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I thought I wasn't really upset about my cat dying. I've only seen him occasionally since I moved out, and I was kind of expecting it since he was old and in poor health.

But last night I had awful dreams about watching people I loved slowly die.
ocelot: (Default)
R.I.P TOC (The Other Cat)

1990 - December 9, 2005
ocelot: (Default)
The kitten ended up going to the Orphan Kitten Project - a group of vet med students who take in orphaned or abandoned kittens in order to get practice caring for little kitties. They're overwhelmed with kittens right now and aren't technically accepting anymore, but there was another singleton the same age, and they do better raised as part of a litter, so they were actually happy to get her.

So now she has a "sister", and adequate care if she isn't as healthy as she seems, and I don't have to worry about Leif killing her with kindness or [livejournal.com profile] koyote dying of an asthma attack.

We have a feeling she may have been purposefully abandoned - she's quite clean, nice shiny fur, no fleas, healthy beyond some dehydration and exposure, and very comfortable around humans. As much as I hate the idea of euthanizing healthy kittens, I'd rather people do that than abandon them to die of dehydration or exposure, especially when they're too young to be separated from the mom and don't have a fighting chance unless someone picks them up.

I also wonder a bit about all the other people who went by and didn't stop. Of course, I didn't hear any meowing on the way out, so perhaps it had only started up recently. Then again, most of these people didn't even stop to ask if the woman pushing a bike with a toddler in the trailer, miles from town, needed help, so it wouldn't surprise me if they had heard but hadn't stopped.

Leif is interesting with the kitten. He wants to love her and hug her and call her George, but at the same time, gets very jealous if I try to feed the kitty. He did the same thing with Alex the dog (who ran away and hasn't been found yet). All in all, it makes me glad we don't have a small baby right now.

I forgot to take pictures before the kitty left.
ocelot: (Default)
Today was a lovely day, one of the few we've had in the past month and a half that was below 95, so I went out for a nice long bike ride with Leif at around 5.

I headed out west of town about six miles, as far as the bike path goes. Shortly after turning around to head back, my rear tire went flat.

I knew it was dumb to go out without tire changing equipment, but I love that ride. I can go the whole way on bike paths, and all the farms are fascinating.

So I started walking the bike back. Occasionally someone would ask if I needed help, but all they could really offer was a cell phone, and I'd already done that much myself. Leif got bored of the slow pace, so I let him ride on the bike seat, which slowed the pace even further.

Finally, a woman who actually had some repair tools offered to help, which would have been great, except that the trailer hitch blocked the quick release on the rear wheel, and it just wasn't coming off, so we hooked the trailer back up.

Then Leif peed. He's been in cloth diapers or training pants most of the time lately because it's just been so hot that I feel terrible for him in disposables. He's about half potty trained anyways - he'll pee in the potty if given the opportunity, but won't tell me ahead of time. In any case, he peed, and I didn't have a change for him because he doesn't pee in the trailer and I hadn't anticipated him being out.

Fortunately, there was a towel, so I was able to wrap that around his waist.

Leif was starting to get really upset because he wanted to be carried, but I couldn't both carry him and handle the bike, so he just had to cry, and I felt terrible.

Then I heard a loud mewing from a bush. Searching around underneath, I found a tiny black kitty, probably about 3 or 4 weeks old. No evidence of any other kittens or adult cats around. It fit in my shirt pocket, where I carried it for a ways. At first, Leif was enchanted, but then he went back to crying because I wouldn't let him hold the kitten.

We finally got to the Unitarian church, and locked up the bike there. The trailer doubles as a stroller with a conversion handle and wheel. I'd considered taking the handle off before I left, but thankfully I'd left it on. Leif was still upset, but it was much easier to handle than the bike+trailer together.

Then the kitten peed on me.

We walked the rest of the way home. I was tempted to offer either the kitten or the toddler to everyone who passed.

So now I have a tiny black kitten curled up on me. It's eating breastmilk until we can get it some kitten formula or food (not sure if it's old enough for solids yet) - as far as I can tell, it isn't going to kill it as a short-term solution, and the next best thing we have on hand is yogurt. I plan to call the SPCA or the vet school's orphan kitten program tomorrow. We just can't keep it - [livejournal.com profile] koyote is too allergic and Leif is too rough.

It's tempting, though.

