Recently in cats Category

i realized yesterday that i have $2,000 sitting in a bank account. just sitting. it's not retirement or car insurance savings. it's just... saved. the me from 1995 is like "WTF? why aren't you spending that shit and all the other credit on your cards?! we have trips to take and crap to buy!!" hell, the me from 2005 is wondering the same thing. oh, time. how she changes us.

i'm going through a really strong phase of wondering why the hell anyone likes me. seriously, i keep observing my interactions with people and just shaking my head in disbelief that they see anything interesting or attractive about my personality (we won't even talk about my external parts right now). i haven't had such a prolonged bought of the unworthies for a long time and i don't like it much at all. btw, this isn't a plea for reasons why i'm awesome (that'll just make me feel less deserving of them = IRONY), it's just a getting-it-out-there.

i'd love to stop talking about my cats now, but they're so fucking awesome, how can i? my favourite Amy thing is when i get home from work and she jumps up on the bed to head-butt me until we're both almost concussed. my favourite Rose thing is watching her tubby little tabby body play with her rattly mouse toy -- she's a roly-poly play machine with a killer pounce.

two weeks until two weeks vacation. omg, so close.

it may not be a dyson, but i LOVE my new vacuum. wow. really. LOVE. it's actually a little bit obscene. yay bissell! thanks, scott the vacuum sales guy at sears. you done me good. except, now all i want to do is vacuum shit. good thing there's lots to vacuum these days.

i can't get over how pissed off i get if i can't complete a workout. last night, almost at the end of bootcamp, i started to get a leg cramp. it's not uncommon, but it is kind of weird. i can feel it coming on and if i don't manage it just right my entire leg will go into spasm. so, i ripped off my knee brace (i think that exacerbates it) and spent the last ten minutes of class hunched over in the corner trying to keep my leg from falling off. grr. i try so hard and i'm so disappointed in myself when i can't finish the circuit or have to modify everything too much. i just want to do everything everyone else does, dammit! it feels like such a failure.

i've had kingsley for a year already and i've spent a grand total of $150 on maintenance. HAHAHA! take that, liselotte! i'm so glad i made the decision to get a new car last year. it has removed such a huge worry from my mind. i get in, it goes, it stops, i get out. it doesn't hurt that it's zoom-zoom cute, either. yeah, king. you and i are going to go far together.

ow.

how many ways can i be woken up from my night's rest:

sunday night: 1am - the neighbour kid starts drunken/angry yelling out his window to either someone outside or in the room with him, i couldn't quite tell. it continued long enough that i was wide awake by the time it ended and took me forever to get back to some semblance of sleep.

monday night: 4:30am - the fire truck is attending something across the street. i didn't realize this from sirens blaring, but from the low rumbling of its incessant motor idling. yeah, i understand that they need the engine running to power all their life-saving equipment, but at 4:30am? ugh.

tuesday night: 2:30am - a binner decides that it's the perfect time to sort through all his recycled treasure. bottles and cans sure do make a lot of noise when being tossed from one shopping cart to another in the middle of the night. i'm all for binners, but really? isn't he supposed to be sleeping under a bush at that hour?

i know i don't live in the most peaceful of neighbourhoods. it's the price i pay for the ridiculously central and convenient location. in addition, i have no control over the way my apartment is heated, so i tend to leave my windows open all year long, just to avoid living in a hotbox and cooking my cats while i'm away at work. i used to combat the noises with earplugs. they took some getting used to, but once i did, i would wear them pretty much every night to drown out the traffic, sexy neighbour times and the unrelenting gurgle of my energy-sucking refrigerator.

then i got cats.

turns out cats get into stuff when you're sleeping. and, well, you kinda have to be able to hear the stuff they're getting into so you can either: a) yell at them; ii) move them to a hard surface before they gack on the rug/couch; or, 3) monitor the situation but not do a damn thing because they've broken your spirit and you've reconciled never having anything nice ever again.

needless to say, since i got cats, i don't wear earplugs. what logically follows that is: since i got cats, i don't sleep. well, at least. while the cats themselves are now occasionally peaceful and go an entire night without trying to rip down or knock over something, i'm still subject to the noises of the outside world which are conspiring to ensure i have a mental break from lack of proper REM sleep.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm tired and i don't know what to do about it other than, you know, deafen myself to keep out the nocturnal noises which torment my slumber.

i'm going to make a confession. sometimes, when i think about my kittens, i start to cry.

yup, i'm a nutbar. i just can't help it! i waited SO LONG to have cats and now i have two amazingly adorable, awesome, playful, pretty, crazy and hilarious cats... i get a little overwhelmed with just how much awesome they've brought into my life. it's astounding to me how much i love them after only knowing them for a few weeks. i look forward to going home from wherever i am because i know they're there waiting for me. yes, i may walk into shredded toilet paper or broken window blinds, but i don't care. they're my fantasti-cats!

