december 1, 1998 Boy, talk about being busy with nothing to say.

(Heck, I just had a bunch of stuff typed up and Netscape crashed, shut down my system. Of course, I hadn't saved what I'd done.) Well, we got the decorations up this weekend. See our little window set up? Brian bent some plastic to put around it to keep it dry. (Cats) The cats aren't thrilled to have their front window gone. Ain't life rough?

I've been spending way too much time on the graphics pages. But it's really addicting. There are now over 300 backgrounds to choose from, either tiled or borders and I have many, many bars and each bar comes in four sizes. And some of the backgrounds/bars are co-ordinated. So that you can use a bordered background on one page and a tiled background on the next and matching bars on both. And something else I discovered, that by using the same pattern, but making it smaller, you get an entirely different look. I have quite a few of those up.

Now, I'm working on the holiday cards. I was looking for holiday music (still need to find a tune for this page) and then I'll start working on graphics. I've found some wonderful midis so far. I think my Crescendo helps a lot. I have the latest version (I registered, which means I paid for it) and there is something called "livesynth" that really makes the music come alive. It's wonderful. When the trial is up for this, I'll have to get the newest version. Even if I have to pay again. It really makes that big of a difference.

We had to go shopping for catfood this weekend and at the petstore, I saw the neatest little chair for cats. It was *cough* $75.00, but I rationalized it by saying that now Brian won't have to make me a special setup for the catcam. (I hadn't planned on using the chair that I've been using.) And that it's kind of last year's Christmas present, because he never *did* make those new cat scratching posts. Remember those? The ones I was supposed to have last January? LOL!! Anyway, I bought it and it's now set up. They also had a little kitty tv, with an opening for the cat to go inside the *television*. It was pretty cute, too. Brian said we should probably get that and have a little "room" set up on camera. Well, you know I was dogsitting last week. The neighbor came over yesterday and we talked about their trip and she kept saying "you have to go on a vacation" and I said "no I don't" and she gave me a thank you card, which I didn't open right away. We talked about the dogs, I told her that Alex had been pooping inside, I didn't know if she had peed and I asked about the things the dogs had been chewing on. There was a set of non-toxic magic markers and a doll and a bar of soap. She said she repaired the doll and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out where the soap came from and why the dogs were chewing on it. After she left, I opened the envelope. Inside the card, there was a hundred dollar bill. :-0 Totally unexpected. So, I'm going to get the tv. *grins*

Last night, I kept checking out front for OC and Angus. No kitty. No kitty. No kitty. Then I saw Blackie, but still no sign of OC or Angus. Then Angus showed up, but without OC. I'm starting to get worried. OC is usually over here a little after dark. It was hours after that. I went outside and looked around, couldn't see him. Came inside, put my glasses on, went back out, still couldn't see him anywhere. I hadn't seen the tortie, either. I started feeling sad, poor OC, I wish he would have stayed here. I'm afraid that he's gone, otherwise, why wouldn't he have been here yet? Then, around ten o'clock, he showed up. Big sigh of relief. I wish I could get him back inside.

My mom's neighbor just got back from spending the weekend with her daughter, who declawed her cat. The neighbor was telling mom that the cat bit her. Mom, who *does* listen to me sometimes, remembered some of what I've told her. She said "well, what do you expect? The cat doesn't have any defenses, of course the cat will bite". And her neighbor said "that's what my son-in-law said, too". I guess the declawing decision wasn't a family decision. The neighbor's daughter did it on her own. Mom explained the declawing surgery and her neighbor said "well, my cat use to bite and she isn't declawed."
Mom said, "Well, do you brush her?
"No, she doesn't like it."
"Well, get her down and start to brush her, I bet she scratches you before she bites you."
I just started laughing. She told me "you would have been proud of me, but I had to get out of there before I said too much. She probably won't talk to me now."

