Category Archives: Pets

tuesday news

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I’m still sick, but I went to the doctor yesterday and got some antibiotics, so that should hopefully kick this sinus infection out of my system quickly. Normally I would try to ride it out because I know it’s not good to take antibiotics every time you get sick, but this has been going on for over two weeks, and I’m about to start a new job, so I need it to hurry up and go away already.

Speaking of which, I had orientation for my new job yesterday. It’s another contract at the Giant Software Company, so it’s nothing that I’m not used to – the orientation was all pretty routine stuff (fill out tax forms, watch a video on sexual harassment in the workplace, try not to snicker at said video, etc.). I’m not sure exactly what my start date is, because they’re still waiting for the results of a background check on me. You’d think they’d already have one from the last contract I did, but apparently not. So I guess I may not have the job after they find out about that one time that I was a crack whore. (Ha!) Seriously, I’m trying to imagine what they could possibly find out about me, other than the fact that I was irresponsible with credit cards in college, and that I’ve had a few speeding tickets. I’m afraid that other than that, I’ve led a terribly boring life. Or maybe I’m just good at not getting caught. You’ll never know, will you?

Oh, one thing during orientation that I wasn’t expecting: at some point, the HR lady was speaking about confidentiality and proper use of the company’s network systems, etc., and she specifically said, “So if you have a blog, you need to do that on your own time and not mention anything about work.” I could actually feel myself blushing, and I could’ve sworn that everyone in the room was staring at me. (They weren’t.) So um, yeah. I’ve been warned, and I will proceed with caution. At the very least, I’ll try to remember to change the timestamps on my posts so they don’t appear to have been written during work hours. Heh heh.

Other stuff: Since we got home from our NYC trip, we’ve tried sleeping with our bedroom door open at nights. In the past, we’ve always kept it closed so Teenie can have our bedroom all to herself, and we don’t have to worry about hearing her fight with the other cats at 3 a.m. (I don’t know if you’ve ever woken up to a cat fight, but trust me, it’s not a pleasant way to start your day.) They were all in the house together with no closed doors while we were gone, and I think they’ve started to negotiate their territory pretty well. Beaumont is the only one who’s come to sleep with us for the past few nights. It’s been pretty uneventful. At some point during the night, he’ll accidentally make eye contact with Teenie and she’ll growl and hiss for a couple of minutes, but then they settle down and go back to sleep. Yay for progress!

As for Cleo and Greta, they’ve kind of turned into clique-y high school girls, and they sleep on the couch together because they can’t possibly deign to get in our bed with the other cats. They’ve both turned on Beaumont, too, which is sad. He’ll roll over on his back with his paws in the air (totally submissive pose), and they still swat and hiss at him. I think it’s mostly Cleo (who, oddly, is Beaumont’s litter-mate); she hisses at him whenever he comes anywhere near her. Greta doesn’t seem to mind him too much when Cleo isn’t around, but apparently Greta has turned into Gretchen Wieners to Cleo’s Regina George. Or perhaps Greta is Heather McNamara and Cleo is Heather Chandler, take your pick. And since Teenie hates all of the cats equally, that basically means that Beaumont has no feline friends in our house at all. Dave and I have been giving him lots of extra love to make up for all of the rejection he’s suffered lately. It must be tough being the only neutered boy kitty in a house full of girl kitties. Poor little guy.

more cute cat photos!

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I had to take this picture last night because it absolutely cracked me up.
Dave taking a catnap. Hee! Get it?
That’s three cats on one husband. The poor guy just wanted to lie down and take a quick nap on the couch, and they all immediately cozied up on him. I love how Cleo always has to be right up close to his face. She’ll do that to me occasionally, but she absolutely adores Dave and I know good and well that when she snuggles up on me, I’m only a poor substitute for the one she really wants. Not that I blame her, he is a damn good cuddler.

Also, Beaumont has a new hobby. He likes to attack the characters on the screen while Dave is playing video games. None of the cats have ever paid attention to the TV screen or computer monitors before, but this has suddenly become his favorite thing to do.
Beaumont playing video games, sorta
Go figure. And for the record, the reason why he looks sort of sparkly in that photo was because he had just come in out of the rain. And unlike me, Dave doesn’t get a towel to dry the cats off when they come inside soaking wet.

the cats are plotting our demise, I just know it

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It seems that since the weather has started to get rather nippy lately, the cats have all started looking for warm places to sleep. They like curling up near the heating vents on the floor, fleece blankets, that type of thing. However, Cleo has apparently decided that my laptop keyboard is the perfect warm place to nap. So then, when I come back to my computer, my browser view settings are all weird, there are usually a few help or search windows open, and she often hits my wireless button so I get knocked offline. (The first time that happened, I spent hours trying to figure out how she changed my network authentication key, resetting our wireless router and the satellite modem, and generally tearing my hair out before I finally realized that it was just the one stupid “wireless on/off” button. Duh.) Anyway, today she managed to open a notepad file (no idea how she did that) and this was what she typed:

lNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999n2gtfr88 88888888888888888888888888888888888igyhdddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddddddd

That’s exactly what it said, I’ve copied and pasted directly for your viewing pleasure (minus 50 or so rows of d’s, because I think you get the point). I’m guessing this is some kind of kitty morse code, and if anyone out there can translate it for me, I’d be most appreciative. In the meantime, I’m just going to try to remember to close the damn lid on my laptop when I step away from the computer.

