Here’s what we woke up to in Western Nebraska this fine Mother’s Day:
Not Dougy’s first rodeo, yet he always wants to be the first kitty to inspect new snow.
As usual, there’s a nice drift on the driver’s side. If I believed the forecast, I would have backed my car into the parking spot to avoid the drift.
New snow and Sasquatch sightings abound!
Terrified kitties flee the terrible big feet of Sasquatch!
I left my computer down till after 8:00 pm today. When I looked in my e-mails, I found this one from my Seattle sister:
I was doing my daily search for Sox this morning and saw his picture on the Everett Shelter “cats in custody”. They only hold them for 72 hours before shipping them out to other shelters for adoption. I called them right away and they said to bring pictures and proof that he was mine.
Sox before he became lost. (He didn’t want to share his toy…!)
I was lucky because his 72 hours were up today. He was found in Lynnwood quite a few miles from here. He looks pretty rough and needs grooming badly.
Molly quickly adjusted to living with my sister. Now she has to adjust to having a cat “brother”, too.
We got through the grooming appointment just fine. The report is the boys were very good while there. Like human children, they are much nicer with others than they are at home…!
Dougy whined from the moment I caught him and put him in the carrier till I left the groomer’s. When I returned to pick the boys up, Dougy started whining as soon as he became aware of me. What an actor! Andy, however, was quiet and well-behaved the whole time.
Dougy sneaks after his brother Andy!
Dougy didn’t cooperate with me for an “after” photo, either. This was the best of those I got.
Andy has cause to be suspicious! He looks handsome in his “after” photo.
Look at all that cat hair on the carpet! Now that the boys are trimmed down, that isn’t such a problem.
Today, I can vacuum the carpet knowing it will stay clean a lot longer. When the boys are untrimmed, the carpet needs daily care to look clean.
(Of course, as a guy, I can put up with nasty cat-hair-covered carpet a long time before I do something about it! 🙂 )
I have to get the boys in the carrier in a short time. Andy’s on my computer, waiting to be plucked. Dougy’s somewhere. I better start looking!
No sooner said, then Andy got up and moved over to behind the all-in-one machine to snooze. I think I can catch him still!
Every time is a new adventure. Today, Andy was snap to catch and put in the carrier. He’s at the groomer’s now. Dougy, on the other hand, went into hiding, and I have no idea where that damn cat is! It’s hard enough scheduling the boys in for grooming without this complication.
Dougy might end up not getting groomed today or until July, the next scheduled appointment, if he doesn’t show up within the next hour or so.
WE ARE NOT HAPPY!
=(^+^)=
I managed to catch Dougy about 30 minutes before it was too late to take him in for his May trim and bath. He was very upset with me. I was very upset with him.
When I picked the boys up at 11:30, the groomers said they’d been good boys while there. Go figure! And I can vouch for how pretty they look all trimmed and cleaned up. I will post photos of them with their new haircuts, but not today. I’m exhausted from all the running around.
Andy didn’t get the message yesterday, I guess, because he’s within grabbing distance on the computer desk, one arm’s length away from my keyboard!
He was sleeping, then I felt a presence…. You cat (and dog!) people know the presence I mean: of two little eyes staring at you, taking in every move.
I am watched. Andy may have a chance of escaping me today…for awhile!
I see you, Andy. You aren’t as stealthy as you think! 
Or is he? I haven’t caught him yet, and he is fast on his paws if he sees a hand reaching toward him.
Time for Andy’s daily dose of medicine, so we begin the game.
“Oh no! He’s over on the chair where he gives me medicine! Hope he doesn’t see me!”
“He’s looking straight at me…!”
“Hold steady…! Hold steady…! Don’t flinch now!”
“Steady…!”
“Rats! Here he comes! I’ll hide in the front room. Maybe he’ll forget about me!” Andy hightailed it off the chair.
Little Andy thought he was clever. Next time I saw him, his hind end was hanging out of an over-turned wastepaper basket — the one across from my computer chair, where I was sitting!
Dougy stood nearby, waiting for his chance to rummage in the trash, too, which was lucky because it helped me make positive identification on which kitty’s butt was hanging out of the wastepaper basket.