I have a feeling this is going to be a very long night. Anyone nearby in need of a very tiny kitten?
ocelot: (Default)
The good - We go to Davis on Friday! [livejournal.com profile] koyote found cheap tickets, and decided to take us for Mother's Day and the Whole Earth Festival.

This was supposed to be a surprise for me, but [livejournal.com profile] koyote sucks at keeping surprises secret :) Plus he figured that I'd be pissed off if he woke me up at 3:30 AM Friday morning to go catch a plane.

My mom and stepdad are driving up, which is also supposed to be a surprise. Perhaps my brother will show up as well. I have vague memories of [livejournal.com profile] koyote saying he was going to, but that may have been a dream.

Luckily, the weather is supposed to be cooler than it was earlier this week.

The bad - [livejournal.com profile] silkensteel is taking the cats today. This is primarily for health reasons ([livejournal.com profile] koyote's allergies, and Jenna came near to scratching Leif's eyeball yesterday), and we really should have done this back before we moved, when it was obvious that [livejournal.com profile] koyote and I were going to be staying together long term, but I still feel like the worst pet owner ever.

I know that this is necessary. [livejournal.com profile] koyote needs $300 (pre-insurance, thankfully) worth of meds per month to keep his asthma under control (not entirely due to the cats, but largely), and was in the ER once a month before he got decent insurance coverage. Keeping him alive is more important than keeping the cats.

And honestly, they'll probably be happier. Leif torments them (though they still love him - I find them curled up at his head while he's sleeping), and since he was born, we haven't been providing them with as much attention as they like to have.

I still feel terrible, like the dog owner in that email forward, who gets a dog in college, and then gradually abandons it as she gets a job, family, etc, and eventually puts the dog to sleep because it's too inconvenient.

I suppose we're a little better than that, since we're giving them away, not sending them to the violin factory.

I'm wondering how Leif will react. He loves the cats (even if he expresses it rather roughly). I don't know if he's aware enough yet to really notice they're gone.

The neutral - I want to make another baby carrier before leaving for Davis. Not sure I'll have the time. With [livejournal.com profile] silkensteel here, perhaps Leif will be distracted enough that I can get something put together.

I'm not sure what to do about diapers for this trip. I don't want to use disposables the whole time, but I don't want to fill up our luggage with diapers or do laundry constantly. I suppose I'll bring along our 5 motherease diapers and some training pants (since they're smallish) and 2 prefolds for nighttimes. That should do while we're in the house, at least.
ocelot: (leif)
I just went geocaching! At 11:00PM! Yay!

We recently sold our old GPS (since we sold the visor that it went along with) and bought one that a friend was selling, which reminded me that geocaching existed. I was poking around on geocaching.com and discovered there was a moving cache in the parking lot a block away from our house.

Since it might move before morning, I decided to go find it right then and there.

Unfortunately, someone had already found it and moved it. The site just hadn't updated yet. Oh well. Finding the cache was kind of beside the point - I can't remember the last time I walked around alone at night, at least when it was warm enough to wear short sleeves.

We have a cat problem. We leave the door of the bedroom open so that we can hear Leif or he can come find us if he wakes up. This means the cats can come in. Jenna is currently curled up next to his head.

We tried to go to a meetup in Falls Church today, which ended up being a bust. For some reason, it was in this used bookstore, which was a great used bookstore, but a very poor place for people to meet, since it was jam packed with books. Not that we actually saw anyone who looked like they were doing anything other than buying books.

It was fun, though. They were having a half price sale (oooh, dangerous), and I stumbled across a book I've been looking for but couldn't find since I didn't know the title or author.

We also went to a rather creepy thrift shop. I was hoping to find some clothing for Leif, but there was nothing even halfway decent. Everything looked at least 20 years old. You'd think that thrift shops would be flooded with tons of decent baby clothing, since they grow out of it so fast, but they aren't. I guess the nice stuff gets ebayed or grabbed up right away.

The whole shop was creepy, though, not just the baby clothing section. I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't helped by the salespeople suddenly shoving everyone out the door five minutes after we got there.

For my last birthday, my mom and stepdad gave me a gift certificate to an Indian restaurant. As luck would have it, it was just down the street from the bookstore, so we went there for dinner. Great food, but Leif was awful. Not really his fault - he hadn't had a good nap or eat in a while (he gets too distracted to nurse in public now unless he's very tired or very hungry). We ended up taking turns walking him around.

Then we went to Baskin Robbins, where he ate a whole banana. How the heck does a baby fit a whole banana in his stomach?

