1/25/07

* * * The week before last, reader Christine emailed me to tell me that she’d purchased something for me (or, actually, for the cats) and wanted to send it to me, but they wouldn’t deliver to a PO Box address and could she have my mailing address? I thought about it for a while, decided that since we’d occasionally traded emails for the past two years, she maybe wasn’t a psycho stalker and could be trusted with that top-secret information. (Plus, I have her address.) So I gave it to her and sat back to see if a gun-wielding crazy was going to show up on my front steps. Instead, I got a huge, heavy box, and on the outside it said “Cat tree.” Fred kept forgetting to bring his tools home to put it together, and finally remembered to do so on Sunday. The funny thing is that he ended up not needing any tools – the tree screwed together quite easily. And I must say – it’s a big hit with the cats. Sugarbutt and Tommy, especially, like to hang out in the top platform. No one’s tried out the “hammock” on the bottom, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Thank you, Christine, on behalf of the cats. They told me that you RAWK! Myrtle (formerly known as Moondance) enjoys her solitude on the platform. She’s got the screech of a hellbeast, and she makes the other cats nervous. When she hangs out on the cat tree, they wisely stay away.

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From my comments: Robyn, a question re: your eventual move. Are you going to sell your house in-town first and then move, or move into the Smallville house and sell your in-town house when it’s empty or partly empty? I don’t have as many cats but I do have kids and for me, having realtors come in unannounced or on short notice would be a problem. Originally, our plans were to move Fred and the cats into the Smallville house, recarpet the Madison house, and then put the Madison house up for sale while the spud and I stayed in Madison (so she wouldn’t have as far to drive to get to school). Last week I was thinking about it, and I realized that it was dumb for Fred to move to Smallville first, seeing as he’s the one who has to drive to work in Huntsville, and I’m not. So for now, the plans are to finish the Smallville house, move the cats and me out there, recarpet the Madison house, and put it up for sale while Fred and the spud live here. Obviously during the week I’ll drive from Smallville to Madison to keep the house clean and presentable for potential buyers, make dinner, and hang out with Fred and the spud until bedtime, whereupon I’ll drive back to Smallville, hang out with the kitties, and sleep there with the security system set and a gun under my pillow. I imagine that, with the cats at the Smallville house, it’ll be one hell of a lot easier to keep the Madison house clean!
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Donna’s right: The next 8 photos could be you with each of your eight (yes, I said eight) cats. Then a photo of you with each of your foster kitties. Then go to other people’s houses and ask to pose with their kitties, or their lawn gnomes or something. Well, I’ve put up pictures of me with Newt and Maxi (aka: NotOurKitties), one with Miz Poo, and one with Tommy. I’m sure there’ll be more cat pictures in the future, but I’m having a good time imagining knocking on a random person’s door, saying “Hey. Can I take a picture of myself with your gnome? Thanks!”
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What does your “Liz Claiborne Grandma purse” look like? This is the second day you mentioned it, and I have to see it! Well, not really have to, but have a burning desire to see the object of scorn. So I can hate it too. (And did you love the “Liz Claiborne Grandma purse” at one time?) Here it is: (The splotch of paint is in the upper left corner; it’s actually smaller than I remembered.) Now, let’s be clear: I do not hate the Liz Claiborne Grandma purse. I like it, I just hate that it didn’t work out for me. That is, I could fit everything in it, but it was hard to get to the stuff in the bottom of the purse, and that always drives me crazy. I’m sure it’ll work better for someone else!
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Why is the Spud’s school being so hard-assed about absences? Don’t schools get all their funding as long as they get the required parental excusal? I have NO idea what their deal is, and I suspect that if I really pushed it, they’d accept a note from me as a valid excuse (well, actually, I think they’ll accept it anyway, but she doesn’t want it to count against her attendance. Or something. Can you tell I’m kind of fuzzy on the whole thing?)
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Hi Robyn, I “recommend” that you have a “recommendation page” for products etc that you’ve tried and either liked or hated. I have gotten alot of good ideas from your site on different products. I swear upon all that is holy that I intend to do that. Maybe this weekend, since I won’t be going out to the house, I’ll get my ass in gear and get it done!
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Do you let the fosters go outside w/the other kitties? We haven’t opened the cat door since we started letting Joe Bob and Myrtle out, because we don’t have extra collars to put on them, and they’re both quite fond of using their claws; I’d worry too much about them climbing the fence and being gone, and the shelter never ever letting me have another foster kitty. I’d love to have a couple of extra collars for just this situation, but they’re more than $80 apiece, plus when we move to Smallville we’re going to use netting over the top of the fence to keep the cats from getting out of the back yard rather than using collars, so it would be a pointless expense.
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Tuesday, I had to take Fantine back to the vet. Her eyes had cleared up a bit from Friday (they gave me a triple antibiotic to put in her eyes), but had only gotten a little better, and weren’t healed yet, still goopy and crusty and bright pink around the eyelids. The vet gave her a hydrocortisone shot to bring down the swelling, and had me put her on doxycycline, to see if that would solve the problem. I got home from the vet’s, Fred and I ate dinner, we ran out to the Smallville house to check on the floors, then when we got home I boxed up Javert, Eponine, and Cosette, and took them to the pet store. At 7:30 the shelter manager called to let me know that Javert and Eponine had been adopted together! Now that’s what I like to hear – the only thing that would have made me happier would have been to hear that Cosette had been adopted as well. I’m hoping she’ll have been adopted by Monday. “Right now, I’m sitting in my new Mommy’s home!” As soon as I left to take the cats to the pet store, Fred let Fantine out of her room. She is such a sweet laid-back cat; she sniffed around and explored for a while, then ended up hanging out back in her own room for a good part of the evening.
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Free hellcat in every case of water! (All of today’s uploaded pictures are here.)
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I opened the cupboard to get out some potatoes to make mashed taters to have with our meatloaf last night, and saw this in the very back of the cupboard. I guess we’re getting a head start on all that gardening we’ll be doing in Smallville.
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Self-portrait #16: One of us has litter on our nose. (Hint: It ain’t me.)
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Previously 2006: “Thy-y-y-yme is my crack! Yes it is!” 2005: He emailed me back immediately. You’re already too old to die tragically young. 2004: No entry. 2003: No entry. 2002: And Mildred and Myrtle were hanging out merrily in their very sheer bright yellow bra, waving at all and sundry. 2001: Just thinking about it makes me grumpy. 2000: Y’all stay warm, now!]]>

