Post 1529: The “mice” will play! Hee! Hee!

Andy practices “nonchalance”, pretending to be more interested in the scene outside.

Dougy is more overt. Hanging out with me while I wait for the ride, he paces, walks under my legs, looks out the door. “Andy, he hasn’t left yet. Knock off that racket in the other room. Shh! Shhh!”

I know the kitty boys don’t just sleep while I’m gone. They have a kitty boy party!

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Still waiting for news that Black Beauty, my little VW Golf Sportwagen, is repaired.

In happier days…!

I’ve had two telephone visits with AAA, one from Omaha, the other from Chicago. The two phone calls established that my bias about the need for local agents is correct.

Neither of the two agents understood that there aren’t a lot of services easily arranged for in this part of the USA, that the two major rental car companies they require you to use to get the use of the rental car benefit aren’t always available or only well beyond one’s ability to get to, and other logistical problems.

I hope I get Black Beauty back before the snow flies!

For the time being, I’m relying on my friend Judy for rides to dialysis. Today (“yesterday” when this blog was written), she’s helping me again by driving the kitty boys to the groomers. She’s also driving me to the veterinarian clinic to buy more dry kitty food since I’m pretty much down to a day or two of running out.

I hope tomorrow’s blog will show you newly shorn smoke Persian kitties! You may not like the look, but they will be happy not to have to maintain that thick fur. I will not miss the endless hairballs and clumps of kitty fur everywhere!

Post 1530: sheep may safely graze…

I used my “Dougy” mug with my midday meal.

I missed my kitty boys. I knew it would take longer than usual to cut their hair, and that the groomers might have to take more hair off to get to the cats beneath the mats.

I had their food ready and their fountain topped off.

It was a hectic afternoon, with a call to the car dealer to find out if they’d heard anything from the insurance people on this, the second week anniversary of my accident in South Dakota. They had but still are waiting for the authority to begin repairs (i.e. money). (I will change my insurance company after this fiasco, I think.)

A call from a friend when I was trying to get the kitty boys ready to go…. I asked him to call back. I’d waited months to get the kitty boys in for their grooming session, and I didn’t want anything interfering with the process!

Dougy joined Andy after a pit stop in the bathroom.

The ride was late (she had her problem to work through), but we still managed to get the kitty boys to the groomers in plenty of time.

More calls, more changes in arrangements for transportation. I’m retired! I had a minor meltdown, then things sort themselves out.

Then Andy ran off to take a kitty bath and Dougy finished his chicken pâté before getting a drink.

Finally, the kitty boys were ready to come home. Andy got bored and uncooperative (as he usually does), so has fur leggings that his brother doesn’t have. I don’t care. I don’t care! They look wonderful to me, and they will be much more comfortable without all those mats! Dougy has some bald spots because of the extreme mats. It’ll grow back! I don’t care! I don’t care. I have my kitties back!

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When I am stressed out, J.S. Bach always works to bring me back to earth. Here’s one I love and used for the purpose. Simple, moving, beautiful. Enjoy!

Post 1528: where the kitty boys are after their breakfast…

Yep! Hanging out in the kitchen while I fix my breakfast! Here they are by the front door. A few moments later, they take turns nonchalantly walking by me, hinting broadly (“Mrow-meow-meow!”) that they would appreciate a chance to have my breakfast, too.

Of course, they are kitty boys, so nothing I’m fixing for me (“Kitty boys don’t like coffee, Dougy!”) is of interest to them, no matter what they think! I have to let them sniff the coffee, whatever, and then they believe me. Maybe.

Post 1527: “It was a dark and stormy night…”

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Andy feels things aren’t just right. He senses there’s a stranger in the room, a strange stranger…. Oh no! the stranger’s watching!

Post 1526: Upset kitty!

I got this much fluff off of one side of Dougy’s butt. I also managed to reduce the matted hair there significantly. Only problem: Dougy had to endure some discomfort. He’s “finishing” the job in the photos above, licking down the fur I ruffled with the dematting comb.

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Yes, Dougy’s upset!

Post 1525: sleepy kitty…

You are…

getting…

…sleepy, Dougy!

Post 1524: getting attention…

Doug likes me to brush him. It’s quality time for the two of us and his fur is so thick, he can’t effectively get down to the undercoat.

Of course, when Dougy’s getting all the attention, Andy has to be resourceful to get his share. Here he holds a chair up with his teeth. Smart kitty!

Post 1523: something’s wrong with these pictures…

Something’s wrong with the photos of Dougy and Andy taken this morning. Yes, they haven’t had their haircuts!

Seems there was a screw up with scheduling and a misunderstanding at the groomers.

I had two appointments – one for the morning, and one for the afternoon Friday. Only the appointment card read 1 AM and 1 PM. I was certain they wouldn’t be at work a 1 AM, so I called to get the correct time, only to learn there was no morning appointment scheduled, just the one for afternoon.

I was pissed!! Only I was more pissed when I was told they didn’t think I wanted to have the kitty boys groomed any longer because I hadn’t been in for a time. Of course, the reason for that was the change in my dialysis schedule that came into conflict with the kitty boys’ scheduled haircuts. They knew about the dialysis complication to a schedule made a year in advance. One time, too, Dougy went into hiding when I tried to get him in.

It isn’t clear when they will be able to get in now, and I hand-wrote a three page letter outlining my concerns to the groomers, my dismay over this missed chance to get the kitty boys groomed, and, frankly, my upset with them since I got the appointment in person when I talked with the scheduler about why I was having difficulties getting in.

At that time, we (I thought) resolved the issue of scheduling by going from a back-to-back appointment to one where they were done when possible on one day or over a couple of days, which is supposed to be easier to do.

They would have groomed one kitty boy Friday, but I couldn’t bring myself to have one done, but not the other since they both have serious mats and need to be groomed. They are minor international kitty celebrities after all. Their public expects them to be a matched pair of brothers, not one shaggy and the other neatly groomed.

Post 1522: Andy checks out the table, too…

The relatively cleared table gave the kitty boys a rare opportunity for easy snooping. Dougy had his tour. Now it’s Andy’s turn!

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This is me yesterday, dealing with Internet and television signal issues for the third day. After wasting long minutes on the phone following instructions from the cable company’s automated system – unplug this, wait for that, replug something else, wait for the signal, till nothing happened! – I finally got a message from the company telling me what I already knew: The problem was with their system, not my computer and television! “There was an outage in your service area. If your television now has a signal, type 1.”

In the meantime, during those brief times the computer worked, some “issues” popped up on my blog. Thanks, Charter! You added to a stress load that was heavy enough without your crap service. I lost one photo, but the rest of things seem to be in place.