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      Saturday, October 02, 2004



10:48 AM - 10/02/2004

The topic: The cheese stands alone
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Saturday, October 2, 2004  Heigh ho, the dairy-o, the cheese stands alone.  I’ve never considered that a sad song until this morning.

We haven’t seen SpotTee since last Sunday.  Poor KittyMeeze is all by himself out front.  I know that SpotTee has been gone in the past, but with all the other cats that hung around, it wasn’t quite so noticible.  But with only the two (Carla the tortie has been gone for about a month now) it is quite noticible.  We feel really sorry for Meeze and we’re going to do what we can to get him in.  We might try to get him to come into the yard via the gate and not bring him immediately into the house.  At least he’ll be safe and he’ll have some kitty companionship in the day.  And once Little Bit settles down, he’ll have her again.

Speaking of Little Bit, she’s sick.  I found her sleeping in the litterbox last week, her nose crusted with kitty litter.  This wasn’t good.  I was able to use my bamboo backscratcher and knock the litter off and I pulled the litterbox out of the crate.  I got the cake pan I’d used for the kittens and put the old style clay litter in.  Since this was smaller, I was able to move it to the front of the crate and I put a towel in the back.  Then Thursday, she didn’t eat any dinner.  She didn’t eat anything at all yesterday, even though I tempted her with deli sliced turkey and baby food.  She had been lapping up the baby food previously (which I’d added L-Lysine to), but wasn’t at all interested in it yesterday morning or last night.  I did find the vaporizer and the steam is going into the crate via the slots at the side.  She must like it, because she’s hanging out on the shelf, where the moist air is.

Naturally, I’m concerned as to where she got sick.  Of course, my immediate thought is that she caught it here. I’m surprised because I thought she was exposed to Notwally when he impregnated her earlier this year (I believe the calicos were his).  I mention her illness over at the Cats’ Door (where the topic is CATS! and only CATS!) and it was pointed out that quite possibly, she picked this up at the vet clinic when she was getting spayed, which makes perfect sense.  Great.  So, now, will the rest of our cats become infected?  So soon before our trip to Disneyland?  *sigh*  I hate saddling the sitter with this problem, I really do.

The kittens are doing well, except I worry about Chandler.  He’s not nearly as active as the other two.  When he plays, he plays hard and matches Phoebe and Joey, but he doesn’t play as often, spending more time sleeping.  Maybe that’s just the type of cat he will be.  Ross and Rachel didn’t seem as active as Phoebe and Joey, now that I think about it.  Maybe they’re the ones who are different. And I’m not letting the kittens in with Little Bit right now.  I just don’t think she’s up to dealing with them.  She’s trying hard enough to breathe through her nose.  I gave her some treats the other day on her shelf and Joey got up there and actually pushed her away from the treats, growling at her.  She backed off, head down.  Poor little girl, I wish she were well.  I think once she’s over this, I’ll let her loose in the house. The timing is sucking, though, because of the added stress of the catsitter.  She’s fostering a baby now and the baby will be here with her.  I don’t know if her kids will be here because they moved recently to a house farther away and it just wouldn’t be practical to have them stay here.  I know that all the people does affect the cats.  I wish there was some way around it, but I don’t know what.  I think worrying about this is giving me some added stress right now.

Last weekend, the sofas were removed from the living room.  Boy, was it empty.  Saturday, though, we went shopping and I finally got my rocking chair.  And a little table for next to it.  There’s plenty of room for them in the living room.  I also ordered some new cat trees from Drs. Foster and Smith.  We’ll be throwing some of the old stuff away.  It’s pretty thrashed.  The new stuff got here yesterday and we have another floor to ceiling cat tree that should be here next week.  The idea is to make the living room the cats’ room.  Brian had said something about this years ago and now it’s coming to fruition.  Except for my rocker.  I got a buttpad at Wal-Mart this past week and put it on the rocker and yesterday, everytime I thought about sitting in my rocker, there was a cat already sleeping in it.  *sigh*  I also got some single story cat condos.  I originally went to Wal-Mart because, in the past, they had them for less than $12.00 each.  I hit two stores and neither of them had any.  I ended up at Petsmart and paid twice as much and got half as many as I’d wanted.  But I also got some really fun cat toys (which the cats like, too!). 