We went for another drive this weekend, back up to the sticks. I didn't want to go. Brian asked me why I hated it so much. I said "what's the point? It would be different if the guy was considering your offer, but it doesn't look like he's interested. He wants more than you want to pay." And I'm one of those people that doesn't really set high goals. I set realistic goals and I don't lust after what I can't have. I don't even think about it. And I think he understood what I was saying. There's so much other stuff to look at when we go for rides, I don't want to spend two hours of the time going to the same place, I would rather see something different. I took pictures, too. Since it had been raining, there were a lot of rainbows. I hope some of them turn out.

december 4, 1998 Okay, let's see what I've done. Um....worked on the holiday cards Wednesday, until 11:30. Now, I'm just waiting for notification that the java cards are working. They said they were, but they aren't. And I can't email them, it keeps being returned to me as not found. I have to send it via their problem form. *sigh* Anyway, when Brian called Wednesday night, he had some bad news. They went to Home Depot to pick up a couple of things and when they came out, the tailgate of the truck was down. And some saws were missing. Easily replaced. Then they got back to the job site. The toolbox was gone. Now, this is a problem. There were years of accumulation of tools in that, tools they need to do the job. Brian figures about $2000 to $3000 of stuff was stolen. Of course, telling him that leaving all of this stuff in the back of the truck wasn't a good idea wouldn't help anything, so I bit my tongue. I close down the computer when the cards were finished and went to watch some television. Around 12:30, I went to bed. Had just fallen off to sleep when a catfight started, waking me up. STOP IT I shouted. It kept up. YOU HAD BETTER KNOCK IT OFF!!! I yelled even louder. It didn't stop. I got out of bed, chased a couple of cats out of the hallway. Back to bed, snuggle in. Grrrrrlllllllllooooowwww........hisshisshisss....... I get out of bed again. Chase again. The third time I got out of bed, I went after George. Because it was him. All him. I think he wanted to fight with everybody. I found him in the condo tube in the tv room, grabbed a bottle of Feliway, spritzed it on a kleenex, then held George in place and put the tissue by his face. He sniffed, tried to back away, I let him go and he ran into the living room. I followed, tissue in hand. Put it down in front of him, went back to bed and to sleep. Then I woke up from the most horrible nightmare, I had turned on propane (we don't have any of that here) and it was on too high and the fumes were overcoming me, I couldn't breathe, I was gasping for breath, trying to tell Brian to turn it off while he could and I couldn't get the words out because it was so hard to breathe and then I woke up. Whoa. At least I know I'm dreaming when I have these nightmares. But my nose was stopped up, both sides. And I had started cramping. I couldn't get comfortable. I tried sleeping on the couch in the tv room with the window open (sometimes I do this, cover up with a couple of blankets and the cold air feels so good on my face, very relaxing) but the cats wouldn't leave me alone, they wanted to be on me. I took some extra strength Midol but it took a while for it to kick in. The last time I read the clock before I went back to sleep it read 4:35. The cats didn't care that I hadn't gotten much sleep, all they knew is that it was almost six am and time to be let out. I was so tired yesterday.

OC has been coming by later than usual. And last night, I didn't see Angus at all. Wednesday night, I saw a possum out front. Poor thing, was wet from the rain and he scurried off when he saw me through the window. I don't mind if he eats the cat food. Last night, one of the out back cats was out front. One of the black ones, didn't run when s/he saw me, kind of backed off of the food, and went back to eating when s/he realized there was no threat. Now, this would be very fortunate if these guys came to the front of our home to eat, then out back when they are done. Easier to trap and fix.

It's cold. I'm freezing. I have the heat turned up to 75. I wonder if I'm coming down with something. I don't want to be sick. I have too much to do.

Lonee is anticipating me letting the cats out in the morning. She runs from her spot in the rafters, down to the bench and over to me, and starts talking. I reach over, scratch her back and like this morning, when she starts to headbutt me, I pick her up, carry her with me while petting her and walk over to the food container. Then I give her the option of staying on me or jumping down. She takes her time, purring and loving me. Then, she daintily jumps onto the counter and waits for her morning treat. She is such a cutie pie.

The cards are working!!!!!

click here for the holiday cards

december 7 1998 Talk about annoying. Yesterday, my ISP was down for a little while, then last night and this morning, Simplenet was having problems. Not a big deal, I just shut down and spent some time with Brian watching stupid stuff on tv and napping. Last week, access1 *upgraded* their mail server and I've had problems on and off since - "connection refused". I hate this. And my stat tracker, well, they're really slow right now and pages don't load up all the way. So, so, so, so, so irritating.

I finally got the Disney glyph translation page up. *YAY*. I also found three other heiroglyph photos that I didn't have posted. So, they're up and running now.

