The Obligatory Cat Post: Part 3

Photos! Here you go Stefan - die neues Katze!


This picture shows a little more of her funny coloring - I've never noticed this kind of pattern on a cat before, it's not totally clear in the picture, but the tabby base has tortie spots in it, ergo the color name "torbie":


Her name from the shelter was Lola, as mentioned previously. I'm taking opinions as to whether or not to re-name her Kopi Luwak. Kopi is Indonesian for coffee and Luwak is an Indonesian name for the Civet. The two together is the name of the most expensive coffee in the world. A very hard to get brew made from coffee beans that have gone through the digestive tract of a Civet. Yes, it's poop coffee. It seemed kind of appropriate since her purr kind of sounds like a percolator. I'm still undecided. Lola and Lillie is a good combination with all the alliteration.

The Obligatory Cat Post: Part 2

So Lola came home in a small kitty transporter, she seemed perfectly fine with the whole thing. Having been a stray, and then going to two different shelters in her short life have probably made her used to upheaval - strange for a cat. She exhibits some traits of a kitten who was weaned too early or was separated from the litter and her mother. Very needy and loves attention. If I lay on the floor, she rubs through my hair and starts chewing on the dreads.

We put Lillie in our bedroom, and then brought Lola into The Kid's room and let her out. It didn't take her too long to start exploring, and while she's a little skittish, she just wants to know who's coming into the room when the door is opened, and then comes out of hiding.

Lillie was pretty unaware of there being another cat in the house after we let her out of the bedroom until she saw me go down the hall to The Kid's room. I left the door cracked a little bit so she could sniff in the room. Lola mewed a tiny bit and that unleashed a chain of hissing and spitting from Lillie. I shut the door, and Lillie continued to hiss and growl. I talked to her through the door but to no avail. Finally, I opened the door and kind of shooed her back down the hall. She hissed and growled at me and went after my feet as I walked past her.

Ok, this may take a while. For the next few hours I alternated petting Lillie, then going into The Kid/Lola's room to pet her, then come back out and pet Lillie. She's obviously annoyed by this other cats presence in the house, but at least she's not at the door hissing incessantly.

This morning I checked on Lola, and when I came back out and tried petting Lillie, she smelled my hands, and started hissing at me and swatting at my hands. Argh. She would have nothing to do with me and so I left for work. This is going to take a while, but fortunately Lola seems to care less about Lillie. I just hope Lillie doesn't turn into a bitter, foul tempered bitch because of this. Doesn't seem like she's too thrilled about the idea of having a friend.

Hopefully, if we take this slowly enough she'll warm up to the idea.

The Obligatory Cat Post

Or, Kitty Crisis of the Heart.

First off, I gotta say that animal shelters are always truly heartbreaking to me. I had a hard time when the Old Badness and I adopted Amelie and Miette, especially when we went back into the dog area, seeing all those sweet dumb faces in cages. We got a new cat this weekend, and the experience was unusually odd and sad.

The point of getting a second cat was to have a friend for Lillie, The Kid's cat who is four and a half. Lillie's a bit of a goofball, and somewhat moody. She mews at doors constantly and generally sounds pathetic and lonely, even when there are other people in the room. This is all a ruse though, because half the time you go to pet her, and she'll swat at you, annoyed.

On the first trip, I fell for a Himalayan mix. Blonde hair and blue eyes, Kitty was gorgeous and seemed quite friendly and happy to see people. She didn't look like a Himalayan with the ugly pushed in face - her face was traditional, but her coloring was cream with reddish points. We all sort of agreed on her and went home to think about it.

We went back on Sunday, and there were some new cats there, a few of them were interesting but I had my heart set on Kitty. We already knew that she'd be work - with all that hair and all it would mean daily brushing or she'd end up looking like me, and being that she was five and an only cat meant that the adjustment was going to be a lot harder. Then, the worst part. When we were ready to sign off on her, we found out she was surrendered because of litter box problems. That was the deal breaker. We have a lot of extra space but the thought of going through a several month break in period with unknown end results was just too much. Kitty really needed a no cat home with patient owners. I burst into tears and felt like an idiot for getting attached so quickly. It wasn't so much that we couldn't take her, it was the thought that we didn't know how many days she had left, or if someone else would be so taken with her pretty blue eyes before it was too late.

A hold was taken off of another cat I'd noticed while waiting, a young, pretty torbie, Lola, who'd been brought up from the back. (There's about 20 little rooms up front with animals available for adopting, and then there's an unseen place with about 90 cages where the other cats wait their chance at stealing hearts.) They'd put her in a room with another cat, and didn't seem to care, or even notice the other cat. Ok, bonus one, she's good around other cats. We went in to see her, and she started doing somersaults upon petting, and turned out to be a licker and headbutter. Super sweet. We found our new cat.