I mentioned the fact that Royal Canin lowered the bag size by three pounds of their Sensible Choice brand of cat food without a price reduction to go along with it.  We decided to change foods because of this. We’d tried Chicken Soup for the Soul cat food and it wasn’t a big hit when that’s what they were getting.  As a sample food, it was yummy, but as a mainstay, it was a bust. So, last time we bought food we went with Felidae dry. The cats already get the wet at dinner and I have to say, they like the dry as well.  They’re all doing well on it, they don’t overeat, but they do eat it.  DeeJay really likes it, which is a good thing.  His appetite is one of my big concerns.  I went to a Trader Joe’s last week, looking for the same type of treats that they had at the clinic where I’d taken Marco, but I didn’t see the treats, but did see a small container of cat food.  I thought maybe the clinic was using the food as treats, so I bought it.  Well, it’s not the treats, but I’ve been putting some in a bowl and adding warm water and DeeJay likes that, too.  It’s nice to see him spending more time at the food dish.

Annie is actually pooping in the litterbox I brought into the office for when the kittens are back here.  I wish she’d pee in it, too, but I guess I shouldn’t expect miracles.  Annie is such a doll.  I love seeing her sleeping on the towels in front of my monitor.

Ciara still hacks and coughs.  She’s better when I remember to give her the L-Lysine.  And doing it twice a day is best. 

I’m surprised at how well the cats are accepting the newcomers.  There doesn’t seem to be all that much stress on them, not a lot of hissing and spitting.  Maybe because we brought Rachel and Ross in not all that long ago.  Whatever, I like it. 

I think Benny has a bladder infection, because he’s peeing a lot more than usual, so I’ve got him on amoxicillan.  He and Oliver seem to get into it more than I like, but maybe because Benny isn’t feeling well.

As for Oliver, he’s really calmed down a lot in the time he’s been here.  He hardly ever bites anymore, and when he does, he doesn’t bite hard.  I had to put him off the bed last night because he was biting my feet.  He was towards the bottom of the bed, my side, and my feet got warm so I pulled them from under the sheets.  He didn’t like that and started biting them so that I’d stop moving.  I showed him.  I sat up, grabbed him and placed him on the floor.  Then I put my feet outside of the sheets.

I think I’m getting run down.  I haven’t been sleeping well, due to Little Bit crying at night.  I’d put the kittens in with her, which would calm her down, but then the kittens would want out an hour or so later, making all sorts of racket trying to get out of the crate.  As I said, with her being sick, I’m not putting the kittens in and I think that they’re all starting to acclimate to the human cycle.  Which is dirurnal, not nocturnal.  I hadn’t gotten more than five hours of broken sleep since we brought her in.  The past few nights I’ve been able to sleep longer.  Thursday night, we went to bed at 8:30 and I didn’t get up until after five.  It was nice.  Right now, I’ve got an upset stomach, my lower back hurts, I have a headache and I just feel yucky.  I hope I’m not getting sick, I wouldn’t doubt it, though.  I’ll just drink lots of water and take my vitamins.  I wish I was more energetic.

Well, that’s the update for now.  Not very exciting, but non-stop.

      Tuesday, October 05, 2004



10:54 AM - 10/05/2004

The topic: I suck at sexing kittens
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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 I suck at sexing kittens.  There I am, smooching a kitten belly yesterday.  The kitten is Chandler.  I back up and look at his genital area.  Hmm, doesn’t look much like Joey’s.  I find Joey.  Run my fingers over the genitals.  Yep, I feel the little, teeny, tiny testicles.  I do the same to Chandler.  Nothing.  I try Phoebe.  Nothing. 

Say goodbye to Chandler, say hello to Monica.

