Guh-Rumpy

Today was turning out to be such a great day, and then Wiley dropped the bomb: the person who had offered their bedroom to us and the cats for the month of August mentioned it to her roommate, who decided she didn't feel comfortable having a man in the house. So I went from being elated to being super grouchy in 2.2 seconds. It was all too perfect, so of course the bottom would fall out. So now the quest begins again for housing for the month of August, not so much for us because we can live in a tent, but for the cats, who have higher standards.

grumble grumble grumble.

I'm Itchy.

I treated Dixie a couple of weeks ago with Revolution because I thought she had ear mites. I left Rewind untreated. This evening, as I wrestled Dixie to the ground to give her her ear medicine, I found a flea on her head. This put me in a bit of a panic, so I grabbed Rewind and combed him and found two fleas. I put them in the toilet and flushed. I finished combing him, which is relatively easy because he doesn't have a whole lot of fur and he's really thin, and found no other fleas, and no flea dirt on him. Then I grabbed Dixie, and found nothing else on her either. I've been washing blankets and bed linens ever since I found the little critters, but my sister tells me Revolution will only kill the fleas that get on the cats, not keep them off period. I wonder if there were fleas already here because as far as I knew, neither of them had them when I picked them up a month ago. Right now, the cats are quiet - neither one is fussing with fur at all, so I hope I got the fleas before they spread. Tomorrow I'll be going to Wal Mart to get some borax to sprinkle on my couches and in the cracks of my house, and I thought about going to the vet to get Capstar, which is an adulticide to get rid of any more fleas that might somehow be hiding on the cats. I'm glad I took a nap earlier. This could be kinda a late night.

Warbling Wednesdays

The cardinals were at it again today. I need to get food for those little birdies!! I think the cats would like to watch them...not to mention eat them, but my cats are vegetarians.

And speaking of cats, I think my cats are allergic to me. Dixie had a habit of licking her belly to the point where she'd bleed. "Hot spots," the vet called them. When Dixie lived with Cara, the hot spots went away. But lo and behold, I looked at Dixie's belly tonight (she loves having her belly rubbed), I saw a little bit of pink under her thick white coat. My mouser, Deeder, who is still living in KC, was also a licker, but she just pulled out her fur, so her white belly showed with a little black fuzz on top of it. She has also stopped licking. So if it's not me, it's my male, Rewind, who's causing all this trouble. I hope it's him and not me.

I've been applying for jobs all day today: Indiana U, a law office, even an assistant chief probation officer. Yep, I was a bit worried too. I thought, You mean I filled out all your information and send you six references and this is what you pair me with? Uh-uh. But I looked at the description, and I wouldn't be the probation officer, I'd oversee other probation officers and do HR stuff - hire, train, go to job fairs, etc. Oh, I see plenty of problems with this; one such being probation officers who've been around the block awhile, sniggering behind my back: "How can she do the job? She's never been a probation officer." True. So we'll just see where this leads us. If I don't apply, I may not win, see?

Then I saw this clinical affairs manager job...basically, dealing with clinical phases and clinical sites...I will probably apply for this too. I have no experience myself with the clinical sites, but I've read a lot of information on them. So that means I can give it a shot. And for $75k, why not??? Then I could pay for my wedding AND take a honeymoon, all without donating plasma or that kidney.

Still kidding, Auntie Em.

The Brain, It Goes

Well, we had our last meal tonight at the Sarajevo Brewery, and it was very tasty...curry and I really get along.

I've packed my suitcases. 44 pounds is all I get, so Wiley has to check a bag for me to get to Munich.

I had a strange dream last night...well, two. The first one involved my cat, Dixie, and she got lost, or killed. It was a very surreal dream, and I remember my heart racing, and that's what actually woke me up. It felt like there was an electric shock collar around my neck, and my heart just beat faster and faster and then I opened my eyes. Good thing - a minute longer and I would've started crying in my sleep, which would've brought Wiley running.