Not to gloat…well, what the hey?! Gloat I must because all I had to do was reach down and pluck shocked, surprised, and panicked Andy out of the wastepaper basket, then walk his scrawny little butt over to the medicine chair for his daily dose: He was not amused.
Most days I win the medicine game, and every day is a new adventure for cat and man!
Today’s word is “vicissitude”.
One of the vicissitudes of life I deal with is painful hand cramps. I just talked on the telephone with an old friend, perhaps a 15 minute chat, and now I’m having cramps in the hand that held the cellphone.
“Live long and prosper…~?
I can’t move my hand that way normally, but it locks into this “Star Trek”/ Mr. Spock hand greeting cramp any time I use my hand in certain ways. It’s one bitch of a vicissitude, and it is painful as heck!
OUCH!
Maybe it’s the season. Andy’s having parking spot issues, too, with his brother Dougy.
Andy shoos Dougy away from his “parking spot”.
“And stay away…!” Andy has had it!
I looked out my front door this morning, and my new neighbor still isn’t moved in. I’m glad I stopped parking in my old spot immediately after he told me he expected me to give up that spot I’ve parked in for the past 10-plus years. [sarcasm]
Dougy checks the parking situation.
The other person who used to park where I park now moved to a public parking spot half a block away, so I should whine: I only have to walk twice as far to my door.
Gad, I’m special! But notice the person eager for me to give up my 10-year-plus parking spot isn’t moved in yet after several days. I hope I get extra credit for hopping when told to hop, even though my attitude about it is pretty poor!
I sent the manager of the apartments an e-mail yesterday outlining my long-term disappointment and frustration with the parking situation. I offered a suggestion that would resolve the issue for me, at my expense but for my benefit and the benefit of the other person who was parking where my car is parked now. We’ll see where that goes.
In the meantime, I do have some hard feelings about the situation and how it was handled, but am trying to find a positive way to deal with it, one where everyone wins instead of two lose, one wins.
Maybe this makes it clearer: That’s my car circled in white in this old Google Earth shot. The red circle is where I have to park now. My duplex (“me”- on the roof across the lane) is closer to this parking spot than the one the “other neighbor” who used to park next to me is to where she parks now. She is designated in yellow on the photo. Notice her new parking spot is at the top of the photo, and there is nothing sure about her being able to get that specific spot each time. If anything, she could get stuck farther away from her front door more often than closer. The new neighbor is the blue pentagon, and he’ll park where my white circle is. He, at least, will be closer to his front door this way. My other neighbor and I will be inconveniently farther away than before.
Before, I had approximately 32 feet (9.745m) from my car to my front door; now I have around 50 feet (15.24m). The other person in my duplex used to have approximately 100 ft. (30.48m) from her car to her front door; now, she has over 250 feet (76.2m) from her car to her front door. Those numbers presume we always walk pretty much a straight line from out parking spots, something that isn’t practical or always possible.
Notice, too, how many units have paved parking in front of them on Lane 1 (to the left side of photo). If I had to park in the south lot (bottom of photo), which I did at one time when they were installing the new units, I’d have to park in the middle spots because other people take the spots closer to their apartments. (Of course!)
We got a late start today. Or maybe it was a we-got-a-very-early-start-pooped-out-took-our-naps-then-restarted-late today. Just a matter of which end of the morning you look at!
Dougy celebrated waking up again by stretching and scratching the settee, like the bad kitty he is. Even the photo stinks of bad kittyness:
Then he sat, regal little cat, giving me his best Persian kitty pose:
Andy slept in the dryer till I made a visit to the bathroom, then he hopped down, stretched, walked into the front room, sat down, forgot himself for a moment, and was trapped (without effort!) by Doug (the human one), who hadn’t forgotten Andy still needed his heart medication.
Unhappy kitty about to get medicine…!
Andy took his medicine like a pouty little poopyhead, but he took it all right! Then he regrouped on Doug’s shoulder. It looks like a happy moment (which, in some respects it was…), but Doug can vouch that Andy’s front claws were dug deep into his shoulder! Youch!
The business of the day done, we all went back to doing our things. (Poor Andy has such a sad face in the last photo! “Poor me! I suffer so!”)