Little Bit is feeling much better.  I opened up the crate yesterday morning after she ate some of the kibble I put in there for her.  I had promised her if she started to eat, I’d let her out.  I kept my promise.  She’s not doing too badly, it’s actually going quite a bit more smoothly than I remember with the other cats.  No climbing the walls or anything like that.  She has gone through the house, I don’t know how much she checked out.  I’ve got the crate door roped open now, so she can still go into that for privacy, which she does.  She also likes the hidey hole in the cat sleep center.  She’ll go from one nest to the other.  I think the one in the entertainment center is for her alone, the other is when she doesn’t mind having the kittens with her.

I was actually able to touch her Sunday.  And she didn’t hit so hard when she smacked me.  Hardly drew any blood the few times she did.  It was a good sign.  She still hisses at me, but now she’s got more room to roam and I think it will be better for her now that she can stretch out.  Cats need to stretch.

Speaking of stretching, I think I’ll have Marco x-rayed next Tuesday to see how his leg is doing.  I’ll be surprised if he’s not 100%.  It will sure be nice to get that crate out of the room.  Same thing with Little Bit’s crate, but as long as she’s using it, I won’t remove it.

The new cat furniture got here last week and Brian put it up Sunday.  The old floor to ceiling cat tree looks to be in pretty good shape except for the thrashed carpeting on the vertical portions.  So, Brian ordered some sisal and I’ll rip the carpeting off of it and glue the sisal in it’s place. This should be fun.  If it turns out, I’ll do the same to some of the other furniture.  We’ve got a couple of pieces that are made of wood, not cardboard and we can extend the life of it by doing this. You can see the post laying on its side on the patiocam right now. It will probably be there for a few more days.

Got a really uplifting sight Saturday night.  We saw Carla eating out front.  She’s been here every night since.  The problem is KittyMeeze is going away with her during the day.  I wish she’d stay over here.  I hate them crossing the street.

Ciara caught whatever Little Bit brought in.  She sounds horrible.  I’ve got her on L-Lysine to help her immune system fight this off.  She is sounding a little better this morning than she did this past weekend.

I needed to pick up fluids for DeeJay so I drove over to the vet’s office. They didn’t have any to sell.  Liz searched and found enough for two days, which will be okay because they get their shipments on Wednesdays.  I paid for three bags of lactated ringers, a box (100 count) of 18 gauge needles and I also asked about the possibility of the kittens getting sick.  Phoebe’s eyes looked a little glassy yesterday and there’s been a little bit of sneezing.  She asked the vet and I got some amoxi drops, just in case.  I hope it’s money wasted, that they won’t be needed, but if they are needed, they’re here. 

When Liz started looking for the fluids, we had a little discussion about DeeJay getting fluids on a daily basis.  She said when her cat needed them that often, she had him put down, because she felt it was the best for him.  I thought about all of the forums and posts I’ve read about cats getting fluids on a daily basis.  I remembered the cat over at the clinic when we took mom’s cat in, a cat who was getting 150cc twice a day.  This cat was only thirteen.  And I thought about DeeJay getting 120cc once a day.  I also remembered when this same women warned me off of kitten food because it was bad for his kidneys.  At this late stage, I couldn’t see where giving him kitten food, if he wanted to eat it, would really extend his life by all that much.  Anyway, I told her that DeeJay was doing fine, that the fluids made him feel a lot better.

Then it came out.  Another reason she decided to have him put to sleep was he was “missing the litterbox”.  She was tired of cleaning it up.  He’d become inconvenient, I guess.  I told her if DeeJay was gone, we’d still have a pee problem.  Anyway, I walked out of there shaking my head, saddened by what she’d said.  I wonder if she’d give the same consideration to her horse or her dogs.  Why is it cats are so easily destroyed when they become a nuisance to us in our lives?  I just don’t understand it.  I try, I really do, I just can’t work my mind around it. 

Well, that’s it for now.

      Wednesday, October 13, 2004



02:06 PM - 10/13/2004

The topic: A quick update
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004  This is just a quick update.  I’ve been getting things ready for our annual trip to Disneyland. We’re leaving tomorrow, will be back Sunday.