gush.

they follow me around and mew and purr and want to help me with everything -- especially eating my yogurt. they run around like little horses and wrassle on the bed and greet me with snuggles in the morning dark. they love everything about the bathroom and paper balls... oh, the paper balls. even when they're shitheads or distracting me from what i'm trying to do, they're perfect. i count myself very lucky to have found them and have them pick me to be their new handmaid. two kittens is not what i set out to find, but now that they're with me, i couldn't imagine making any other choice.

mrrf.

amy is a jumping cat. she leaps and twists in the air and even when she doesn't land on all four feet, she always gets up to jump some more. she also likes to follow me around the house. she doesn't often want to interact with me, but if i get up to go somewhere, it's not long before she rounds a corner just to check up on me. amy loves to chase crumpled up paper balls. she two-paws them around the living room and down the hall, occasionally dropping down on top of them and growling low in her throat. amy is the skinny sister. she's long and lean and soft and pliable. she lets me pick her up and turn her over without a fuss. i can stretch her out or curl her up and she's content to humour me until... then she bats at my fingers with her soft little paws, hardly ever using her claws, but oftentimes using her teeth. she likes to nibble, that one; but, never hard. just enough to show she's fearsome. amy is also curious. she's always looking around for something to discover. she curled up in the cables under my desk. she jumped up to the shelf with the photo frames. she lays down on top of my mac mini. she climbs up the back of my desk chair. she sits in the sink and plays with a trickle of tap water. she perches on the windowsill. she walks around the toilet as i'm using it. she inspects everything i eat before i can. at night, she likes to crawl under the covers and curl up beside me for a while. not a long while, but it's enough. it's sweet and i scritch her chin and tell her she's a good kitty.

rose is an observing cat. she likes to sit on a chair or the couch and nap. she sits in front of the sliding door and watches everything going on outside. she gets very excited when a squirrel visits the balcony. she loves the laser pointer and will run around until she stops and pants with her mouth open. she mews when you wake her up with a pat and a scratch. she's the fat sister. when her sister swoops in and steals her toy she will hiss at her. rose will sometimes hold up her previously-injured paw like it still hurts and that makes me sad. she will sleep with me almost all night and take up half the bed by stretching out and showing her spotted belly. she likes to eat the small pull on my bedside lamp. she jumps into the bathtub after i've had a shower and licks up the water drops. rose hates closed doors and will try with all her might to get her paws under one in hopes of opening it. she's a talker, when she wants to be, and will sometimes hold a full conversation. once in a while, she gets very affectionate and rubs up against my legs and will jump up to head-butt my hands. she doesn't like cuddling or being picked up very much, but if i hold her like a baby i can get her to stay a little while longer by giving her her tail to nibble on. rose loves to chase toes under a blanket and will hop four-footed across the mattress to get at them. rose likes to lay beside me on the couch while i watch tv, especially if i have a blanket overtop me. her purr is rattly and loud and makes the whole bed vibrate.

oops. well, i guess i haven't been all that diligent about posting this month. but, i will say i think i did pretty well for someone who hasn't been in the habit since, oh, last NaBloPoMo. 22 out of 30 days? not bad, indeed. go me!

sorry about all the cats. but, just like when people start spawning, all i have to talk about these days are my infuriatingly adorable purr babies. you know, like how they managed to destroy two framed photographs last night while i was down in the laundry room for no more than seven minutes. sigh.

as i was talking to my mom last night, i mentioned to her that i've been reading a lot lately about the minimalist movement, i just didn't realize that adopting kittens would force me into the lifestyle with the removal of all my stuff from my walls, shelves and floors in the name of kitten-proofing. or, as i said to Christopher, i just can't have anything nice now that i have cats. oh well, at least i have the cats. they're pretty nice. most of the time.

i've been reminded lately of how hard it is to have friends who live very far away. i'd almost forgotten what it felt like after i started to have friends who actually lived in the same area code as me. it's a strange sensation. on one hand, it's so amazingly awesome to have a connection with someone fantastic who really gets you; on the other, it's such a heart-breaker to not be able to spend real time with them because of epic geographical impedance. and to think, for a good seven years or so, those were the only kinds of relationships i had. how sad for me. it both makes me very glad of my awesome local friendships and disappointed for all the things which get missed because my other friends aren't nearby. everybody needs to move to Vancouver. we'll get a giant old house and live commune style! but with more frequent showers and no fucking patchouli.

