The Life of a Feline Mama

Sometimes life is all about self-fulfilling prophesies.  Yesterday was one such event, it was cat vaccination day.  Every year I dread it more and more and this year was no exception.  The cats were due their yearly shots (the feline leukemia vaccination is only good for one year) and they both needed a rabies shot as well.  Their year was up in April but I had been putting it off.  I finally called about a month ago and asked the receptionist if I could get some kind of sedative to give them beforehand and she was going to talk to the doctor and get back to me.  She never did and I was more than happy to procrastinate.  Finally I decided with the warm weather and them being outside so much more than usual that they really needed their vaccinations so I called again and got an appointment for the next day.  I have a vet whose practice is making house calls and he was going to drop off the sedatives the night before.  He never did.

So yesterday I started calling them about 9 AM and all morning all I got was the busy signal.  Then for a while the phone would ring and ring and no one would answer and even later I would get an answering machine  so I left a message but no one called me.  By the time the day was over and it was time for him to arrive I was thoroughly annoyed.  I had told the receptionist I wasn’t sure who needed the sedative more, ME or the cats.  They get so traumatized by strangers and it has gotten worse over the years.  While having a visiting vet is wonderful in many ways, they now associate the door bell ringing and strangers in the house with a vet visit and always hide, sometimes for days if we have houseguests.   I managed to sequester one in the bathroom and the other in the dog kennel.

Tim is a scrappy little thing who is half feral, I swear.  I’ve never had a cat that is so skittish or neurotic, whatever the case may be.  He can be  very loving and sits on my lap almost every time I sit down but he wants affection on HIS terms only in contrast to Piper who can’t get enough lovin’, ever!  If you are able pick Tim up (he is very quick and usually darts out of reach if he guesses your intention), he will let out the MOST unhappy yowl expressing his objections.  He’s a small animal, only about 8 pounds but what he lacks in size he makes up for in attitude. 

We started with him, the vet said he’d just go in the bathroom by himself.  I paced around in the living room and listened to what sounded like an epic bar fight ...crash, boom, bang, thump…punctuated with blood curdling screams.  I wasn’t sure there would be anything left in one piece in the bathroom, it sounded AWFUL.  Pretty soon the vet emerges, all digits and epidermis in place.  He never had actually caught him but while Tim was wedged behind some baskets under the sink he was able to slap the vaccinations in his exposed hind end.  He ended up saying he didn’t know if he could be Tim’s vet anymore.  Took everything I had in me not to voice some sarcastic remark about lack of sedatives.  He even had the gall to suggest that I give him his shots in the future. NOT gonna happen.

Piper was just as freaked out but he isn’t so wild.  The vet was able to shave some hairballs off in addition to his shots.  He had to put a muzzle on him and in the indignity was almost too much for (both of us) Piper to bear. He has such fine hair, while it makes it very soft and cuddly it is also hard to groom.  I was seriously hyperventilating during this entire process….my heart rate was through the roof and my stomach was in knots.   

Much to my surprise after the vet departed Piper emerged immediately.  Tim was another story, he stayed in his safe place under the sink in the bathroom until late into the evening and then ran under the bed.  When Chris got out of the shower this morning, he was up on the bed as though it was all forgotten.  Until he saw me that is, and then he ran for the quickest hiding spot.  I guess I am now the perpetuator of evil in his eyes.  Such is the life of a feline mama.

The Summer of Twenty Thirteen.......

I figured it was time for another post even if I didn’t have something compelling to write about.

The last 10 or so days we have had some STELLAR summer weather and no end in sight.  On my weather app there are nothing but suns for the second week in a row.  You have no idea how excited everyone is! The gardens are bursting into bloom, the animals are basking in the sun and peace reigns throughout the land.  With all this nice weather it kills me to go to work everyday so I’ve been taking Fridays off.  That will cease come the new fiscal year though (July) when it gets extremely busy.  I’m sure summer will be over by then anyway! 

Isn’t this the coolest idea???   (herb garden)

I decided I needed to do some thinning of some of my plants that were spreading out of control.  Last year I had given stuff to a couple coworkers so this year I cast my net wider to include the entire grants and contracts section in an email offering aforementioned starts.  Much to my surprise, I’ve had a pretty good response and it has been fun having some coworkers over that I don’t know very well to share with (the Grants part of my office is housed in a different building so I don’t know them well).  Last night one gal came over and I in the course of visiting I realized she is the sister-in-law of another gal I used to work with so later that evening SHE came over too.  I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years and it was great to catch up.  This weekend I have several others coming. 

Chris just got over a particularly horrible summer cold.  It really laid him up for a few days.  It started as a sore throat and then went into his head and then developed into a nasty cough.  He spent all day Sunday in bed.  He is the biggest baby ever when he’s sick so he usually holes up in the bedroom and doesn’t come out.  I would stick my head in and ask him if he needed a popsicle or soup and I’d get a grunt in return that apparently meant ‘No’.  His appetite is the first thing that goes when he’s sick and he literally did not eat for three days.  He’s back to his usual tricks now (i.e., driving me nuts) so I know he’s on the mend.

A friend of mine started a photo scavenger hunt for the month of June.  She has a lists prompts for each day and we post a picture that illustrates her prompt.  It’s been great fun! I didn’t think I would be interested but day one was “a favorite thing” so of course, I had to post a photo of my cats and then the second day was “something pink” so I posted a picture of some bergenia I had blooming and then, one thing has led to another and almost everyday since I’ve found something to post.

The mosquitos have been fierce here lately!! I don’t remember them being so bad.  In the evenings when I’ve been out working in the yard they have been vicious.  In the house too.  We have hole in our screen door where Timmy scratched his way out so that has been a problem.  I keep suggesting we get a new one but Chris says he’ll just do it again.  But we’d have 5-6 years before there’d be holes, I say.    Honestly, with that kind of logic we’d never get anything new.

I’ve started a new series of books.  There are four altogether, the first one is A Million Tears by Paul Henke.  Such a great book.  It’s an epic saga of a family from a small Welsh town that immigrates to America in the late 1800’s.  Now I’m on Tears of War and Peace, and then Silent Tears ending with  Tears Until Dawn.  That should take me through the summer.  Although sandwiched in I’m reading a depression era novel called Face the Winter Naked, (Bonnie Turner). 

On the job front I am FINALLY being flexed from a Grant Administrator I to a GA II. It’s been a long process, I was first told I need to pass an oral test to flex.  So I took the test and passed and then I was told I needed to do a formal solicitation for professional services so that was completed a few months ago and then I was told I needed to do an informal solicitation so now that’s done.  I addition to my leasing duties I have to manage 10-15 contracts too, so I will be busy.  It hasn’t actually happened YET but I’m told next week.  It’s a 3 range bump so it will be a nice pay raise.  Of course, it’s all going into deferred comp to help pad the old retirement fund, should that ever come to pass!

Okay, I’m sure I have captivated my readership for long enough with the exciting details of summer, 2013.  To quote a favorite blogger of mine, Carry On Warriors!