Where does the money go

 First off, thank you to Ginny!  For sending me a gift card to commemorate the arrival of Good Boy, which I promptly spent on this:

I mean, COME ON!! How cute is THAT?!





Since my sister left me money, the vast majority of it has been reinvested.  But I've been able to spend some of it in a "why not?" kind of way, like,

I sponsored a matching fundraiser for a local animal rescue, which raised almost three grand!

When an acquaintance of mine's mom passed away very unexpectedly, leaving my acquaintance to ponder the realities of, among other things, going from a three cat household to a six cat household, I placed a massive Chewy order and had it delivered to her, so at least she didn't have to worry about buying cat food and litter for a while.

I saw a facebook post in which a local wildlife rehabilitation outfit had trapped a small feral kitten for TNR, only to discover that the kitten had a prolapsed rectum and would need three hundred dollars' worth of surgery to correct the problem. The comments on that post were pretty dismaying, along the lines of "why bother? It's just a feral," and "do you KNOW how many spays and neuters three hundred dollars will pay for?", neither of which, as far as I was concerned, addressed the problem at hand, which was a little kitten with a correctable problem, so I contacted the outfit and paid the bill.  Take THAT, haters.  Haha.

I finally, FINALLY got t-shirts printed up for the little TNR group I run, and I'll be handing them out to the volunteers, i.e., my friends that I've sucked into helping, the next time we trap, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

 

And finally, most of you know that I love summer.  I REALLY love summer.  And I love hot weather, as evidenced by the fact that yesterday it was approximately a thousand degrees here with one billion percent humidity, and I went and paddled a local river for three hours.

 

But!  What I DON'T love about summer is the nights when the temp doesn't leave the seventies and it's still one billion percent humidity, and all the fans in the world won't stop me from lying in my bed sweating.

 

So this morning I contacted my furnace guy, who also does plumbing and AC, to see about getting central air installed.  BECAUSE I CAN.  

 

And THAT's where the money goes.  :)  

Gonna take you down to ... Dino Towwwwwwwn

About a week ago, I saw this in a store and could not resist:

 This?  Is gonna take a while:

It's Alive!:

How cool is THIS?!:

""Look what the cat dragged in," my butt!", Pony says.  "*I* didn't bring this thing home!":

"He DOES make lots of shade, though,":

"Say hello to my little friend":

Sodapop is decidedly unimpressed.  "Outta my way, buddy, coming through."

2019:  Summer of the Dino. :) 

The Good Boy Chronicles: Step By Step

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for your relocation ideas - very helpful!  You've definitely given me a lot to think about.  Feel free to keep adding suggestions!

I realized today that I haven't posted about Good Boy since his dramatic rescue, so let's get caught up, shall we?

One of the first things I did was take Good Boy to my own vet.  Seeing as the rescue does not follow as stringent a vaccination schedule as my own vet does, I wanted to take him in for a get-acquainted visit and to see what the vet recommended as far as further vaccinations.  I know that opinions vary widely on this topic, but it makes me feel better to err on the side of caution.  Are cats over-vaccinated?  Possibly.  Do I still follow my vet's recommendations?  Yes.

Long story short:  Sorry, bud, you're getting the needle.

At home, I kept him in the foster room full time at first. Given his iffy past history with permacat Tinks, I knew I was going to have to take things slow as far as introducing him to the other cats.  But I would be lying if I said I wasn't VERY happy to finally have a cat who would let me dress him up in ridiculous costumes:

Time to explore:

We did site-swapping ala Jackson Galaxy at first.  I would only let Good Boy into a room when the permacats were elsewhere.  That way he could get the lay of the land without having to deal with cat drama.

"Well, there's the birdfeeder, but where's the birds, lady?"

 Blind date time.  "Do you eat here often?"

 I started introducing the cats at mealtimes, one at a time, at first placing the bowls on opposite sides of the kitchen, and gradually moving them closer and closer.  I doubt they'll ever be eating the same strand of spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp, but they can peacefully eat side by side.

The only glitch so far is that Good Boy is so eager to hang out with the other cats, and he's so big and, well, clumsy, that he tends to galumph toward them at full speed, and they get scared and vamoose.

Long story short:  It's going fine, if slowly. I'm so determined to do this right, as opposed to my usual modus operandi, which is slapdash and half-assed, that so far all is well.  Nobody is overly stressed, there has been no major cat drama, and I'm hoping that soon, it'll be like Good Boy has been here all along. 

What's one more, anyway?  :) 

Sell me on your city!

As some of you know, I'm planning on relocating within the next few years. Upstate New York is absolutely beautiful in the summertime, but the winters?  No way.  The older I get, the more tired I am of dealing with cold and snow and terrible, icy roads several months of the year.