tomorrow night is the finale for ANTM cycle Boring and there will be people playing with my cats to enjoy it with. this weekend, Kingsley goes in for his second service and i will be exercising my bumper-to-bumper warranty and getting yet another set of new windshield wipers because the ones they put on in July are shitty streaky and gross. seriously! they only last four months?! blah. stupid cheap wipers! a least they'll be free. oh, and Sunday is Got Craft? day! i'm almost considering lining up at 7am just to get in on the swag bag magic. anybody want to come line up with me?

oh, yeah, i think i'm skipping Christmas this year. i can't decorate because of cats and i shouldn't bake because of the size of my ass. my work party was last Friday, so i boycotted and trying to organize a department lunch is full of frustration. if the weather co-operates, i'll be going to Parksville to spent a couple of days with my mom, leaving my cats alone to destroy anything left out in my apartment. if the weather is prohibitive, i think Kimli has said she's going to kidnap me, which might be the most festive option available to me.

last night, i came home to a wad of grungy hair on the bathroom floor. seems my cats are clean freaks, too, and were very helpful by cleaning out the shower drain. i guess i'll keep them if they're insisting on being so handy around the house.

now, if only i could get them to learn how to wipe their feet before leaving the Booda Dome.

i've vacuumed my floors more in the last three weeks than i have in the last three years. why didn't anyone tell me cats are so damn hairy? it's taking a lot of self-control to not freak out about the fur and paper balls and bits of kitty litter and pieces of food all over my apartment now. but, my neat-freak impulses run deep, so i've ordered myself a Furminator off Amazon. it won't be here until after the holidays (probably), but after discovering my duvet is already covered in cat, something had to be done. i don't know if it will work, but it was a third of the price at the local pet stores, so i thought i'd give it a shot.

my search for the perfect cat furniture has turned into Project: Make a Thing. with the help of my dad, the kittens should have their own custom scratch-perch by the end of the week. i hope it turns out as awesome as i've imagined it; but, whatever. the price is turning out to be just right: practically free! i think the only thing i'll have to pay for is the sisal rope for the scratching pillar. yay for handy dads and access to power tools and wood scraps!

p.s. i pulled out the little heater and turned it on full blast last night for over three hours and it only raised the temperature in the living room three degrees. ugh. i'll be glad when this cold snap snaps back outta here. *brr*

and just like that, most everything is right in the world.

or at least it doesn't feel like everything is wrong, which is pretty close to all right.

when i arrived home yesterday i immediately took to my bed, whereupon i was joined by purring cats doing weird things to inappropriate parts of my body. this would have been joyful enough, but then i saw something. Rose was walking on her sore paw! i nearly lept out of my skin with excitement. keen observation revealed not 100% improvement, but nearly 75% of steps were taken with all four paws. healing achieved! no more worry about a lame kitten or kitty codeine doses. phew! i didn't ruin my cat! yay!

just that would have been enough to help me out of my funk, but then Shan & Josh came over to meet the girls. we sat on the floor catching up and playing with kittens. we even watched ANTM and ate pizza! it was a fairly awesome way to fix a shitty day in hessieland.

except for that part when Josh tried to smuggle Amy home in his jacket. bad Josh! i can't really blame him though, she is pretty adorable.

so, yeah. whiplash moodswings. ain't i just a barrel of monkeys?

the good news is that Rose does not have any discernible fracture in her paw. no orthopedic surgery or splints necessary.

the bad news is that it's just a matter of waiting out the healing process by trying to keep a kitten calm. and give her oral medication for the pain. twice a day. when she's egged on by her twin sister.

it's going to be a long couple of weeks.

Rose still won't weight bear on her right front paw, but she is using it in play (and attacks) as you can see in this video:

she's hopping around the apartment on three legs, but doesn't seem worse for wear. i've started calling her "hoppy" , "hobble" and "tripod". but only with the utmost affection, of course. ;)

i can't tell you the amount of relief that washed over me when i got the phone call telling me she was ready to come home. so happy. Christopher actually made me sit down and relax before he'd let me get in the car to go fetch her.

the vet said that she's somewhere between 6 and 8 months old based on her size, weight and the length of her teeth. AND she & her sister were on Shaw TV's The Animal Show tonight according to a text message i got from my co-worker. i'm totally going to see if i can find a copy of the segment on their site (unfortunately, since i switched to Telus TV, i no longer get that channel).

here! i found a screenshot!

my girls are famous! and not just on my website! btw, that's Amy at the back and Rose up front. yay! celebri-kitties!

last night, as i was doing the dishes before i went to bed (since the cats came, i can't leave anything in the sink for a period of more than 37 seconds because the cats, specifically Amy, can't stay out of the sink -- bathroom or kitchen). Rose, who has heretofore been the least offender of this practice was contradicting herself and trying to jump up during the wash cycle. unfortunately, instead of jumping on the clear side to my left, she was going for the occupied one to my right. you know, where the drying rack was, with all the dishes on it.