I took Marco in yesterday to see if it would be possible to let him out of the crate.  He was down there for a couple of hours and the news was good. There’s still a little bit of fracture visible in the x-ray, they figure he’s 99% healed.  So, he no longer has to be in the crate.  But he can’t go outside for at least three weeks. He doesn’t need another x-ray, but they said it would be a good idea, just to be sure.

The reason he can’t go out is that he’s lost a lot of muscle mass in that leg.  The vet is afraid if he went outside, he’d run and re-injure himself.  It’s okay for him to be inside and climb the trees and jump on the furniture, because that won’t stress the leg like running would.

Keeping him in isn’t a problem because Little Bit can’t go out, either. 

Little Bit is doing much better.  She still coughs, reminds me of Ciara, but other than that, she sounds a lot better.  She’s slowly exploring the rest of the house, following the kittens’ lead.  When we got back from our walk this morning, she was laying on the back of Brian’s chair, the kittens were on the seat.  Of course, when she saw us, she jumped down and ran off.  But she’s settled down quite a bit and I think within a month or so, I’ll be able to let her out with supervision.

I’m glad that Sensible Choice started making smaller bags of food and charging the same price.  (They dropped the size three pounds and didn’t lower the cost of a bag.)  The reason I’m glad?  Because we tried a different dry food.  The cats have been getting canned Felidae at night and we figured we’d try the dry food.  I don’t know what’s different, but DeeJay is doing well on it.  He’s put on eight ounces since we started feeding them Felidae last month.  After all this time of trying to get him to eat different kinds of food, people food, kitten food, baby food, junk cat food, good cat food, cat treats, a whole list of stuff, well, we start feeding a different premium food and it’s doing wonders for him.  I know the shape of the food is easier for him, probably helps scrape some of the crud off of his teeth.  His stools are so much better than they’ve been in years, much more consistent.  Fair sized, well formed and they’re like that just about every time.  Here we didn’t even know if he’d still be with us this autumn and he’s doing better than he’s done in years.  My fingers are crossed that this keeps up.

My cell phone died yesterday.  This was a good time to die, but a bad time.  Bad because I was planning on taking the phone to Disneyland with us and I’ve given the number out to everyone who’s going to be there.  A good time because it died soon enough for me to contact the provider and get a new phone.  It was delivered about an hour ago, it’s all set up.  It did suck that I had to pay for the same ringtones I’d already gotten (It’s a Small World, the Mickey Mouse March and Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah).  And now I have to reprogram it.  But it works, thank goodness.  It’s charging right now.  Yesterday was the first time I gave anyone the number and that was the vet’s office.  And they called the cell number to let me know I could pick Marco up.  But my phone kept coming up “no service”.  I found out they’d called when I called them to see if he could come home.  “I left a message, didn’t you get it?”  *sigh*  No.

Well, that’s it for now.  I’ve got to get back to work, getting ready for tomorrow.  I’ll be back next week.

      Thursday, October 21, 2004



05:25 PM - 10/21/2004

The topic: Stuff.  Lots of stuff.
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Thursday, October 21, 2004 Well, we had a really good time at Disneyland.  Thursday night, we had a late, late dinner at Granville’s (at a time when Brian and I are usually well on the way to dreamland).  I had a baked potato with everything, prime rib and two tall Wild Turkey presses.  Much, too much food for us to be eating that late.  And the wrong food, for sure.  I woke up around two with a splitting headache and took some Excedrin.  For the rest of the trip, my intestines were killing me.  I think I might have some sort of IBD problem.  The pains are most definitely diet related.  I’m just now getting back to normal.  The worst day was Sunday, the last day we were there.  Fortunately, it wasn’t really bad when we were walking around or on rides, but affected my sleep, so I was pretty worn out by the time we got home.  I swear, that Sunday when the party was over and Brian and I were on our own and getting ready to come home, there were a few times I felt like I was going to pass out.

I think we learned something.  We may be on vacation, but our bodies still work the same.  We need to keep our diets as close to what we have at home as possible.  We just can’t eat the way we used to.  Ah, the benefits of getting old.

