The Cat Report

2010 was a crazy year in cats.

Paws up and died this summer. Two days before, mrguy and I were laughing about how robust a 15-year-old cat she was. It was sudden and unbelievably sad.

The other cats went into a panic. Eyes roamed the house, sniffing Paws' noseprints on the kitchen window. Nose, stressed-out, developed boy cat problems and had to have an operation. Eyes collapsed and vomited when we returned from a vacation. All of us were sad about the loss of our kitty.

I decided that out there there was another black kitten for me to love. I started looking. I wanted to get someone off the street -- to help an abandoned kitten. I scoured the rescue organizations, including one run by the local real estate agent / cat lady. Her application asked for a description of the traffic pattern outside of our house and for our net worth. Lady, it's just a cat. Even I know that. She turned us down because we wouldn't agree to have an all-outdoors cat. Nut job.

It was the end of kitten season. The river of cats was dwindling to a trickle. Yet I knew that kittens were out there. The Boo had been born off-season, in November. I started going to pet stores. I saw a cute kitty. And then I went to the scuzzy pet store in the same mall as our veterinarian. I saw my kitty.

He was black like Paws and had enormous ears like Nose. I held him. He purred like a maniac. I had to have him. The next time we went to the grocery store I brought mrguy. There was another really sad kitten there who purred like an angel and hid from the older kittens in the cat box. She melted into his arms. We took them both. And now there are four.

The last two months have involved non-stop trips to the vet. The kittens were sick. They had many internal parasites and vitamin deficiencies and were very thin. They arrived as we were beginning a bathroom remodel. The older cats were upset at first, but have calmed down. Nose, who has favored his papa for many years, is now actually jealous of the kittens' attention and spends much more time with me.

As I said even before I knew it was true: four cats is good.

 

Object Of My Desire

Nothing says vacation like tromping around salvage yards in the cold.

Saw some pretty toilets

 

and the object of my desire, a water fountain.

 

I've always wanted to have one in the back yard. I can't quite explain it. 

This one is a bit expensive, but I'll keep looking :)

Where I Been?

I missed you, blog. I think about you all the time.

It's been a busy few months. My computer died twice and cats and friends passed away and we remodeled the bathroom and adopted new kittens. I will be back during the holiday break, having reorganized my photo libraries and had a moment to decompress.

In the meantime I give you the Fake It Til You Make It set that I played today while cooking and trying to get happy. It pretty much worked, with the double dose of polka really helping:

Web Edwards: Mele Kalikimaka

Jack Teagarden: Swing Low Sweet Spiritual

Dairyland Jubilee Commemorative Record

Brown Express: Pilares de Cristal

Arthur Lyman: Mele Kalikimaka

With two curries and a macaroni and cheese made, I think I'm ready to unlax before the last three workdays of the year.

Best,

Mrsguy

NY Trip 2010 Travel

Ahhh. Vacation.

After a poopy summer of losing Paws and losing the Hawaiian band and thinking that family vacation would kiss our boo-boos and having it cause them instead, we were ready to vacate. As if to kick us out the door, work was completely gnarly on my last day, as well.

Chili's! Take me away!

Yep. Got to the airport, and found margaritas and tabloids within feet of our gate.

I had never been to Chili's, but it was a welcome refuge from the lack of relaxation that preceded it. So was Virgin Atlantic's fine choice of late night programming: infomercials.

I had forgotten how much I like infomercials. When I worked nights at the restaurant, I would stay up late and try to find some fine programming. When that failed me, I'd watch infomercials. My favorites were the ones selling contraptions that converted your hair into fancy sculptures and the ones for Rio hair straightener. So mild that you can eat it! But it made people's hair fall out. On the plane I watched a very cheesy Ron Popiel knife infomercial, and an excellent infomercial about scalp and eyebrow paint.

The trip would have been unremarkable if we hadn't been flying in on the tail end of Hurricane Natalie. We started our descent and the captain came on to let us know 1) that the guy who descended right before us had some trouble, 2) that we were going to circle for a while but 3) we only had a half hour's worth of gas. I went back to sleep. You figure it out, Captain.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, looks pleasant from what I saw of it. Some people got off the plane and took other transportation. I don't really know what happened, but eventually we got to JFK.

Whew.