january 2, 1998 Happy New Year. Bobby barfed up all of his dinner last night, looked like he ate way too much and way too fast. Georgie started fighting with everybody again, chased Annie up the steps on the wall and for some reason, she got stuck, he was biting the back of her and she was all stretched out between steps. I ended up letting him smell the Feliway.

I ordered a sample of ZeoCrystals on Wednesday, I have heard really good things about it as an odor removal. They have their own website http://www.zeocrystal.com. Barb very graciously emailed me and asked what type of odor problems did we have and I responded "what kind *don't* we have". So, she is sending more samples to try out on our various odor spots. How nice. And the product line seems really reasonable as far as price is concerned. I know a gallon bottle of Miracle's Nature is over $20.00 at the pet store. I'll keep you updated as to how it works, once I get it.

I got some money for my Christmas present. That's what's nice about getting older, people don't know what to get you, so you get money, you can pool it and get one or two really nice things. I ordered a Hewlett Packard digital camera yesterday from http://www.cdw.com. They had an excellent selection. And they have never spammed me. :) I also looked at some site with surplus in the name, but they only had three digital cameras listed and one of those wasn't due in until January sometime. Plus, they spam me unmercifully, didn't make it hard to pick a company to order from.
The nice thing about a digital camera, is I can get immediate gratification from my photos. I won't have to wait to get them developed, like the other three rolls that are just sitting here waiting on my lazy butt to get them to the store. There are some good pix. A lot of Disneyland, Indiana Jones and Small World. And sunsets. Oh, boy!! A new toy!!!

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I am going to try to be more organized. I have never been good at structuring my life, but maybe it's time I tried. It certainly won't hurt.

january 7, 1998 Well, it's been too long since I have written in here. I hope I can remember everything that's happened. Well, so much for being organized. *grins*

One of the cats has been pooping in the hallway and not the litter box. Problem is, I don't turn on the light. I stepped in it, barefoot, once and booted it with my shoe another time. Boy, that stuff can fly. Then, the other night, somebody didn't finish inside the litter box in the bedroom and when I got up in the middle of the night to relieve myself, I stepped in that, too. *sigh* A great way to start a new year. Yuk.

Georgie has been spraying so much. But the urine looked fine, no redness. After we got the cats in yesterday, he squatted in the bathroom sink. Oh, man.....it was red tinged. I called the vet, hey, should I give him amoxi and ammonil or baytril? I needed more ammonil and baytril anyway. Rusty has been sneezing so I think we may have a URI on the premises, which needs the baytril. Jennifer asked the vet and he said the amoxi and ammonil for Georgie. Jennifer said she would get it ready and I could come pick it up.

I just hate to one up people (yeah, right). I walk into the vet's office and in the waiting room is a cat, loose, sitting on the floor by the window. I said "hey, a new cat?" and a woman answered that it was hers and she was a *regular* there. Regular? You wanna talk regular? LOL!!! She said she was there about once a month. I just laughed and said I was there about once a week. Then Jennifer started getting my prescriptions ready. I had ordered 56 ammonil, because I need two a day for a week to ten days for each incidence of urinary problems. And I got 28 baytril which are over a dollar a pill, but the dosage is a half a pill a day, so this would be 56 days worth. I asked her where Hugh, the kitten was. She went and got him, I think I may have misunderstood his name, because they call him Mew Mew. Boy, did I get a kitten fix. I held him and nuzzled him. He licked my eyelid, nibbled my cheek and kissed my nose. They got him when he was three days old, he's old enough now that his eyes aren't blue anymore. He is a little lover. I must have held him for fifteen minutes. But, dinner was ready and I had to get home and dish it up. I paid the bill, collected my receipt, gathered up the medications and off I went.

When I got home, Brian had fed the kitties. He was really excited, when he was getting their dinner ready, Red headbutted him. Then Red walked off, turned around, came back and headbutted Brian again. Yay!!

I got my digital camera. It seems like it's going to be a lot of fun. I don't think it will be good for action shots, because you have to wait for the beep to know that the picture has been taken, and the cats don't know that. But, it will be really good for stills. I took some shots of the sky yesterday as the clouds were breaking up and I made my first background. I had looked all over the internet at different times for good sky backgrounds and never found any. So, now I will make my own. If I like them enough, I might do a page for backgrounds. There are just so many ideas for them running around in my head. The fence, the railroad ties, the pine trees, the bank with flowers on it, clean cat litter, a clear night sky with no moon, the possibilities are endless.

