veggies that had been in there for a very long time.  And there were some leftovers of mysterious food.  All tossed.  And I found my frozen turkey from Thanksgiving.  I put that in the frig and am giving it to the cats.  DeeJay loves it.  I put some with this morning’s breakfast chicken and he had seconds.  Now I’m waiting to see if he keeps it down.  He didn’t puke any up last night that I know of, so hopefully he will.

Brian had to work yesterday morning, the farted around helping his brother with something he was doing.  He got home after two.  Then he went out and mowed, weedwacked and rototilled my catnip garden (which I have to go out and rake up, try to get rid of all the roots and stuff, I’d planted a spearmint plant that took over).  Then he pulled a ton of weeds by the pool, then weedwacked most of the tall grass that was left.  The cats have now lost much of their hiding space, which should make it easier to get them in at night.  Did I tell you I thought Kirby was down there the second night I couldn’t find him?  Some of the weeds were situated so that a dark cat could very easily have hidden under them without being found.  I found that spot when Daniece went missing one night.  If she hadn’t been white, I’d never have found her.  Then we had pizza for dinner (a frozen one I’d gotten at the grocery store, cheese of course).  This morning, he left early for Ranchita and he said he hopes to leave up there at four this afternoon so he can be home for our regularly scheduled Sunday dinner.  We’re having macaroni and cheese (you can find the recipe here), with peas and homemade oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven.  Yum!

I found a cute little free script that lets you know how many people are online on your website.  I added it to the catcam, officecam and patiocam, so if you are checking out any of the cameras, you can tell if you’re the only one.  And it might be nice for folks who want to chat about what the see on the cameras, too.

Well, that’s it for now.  Hope you all have a great day.  The sun is shining and, believe it or not, I still have more laundry to do.  Best get to it.  :-wave

      Saturday, March 29, 2003



12:31 PM - 03/29/2003

The topic: Let’s see if I’m up to this
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Saturday, March 29, 2003 Well, it hasn’t been the best of weeks.  Nothing really bad, just some scares and some bonehead moves on my part.  And I’ve had the saddam of headaches for over a day.

Okay, let’s see how far back I can remember anything.  Ah, yes, Wednesday.  Wednesday night.  Oliver wasn’t putting any weight on his cast.  Now, this didn’t reassure me that he was getting better.  And after the doctor had brought up all the possibilities last week, my imagination ran wild.  The worst being ‘there may be an infection’.  Now, Bobby lost his leg because of an infection.  This was the scariest thing to me.  What if Oliver had an infection?  He seems awfully warm when I touch his ears.  What if he does?  I point out the limping to Brian.  I guess I did it more than once because he said, irritatedly “I see, I see”.  So, when I woke up Thursday morning and he was still limping, I decided I’d try my hand at removing the cast. After all, Becky suggested removing it the Monday after it had been put on.  I started cutting it off around eight Thursday morning.  I’d cut a little and then unwrap.  Cut more, unwrap some more.  I was being very gentle. It probably took me a total of ten minutes because I didn’t want to hurt Oliver.  He did scratch me at one point, but it wasn’t too bad.  I got all of the gauze and packing off.  I cut the white surgical tape at the bottom of his paw and let him get that off.  No way was I going to pull it from his fur.  And he did a good job.  He spent the next few hours cleaning that leg and that paw.  But he put no weight on it, whatsoever.  What had I done? 

I called the vet and Elena asked why I’d taken it off?  I don’t know, I couldn’t explain it, but at the time, I felt he’d be better off with the cast off than on.  She said that I should bring him down and have it redone.  I called Becky at home, Thursday’s are her day off, but there was no answer, that’s why I called the vet’s office.  I gave Ollie a torbutrol and he slept.  Then I put him in the carrier and took him down.  Becky was there.  One of the techs just got married and is taking time off, so Becky was filling in.  She told me to not worry about it, just take him home without having anything done.  That he’d most likely start to put weight on it when the muscles got more used to working.  That I could bring him down Monday and just drop him off when the real (well, I know the temp is real, but he’s not MY doctor, yanno?) doctor was back at work.  Give him some torbutrol to help with the pain.  Anyway, the good news is he has started to walk on it again, better than when I originally brought him in.