I understand there was quite a bit of rain down here on Saturday, but we didn’t see any in Anaheim until Saturday night.  It was great park weather.  Not too hot where it would just be miserable (like last year), not too cool to where you’d need to be wearing something heavy, which is a pain when you’re in and out of buildings.  Saturday night, we were in Fantasyland, went on the King Arthur’s Carousel when I decided it was my birthday and I wanted cake.  The only place open that late with cake was on Main Street, so we went over there.  Carnation Cafe was closed for the night (it’s an outdoor eatery, covered by big umbrellas) so a couple of us sat our butts down there while the others shopped or waited in line for our cake and drinks.  While we were waiting, the rain started.  It was relaxing to sit and watch the lines of people streaming to the exits.  You’d think a little rain would melt us Southern Californians.  By the time we were done, the rain had let up and those of our group who lived locally left for the evening and the four of us who were staying at the hotels made our way over to Splash Mountain.  We walked right on and it was the last ride of the night, the park was closing.

We had breakfast at La Brea Bakery on Sunday morning, Brian and I having gone to DCA first thing.  (We rode the Golden Zephyr twice in a row, the Brian went on the Maliboomer and Screamin’ while I just sat, relaxed and waited to hear from our friends.)  After breakfast, we rode the train around Disneyland, saw the Snow White live show, then said our goodbyes.

I was really happy to have a working cell phone.  It was such a huge help when there were so many of us at the park.  Fourteen people in all!  Some were smokers, some were not.  Some wanted to shop and some didn’t want to do the more intense rides (yeah, yeah, I know some people don’t think Disneyland has such a thing, but us old farts think they do).  It was so handy to just call the other group to make plans to meet up.  Unfortunately, last Tuesday, my cell died.  There was “No Service”.  I call AT&T, frantic.  They arrange for me to get a new one.  It got here Wednesday.  I sent the old one back in the same packaging.  Then I got it set up.  Guess what?  It didn’t work properly. I couldn’t hear anything. I could hear the phone ring, and people on the other end could hear me.  It’s hard to have a conversation when you don’t know what you’re responding to, yanno?  And I didn’t realize it until late Thursday morning.  I called AT&T and they arranged for one to be available at a local AT&T store and credited me for the entire thing.  We decided to hit the store on our way up to Anaheim instead of going there, then coming back home.

While at the AT&T store, I asked about a charger for the car (since I needed to copy phone numbers over and could do this on the way up) and the guy said that it would be thirty two dollars and change.  I thought he was joking.  He wasn’t.  I passed on the car charger.  We went to Wal-Mart, where we got one for less than twelve bucks.  What a rip off AT&T was.  The killer is I have one at home that I just never put in the car. *sigh*  Brand new, still in the package.

We got home around five Sunday afternoon.  I had to rush to the bathroom.  Brian and I got out of the car and he had the keys out.  Imagine our surprise to see Little Bit laying on a blanket in the entryway.  Huh?  Little Bit?  Outside?  Uh oh!

I rushed inside, did what I had to do and then found a note from the sitter on the kitchen counter.  It seems that Potter had been really, really mouthy while we were gone and Becky would take him outside to burn off energy.  Well, Sunday morning, Becky made sure there were no cats around and took Potter out through the sliding door.  And Little Bit saw her opportunity and seized it.  She took off.  She ran down by the pool and under the wire around the fish tail palm (you can see that on the backyard page).  I kept looking for her and later that night, Brian saw her walking on the fence.  She wanted back into the yard.  With us both very busy, Brian opening and closing the gate, and me using the wire cutters to make bigger holes for her to get in and a can of human tuna, we finally got her back into the yard.  It took another fifteen or so minutes to herd her to the sliding door, where she finally went in.  Of course, Marco took this opportunity to exercise, something the vet cautioned us strongly against, but I had no alternative.  The kittens were also out, having lots of fun and running all over.  At first, it looked like Little Bit was trying to gather them all up, but they were having none of it. 