Tae-Bo for Pets

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I had lunch today with Janet, the wife of one of Dave’s co-workers (Gabe). It’s funny, we’ve hung out with them on several occasions, and I like them a lot, but it’s always been couples activities. Janet and I have never done anything that was just the two of us. We’ve had dinner at each other’s houses, we went out with them for Janet’s birthday, they came to our wedding, etc., but the husbands were always there too. So today was good because it was interesting just to sit and talk for a couple of hours, to learn a lot more about her, and to relate to someone who’s kind of in the same general life situation as I am. I think I may finally have a normal female friend here in the Northwest (as opposed to Psycho Krissy, who I don’t even talk to anymore because I can’t take the drama), and that’s a very good thing.

And thanks to Gabe & Janet, we now have plans for Halloween – there’s a funky/hippie neighborhood north of downtown Seattle where there will be a “freak parade” at midnight on Saturday night, and we’re all going. So that should be interesting. I volunteered to be designated driver, because I’m nice like that. Also because I seem to have lost the taste for alcohol over the past couple of months, I just haven’t wanted it much at all. Kind of weird, but not that unusual for me. Anyway, that is bound to be interesting.

In slightly ickier news, the other night I noticed two of our cats (Cleo & Greta) circling one of the chairs in the living room, very interested in something underneath it. Knowing it couldn’t be good, I shooed the cats away and scooted the chair over. Underneath it was a teeny-tiny baby mouse. Now, I know that my mother says that baby mice grow up into big mice, and that I should’ve just let the cats have at it and be done with it, but I’m not that cold-hearted. So I called Dave, and we got a big tupperware thing and tried to trap him under it, so I could set him loose outside. Only as soon as I lowered the tupperware, his terror-paralysis suddenly came to an end and he decided to bolt. I ended up pinning him to the floor with the edge of the container. I tried to pick him up (since I had him trapped), and he bit me. He didn’t break the skin, but it hurt, and I still had a minor freak-out about germs and rabies and whatnot. As soon as I dropped him, he took off. After I finished scrubbing my hands with large amounts of anti-bacterial soap, we found him halfway up the living room curtains (he had scaled them like a cat). So Dave used the tupperware lid to shoo him off the curtains and knock him into the container, and I ran him way out into the far part of the yard to set him loose. And as I dropped him off, I told him to have a long, happy life, and to please never come back into my house. I hope he understood me.

Oh, and more cat news: you know the stray orange kitty who comes around our house to eat our cat food but technically isn’t ours? He used to be friendly with all of our cats, but it seems that all of a sudden, our female cats are scared of him – they run from him, and won’t go outside if they see him out there. Beaumont (our one boy cat) is still buddies with him. I know the orange kitty (and yes, that’s the best nickname I’ve got for him so far – if I give him a name, then he’s sort of ours, and so help me God, we do NOT need a fifth cat) is a male because he’s pretty well “equipped”. That’s the other reason why I’m not crazy about him coming in the house – I’ve seen him spraying trees in the yard, and I really don’t want him to do that to my couch. Anyway, I haven’t got actual proof (just a couple of loud fights in the yard where I witnessed shrubs shaking but didn’t see anything), but I suspect that the reason the girl kitties are scared of him all of a sudden is because he’s trying to mount them. And our girls were fixed when they were babies, so they probably have no idea what the hell he’s doing, or they think he’s attacking them. I told Dave, “I’m not sure if it’s a full-on kitty rape situation, or if it’s just some unsolicited humping.” We later decided that Unsolicited Humping would be a great band name. Or even better, as a sign to hang outside of one’s business. Anyway, since he seems to like coming around our house regularly, I don’t know what to do about that, short of trapping the orange kitty and taking him to get snipped, or getting the girls some kitty self-defense lessons. (Meow means meow!) Any ideas? I’m sort of at a loss here.

Cat Portraits

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I was bored today, so I thought I would amuse myself by taking pictures of our cats. And now I’m playing with this new WordPress plug-in that lets me put little thumbnails of photos in my posts. (Well, it’s not a new plug-in, it’s just new to me.) So now, for your viewing pleasure… (click any of the images to see them larger.)