It's been on the cool side lately. And the cats are staying indoors. Except for Benny. He just loves the cooler weather. And Junior just amazes me. In the summer, when it's over a hundred degrees, we can't get him to come into the pool. But here it is, winter, the water in the pool is very cold and he walks in the pond and gets a drink. Or, he will walk into the pool where the steps are and get a drink. He is in water up to his belly. I just don't understand it at all.

Buddy has been really bad about being put up. He would get into the doghouse and not come out. It's a big doghouse and one of us (usually Brian) would have to get on our hands and knees and drag him out to put him in the shop, where it's warmer at night. The doghouse would be okay if Sandy and Junior stayed in there, but they like being outside. Must be those thick coats. A couple of nights ago, we just let him stay out. The next morning, he came out of the doghouse, shivering. I put him in the shop and shut the door. He went back into his little cave and curled up. I let him out a couple of hours later. Since then, he's been better about being put up at night.

january 12, 1998 It's been pretty rainy and the litter boxes are in full use. Just love it. Takes a half hour a day to clean and sift them all. But if I don't, I find little piles. Like the ones I booted last week. Being lazy doesn't pay.

Georgie's problem seems to be clearing up. That's good. Red was chasing Bart yesterday. I thought that was good, hubby, said it was bad. I thought it was good because Bart is the one that kept chasing Red back up into the rafters.

One of the things I had planned on getting with my Christmas money, was a new cat climber for the living room. One of them in there is torn to shreds. We went and looked at them Saturday. There was one I really, really liked. It had a little cloth area for the cats to lay in, the legs were covered with sisal (rope for those of you who don't know what sisal is), which our cats really like to scratch and it doesn't get thrashed like carpet. It wasn't very sturdy. Hubby says "I'll make one." I say "when?" He was supposed to make it yesterday, watched football instead. But, he is going to make it to fit the place I want it and I will be able to wrap sisal on the legs. So, I'm sure it will be nice, except I know that I will have to nag him to get it done, which I hate to do.

My mom's birthday was Saturday, we took her a plant and a couple of boxes of books that I had cleaned out of the exercise room. (Had to, couldn't see the television, I can read a book a day when I'm in the mood, I like mysteries/thrillers the best.) Anyway, around 8:30 pm the phone rings. It's mom. Miss E her cat isn't acting right. Now, my mom can be pretty cryptic. And if I try to get out of her what she means, she gets irritated. "Well, she's mad at me." Now, why my mom would call because her cat was mad at her is beyond me. I figure there must be more to it. "What do you mean 'she's mad at you'" I ask. "She growled at me and she's making awful noises." Now, Miss E has always been a talker, but apparently, mom forgets this. "She came in and had black stuff all over her." "What kind of black stuff?" I ask. "Was it greasy? Did it have a smell to it?" "I don't know." *sigh* I told her to try to give her some people tuna, see if she'll eat. We say goodbye. A half hour later, the phone rings again. "She's dying!!! Miss E is dying!!!" Well, do you want to go to emergency? "Yes." I'll be right over, get the carrier and put her in it. So, I get my shoes on, grab my purse and glasses, say goodbye to hubby, and off I go.
I get to her house, she comes out. "She's on the couch." I go inside and Miss E had moved to a spot unknown. I noticed that the bedroom door was open and figured that maybe Miss was under the bed. She was. I am laying on the floor and mom's spoiled rotten pug that can do no wrong gets in my face. This dog irritates me under normal circumstances and we are far from normal at this point. He snorts in my face. "Get outta here, Sean" I yell at him. Of course, mom says, "now don't get mad at him, he's upset, too." She's afraid her cat is dying, I'm trying to help her out and she's getting pissy with me because I don't appreciate her dog in my face when I'm trying to get Miss E. ARRGGHH. I said, "I think we are a little more worried about the cat than the dog right now." She closed him in another bedroom. Then, I reach for Miss E. She runs. I say "here she comes". Mom just stand there. Miss E runs by her. *sigh* This isn't going to be easy with mom not helping out. I went into the living room and found Miss E behind one of the couches. Mom stations herself at the other end of the couch from me. I pull the couch out from the wall. Miss E starts to move. "Get ready, she's on her way out." Mom, once again, just stands there. Miss E runs quickly by her. I am getting really annoyed and frustrated now. At mom, not the cat. She's not helping at all. I go to where I think Miss went. Sure enough, there she is. I grab her. Sit down on the couch with her to check her out. Her back is wet. I smell it. Wet fur. I look at her eyes, check out her breathing. Her pupils weren't dilated, her breathing wasn't labored. I looked at her gums. They were dark, not a light color. Looked normal to me. I picked her up and looked at her belly, didn't see anything. Mom started in about the black stuff on her. There was none. She says, "she smells funny". I say it's wet fur. I smell Miss E again. Wet fur. I rub her fur between my fingers. Doesn't feel like anything besides wet fur. I taste my fingers. It's wet fur. I held Miss E in my lap and she puts her head up against me. "See?" mom says. "She must be sick. Nobody but me can hold her." I look up at mom, incredulous. I point to the cat in my lap. Obviously, she does lay in other laps, she's in mine. I remind mom that I did catsit for two weeks in September and that Miss E would come to me to be held. "Well, she hasn't seen you in so long....."