When I had a chance to relax, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the house was.  No scattered litter, the towels were clean, the dishes were all done, no garbage, the litter boxes had all been freshly scooped, it was really, really nice.  But I did have to change the sheets and give DeeJay his fluids.  I’d say we finally started to wind down around nine or nine-thirty Sunday night.  Brian was supposed to help his brother with windmill stuff on Monday, but the rain kind of put the kibosh on that.  But there was some office work he had to do and he left late morning on Monday.  I kind of took it easy, being in so much pain.  I did start on the laundry and also cleaned out the litterboxes, but not much else. 

When I was walking through the living room, I noticed a smaller black cat at the office sliding door.  A small puffy black cat.  Hmm.  I hoped it wasn’t Little Bit.  I was thinking the puffiness was from a cat who was hissy at the weather.  It happens sometimes.  I did a headcount.  Jackie was on a cat tree, Little Bit was in her nest.  Ross was on the bed and all the other cats were accounted for.  So, who was this cat?  And how did it get in our yard?

I went outside in the light rain, armed with a flashlight. Even though it was light out, there were a lot of dark hiding spots.  I started looking.  It was in the first one I looked in.  Under the pool pump.  It cried at me.  Well, that might mean that this cat is not feral.  But domestic.  I quickly walked back into the house and went into the garage, grabbing a can of Friskies Salmon.  I went back down there and tossed fingers full of the food towards the kitty.  It ate a little, but then Sagwa showed up and the stranger moved back against the wall.  I figured there wasn’t much I could do, it was starting to rain harder and there were plenty of places in the yard for a cat to stay dry.  Later that day, I put out a bowl full of dry food.  I saw the cat eating at one point, but when I opened the door, it took off.

Tuesday, I renewed my efforts at finding this guy.  I looked under the pool pump, no cat.  I looked in both doghouses and all the cathouses.  No new guy.  I began to think it had gotten out somehow.  I came back inside and thought to myself that I hadn’t looked under the deck of the doghouse on the bank.  I went back out.  I had to lay on the wet ground to get a good look.  I moved pine needles and directed the flashlight into the rear.  Two eyes shined back at me.  Aha!  I tried to reach it, but my arms were about six inches short of the goal.  The cat still hadn’t hissed or growled, so I was going to go with the thinking that this cat was not a feral cat.  I went into the house and grabbed another can of food.  I popped it open, tossed the food with a fork, went up to the doghouse and slid the open can as far in as I could, leaving it close enough for me to reach the can.  The smell got kitty’s attention.  It moved a little forward and started lapping at the food, then started biting at it.  I pulled the can a little closer to me.  The cat moved, too.  We finally got to a point that I could touch the cat.  It didn’t mind, as a matter of fact, leaned into my fingers.  I played around the ears until I could reach the back of the neck.  When I was there, I scruffed the cat and slowly pulled it towards me.

I cradled it in my arms, this smallish wet bundle of fur and walked into the house. I felt for claws and found none!  I felt the genital area, finding testicles.  This was a declawed, unneutered male!  And as far as I could tell, four paw declaw!  I started to tear up.  I walked into the house, still holding him.  He halfheartedly tried to get down.  I took him into the family room and held him on my lap.  I looked at his paws again.  A big sigh of relief, he did have claws, they were just really, really short. I could also very easily feel his ribcage.  This guy had been out for a while.

I let him go and he ended up under the bed.  There was minimal curiousity from the other cats.  He stayed to the middle of the bed.  I brought in a towel and folded it over, sliding it under the bed.  I also brought in food and water.  He talked to me a little.  I tried a few toys to get his attention, to see what he would do.  His reaction to the toy mouse really saddened me.  When I told Brian about it that night, he almost started crying.  See, when I gave him a rabbit fur mouse, he tried to eat it.  He seriously started chewing on it, gnawing on the head area.  Apparantly, he’s been living on rodents for a while now. He spent the night under the bed.  The next morning, he really started talking when the rain started pouring down.  I don’t think this will be a cat who is terribly interested in playing in the rain, not after the past few days.  This morning I put Advantage on him, then a few hours later got him to come out to me. I also pulled his towel out after him and I got the flea comb and started combing.  I found quite a few fleas on him and quite a bit more flea dirt, mostly on his head and neck, areas he couldn’t reach.