This is Teenie, hanging out in my office. She gets in my chair every time I get out of it, which is sort of annoying, but in a totally adorable way.
Teenie in my office
Here’s Cleo, posing like a true supermodel on the bathmat. She’s my favorite of Dave’s cats because she’s so mellow and sweet. I really love her coloring too, I’ve never seen a cat that looks quite like her. Note those crazy paws with the thumbs. I’m telling you, someday she’s going to learn how to use those suckers and then we’re all in trouble.
Cleo the bathmat supermodel
Also, you saw how cute and happy Teenie looked up there? This is what she looks like when Cleo comes into the office. See how flat her ears get when she’s mad? I tried to catch her in mid-hiss, but I totally missed it.
Just missed the hiss photo
This is Beaumont on our deck. I realized later that he had some crusty stuff on his eye and on his leg, and I thought about editing it out of the photo, but I think this is a pretty true representation of what he actually looks like most of the time. From afar, he looks like a lovely and elegant long-haired black cat, but in reality he is a total doof.
Beaumont the Big, Brave Mauler of Mice
We have this little orange cat that sometimes comes inside to get food when we leave the door open. I’m pretty sure he’s a stray because he used to run every time I made eye contact with him, but he’s getting used to me. I was still a good ten feet away when I took this picture, I just sat on the kitchen floor and used the zoom lens to get the up-close shot of him. (He’ll hang out in the doorway as long as I don’t get too close, but he’ll wait to come inside until I’m safely out of view.) I realized just how horrendously filthy our slider door is when I saw this photo. It’s sort of mortifying, I can’t believe I’m showing it to the whole Internet. Ignore the dirt, look at the cute kitty!
Skittish orange cat who uses us for our Iams
Out in the yard, I caught Greta in the middle of her bath. This picture makes me laugh every time I see it.
Greta in some kind of weird yawn/lip-licking motion
This is more like what she normally looks like. Not exactly pleased, is she? I think she’s a little annoyed with me for that last photo. But she’s still sitting in her mid-bath pose, which is darn funny to me.
Greta is PISSED, y'all
And of course, I have to end this post on a cute little “awwww” note. So here’s Beaumont and Greta doing a little kissy-face action. So sweet.
Beaumont and Greta, kissy-kiss!
Have a great weekend!

clearly at a loss for decent blog content

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I have a feeling that this full-time studying gig is going to wear me out quickly. I was all proud of myself because I’m already halfway through chapter 4 – I mean, come on! Three and a half chapters in two days? That seems like a lot, doesn’t it? Then I realize that I’m on page 70 out of 450, and I want to go lie down and take a nap. Yeesh.

I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. New doctor. I’m not sick, I just, um… oh hell, let’s leave that topic for some other time, shall we? I’m not good at talking about my personal health issues (particularly girly ones) on the Internet. I mean, I got totally spooked when some freaky eyeglasses fetish group found this picture of me and I got like 5 different emails inviting me to their message board and wanting to know details about the exact prescription for my corrective lenses. And that’s just my eyes, so I’m really not inclined to talk about this other stuff. We’ll file it under the cool and vague mystery that is me. Trust me, if anything life-altering happens, I’ll write about it. Until then, let’s just forget that I brought it up.

Oh, and for the record, I have no idea how the eyeglasses fetish weirdos even found that picture because it’s not in any of my photo albums, I just stuck it up there so I could send my friends and family a link where they could see a picture of my new glasses. It’s a couple of years old, which you can tell by how short my hair was back then (man, that was kind of a cute look, wasn’t it? But such a pain to style, I think I’ll keep my ponytail-able length for now). And I don’t even wear my glasses anymore, even though I should, as it would probably get rid of a lot of my headaches, but they bug me. I don’t like having them touching my face all the time. So there you go.

Moving on: cat news! And another reason why I don’t like being home alone during the day. Cleo, our normally sweet mild-mannered kitty, brought a dead bird into our dining room & started batting it around. She’s not much of a hunter, so I’m guessing that one of the other cats killed it, and she just decided to play with it afterward. (Btw, I need to get a picture of this cat’s feet on here, because they’re awesome. One paw has 6 toes, the other has 7. Kitty has thumbs, I kid you not.) So I screamed (again, can’t control it, it just happens) and chased her out of the house. There was no birdie to save in this scenario like last time, as this one had clearly long since departed this earthly dimension. Normally I make Dave deal with the dead things that the cats bring inside, but it was the middle of the day and he wasn’t going to be home for hours. So I took a deep breath (and I didn’t cry! Go me!), scooped the bird up with some paper towels, put him in a plastic grocery bag and deposited him in the trash outside. I did a little sign of the cross after I put the lid on the garbage can. I’m not sure why, it just seemed like such an unceremonious burial otherwise. Poor little bird. And then I scrubbed my hands with anti-bacterial soap and hot water for a good couple of minutes, because eww, death cooties.

