Category Archives: Pets

ugh

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I started a low-carb diet thing this morning — not specifically Atkins, because that seems to mess me up (weird muscle pains, etc.). I’m basically just getting rid of refined sugar & calling it good. I’m still going to allow myself to have fruit & whole grains, though, so I suppose it’s more like the SugarBusters diet. Anyway, I had a hard-boiled egg for breakfast (quick & easy), and it had this really weird aftertaste, but it smelled fine. (Well, it smelled like an egg is supposed to smell.) I think it was right on the border of going bad, though, because my stomach has been wonky all day today.

In other bummer news, one of my sister’s cats is very sick, and the prognosis at this point is unclear. But Neffertiti (yes, that’s really her cat’s name — the boy cat’s name is Ramses) has a lump on her leg that could possibly be cancer, plus she stopped eating, she has a fever, and she’s lost 2 pounds since December (which is a lot for a 12 pound cat). So we’re all very concerned about her. I need to get all of the animal lovers who read this to throw some good kitty health vibes toward Manhattan.

Oh, and I think I accidentally made Tony go away. He had been calling me daily, and then on Friday he said something about wanting to see me after I had already told him I had plans. Scott & I were supposed to go out on Friday, and he wanted to meet up with me afterward, even though I had told him it probably wouldn’t be until after midnight. I guess I was irritated by his persistence, and I made some kind of offhand remark like “hey, don’t go getting all boyfriend-y on me now.” I said it jokingly, but he hasn’t called me since then, so I think he got the hint. Which is fine. I mean, he’s a nice guy, but that one had “DOOM” written all over it from the beginning.

animal activism

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NOTE: The following post has been pre-approved by Teenie, aka web site mascot.

My sister emailed me today and mentioned that her friend Renee has been volunteering with FurKids, which is a non-profit, no-kill animal shelter for cats in Atlanta, GA. She mentioned that they need publicity and that any links to their web site would be appreciated. Of course, I don’t live in Atlanta, but it occurred to me that saving the kitties & doggies in this country is one issue that I’m pretty passionate about. So I’ve added a few good sites to my little sidebar on the right, and FurKids is one of them. Happy Paws Farm is a dog shelter that I’ve visited twice with my friend Chris, when he was thinking about getting a dog, and I was really impressed with how well the animals were treated there. And PetFinder is a search engine that can find you any type of pet in any animal shelter in any part of the country, so that’s pretty cool.

Anyway, that’s all. Just a shout-out for all my furry, four-footed homies out there.

back

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Just walked in the door of my apartment… ah, home sweet home.

The trip was pretty fun overall, I guess. A bit more drama than I’m used to. I’m not going to get into most of it because it’s internal family stuff that I don’t think I need to share with the whole world, y’know? Christmas was good. The family is doing well, all things considered.

The trip to New Orleans was great too, because it was really awesome to get to see my extended family. It’s been 2 years since I’ve been to one of these shindigs, and it hit me that I don’t realize how much I miss a lot of them until I see them again. Particularly a couple of my cousins. Kris totally blended right in and everyone loved her, as I knew they would, although I’m pretty sure that at least a couple of people thought that she was my girlfriend, not just my friend. Ah well, no biggie. If that’s the worst thing they think of me, I think I’ll be ok.

As for going out with Kris in New Orleans on Friday night — hmmm… Well, we had a lot of fun for the first couple of hours, but after that, everything gets hazy for me. I will say that I don’t think I’ve ever been drunk to the point of being psychotic before. I’m almost exclusively a happy drunk, so this was very weird. I was crying & screaming, and my skin felt like it was going to crawl off of me. Kris actually had to go get my mother in the hotel room next door (apparently I asked her to, but I don’t remember the majority of that part of the evening) and my mom had to lie on top of me to make me stop shaking. It scared the hell out of me, and I decided that I’m going to stop drinking as of now. There were a couple of guys that I had been talking to and kind of flirting with, and I’m guessing that one of them could very likely have put something in one of my drinks because I have never had that kind of reaction (or anything even vaguely like that) with alcohol before. But even if that’s true, the fact that my judgment was impaired to the point where I left my beverage unattended and didn’t have my guard up is proof enough that I need to watch myself.

So that’s it. I’m volunteering to be designated driver on New Year’s Eve. I can’t afford the cab fare anyhow.

Anyway, we left New Orleans kinda late last night & drove back to Jackson. I think I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep before I had to get up to catch my 6:50 a.m. flight back to Seattle this morning. Bah. At this point, my plan for the rest of the day is to eat something, take a shower, crawl in bed & stay there until tomorrow morning.

For the record, Teenie had fun too. She doesn’t care much for flying, but she never makes so much as a peep. She just quietly shakes in her kitty carrier under the seat in front of me. But there’s a lot of room for her to run around at my mom’s house, so she got lots of exercise, and she played with my mom’s cat a bit. She seems happy to be home, though. She’s currently making the rounds of the apartment, rubbing her scent on all the furniture again (as if it all might have faded in the past 5 days).

countdown

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Teenie & I depart for Jackson, MS in approximately 14 hours. And how much have I packed in preparation for this trip, you ask? Not a single bloomin’ thing. I got my suitcase out of the closet, but I think that’s all that I’m up for tonight. I’m whipped, I think I’m just going to crash, get up early tomorrow, and do all of my packing then.