He slept the whole way home on the bus, and then I went geocaching.
ocelot: (Default)
Leif seems to have gotten the cold that's going around. His nose is all stuffed up, and he wakes up crying because he can't breathe easily. He also can't nurse easily, since he can't breathe through his nose. We have to use the nose suction bulb thingy which he really hates.

Poor guy.

Despite that, and having a temperature of 101, he seems pretty happy and energetic. When he's not being yelling his head off, that is. It's about half and half. I'm a bit surprised - I'd expect him to be grumpy all the time. At the moment he's in happy mode.

He and the cats aren't getting along too well right now. He's getting really aggressive about grabbing, and they're starting to fight back. Jenna gave him a bit of a gash on his leg today. I don't blame them - he's really pretty rough, but I wish they'd stay out of his way (there are places in the apartment that they can go where he can't reach) or that the weather was nice enough for them to stay outside more.

We're trying to teach the concept of "gentle", but it's something that's going to take time.

Now we have to go take our cold-y selves off to the store, since we need toilet paper and dinner.
ocelot: (Default)
I am in Virginia. The flights went ok, though there were delays everywhere. Chicago was really annoying. Every time there was a lightning strike within 10 miles of the airport, we got delayed 15 minutes.

The cats survived, too. They are quite clingy now.

I got a 32/35 on that project :) I probably would have gotten 35/35 if I'd done the whole thing - I simply ran out of time on one segment. This means I got an A in the class. Yay!

All utilities except phone are cancelled. The phone service relies on DSL being cancelled first, and I just placed the order for that today. I'll call them back late today or tomorrow.

The first thing I noticed upon arriving in VA was that people smoke inside here. Really. I stepped off the plane, and smelled cigarettes. I will miss California in that respect.

Other than that, it seems nice. Very pretty, and not as hot as Davis has been. This is good. I was dying in Davis.

I forgot to shut off the AC before leaving, and the service won't be shut off till the 31st. Darn.
ocelot: (Default)
Poor Matilda, the rattie, isn't doing very well. I'm not sure what's wrong. I'm thinking perhaps she had a stroke, since she seems largely unaware of her left paw when not paying attention to it, and seems to be having some difficulties getting around.

I gave her some yogurt, peanut butter, and wet cat food (in separate piles, not all mixed together), since she seems to be having some trouble eating due to not being able to properly hold anything, and she was in heaven. With the peanut butter and yogurt, anyways - I haven't seen her touch the cat food. I don't think I've ever seen her so happy to eat anything. It's created a terrible mess, especially since she has stuff all over her left paw and doesn't really notice, but that's easy enough to fix. I think Gwendolyn is jealous - she was in the other cage, and kept sniffing around for the food, but she eats just fine on her own.

I hate having rats. I like the rats themselves, but they're unobtrusive enough that they don't get nearly enough attention, cage cleaning, etc. Fish and plants are bad for the same reason. On the good side, it seems to be an upward progression. The rats are doing better than the fish did, and the cats, who have much more ability to make their needs known, are pretty darn happy and healthy considering their pre-existing health conditions, so presumably the baby will do just great.

But really, the only thing that keeps me from feeling entirely guilty about the rats is that if we hadn't got them, they most likely would have suffered a torturous death by snake long ago, as that is the most common usage for non-fancy (ie. cheap) rats.

The cats are horribly gassy and stinky. I think we need to get back in the habit of nightly wet food, even if it is expensive and annoying.

One of the cats threw up a few minutes ago. As I was trying to call him out from under the table to get him outside and figuring out how to clean it up given that we'd just run out of paper towels, one of the other cats came up and started eating the vomit!

Yuck. I've seen cats do that with their own vomit before, but not with someone else's.

I got them both outside, and ended up using toilet paper. He was nice enough to vomit partially onto a pile of napkins to begin with, so it wasn't that bad.

Now I must read the second half of Jane Eyre before tomorrow. Why did I start another book (actually, several others) while reading this, knowing that I have a deadline and the other books can wait? I don't know. Something to do with wanting/needing mindless brain candy.

The problem is that if I read, I'll most likely fall asleep within 20 pages, and I have a lot more than 20 pages to read. I suppose I could always read till I fall asleep, and then, when I can't sleep tonight because I took a late nap, I can read some more.

