Who?

I’ve written about my cat Molly that survived all odds through being locked up in a tiny room during the school summer break and how she was found in a bad state when school started again. That’s how we came to add Molly to our home.

First she belonged to my daughter, Susie.  Then later, when Susie was in her teen years and more interested in work, friends, photography, and her social cat, she sort of forgot about Molly.  One day my son, Tony, came to visit us and saw that Molly was being ignored by Susie, who wasn’t home.  When he left, he packed up Molly’s things and put her in a carrier and took her home with him where he could give her attention and care for her better.  Then when I moved to Oregon to live by myself, we all thought I needed to have a pet.  The perfect pet would be Molly who knew me and felt comfortable with me. She also did much better as an only pet and she didn’t have that with my son (who had two other cats, snakes, and a bearded dragon).  So we packed her up and she made the final drive from the San Francisco Bay Area to our new home in Portland, Oregon.  We were happy, Molly and I.  Then, she very suddenly got very sick. From a Friday to a Monday she had stopped eating and drinking water and was hiding.  I took her to the vet first thing Monday and she was too far gone. The vet said she could do some tests and some procedures but there was only a 30% chance that she would make it.  She was in pain.  So I had to very tearfully make the decision to let her go.  I haven’t wanted to get another cat.  I don’t want to let myself open for that kind of hurt again.  But then I remind myself that I did the same thing with human relationships after my divorce.  I put up a shield to protect myself from the pain and the falling apart.  And now I’m alone.

So…I got a cat!  I don’t have her yet.  I get her on Friday.  She currently lives at my daughter’s friends’ house but they have a dog and four other cats with whom she doesn’t get along.  We went to see her last night.  She’s a beauty.  She looks a bit like my Molly.  She is a Maine Coon mix with extremely long and very full hair.  She’s a light color, gray and brown mix. She has very pretty eyes and she is very friendly.  She took to me right away. In the meantime, I get things ready for her here at home and her current family gets ready to say goodbye to her.  I pick her up on Friday.  I’m already happy and looking forward to having a new room mate with me.

Her name is Who.  That might change but if she is used to it, she can keep her name.  Who and I will be happy together.

If you’d like to read more about our family’s kitties, you can do so here.   Sadly, some of these kitties are no longer with us. Molly has been gone for almost three years now.  Elliott has been gone for almost two years.  Nari has been gone for four years. We still love them all.  

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Down But Not Really Out

Earlier today, I read about a friend of mine who took a fall.  She’s a little banged up and a lot embarrassed.  It reminded her about a time that I took a fall.  I’ve actually posted this before.  It’s one of my Christmas stories.  Although I have lost most of my old writing, due to technology failing me this year, I was able to piece this together.

Christmas of 1994 the kids went to their dad’s house on December 23rd and he was to return them by 10 AM on Christmas Day.  That year was a particularly bad one, financially, so there was very little money to spend on Christmas gifts.  All three of the kids wanted a computer and I had found a man, through the Penny Saver, that would build one for me and not charge an arm and a leg and he would build it to the specifications needed by/for the kids.  He took a payment to get the parts and then the rest when he delivered it on Christmas Eve.  I had checked with him and everything was on schedule.  I was glad because although this was a gift for all three of them, it was primarily for Tony, the oldest who needed it for school.  I had managed to get a couple of computer games at discount that I would give him for Christmas.

Tina wanted a bird.  I had found her a bird cage at a yard sale about a month before Christmas and I had it stashed in the garage.  I just had to get the bird.  I planned on getting it at the local swap meet on Christmas Eve while the kids were at their dad’s.

Everything was on target that Christmas Eve.  I got up early and was at the swap meet when they opened at 7 in the morning. I knew exactly where the pet stand was and I got there in time to get a beautiful lavender colored parakeet!  It was the most beautiful bird I had ever seen.  I was so happy to have gotten it and it was only $4!  On my way out to the car I stopped and picked up a couple of small things the kids could use and got them at bargain prices as the vendors wanted to unload them quickly so they could go home.  I made my way home and set up the cage and put the parakeet into it.

