Two Remain and Some Plans

This morning I stayed up later than intended and Mom and I ended up hearing Espresso crying outside in the rain even though everyone got breakfast earlier. Mom felt bad and told me to catch her. As I was not fully awake, I didn't argue.....something I probably would have done considering the poor kitten would be trapped in the carrier, crying, until Mom got off work and I woke up ifn I ended up going to bed. I trapped her the same way I did Inkblot, by first trapping her inside the house (just inside the entryway) and then nudging her into the carrier. There was food, not that she was hungry for it after all the panic and scaring. I put a towel in with her so she didn't freeze and with my hand reaching in I even tried to dry her off some. Mom got off work for a bit, so we could take her to the shelter. Good thing too. Poor thing kept crying and I had to sit there and shush her or sooth her while trying to stay awake. Anywho. That was the last kitten. Just the mom (who is hopefully NOT pregnant >.< ), Snickers (who technically belongs to a neighbor), and technically Tom-Dick-or-Harry but we don't feed him. If we catch the mama, we gotta make sure newer kittens aren't abandoned somewhere. Mom can't tell anymore if she's pregnant. Bad as it sounds, we kinda hope she miscarried if she was pregnant at all. And Snickers....well as she was a shelter cat to begin with she may end up back here if she's chipped and they call her stupid owner.

Anywho.... Time to get busy. Tonight's goal (now that I'm not incapacitated by a monster headache like yesterday) will be to put crap away, dust EVERYTHING, change the sheets and pillow cases on the futon couch thing, and FINALLY put all the DVDs away properly (seriously... getting as bad as Dad with stacks and stacks of new DVDs with no homes or old ones that aren't re-shelved when done viewing :-P ), I may even get crazy and dust inside the hutch.....those glasses and things haven't been dusted since we moved here. >.< Tomorrow's goal will be to vacuum and hang the masks Nana brought a while back (we have a nice sized collection already!). And then..... Monday the start of Christmas decorating! YAY!!!!

Updates?

Okay... So, I filled ya all in on the stray cat sitch.... And even though most of my readers (cuz I have sooo many :-P ) already know, I'll share other recent events anyway! :-P

Hmmm.... Let's seee.... Sundays were spent with Dad as usual, except this last one cuz he was sick and I told him to stay home. I vaguely remember thinking there was something particularly funny I wanted to share about the 11th, but it's gone now. :-( But they're pretty routine.....Breakfast at Huff's family restaurant for a very nummy Greek omelette and friendly staff... Goofing off and buying stuff we don't need at the Dollar Tree across the lot. :-P Then, the occasional trips to Wal-Mart, Costco, and/or Sam's Club for needed items and more fun and silliness. Then off to Dad's for a movie. Let's see. The last movie or two we watched.... The Amazing Spider-Man! :-D And The Raven. I enjoyed both films. I actually kinda wish I'd snagged The Raven too, but I reckon I can always borrow Dad's copy ifn I wanna watch it again.

Tuesdays as always are spent at Target followed by a trip to Fantastic Cafe to pick up grub. Again, I can't remember specifics, but it does seem like A LOT more laughing took place in the most recent trips. Dad's silly and funny and that's kinda why I like doing the weekly shopping with him. He makes even the most boring errand fun. :-D

One week we took Hazelnut in...blah blah... Another we packed all four of our babies into the one carrier and took them to the vet for dundun duuuhh..... Deworming shots. Joy. Mom spotted specs coming out of MiniMe and we weren't gonna wait til it spread. I think we probably caught it earlier than when we'd adopted Pixie. Outsiders always bring in such fun stuff..... >.< That was not financially fun, but we were able to cover the damage. We realized we will NEED a second carrier. Oreo and Pixie (SEVENTEEN POUNDS!!!!) in one carrier is weakening the handle and super heavy to carry. All four? Oy. Yeah... So before they all need to go back, I would like a new carrier. We can put one adult and one kitten in each to offset the weight. Oreo's not too heavy, though now that he's over his cold, he's eating better again...