*giggle*

Mar. 28th, 2003 09:29 pm
ocelot: (Default)
I just put Motherlove Pregnant Belly Solve on my belly, and now the cat is licking it!

It does smell yummy, but not a smell I'd have thought a cat would appreciate.
ocelot: (lemur)
The baby is trying to snuggle with the cat.

The obvious problem with this is that the baby is inside me, and the cat is outside.
ocelot: (Default)
I'm whining. Feel free to ignore.

I'm sick with a cold bordering on a sinus infection. Yuck. Im staying home from work though I'm not sure it's actually bad enough to use a sick day because I don't know if I can stand another day as long and boring as yesterday.

I signed up for a self hypnosis class at the experimental college which was supposed to start yesterday. I went to the room printed on the receipt, but no one else showed up. I suspect they gave me the wrong information - the dates printed on the receipt were wrong (Mondays, Jan. 21 and 28), and I'd already called to confirm the date, but didn't think to confirm the room as well. I really hope they'll give me a refund - it's only a two week class, so I've already missed a good portion of it, and I really can't afford to pay for a semi-useless class right now.

The cat is acting bizarre, crawling around in boxes and being generally destructive. Weirdo.

I'm debating whether I want to go ahead with the AFP test or not. It's a blood test that they do to determine whether there is a risk of certain birth defects. If it comes back positive, they'll do an amniocentesis, which carries the risk of miscarriage. The thing is, it has a very high rate of false positives, and a pretty high false negative rate as well. I'm not planning to have an abortion if something is wrong (a lot of the terribly bizarre completely incompatible with life legs growing out of the head type birth defects have already been ruled out by the first ultrasound, though we're not entirely sure that she isnt actually a hamster), so what is the point of risking an amnio over a test of questionable reliability? And what's the point of taking the test of questionable reliability if I'm not planning on acting on it and I'm just going to get myself all worked up over the results?

The college dropped me from the classes I signed up for, presumably because I haven't paid yet. I signed up again, but wasn't able to get back on the waiting list for the online class, despite spaces remaining. It's closed for some reason. I'm still going to the class for the orientation tomorrow to see if I can get into it, but I'm not counting on it.

If I can't get into it, I'm just taking the one class (assuming it doesn't get cancelled due to low enrollment! Agh!) and not graduating this semester. Antelope Valley College appears to have plenty of women-oriented courses, so I should be able to finish the degree with a class from there sometime next year. Or take an online class from SCC in the fall or something. I'm not going to kill myself going back and forth from Sacramento twice a week for the rest of this semester. I just don't think I'll be able to keep it up towards the end.

In other news, I got the TV card working the other day. I can watch TV again, yay! Now I just have to see if it will work properly with the VCR so I can stop begging other people to tape Buffy for me. I'm two weeks behind, now. The local station put off this week's episode until Sunday because of a basketball game. I'd be really annoyed by this except that I would have missed it anyways because of the stupid non-existant self-hypnosis class.

Now I will go back to sleep or something.
ocelot: (scottishkittyjedi)
After celebrating human Christmas, we are now celebrating kitty Christmas.

This is where the cats attempt to kill the wild wrapping paper and get ribbons hung around their necks.
ocelot: (Default)
That cat-on-a-leash experiment yesterday was a dubious success.

They now realize that the big room with the blue ceiling is a real place, not just a movie screen. They also realized that the screen in the window of the front room is loose.

We came home today to find them waiting outside for us. Weren't sure exactly how they'd gotten out, because someone had kindly put the screen back in place, but a few minutes later I caught them trying to break out again.

If it weren't for Jaycee's bad eye, and the fact that they've been raised indoors their whole life, I'd just go along with it and let them be outdoor cats.

In any case, they're getting name/address tags ASAP.

Now they've calmed down, and have stopped frantically throwing themselves at the window, and are back to curling up on my lap. Nice cats. Monsters, but nice.
ocelot: (Default)
My cats are so funny.

Today we bought them halter thingies, so that they can be taken outside on a leash. They have loops that go around the neck and the chest, and the leash is attached on the back.

They went completely nuts when we first put them on, spinning around, running into things, and generally acting like fools, as if it destroyed their sense of balance. Who knows, maybe it did. Once we took them outside, they calmed down, and haven't acted annoyed since. Maybe they got the point that weird clothing leads to good things eventually.

Now they're both curled up beside me, sleeping, apparently oblivious to the fact that they are wearing halters. That's a good thing.