Just as I finished with the birdie, the phone rang.  It was bad news.  The man that was building the computer for me was calling to say that the fan he had ordered for the computer did not work and he’d have to wait til the 26th to get another.  The kids would not have their computer on Christmas.  I was bummed but I figured I would make the best of it and was glad Ihad managed to get a deal on the bird and the few  things I had picked up at the swap meet.

I went to the grocery store to get what I needed for Christmas dinner and to see if I could pick up some stocking stuffers for the kids.  I was in the store for a long time and when I came out, it was raining.  I pushed the cart full of groceries toward the car and as I got within 15 feet of the car, I slipped in a puddle.  I fall flat on my back in the middle of the parking lot, in the rain, with all my groceries scattered around me.  I couldn’t get up and cars went around me.  It took about seven or eight cars going around me before  a man came running over to me and helped me get up and got me to the car. Then he picked up my groceries and got them in my car.  He actually offered to drive me home but I thanked him and said I could make it on my own.  I was too embarrassed to have him fuss over me or drive me home.  I had prior back and knee injuries so this was not good.  It took about a half hour of sitting in the car crying before I felt I could drive home.  By then the soreness was setting in and I knew I had to get home before the pain got so bad that I would not be able to drive myself home.  I had no one to call to come get me so if I couldn’t drive home, I would be stuck in the grocery store parking lot.

Once home I put the perishables away and took a pain pill and went to bed.  I slept for a very short time and wakened when I heard a loud crash!  I ran to see what it was and got to the living room in time to see  my daughter’s cat running past me with the bird in his mouth!  He had somehow gotten out of the bedroom where he had been stashed til he could be introduced to the bird.  The loud crash was the cat, Noisemaker, knocking down the cage.  I chased the cat all over the house until he let go of the bird.  It was clear that the bird’s neck had been broken.  Filled with anger and frustration,  I threw a shoe at the cat and sat and cried again, holding the dead bird in my hands.

I ended up going to bed and crying myself to sleep after taking care of the bird mess in the living room.  I didn’t even eat lunch or dinner.  I just slept.

When the kids got to the house the next morning, I answered the door with tears in my eyes and the only thing I could say to Tina was “Your stupid animal killed your Christmas present!”

The kids kind of rolled with the punches that day and enjoyed themselves and the gifts they had.  The day was fine and on the 26th, their computer was delivered and we went back to the swap meet and had my daughter pick out another bird.  They also had some Christmas money sent by relatives so they enjoyed the after Christmas bargains at the swap meet.

I still remember that and get all teary.  The bird-killing cat is long gone.  The kids are grown and gone off on their own.  Bad years come and go.  In the end, as long as we’re together, we’re okay.

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Kitty Cat Troubles

Those of you that have followed my blog might remember that my daughter’s cat of 16 years died in September. She waited a while then finally got a new kitten at the shelter in mid October. We have all fallen in love with the kitten. He is an orange Tabby named Naranja (orange in Spanish, named by the staff at the shelter).

He was doing great but had diarrhea. We took him to the vet last week. He checked out fine. They gave us a flea treatment for him and a kitten de-wormer. That was last Wednesday. Late Sunday night my daughter came home from work and went into her room then I heard her start yelling to me that there was something wrong with the kitten. When I got to the room, he was at the food dish trying to eat but he was so weak that he couldn’t stand up. He kept flopping over to the side. We took him to the 24 Hour Vet Hospital. They said they weren’t sure he’d make it. His temperature was two full degrees lower than normal and his head was flopping side to side. He couldn’t track movement with his eyes. They put him on an IV to hydrate him and took some blood work. We left him there. Within the hour the vet called and said she thought she had found the problem. Naranja is anemic. So they gave him a blood transfusion and started him on medication.

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Technology

Technology. Sometimes we can’t live without it and at other times, we can’t live with it.