Turkey Day. We've long since stopped doing anything special. And since family doesn't visit Nana as much anymore she doesn't make a meal all the time. She did make Pecan Pies though....That's the important part anyway. :-P We killed it in a few days of course, which I think shows remarkable restraint. :-P Dad was sick, not that we would have gotten together that day anyway. That is to say we haven't in the past. But I imagine it didn't help what is usually not a happy happy joy joy day for him anyway. Surprisingly, it was a pleasant day for Mom and Nana. Nana got lured in to watch a movie that was on HBO while here and then Mom popped in a DVD when that one ended. :-) Popcorn and movies. It was nice. :-D

This past Sunday was quiet. Just hung out at home and caught up on some shows. Got to watch a few of my shows live (vs on tape or On Demand later). Gotta say it was weird to be home on a Sunday. It'd been a quite a while since Dad worked a Sunday and couldn't play with me. :-P Still it was a nice day.

Mom's actually been out quite a bit in this last month. She of course had her usual monthly doctor's appointment a week or so ago....and a quickie trip to the pharmacy before that all by herself cuz I was sleeping. :-P She had an eye doc trip Monday which she had to go to alone. :-P I think this was the month she had a special injection, so Dad had to drive her and I had hand holding duty til they put her under.... And it wasn't all med stuff... Mom and I went to TWO movies this month. Gasp! We used her work rewards tickets to go see Silent Hill 2 after work. Twas disappointing and I wish we'd saved the tickets for better. But the outing was fun. We read in the lobby (she's re-reading the Twilight series to me :-) ) and pigged out on theatre food since we didn't have to pay for tickets. And we were almost the only ones in to see that movie as it was almost out of the theatres. :-P The other movie was a bit of an adventure. Mapquest got us lost. We went to a nicer Regal theatre than the one closest to us. We probably shoulda waited until it was not so new so I could use my free ticket (with restrictions), but it turned out to be okay... After asking for two tickets to see the new Twilight movie, the guy said, "$12." I asked, "For two, right." Movies before noon (at least on weekdays, we don't know about weekends) are only SIX bucks! And as it was the day after Turkey Day, the place wasn't terribly crowded at first showing. heck, I don't even remember anyone even sitting in our row. :-P We liked the movie. :-D

Wow.... this is way longer than I intended... Babbling... Yay....

Anywho.... Bestest for last. I got to see Issi on Monday! Oh and Ah tee eM too. :-P Issi had a rental car, so we were free to go wherever. And man I gotta seriously find something to do in my stupid town for the next friend visit. Geesh. Visited Mickey's town, watched as they played with what used to be "baby" Chase. I'm not a kid person, but even I gotta admit that smallfry is cute. :-P Cuter still to watch Ah tee eM turn into a big kid to play with him. Hehe. We ate at BJ's and I was almost tempted to try a different Pizookie flavor. Maybe next time. Back at her house we played on the Wii (FUN!) and watched an episode of the new Sherlock Holmes show, which reminds me, I gotta add it to the Netflix queue.

I'm sure other stuff I wanted to share happened, but I've forgotten it now. And I've babbled enough.

Three to go....

Today I caught another of the kittens. Not that I blogged about the last capture. I have a bad habit of forgetting the things, be they events or discussion topics, I want to write about by the time I'm sitting in front of the computer. Maybe I should just attempt it with the iPad. But meh. I don't really like the Qwerty keypad or Qwerty like keypad that all these mobile devices have. Not that I type with my hands on the correct keys, but I do know where most of the letters are without looking using the 2-3 fingers on each hand in wannabe correct position.... Meh. Babbling already. A sure sign I'm probably too tired to type this, but I'll blame it on the serious headache I had most of the night.

ANYWHO! Last week I was able to catch Hazelnut, the other calico kitten in the litter. I almost had her and one of the black and whites but when I tried to shove a third kitten in, both black and whites escaped. Tried catching the mother, too, but Mom made me rush it and I closed the door on the carrier while Spumoni still had room to get out. But that was last week. Had to take some time off so the kittens had a chance to forget the trauma. The shelter's open 24/7 for drop offs and Mom says to wake her if I can catch em.....but I still try during hours she's already awake or close enough to.

Today I caught Inkblot. Which is good cuz he/she keeps staring inside ALL day long, slowly breaking Mom's heart. The fact that it's been raining doesn't help us feel any better about them being out there. So after SEVERAL attempts, two lengthy ones today alone, I finally caught him/her. I actually sat near the carrier with the front door open to it for what felt like an hour each try. I feel bad though. In the end, I had to lure both the kittens in with toys and while distracted I closed the screen door. Espresso slipped under the door, but Inkblot was trapped....had no where to go but in the carrier or over it and I was leaning over it.... Poor thing was doubly panicked. First when the screen door was shut and then when I scooped him/her into the carrier and we drove her to the shelter. It was so scared they had to get her out with one of those catching claw things. :-( But at least it's indoors and hopefully warmer than our porch and getting fed better maybe..... Yeah we're running low on dry food so I told Mom not to give the strays any dry til we get more.

