Sunday, July 01, 2001 These kittens are a handful, let me tell ya. Angel got over her diarrhea, has nice firm stool now. I can't say the same for Sammy. He was pretty bad yesterday, puking everything I put into him (clavamox and immodium). But he ate dinner last night and he seems fine this morning. He did seem to perk up as it cooled off. I even turned on the air conditioner. It was so muggy. I had to double up on the child's gate we were using in the hallway, to give the kittens access to the office and the hall, because this morning, little Richie was in the living room. What's pretty fun is they sleep in the catcam chair when they're tired, sometimes all of them at the same time. It's gonna be interesting to see how it works out as they get bigger.

Mystie and Katie are making friends with the kittens. Oh, Mystie, let me tell you what Mystie did last night. Brian's gone, he went with his brother to pick up a truck up north. He'll be home this afternoon. Well, I got the cats in last night without much difficulty. Pete was really good, I didn't have to chase after him for long, five minutes tops. Anyway, I carried Mystie in on my shoulder. After all the cats but Georgie were in (and he was out because he was feeling feisty), I figured it would be nice to go skinny dipping and wash all of the day's ugh off of me. Just to soak in that comfortably warm water, water that was slighty warmer than the outside temperature. I went out through the office door, the kittens comfortably asleep in their bathroom, the door shut. I didn't want any cats following me, since they were all in (except for Georgie). When I came back inside, I came in through the office, which was pretty dark, like the hallway. I got Georgie in, changed into a dry robe, then kicked back on the sofa. When I went to bed, I checked on the kittens, all was well. I got up at the normal (?) time of five this morning. I let the cats out and Mystie came running in. I couldn't figure out how she got out there until I saw the sliding screen door in the office partially open. She must have snuck into the office when I left it last night. Stuck in here, she started pulling at the screen door, which wasn't latched. But at least she could come in, even it was just to the office. I wonder how long it will be before she sneaks again.

I took Kirby's collar off of him for a couple of hours yesterday. He was so happy. He cleaned and groomed and ate and drank and climbed and scratched like he hasn't in over a week. Then I had to put the collar back on him before I went to bed. I also gave him his antibiotic. Which I found on the hallway rug this morning. *sigh* There were also some huge hairballs throughout the house, black ones. I'm sure they belong to him. He must have licked off a lot of loose fur when the collar was off. Oh, well. Tomorrow it will come off for good. And he'll be able to go outside, once again. Good deal.

Brian said the other night that he thinks Lola is losing weight. She might be, it's summer and they definitely don't eat as much. But it's time for her monthly blood test, anyway, so I'll see if I can bring her in tomorrow when I bring Kirby in. I'm not really worried about her, she still has a great appetite and is affectionate. She also runs around in the yard. She's not feeling bad.

Remember me telling you about taking our camcorder in to be fixed last April? Well, it's still not done. I called every couple of weeks and the guy talked down to me, was a real jackass. So, Brian started calling him. Never got any definitive answer just "I don't want to pay the guy twenty dollars an hour to find out what's wrong with it". So, when the guy hadn't called back after Brian's last call, Brian called again Friday. The guy told Brian "I don't want to fix it". Was Brian pissed? I'd say he was. Brian told him to put it back together and he'd be down this coming week to pick it up. I found another place who is an authorized GE dealer and they said they could fix it. All this time I could have been taking movies of the kittens. Damn.

I laid out by the pool a little, but somebody is having a party, I guess and the live band started up. Not what I'm interested in hearing, I'd rather snooze. So, I came in. Oh, well, I had an hour out there. It's really cooling off right now.

I hope Brian gets home soon. I'm bored and there's nothing on tv.

Friday, July 06, 2001 Well, I'm going to do something today I haven't done in weeks. Clean house. I put it off because of Kirby, then the kittens. And the kittens are eating little pieces of fuzz on the floor, which I doubt is very healthy for them. Their stools are firming up, but still too runny. I called the vet's office this morning to see about getting some flagyl for them. The Immodium just isn't doing it. They're fine at night, but in the morning, the stool is loose again. They are so much fun to watch. The other cats are slowly getting used to them. We've broadened the area where they can play. They now have the entire entryway as well as the bedroom. At night, the office is shut, but that doesn't seem to bother them. Last night, I wondered if it would be a good idea to let them stay out at night, but Brian was concerned that he might roll over and squish one in bed. We'll have to wait until they're a couple of weeks older, I guess.