So!  To where should I move?  Definitely south, probably quite a BIT south.  And here's where I could use your opinions.  Where do YOU live?  Do you like it, and why?  Is the climate temperate?  How about the cost of living?  Crime rate?

My current neighborhood is in a semi-rural area not far from a small-ish city, and that's kind of what I'm looking for, but without the ice and snow.  But if you live someplace completely DIFFERENT from that and absolutely love it, I wanna hear about that, too!

Sell me on your city!  your county!  your state!  What do you love about where you live?

It's just all so ... strange (edited because I realized I forgot some very important stuff)

First of all, Good Boy continues to do well!  He's been to see my vet and did fine, and I think I'm probably going to try introducing him into Gen Pop this coming weekend.  We'll see how it goes!

And thank you so much to Ginny for the gift card so that I can pick out something special for him and let him know that it's from Aunt Ginny. :)

Thank you also to those who donated to the matching Facebook fundraiser I did for the rescue!  Together we raised almost $3,000.00 in memory of Arline!  I am currently looking for some smaller, up-and-coming local rescues who could use a wee bit of financial assistance.  All in my sister's name, of course. 

Ponyboy about gave me a heart attack the other day - I was petting him and felt an odd, hard LUMP in his belly.  Given his medical history, I took him to the vet right away, and it turned out that he had somehow managed to bruise his "xiphoid process".  Go ahead, google it, I'll wait ...

Leave it to PB to damage something I didn't even know EXISTED.  But he's doing great and will make a full recovery.

Now to the strange part ... well, first off, not being able to talk to my sister, of course.  I really, really miss just being able to pick up the phone and ... you know.  Anyone who has ever lost a loved one knows how tough that is. 

The other strange thing?  The money.  It just seems so WEIRD to have All. This. Money., and not to be able to talk about it.  I mean, talking about money is just kind of ... gauche, isn't it?  Not done?  Especially since I did absolutely nothing to actually EARN this money?

But, I mean, every month I open up the statements from my investment accounts and I just want to do a happy dance.  I understand, of course, that investments go up and go down, but right now, well ... my investment accounts earned more money in the first four months of 2019 than I will earn all YEAR at my job.

Whoa.

(And yes, these are solid investments - mutual funds and such - with an established firm with a proven track record of many decades.  No, I am not investing in oil wells in Texas or Nigerian princes.  It's all on the level.)

So I've got this money, and it's making MORE money, and it's all just such a KICK, and I ...can't really talk about it.  Except to YOU, of course.  I'm so glad I have you guys!

Don't hate me because I have money, okay?  :)

Thank you, Ginny!

When the UPS guy pulled up tonight I thought it was going to be just another boring Chewy order (well, they're boring except when they come with dead mice inside TRUE STORY), but instead it was gifts!

I love Tinks' expression in that photo.  He's all, "don't laugh ... don't laugh ..."

and look at the cute little buttons!:

Thank you, Ginny (James P.) for the day-brightener!

Postcards from Foster Camp

First off, I stepped outside the other day and saw that the daylilies were popping out of the ground, so here comes Spring!  THANK GOD.

The Spring session of Foster Camp brought a mamacat and two four-week-old kittens.   A small bunch, but adorable.

"'Scuse me, can I borrow some toona?":

 

"WHAT?!  She makes a good pillow!":

"KIDS these days.":

What else?  I am still trying to get my sister's affairs in order (did you know you have to file a 1040 AFTER YOU DIE?!  Is true.), trapping for TNR continues apace (I'm trapping tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day - Erin Go Trap haha),  and work is going well.   What's up with you?

Good Boy Update

Good Boy is doing well at the center!  He has been moved into one of the community rooms, so he's no longer in a cage by himself.  He is slowwwwwwwly interacting with other cats and spends a lot of time in one of the cat condos, but he is more than happy to come out for some loving from the volunteers.

And speaking of loving, Good Boy's got a girlfriennnnnddddd ...

I'm calling this "The Contessa and the Longshoreman" haha.  He's really working that "drunk-after-a-bar-fight" look, and when you pair that with his squished-in Himalayan nose, well ... I'm just glad he's found someone to love him.  :)

(No, I don't think they are seriously bonded, it's just a case of Good Boy learning to interact with other cats and they with him, but if they are bonded, they will certainly be placed together.)

 He's been vet checked and is in great shape considering he's been homeless for the last few years.  He is extremely welcoming of human attention.  The rescue will continue working with him, and if at any point he starts to overly stress, the barn home is still an option, although at this point it looks like he'll be able to stay at the rescue until he finds his family.

I'll keep posting updates.  The saga of Good Boy continues ...

Game Cam Pics

I stuck a game cam on the ground below the birdfeeder the other day, to see what showed up.