Just gotta catch Espresso, the last kitten....Spumoni, hopefully before she delivers.....and Snickers, who being a shelter rescue is VERY wary of the carrier..... Then, hopefully, NO MORE STRAY CATS! Yeah, right. As if Mom could ever turn them away. And if I refuse, she'll just do it herself and she overfeeds. >.< But apart from those three and Tom-Dick-or-Harry, who we don't feed cuz he mounted the kittens a coupled times, I haven't seen other cats in the neighborhood. Maybe we'll get a break from the Kitty Cat Cafe biz that started waaaaay back in Long Beach. >.<

AdventurousFish

Today (er yesterday, since it's past midnight now), I went to play with Sarah. I actually asked Mom to give me a ride this time for two reasons.....being a shorter trip than usual, time was limited, and being a Saturday, busing would be so time consuming that I'd have to leave at the crack of dawn. Usually I bus to her and don't mind the two and a half to three hour ride (several buses) and then ask Mom or Dad to pick me up. Between making a stop at the bank in the wrong direction and Mom not wanting to take the two main freeways to get to Sarah's neck of the woods, the trip took almost a half hour longer than it should have. :-P But Mom made up for it by agreeing to take Sarah and me to our first stop: BJ's. Mom was invited but with little heads up, Mom wasn't dressed for the occasion. :-P

Mini pizzas, pizzookies, LOTS of chatter (mostly on my end), and nearly choking on my food from laughing too hard all made for a great start to our day. I gotta remember to set aside half my pizza or not drink so much water with the meal next time. We always end up doing lots of walking....something that is easier done when not so full. But I'm sure I've had that thought before and will probably forget next time I go out with Sarah.

After a few, we headed out to the bus stop. I counted out $1.50 in nickels. :-P This kinda bugs the bus drivers, but I have lots of loose change that I never use except for bus trips. I brought two bucks in nickels and five in dimes. At the end of the day, I only had fifteen dimes left. Actually less, cuz one was a Canadian dime I gave to Sarah and one I dropped on the bus and refused to try and search for it.

I brought Josh's old camera with me so we could take pictures at the park. I really need a newer aka less bulky  camera and also this one doesn't zoom as well as I thought it did. But meh. Something is better than nothing. We had hoped to explore a previously closed of section, but alas it was still closed. I entertained myself with a stick, I turned into an odd looking wand. We both took some pics of the various water birds in the lake/pond thing in the middle of the park and the very brave squirrels. Walked down some different paths and across mini bridges we hadn't noticed last visit. So that was nice. Also, the cool temps in general made it a real nice day to be at a park. But since we explored all we could in an hour, we decided to go back to another park. More silliness, photo shoots, and lots of walking. :-) My legs hate me for that last bit, but it was really good to be out walking in such nice scenery.

At one of the bus stops, either to one of the parks or to her mom's place, I was using the zoom on the camera to see if the bus was getting closer. A few of the cars heading towards us thought I was taking pics and started waving as they drove by. :-P I didn't see them myself, but I still found it funny when Sarah pointed it out.

Anywho, we kinda chillaxed at her mom's while waiting for my Dad who got kinda lost thanks to Mapquest and him not following his usual route. But Sarah got him straightened out with the aid of Google Maps. :-)

Now that I've stalled to do the kitchen long enough....sore legs and tiredness and all that jazz.... I better go so I can go mimi and wake up for the Daddy Daughter Day fun. :-)

Here Goes....

Okay. I've tried writing three or four times about what's going on here and each time I either got too sleepy to continue and make any sense or I got distracted...probably by one of the furry ones I was gonna write about. I've since forgotten some of the details, but then you didn't really want to know the blow by blow did ya? :-P

Torture First

Two and a half weeks ago, we finally did it. We lured two of the kittens in during breakfast feeding time by snatching them when they stuck their heads under the partially opened screen door to get at the food. MiniMe was easier. Kumquat who'd been caught once before got wise, but the draw of food brought him in reach anyway. We had an early appointment at the vets to get them checked but they remained in the carrier for a couple hours with little to munch on. I don't remember if they cried during the drive the way Oreo and Pixie do.

