Monday, November 15, 2004 I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since my last entry. Well, yeah, I can. I don’t know why I said that, maybe it sounded good.
The week of my last entry, I spent sleeping. That cold I caught from my beloved husband hit me really hard. I couldn’t stop coughing, which is normally how colds hit me. I get a little bit of a sore throat, but I end up coughing for hours on end, and it’s especially bad at night. I had Brian get me some cough medicine and I told him ‘super extra strength for coughs only, nothing else’, and he brought home something for coughs and congestion. Needless to say, it wasn’t strong enough. My back and my ribs were very sore from all of the coughing and I’m one of those women who, unfortunately, piddles when I laugh really hard or cough really hard. I was miserable. Late one night I scoped out our medicine cabinet (I can’t even believe how much crap we’ve got, herbs, supplements, vitamins, antacids, allergy meds, cold and flu stuff) and I found some Kirkland brand (CostCo) extra strength cold and flu that supposedly was good for coughs. And it was the nightime version, so I hoped I’d sleep. It worked. Once I was able to sleep without coughing, the cold pretty much went away. And sleep, I did.
Then, I spent last week doing all of the housework that didn’t get done when I was sick. Which was a considerable amount. Laundry (which included a complete change of bedding), dusting, vacuuming, all of that. I washed the cat pee off of the windows and scrubbed the puke spots off of the floor. I also had to play catchup on my paperwork. So, I didn’t have much extra time for making an entry here.
Last week, we also started our morning walks again after not having gone since before our Disneyland trip last month. Remember, I had that gawdawful intestinal pain (if you’ve ever had your fallopian tubes blown out, well, that’s an idea of how I felt for over a week; I still don’t know if it was my tubes or my bowel/colon) that had me down, then Brian had the cold for a week, then I had it. And my ass gets wider each day. Amazing how the walking made such a difference in my metabolism.
We did have a little discussion about exercise, the old man and I. We acknowledge that we need to do more than just walk. We also need to do firming exercises. For quite a while, he did the ab roller thing and strengthening his stomach muscles helped his back. Me, I’ve got pancakes hanging down from my upper arms. If I want to make him cringe, I hold my arms out and give them a little shake. Nasty, nasty, nasty looking stuff. So, I need to firm up.
And to do this, I figured I’d do a more thorough cleaning of the exercise room. I almost filled up the dumpster with stuff, but it’s stuff that’s been sitting there for years, things I’ll never ever use. I’m amazed at how much better the room looks now. And the cats are no longer getting in there for special food. I originally set it up for Ciara and DeeJay, but then Ross and Rachel started going in there, too. But there’s really no reason to let them in any longer and I would like to have at least one cat free room in the house. Now that there’s extra room in there, I’m even considering getting a small Aerobed for those nights that, for whatever reason, we have a hard time sleeping in the bedroom. Instead of ending up on the sofa, we’ll have a cat free place to sleep. Which would be nice. As much as I love our cats, I would also love to be able to get a good night’s sleep.
I’m almost done in there, I just have to rearrange the bookshelf with the little, ancient vcr/television combo on it. That should take about a day.
Last week I also got ambitious in the garage. I finally got rid of all of the 33rpm vinyl lps that my mom gave us when she had to move after my father died. I did that a week ago. They took up almost the entire length of the shelf along one side of the garage. My dad didn’t take that good of care of them and even though I tried to keep them free from cats, I was unsuccessful. Many were okay, but there was no reason for me to save them and they were in such bad shape, there was no way I would consider selling them. So, it took me a couple of hours moving them to the dumpster stack by stack, but I did get it done. When Brian got home, we went to WalMart, where we bought some cheap plastic containers that I filled with all of my yarn (I’ve got so many projects in mind). Getting rid of the yarn from the exercise room was a huge help in getting that room cleaned up.
Last week, I filled the dumpster twice. Like I said, I was in a cleaning mood. Something I’m not in often, so best to take advantage of it when it hits.
We did have a sad morning last week during one of our walks. When we went for our morning walk last Wednesday, walking up Royal Rd (25 mph, but I think we’re the only two that drive that slowly), we saw something in the road. Aging brings on sight degeneration and we’re both squinting. “Is that a bird?” I ask, thinking of those big black birds. Brian said he couldn’t tell, he thought it was a cat.
And the closer we got, the more it was obvious it was a cat that had been hit by a car. It was in the meatloaf position, its forehead on the pavement, there was blood on the road. It didn’t move. I told Brian he couldn’t just leave it there in the road, to please move it to the side.
It was still alive. *deep sigh* There was no way we were going to leave it there, now.
One lady had just brought her trash to the street and I ran over to her and asked if she had any towels. She gave me some clean shop towels and a box, but the box was damp and the bottom was open. I thanked her for the towels and ran back to Brian. He looked up and me and said “this is a feral, the ear is tipped”. He tried wrapping the cat with towels (our house is a quarter of a mile away) and the cat ran off, up this little embankment, behind some trees/bushes. This cat was in bad shape, there was feces down the back legs (I saw that when he ran) and his left eye was all puffed. Brian looked around and found a decent box in someone’s trash and he went up to where the cat had run and used the towels to put the cat in the box.
