Glad I Was Wearing Shoes!

This morning I got up a little later than usual, Keith had gotten in last night around 11:30 so by the time we said hello and then goodnight, it was around midnight before I got into bed. I woke up around 6 to go to the bathroom and decided I didn't want to stay up, so I shut my door so no cats would disturb me and then went back to sleep until almost 8. I usually leave the door open a bit during the night, especially if the dog is sleeping with me because she may need to get up and go pee or something. Mimi likes to come in around 6:30 most mornings, jump onto the bed right by my face and then purr and MEOW, purr and MEOW (she has a very loud meow) hoping that I will either pet her or get up and feed her. Or both.

Anyway, up a little later than usual and Keith happened to already be up, sitting at the computer looking at stuff. He can spend hours looking at all the news stories and whatever, even before he's had his coffee or gotten dressed. As I come in his room I see two cat poos on the floor. Big cat poos and either a cat left them there or the dog pulled them out of the cat box and I'm so glad she doesn't (gag) EAT them like some dogs do. Keith of course did NOT see the big cat poos on the floor and how he missed them I don't know. So, like it does many many times, my day started with picking up cat poo.

A little while later I'm checking on Genie outside and picking up her dirty cat food bowl and getting the water bowl to put fresh water in and see what I think is another ball of cat poo on the pavement, a ball of cat poo that Millie is sniffing, but then realize it is just a snail. You don't know how glad I was that it was not more poo after having just cleaned the poo on the floor in the bedroom and all of the assorted litter boxes. Really glad.

I'm bringing the freshly filled water bowl out of the house for Genie and as I'm walking back across the patio, CRUNCH! and I've stepped right onto that snail. And I'm so glad I was wearing shoes, being guilty of going barefoot out there quite a bit when doing things like cleaning up after cats. Snails gross me out anyway, and stepping on one and smashing it all up is bad enough with shoes on, I would have been quite nauseated if I were barefoot. I don't think I will ever go barefoot out there again just in case. I should know better, I am still haunted by the slug that I stepped on barefoot about 35 years ago.

In other news my arm is getting much better, I spent a few days resting it as much as possible. I can put pants on again but do it very carefully with mostly my left arm, same for doing things like vacuuming, which sounds easier than it actually is. I'm not very coordinated with my left hand. I haven't had to take aspirin or Aleeve the past few days, just a Salonpas pain patch when necessary, and those little pain patches really do help.

Stinky Cats and a DUH Moment

Not a whole lot has been going on around here, hence the lack of posts recently. About all I have to talk about is annoying cats and how fast time flies by. It's April already. What?

A few days ago Keith let Pepper go out into the backyard, where instead of getting some exercise so maybe she would lose some weight (she is quite rotund) she went over into the grassy area, which isn't really a grassy area, more like a dirt area with some of that thick foxtail producing grass. She sat herself down and had apparently enjoyed just sitting there. Maybe she thought she was in secret agent mode and the grass was hiding her. Apparently she was also eating some of the grass, which our cats like to do and then come inside and vomit it up somewhere.

Instead of vomiting up the grass, it went through Pepper's digestive system and came out the other end. She was acting all funny the day after she ate the grass, kind of running around and scooting like dogs do when they have whatever it is they have when they scoot around on their bottoms (worms?) and I see marks on the rug and realize it's poo. So I go find Pepper and see something coming out of her bottom with poo stuck to it and (gag) get a wet cloth to wipe her bottom for her. It's grass coming out of her and she was frantically trying to get it OFF already. Keith was trying to help but made it worse by turning her over on her back, which she really really hates, I usually just grab her by the neck and hold her down to clean her bottom. She protested and tried to scratch but I got the grass and poo off of her (gag) and she went running off.

And that is the most fun we've had all week.

We took Harri to the vet a few weeks ago, her eye is always somewhat weepy because of her cat herpes, but it was getting worse. We got some cream for her eye and also a reminder to give her the lysine supplement that I used to give both her and Bear but then slacked off on it. I got a new tube of Viralys for her, which is a gel kind of like toothpaste in a tube and supposedly tastes good to cats. I know when I was giving it on a regular basis to both Harri and Bear they never seemed to mind too much.

The way I've always given them the Viralys is with an injector thing like a syringe, I would stick the end of the syringe into the hole in the tube and then attempt to suck some of the gel into the syringe. I did this for a long time. Then the other night as I was trying to go to sleep, the DUH moment came upon me. Why not fill up the syringe by taking the plunger out and putting the tube into the syringe from the big end, then plunging it down to the dispenser end?

DUH! And DUH again. Why did it take me years to think of this? It is SO much easier!

Duh.

And here is a bonus picture of the best buds Bear and Mimi. I thought it was cute the way Bear is 'hugging' Mimi.

Stupid People and Cat Poo

I deal with cat poo on a daily, actually twice and sometimes thrice daily matter. Morning and evening is the scooping of it out of cat boxes, and sometimes there is a stray poo ball on the carpet. From Pepper's nasty butt. She has issues with being a little constipated most of the time and she gets freaked out when it doesn't all come out like it should and jumps out of the cat box and runs around the house, sometimes dropping a little present here and there.