I should be doing math homework. I currently have two sections of a 7 section + review chapter completed, and it is due tomorrow night. Also, several programming assignments due tomorrow. They ain't getting done, though. Its a matter of priorities - the programming teacher lets us turn in stuff late (for full credit, even). The math teacher doesn't. Due to the phenomenon of teachers always assigning projects to be due on the same day, I have yet to turn in a programming assignment on time.

We got a coffee table today. It's wicker, and ugly as heck, but it was free, so what the heck? It came from the Dumpster of Fortune - the trash dumpster for the apartment complex, which ends up being a place for people to dump all the perfectly good stuff they don't want anymore for everyone else to claim. So far, I've gotten a cat tree, a shirt., a queen sized bed, a halogen lamp sans lightbulb, a chair, and probably more that I'm not remembering. [livejournal.com profile] koyote also got a pair of rollerblades for our friends' six year old daughter, today.

Perhaps they should advertise it as a feature of the complex - "The equivalent of one month's rent in other people's stuff!"

kitten

Sep. 3rd, 2001 10:18 pm
ocelot: (Default)
Walking back from doing laundry just now, I saw the most darling kitten.

It jumped out from the bushes at me, and then bounded over to the jungle gym and jumped on the slide. I stopped and called to it, and after a minute it came over and let me pet it for a few minutes before bouncing away.

It didn't walk, like cats usually do. It jumped a foot or two at a time across the grass.

I sat on the tire swing to watch it. It came back over to me, and put its paws up on the swing, so I picked it up and held it on my lap for a bit before deciding I should go back to my house and pay attention to my own cats instead.

It followed me about halfway home, running beside me through the bushes by my feet. As much as I wanted to watch it, I forced myself to ignore it so it would stop following. If you look at them, it just encourages them.

I adopted my cats as adults, and I regret that I didn't get a chance to see them as kittens. I wouldn't want cats to stay kittens forever. I've raised kittens, and probably still have the scars to prove it. But kittens are special, and I'm sorry I missed that part of their life. I doubt they would have been as lively and playful as this little one - they were apparently pretty sick as kittens. I still would have liked to see them.

I also wish the poor cat wasn't chronically ill (cat herpes, which caused serious damage to one of her eyes. They both have it (they're littermates), but the other is much less severely effected). I look at her bright, beautiful, (essentially) normal eye, and wonder how she'd be different if her other eye was normal. Would she be as clingy as she is now? Would I even own them, as the main reason they weren't already adopted was her eye? Is she in pain from it? Should I have it taken out? One of the SPCA people recommended that, and it probably would be a good idea, but it's hard to bring myself to do it. She does seem to have some amount of sight out of that eye, though with the way it's been getting worse lately, I don't know if she will for long.

Poor kitty.
ocelot: (Default)
It is very very hard to find the motivation to do braindead math homework, even when it is due the next day.

Making music by blowing over the top of a glass bottle is fun.

I have two spiders building webs outside my door. They're both these big old things - probably an inch long each, brown with yellow markings. Beautiful, really. I hope they stick around.

It's strange that I love spiders, but hate bees.

I wonder if my laundry is done?

I just sent in a check for an LJ subscription. It'll probably get there just after the new servers get working and everything speeds up again. But that's ok.

I'm feeling guilty and confused over a number of things.

I should be out in the living room where I can give my cats some attention.

This CD is growing on me. I wasn't all that crazy about it to begin with, but I enjoy most of the songs now. That seems to be how it is with most BNL CDs.

I think I've procrastinated on my homework enough for the day.

weekends

Aug. 11th, 2001 02:01 pm
ocelot: (Default)
I have a love/hate relationship with weekends.

I look forward to them during the week, and don't like them to be over, but the weekend itself never feels long enough to relax, while being too long to not get bored out of my mind and depressed.

I need to clean, since chances are good that the person who wants to see the other room will show up sometime this weekend, and I have a pile of dishes that needs to be taken care of before that. And I'm sure the cats would appreciate it if I cleaned their litter box.

Litter boxes and small apartments do not mix. I wish they were healthier kitties so I could just let them outdoors.

Bubba

Aug. 9th, 2001 12:31 am
ocelot: (k5)
Original: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/8/9/23116/15063

My god, bubba.kuro5hin.org is bringing out the lamest in me. Or perhaps it's the combination of bubba and extreme boredom. In any case, I really need to find a better place to focus my energies than that.
Read more... )

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