For those of you that voted for my site in the pet card contest, I came in third. Now, I'm gonna run again in December for Holiday cards, so don't forget to vote, you can vote everyday.

I have to go to the bank and get set up my new PIN number for my new ATM card. I never did hear back from either of the email I sent to the people that run those sites. Slimebags.

I also have three rolls of film to get developed. I finished one roll this morning. DeeJay had a dead rat outside, Benny was watching. I bet Benny is the one that does the catching and hands them over to the other cats. I got some toilet paper, picked the thing up by the tail, and put it over the fence for the ferals. Why waste good rat meat?

I've read that one of the causes of cystitis is stress. And with Brian being gone so much, I guess we're ripe. And Georgie has it again. Remember last week, he was being obnoxious? Well, I think it was a sign that he was having problems. And Friday, he was peeing all over. So, I started him on amoxicillan. Saturday, he seemed to be straining to pee, although when I felt him, he didn't have a full bladder. And urine was coming out when he sprayed, so I know he wasn't blocked. But, I gave him a half of an elavil, late in the evening, just so he wouldn't strain. I did the same last night. He is drinking water, so I'm not worried about that. *sigh* I hope he's doing better by this weekend. We're supposed to go to Disneyland. I'm taking my camera to get the holiday action. Plus, there is a special for season passholders at the Disneyland Pacific. And my feet are feeling better. Not 100% yet, but much better than they have.

Lonee came in the office door this morning and I noticed how *round* she's getting. She's so cute. I noticed last night that there is a lot of cat poop in the rafters. I bet it's her. Now, I'll have to climb up that ladder and clean it up.

Friday night, I went over to my mom's neighbor's house to try to get her online and able to use her email. She wrote stuff down, I had her shut down and start up a couple of times, get her going and she was doing okay. I guess she forgot it all by the next morning. *sigh* I can't believe all of the junk they have set up to show up on the desktop. She has info for AT & T, Microsoft, AOL, on and on. All for internet access. What a mess. Her daughter and son-in-law are coming down this weekend, so they should get her working.

Brian's leaving again this afternoon for Phoenix. When I was talking to my mom, she said she would come over if I started to miss him too much. I asked if she would clean the kitchen. She said "sure, but you can't be in there, I like to work alone". I told her that this would never do. I need to hear the pissing and moaning about cat pee. She just laughed.

I was worrying about OC not coming over and last night I saw him earlier than I've seen him in a week. I wonder if that possum scared him. I have seen Blackie and the little tortie during the day. Well, last night, around 7:30, I saw OC. Then, a little later, I saw Blackie. Then, I saw OC and Angus together. And I also saw the tortie. It's nice to know they are all still around. It's been so cold here. This morning, it was below 30 when I got up. Brrr...... We had over an inch of rain last week. Which is good because we are behind. But I think the east coast has our weather. I want it back. Now.

december 9, 1998 The dogs are going nuts this morning. The guy behind our neighbors is working out in his yard. I had to put Buddy's collar on him. I guess when Maddie barked, Buddy barked and vice-versa. SCREAM.

I dropped the three rolls of film off yesterday for developing, then went by the pet store. It's not there!!! It use to be a Petco. There are two more within a few miles, and there is a PetSmart right across the street. I wanted to pick up that tv. I guess I'll do it later.

I also went to the bank and got my new ATM card reactivated. I had to get a new PIN number. I never heard anything back from anybody on that charge. Sheesh. What a hassle.

Lucky sits on my desk in front of me every morning. She's such a sweetheart. She's not one to be held, but she sure loves to be petted.

I haven't seen the tortie in a couple of days. I wonder where she's been. OC is back to coming by early, but he doesn't seem to be hanging as much with Angus. I wonder what the deal is there. I think the outback cats are staying *in bed* until it warms up in the morning. They aren't all waiting for breakfast. And I haven't seen the one black one in our entryway since that one night.

Kirby has been finding his way to the top of the satellite receiver. Once up there, he has disconnected the hookups for the sound to the television and has, a few times, gotten behind everything and disconnected the power. Which is no fun, because I have to reset four clocks. Two vcrs, one tv and one digital clock. So, last night, I found a big poster on cardboard in the exercise room and put it up where I think Kirby has been gaining entrance. I haven't seen him there today, yet. He and Mickey are laying side by side on the blanket on top of the entertainment center. I hope I stopped him.