Richie and Opie looking out the office door

Mystie holding on to Richie while Angel plays catch the tail in the background

Little Angel

Sunday, July 08, 2001 I'm worried about Kirby. He didn't come to eat chicken this morning. I saw him pee Friday, a good amount. I don't think that's what's wrong. I couldn't find him anywhere outside this morning, but since I couldn't find him inside, either, I didn't know where else to look. I did see him in last night, I had no idea how he would have gotten outside, but I looked everywhere I could think of inside with no luck. I did finally find him. I happened to glance a cat's eyes in the arm chair in the living room. Keep in mind, it was before six this morning and not really light inside. I turned on the light and it was Kirby. I gave him some chicken, which he ate. But he still isn't acting right. I gave him an amoxicillan, which he promptly puked back up, chicken and all. And in that "all" was a furball. So, maybe that's his problem, his tummy is just upset. He's outside now, under the pool pump. I'll just leave him be for a while. If he doesn't feel better tomorrow, he's going to the vet. I admit, if he hadn't been so affectionate when I did finally find him on the chair and later outside, purring and rubbing against my legs, I'd be more concerned. He's healing up quite nicely.

So, where did I leave off Friday? Oh, yeah, housecleaning. It's done. I finally finished about 7:30 Friday night. That was okay, since Brian spent the night in Ranchita. Yesterday morning, when I got up to feed the cats, I fed the kittens first. I feed them, then feed the adult cats, then put up the barriers. Well, less than ten minutes after the barriers were up, both Opie and Richie had gone over one. So, I figured the heck with it and took all barriers down. The kittens did fine. The other cats aren't really annoyed with them (Lola is the worst), pretty much ignore them. If a kitten does pursue an older cat, who doesn't appreciate the attention, the kitten is promptly rewarded with a growl, a hiss, then a smack. It works. Brian was a little surprised when he got home, that the kittens were out. I told him that it was silly to have the barriers up since they were no longer working. I also told him that I had even left the house for a while and left the kittens out of the bathroom. See, I only had enough canned kitten food for last night. So, I figured I'd check out the little pet store in Lakeside, that shouldn't take too long. Not nearly as long as going to Santee. Well, I figured they should be okay for a half hour. Except, it was longer. That little "pet store" in Lakeside didn't have any canned kitten food at all. They're more a fish store, than "pet" store. No stacks of bags of dry food, dog or cat or otherwise, not many cans of dog or cat food. I just left and went to Santee. Got a case of NutroMax kitten and came home. Everybody was still sleeping on the sofas and cat condos. Whew. That was a relief. And nice. And there was no problem with the kittens in bed last night. They never even came into the bedroom. Slept in the tv room. Where they are right now, all sacked out.

DeeJay and Opie

Richie

Angel getting a drink from the big kitties' water bowl

A VHS tape box next to Angel. She's not real big.

Speaking of the kittens, the vet did let me have the flagyl. I started them on 5cc once a day on Friday. And their poops are starting to look much nicer. Probably half and half when they go. Part of the stool is loose and part is nicely formed. But so far, no more of that watery, bloody stuff. If none of them had had a fecal, I would have taken them to the doctor, but he had tested the stool of Richie, I think it was, and there wasn't a problem with it. I'm thinking it was the new food and water they were eating. Plus, no mama's milk.

Ben was on the other side of the fence this morning. I'd sure like to know how he does it. He comes right back into the yard, doesn't like being outside. I'm thinking it's along the fence by the shop and pine trees.