I probably won’t be posting anything while I’m gone, due to the fact that my parents live in the dark ages & are still on dial-up. (Shudder.) Actually, I shouldn’t complain about that — if they had DSL or cable, they’d undoubtedly call me to troubleshoot it every time it had the slightest glitch. Anyway, I’ll do the trip recap thang after I get back on the 28th.

Oh, I got my Christmas gift from my boss today. It was a gift card to my favorite salon/spa. (I’m pretty sure it was his wife’s idea — I should probably send her a thank-you card.) I’ll be booking that massage appointment as soon as I get back to Seattle. I imagine that I’ll need it after running around 3 different airports with a backpack on one shoulder and a 12-pound cat on the other.

So how hard do you suppose it’ll be to get through airport security with a bottle of kitty narcotics? They have Teenie’s name & the vet’s name on them. I really hope they don’t give me any crap about that.

Have a fabulous Christmas, everybody.

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!

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Ok, first the little things…. The vet narrowed down Teenie’s limping problem to one toe on her front left paw. He X-ray’ed it, but it showed nothing abnormal, so he gave me pain medicine to give her. I explained to him that I can’t give her pills, so he gave me liquid stuff and told me that he’d mix it with something to make it “not taste so bad”. I was still thinking that I’d probably end up with more of the liquid medicine on me than down her throat, but I said I’d give it a try. Turns out, Teenie LOVES it. She laps it off the end of the medicine dropper, and then when it’s empty, she starts biting on the thing like she wants more! My little narcotic drug-seeking kitty.

The other little thing is that I woke up this morning & my tummy was upset, which thoroughly annoyed me because I started Atkins so my stomach would stop being upset. I was thinking to hell with it, I was at least going to add in fruit or something, because it’s just not worth it. Then I got on the scale & discovered that I’ve lost 6 pounds in the past 4 days. Sigh. Ok, I guess I’ll stick with it a little longer.

Now the big happy news: I’m going to get to see Kris!!! My parents ok’ed this, so we made a plan. On Christmas Day, she’s going to drive from Memphis to Jackson , then she’s going to come with me & my family to New Orleans for the family reunion after Christmas. I haven’t seen her since May, so I am just so-so-so-so-SOOOOO happy about this! I’ve been really stressed about the family visit thing for a number of reasons, so this will make the whole trip so much more fun. I absolutely cannot wait. I don’t even care if my entire extended family thinks that she’s my lesbian girlfriend. (I have a feeling that they wonder about me since they’ve never met anyone I’ve dated, and most of my younger cousins have brought their respective boyfriends/girlfriends to at least one reunion by this point.)

Anyway, here I was all bummed that I didn’t know when the next time was that I’d get to see her, and it turns out that I’m going to see her in like 11 days. How cool is that?!?!! The reunion thing will be on the night of the 26th — afterwards, Kris & I will be going out to par-tay in the Big Easy. Awwww yeeeeeah….

Also, our friend Leslie is also talking about buying plane tickets for both herself & Kris to come visit me here in Seattle on the weekend of my birthday (January 16th, for those of you who are keeping track so you can send cards/gifts/money/etc.). So that would mean that I’ll get to see her twice in one month. WOOO-HOOO!!! I am so excited right now, I’ve been dancing around my apartment for the last half-hour. YAY!

Alright, I’ll stop before my enthusiasm starts to annoy people.

stress & eating (and stress-eating)

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Teenie’s going to the vet tomorrow. It’s now at the point where she holds up her front left leg when she’s sitting, as if she doesn’t want to put any weight on it at all. It’s freaking me out, so we’re going to find out what the heck is going on with her. I really hope they don’t have to do X-rays, I am so painfully broke right now…

The Atkins thing has been easy until tonight. I tend to munch when I’m bored, and since I’m pathetically single & have no plans on Friday night…. yeah. Anyway, I want something sweet, which isn’t really an option. The protein bars don’t do it for me, they’re kind of gross. I did find a legal treat that kind of works — cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, and a splash of vanilla extract and Equal just for taste. It’s kind of got a cheesecake-y element going for it. Not bad.

Ah, screw it. I’m taking a bath and going to bed.

single woman having a moment about her cat…

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Two new things I learned about Teenie today. One is that she appears to be developing arthritis. She’s only 7, but I thought I noticed her slightly limping a few weeks ago. It was kind of sporadic, but I asked the vet to check her out when we went in for her shots a few weeks ago. The vet said that her joints appear to be ok, but that I can give her 1/2 a baby aspirin when she’s limping. Well, today she was REALLY limping. Like way more than I’ve ever seen. I tried to give her the baby aspirin, but of course she howls like I’m killing her & kicks like hell, and I figured that if she’s ok to fight me that much, she can’t be in that much pain. So I gave up. Still, it has me worried.

The other thing is that I found a new food that she apparently likes. She hardly ever comes over to check out what I’m eating, so on the rare occasions that she does, I’ll usually break off a tiny bit & give it to her. And half the time, she’ll sniff it & walk away. So far, the things she’s actually eaten include:
* tuna (obviously — don’t all cats like it?)
* string cheese
* salami/bologna/hot dogs/any of the really horrible processed bad-for-you meats
* Pringles potato chips (usually she’d just lick the salt off of them & leave the chip itself alone)

And tonight we learned a new one: cookie dough. Very strange, but it seems appropriate that she’d have a sweet tooth. Like owner, like cat, I guess. Ha.