My mom's neighbor wasn't online. She said she couldn't figure it out from what she had written down. *sigh* She called this morning, really happy with herself. She got back on. *grins* She got the email I sent her and told me she liked the jokes. Then she told me a nasty joke. I told her to email it to me and she said she couldn't. Forgot how to get the information sent. LOL!!! Ah, I remember being new at this stuff. Everything seemed so technical and so scary. I was in awe of everything. *chuckle*

Georgie seems to be feeling better. I'm glad for that.

And my feet don't hurt nearly as much. I think staying at home and not walking alot helps. And the fact that the cats are being very good about coming in at night. Good kitties.

december 11, 1998 It's sure dark this morning. No clouds, but really, really dark. Spooky.

OC, Angus and the tortie were all out front last night, waiting for dinner. I took out three bowls and the tortie (think I'll call her Cleo) ran. She's not use to people at all. I had been thinking that possibly she had just been dumped, but she sure doesn't act use to people (nice people, anyway). She startled OC and Angus, they ran, too, but not as far as she. Once I was inside, they came running back up to the door. Angus looks like his face is swollen, but he is an intact male and they get big faces. I hope he's okay.

Georgie's feeling lots better, it looks like. This morning, when I let them out, he was running all over the backyard. Up the tree, onto the doghouse, onto the ground, around the doghouse, along side the people house and back around up on the tree. It's cute when they go up the trees, because they stop, just hang there on the trunk and look at me. Goofy cats.

I've had this cute little tabletop fountain with a water wheel for a while now. The cats kept drinking out of it and since I don't know what was used in painting it (lead paint?) this scared me. So, I quit using it as a fountain, it just sat there. Then I thought that moving it might help, to someplace where the cats couldn't access it so easily. Wrong. In two days time, I had to replenish the water supply almost completely. Then it hit me last night. How to make the water taste bad so they would leave it alone. I sprayed some "Bitter Apple" in it. Bitter Apple is a product that you can buy at petstores that keeps cats and dogs and who knows what else from chewing on things. It's non-toxic, just tastes really bad. I know, I accidentally tasted it once. Blech. Took awhile to get that feeling out of my mouth.

Lonee stayed inside last night, at least while I was watching tv. This morning, she was back in the garage rafters. While she was on the condo, she even let me pet her. These ferals are so fragile when it comes to human/cat relationships. Still not trusting of us, even though they've been here over two years. Red has discovered the joys of the back of the sofa in the living room and all of those neat little glass cat figurines within stretching distance. I know because he's starting to knock them down. *sigh* What I really like about him sleeping in that spot is right below him, on the cushions, is Bart. The same Bart that kept chasing him into the rafters for over a year. Now, they sleep within inches of one another. Sure warms my heart.

I put a cover on the catcam chair. The cats don't seem to care for the pad that came with it. I'm in the process of crocheting a red, green and white one for the holiday season. Hopefully, I'll have it finished by next week. It's a quick pattern.

Brian's coming home tonight, so I have to clean today. Not that there's all that much to do, but I like the house to be clean when he gets here. And I'll be doing laundry all day tomorrow and it's Disneyland on Sunday and Monday. I'll start with the poop in the rafters. What fun.

I don't know if everybody that reads this has heard of the Twisty cats. There's a woman in Texas that breeds polydactyls and got this mutant cat, one she calls "Flipper". After her last set of pictures went up on the internet in November (the first pictures were posted last June), there was a huge outcry against what she was doing. She took down the page, but many others saved it. Here's one version--Twisty Cats. Many, many organizations are coming together as one to stop her. I understand she was featured on "The Daily Show" last night, on Comedy Central. I understand, they made her look like the fool she is. The show is on again here at 8:30 this morning. I'm going to watch.

december 13, 1998 Well, we're off to Disneyland today. I am going to change all of the water in the water bowls and I have to clean the litterboxes before we go and type out a list of instructions for my mom. I have to make sure everybody is fed.