I try to get a timeline of activities from mom. It keeps changing. The only thing that remains certain is that Miss E went out at 7. Not sure when she came back in. A couple of minutes. A half hour. No longer. I think Miss E was out in the field, got caught in a downpour and she hurt herself running under a fence to get out of the rain. Mom thinks somebody dumped something on her. See, somebody has been poisoning cats where she lives, now, she is really worried about it because, now, it hit home. She realizes it could happen to her cat. I tell her that Miss E is not in immediate danger of dying and I really doubt that she was poisoned, just keep an eye on her. It's been too long and she doesn't have any signs of being sick, just a little irritated. "But, why did she growl at me?" Maybe because you were rough when you dried her off. "I wasn't rough." Mom, I'm your kid. You could be rough. Of course, this was the wrong thing to say. "I never hurt you." *sigh* I didn't say you hurt me, I said you were rough. It isn't the same thing. "Yes, it is." Whatever. She starts to cry. "I screw everything up." *sigh* again. I told her, mom, just try to keep Miss E in at night. Don't let her out until morning. I get the argument that she gets really obnoxious when she wants out and mom gives in. Well, is it worth feeling the way you do now? is my line of thinking.
Anyway, Miss E is feeling better, now mom thinks she got into a catfight in the short amount of time she was outside. She did find a small wound inside of Miss E's leg which could be a fight injury. I hope she is planning on keeping Miss in at night. It might take a while for Miss to get use to it, but, like our cats did, she will, too. Mothers. Gotta love em. I'm glad Miss E is okay and I'm glad mom's okay, too. I worry about her when she let's herself get so stressed out. I don't know what I would do without her. She's a great person and a major part of who I am today.

january 16, 1998 Everything is fine. Miss E doesn't seem to be sick, but she isn't real keen on spending much time outside. It must have been a catfight and I wouldn't doubt that a downpour started at the same time. I'm glad she is okay.

I'm finally getting caught up with my email and I sent out some more awards today. Two were to Swedish sites (I think). And a man from Portugal joined the club. This is getting to be truly international. I also put up some awards that my site has received. Whew. Busy, busy. And I am washing all of the cat blankets. The first one I cleaned is from a spot that Red has been sleeping. He wasn't too sure about the clean smell. LOL!! He didn't sleep there at first, went to a different place, but he was sleeping there this morning. Awww....downy freshness.

I am going to dust and vacuum today and read the directions on the samples (ha, they are full size products) that ZeoCrystal sent me. There is a bottle of air freshener included and I have been using that. Before we leave the house, I spritz it a couple of times in the living room and wow, there is no cat pee smell when we come home. If the other items work this well, they have a customer for life. Me.

I was notified Wednesday that A T & T (my provider) now has 56K modem capabilities on my access number. It took three hours on the phone with them to find out that I would have to call the modem manufacturer. So, I called them yesterday am, 6:30 and was on the phone for an hour with them before it was discovered that the flash code that I had downloaded from their site was bad. And this call wasn't toll free. :( I was asked if I wanted the code sent snail mail or email. Well, heck Pete, email. It's quicker. I thought. Never received anything yesterday or today, so I call them. I just hate waiting. Well, another long distance call to find out that the delivery time is five to ten working days. *sigh* I guess I have waited this long, another couple of weeks won't kill me.