He’s staying here.  We’ll look for “cat lost” signs and I’ll check the paper, but I seriously doubt I’ll find anything.  I won’t advertise him because it’s so close to Halloween.  And by the time that date passes, he’ll be a part of our family. Yes, we could let him go, but I think back to Blackie, how he must have started out the same way, only finding love and his onetruehome at the end of his life. 

Chandler is going to have a much better chance.  His first vet appointment is next Tuesday, where I’ll find out more about him.

Ciara is back on the L-Lysine.  Her breathing is noisy.  I think she’s got the runs, too.  All this stress of the past couple of months can’t be good for her.

DeeJay is holding steady. 

Marco is all over the place. The sitter was nervous about his climbing the cat trees and kept trying to get him down, but I explained to her that it was okay, he needed the exercise.  He just couldn’t run long distances yet.

Little Bit started up with her crying at dawn and dusk. She had quieted down quite a bit, then had that little adventure.  I hope we didn’t lose too much ground.  She’s still hissy and growly, even gives an occasional spit, not only to me, but the other cats as well.  She explores the house, looking for out options and I think is frustrated that she’s not finding any.  The kittens are calming to her, but she gets worried when she’s out and they’re running all over the house.  It looks like she thinks she’s lost control and it scares her.  But by the time we go to bed, she’s settled down, so it’s not so bad.

Well, that’s it for now.  Going to go see what’s on the tube tonight.

      Monday, October 25, 2004



11:30 AM - 10/25/2004

The topic: Looks like we’re in for nasty weather…..
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Monday, October 25, 2004  The sky is cloudy again.  More rain is expected.  I don’t know how much, but I’m hoping the rain keeps up all winter, I really do.  It would be so nice to have snow that’s over six feet deep in the local mountains.  It would be nice to see the lakes and reservoirs start filling up again. It would be nice to have the air clean and the trees looking fresh.

Of course, I’m sure the cats wouldn’t be as happy as I would.  After the rain we had last week, almost four inches, I was really happy we’d gotten Little Bit in, as well as the kittens.  As it is, I worry about KittyMeezer, but he seems to have taken up residence on the cathouse on the bank.  I was more worried about Carla, since she lives in the drain over at the Heartless Bastard’s house.  I hadn’t seen her in a while, but she did show up last night for dinner, so it’s possible she’s just coming at a different time.

I feel human again, I guess.  My intestines aren’t hurting any longer.  But now my lower back is having spasms.  *sigh*  Brian’s back is hurting him, too.  We’re hoping to go to the chiropractor this afternoon if he gets home earlier enough.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Last week, with the rain, I left my computer on all night.  I left it on for the duration of the storms, because I was curious as to when it rained the heaviest.  This past weekend, I mentioned to Brian that I’d like a computer just for the weather station and the catcam, so that I could leave it running 24/7.  He said to do some research and I did.  I looked at refurbished computers online at Dell and the cheapest one was $399.00 (no ethernet card), which doesn’t include a monitor.  Brian was across the street talking to Chuck and I went over there to tell him what I’d found.  Chuck mentioned a computer place in Santee, that sold reburbed computers and also built and repaired computers.  Brian said we’d check it out.

I’ve wanted to have a computer on all the time for a while now, but I was reluctant to do this with the work computer (afraid of hackers, even though I’ve got tons of safeguards) and the other computer, the one with the other three cameras is too noisy. 

We went over there and found an acceptable system for $200.00.  We had to buy an additional ethernet cable so that it would reach the computer.  There’s only 6 gig of space on the “new” computer, but we don’t need much.  I’ve got plenty on the other two.  And we needed a monitor for it, so we got one at CostCo for $107.00.  When we got home, I had to move things around and cleaned the desk and got it up and running.  Then I set up the weather station and catcam on it and it’s been on ever since.  This will also be good for Brian when he wants to surf.  All he’ll have to do is log on to the internet, he won’t have to ask me to turn on the computer for him.  And he’ll be able to surf from his side of the desk.

