Woman in the Middle

I so enjoy going to visit the cats at Room 8 Memorial Cat Foundation I thought I would start giving updates on what is going on when I visit.

Today Gail, the manager, was in for a minute and she reported that 26 cats and kittens have been adopted out so far in July. Whoo hoo! While that is mostly kittens, as it is kitten season, that number did also represent the adoption of some adult cats as well. Manuel, the chief maintenance person, said he remembers when they only adopted out four cats a month, so he was excited.

On the slightly less good news front, the electric bill for last month was $400. Happily, the cattery got a new roof and new reflective shade cloth for the patios last winter, so it made it possible to add some portable air conditioners and keep the cats and humans a litter cooler in the hot summer months. Otherwise the cats can get stressed out in the heat, I am sure. But that does raise the electric bill!

I am happy to report that all my normal oldsters were there to greet me today. I was afraid dear gray Sukey with the crooked tail might have had to cross the rainbow bridge, but happily she was still there, ready to be petted. As usual, when I sat on the bench, Sukey, Angel, Socks, and Joey (of course) all got up there with me to be petted and loved on. Really, a zen time with all the elderly cats.

This was last week, but it is the same cast of characters as this week. From the left is Socks, Sukey, Angel (in front on my lap) and good old drooling Joey in my arms.

I looked into the other rooms to see the other cats. The funniest thing I saw was Missy, a tiny, long haired ball of gray and white fluff had been shaved to eliminate mats and make her cooler in the warm weather. She looked ridiculous, as you can imagine, with just a fluffy head, feet, and the end of her tail. Missy is quite the character. She really does not like living with other cats. If you are petting her, for example, and another cats gets too close, even if that cat is just strolling by and not trying to horn in on the petting, Missy will start hissing and screeching at the unsuspecting roommate. I am happy to report that Missy did not let her recent haircut stop her from having a hissy fit at the cats around her, for any real or imagined misdeed. 

 In other words , it was just another normal Day at Room 8!

If you showed me some snapshots of my yard right now I would know they were taken in the summer, just because of the hoses stretched out here, there  and everywhere. I have a few pots of plants in the back yard that need to be hand watered. They are either are not on the drip system or they just don’t get enough water in the heat we are having. In the front yard there is that one spot in the grass that is looking dry and nasty, right in the middle of an otherwise green patch of “grass.” As long as it is green, we don’t really care what it is. So lets just call what we have “grass” in generic terms! There there is the nice, mature bush in the front yard that suddenly looked like it was headed for the graveyard. Some hand applications of water seemed to be reviving it, thank goodness!

We had rain day before yesterday, for some odd reason. It kept the outside temperature cool enough that I kept various windows and doors open most of the day. The cats loved it. They loved to look out, hear the birds, and feel the breeze in their face. Yep, it was a very good cat day.

Two chubby kitties enjoying the open door. 

A husband can show his love in many different ways. Recently, Blackie was having a little problem with incontinence (he is old and these things happen).  The next morning, Hubby left a post it note on my desk chair. It said, “Cat has been sleeping here. Inspect carefully.”  As far as I was concerned, that was a love note.

I really dislike websites that will not allow you to see their product until you give them your email adress. I find that to be a puzzling business decision. Don’t they want me to look at the stuff they want to sell? Maybe if I like it alot, I will give them my email address. But since they won’t let me see it, there is not way I am going to clutter my inbox ont eh off chance I might like it.

My daughters are 25 and 27. So, really, I know I am living on borrowed time when it comes to having my kids at home with me.  According to a recent article in the local newspaper, something like 44% of adults under the age of 34 are living at home in So Cal. This is because we are all still recovering from the great recession, I think, and everyone gets married later, etc….But whatever the case, my job as a Mom is to get my kids ready to fly out of the nest.

Youngest in particular has been wanting to fly. Her room is small, her closet is smaller, and her parents keep asking her where she is going and when will she be back. But with nice one bedroom apartments running about $1400 a month and no time to hunt down that great place that costs less than that, she has stayed at home.

Then, she heard about a former sorority sister who lives with her boyfriend in a house and rents out the extra room. For about half what an apartment would cost, about 20 minutes from work, a short walk from a cute downtown in another city, this is exactly the kind of opportunity she has been waiting for. You see, my baby is frugal, and she could afford that $1400 a month apartment, but she wouldn’t be able to save any money if she took that on.

Well, she went to look at the house and has decided to go for it. The room becomes available September 1st. So, I have a little over a month to love on her and drive her nuts and make her REALLY want to move out. Then she gets to take an even bigger step into adulthood and I get an extra bedroom. It is a win/win, but I am sure Mom will still cry at some point. It is what we do when our babies leave the nest.

