lady_kishiria | Entries tagged with cats

I finally own a copy of "Star Wars: A New Hope". Or, speaking as a senior citizen, just plain "Star Wars".

We had $40 in credit from Bookman's, the Arizona used-media chain. You get in-store credit for trading in books, music, musical instruments, art, etc. I went to the big one on Speedway Blvd hoping to find a copy, since there were none at the other two locations in town.

They had one copy of the DVD, so I snagged it. It's not the two-disc "limited edition" that contains the CGI-desecrated version as well as the original as it was shown in theaters in 1977. But even the CGI-desecrated version is better than no copy at all. It restores one of the scenes with Luke's friend Biggs, at least.

Such a wonderful movie. People may argue with me, but I do think "The Force Awakens" was a worthy sequel to "Episodes 4-6", and seeing this reminded me of why. Both films definitely have the same "gosh-wow" spirit and theme of the accidental hero. (I prefer to pretend the prequels don't exist.)

I also got something else I'd been wanting forever, namely a hardcover one-volume Lord of the Rings. It's not the edition I most covet, which is the red faux leather edition, but it was $8, so it has pride of place on my nightstand.

Today things were a bit tense at home, so I took off again for Bookmans with a huge bag of DVDs to trade in. Bookmans took everything and gave me about $30 of credit, $7.50 of which I used to buy two more volumes in the Kevin Hearnes "Iron Druid" series. Since I'm going to Huachuca for two weeks starting next Sunday, I figured it'd be a good time to read them, although I'm bringing my Kindle with me too, of course. Then I went next door to Beyond Bread and wrote fanfic and had a scone and tea until it was time for my conversion group meeting over at the synagogue.

I came home and put Chug on his harness and seatbelt so I could drive around a little bit to see how he dealt with it. He complained of course, but not very loudly once we were off the dirt roads. He's coming with me to Ft. Huachuca since Candlewood Suites allows pets in the rooms. This is probably my last Army Reserve Annual Training, so I'm making it as comfortable as possible.

Oh, I got my application to the Veteran's Administration in for a Disability rating. I filed through Disabled American Veterans, who said if I get denied or given an insultingly low rating to come right back to them and file the appeal. We'll see what happens.

I ended up being far less sedentary than I had previously planned. I got up late yesterday and read for a while, (I'm reading the first Harry Dresden novel, in addition to starting Dion Fortune's book on the Qabalah, as she spells it), then worked on my Warhammer 40k miniatures. I actually have enough for a decent-sized army of Brothers Hematic. I finished one completely today (Sunday), so I feel accomplished about that.

We've really been delaying on taking Bucky to the vet. Since our chosen vet hospital is open 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, we took him in for a 7:40 pm checkup. And he's nice and healthy; I had been worried about FeLV but they can do tests on-site and his came back clean. He got his rabies and respiratory shots, which meant that he spent the next 12 hours sleeping between me and Steve. We discovered that he doesn't like sitting in his carrier on my lap, but having his carrier beside me in the back seat, turned so he can see me, is just fine. He was quiet as they gave him his shots and still loved the vet and assistant even after they took blood from him. We get him a follow-up shot in three weeks, and then we'll be ready to have him neutered.

The vet suggested getting another set of food dishes and another litter box so three cats aren't competing for the same resources. I now have a small pink litter box in my office for Lalat.

After a pretty grueling weekend (three ten hour days) I'm back. Steve is sick, and I wasn't sure if I'd go to work today, but I did. I kept busy all day, which was good, stopped off at Neighborhood Market to get more cat litter, some distilled water, and a take and bake pizza. I settled in with pizza, WWE, and Steve as I do most Mondays. This was particularly important to day since we want Lalat to be assured that just because we have a new bub in the house, that the household routines won't be changing.

Bubba may be Bucky. I called him that this morning as I was getting ready for work.

Time for me to get my coffee set up for tomorrow morning so I can keep rolling through the week.

Current Mood: tired

Meet Bubba!

Bubbacat

Bob and Julie the next door neighbours, have barn cats. This one kitten, though, did not have the personality for the job. All he wants to do is hug humans. They couldn't keep another pet, so they asked if we wanted him. Bob was clearly pretty upset at the idea of parting with the kitten, who is about three months old, so we assured him we'd give the bub a good home. Ivan was of the opinion that we should call him "Beelzebub" so Bub it is. He loves everyone, snuggles and cuddles us, and is beyond thrilled to have endless food and a warm bed to sleep in.