When we got home, I took the cat to emergency. It ripped my heart when the cat cried from the back of the car. We just can’t take in another cat, let alone spend thousands of dollars on care. I started to cry. At the emergency clinic, they took him in as a “good samaritan” drop off. I don’t know if they tried to save him or just put him down.
Oh, I hate this so much. I really, really hate this. I know we can’t save them all, but my heart wants to know why not? Why can’t we save them all? My head knows, but my heart just doesn’t understand.
When I got home, Brian had my coffee cup out and was making his lunch (normally my job). He was in the kitchen and I walked out there in tears. I looked around at the cats and kittens begging in the kitchen and I said “we might not be able to save them all, but we sure saved all of you” and I started picking up cats and kittens and giving them each a big hug and smooch on the tops of their heads.
On to the cats.
I have to say I’m very pleased with DeeJay. He’s put on almost a pound since we went to the Felidae dry, as well as administering fluids on a daily basis. Where he was under six pounds a couple of months ago, he’s now around 6 lbs, 11 oz and still gaining. I notice when I pick him up that I can’t feel the staples from his sub-total colectomy as much. And he’s getting more fat under his skin, I notice that when I give him his fluids. I hope (pray) this keeps up.
This weekend, we opened the doors on Saturday and Sunday to any cat to go out as it wished. Chandler went out for a little bit, didn’t venture too far from that open door. But it did wonders for his attitude. Not that he wanted out all that much, but the fact that he could go back in and that he was kept in with the others when the sun went down, well, I think that reassured him of his place in our lives. Because, since then, he’s not under the sofa as much. Last night, he slept on the back of the sofa with kittens on him. At night, he wanders through the house and he’s no longer running and hiding from us. He’s not flinching when we bring our hands down to give him a rub on his neck or back. And this morning, he couldn’t get enough head rubs from Brian. He kept standing up on his back legs, stretching his head and neck up to reach Brian’s hand. I know we’ll never know his origin, but the more his personality comes out, the more some of his past is obvious. There was a point I thought he came from the yard behind us, the one where Holly’s life was ended, but I know that this can’t be, because they are believers in flea collars and Chandler’s neck shows no signs of one of those nasty things.
I think that we are at least Chandler’s third home. I think in his first home, he was much loved, this from how he’s getting used to us and wants so badly to get attention. But for some reason, he went to another home. And I think this home wasn’t a good one. I think that’s why he flinched. I think that’s why he spent so much of the past month in hiding. I think that’s why he ended up outside. And I think that’s why he ended up in our yard.
So he could have the good life he knew at one time.
Little Bit was throwing up last night. She didn’t want to go out this weekend at all, just hide in her hole. She came out this morning and had some breakfast and she’s been okay since, but the doors are open right now and she won’t go outside. She won’t even come out of the hole. This concerns me because she always wanted to go out before. *sigh* I hope she’s okay. I know she’d feel better if she went outside in the sun. It’s such a pretty day.
Another of the items that is now missing from the garage, is the set of cat tunnels. They were against the albums and a couple of the cats liked to sleep in them, Lonee being one. But they were really a magnet for dirt. And the cats peed on them and in them, also pooped in them and puked in them. They were hard to keep clean and I gave up trying. So, I threw those out along with the vinyl. The plus side is the garage looks much better now, but the minus side is Lonee doesn’t have her place to sleep.
So, she’s coming inside and sleeping in the cat sleep center. And last night, Angel was also in one of the baskets in the house. She’s spent all of her time for the majority of this year in the garage. I think what happens is they get comfortable inside the house, then we do something, get a new cat, do some remodeling and they run back to the garage. Hopefully, one of these days we’ll be done doing something and they’ll be secure inside and not have to run to the garage.
And Red has been exceptionally affectionate. He’s been coming over to me at night and staying by my side for as long as I’ll pet him. He even comes back when someone chases him off (well, he’s not chased off, he just thinks he is). He’s headbutting me and purring and kneading and just won’t leave me alone. Which is so wonderful when I remember back to his introduction into this house and his decision to live in the rafters for over a year. He’s come a long way.
I had to reworm the kittens last week. I saw one of them passing a roundworm last week, so got some more wormer from the vet. I’ve got enough now to last a while. They’ll get another dose next week. While I was there, I made an appointment to get them fixed on December 6th. They’ll be four months old on the 3rd, which is a Friday and my vet doesn’t do spay surgeries on Fridays since he’s not open on Saturday. Then we’ll be back to the only unfixed cat being Jackie.
Oh, if you’re planning on buying DVDs for the holidays, or just want to add to your collection (or start your collection if you haven’t), I got an email this morning from Deep Discount DVD. For this week (11/14/04-11/20/04) enter the coupon Code SUPERSALE in the promotion code box when you
check out to receive a 20% discount on your order.
Well, that’s the update for today. Hope your’s is a great one.