He does like the catcam chair, I’ve found him in there at night after all has been shut down.  Poor Lisa has had her throne usurped.  But, as many of the camera watchers can attest, she’s still on stage.  She’s just moved to the office camera.

What else, oh, yes.  Annie started peeing clots again, so she’s back on amitriptyline.  And Lucky was also showing discomfort while urinating.  Some times it just doesn’t seem to stop.  Then, this morning before I got up, we heard a cat pooping.  You know that explosive sound when it’s gassy diarrhea.  I told Brian “I hope whoever it is is in a litterbox”.  Well, he was.  It was Sammy, but his butt was hanging over the edge.  So, I still have a mess to clean up.  I’ve got so very much housecleaning to do today, but this daggumed headache is coming back.  I hate it.  My sinuses are packed.  I know the Claritin says once every twelve hours, but I can’t handle this.

I would have done the cleaning yesterday but I stupidly tried to add a counter to one of my bulletin boards and really messed it up.  It wouldn’t work at all.  It took me all day to get it to work (thankfully Melanie had set up a test forum which I hadn’t messed with, so I had some working code to use) and my headache got worse as the day progressed.  She helped me out last night by fixing the code so that the multi page would have the same appearance as the single page code.  Now, if I decide to pull some other similar bonehead stunt in the future, I’ll have to remember to download, into seperate file, the working code, that I’ll leave untouched, just in case I screw things up again.  Honestly, it took me from eight yesterday morning until after four yesterday afternoon to have it working again. What a waste of a day.

Oh, I finally started doing the final straightening up of the exercise room.  There were still some remnants of things and bags pulled from the bedroom closet lying around.  I shoved them into the closet in the exercise room.  If anyone were to open that door, they’d best duck.  I vacuumed up all the cat food I’d dropped in the mornings putting it on the plate for the cats.  And I put away some of the CDs that are stacked on one of the tables.  I’ve got a few more to do, then that’s done.  But now, I’m ready for the orders to come rolling in.  Heh.  Oh, yeah, and I can use the exercise equipment in there again.  Took some of the stuff that’s been in there for close to a year back to the shop.  It’s for the remodel, no reason to have it in the house until we’re ready to put it up.  Unfortunately Richie ran into the shop when I opened the door to go in.  I didn’t see him in there and he spent close to six hours in there.  I heard him crying after the sun went down and I was walking the yard.  Poor kid.

Last night, I bought some Claritin when we went to CostCo. Got the “redi tabs” the ones that dissolve and you don’t need water.  I took one when we left the store and then we went to Del Taco for dinner.  Don’t get the macho burritos.  Don’t do it.  If you do it, don’t finish them.  I had one, wasn’t really impressed, I like the classic chicken burrito much better.  Anyway, I just had to finish it.  And I paid for it last night.  I was really sick.  And the stupid headache didn’t go away like I thought it would.  I ended up taking three excedrin.  And because I couldn’t lay flat, I slept on the sofa, propped up on the arm with a pillow under my neck and back.  I woke up around twelve thirty and went to bed.  I slept pretty good, I think. I was awake shortly before five (that’s when I heard the pooping).  I got up at five and fed the cats and let the ones out that wanted out.  I went into the garage and took the barrier away from the catdoor (remember, Benny and Opie can open the cat door when it’s set to “in only”).  Then I fed the outfronts.  Brian was planning on going up to Ranchita today to help his brother do some stuff, so we were going out to breakfast early.  He was in bed and asked if I’d bring him one of the Claritins that we’d gotten last night.  I went into the family room and popped one out of the blister pack, letting it land on my open hand.  I carried it into the bedroom, walking carefully down the dark hallway, because Oliver was walking close to my feet and I didn’t want to step on him.  Once in the bedroom, Brian held his hand out and I turned my hand over, dropping the tablet onto his palm.  He said “there’s no pill here”.  What?  Damn. I walk down the hallway looking for it.  It’s gone!

