The Litterbox

Odds and ends and bits and pieces, all bundled together with flushable clay.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005 , evening

It’s birthweek!

I’ve got an hour and 13 minutes left of being 38 years old. I don’t know how I suddenly got this old—I’m quite sure I’m still just 25 and a mistake has been made in the birth certificate department. About 9 years ago I was going through some period of mental delusion and I went to a psychic in Albuquerque, NM. Among other things, she told me that I would end up working as a paramedic/EMT, and that by the time I was 38, “money wouldn’t be an issue”. I assumed that I would either get rich this past year or die, but I did neither. I also don’t work as an EMT, but I do watch “Emergency Vets” and I recently read the book, “Ambulance Girl”. I was really counting on that “money won’t be an issue” thing, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. She had no predictions for 39 year old me, so I guess I’ll have to wing it from here. I hope to have a birthday lunch of Polish food, weather permitting. Oh, and I always use the term “birthweek”, as it means presents and cards can arrive on any day in a week-long window without the sender feeling guilty about them being late :)

Today we had a call from the vet’s office, asking us if we’d be interested in adopting two cats who would otherwise be euthanized. An elderly woman had died leaving two cats, and the family was unable to keep them due to allergies. The local shelter was full and couldn’t take them, which sort of left us as the only option. I ended up speaking to the cats’ current guardian on the phone for a while, and she was a nice woman who really did want to find an option other than euthanization. I gave her the number for Best Friends and suggested she call them, but told her to call us back if they weren’t able to help. Sigh. The cats are 7 and 12 years old, a male and female, one nice and one not-so-nice. I absolutely don’t want the cats to be put to sleep simply as a matter of convenience, but on the other hand, I want the opportunity to choose my pets and not to have them thrust upon me. At least half our birds have been other people’s cast-offs, and while I’m glad we can help and offer a good home, I also love the opportunity to take my time finding a new pet of my own choosing. I don’t think it’s terribly selfish of me to be willing to adopt a homeless cat, but to prefer to adopt a homeless cat with green eyes, or one with tortoise-shell colouring, or one with no back legs, etc. In any case, the woman with the cats said she’d call me back, one way or another. If she calls back and the cats still need a home, then I guess they’ll be coming to live with us. The one nice thing about them is that they seem to be Democrats—their names are Chelsea and Jackson.

For anyone else who might be a January 5-er, here’s a special image for you from Hold the Mustard:

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/04 at 09:12 PM
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Monday, January 03, 2005 , late at night

I want a Scooter

I want a Scooter. Not the kind that would cause me to fall down and scrape my elbows, but this kind of Scooter: Scooter is available for adoption at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and we definitely think we’d love to have him come live with us. We don’t mind his lack of back legs—we’re a house full of misfits, and Scooter will fit right in. We love his little muppet face and miss the pitter-patter of little paws (or the scooching of a little butt, if you prefer), and would love to have a cat under our roof again. We faxed in an adoption application and hope Scooter will decide to come home with us. Chose us, chose us—we’re fun and we have catnip!

My mother called earlier this evening to tell me my aunt had died. I hadn’t seen this particular aunt in at least 10 years, and she’d been in fragile health for quite some time. Still, I’m saddened by her death and wish I’d been able to see her more frequently. She was born and raised in Scotland, so her accent always gave her an exotic flair.

I’m still trying to set up my new computer. As I try to install software, Stamps.com insists I don’t know my username and password, so I’m going to have to dig into the old computer to try to figure them out. Bah.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/03 at 11:16 PM
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Saturday, January 01, 2005 , lunch time

My Green Thumb

I forgot one very important thing in my 2004 review—I forgot that I had finally discovered my green thumb. It’s pale green, verging on yellow, but it’s more of a talent with plants that I knew I had. For that, I have to thank the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The book awoke in me an obsession with orchids and strange plants, not necessarily in growing them myself, but in finding out more about them and the places they grow wild. That led me to read more books about exotic places like Borneo, and eventually I ended up with my own orchid plant growing in a pot on the kitchen counter, a bromeliad from Chile growing in the yard, and a fledgling hydroponic garden setup, also hogging my kitchen space. I’ve learned to grow tomato, cucumber, and cilantro plants, and I’ll try to branch out to peppers as well. It’s been so much fun—it’s like having pets without all the emotional attachment. Here’s a picture of what my orchid (a Zygopedilum from Orchids.com) will eventually look like if I don’t kill it first:

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/01 at 12:41 PM
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Friday, December 31, 2004 , late at night

New Year’s Eve

It’s 10pm, and as usual, we’re planning an exciting New Year’s Eve celebration. I gave Phoenix a bath, I made a pot of turkey gumbo soup, and we plan to spend the evening watching TV and/or our “Dead Like Me” season 1 DVD set. It’s quite cold outside, so I’m still crossing my fingers that the local idiots will foregore the illegal fireworks. As for the city’s big fireworks celebration, it could be canceled by high winds, but if not, we’ll watch it live from the upstairs bedroom window, then rewind the TiVo to watch it on television. We spare no expense!

Lots of things happened this past year which were unexpected, some good and some bad. Bubbe, Bob, and Sweet Pea are no longer with us, but we did add Chile to the family. Work has been sort of crummy, but I was able to do some fun websites for actor Camden Toy and for the new movie, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Also, our website about author Dan Brown got some recognition after being mentioned in the “Secrets of Angels and Demons” book. I was published for the first time in the same book, and that was really exciting. I was able to meet my nephew Tanner for the first time this past year when I enjoyed a nice family get-together at my brother’s house in Pennsylvania. I also discovered the joy of Animal Cops, my favourite show on television. There’s no other show I’d rather watch, unless the powers that be decide to put Ami Cusack on “The Amazing Race”.

My goals for 2005 include being published again, maybe taking an online or correspondence course (like the ones offered at Humane Society University), and learning CSS well enough so I can perhaps make some extra income from it. I also want to cook at home more often, and eat out less. I need to be a little less lazy :p

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/31 at 11:56 PM
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 , late evening

The leak in my window

The kitchen window is leaking. Not a tragedy by any stretch of the imagination (it’s just a leak, not a 100 foot high tsunami wave), but it’s really a pain in the butt. The home warranty is still in effect and a repair guy is coming over tomorrow at 8am, so we spent the evening cleaning and preparing the house for the intrusion of strangers. I didn’t have to wash the floor as there’s no point with the yard still full of water and the rain still pouring down, but I would say we cleaned and vacuumed and scrubbed about 50% of the house. Whenever we do this we always think, Wow, we should clean the entire house more often, but that enthusiasm never actually manifests itself.

My new computer arrived today but I was so preoccupied with the window issue that all I did was unpack the new monitor and carry it upstairs. The new 19”, flat-panel LCD monitor—it’s very cool. Tomorrow I will bid goodbye to my 17” flat screen monitor which the dog used as a scratching post. It will be a few days before I hook up the new CPU, though—it’s exciting to have, but a major effort to transfer all my files. I’ll save the task for a rainy day, which we’re supposed to have until well into next week. No New Year’s Eve fireworks would be fine with me, as I wouldn’t have to contend with a terrified German Shepherd, so once the window is fixed it can rain all it wants.

I’m intrigued by the fact that no matter how much I write about my dead cat, the Adsense ads on the side of the page only display ads for “chocolate”. If you type the phrase “dead cat” into Google you’ll see a number of paid ads returned in the search results, including one which promises that you can buy a dead cat on eBay.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/28 at 10:35 PM
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Monday, December 27, 2004 , late at night

ashes to ashes

We picked up Sweet Pea’s cremains today. I wasn’t going to get all weepy about it, but I did as soon as I spotted the little commemorative print the cemetary made for us, with a paw print and a lock of hair on it. I really do miss her. One of the women at the vet’s office has a cat she’s suggested we adopt, but he’s a bit young (9 months old), he’s not neutered (that’s a big expense), and we’ve already sent our adoption paperwork in to the Best Friends sanctuary. He’s a really cute cat though, and he’s supposed to be well-tempered, so we might try him out in a “sleepover”. First I have to de-Sweet Pea part of the upstairs by removing her old cat tree. She had a bad habit of peeing on the bottom of it (she loved to pee on carpeting, so I’m thankful she restricted it to the cat tree), and I want to move it to the garage where I can douse it with bleach. I was always cleaning it after she had an “accident”, but I know I’ve probably missed a spot here or there and I don’t want a new cat to think carpeting is fair game. I finally got smart after a year or so of “tree pee” and covered the base with a plastic trash bag, and that stopped the attraction. Still, there are a lot of residual urinary memories on that tree.

