the song is "What's New"

Tues Jan. 26 Well, I know I'm really overdue for this installment, but I've been so busy it isn't even funny. Last Thursday I contacted my rescuer friend Brenda to get the latest list on what's available for adoption so I could post the list on the CLASS page and so I could see if there was the right kitty for any of the potential adopters I have on my list. On Brenda's list was a 5-month old purebred English Setter puppy. I called Brenda to find out about this dog (I've always loved English Setters) and found out the dog's deaf. I went to the clinic where she was being boarded until a home was found for her. She turned out to be the sweetest little thing, the conditions there were appalling, and I knew I had to get her out of there ASAP. So I took up a collection at work on Friday, stopped at a pet store on the way to the clinic to get food, collars and a leash, and went right away to pick up the dog. I've decided to call her Penny - short for a very proper Penelope.

Our walk home was anything but pleasant. By the time we were halfway home I was frustrated, and she was frustrated, because she had no way of knowing what I expected of her - the choke collar I'd bought was too big so I had to put the leash on her regular collar, and she was pulling this way and that, so distracted by all the visual stimulation she was receiving. Fortunately, there was a pet store just ahead, so I stopped to get the right size collar and things went a little more smoothly from that point on. By Sunday night, she was leash-trained - she'll automatically stop at the corner and wait for me to signal "heel" before stepping into the street. And she's pretty well housebroken now, too. In addition, she performs consistently for "come" and "sit", most of the time for "stay" and "quiet", and she's learning "lie down" and "off/leave it". She definitely understands "no" though it's not always successful at stopping her, and she wriggles in sheer delight when I flash "Good Girl!" at her.

I made her a new tug/chew toy last night with 9 strands of clothesline that I knotted at one end, braided, and knotted at the other end, and I've convinced her that it's a much better chew toy than the fringe on my afghan! I also got her a Kong to keep her occupied while she's in the crate during the day - I got the extra-tough one for hard chewers. That ought to keep those little jaws busy! She does not like being confined in the crate, but seems to understand the difference between being crated because I need a break and being crated because I'm leaving the house. In the former situation, she barks incessantly; in the latter, she barks for 30 seconds then quiets down. When I got home yesterday she was sleeping so soundly I had to shake her awake!

So far there haven't been any conflicts between cats and dog, and I'm hoping to keep it that way. The cats are cautious but not terrified, and Penny just wants to play with them. She's very sweet and affectionate and she sees the cats as playmates, not prey. (I think she'd really take off after the pigeons we see on our walks, though, if I gave her half a chance!) Last night Bubba taught her a lesson in how to approach the kitties, and this morning she approached Fritz so gently he allowed her to sniff him and lick him all over. She seems to do really well in the morning, so I'm going to adjust my schedule to get up an hour earlier in the morning so I can work on training her then. I think she'll learn a lot quicker when she's quieter and more in control, as she seems to be in the morning.

She's also a pure joy to wake up with - she likes to lie in bed with me and put her head on my shoulder. Then she makes little air puffs into my ear and kind of rubs her chin on my shoulder. Very gentle snuzzling. And sometimes she purrs. Honest! She certainly behaves more like a cat than a dog, at times =).

Mon. Jan 18 I slept late today, and then I ended up taking a nap after Jeopardy and didn't wake up until 10 pm. My circadian rhythms are seriously screwed up, and it's gonna be tough to go back to work tomorrow! I suspect I'm going to be taking it easy for the rest of the week, too - I'm not sick anymore, but I still have some symptoms (stuffy ears, occasional coughing spells, etc.) so I'm not going to do any running around until I feel 100%. Except for Jess, I haven't seen anybody in a week - I've only been out a couple of times to get food. And then I went and did what I had to do and came home.

Jess showed up at my door this evening - it was pouring rain, with lots of wind, thunder, and lightening. She said, "Hi! Wanna help me rescue a cat?" So I grabbed my shoes, my hat (I still had bed-hair - if you're not going out, why bother to fix your hair?), my umbrella, a can of baby food, a couple of towels and a little plastic plate. By the time I got to the corner, the kitty had disappeared. Oh, well, she'll come back. And I took the opportunity to get a few groceries, and I came back and actually cooked myself something substantial to eat.