And the catcam and the weather station will be running 24/7.  No more shutting down at night.  The backyard cam, the patio cam and the office cam will still shut down at night, as there’s no light on them so there’s no reason to have them running.

Chandler has his first vet visit tomorrow at 9:15.  He’s spending a little less time in hiding, which is nice.  He also likes to scratch at the furniture, which isn’t good.  Our only other cat who likes to do that is Ciara.  And Chandler for sure is a food driven cat.  I’ve removed the food from the bedroom, as well as the water, so he had to start leaving that room to eat.  Which he’s done.  And this morning, when I was making Brian’s lunch, he appeared.  He waited and begged for tuna.  And I rewarded him.

 

 

 



And I also took some pictures.  This is the only one I’ve got up right now, but I think it does a fair job of showing what he looks like.

Well, I’ve got three weeks of paperwork to catch up on.  I have to do it if I plan on paying bills and getting the checks to the various companies by Friday.

      Thursday, October 28, 2004



08:20 AM - 10/28/2004

The topic: News on Chandler
----------------------------------------------

Thursday, October 28, 2004  Well, there’s some interesting news about Chandler.  I took him to the vet Tuesday for a general checkup and if that turned out okay, he was scheduled for a neuter yesterday.

On Tuesday, we found out several things about him.  That he’s in good condition.  That he is healthy, with no diseases.  That he had tapeworms.  That he was thin.  And the most surprising, that he’s probably seven years old. 

My vet was pleased with Chandler’s attitude.  He didn’t fuss when blood was drawn for testing and the vet’s dogs didn’t bother him at all.  No hissing or growling, he just took them in stride. The vet figures because Chandler wasn’t all beat up, that he’s been an indoor cat, which the vet didn’t understand because of the strong musky smell of tomcat urine.  Many of you may know that I don’t vaccinate, due to problems a couple of our cats had when vaccinated.  I figure cats we bring in will be tested (I’m not worried about kittens born in around here, I figure they’ve all been exposed to the same things).  The vet advised, because of Chandler’s age, that he be vaccinated so that he doesn’t catch something our cats have (like the herpes virus that I believe Notwally gave the population last January). 

So, yesterday, Chandler was neutered and vaccinated.  He wasn’t a happy camper, being happy to be out of the carrier yesterday afternoon.  He ran under the loveseat in the family room and we didn’t see him the entire night.  I looked for him this morning and found him under the bed.  His real safe spot, I guess.

We’ve had just a ton of rain the past few weeks.  It’s really nice.  I hope it keeps up.  Last night, it was coming down pretty hard and I was watching the measurement rise on the new (old) computer.  Then I turned off the monitor.  That wasn’t the only thing I turned off, as I found out this morning.  I also closed down the weather station, so nothing was uploaded after 7:50 last night.  Stupid, stupid, stupid of me.

Brian’s had a cold the past week and from the way my throat feels this morning, he’s passed it on to me.  Oh, joy.

Ciara wanted some major loves this morning.  She laid on my lap and just purred and purred and purred.  This isn’t something she does all that often, so I just went with it.  I got up pretty early because Peter wouldn’t quit crying.  He really wanted out.  When I got up to let him out, I discovered Brian wasn’t in bed.  Seems he couldn’t stop coughing last night and thought that maybe if he tried laying down in his recliner so that his head was elevated, it would be better.  I guess it was because I didn’t hear him coughing at all.

Little Bit is finally setting down again.  She still cries in the evenings and in the morning, but not as bad as she did when we got her back in last week.  And the kittens are just the most adorable things you’ve ever seen.  It’s so much fun to watch them chasing one another, or running into a room that you’ve just entered.  They’re so fast, it’s almost like there are six kittens, not just three.

I’m going to try my best to get up the cat stories that aren’t up yet.  That would be Rachel, Ross, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, Little Bit and Chandler.  Looks like I have work cut out for me.

*sigh*

All that and a sore throat, too!  Lucky me.

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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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