Georgie has been very needy lately, but it's mostly when I am in the office. I pick him up and pet him, but he only wants to be held for a few minutes. Then he starts crying again. I think I found out what the problem is. He wants me out of the office. Last night, I left the office with him, sat on the couch and held him. He was fine. He then curled up in a basket and went to sleep. He just wanted me out of here. Darn it. First my husband, now the cats. Nag, nag, nag. LOL!!

Maggie has finally started eating dinner with the other cats. She's four years old and found her appetite. Maybe she will start to put on some weight now. She is so skinny. Model thin. *grins*

The weather isn't very cat friendly. Drizzle, cloudy, rainy, very little sun for them to lay in. Benny likes it, though.

january 20, 1998 I hope this day gets better. Last month, my neighbor got this flu that is going around, so she was sick, and we quit walking. Lazy me, I just came back here and got on the computer instead of exercising like I know I should. So, last week hubby said that we will get up and both exercise together Monday through Friday. I didn't yesterday, but I did this morning. I had a sinus headache when I got up and I thought that the exercising would help get those endorphins going and make the pain go away. I couldn't even listen to the headphones my head hurt so bad. I get done exercising (oh, what poor shape I am in) and feed the cats. Hubby is getting into the shower about now. I come back to the office and look around for a check we got last week. I couldn't find it. I asked hubby if he had it. Nope, never seen it. Great, a check for $9,000 and it's lost. My headache is getting worse. I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping to loosen up some of the congestion in my sinuses. Still, don't want to take a pill (don't ask me why, I like to be macho, I guess). I told him where the check had been and he says, maybe it's in the trash. I checked, I say. (Where I had the check laying was right over the trash cans and it would have been very easy for the cats to knock it into the waste recepticle.) I said, it was here yesterday. He said, I dumped the trash yesterday. Out to the dumpster we go. We didn't see it. Of course, me being so short, I couldn't get very far in it anyway. Oh, my aching head. We came in and he asked well don't you have a place for checks and I said yes, but you were supposed to take it to the bank on Friday, that's why it was closer to your side. (That was one of the reasons I thought he had it.) He left for work and I went through all of the paperwork on my desk. Still couldn't find it. ARRGGHHH....and it didn't help that Rusty kept walking on all of the papers I was going through. He kept trying to give me headbutts. No, thank you very much, Rusty, I'm not in the mood for love right now. I finally gave up and took three exedrin. What did Robert Urich use to advertise? Full on bangeroo. That's what I had. My headache had gotten so bad that I thought I was going to have to lay down, which never happens to me. I put Rusty in the papasan chair, swallowed my Exedrin, and once again went through the pile of paperwork on my desk. No check. It's after 8, I decided, well, I guess I have to make the call. I called and left a message about needing another check. *sigh* I said, "we think the cats threw it out, long story". What a professional excuse, don't you think?

Brian yelled at George last night, George was on the counter peeing on the papertowels. I went in to clean it up (Brian said he was going for a long time) and man, was there alot of pee. And it had blood in it.
thunk
*ow!*
thunk
*ow!*
thunk
*ow!*
thunk
*ow!*
That's was me, hitting my head on the wall (hey, maybe that's where my headache came from). Oh, poor, poor Georgie. At least he wasn't stopped up at all. So, I am going to put him on the medication again for two weeks this time. If it doesn't work, I will call the vet and have him checked out. *sigh*

And the past two nights, we have had a catfight. I don't know who it is. Sunday night, about 2:30 they woke me up. I got out of bed to investigate, couldn't find Lonee, of course, I assume the worst. I get it into my head that she went out through the drier vent (yeah, yeah, I have quite an imagination.) So, I'm outside with the flashlight, looking for her. Barefoot and in my jammies. I went back inside and flashed the light into the bottom of the kitty entertainment center and out she runs. Hi, Lonee, don't scare me like that. Fortunately, I was able to get back to sleep easily. Then, last night, same thing. I don't know which cat was the instigator of the fights. But whoever it is, better not do it again tonight.