There were lots of the usual suspects:

And even what is evidently the world's largest bird:

Oh wait it's just a deer.  Whew!

Speaking of deer:

And of coursel, there were plenty of THESE:

*SIGH*  Squirrels are the gluttons of the feeder.

Oh, look!  Here's a bird!  Being elbowed out of the way by a squirrel:

Of course, Ponyboy had to swing by to see what was going on:

Hopefully, Spring is on the way.

Because I'm sick of shoveling!  Yeesh.

Cheep cheep cheep

I am ... cheap.  I have always been cheap, because I've always HAD to be cheap.  But I'm trying to get over it, now that things have changed.

The other weekend, instead of buying a burger from the dollar menu at the drive-thru for lunch, I ordered a regular-menu burger!  and fries!  and a soda! although I was still able to bundle them together for a value meal, so there.

And I went to the Thrifty Shopper and bought eighteen dollars worth of clothes, but then realized afterward that I actually had been overcharged because they used my birthday week discount instead of the color-tag discount that would have been cheaper, but instead of beating myself up over it for the next week, I had pretty much excused myself by the following day.

I opened up a brand-new can of reddi-whip the other night, instead of going without because I only want reddi-whip on my dessert once in a while, and god knows when the next time will be, and reddi-whip doesn't last forever once opened, so I pretty much just threw a two-dollar can of reddi-whip away for one use.  But I DID use it on a fifty-cent Walmart snack pie that expired a month ago, because I couldn't bear to toss a still-good fifty-cent pie.

I bought a new living room recliner!  on Thanksgiving day, because that's when Big Lots was having their big sale.  AND I splurged and had it delivered to the house.  AND THEN I actually paid my garbage service an extra fee to have my old recliner hauled away, instead of trying to manhandle it into the car and haul it to the dump myself.  Although I DID leave it out to the curb for a week, just to see if there were any takers, before calling the garbage service.  :) 

This year, instead of buying a 5 to 6 foot Christmas tree ($30.00), I bought a 6 to 7 foot tree ($40.00).  And that extra ten bucks is WORTH it.

I ... I am just not good at spending money.  I think I spent so many years scrimping and saving that it's now ingrained in me.    But there's nothing wrong with being thrifty, is there?  I mean, it's not like I'm reusing aluminum foil or something.  (No judgment here if you reuse aluminum foil, haha.)  I tell myself that I'm saving up for that house in Florida.  That I might be able to actually BUY, now!  Holy cow.  :)

So tell me:  Are you good at spending money? Is there, like, a secret to it?  Is it a skill?   Enquiring minds want to know. :) 

Thank you, Ginny!

Take this job, and ...

Yes, it's true.  After giving it the ol' college try for over a year at a job where I was miserable every day, I'm movin' on!

I've accepted a job with the county in which I live, and am about to embark on a career as a civil servant. Who'd a thunk it?  

And in OTHER career news, I found out today that the boss at my OLD old job passed away a few days ago.  Lots of conflicting thoughts about THAT.

So!   Finishing out my time at the current job, doing paperwork for the upcoming job, and on the homefront all is well.  Meet the current fosters:

I've also discovered the joys of backyard campfires:

And in general, life just keeps chugging along.  :)  How are all of YOU doing?

Because Ginny is far, far better at online shopping than I can ever hope to be ...

THANK YOU!!  

Weekend To-Do List

Today:
Grocery shop
Dollar store
Take the multitudes of cans in the garage to the redemption center
Buy more live traps (thank you, Ginny!)
Ollies -garden crocs $3.99
Thrift store 50% off everything (yahoo!)
Post office - stamps
Final spot check of Foster Room and replace litterboxes

(Enjoy that Foster Room while you can, Soda, because company's coming tomorrow!)

Sunday:
Laptop, camera, traps and carrier in car
Oil change
Take trapping buddies out to brunch
Then put them to work - First to Mary M's to drop off traps for her to use as feeding stations
Then to Ed G's to review gamecam footage of HIS feeding stations
Stop at center to pick up new foster, who is preggers
Home

Whew.

Freaky Friday: It's a Christmas miracle!

Some of you who have been reading here for a while may recall that when anything even slightly unusual happens this time of year, I like to describe it as a Christmas miracle, because why not?  Found a good parking spot?  It's a Christmas miracle!  Grabbed the last raspberry pie at the store? Christmas miracle!  You get the picture.

But this year, guys ... this year ...

Some of you may remember Bunnyman, aka Angel Rabbit Man, the ceramic rabbit with the body of a man and also wings.  Oh, yeah.   And then there was Son of Bunnyman.  And then I did the whole Bus Stop thing, featuring Bunnyman. And despite doing some research, I never could discover the origins of Bunnyman.  Still haven't.