I love my computer. I have a desktop and a laptop. Recently, due to health reasons, I have been using mostly my laptop, mostly in bed. I began to write my NaNoWriMo novel on the laptop. It has seen better days. It’s not new. It’s almost three years old. But I love it. It’s small and light and full of neat features. However, after the past almost three years, it has gotten very slow and I have put a lot of programs on it that I end up not using. I also download a lot so I end up with a lot of adware and spyware. Recently, my browser was hijacked and even though I cleared it of all the adware and spyware and it checked out as not having any viruses or worms, I could not use Firefox. I would uninstall it, reinstall it, but it would not load. Not at all. I hate IE. I can’t browse without my Firefox. I tried. I tried for two weeks.

Finally I ended up reformatting my laptop. I backed everything up. Then I began the process. No biggie. That is, until I tried to reinstall my programs. Even some of the ones that came pre-installed were asking me for product keys and serial numbers that I didn’t have. It has taken me four days to find everything and get it near the way I like it. It is definitely working much better than it was before the reformat but it’s a little strange to have to type in my passwords on every site I use. I have had to have my passwords reset and emailed to me and in some cases I got away with just answering the security question.

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It’s Only Temporary

I had high hopes of having everything set for a smooth transition into this year’s NaNoWriMo (nanowrimo.org). I was going to do my shopping for lots of coffee and tea and things to eat that are easy to fix in twenty minutes or less. I was going to burn a couple of CDs with different music from what I used during my writing sessions during last year’s NaNoWriMo. I was going to sit back and relax on the 31st, saying I was all set for the 1st to arrive.

I didn’t do any of this. Life got in the way.

Some of you will know that my daughter had room mate problems after moving into a new housing situation and her room mates pulled the rug out from under her after a week and told her to move out. She came to my house. This is temporary. This is temporary. This is temporary. Excuse the repetition but this has become my mantra. She has been here for a week. In that week her former room mates continue to be jerks, moving all of her things outside into the carport. Her things include two tv sets which were left outside in full and plain view of everyone and anyone that happened to walk, run, jog, bike, or drive by. We’ve managed to bring everything and put it in my garage, however we don’t have any way of moving her queen size mattress, box spring, and bed frame, her couch or her 1950’s vintage formica table that seats eight. We have had glimmers of borrowing a truck or van only to not have anyone to do the lifting and moving. I can’t help her. I have back, knee, and neck injuries. So those things remain there, in full view of anyone that might want to go and get them.

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A New Kitty Cat

My daughter got a new kitten today.  As some of you will recall, the cat she had for 16 years died about five weeks ago.  She resisted getting a new cat for awhile.  On Tuesday she told me she was ready for a new kitty and we ended up going to the animal shelter in Healdsburg where she fell in love with two different cats who also fell in love with her.  However, she wasn’t sure.  She said she’d know it when she saw it.  We went to another animal shelter, this one in Santa Rosa.  The attraction of this particular animal shelter is that although their kitten adoption fee is $125, if you find one that has been there for two weeks or more, the adoption fee is discounted by fifty percent.  She found one.  As luck would have it, this particular kitty cat had only been in the shelter for four days so no discount!  However, it is absolutely adorable.  He is three months old.  He was in with three brothers from the same litter, all of whom were surrendered by their owners.  He was one of two orange tabbies.  This one is a medium hair with the cutest round, flat face.  His name on the sheet also drew Tina’s attention…his name is Naranja (Spanish for orange).  That kitty is already loved and being spoiled.  He has fit in at her apartment quite nicely.  He’s home.

I like kitties.  I don’t have one and I usually don’t get one.  The kids get them but I don’t.  The last time I had a cat of my own was over 25 years ago, while I was pregnant with my first child.  She was a beautiful smoky grey Maine coon cat.  Her name was Misty.  One night she ran across the street and a car hit her as I watched from inside the picture window in my living room.  She was killed instantly.  I took that so hard that I have not allowed myself to get close to a pet since then.  Going to see the kitties with my daughter today, reminded me how much I love them.  There were several I would have gladly brought home with me if I could have.   Now I’m thinking that when I move out of this house in June or July, if at all possible, I will get a cat for myself.  I don’t think I will get a kitten.  I think I’d rather get an older cat, one that has already developed its personality and disposition; one that will let me hold it and love it and sleep with me.

Something to look forward to.

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