Vet said they were 3-4 months and pretty well fed. So HA to my mother who insists on telling me to feed them more and when she feeds them overfeeds leaving plenty of food for the flies. >.< No worms. No FIV or leukemia. Whew. Vet techs said they were a lil too mean (scared) to risk bathing them...couldn't put themselves at risk. Le sigh. Mom and I tackled the chore ourselves. Poor babies. Bathed with real wet water and then dosed with flea meds. The did have stick-tight fleas? We did see some of them while bathing and got them off but we trusted the flea meds to do the rest as the vet said it'd kill em.

Then as if that weren't torture enough.... We quarantined them in the laundry room for a few days while flea meds did their job and to ensure they figured out the litter box and to allow them to slowly acclimate to being inside. But I visited them often and played with them.

New Home and New Family

Oreo, of course, accepted the new babies immediately. He wasn't as loving with them as he was with Pixie, but then she was alone and these two have each other. Pixie still gets jealous, but she's very recently accepted them as well. She gives them love...sometimes... and started playing with them this week! :-D The kittens have gotten used to the house and apart from bedroom closets (even though they're always left open) go anywhere and everywhere. They even sleep on our beds with the older babies or me. :-) Kumquat even tried to jump onto the hutch (from the table nearby) but was unsuccessful....I missed it, but Mom says he leapt and smacked right into the glass door and slid down very cartoon style. Live and learn, I guess, cuz he hasn't tried again.

(And there I go getting distracted by the kittens again... :-P )

Every morning the two of them (and now sometimes Pixie) run all over the living room and house in general, but mostly the front room, and chase each other and tumble over each other. It's hilarious. They knock over their "playhouse" (a series of tunnels and cubes we had for Oreo and Pixie), run up and down the couch and knock over the pillows there, and they seem to throw their own bodies at each other and onto the floor with such loud thuds for such tiny creatures. :-P I call it the Morning MiniMe and Kumquat show.

Other News

Mom noticed Spumoni looked pregnant again sometime towards the end of last week or this weekend. >.< Makes me feel guilty. Originally the plan was to take the two inside and the rest to the shelter over the following week. But between the torture sessions and Mom's increasing back and neck pain, we never made it. But Mom's doing better and now with the news we've decided to try and catch her ASAP. Well all of them, but her sooner if we can help it. Actually, all the girls.

There's a dark grey and white cat I jokingly call Tom-Dick-or-Harry and who we think is the probably daddy. At first he was too skiddish to feed. And lil by lil he started coming closer and begging with the rest of the family. Should have listened when we noticed Oreo did NOT like him and got super territorial. Last night Dad and I noticed Tom mounting Inkblot, one of the other kittens. >.< So yeah. We're gonna try and take in ALL the females and I am so NOT feeding Tom again. In fact, last night I shooed him away by spraying water in his direction. At least Snickers is safe. The family in general don't like her and she was a shelter rescue (even though the dumb family who adopted her don't take care of her) and so she was probably fixed before being adopted. We'll take her in too though. Before it gets cold.

Mom had her monthly doctor appointment a couple weeks ago and she got some shots to make her feel better, but also made an appointment for stronger injections.... they had to put her under just to give them to her. Her back feels much better. She said before she felt like every movement made her scared that it would go out again. Her neck still hurts but not as bad. And now her wrist hurts from what she thinks was catching herself wrong when she almost tripped the other day. Oy.

Next weekend we MAY go to Sea World, courtesy of Nana. Nana asked for a ride to San Diego to go to some school thing for one of Uncle David's kids. They have it every year I guess and she always says no, so she's making the token visit now. :-P Mom said sure. Nana worried we'd be driving too much if we dumped her and came home only to have to come back to pick her up later. (Mom's still not speaking to Uncle David for his lack of comforting during...so yeah.) But Mom joked that we'd just go to Sea World and Nana said she wanted to go! :-P So now I guess the plan is to drop Nana off, have breakfast in the area and pick her up and go to Sea World. We'll see if it really happens. :-P Can't tell ya how many times the three of us were going to Disneyland for Christmas decor. :-P Oh, that was suggested too...for her birthday in early January.

Oh, I guess I should mention yesterday was election day... Blah blah blah... I completely ignored any and all political crap as much as was possible...despite continually commenting on this or that. Ick.

And finally.... ALL my friends are coming for visits so this month and next should be extra fun. :-D Weeee!