Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

That's right, the two pairs of animals in my house have been nothing but toil and trouble this past week. First, one of the felines developed sudden incontinence. Let me remind you that a) I am rather obsessive compulsive about my house being clean and b) the cats are less than 3 years old. Therefore, I may need psychiatric drugs if the condition persists and there is no reason why my 2 1/2 year old cats should be urinating other than in the litter box. Thus for both our sakes, I dragged them to the vet where we proceeded to engage in all sorts of expensive tests to determine which cat, if either, has some kind of medical issue. After $600 worth of X-Rays and urinalysis, exams etc. we came up with: Nada. The vet helpfully informed me it was behavioral and someone is likely stressed. That is indeed correct. That someone being ME. Why either of my two spoiled brats would be stressed is beyond me. Lola showed up 3 months ago and our little problem began only 10 days ago. There have been no sources of change, stress or other explanation for the behavior.

Don't ask me. I may be in the victim chair but I have no idea what you're talking about.

I confess. I blamed Stabby unfairly for quite some time until I finally on viewed the orange menace committing the grave sin of peeing on my leather chair. Half an hour of scrubbing and cleaning later, along with numerous varied threats to toss him out the window of a moving vehicle, I was able to finally eliminate the smell of meth lab from my house. On the advice of the vet, I added two additional litter boxes and some Feliway, the cat equivalent of DAP. So far so good. I do not appreciate the sight of the litter box right next to my chair in my living room but for now the alternative is worse.

Mwah ha ha! You needed a new challenge. What can I say?

On the first day (of the three in a row) that I took the cats to the vet, I went outside to bring the dogs in and discovered that Lola had somehow almost sliced a nail off on her rear right foot and it was bleeding copiously as it was very close to the actual toe. I could hardly stand to look at it, so painful did it appear. So I threw her in the car with both cats and dragged her to the vet for some emergency nail trimming, pain meds and quik stop powder. Poor girl, she was in great pain but although she squirmed and cried, she never tried to nip, bite or otherwise act out. I got some tramadol for her for pain and it has the added benefit of knocking her out about 3 minutes after she swallows it. She is very happy on tramadol!

I almost made it out of the doggie door but I am SOOO tired!

It has been fairly amusing to watch. It's like she has narcolepsy. She gets up to go somewhere and just falls over asleep all of a sudden. I always wanted a fainting goat and I think this is the closest I'll come for awhile!

The stairs are so high and so steep. I think I'll just rest here for awhile.

On the one day it didn't rain last week, everyone except her Highness the Stabitha, headed outside to watch mama put up an electric fence to keep Her Highness Houdini from digging out.

Houdini seems to know what's in store, PB is playing with his busy buddy cube and Dexie stares longingly at a bird.

The kids haven't gotten out as much as usual because of Lola's foot and since she is sleeping more than usual, even if it's drug induced, PB has been happy to join her in front of the fire:

You gotta admit this is pretty cute.

So all crises have been averted again and we are back at the status quo. I myself have been sick as well and thus reading even more than usual from my perch in my pajamas in front of the fire, high on Nyquil. I recently finished this page turner:




And no, I am not being sarcastic. My little sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters gave me this book for Christmas. I have never been a follower of the Apple cult and what little I knew about Steve Jobs was mostly negative. However, once I began this book, I was enthralled. Walter Isaacson has done a wonderful job of presenting all sides of Steve Jobs without judgment or personal skew. By the end, even though you have become well aware of what a complete ass he could be, you actually like the guy and find yourself hoping the end will change, despite knowing it anyway. This is definitely a book worth reading because no matter how you feel about Apple, what Jobs created is extraordinary and whether you like his style or not, Apple wouldn't be what it is without all facets of who he was. Read it.