Oh, and the two cats who do hunt on a regular basis (Beaumont & Greta) apparently have tapeworms. If you don’t know what that’s like, just… God, I can’t even describe it without my gag reflex kicking in. You can read about it here if you have a really strong stomach. (Warning: there are photos of poop and animal nether-regions on that site. I’m not kidding.) Anyway, apparently one of the ways they can get it is from eating rodents. Hooray for my little hunters! So, we got some medication from the vet’s office for them, and I get the joy of trying to shove the rather large pills down their tiny little kitty throats, once today and again in 2 weeks. I got Beaumont already today – I found an empty syringe from one of Teenie’s medications and used it to squirt some water in his mouth as soon as I put the pill in, so he sort of had no choice but to swallow it. It seemed to work pretty well, he didn’t even draw blood. Somehow I have a feeling I will not leave the Greta experience quite so unscathed, as she’s a bit more feral than the other cats. I’m already plotting how I’m going to sneak up on her when she’s sleeping. Yeah, I think I need a hobby. Or a job. Whichever.

Remind me again why I'm a cat person?

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The scene: our house, this morning. Dave left for work, and less than 5 minutes later, I went to take a shower. I took my clothes off, then I heard something strange. One of our cats, Beaumont (the big, brave boy hunter cat), was yowling a very distinct meow. It was sort of a muffled sound, and one that I have come to know well; it loosely translates to, “Quick! Come see this neat dead thing that I’m carrying in my mouth and want to give you as a gift!” Since I was alone in the house, I went to see what was up. This was very, very stupid of me. As I started to come down the stairs, Beaumont flew past me with – yep, I guessed it – some tiny thing with feet sticking out of his mouth. I screamed, because no matter how many times this happens, I am still not used to it; and even though Dave hates it when I scream, I cannot help it. (See, honey? I really don’t do it for attention, I even do it when I’m alone in the house!) Beaumont ran into my office and dropped off his “gift,” which turned out to be a teeny tiny bird, which was not so much dead as it was still frantically fluttering around and leaving feathers all over the damn place. Somehow, amid much flapping of tiny wings and me shouting obscenities, I managed to separate the cat from the bird. I grabbed the cat, ran down the stairs, threw him out the back door and slammed the door on him. (Just in case you were wondering: on nice weather days like today, we leave the back slider door open a few inches so the cats can come & go as they please. Probably a bad idea when I’m going to take a shower. Probably a worse idea to advertise that we do this on the Internet.) And let’s not forget that I was naked for all of this – so um, hi, neighbors! I really hope you were all at work, but please feel free to send me your opthamologist bill if I inadvertently caused you to bleed from the eyes.

Ok, population of the house is now me (still naked! hello!), the bird, and Teenie – who has never hunted a damned thing in her life and I don’t think she would honestly know what to do with a bird if it flew up and pecked her on the nose. So I wasn’t worried about her, but little Miss Birdie (I don’t know that it was a female, but that what I called her) was definitely injured, and I didn’t know how badly, but she was hiding under the trunk in our living room. I called my vet, who referred me to a different vet – a mere 15 miles away (gee, is that all?) – where they would take in injured wildlife. Fantastic! But I’m still naked, and oh yeah, sort of greasy! I called my mom, who reassured me that I would not be a horrible person if I took 20 minutes to shower and slap on some make-up before I took the bird to the emergency clinic, so that’s what I did. I put on my gardening gloves, caught the bird in my living room windowsill, put her in an Amazon.com box, draped a towel over the top of it (thinking it would calm her if it was dark – I have no idea if it helped or not), and drove off to the vet’s. They took her and said they were pretty sure she’d be ok, so I left a generous check for their donations-only wildlife center, and that was that. On the way home, I stopped at the pet store and bought collars with bells to put on all of the cats, because I’m fine with them killing mice (lesser of two evils – I don’t want mice in my house, soooo….), but the bird thing? Not cool.

End of scene.

Moving on: The phone interview today has turned into an in-person interview on Monday. This could be good, but I’m not letting myself get *too* excited about it, since that didn’t work out well for me in the past, and besides, I’m still not sure that I understand exactly what this job entails. But apparently I impressed someone, since they still want to talk to me after the phone interview. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, scary stuff over in Houston with this hurricane. My brother lives there, but he’s evacuating tonight, and going to stay with our cousin (Cat’s brother) in Austin. Apparently he’s mostly just packing up his clothes and his guitars – I’m not sure he cares about much else.