But the other day I stopped by a thrift store, and ...

another Bunnyman.

I saw him at the thrift store amid the knick-knacks and coffee cups and snatched him up. He didn't have a price tag, but really ... would any price be too much to pay for an elusive Bunny Man?

When I got up to the register, the cashier said, "Oh wow,  this is really ..."   I waited for her to say "weird", or "strange", or "odd", but instead she said, "cool.  I don't know what it is, but I like it!"  and she charged me a buck.

It's a Christmas miracle! A true Christmas miracle!  :)

Well, of course I had to dress him up a little:

... and arrange a reunion with his long-lost brother:

and reconfigure the Bus Stop:

Christmas miracles, guys. They're out there.

On not jumping to conclusions.

I was not happy to see bow hunters in the park next door yesterday.

I have nothing against hunting in general, but hunting is not allowed in town parks, and most CERTAINLY not fifty yards from a house (mine).  I got a shot of the license plate and will send it to the game warden; confronting armed men is not generally a real good idea.

So imagine how not-happy I was this morning when I was cooking up my Sunday morning breakfast and looked out the kitchen window to see a cop and a hunter dragging a doe across my backyard.

What. The. Actual.  F*ck.  I figured that the hunter had jacked the deer and the cop had caught him at it.  In my backyard!  Oh, I was loaded for bear.   But I composed myself, waited until they were out by the road, and went to talk to them.

"Hey, guys," I said. "What happened here?"

The hunter explained that he was on his way to bow hunt when the car ahead of him, up on the main road not far from my house, hit the deer and kept right on going.  (I have no idea how; hitting a deer generally causes a LOT of damage to the vehicle.)  The deer, severely injured, managed to drag itself into the brush.  The hunter, wanting to put the deer out of its pain (and possibly fill his freezer for the winter, let's be honest), grabbed his bow from his truck and started tracking it. He finally managed to put the deer down in the brush on my rear property line, then called law enforcement to explain the situation.  (Hunting within a thousand yards of a house in this town results in massive fines, loss of hunting licenses, and surrender of firearms.)  The cop came out to assay the situation, and, after determining that the hunter's story was true, filed the necessary paperwork so that the man could harvest the doe.

So here's a situation where I was glad to have a hunter on my property, putting that poor deer down. Those yahoos from yesterday, however ... well, I hope they get their due courtesy of the game warden.

And in other news ... look how big the Foster Campers are getting!

Ain't they sweet?

Where to start, where to start ...

Still here, guys.  Still struggling with the new job - I found out after I started that I was actually filling TWO positions.  Yeah.  So I'm just doing as much as I can every day, the supervisor seems to be happy with the amount that I am able to accomplish, and we'll see where it goes from here.  Eventually I'm going to get so far behind that they're going to have to either hire someone to fill the second position, or let me go and see if they can find someone who can work at superhuman speed, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Because of the job situation, I'm been dealing with some stress issues.  Last week my doctor tried starting me on Paxil, which made me CRAZY, so for now we're back to the Xanax, with a check-up in a few weeks.

I've been hiking, and kayaking

And I've been trapping for spay/neuter on the weekends as well.

The summer session of Foster Campers went to the adoption center, which led to the Fall session coming in two days later:

Here's their gorgeous, if EXTREMELY skittish, mama:

All of the permacats are doing fine, although I DID just see a mouse run out of my closet, meaning they need to step up their game.

I have had zero time to blog-hop, so I sure hope everyone is doing fine.  I love you, I miss you, and I'll try to post more often!

Still here!

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking.  I feel like I'm FINALLY starting to settle in to the new job, at least a little bit.   Whew!

Last night I trapped, so this morning I had to head out bright and early.  Look what was in my front yard when I woke up!

There were actually TWO bucks out there, moseying through, which is really unusual.  I see does a LOT, but bucks, not so much.

Then it was off to the barn to see what we'd trapped.

We trapped a total of eight cats.  Once I got them to the vet's, it turned out that one of them was ear-tipped, meaning it had already been altered.  I ran that one back to the barn to be released.  Sadly, it turned out that one of the other trapped cats had old injuries that were so severe it had to be humanely euthanized.  The other six cats were spayed and neutered and will spend the night at the vet's and then be returned tomorrow.

After my second trip to the barn, I went in to the rescue to do medications because they were short-handed today.  Then, I had to go grab foster Lucky Nicky from home and run HIM to the vet's for a second FIV test.  Negative!  Yay!

I got him back home, did vaccinations on four of the fosters, mowed the lawn, moved traps back into the shed, did some laundry, and now? I just ordered a pizza, because I am WHUPPED.

Talk to you soon!