next thing i know, cat, dishes and dish rack are sliding off the counter and i'm grasping feebly to keep them all from going SMASH.

but smash, they did.

my glass teapot shattered, my wooden ikea dish rack broke, the plate, mug and plastic cup survived and Rose had taken off in fear.

i immediately grabbed Amy, put her in the bathroom and closed the door. after finding Rose huddled between the couch and curtains, i did the same to her so i could go back and clean up all the dangerous slivers, shards and chunks of teapot all over the floor.

about half an hour later, i was satisfied it was cat safe enough for me to let the beasties out of the bathroom. Amy was on the counter, of course; but, Rose was lying down on the rug in front of the litter box. i picked her up and immediately realized something was wrong. she wouldn't weight bear on her right front paw at all. i gave her leg some probing squeezes all down its length, until i got to her paw. she wouldn't even let me touch it. and it was starting to get swollen.

i freaked out. maybe not externally, but inside i thought i might lose it entirely.

i couldn't think of a single place i could put her where she wouldn't have to jump or walk far for anything, so i put her into her carrier with a towel and ramekins of food and water. after i was satisfied she was safe for the time being, i started to freak out externally.

i called christopher and started bawling. i just didn't know what to do. he offered to make the hour-long transit trip over here and i took him up on it. while i waited for him to arrive, i sat in front of the carrier and cried and apologized and sang and talked to Rose. Amy either didn't know or didn't like what was going on and kept jumping on and around the box and swatting at my head. i didn't blame her one bit. i felt like i'd broken her sister and she hadn't even lived here for a week, yet!

after chris arrived and i cried some more, we decided to leave her in the carrier overnight and hopefully, by the morning, the swelling would go down and she would be fine. otherwise, we'd take her to the vet which was open first.

i didn't think i'd get any sleep, what with the worry and the sinuses inflamed and stuffed with crying. i put in my earplugs, instructed chris to wake me for any scary noises, and managed to get a few hours of rest. when i got up this morning, her paw was just as, if not more, swollen and she wouldn't put any weight on it at all. after carrying her to the litter so she could do her thing after being couped up all night, i gave her a little fresh food and water and then we drove to the vet.

i should have thought, but because i didn't call first, they sent us packing with an appointment five hours later. luckily for my nerves, we got in for a cancellation two hours earlier. she's at the vet now awaiting sedation and x-rays to determine what's going on. i guess the best case scenario right now is that it's either just a very bad sprain or a small fracture in one of her tiny wrist bones and she'll have a very boring two-to-three weeks in a splint. the vet mentioned scary things like orthopedic surgery, nerve damage and problems in later life, but until they get images, i'm trying not to think about that too much. i'm barely holding back the tears as it is.

i feel like the worst kitten-mother ever. seriously. none of my other cats has ever broken themselves in my care! they've only been here six days and i'm already taking her to the vet to treat an injury? what the fuck kind of shitty caregiver am i to let that happen to a poor kitten? i feel like the shelter is going to swoop in and take her and Amy away because obviously i entirely fail at cats.

while i feel that, i know it was just an accident. shit happens. kittens fall down a lot. this was just dumb luck and unfortunate circumstance. but, now i think i know what it's like to be a mother. all i can think about is that she's hurting and i can't do anything about it other than what i'm doing. i'm getting her looked after, damn the expense, and hopefully, everything will work out okay in the end.

i hope.

please, let it work out.

jamie came over last night and we had a good, long catch-up, fried fish and dumbfounded viewing of Canada's Worst Driver. it was fun times. the kittens were well-behaved - except for the leaping atop the table as we tried to eat our dinner. and, because he loves me best of all, he even gave me a gift card for a local pet store as a cat-warming present. how sweet is he? SO SWEET!

speaking of warm cats, i was thinking today that i might set up a heating pad for them while i'm away at work on cold days. my place is notorious for being never the right temperature and i'm worried that, as on a day like today, they'll get too cold and freeze to death. frozen kitties are not cuddly nor playful. kittens must be kept warm. and, maybe i'll leave a light on for them. and possibly the radio set to a nice soft rock station. one with lots of celine dion and barry manilow.

yeah, i'm obsessed. i looked down at their adorable little faces this morning and wondered why it took me so fucking long to get a cat. they're so awesome. even when they're not, they're the best thing ever. soft, vibrating balls of sharp and love!

hey, do you know of anybody who doesn't like Mad Men? i know, right? it's the best TV ever. only crazy people don't understand its brilliance. right, jamie? ;)

teehee!