We didn't want another tabby, and I'm not a huge fan of full on torties, but Lola has really unusual markings - cinnamon tabby with random tortie patches and a white chest spot and white tips on her toes. So, I still get sad thinking about Kitty, but it's for the best, since Lillie is none too happy about the new addition. More about this in Part II.

Taunted with Sunlight

It's fecking cold out again. In winter, you can always tell the cold days because it's sunny out. The sun was sort of missed, to be honest, and it's a nice change of pace.

Of course I only get to see it for the ride to work, and now I sit in my freezing cold windowless office in the suburbs, iChatting with a friend who has an office downtown who says he's roasting in the sunlight coming through the windows. Mean!

Recluse Breaks Free

I've been trying to finish this posting for a while - too distracted.

For the first time in a while, the social calendar was quite full this weekend. Turns out I actually like people.

Friday night started out on a, um, stupid note. It wasn't terrible, just dumb - I ran out of gas on the way to my soccer game. The indicator light was on, I knew I needed gas, but I was running late and thought I had just enough to get there. Nope. About 5 miles short as my Friday the 13th bad luck would have it.

Mr. T and the Kid came to my rescue with 5 gallons of premium. He seemed mildly annoyed and when I appologized he responded with the ire raising "well, it's to be expected, you're just a girl and all" (said in jest) and I replied that if he weren't saving my ass at that moment, I'd be beating his.

The game was ok, I started coughing up a lung so I guess the gunk isn't entirely out yet from being sick a few weeks back. The stale locker room scented air in the soccer arena doesn't help much for clearing out the bronchial tubes either. We all went out for drinks afterwards which I haven't done in a while after a game.

Saturday we headed down to Chicago for a benefit show for the three Chicago musicians that were killed last summer by a stupid person. It was an odd and bittersweet thing. Since I didn't know any of the guys (Mr. T had worked with two bands one of the guys had been in) I felt a little dislocated, but it's still a sad and eerie thing to think that there were people missing from the stage, who weren't alive anymore.

We met a member of the Electrical Audio messageboards and her friend, and ended up getting late dinner with them. Definitely a bright spot to the evening 'cos she rocks.

The next moring we were off to St. Charles to have brunch with a bunch of Hawklist people who make your face hurt from laughing the minute you walk into the room. Bunch of crazy people I tell you, and you wouldn't think it from looking at them. Shooting squirrels in the garage with pellet guns and whatnot. Oy vey.

Finally, after that and a few shopping stops, we went to a friend's place for a Hungarian Paprikash party - and it was delicious. Was sad to learn that they are not going to move to Milwaukee, but Minneapolis instead - because I really like them, and it would have been nice to have them here, but I guess I just have to make it up to Minneapolis more often. A hangover left me pretty out of it, and Mr. T's allergies in a house with three dogs and two cats was getting the best of him and so we left a little early. It was really cool hanging out with a totally new group of people and getting to know them. That should happen more often. That means I have to leave the house more I guess.

To All the Girls I've Loved Before

I've spent some time the past week or so digging up links to blogs of friends lost, so I thought I'd post a bit of a shout-out to any of you who follow the little link road and find me here.

It's not you, it's me, no really. Something happened that triggered reclusiveness, and an overall withdrawal from everyone known - past and present - over the past couple of years. This is something that I'd really like to remedy. It's a killer thing to have everyone you know spread out all over the country (all over the world?) and so in-person communication is impossible without a lot of cash and/or a lot of travel. Instead, this imperfect digital format will have to do. So please know I'm watching you (ew! creepy!) and thinking kind thoughts of all of you.

It's a mere coincidence that this would seem to be a resolution for the New Year, but it might as well be.

Is it Really So Terrible?

That even though I repeatedly told myself that I would go to bed early tonight, I'm staying up to watch "Project Runway"? I know Mr. T thinks it's terrible, he hates this show.

Fame Tracker for the Sockmonkey Suit: Part 2

Met a few friends out at Café Lulu tonight to see the premier of the Rollergirls TV show with all of the Brew City Bruisers gals. The fabulous Ms. Faythe Levine of Flyingfish/Paper Boat Gallery hipped me to the fact that the Sockmonkey is featured in this month's issue of Vital Source magazine! Woo! The same photo on the home page of their site is show not once, not twice, but THREE times in the printed magazine.

This made my day after the mean letter we got from a vendor at work for the sockmonkey Holiday cards we sent out. More on that later.