Well, since Oliver is under my feet, the first thing I think is “Oliver must have licked it off of his coat!”  The computers are up and online.  I do a search on Google for the poison control center.  I find a toll free number, I call it.  “How many cats do you have?”  Twenty-four, I answer.  “Twenty-four?”  Yes.  “Are they healthy?”  Yes.  “Well, it’s really hard to get a cat to throw up.  Watch and if there’s going to be a problem, the cat will become lethargic and sleepy within an hour.  Take the cat to the veterinarian when that happens.”  I thank her, hang up and tell Brian, who is in the shower, that I won’t be going to breakfast.  There’s no possible way I’d leave the cats here when something bad might happen.  I’ll stay here and watch.  I get to thinking about the tablet.  I call back the poison control center.  “It was a non-drowsy formula, will the cat still get sleepy?”  “Yes”, was the answer I got.  And watch I do.  Poor Oliver.  He was in the catcam chair and I’d seem him sleeping.  I’d look in on him and say “OLIVER!”  He would look up at me.  When I’d done that about ten times, he started to look a little irritated when I’d say his name.  An hour passed.  All cats were acting normal.

Two hours later, all cats are acting like cats do.  Nobody is sleeping more than they normally do.  Either the pill didn’t work or no cat swallowed it.  Hmmm…..  I call the poison control center again.  (Putting my tax dollars to use.)  This time, the man I spoke with told me that the amount of antihistamine in the tablets is very small, that they’ve not even had problems with children taking them.  Chances are, we’re not going to have a problem.  Well, that made me feel a whole lot better.  And thinking about it more, it’s entirely possible that no cat did eat it, but that it fell on the floor and I stepped on it.  These pills are very light and I can’t imagine it would make much of an impression should you step on it.  Granted, I was barefoot, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed it.  I did find a little bit of something on the floor in the family room that smeared when I rubbed lightly with my finger.  So, I’m starting to consider, seriously, that the cats are not in danger at this point. 

So, I’m off to finish the windows, then maybe watch a movie and just relax.

      Sunday, March 30, 2003



01:28 PM - 03/30/2003

The topic: This won’t be long
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Sunday, March 30, 2003  I don’t have much new to post, but something happened last night I wanted to enter before I forget.

Brian called last night, after seven, to let me know he wouldn’t be home, that he’d most likely be home this afternoon.  I had eaten (cottage cheese was all,  but I wasn’t really hungry because of my sinuses and headache) and all the cats except Benny were in.  I let Benny stay out because he and Oliver don’t get along and Benny is happier outside.  Once Oliver is finally able to go out all the time, I’m sure that will change.

Anyway,  I was on the sofa in the family room, planning on watching “The Birthday Girl” with Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin.  Oliver was in the family room and while I was speaking with Brian on the phone, Ollie jumped up on the couch, onto the back and into the window.  I assumed he was getting a drink of water.  Before I knew it, he was attacking my head!  It was really strange.  It didn’t hurt, it wasn’t scary, but he had his front paws on either side of my head and he was biting at my hair.  I really didn’t know what to make of it.  I was trying to get him off and not yell in Brian’s ear, but that was almost impossible.  I got him away from my head and he went after my arm.  I’ve got a light scratch on that arm.  I ended up scruffing him and putting him on the floor.  He was fine with that, just sat there licking himself, then he limped off.  He obviously wasn’t interested in pursuing what he’d started.  I know if he’d meant business I’d be worse than I was.  Like I said, it wasn’t scary at all, just really weird.  I’m thinking that he was trying to dominate me like I’ve seen Benny try to dominate Ciara.  I’ve seen him go after the other cats with no lasting ill effects and I think that’s what he was doing to me. 

And the Claritin is doing wonders for my sinus, but nada for my headaches.  I got Benedryl Severe this morning and took two about four hours ago.  I sat down on the sofa and watched part of “Heartbreakers”.  I ended up in a prone position and fell asleep.  Right now, my nose is starting to hurt again (my poor nose is so dry inside that it’s bloody and the outside hurts from the tissues I use; and I’ve still got the headache.  I may have to get something prescribed to take care of this, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I need antibiotics for a sinus infection) and I think the headache is coming back.  When I get up in the morning, I have no problems, it’s just as the day goes on.

Oh, and the Bronco is gone, Brian is going to take out the motor this week and take it in to get rebuilt.  Hopefully I’ll have it back in a couple of weeks.

I’m thinking about not taking Oliver in tomorrow.  I’ll call Becky and let her know.  Maybe the vet can see something from the x-rays and not do a hands on with Ollie.  That way, I’ll only bring Oliver down if the vet sees something in the picture.

Well, that’s all.  It’s 90.1? outside right now.  I’m going to go close the blinds and turn on the ceiling fans.  Amazing that it’s snowing back east.

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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.

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