18 thoughts on “1/25/07”

  1. Oh my god so much to say and I can’t get it all out fast enough. Ok #1 — glad Aimee is not the only cat to have litter on her nose. Since she was a baby. And she doesn’t cover her poo either — instead she scratches the lid of the litter box instead of scratching down to hid her surprise. Any advice on that one oh grand cat lady?
    #2) forget the purse, I want your socks! Well, not ones you wore but the same brand. Care to share?
    #3) Does anyone want to buy Aimee and JoJo a kitty house like that? We have the “Yo” but it’s pretty worn. We can’t justify spending $100 on one though. Hmmmm. Maybe I should go look on ebay?
    #4) Cat in the water = hysterical!!!!

  4. Looks like you have “cat under plastic” instead of pheasant under glass. Yummy.
    Darn sponges – they need to have their asses kicked on a regular basis. Maybe that’s why Kiefer jumped on the counter the other night. Hmmm – my cats aren’t allowed on the counters unlike some really spoiled kitties in Alabama.

  5. I’m really glad I’m not the only one who thought the potatoes were icky… they really freak me out when they’re sprouted like that for some reason. Too spider like perhaps?

  10. Wow, that’s one fancy cat tree!
    My son’s school is VERY hard-assed about absences, too. I don’t quite get the reason for it, but he graduates soon, so I’ll get worked up about something else. 🙂

  11. our cats love their cat tree too, though it isn’t as elaborate as the one you received. If you go to the Doctors and Foster website you can find some AMAZING cat trees.
    Ew to the potatoes.
    Ha to the cat in the water. Where do you buy that? Not that we need more cats, but just in case.

  12. That is a very nice cat tree!
    BTW, Joe Bob looks like he fits right in with all your other cats. How much longer will you have him and his sister before they go back to the store? I guess it takes longer for the adult cats to get adopted 🙁

  13. That is a great cat tree, looks like they are really enjoying it.
    Why are you recarpeting the Madison house before you put it up for sale? I’ve heard that is not necessary because what if the next owners want a different colour carpet or want to rip it up and put in hardwood? You’d have wasted big bucks for nothing. Have you asked a realtor about it? When we sold our house 2 years ago we had the realtor in a few months ahead of when we wanted to put the house up for sale and she went through the house and advised what we needed to do. I know in one room we were going to rip up the carpet and she said not to bother, just give it a good cleaning. There were a lot of things we were going to do and she said it would be a waste of time and not get us any more money. Unless the carpets are really, really nasty I would just get them professionally cleaned and leave it there. Just my 2 cents, why waste the money if you don’t have to?

  14. I am always a fan of Cat in a Box pictures. I love that your cat got right in there under the plastic with the water bottles. It *almost* looks like you actually purchased her that way. 🙂
    Here is a question for you … Do you ever pick up your cats and cradle them like babies? And when/if you do, do they ever put their nasty litter-smelling paws on your lips?
    I do not like putting soap that close to my mouth, but every time I pick up my cat and cradle her, she puts her paws on my lips. And no matter how many times I try to reposition her, she just keeps putting those paws back on my lips. It’s endearing, but disgusting at the same time.

  15. Thanks for the picture of your Liz Claiborne Grandma purse! I am sorry to say that I agree with Fred and Debbie, it does kind of look like something a granny would carry. (I wish I could have made that last sentence in really small type.)
    I know how hard it is to find a good purse, just this past week I spent three hours trudging around in Freeport Maine looking for a perfect purse – to no avail. One would think, with all the fancy stores they have there I would find a purse that’d work for me. Oh well, when I finally see it, I’ll know its the right one!
    The potatoes looked awesomely gross!

  16. That crazy sponge, good thing you have JoeBob to protect you against dangerous cleaning instruments 🙂
    Love the cat tree, Christine rocks, she’s making the rest of us readers look bad though…

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