Cat Leper Colony

I have two unhappy cats on my hands. They are getting along fine. No more hissing and no cuddling or playing - yet. But both are sick.

It started with Stella. I noticed her normal dry eye boogers were turning into long trails of mucus and during the day her eyes were tearing. When it got so bad that I had to help her open her eyes in the morning, I made a vet appointment. This was our first trip to the vet together. She was fine in the car and waiting room but was a ball of hissing and claws being checked out. It turns out she has an upper respiratory infection (which I am used to. Ras gets one annually). Since her eyes were mainly effected, I was given medicated ointment. She was cool with having me wipe her eyes with a cotton ball and after some bribing with treats, the ointment in the eye went fine. It was all an uneventful routine for a week until this past Sunday. Suddenly, once the ointment came out, she became a hissy clawball with me. Treats didn't help. She has been steadily improving but I don't want her to relapse. I've had to skip two treatments due to her freakouts. Ugh!

As Stella got better and better, Ras started becoming more listless and vomited a lot. His breathing this past weekend became so ragged and noisy, I was worried that he'd choke or suffocate. Plus, he was only throwing up mucus so it looked like he had a wicked head cold. He wasn't really eating or meowing much. I took him to the vet and he had to have chest x-rays. I knew something must have been seriously wrong since he was quiet the entire ride to the vet. Usually, he meows the whole way. I have to admit, I love taking him to the vet because he's such a gorgeous sociable boy everyone from the receptionist to the doctors fall in love with him. I feel so proud like I had anything to do with it... Poor Ras has bronchitis and some weird objects stuck in his digestive tract. Since he was running a slight fever, the vet was concerned about those objects. That was a little embarrassing - trying to identify objects in my cat's bowel from x-rays. He gets Clavamox to take orally twice a day for two weeks. He's a good boy for medicine so that shouldn't be a huge deal. I just hope he poops those things out soon!

Soap Corner

I have been a General Hospital fan since I was ten. My mom and I used to watch it together. That was around the Duke and Anna era. My mom and her mom used to watch the show together as well. So, it’s kind of a family legacy. I used to schedule my college classes around GH. The girls on my floor and I would watch and weep as Stone died by inches or when Liz got raped. My mom and I would have long phone calls discussing Carly’s latest lunacy. I was a fairly regular watcher up until 1999/2000 because I had my first full-time job and DVRs didn’t exist then. Sure on sick days or holidays I caught an episode or two. I fell back into regular watching around 2007-ish when A) I got my first DVR and B) I went through my first lay-off and C) The text message killer was about to be caught on the show.



Not a lot has changed. Jason and Sonny are still in a mob that deals.... coffee? Yeah, that was always vague. I miss a bunch of old characters that were either written or killed off like Laura, Bobbie, Monica, Scotty, Alan, Lucy, Kevin, and Tony. Lucky is back to original recipe (Jonathan Jackson) after a bunch of awful recasts. Carly is also still around but I realized that I only liked the character as played by Sarah Brown. Nowadays, I wind up fast-forwarding her scenes because she's a one-note and unsympathetic. I adore Alexis and her family plus Kristina's abuse storyline was really well told and riveting TV. I basically grew up with Robin so she can do no wrong. The whole Fatal Attraction arc was pretty good but once Lisa got back from Shadybrook, she became lame. Franco sucks - complete fast-forward material. Sadly the same is true for Brenda's drama. I was so excited about her return! I remember the danger and romance of her original stint on GH. But the writing is so bad and I'm sorry Vanessa Marcil still has the same acting quirks (what the hell is up with her sleeves?) I gotta say, this Jake storyline has been pretty good so far (even though it's a complete rip off of BJ's heart). The whodunnit part kept me guessing and when we found out, I gasped out loud. It is going to be sooo good (and horribly painful)!

It's also fun finding General Hospital fans out there. We can discuss characters like they are long-lost friends. One of my co-worker's wives watches GH so he is in the know. We discussed Jake's death and I blew his mind that the guy who plays Nicholas got fired. Speaking of, Liz aka Rebecca Herbst, was fired but enough of her fans went ape-shit so she was hired back. Can we do that with Laura please?

Living in the Animal Kingdom

Stella has been home for five days and I think things are going well. It has been fun getting to know her and see her getting used to her new living quarters. The first day (Saturday) was all in her safe room (the bathroom). I'm glad that she liked the hidey hole bed I made for her in the under sink cabinet. Also, the blanket I used for bedding I slept with for a couple days so she gets used to my scent and associates it with comfy sleepiness. Stella and Ras did catch a glimpse of each other that day. Stella hissed and growled and Ras responded. She also let me pick her up and cuddle her Day 1. She was purring her heart out too...

Day 2 was free roam day. Rasputin didn't realize Stella was still around so when he realized that "She is still here!!!" he tore from one end of the apartment to under my bed. Stella spent the morning mainly in the kitchen basically finding every spot Rasputin likes. More hiss growling if Ras tried to approach. She's a total bully cat and Ras is this cowed wimp even though he's three times her size. At one point Stella decided to chill out on a shelf behind all my wine glasses and some crystal. Apparently, I have the skills to diffuse a bomb because I was able to move all the glasses away from a skittish cat without breaking anything. Day 2 was when I started cataloging Stella's quirks. Catnip does nothing for her meanwhile it gets Ras stoned. Both of them hate the chicken wet food I bought for them. Also, both of them are fascinated by running water. Stella only likes petting and scritches around the face - don't venture near the body. Ras is more hands-on.