Last evening, Bart was looking up at the ceiling, towards the garage, eyes big. I went into the garage to see what the problem was. I heard a cat running around. I looked up in the rafters, nothing. I listened some more. Hey, what do you know, there is a cat on the roof. Oh, there are two cats on the roof. I had taken the flashlight with me and there was a red kitty and a longhaired black kitty. I think the blackhaired cat belongs to someone around here. I don't think he is neutered, either. I wish people were more responsible. Even when our cats could roam the neighborhood, we got them in at night.
Both cats jumped down and took of in different directions.

The weather is still on the cool side. Good football weather. I remember last January having some really hot days. I guess I could look at last year's diary to make sure. LOL!!

Oh, yay, my headache's gone!!

january 23, 1998 Whatever was causing the cats to fight at night has seemed to stop. That's nice. No climbing out of a warm bed to find out who is beating up on whom.

I have been noticing that Rusty is getting awfully thin. I gave him some hard treats yesterday and he was only able to eat one. I then soaked some dry food in water, added some moist fancy feast and tried that. He was really hungry. I guess his teeth are just that bad. He had them cleaned not that long ago. Oh, well. He will just get fed a little more each day, seperately from the other cats.

Well, the updating of the modem was a bust. A word of warning to anybody looking to upgrade. Make sure the phone line that your modem uses is capable of handling the increased speed. After all of those hours on the phone to A T & T and 3Com, it turns out that our local phone lines are incapable of handling the 56K x2 technology. They only carry 31.2K so far at max. Oh, they did let me know about ISDN. That would take a different modem (much more $$) and they would have to run a new line to the house (only about $125 to do, but it could be spread out over six months to pay it, and no finance charge). The charge would be $30 a month for access. Oh, and I mustn't forget the three cents for the first minute and the penny per minute after that of usage. Ha. When I spend at least ten hours a day on the internet? I don't think so, Tim. I'll just keep my pokey modem (not the modem's fault, mind you) and pay the $16 a month for the phone line I have, thank you very much. What a ripoff. But, I don't doubt as more people get on the internet, they will have no choice but to upgrade the lines. Something else to look forward to.

The weather has gotten nicer. It looks like it might be nice for the Super Bowl. Go Broncos.

january 26, 1998 Hey, hey, hey!!!! Broncos won!!!! Finally.

Georgie has been acting really strangely. He will sit in front of me and just meow, meow, meow, his tail wagging the entire time. He's still on medication, but there is a lot less visible blood in his urine. Holding him doesn't seem to calm him down. This morning I followed him into the kitchen and gave him some milk and he hasn't been back in to see me since. Maybe that's what he wanted.

I moved the food that I feed the strays out back into the house garage. It's no longer in the shop. Brian was complaining about all of the cat pee on his tools. Now, I don't have to worry about opening the door to get food and having all of the cats run in. Now, there won't be a problem with cats in the rafters out there. A lot more helpful at "kitties in" time.

Rusty seems to enjoy getting fed more often. He's more restful and it feels like he might be putting on a little weight.

Red has started sleeping on the back of the couch in the living room. I can walk up to him and snuggle with him without him freaking out. He is just so sweet.

No new cat tree yet. What did I say? The reason I wanted to buy one is that a new one would take forever to get made. *sigh*

Consumer's Reports rated pet foods in their February issue. It says that premium foods aren't necessarily better. I think we are going to get the CostCo Kirkland brand and mix it with Nature's Recipe. I like the Nature's Recipe, but some of the cats aren't eating much of it. They don't like it.

january 31, 1998 I spent the better part of the week cleaning the house. I had the happy prospect of meeting a couple of people in the flesh, that I had previously only met on the net. I stripped the wax from the floor, shampooed the areas that the cats like to spray and washed all of the area rugs and furniture covers.

Yesterday morning, Ann and Rosemary came to visit me. And the cats. They are in San Diego for a convention and each being staunch catlovers, needed a cat fix and this is the place to get one of those. *grins* The weather was very nice (and according to the weather forecasts, we are in for a very rainy two weeks--el nino? maybe?). Of course, Red and Kirby took off. Both kept to the rafters in the garage. Lisa was one of the first to greet them and Mickey, Georgie. Bart and Maggie made their presence known. And Maggie....Maggie was splendid. Ann has a Maine Coon--the Maine Coon Major.

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.

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