Random

I had my first call as a rescue volunteer the other night from a woman who wanted to surrender two young cats. The reason? She’s “allergic” to them. And I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but “allergic”? Almost always means “I don’t like these cats and they're a pain in the ass and they're getting older and bigger and they're not as cute as they used to be and I don’t want them any more.” And THAT’S the truth.

I’ve been slacking off on my workouts lately, as usual, so I got home from work the other day and popped in the Jillian DVD and starting warming up when my neighbor T. came over bearing cheesecake. And Jillian was history faster than you can say “pass me a fork.” Anybody who would pass over cheesecake for Jillian is crazier than Jillian is.

And T. was telling me about a small, friendly cat currently roaming the neighborhood whom no one had seen previously. The neighbors were worried that it was lost, so when I happened to see it in my yard later that evening, I ran out, checked its tag (yay for people who tag their animals), and called the phone number on the tag. Turns out the cat lives one street over, is allowed outside, and was not “lost” after all. Whew! I’m hoping that that cat and my cats can be friends, once (and if) mine start going outside.

And speaking of which, I am taking the whole “outside” thing very slowly. They love to get up on the dressers and cat condos and examine the outdoors, which is how they get their bearings. Right now I am trying to train them to harnesses, which is pretty much a fail, but I’m sure I can at least get them trained to leashes before their first forays outside. I am letting them out into the attached garage, as that will be their route for coming and going. And I’m going to crate them out in the yard for periods of time (supervised, natch) before actually letting them loose. And of course, if one or both of them decide that they'd rather be INSIDE cats, thankyouverymuch, that would also be fine with me. It's all about what makes them happy. (and please, please, if you want to get into a great big giant inside-vs.-outside debate, feel free to email me. I just don't have energy to deal with that here on the blog.)








Soon, Ponyboy, soon.


(Yes, that door IS disgusting. It is the back garage door and it takes a lot of abuse - so sue me.)


(And there is plastic sheeting attached to that opening, so the cats can SEE out but cannot GET out. When it is time for Grand Adventures, the plastic will be un-attached along the bottom so that the cats can nose it open to go in and out.)


And in the final neighborhood news, a guy up the street was MOWING HIS LAWN the other night. Dude. DUUUUUUUUUDE. STOP IT …


and oh my God one more thing - I was sitting drinking a beer and reading a book (The Outsiders - I've got to doublecheck) last night, minding my own business, NOT doing Jillian, when a Girl Scout showed up at the door. Selling cookies. She had a whole DISPLAY, like the dudes selling souvenirs at the circus. Poor Jillian - she's fighting a losing battle in MY house.