Courtesy The Graphics Fairy

We lived in our previous house 22 years. We moved in after just a year and a half of marriage. The gathering of belongs evolved over time as we got a little money, had kids, got things from my grandmother and mother when they had to give up housekeeping…etc…I knew where (almost) everything was in that house.

But, after six years in this house, I still have no idea where half our belongs are. We moved in with everything four adults owned and found a place for each thing as we could. Somethings didn’t get looked at again after being stored away. This is the story of one of those things.

In our other house, both girls had rooms with white walls and white furniture. Before we moved. Eldest had a room with a red white and blue tropical theme. It was very cute and the centerpiece was a Tommy Hilfiger “Hilfiger Hula” comforter. I loved that quilt, but, when we moved, we told the girls they could have actual color on their walls. Eldest decided to go a different direction and we bought a burgundy comforter and she had one of the walls painted burgundy to match. I kept the Hilfiger comforter, however, planning to use it eventually in a guest bedroom.

Fast forward a few years and I began to wonder where that comforter got off to. I didn’t see it anywhere. Hum…did one of the girls take it to a friend’s house and leave it? Did I take it to be cleaned and never picked it up? I finally went to the dry cleaner’s that I use and asked about it. They were pretty dismissive and I finally had to accept that the Hilfiger Hula comforter, in all its red, white and blue cuteness, was gone. Who knew where it went, but I had to let it go. I even looked into buying another one online, but I couldn’t even find a photo of it.

Fastforward several months from the last desperate question about the dry cleaners and Eldest was cleaning out her room to get ready for new carpet. Honey slept in there the whole time we lived here and that carpet was assaulted with all kinds of things during those years, as Honey grew older. Besides, it is all stretched out and has lumps. Time for new! Eldest is sleeping on an antique bed that is high off the ground and allows for lots of storage underneath. A couple of days ago she mentioned to me, causally, “Oh, Mom, that Hilfiger comforter is under my bed.”

Really. Wow. I have no memory of storing that there. I guess it made since since it was her comforter. Our linen closet isn’t very deep and can’t really hold much in the way of folded comforters. and my blanket chest is full.

It figures that within a few months of me letting that comforter go, it would finally be found. Now I am wondering what else is under that bed…..

Apparently Lumos was jealous of Blackie and his “mystery cat” status in the household. As in, “It’s a mystery what is wrong with Blackie.” We just got a call from the vet and all of Lumos’ lab tests came back fine. There is no reason for his fever or his pink face. That is the good news. The puzzling part is why he has a fever and why his face is pink. But, as long as he continues to act fine and not throw up, she says he just needs monitoring. I can do that. I monitor cats all day log every day anyway.

At this point, the vet feels his problem is some sort of food sensitivity. No problem there as Lumos is doing his own form of a sensitivity diet. He refuses to eat anything but his normal dry food because, we assume, he is tired of throwing up the wet stuff, poor guy.

Just another cat-centric week around our house, but nothing new there. How about your week?

I don’t have too many cats….

Lumos has something wrong with him again. Poor guy! It started last Friday when he threw up. We realized it had to do with a hair ball. But, call us dense, having dealt with hairballs in the past, we weren’t too worried. By Sunday evening, we were all down on the hairball, however, and decided if he exhibited the kind of throwing up he had been doing again, we would take him to the vet.

However, he appeared to get over the hairball. By yesterday he was eating fine and not throwing up, or at least not throwing up much. The other end was working fine as well, if you know what I mean. But new symptoms appeared. His face and ears turned pink. They are always pink, of course, because he is an orange cat. But they turned bright pink. Not shocking pink, but brighter than normal. The decision was made if the pink didn’t go away by this morning, he was going to the vet. Along with this odd pinkness, he was scratching quite a bit, and grooming his feet a lot. We put flea treatment on him, thinking that might be the problem. (And, I realized later I bought the flea treatment in the first place because of his scratching and foot grooming, so the scratching part of the symptoms may have been coming on for a while. Again, call me slow.)

I checked this morning and Lumos was still pink, so I called the vet and made an appointment. Then he proceeded to throw up his entire breakfast. Sigh. I am sure hoping the vet can sort out these wildly disparate symptoms and figure out what is wrong with poor Lu.  The hairball/throwing up may have nothing to do with the itching and scratching, and foot grooming and pink face.  Who knows. I just hope we can get it all figured out!

“Again, it seems to be mostly about my ears. I know my ears are cute, but I wish they would stop staring at them!”

Update: Lumos had a fever when we went to the doctor. In addition to blood work, I asked for an xray to insure there was no blockage in his intestines. There did not appear to be, I am happy to report. Right now, the doctor believes it may be a food sensitivity causing his problems, but we will know more when the blood tests come back. Cross your fingers it isn’t feline leukemia or FIV. If it is, he would have had to get that in the few weeks he was in the wild before we found him and his brother.