There are a few cases of kitty sniffles around here. I wonder where they come from - nobody's been exposed to other cats in almost a month. It started with Lambchop - snuffle, snort, snuffle, sneeze, sneeze - and moved on to Tika (those two have developed a friendship). Last night I noticed Mr. French chuffing a little. No icky discharge or anything, just a little "cold", and it seems to only last about 4 days so I'm not going to worry about it, but I'll keep my eye on it.

A couple of the zoobies have been incredibly affectionate today - Bubba kept coming up and crying at my feet while I was on the computer, so I picked him up and swung him into my left arm like a baby. He didn't want to be petted or anything, he just wanted to be held. There's almost a beatific smile on his face as he lies cuddled in my arm - he relaxes completely, his rear legs extend and go limp, he purrs up a storm, his eyes close halfway and get this far-away look in them, and then he gives me this grin that makes me fall in love with him all over again. He likes to be cuddled and hugged, but he won't usually stay still unless you're rubbing his face or throat. Not today - if I could put him in a sling and carry him around next to my body, I bet he'd stay next to me all evening.

And Twinkletoes is the other cuddler today - she usually shares the other end of the sofa with me and enjoys having her head rubbed, but she usually likes to keep a little space between us. I was sitting cross-legged on the couch with an afghan over my lap, watching TV, and a tortie settled down on the afghan in the curve of my legs. I wasn't paying close attention - I just figured it was Miss Lucy, 'cause she likes that spot. At a commercial I looked down and saw the little patch of sunshine on Twink's head and was amazed that it was her! I rubbed her head. I stroked her sides. I stroked her flank and patted her bottom. She lay there grunting, obviously enjoying the attention. (She doesn't purr, she grunts - it's pretty funny!) I skritched her chin, and kissed her head, and stroked from her head to the base of her tail, and with each stroke her body relaxed heavier and heavier into me until I felt like we were a breath away from melting together. I love these special little moments with my "children", where the love transcends words and species differences and there's a moment of communion. I know I don't talk about Twink much, but she's a good kitty - solid, placid, and sweet.

Tika has a new bedtime routine - for a long time, she wouldn't jump up on the bed, she'd just sit on the floor by the side of the bed and look at me. Finally, after much encouragement and coaxing, she began jumping up on the bed and then would sit by my head and look at me. A few days ago when it was really cold, I didn't want to keep my arms out of the covers; I was lying on my side, curled, and I pulled her under the covers and tucked her into my belly and scratched her head. She enjoyed it, but wasn't comfortable lying up against me so she turned herself over so her feet were touching me instead of her back. She stayed there for a while, then came out and left for a late snack. For a couple of nights we repeated this little routine, but she always came out and left. Saturday night, I awoke in the middle of the night and she was curled into my belly on top of the covers. She was completely plastered up against me, so I just pulled the covers out from under her and covered her up. She stayed for at least a couple of hours, because she was still there when I woke up a little later. Last night, she hopped up on the bed, sat by my head, and looked at me, so I lifted up the covers and she crawled in and curled up into that little hollow there and went to sleep. It's really neat - she's so warm, and she has such a deep, rumbling purr, and it feels so great to have her relaxed and curled into me. I'm glad she finally has the confidence to come looking for cuddles instead of looking at me and waiting for me to go get her!

Fri. Jan 15 I'm feeling lots better today. My ears and head are still stuffed up, but I have a little more energy. And I'm finally hungry again, so that's good (I guess). I do not recommend a raging fever as a diet strategy, but it sure is effective! And even though I started eating again today, I don't have to worry about too much of it sticking around, thanks to a side effect of the antibiotics!

Well, it finally happened - Doc has stopped coming down to work on Fridays. Buttons is still in the dog crate until maybe Wednesday, when Tommy will take her and Mr. French up to Westchester with him. (And Triskit, too, to be spayed.) It's going to make life a little more difficult, but I'm adopting Tom Hanks' 1999 attitude - "deal with it!" I suppose I could always take the train up, if I have to. And I know that if I really needed her here, she'd come down. But I've lost my Friday night drinking partner! I might just have to stay home and read a book, instead!

Triskit's mom Jess brought me some matzoh ball soup this evening, and I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow. I was holding Mushroom while she was here, and she took a picture of him sitting snuggled in my lap. I hope it comes out well. He's perfectly content to relax there, though he's still a little spooky - loud noise on the TV, the phone or the doorbell still catapult him out of his relaxed state into wide-eyed alertness. He's really a little sweetie, and he should be good to go in another couple of weeks. He had really stinky breath when he first got here, but it's much sweeter now. He just smells healthy now. I don't quite know how to explain it, but I can smell when a cat's not well. I can't smell anything else, but I can smell a sick cat. And Mushroom smells healthy to me - it's a nice, furry, warm smell. Mr. French smells pretty good, too. And so does Fritz - his eye is as cured as it's going to get, no more infection. Yay!