We went to Barnes & Noble today with a gift certificate and bought nothing. If I didn’t know better I’d think I was seriously ill. I just couldn’t find anything I really wanted to read, and I’m waiting for a huge Amazon order to arrive so I figured I’d save the gc for a reading rainy day. Nancy found The Secrets of Angels & Demons on the “New Releases” shelf and that was pretty neat. I wrote a chapter for it and I doubt the thrill of seeing my name in a bookstore will ever wear off.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/27 at 11:14 PM
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Saturday, December 25, 2004 , the wee hours

Christmas

I ate far too much at Christmas Eve dinner, and I’m so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open. The dogs don’t want to go to bed, though—they’re romping and wrestling and ready to party all night long. I should feel horribly melancholy tonight but I don’t… perhaps it’s the wine. On Christmas morning last year, Sweet Pea was rolling in the wrapping paper and killing pieces of ribbon, so it won’t be quite the same when we open gifts later (oh, at least 9 hours later if I have my way). We’ve talked to the people at Best Friends about adopting an older cat, and they’ve recommended an elderly guy named “Eddie”. We’ll find out more about Eddie next week, but I sure do miss having a fuzzy friend sitting at my feet while I’m at my desk. I’m sure the occasional spider passes by, but they don’t count. They never come when I call them.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/25 at 12:22 AM
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Thursday, December 23, 2004 , early evening

Endings and Beginnings

My cat died. This was not the subject I wanted to write about when I first set up my blog software about six weeks ago… I wanted to write about how I’d just met Bill Clinton, or about how I just had my first freelance writing work published, or even about how I hadn’t missed flossing for a single day in over 18 months. Unfortunately, I kept getting distracted by work and life projects, and then suddenly, my cat died. She was 13, and while I didn’t expect her to live forever, I definitely felt she would last at least 20 years because she was such a stubborn curmudgeon. On the morning of December 17th she woke up, slowly walked over to my desk, and let out two horrible cries which could only be described as wails of pain. I tried not to panic (because she’d always been perfectly healthy), but she had no strength to walk and her eyes were cloudy and distant. We rushed her to the vet immediately, but she went steadily downhill, going into shock and then cardiac arrest. We were able to be at her side while she was euthanized—a decision which was easy given that she already looked so lifeless. Before she died I was able to kiss her on the head, something which would have been terribly risky if she’d been her normal, spunky self. I was also able to hold her little white front paw while she was put to sleep—again, something I’d never been able to do while she was alive, as she had very rigid ideas about personal space. A necropsy showed she died of metastisized cancer and a liver abscess which had ruptured, causing septicemia. I’m glad she didn’t suffer for very long, but I also wish I’d had some warning that it was time to say goodbye.

Sweet Pea is being cremated now, and we’ll pick her up a couple of days after Christmas. We really miss her presence and the way she was always skulking around and underfoot—she was independent yet always with us. We didn’t think we were “cat people” (we’re dog and parrot people), but the house without a cat just doesn’t seem right. We’re in the process of completing the adoption paperwork to try to give a home to an older cat from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah, but it might be a while before we find a good match. Docile cats who like to watch TV and don’t mind dogs and parrots don’t come along every day. Maybe we’ll get a cat who doesn’t bite—Sweet Pea gave me enough scars to last me through a lifetime of cats. She did love me though… as I was putting her into her carrier to rush her to the vet, she purred when I held her. I like to think she was trying to tell me that everything was going to be okay. Or maybe she just wanted to bite me… with her, you could never be sure.