Well, Brian called on the camcorder Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Finally, Thursday, he was able to go down and get it. He talked with the guy who does the actual repair work and he explained to Brian that for as much as it would cost to fix the old machine, we could buy a new digital camcorder. I checked around, went to the Good Guys website and looked at the machines they have now. Unclear on the concept of how you look at what you've recorded, I called a local Good Guys store and explained that we have a camcorder that we got when dinosaurs roamed the earth and that I was curious how the new ones work. He said that they connect to the television for viewing and many people record over onto VHS tapes. Well, that shouldn't be a problem, because we got another tape player a couple of weeks ago at CostCo. It's a pretty nice one and it was less than eighty dollars. And the connectors are on the front, making it much easier to do stuff, like tape off of my digital camera. You know, like those little QuickTime movies (which I have many to put up, but I want to see if I can get them compressed better without losing too much of the quality of the movie). He told me that JVC is the best. That Canon is good, but for camcorders, JVC is the way to go. So, I printed out a bunch of stuff from the Good Guys website, then compared cameras. Then I went to the JVC site and looked at what they had to say. Now, the Good Guys have a JVC camera listed for *koff* $798.00 (no sales tax and no shipping charge), but I was unable to find it elsewhere for a price comparison. Odd. They had a little note "if you find this lower priced elsewhere, let us know". Well, kind of hard when they're the only ones that carry it. So, I started comparing features. Hmm.... Pretty slick. The GR-DVL510U is the same thing as their GR-DVL512U. The only difference is the name. The features are really good, too. I can download the movies to the computer or tape them on the VCR. And I found it elsewhere for $498.00. The same place I bought my digital camera. Brian said to go ahead and get it. Right now, there's so much we could be using it on, like the property, the kittens. And this one is much lighter than the old one (it used full sized VHS tapes, just to give you an idea of how big it was). I put it on one of our credit cards that's having a promotion right now, no interest on purchases made through November. Just what we need, seeing as Brian isn't particularly busy right now (he does have a couple of really good jobs coming up). It should be here Wednesday. They called this morning and let me know that the camera doesn't come with any tapes, so I ordered four at ten bucks each. After I get the first bunch, I'll check around for cheaper ones. And I'll probably need another battery pack. But, like I said, I'll check around for less expensive ones.

Well, Kirby is finally in the house. I got him to stay in the bedroom window. When he say the neighbor from across the street in the yard, he growled. I noticed him growling earlier, I wasn't sure at what, but he was in the back yard. I'm thinking it has something to do with the vet and now Kirby doesn't like guys. Brian's been gone so much this past week, that I think Kirby is going to have to get used to him again. I rubbed some Rescue Remedy into Kirb's ears and now he's stretched out in the window. I hope he calms down soon. I also wouldn't doubt he could be a little under the weather. Ah, this stuff makes me so nervous.

Jackson now has another girlfriend. He hasn't given up on Gracie completely, but Katie is a little better at returning his affections.

Brian vows that this next week, Jack is going in to be neutered. I told him "fine, you put him in the carrier". Brian said he will. I'll believe it when I see it.

Well, I guess now that my bathroom is mine again, I should go clean it. It's embarrassing the way it is right now. Yuk.

Friday, July 13, 2001 I'm very, very crabby right now. For the past three days, I've been unable to ftp to lisaviolet.com. On Wednesday, I couldn't even access the website. I've spent hours on the phone for the past couple of days with @home.com (my internet service provider) and communitech.net (my domain host). I've done traceroute and pings and the connection always drops after it gets to the communitech side. It isn't an @home.com problem. But since it doesn't happen to the folks at communitech, it's really hard to pinpoint what needs to be fixed. They don't see a problem. But there's a very big problem, as far as I'm concerned. The tech at @home.com had me put my browser on a proxy so that I can get in to the site, but I'm still unable to ftp anything into lisaviolet.com. Like the weather information, the catcam images, anything. It's really, really frustrating. After I talk to my mom this morning, I'll be calling communitech back up. I don't want to have to move my site again. But if I can't access my files, what good is it? I did sign up for a dialup service yesterday and that's helping a little, but it's so darn slow, even connected at 44K bps. It's just extremely frustrating. I don't want to move my website. I really don't. Well, I just called them and they're working on it. If they can't get the connection problem resolved, they'll move my site to a different server. Which means it may be down for a couple of days, but I'll be able to work on it again.