After consulting fellow multi-cat owners, I decided to keep Stella in the safe room for the workday Day 3. Rasputin seemed fine with that. Day 3 is when Stella took over the living room and snuggled down in Ras' sleep spot.
I guess Stella is able to find all of Rasputin's spots because they reek of him and maybe she wants to get her scent there too? But I have to say if you forget that they're cats, she's a little bitchy!

Day 4 (Tuesday) started with me not being able to find Stella all morning. I knew the apartment was shut up tight so she had to be somewhere. Finally giving up, I started getting ready for work then lo and behold there is Stella snuggled up in the furthest corner of my bedroom closet! Aww... all three of us slept in my bedroom... There was no way I would be able to get Stella out and shut up in the safe room without profuse injury to me and trauma to her so I decided to let her stay put (propping open the closet door with a hamper). When I got home, it was so nice out I was able to open a lot of windows. Stella and Ras got to have their window time in their own windows on opposite sides of my bed. Rasputin is definitely more open to hang out and inspect Stella. Stella is more stand-offish and hisses/growls when he approaches. It's so funny when I'm just sitting in the living room I see Stella walk by the doorway and about 10 paces behind her follows Ras. He's like a Queen Consort! I tried to have some bonding playtime with Stella last night but she wasn't into it. Sadly, Ras saw the jingle stick toy and tried to play but Stella hissed him away. I was like, "Um, okay diva so you don't want anyone else to play and yet you don't want to play?" I did get those two to get along with treats. They were within one foot of each other without drama!

This morning (Day 5) Stella was in her hidey closet bed but came out when I found her. She seemed in a lot cheerier spirits. She even played with a toy I bought her!

T Archetypes

With apologies to the awesome passengers who let me sit when my knee was horribly injured, but here are some observations I have as a T commuter:

Four Types of T Riders

Seasoned Commuter

You know which cars are better depending on what time you catch the T so you have your designated waiting areas. You wait while other passengers exit the train. You move all the way down the car when you board. If you get a seat, you offer it to any elderly person you see. When you are seated, you cross your ankles and pull yourself in to allow room around yourself. If you are standing, you hold onto the handle bars.

Out of Town Yokels

You block the turnstiles while you ask MBTA employees about how to get to your destination. You don’t bring enough money for fare or even a MBTA map. You can’t figure out how to feed your ticket into the turnstile and hold up waves of commuters. You don’t understand that train lines have multiple directions or branches despite maps mounted everywhere, therefore you will get on the wrong train several times. You don’t wait for people to exit, you scramble for the first seat available. You don’t offer your seat to anyone. If you do stand, you try to subway surf but after tumbling into bystanders, you find something or someone to hold onto

Mr(s) Too Important to Care

You have a Blackberry glued to your ear and MUST GET TO X ON TIME! You hit people with your suitcases or body parts with no apology. In fact, you get offended if someone utters, “Ow.” If seated, you take up at least two seats between sprawling your body out while on a conference call and putting your suitcase on a seat. Never budging from whereever you decide to plant yourself no matter how crowded the car gets. Shoving to be first off the train and up the escalator. You are so important!

The Spoiled Brats

Earbuds planted firmly in ears and huge hobo bags/backpacks crushing into crowds. You enjoy holding onto the rubber handles because it can make your commute a T Wild Ride as you careen 360 degrees with every motion of the subway. You also try to hold converations without removing earbuds.

Feel free to use these categories for your Passover Seder's 4 children discussion!

Cat Number Two

Yup, that's the update for my life currently. Other than the fact that my current job assignment is contracted until Oct. 31 and my supervisor would like to extend that date.

So, I am financially stable and working full-time. Plus, Ras got spoiled for adjusting to my new schedule thanks to the holidays, blizzards, and my various illnesses and injuries. Yeah, March is the first month where I will be working full-time in the office for four weeks! Therefore Rasputin has been a brat lately. It doesn't seem to matter how much attention and play I lavish on him when I get home. He just gets restless and acts out. Those shenanigans made me start thinking that he might benefit from having a companion. He hasn't been around other cats since his litter. I crunched some numbers and looked critically at the space my apartment provides. This weekend, I visited the Quincy Animal Shelter and fell in love with three cats. I have a first pick and second pick of course. It is so sad that since they're shelter cats, there is no way to guess age based upon size. All 3 looked like one year olds but 2 were seven or eight years old. I definitely want short hair and female since the articles say opposite sex is a better pairing.

I have set up a safe room to help both cats with introductions. At first, I thought using my bedroom would be a good idea since the door is glass but then I remembered that Ras loves sleeping with me. So yeah, that would be a bad way to introduce the new cat by taking away Ras' sleepy snuggle time! The plan is to fill out the paperwork tomorrow night and take the new cat home Saturday morning to use all weekend to get both cats settled. Also, I would like to call the new cat Stella.

As I was doing research about introducing cats and talking to shelter volunteers, I have scaled down my expectations about how Ras will react to Stella. If they tolerate each other, that would be fine. Playing and grooming each other, can be a dream until summer. Of course expect many pictures here. I am definitely not going to go crazy cat lady/hoarder. I think two is my limit!