Last night I should have known that something was up after Pepper came racing out of my room after having used the cat box in there but I was tired and ready for bed and didn't look around for any bombs on the floor, since the cat box is on the opposite side of the room from the side of the bed that I climb into. I'm kind of surprised that I didn't find it earlier, since I did go into the cat box side of the room to open up the window a bit for some fresh overnight air. I did find the cat poo bombs when I got out of bed early early in the morning to go shut the window since it was getting a little chilly in my bed and yes, you guessed it, stepped right onto a ball of Pepper poo. UGH! So, at whatever time it was I'm hobbling to the bathroom on the heel of my foot hoping not to smear poo on the floor, grab a wet washcloth to scrub my foot with, and here is the poo ball STUCK TO MY FOOT. ICK AND DOUBLE NASTY! After scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing my foot, I grabbed toilet paper to pick up the poo and then went back in the bedroom to look for more, which of course I found, flushed all that mess down the toilet and then tried to go back to bed not totally grossed out or anything.

Lesson learned, check the floor all around the bed before retiring each night.

UGH.

And, stupid people. I have come to the conclusion that a large majority of human beings just aren't all that bright. Plus, they are mean and petty and violent, but that's a topic for another day. I had bought some hand lotion a while back, lotion that is fruit scented and has pictures of the fruit on the label. I have one bottle in the bathroom and one in the kitchen and use it quite frequently, but have never noticed the caution on the back of the bottle until the other day. And then I just went DUH.

This is not food. Do not eat.

Obviously someone must have mistaken their hand lotion for fruit and ate it and got sick and sued the hand lotion manufacturer and now they have to put this warning on their bottles so that stupid people won't eat the hand lotion.

Oh Poo!

Yes, this is a post about poo. Specifically cat poo.

I deal with cat poo (and pee) on a daily basis, but usually it is confined to the cat box where I scoop and scoop some more, two boxes, twice daily each. The most fun part of my day!

The outdoor cats are not such an issue since they go poo somewhere in the yard where I don't usually see it or have to clean it up. Keith made them some nice dirt areas where they do their business and then cover it all up. Except for the past two mornings when I guess Genie just couldn't hold it anymore or else got the poo scared right out of her by the other cats coming outside in the mornings.

I wish Keith had never started the letting the indoor cats out into Genie's territory because it is now a huge issue with cats greeting me in the morning wanting to be fed, wolfing their food down, and then congregating by the back door waiting for me to open it. Genie eats her food and then immediately jumps into her basket on the back yard table because she knows that after breakfast comes interlopers. Mean interlopers who ganged up on her the other day ( Buddy and Mimi ) and chased her around the yard and then snarled and scratched at her.

Yesterday morning I got the cats to all come back inside for the day and then went out to give Genie the 'all clear' and give her some treats so she would know that it's okay to get out of her basket now, the mean ones have gone inside. She was cowering down in her basket so I picked her up and was immediately bowled over by an incredible stench coming from her and her basket. She had gone poo right where she lay and had poo on her legs and on her basket blanket. Runny poo, either from a change in her food, or a parasite, or her not feeling well, or whatever, but icky stinky runny poo.

I threw the blanket away and got some wet rags to clean her up, and felt SO AWFUL that the poor cat had been laying in all that, too afraid to get out of her basket and go poo somewhere else.

So, this morning I was only going to let the cats out for 30 minutes tops, and then I see Mimi up on the table beside Genie in her basket. Mimi is fascinated by her and either wants to play with her or attack her or something, but Genie will have nothing to do with it, so was again cowering in her basket, not looking at Mimi in the hopes that if I don't see you, you don't see me.

I got everyone inside and then went to give Genie her treats and AGAIN poo in the basket. And all over her legs. Not as runny as yesterday, but runny and gross enough. The new blanket (which was actually an old towel ) got tossed in the trash and Genie got washed off with wet rags (which also got tossed in the trash ) and tomorrow nobody is going outside. Buddy will be in a snarly grumpy mood all day because of it but I can't keep throwing away cat blankets and having Genie covered in fear induced poo each morning.

Okay, enough of that.

I found Bear laying in the cat tower yesterday, but I guess she is too chubby to fit her entire body inside the box or her head was hot or something.

The other day she and Mimi were laying under the couch blanket that hangs down in front to the floor. Bear loves to lay under there, I guess it is somewhat private and dark and makes a good napping spot except when I forget she is there and step on her when I'm trying to sit on the couch.

Yesterday afternoon I was feeding everyone and Bear didn't show up for dinner. I looked around the house and couldn't find her and should have looked by the couch, because there she was, just her tail and part of her fat belly showing from under the blanket, sound asleep and unaware that everyone else was eating.

Time To Clean

I actually got in the mood to do some much needed cleaning in my studio today. I get to working on a bunch of different projects and end up with a nice big mess in there.
This is my work table. It almost always looks like this.
This is all my baskets of finished pendants, earrings, unfinished pendants, chains, beads, etc. on my vintage wood ironing board. Makes a handy little extra table. The walls are freshly painted and I put my collection of art and oddities on the walls all around the room. No carpet yet, still concrete, but that came in handy today when I stepped in the middle of a stray cat turd next to the cat box. I'm glad I had socks on. I think Pepper is the one who doesn't finish before leaving the cat box, and she also is lazy about covering up her poo. Nothing like the smell of a big cat poo poo to get your attention.
This shows the new cabinets that Keith put up all around the room-he still hasn't put the handles on yet even though I keep nagging.
And this is the big mess in the corner. No place to put all this junk until we finish the carpet and closet door. Keith made the window seat out of an old headboard-it's perfect for all the kitties to line up and look out the window-that's their pillow and towel that you see.

So, I did get about half the room done today, sorting stuff out and throwing away a bunch of junk. I found a lot of supplies that I'm listing in my supply shop, things I'm not going to use or have a lot of. Hopefully tomorrow I'll still be in the mood to clean and finish the other half.
Now, if I could just get in the mood to clean the bathroom...