The near constant salivating in the press over the upcoming premier of season 7 of Game of Thrones is getting on my nerves. I am here to admit I have never watched a single episode of that show. I know, I appear to be one of the few in America who can say that, but it is true.

I have had a life time of not watching must -see TV events, stretching all the way back to “Roots.” Everyone was watching Roots except our household. It was all over everywhere but was before DVRs or event video tapes. We either watched it or we didn’t, and we didn’t. There was no nefarious reason behind it except that some episodes went until 11 pm and I had to go to school and my mom and dad had to go to work the next day. We didn’t watch TV past 10 p.m. It didn’t matter what it was. I guess I get my strong desire for sleep from my parents. I have always said don’t get between me and food or sleep or there is going to be a problem.

By the way, I also didn’t watch Seinfeld or Friends. I do admit I did watch the final episode of Seinfeld. It was only half an hour. When it was done, I was reminded why I didn’t watch Seinfeld. As for Friends, well I was married and having babies. I couldn’t relate to their silly escapades. A friend who was not married and didn’t have kids enjoyed Friends quite a bit. But, she could relate to it.

Courtesy the Graphics Fairy

As for Game of Thrones, I have several reasons for not being interested in it.

1. It is on HBO. I don’t have HBO. I watch enough TV, I don’t need to pay more money for more of it.

2. Blood, lots of blood. Not my thing

3. The older I get, the less I am interested in a show that has a complicated “story arch” that lasts for a whole season. Just give me a good story, finish it up by the end of the program, and be done with it!

4. Fantasy…hum…not really my thing.

So, you GoT watchers out there, you enjoy. Meanwhile, I am going to try and ignore all the hype and go watch the Great British Baking Show. Other than the occasional knife cut, it is right up my alley.

I love succulents. I blame my mother. It was Mom who bought me my first cactus. From there is was just a step though that gateway to succulents. There are so many types in such interesting shapes and colors. And the flowers, I love the flowers! Just like this one I bought the other day when we were at Walmart to buy pool chemicals. How can I resist those pink flowers? And those pinkish leaves? So interesting and different!

On the side of my house is an area I have turned it into my succulent garden. I have rock on the ground to cut down on weeds, and everything is in pots, so I can move them around to my heart’s desire. The pots look ceramic but are actually light weight, which makes them easy to move.

I also am in the process of creating a fairy garden that I put right outside my front door, so I can see it any time I go outside. It is a work in progress, because that is what makes fairy gardens fun.

This pot is actually about two and a half feel tall, to make seeing and working on the fairy garden easier. But, a pot that tall full of dirt is going to be heavy. I filled the bottom half with vermiculite, which is actually lightweight volcanic rock,  to make the pot a little lighter. It is still heavy, but not ridiculously heavy.

Hubby isn’t quite so enamored with succulents, which is the only thing that keeps my addiction in check, at least a little bit!

I haven’t posted about Blackie in a while. What is there to say? He is old, skinny, and he can’t tell us what is wrong with him. He has had every blood test known to cats, but nothing can tell us what to do to make him feel better when is he feeling yucky.

However, that being said, he feels as well as an elderly cat can most days, and feels poorly only enough to worry us. He was feeling pretty good and eating well until a few days ago when he stopped eating, had diarrhea, and went off to his bed in the garage. We know he isn’t feeling well when he gets in his bed in the garage. So, once again Hubby and I had that conversation. Is there anything else we can do? (no) What is the ultimate sign that things need to come to a conclusion? (We aren’t sure.) Are we at that point yet? (No, but we are darn close.)

Then, just like that, Blackie perked back up and began eating the rest of the day to make up for not eating much in the days before. Then he didn’t eat much the following day. There he perked back up again. We have no idea what is going on.  If only cats could talk!

For some reason, Blackie has rubbed off the fur on the backs of his shins, making him look particularly decrepit in this photo.

On Friday night, the mother of one of the girl’s good friends was married. It was a second wedding for both the bride and the groom, so they had it at home, under the patio and the adjacent shade tree in their large yard. We were kindly invited, and, in spite of the amazing heat earlier in the day, we had a nice time listening to the music, eating good food, and wishing the bride and groom congratulations on their marriage.

They had the ceremony on the new patio, while a mariachi band played. The bride looked beautiful and the groom looked dashing.

Under the decorated patio cover.

A close up of the couple exchanging their vows. 

The couple owns quite a few animals, including horses, and so the theme of the invitation and cake decor was horse riding. I loved the cake topper!

The pretty cake. 

Two horse riders, holding hands and leaning over to kiss. 

We wish the bride and groom many years of happiness!