Fritz doesn't look like a baby anymore - that's happened just over the last week. He never did have any "baby fat" - he's always been a slender fellow - but his face has lost any trace of roundness now, and he's got such a streamlined slender look from nose to the tip of his tail. He really is a handsome little fellow - the white mittens on his front paws are symmetrical, as are his knee-boots in back. I caught him standing in the hallway the other day, watching me in the bathroom: he was standing with one slender front leg in front of the other, with his "toes" turned out - he looked like he was ready to leap into a grande jette. Yet, despite his almost feminine appearance, you'd never think anything but "male" when you look at him. Such a lover! Whenever I walk around in the house, he keeps running ahead of me and throwing himself on the floor in front of me, belly up, begging for belly rubs. It cracks me up so, of course, I stop to oblige. If he's on the couch or the bed as I approach, he rolls onto his back and wiggles at me. Sometimes I don't even notice him until I catch a glimpse of this long, thin, wiggling body from the corner of my eye. And then, of course, I oblige with a belly rub. He really knows how to get what he wants - he doesn't beg, he just wiggles there and looks cute!

Mon. Jan 11 Just a quickie - I haven't the energy for more, and I'm a little loopy from the cough syrup. I actually feel worse than I did this morning when I took the first doses of the stuff that was prescribed. This has happened to me before, too - my fever will continue to rise and I'll feel worse until I awaken in the middle of the night to find my fever broken and the sheets in a puddle. The stuff to drain my sinuses is working really well, consequently, my nose is running, I'm sneezing and tingling and blowing constantly, and my poor nose is getting sore from the tissues I've been using. I guess I'm going to have to splurge on a premium brand tomorrow! The drainage has temporarily worsened my cough, and my ribs are so sore I have to hold them when I cough. There are all kinds of pops and clicks and odd noises happening inside my face and ears - it's loud enough that it's scared a couple of sleeping kitties! And my fever is still rising despite all the ibuprofen I'm taking, so my dry, achy eyes feel like they're bulging out of the sockets, and I'm fiercely cold. I hope this breaks soon! I should be feeling lots better when I wake up in the morning.

Just a quick note on Mushroom/Scooter - he really is a little scooter! He's quick, he's agile, and he's very, very clever. His face is looking really good, and I don't notice any more weakness on the right side at all. He's climbing the storage boxes in the spare room these days - from the floor right up to the ceiling. There's about a 12" space between the tops of the boxes and the ceiling, and that seems to be a favorite hang-out spot for feral and ex-feral kitties. Buttons, TC, Cerra, and now the Shroom get to watch everything from a safe perspective. Actually, there's a sort of little "stand" up there that my Dad built (to raise the TV a little higher on a low table) and it's about 1 1/2 feet square with a top and bottom and dowels in the corners to separate the two layers about 4 inches. The Shroom hangs out between the layers, and Cerra hangs out on top. They look like mother and son!

Sat. Jan 9 TC and Mr. French went to see Doc last night. I finally managed to catch TC, and remain relatively unscathed from the experience. So, TC won't be playing any more of those "games" with his little brothers. Doc took a sterile urine sample from Mr. French, and the test strip showed traces of blood and leukocytes in his urine, so she took the sample home with her to send out from the other clinic today. We should know something by Monday afternoon. French has a small growth on the outside of his right foreleg; next Friday, Doc will remove that.

I am sick again - I'm getting pretty tired of this. I was coughing yesterday, and I went to bed about 9:30. I had weird dreams, and was awake every couple of hours. This morning, I could only sit up for an hour before I had to go back to sleep. Though my forehead felt cool to me, I thought I'd better take my temp. Of course, I was running a really good fever and that's why I felt so rotten. I took a couple ibuprofen, got 3 hours of sleep without nightmares, and I feel lots better. I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the weekend and see if I can't get a start on licking this for good!

Thurs. Jan 7 I started this last night, then remembered something else I had to do. So now I'll do it in retrospect and add today's news.

