Free isn't

Once we got the kitten home, we noticed she was tiny. In fact she was terribly thin. Hair that looked fluffy glinting in the sun looked spindly and sparse. She was ever so adorable though. She expressed affection freely and was so very playful.

We put a towel on the bed between our heads and she slept there all night. Little could we guess that she was incubating all manner of worms.

She had her vet visit and was diagnosed with roundworms and tapeworms. During the worming process we got to witness the evacuation of the worm kingdom first hand. The vet thought she might be six weeks old (instead of 8) and she might or might not live. I prepared mentally for kitten death - I heard the term "failure to thrive" which to me still smacks my face with kitten death. She continued to live - poorly but cutely. There was no diagnosis on the bare patches of skin. We applied a topical solution.

She didn't want to eat anything except the gravy of that cheap nasty catfood the "farm lady" (as we have dubbed her) had fed her. We were at wits end - she wouldn't eat kitten kibble - she wouldn't eat. We tried canned kitten food and she started to eat.

That didn't help the hair loss. One would have thought she'd have gotten healthier but no - she looked just terrible though she didn't complain and seeing her standing on her hind legs to do jazz hands revitalized our human will. We named her Margeaux because she deserved a fancy name.

We thought it must be mange (a parasitic infestation) and back to the vet she went. This time she "fluoresced", meaning that the light showed infection all over - ohhh it had to be ringWORM, a gift that gives to others.

To this day, I treat two spots and Dee treats a couple too. Little Margeaux was shut away in a room we called "the cat apartment". She had to be force-fed oral medicine and scrubbed (yes scrubbed) once a week with a sulfur treatment that turned the gray cat yellow and transformed her into a whirling frenzy of claws. She smelled like a rotten egg.

Meanwhile she was picky but fed and pathetic but lived. For free, she entertained - displaying amazing litterbox skills. While Laura Ingalls left "the captain's log" for us each day on top of the sand, Margeaux managed her litter with the grace of a Tasmanian devil. She bit and chased everything that caught her eye. We dabbed cream onto ourselves but we couldn't resist snuggling the kitten. Dee worked a few more shifts to cover Margeaux's expensive habit (the vet) and we were excited that at least the cat's ringworm was gone. As she started to grow real cat fur, we saw a lovely beautiful cat emerge.

The Third Cat

I am not a believer. I don't think that angels are watching over me, doing me favors - I try to live in the world of the real. But this gray tabby somehow called out specifically to me in the Wal-Mart parking lot. My outburst of, "did you see..." was followed by a dramatic expression of asceticism as I exclaimed through tears, "but we can't have ANOTHER cat!"

Dee laughed and said that three cats are just the same as two and we crossed the parking lot on foot, drawn by enigmatic feline magnetism.

Three FREE cats were being displayed outside of a middle-aged woman's car. She seemed as if she was being forced to give the cats away by someone old enough to be her mother, maybe she was. She said that the gray one was her favorite and Dee and I both held the little beauty. We decided if the kitten was there when we finished our errand, we'd take her. We crossed the hot sunny parking lot, but as we passed our car on the way into the store, we stopped and turned around. The woman got tears in her eyes when we came back and gave us some cheap cat food pouches, what she'd been feeding the kitten. We politely reassured her the cat would have a good life and great care (thinking with a bit of snobby scorn that we'd be upgrading to premium cat food right away). I don't remember what we planned to get there, but we drove home right then with the tiny cat, hoping her ears hadn't gotten burned from being out in that bright sun.

Dust bunnies are NOT pets!

I wonder what happened to all the cat hair and dirt when we had carpet. I think it just stayed there. We ran the vacuum constantly and even got the carpet cleaned but I don't think we touched the amount of dirt we now remove from the hard floors.

Normally - we use a broom and then a dust mop after that and then we wait a couple hours until the next cat hair tumbleweed comes driftin' along. Today I used the vacuum on the wood floor - normally I use the broom but wanted to cover more ground quickly and I just finished with the dust mop. I did it right, moving furniture and using vacuum attachments appropriately. I even vacuumed the cellular shades. What a rip-off those are! The previous owner of this house got custom cellular shades and they are virtually uncleanable. I took about 40 minutes and vacuumed relentlessly and some hair was removed. The idiot had already stained the custom white shades with nicotine (being a smoker). Love that yellow tinge.

Next I will lightly mop the wood with water. It is all for naught but oh well... My parents are visiting in a couple weeks and I want the house to be cleaner than usual. It isn't usually dirty but the dust bunnies (made from mostly cat hair) require constant attention.

In my welfare fantasy (where I don't work but live off the system), my house would sparkle. I would work out all the time and enjoy a simpler life (no ironing necessary.) It's the same as my lotto fantasy only I have an expensive sound system and exercise equipment in that one!

All that said, I don't miss having carpet. At least now, I can more easily see the enemy and its name is "Bunny".