So, let's see what's happened. Oh, Monday night, we caught Angel's mom, Blue. Took her in Tuesday to be spayed. I was amazed that she ate all of the food I put in the trap. We let her go a day and a half after being taken care of. She was back last night for dinner. I think Cleo took a little longer to reappear.

Then what happened. Hm... Oh, yeah. A little excitement Wednesday morning. I got up and fed the kittens, the gave the cats their morning kibble. I heated up the chicken and started dividing it up. Odd, I hadn't noticed Red around anywhere. So, I start calling him. Now, he had come up to me on the couch Tuesday night, for some head butts and he let me pet him and love him, which he's getting so very good at. A while after that, I closed off the door so that the kitties couldn't go back out and later, got the cats all in. I did a head count in my head and knew that I'd seen everybody. But I guess Red went back outside after he got some loving. And I couldn't find him. Not inside, not outside. I opened the front door and saw two red kitties out front. One was OC. Was the other one Red? I couldn't tell. He ran when he saw me. I went out front and started calling. He called back. It was Red!! How on earth did he get out front? There are four vehicles in our driveway and now I had to find him and try my best not to spook him. Don't forget, he was feral for three years, but has lived here for five. I finally found him sitting on one of the back tires of the car. He ran when I lifted up the car cover, over to where the bank is (the neighbor's bank who is in love with her blower and hates the trees). I shouted to Brian (who had gotten up and dressed when I couldn't find Reddy). He had gone outside and gotten all the other cats in. He opened the gate, but Red bypassed the gate and went over the neighbor's fence. Then Brian yelled out "he's back in our yard!" Now, I kind of figure cats are smart and he'd come back in where he had gotten out. And this was the same area Benny has been getting out, I believe. So, Brian put some more fencing up there, immediately. Red was under the pool pump. I got him out of there and he went into one of the doghouses. I went inside and he wasn't so afraid of me, he let me pet him. Then he ran out and back into the house. He's gone out a couple of times, but not for long. I don't think he liked being out front at all.

Then, Wednesday night, I was in the garage and happened to watch the kitty who came in the cat door. It was Richie. And if he came in, that means he can go out. *sigh* So, I had to make the door "in only". Ciara and Benny can bypass this, but the rest, I'll have to let out as they want to go. I don't want the kittens outside unless I'm supervising. They're small and I just don't want the dogs getting too excited. I don't think the dogs would hurt the kittens on purpose, but Junior can get pretty rambunctious.

So, yesterday, I was supposed to take my mom in for an MRI. Her appointment was at eight and I wanted to be at her house at seven. I took an early shower and was walking through the house with my dirty laundry. Brian was up and dressed in sweats, because he prepped the car for me. You know, taking the cover off and wiping the car off so it looked nice (isn't he great?). AS I walked back, I looked out into the backyard. I dropped everything, except the pants I was going to wear. I hurriedly put those on. I yelled at Brian "Benny's over the back fence." Brian ran out of the house and was able to get Benny back on our side. That's the yard where Holly was killed by the golden retriever. That dog's gone and now they've got the small animal killing weim. Brian is at a loss for what to do. I told him I thought he should do the rest of the fence like he did the most recent modification to the fence at the tv room side of the house. So, that's what he'll be doing this weekend. Of course, when we're not home or we're exercising, Benny is in the house with the cat door blocked. He just can't be trusted. I know what gets his attention over there. They have a couple of dead trees (trees do that when they aren't watered) right next to the fence and the birds love to play in them. And our cats want to go after the birds. I'd love it if they got rid of the trees, but they rarely water, I can't imagine they're in too big of a hurry to clean up the yard.

Because of all of the time I've been on the phone this week, trying to find out why I can't access my website, I've not been doing other things that should be done. So, today, I'm going to try to play catch up. I want to play with the new camcorder which got here Wednesday. I want to make some more CDs. I'd like to make a couple for Brian. The CDs have been in the player for months now.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we're keeping th kittens. We won't be adopting them out. I called the National Cat Protection Society yesterday to let her know. She was very pleased, told me what a wonderful guy Brian is. And he is.

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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