The other dream was a bit more pleasant, but no less odd. We were getting married, though not at the reception hall, but at something that looked like a church...all I really saw were the steps, and they were brown and carpeted. There were five of them, and then there was a landing, and then more steps on the left. Our officiant had been swapped out last minute, but they knew we were only going for a 10 minute ceremony. Well, someone forgot to tell all the people on those steps to the left who were breaking out into song like they were the creators of Jazz Hands, and they sang and sang and sang and sang. They even knew I didn't want them there, hadn't asked them to be there, and still they sang. One person in particular stood out - she was a short-haired, bright-blonde chick, and she had the biggest smile on her face. Then, because they were there singing at the wedding, they wanted $600 for dragging out the service an extra half-hour. I was furious. I stormed into the bathroom, only to look at myself in the mirror and notice that not only was my makeup missing, but my eyebrows were growing really long hair in the middle (think Borat but not quite as thick) and near my eyelids...like I had little patches of hair. Then, I noticed my dress. Gold velvet long-sleeved shirt on top. Skin-tight. Somewhat long, as it covered my azz and made it look huge. The skirt was red and lacey and fluffy, like something you'd see the chicks in the bordellos wearing. I think I may have even had on the black lace-up boots. I ran out of the bathroom crying, asking Wiley how he could let me be seen like this on my wedding day! Of course, being a guy, he was all, "Whaaaa?" and then I woke up. Don't think we ever got to say our I Do's, but I do remember handing him our rings to hold before I tried to get the show choir to stop.

I'd like to know what it was that I ate or took to have a dream that seems inspired by LSD.

No more eating after 7.

Viennatime

This weekend will be known as Viennatime. Tomorrow, we are on a bus for 15 hours, starting at 8 am. I hope we don't run into a traffic jam on Bosnia's seemingly only road out of the country. I also hope that the Slovenian border patrol strike doesn't affect us too much. But I have two books and an ipod

The weather looks to be awesome: rain and snow showers all weekend with a high of 40. I will love this in my wool coat. Must pack umbrella and consider a poncho.

I'm excited to go (so much food to try - chestnuts, gluwein, gingerbread - and sights to see), but the excitement is tempered because my boy, Rewind, had to go back to the vet yesterday because he was still throwing up. His food has now been switched to something wet and stinky, but I'm told he kept it down yesterday. Thankfully we'll be traveling half of the day while his catsitters are sleeping, so if there are any updates, I should get cell reception by the time they're up. So have a good weekend, and I'll be back Monday.

Doing Better

I've gotten word that my boy has kept down his water and about an 1/8 of a cup of food. He's even started purring again. So he might be getting better; now let's just hope he stays that way.

Rallying the Troops

My boy, Rewind, apparently is feeling under the weather again. I got an email saying he was being taken to the emergency vet because he wasn't keeping his food down and was pooping outside his litterbox. I called and he was given two shots, one an antinausea drug and the other an antacid, to quiet down his tummy so he could drink again. He won't get food until Sunday night, and hopefully his tummy feels good enough not to reject it. If that works and he feels better, then he'll have to take Pepcid AC. If not, I'm worried this could be the end of my kitty. So say a prayer that my puma will pull through and keep biting vets for a long time.

The Catsitters

I check in with my catsitters regularly. To the cats, they are known as slaves because cats do not have owners. I've found out a few interesting things:


Rewind, my puma, still likes climbing into open drawers.











Deeder, my little black panther, apparently likes to watch her slave floss.







Dixie, an "evil purr machine", gets her slave up at 5:45 everyday without fail. She has a cold nose that she knows how to work.







I love my little furballs, and I miss them a lot. I look forward to getting them back when we return. Until then, I'm amused at their antics and facets of their personalities that surprise the catsitters.

No Texas for Me

I've just been a newshound this evening.

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/14578516/detail.html

Basically, the article says that a cat scratched a vet tech in El Paso, TX, which requires a call to animal control:

"Veterinarian offices must report any bites or scratches to authorities, but even though the ordinance doesn't call for the owner to get a ticket if the animal has received its proper vaccinations, the officer issued one anyway."

My little Rewind was notorious at his last vet as being a bit "touchy". The current vet I take him to is pretty good with him, but whenever he gets his shots, I'm still the one who has to cradle him like a baby and put the E-collar on him to make sure he doesn't bite anyone. He freaks if anyone else touches him. (His first vet experience was rather bad - he had to have stitches put in his third eyelid to heal his eye when he ran into the attic and got a piece of fiberglass in his eye after running through the insulation, and taking the stitches out was rather traumatic for him - and me.)

Other than that, he's my little puma. If he was a lion, we'd be in trouble and I'd likely be dead, but he's got more personality than any other cat I've met, and he's very lovey to me and Wiley.