I awoke yesterday morning to the flood of the century. The main drain had clogged, and all 4 upstairs residents had taken their showers and flushed the toilet (numerous times, I suspect) before I woke up. The tub was full and had overflowed, the toilet had overflowed, and the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen had overflowed. I was, quite literally, knee deep in s**t. Not a pleasant thing to wake up to!!! Needless to say, I stayed home from work to get the place cleaned up. I won't even tell you how much work I did, but I will say that every absorbent thing in the house was put to use. I had a BIG, very heavy pile of things to take to the laundrymat tonight!

I finally had to take a break about 2 in the afternoon. I talked to Doc, laid on the floor in the spare room and talked to the Shroom, passed out lots of pets all around, and took a brief nap right there on the floor (I was beat!) I checked in online, watched a little TV, and came back. I started looking for images for the special Valentine cards, and then I got to playing with a repeating tile generator. I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to come up with something I really like as a background. It's rather vibrant, but I may use it for something. Maybe in the cards backgrounds?

I heard today that a little kitty who was found outside, shaved, on Christmas Eve that I'd offered to foster was PTS over the weekend. Such a waste! They knew this kitty had a home; he deserved a chance! As my ever-eloquent friend Neko posted on the BB:

"Oh no! no no no! He was supposed to have another chance! I can't believe this. Turn the page back and read the story right! It's a very small comfort that he's never going to suffer again, but he was supposed to learn all about warm laps and soft beds and cat toys and warm shafts of sunlight and how to purr loudly and how to attack a human's feet under the bedcovers and why catnip is great stuff and how to teach a human what is good food and what is not, and all of that. ....It is stupid and horrible and just plain not fair and not right that they put him to sleep. Poor little kitten. He'll be in my thoughts."

Ah, Justice Black - God speed, little soul.

Mon. Jan 4 We had some nasty weather here Saturday night into Sunday morning and there must have been a brief power outage because all my alarm clocks reset to midnight and I had to reschedule my salon appointment yesterday. It wasn't any fun going back to work today - after 3 1/2 day weekends twice in a row, the thought of a 5-day week is not a pleasant one. Ah well, gotta earn a living! I'm beat today because I couldn't get to sleep last night; my circadian rhythm gets screwed up when I can stay up half the night and sleep half the day. Hard to get back into a regular routine.

I gotta get my fingers geared up and write Mr. French's story. And then I have to update the Zoo page - I'll need a new layout to add another button. Got the cards working, and I've been watching the statistics on the survey. I think the results of this survey will be interesting, if the statistics so far bear out. I need to keep CLASS in mind when I'm surfing - checking out layouts, colors, organization, etc. of other pages. Frames might be interesting. The background there is only temporary - it was just the closest I could find to the idea I want to use in the time I had to search. It's the right basic idea, but it's too cutesy - I want something that makes a statement!

I found out the name of the Shot Queen today - at least, it was the name they told me at the pet store! I couldn't locate her in the database at the NY Board of Licensing. Just to make sure I was searching correctly I checked the name of every other vet I know in NY state, and they all showed up! I tried searching on her toll free number and the other number listed on the flyer too, and no dice there either. I'm going to try the search from a couple other different angles, but I don't hold out much hope of getting any information on her, so I may have to organize a grass-roots effort to shut her down. I found out she's from the Easton/Bethlehem PA area, but I don't know how much help that's going to be....**sigh**

Sat. Jan 2 It's a new year, and it's time to get off my lazy bottom and get some things taken care of. The rest of the cleaning, for one. Getting TC neutered, for another. I've really got to catch him and get him into Doc next Friday. He's been, er, "friendly" with everything in sight the past 2 days. Yesterday, Punch was the object of his affection - poor little guy couldn't figure out why his "brother" was trying to "wrestle" with him from such a funny position. Today, poor Bubba is the target. Sweet, good-natured Bubba just sits there with a very confused look on his face and allows TC a little fun then squeezes out between his paws. It's kinda funny, but it's got to be taken care of!

I got all worked up this afternoon about the low-cost vaccination clinic that's run out of a local pet store 1 or 2 Saturdays a month. It's a sleazy, money-grubbing operation without consideration for the animals and I intend to file a complaint with the ethics committee of my local licensing board. Tomorrow, when this headache goes away.

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm finally going to redeem last year's Christmas present of a gift certificate for a half-day at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon. Facial, cream manicure, pedicure, and Swedish massage. Today, I got a hair cut and had my legs waxed in preparation for becoming a new woman. With my $40 investment and that gift certificate, I'm giving myself a treat to start off the new year, and I'm going to savor every second. It's time I did something special for myself.

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