So I'm knackered to be away from home this weekend! I'm in Los Alamitos for a three day Reserve weekend and don't want to be here, even if I do like the people in my unit a lot.

The anxiety isn't going away. I've made a note to call the VA on Monday to talk about adjustments.

Well, the Litter Kwitter is a loss. It's three-stage, going from amber where there is a hole surrounded by a rim of litter about four inches wide directly to green where the rim is about an inch, inch and a half wide with a hole large enough for a human to use. This is simply too large a jump. The cats are happy to use the amber tray but the green one had them crying out of sheer confusion.

Lalat in particular will sit and pee directly into the hole in the amber tray, leaving the litter clean. Ivan pees in the litter but poops right into the water.

So I've ordered the City Kitty, which is the same kind of system, but with five stages instead of only three. Even if I never get them to 100% litter-free, using less litter would be a big step forward. Our two are young though, so I'm going to keep up hope that they'll be potty trained before the end of the year.

reginaterrae asked, and it's worth an update. Miss Lalat is wearing her pretty white and pink collar now and getting along better with Ivan. As I was doing my thing in the bathroom they both came in. She plopped down on the mat and Ivan washed her face. She rolled over but didn't swat him. They left the bathroom and when I was sitting on the bed making a phone call they both sat on the foot of the bed and again, didn't swat or snarl. Great success!

I'm feeling whirled-about and confused. Within a week of coming back from Texas we had a new cat and new shutters, so I I'm back to feeling like I don't live in our condo, that I just stay there sometimes. This weekend is drill, and it's a change of command ceremony that I'm not looking forward to.

I keep hoping each unit I join will be better and they're all bad. As most people know, the deal for Reservists and Guard is "one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer". JAG often breaks up the two weeks into several events. Well, I didn't get to the suicide-prevention training and they lost my orders for the JAG paralegal training I'm supposed to be at right now and the week of training I had for August. I've resubmitted paperwork for August. The impact of not having the AT is that I lose points towards my retirement. I don't know how this will resolve and I almost don't care anymore. Ma'am knows and we know EXACTLY who is to blame.

Tonight I hope/plan to just go home, get a turkey we've been defrosting into the oven before it goes gamey on us, and hang out with Steve and the cats.

Oh, and Little Orphan Kitty's name is Lalat, a Pashtun word for an Afghan wild mountain tulip. When K our interpreter told us that word, I knew I'd have to use it as a cat name eventually.

We went up to Lake Elsinore to meet Kathi, Little Kitty's foster mom. She's a vegan who takes in critters with her mom. Her mom, in fact, has a tortoise rescue. We have the same philosophy on cat care (raw meat, no grain, very fussy about the kibble) and she was sad to see LK go, but glad that she was going to a good home.

LK played with us, let us pet her and was very, very good in the car. We ensconced her in the back room with her little blanket in a plastic bin, some food and water and all her toys. She ate right away and put away a whole Fancy Feast appetizer.

But poor Ivan! He came in to say hello and was polite, not at all defensive. LK flattened herself on the floor, put her ears back and snarled. Ivan kept his cool and growled a little bit, but not much. Now he's outside the door of the back room and he wants to play with her SO badly. He's such a sweetheart. I'm leaving her alone for now so she can process things in her little mind and we'll try introducing him again later.

Steve and I got home Tuesday. We left San Antonio before 8 a.m. and by regulating our speed so we were never more than 5 miles over the speed limit got to Tuscon by 1900 Pacific Time. Steve was making noise about continuing on and getting home by midnight, but I disagreed. We stopped at a restaurant beside a Best Western and found that there was a bad storm overhead and continuing into eastern California. He also hit the wall when it came to exhaustion, so we checked into the BW and were out by 6 am. We got home about noon, had a bite to eat and then picked up Ivan. It took him about 10 minutes to remember who we were and where he was; his brain is only the size of a walnut.

The condo was HOT. We still don't have window coverings in the dining room and only paper ones in the living room, so it was close to 90 inside. We get the shutters Monday. I can't wait.