I noticed Friday that there is something wrong with Pepper's tail. It's kind of limp halfway down. I looked in my cat health book and it says that this happens when a cat's tail has been run over. I don't think so. Anyway, I gently squeezed it, all the way down, to see if it was tender and there is one spot that seems to give her some discomfort. Kirby had something similar when he was younger and it got better on it's own. She can still move the whole thing, it isn't like there's any nerve damage. And Friday night, she was very active, playing with a plastic wind up toy. If it isn't getting any better next week, I'm taking her to the vet.

Lisa threw up this morning, the small amount of food she had eaten. I think she ate too fast. She only likes to eat out of the food container here in the office and there were a couple of kitties behind her, waiting in line, pressuring her. Something else to watch. It's a concern, because she is overweight.

When I let the cats out this morning, Lonee was in the tv room. This is good. This is the first time in months she was in the house, not the garage.

Brian didn't come home until yesterday. And he was home around ten-eleven o'clock. He had said they wouldn't be back until afternoon. It seems that something woke them up after 3 am, and neither could go back to sleep, so they packed up and came home. Yay!!!!

Brian was across the street, talking to Chuck and I went outside and Cleo ran out of our entryway. She had been eating. I went across the street and said something to Brian about her, Chuck and he said goodbye (Chuck had a bunch of stuff to do, couldn't hang around talking) and on the way back home, we saw Cleo run across the street. Brian said how nice looking she was and I told him that I keep telling her she's invited to live here, to bring OC with her. And Brian said "What about Angus?" YAY!!! Brian wants all three!!! He said that we'll have to get a bigger house and I said, something to work towards. He's going to talk to that property owner by himself. The real estate agent never did call him back. Now, that's a good businesswoman. Ignore a potential sale.

I got great news from Simplenet yesterday morning. They now have a MIVA setup for really nice forums. The one that is shown on the MIVA site stinks. But this new one is wonderful. Now, each cat once again has his or her own messageboard and my other forums are now on my website. Much, much nicer than having them hosted elsewhere. I like the script for the forums at LV Designs, but the server isn't reliable and I got a lot of complaints about not being able to access the forums, too many error messages. Now, that is no longer a problem. YAY!!! Dorissimo asked me how I was going to keep track of them all. Well, I remembered a program I had a while back that checked URLs, to see if the page had changed. I found that program and now it checks for me. Websprite. I have it working right now and it's running across the top of the screen. I think Lucky is going to catch it for me.

My intestines feel weird. Not good for a day at Disneyland. I'm thinking it might have been the Taco Bell lunch yesterday. Not that the food was bad, just that since Brian has been gone, I haven't been having too much fast food. I think my system is in a state of shock. I wonder what it's trying to tell me?

I just fed the outback cats and that darn cocker is chasing them again. They all ran up into the trees. That really irritates me. Poor kitties.

When I fed the front kitties last night, I, unthinkingly, opened a big can of food. They didn't finish it. I wonder why not?

Buddy and Junior have been playing, Buddy chasing Junior, on a regular basis. I like to see this happening. For so long, there was some sort of power thing going on between them. Now, they are friends again. It does me good to see them playing. I love these guys. Sometimes, I think that we are the luckiest people on earth to have such a wonderful fur family.

december 15, 1998 Animal behaviorists say that to break a cat of annonying habits such as meowing before the alarm goes off, to ignore the cat. Don't reward the behavior by responding. Easier said than done. I'd love to change places with one of these behaviorists and have them in my spot in bed when DeeJay decides that I've slept enough. His meowings not only wake me up, they wake the other cats up. Bobby starts meowing in the tv room. Mickey says, hey, if DeeJay is here, then I guess it is time to get up. And he starts climbing on me, licking my face, meowing, attacking my feet and legs, even though I'm holding them still, getting onto the head of the bed and jumping down onto my body (fortunately, he misses my head). Benny, who has already gotten me up once, hours earlier, again in the bathroom, reaching for the screen, (which I thought he had given up on doing after having the door closed for a couple of weeks), joins in, adding his small voice to the chorus. Well, I can only imagine they are punishing me for not being here yesterday morning to let them out early.
(continued next page)

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

Web lisaviolet.com

website design by

© 1996-2014 lisaviolet
Photographic images are the property of the photographer,and may not be copied, printed, or otherwise reproduced on any other site or used in any other publishing medium without the written permission of each individual photographer and kennel/cattery owner. Cathouse privacy policy.