Cat and a Half

Shannon died. This was the end of an era for Dee. Shannon had been to her what my old El Camino had been to me - a constant - though flawed (both were so very flawed), something that had been through the dark tunnel with us. Now it's a bit more admirable that a living creature and not a cartoon car/truck hybrid had accompanied Dee but we all hang on to what we can take comfort in. When Dee was going to move in with me - temporarily, we barely knew each other really, she dropped off Shannon in soft-sided kitty bag. Dee unzipped it and out popped this exotic-looking creature. She promptly disappeared. Dee had to return to Mississippi County to finish a 96 hour shift. Shannon gave me a bit of approval by the time Dee returned and I truly believe that helped Dee to decide to stay a while. She never found an apartment (a college town can have a lame rental scene) and Shannon had settled in anyway.

I'm encouraging Dee to write here about Shannon. She knew her from the weepy eyed absent kitten to a companion on her cross-country trip. I saw her as antisocial, strange, and she left the legs but ate the bugs. I heard her purr once. It was a big occasion. She perched like a catgoyle - the annoyed guardian. She eventually became sick and miserable and the decision was made. After Shannon died, we decided to wait a while for another cat. The mourning period commenced. Dee would sit and watch movies with tears in her eyes, missing Shannon. It was unbearable - we decided to do a window shopping visit to the Humane Society. We looked at the kitties - oh they were cute of course. We stayed true to our word and left empty handed.

A week or two later (Dee probably should be telling this story) we went back. We wanted to hold kitties this time - to pick a kitty that would be the "right" cat. Not a Mickey-man cat (former cat of Dee's who always wanted to be outside). Dee wanted one that craved human affection and resonated "hold me!". I wanted a player. We were told about the "cat and a half special". Choose one cat and get a second one at half price. Dee settled on a cat who fell asleep in her arms and I had to have the tuxedo cat who batted the ball relentlessly.

We named the sweet one Laura Ingalls, she had such an overbite we eventually had to get her bottom teeth filed. Vegas seemed like the perfect name for the conniving, clever tuxedo cat. I forget which one is the "half cat". Don't believe Dee if she says it's Vegas. Vegas is ALL cat!

Bug World Revisited

This week, there has been only one wheel bug seen at any given time. I don't know if it is the same one or not - it's too far away (so no, I haven't named it). There have been two praying mantises on opposite sides of the ceiling every day. I wonder if they jockey for position. I don't see them emerge or land or whatever it is they do. They sort of match the ceiling. This week there were some incredibly small moths on the window just to amuse me with their smallness. I thought only big bugs got ceiling rights - guess not!

The Original Cats

Okay, I started to call Vegas and Laura Ingalls the "original cats" but Shannon (Dee's cat) and Nina (my cat) were the original cats. Maybe I can talk Dee into guest-blogging about Shannon, who really earned the title "original". Nina was just a gray tabby - she was the runt of her litter, a giveaway when Jim and Griselle broke up. She became Thaddaeus (who I was married to) and my cat and she bonded with Thad right away. I'd never had a cat. He had cats - his mom always had a real dumb yellow cat around. Nina held a rat at bay in one low rent apartment and chased a mouse up into our bed which was a futon platform we built ourselves out of 2x4s. Thaddaeus ended up with the unpleasant duty of finishing off the vermin. We played rat hockey with brooms - finally batting the thing out the front door, then the first security door - then he caught its leg in the front door and beat it to death with - yes, a piece of 2x4. The mouse... well the mouse was beaten to death by an Isaac Hayes Groove-A-Thon record album after Nina chased it up onto the futon and ripped through covers and humans trying to capture the rodent. I remember Thaddaeus quickly selecting an album we didn't play. Groove-A-Thon wasn't a bad album really but we picked it up at the thrift store mostly because Mr. Hayes was wearing a very cool 70's look indeed in his turban. It was an unforgettable moment. I couldn't invent something like that.

Our next low rent apartment had waterbugs and roaches. Nina ingested her share of pesticide with those bugs I'm sure. We moved a few more times and then bought a ramshackle house. She gleefully scratched up the corner trim and sat in front of the "box of fire" (old fashioned space heater). Her kidneys began to fail and the vet said we COULD have kitty dialysis done, but we decided a kitty neither understands nor wants dialysis and we let her go.

So that's the story of Nina, one original cat.

The Animal Kingdom

Three cats - well, two cats and a kitten, one dog - well, puppy and various other animals seem to be drawing my focus. I'm sure I'll get to the pets but first, let's talk bugs. I work in the local community college and outside my office is a big window-wall. Outside I can see the ceiling of the entrance to the college. On that ceiling is the bug world.

Most fascinating of all has been the wheel bug. It turns out it is a beneficial insect but one that will give a mean bite with that red beak! But look at it - it's like a dinosaur bug. I found it fascinating and went looking for this bug with a spiky ridge on its back and found. That is some bug! It makes the mantis and very large moth I saw not even worth talking about and forget about the huge horsefly - it's still a FLY. The best thing on the web about the wheel bug was found at this site:
http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek030901.html