Last night after work, Steve went to go have High Beer at Hooters with Ryan. I wasn't really feeling into it, so I went home where Ivan sat on my lap for at least an hour as I watched movies on Netflix. Later we had chicken and he fell asleep snuggled with me. I hope he won't be mad when I bring home 9-month-old Little Kitty this afternoon.

Because raw milk gives me a hard time, I put soymilk on my cereal in the morning. Today as I sat on the couch watching CNN with cereal bowl in hand, a certain little girl came up beside me and started pushing her little grey nose into it. It seems that SOMEONE has been teaching her that begging is acceptable behaviour from cats. Who could have taught her such a thing? Who COULD it be? When I gave her the bowl after I was finished, to show her that it was soymilk and not the cow's milk she was anticipating, she still took a few sips from it. She also was interested in the pear I was eating yesterday afternoon. Health conscious cat? Time will tell.

We've been forking out more money than we wanted. Steve has proved terribly allergic to the litter we've been using for years. The difference is that while Badira always got in the box, did what she came to do and got out, the Tsaritsa is an archaeologist. She'll dig for half an hour straight, because if she can find some ancient artifacts for her Imperial Brother's Reichsmuseum (sp?), she's onto it. This leads to two things; pounds of litter on the floor and a cat covered in litter dust. She would then go and snuggle with Steve, where the dust and the perfume in the litter made him sneeze and cough.

So we've bought a covered litter box with a door and invested in a wheat-based litter that is low dust and free of fragrance. This is the first time we've ever used anything like this because my only experience with a covered box was Dennis refusing to use it because he was a claustrophobic cat.

In the evening, Steve's friend Tony came down. Tony's birthday is the 26th, so we all went to Dave & Buster's for a bit to celebrate. Good time was had, not a lot to say about it.

Finally, what the hell is going on in Toronto? The shooting last night was bad enough, but the CBC says that was the 52nd gun death in the CITY alone. Usually Toronto gets 52 homicides or so a year, but to have this only be the shooting deaths? Since Canada has no "right to bear arms" I see strict measures ahead.

The smoke coming out of the chimney looks like it might be white...too early to say "HABEMUS FELINAS" for sure, but it's looking *very* likely.

Today after I took

americanstd to work, I had a feeling today might be the day. I drove to two Petcos and checked out the adoptable cats there, no dice. Then I went to the San Diego Humane Society.

I'd never been there before and holy cow! This is the Ritz Carleton of animal shelters. Instead of the poky little cages out of which I adopted Dennis Murphy in 1994 at the Toronto Humane Society, the cats have rooms the size of small bedrooms. The dogs have twin-sized beds, chairs, or sofas and a television playing Animal Planet. The cats have enormous cat trees, comfy chairs, and other things needed for Cat Comfort.

In a room with two comfy chairs, a divan, a rug, and a cat tree were a brother and sister pair of Russian Blues. They have stupid slave names which will be changed, so at the moment I think of them as Czar and Czarina. I went in to meet them and Czar hopped off his chair to rub against me. After a few minutes, Czarina came down for pets as well. When I picked up Steve from work, I took him straight there. We had to wait for the counselor to let us into the room, but as soon as Czarina saw Steve through the window that looks into the hall she jumped up onto the window sill, meowed at him, pawed at the glass, and otherwise said, "You are my person! I am your cat!"

Once we were in there, Czar attached himself to him too, demanding to be picked up and petted while Czarina requested ear rubs.

They're ours pending us running their medical records past our normal vet. The only downside to Czar and Czarina is that they are nine years old and Czarina has some thin patches on her back. Thing is, the last place they lived, they were confined to a single room and given up due to "owner issues" so I think this is fur-pulling due to stress. They also both had a bout with upper respiratory infection but are okay now. Dennis was 10 when I adopted him and he gave us five years of great happiness, so I'm not hesitant about adopting two nine-year-olds who are in better shape than he was when I got him.

electorprince, I said you could name one of them, and I'm holding to that. Which one do you want? The Czar is a big guy, about 15 pounds I'd say if not more. The Czarina is small, green-eyed (he has the proverbial copper penny eyes) and somewhat reserved. She also has a scarred ear due to a surgically-removed hematoma but she's still a doll.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: jimmy hill vs sarah g. - the joint track