Chris

Ocho is really just the sweetest cat today.  I'm guessing previous troubles were due to (a) having another cat in the house (some cats can't deal - mine couldn't*) and (b) baby.  Cats and change don't always mix.  But really, after she got past "Skeerd cat is ninja!", she's been a total doll.  As in, not only are we not skittish around each other, I can pick her up and put her places.  Now, she really dislikes it, but she's not scary any more, which is nice.  And omg torties are gorgeous.

* Actually, the only time my Magic ever "got along" with with B's cats was when she started getting lesions, and I was the one who thought getting along meant huge wrongness.  I am still weirdly smug about knowing her that well.

Currently, she has taken over the upstairs bed.  This is where not making the bed totally works - I lumped the blankets together to make an impromptu bed for her, and she's been camped out there all day.  At night, she either sleeps with me or she sleeps in the stairwell.  I left my sweater there, so she can sleep on it.  Her cleanings have gotten rid of the extraneous teensy-mats, and so now what's left is waiting until she's really otherwise complacent, then attacking her back with the nail scissors.  It's either that or wait until Saturday... eh.  We'll see.

I took off the screen door from the back, and B kind of propped it up in the stairwell.  Uhm... well, later, I'll get a picture.  Just know that the screen door is too wide for the stairwell, so we propped it up in between, and put a box under where the wedge overlaps with a stair going down.  I'm currently sussing out plans to build a medium-height screen door, to attach to the entryway.  (Only sussing out because I know I'm obsessive-cat about this, so might as well get the measurements, and I'll obsess over the building later.)  Our landlady is slow with getting things done, and so getting the door from her would be more hassle and less fun than just making my own.  I'm thinking leave a 1" gap so that we can hook it from either side, 2" at the bottom to allow for the carpet, and about 60" tall total, just cuz.  With maybe an option to put a smallish curtain on the bottom half, in case the kitties want to staaare at each other and that's not a good idea.

Tired cat is tired, and so that may only partially make sense.

Anyways.  She is a doll.  She's a lovebug, but she settles down after about 5-10 minutes.  (Lovebuggishness is good when I'm doing naught else, bad when I'm killing demons in Doom.  Knowing that there's an end time is awesome.)  She also apparently broke her tail like ages and ages ago - the very tippy-tip of her tail is crooked.  It's not noticeable until you go to pat her tail to the end - no more than an inch, if that, is bent.

I'm still wondering at these personality issues I've heard about.  So far as I can tell, mostly she just really dislikes being startled.  I make up for this by being obvious when approaching her.

And awwwwwwww, she was kneading today, I die.

The frust has gone away, for two reasons:

1) If B himself says it's okay that Ocho gets out, whyfor stressy?  Because I had a desired thing (that being, Ocho stays upstairs), and it wasn't working.  When I take away the need for her to be upstairs, the stress ebbs, dur.
2) I was already stressy cat yesterday, to the tune of oversensitive underslept too many people augh.  Everything frustrates me when I'm in that state.

In the meantime, Ocho is now way more comfortable with me, to where if the other cats aren't around, I can go up and (after a quick sniffins to see if she wants contact) just pat her, no worries.  I think I have to allow for me being anxy around new cat, especially one that's prone to, yknow, ninja-slicings.  And she is a love junkie, from the planet Whoa Now.  She does that jaw boof that ends up with her half on the floor, awww.  She even jumped up on the bed last night!  She's been eating and drinking, and ostensibly using the litter box.  By which I mean, apparently she prefers the downstairs one that B's kitties use.  *baffled shrug*

She is a clean cat, in the sense of she takes a lot of impromptu baths.  She is still getting that grooming, though, definitely.  She has teensy leftover mats (it's hard to describe - one mat that the original owners trimmed down, and little places where she hasn't reached yet, I suppose), and I kind of would prefer to cut down on stress around here, and keep it all in one place, that being the vet's.  I did bathe her when she showed up, but non-optimal fur cleanliness is way different from a urine-soaked rump.  She also has a scab on her back right shoulder - diameter between a pencil and a dime.  Weird shit, yall.

She tends to stretch a lot, and walks kind of weirdly.  I can't pinpoint it, because when she walks, she's slinking due to anx, wobbling because she's stretching a lot, or boofing me and being a dork.  So I want to wonder at whether she has a muscle thing going on, but it's more likely that she sits a lot and so is just stretching, and I'm an overthinking worrywart.  Heh.

I confirmed with the vetfolk that she'll be getting a grooming and a nail trimming.  They said that it might have to be a drop-off situation, if the grooming takes too long, but I assured them that she's a shorthair and it's not bad, just I'd like to get rid of the teensy mats and give her a nice rubdown, so to speak.  I'm not concerned.  She'll be getting vaccines (she's an indoor cat only, so I'm told, but I want to be thorough), shots, and her 1 year/10,000 meow oil change, essentially.  It's looking also like while I'm there, I should ask for everything involved in getting her flight-prepped.  I was planning on it anyways, natch, but I was also hopeful that maybe she could find a place around here.  Eh, no worries.

In conclusion, when she's really happy, she licks me, and oh how I die of the melting.

Documentation cat is documenting, primarily so that I can pass this on to bronxelf_ag001, and (if applicable) thus on to her new home.  Information is good!

And now to go get pictures to post.

- Ocho got out again.  Honestly, since B's kitties are rather avoidant ("What is that? ... Meh."), and since Ocho is anxious slink away and hide cat right now, I'm wondering whether to continue trying to lock her upstairs.  Especially since it doesn't seem to work.  *wry*  If I do, I'll move the essentials to downstairs, so she can get to them more easily.  Hm.

- Reminder: ask landlady about getting the light upstairs fixed, or go get one of those hanging lamps from the consignment shop down the street.  It's tiring (in the sense of "no light (winter) + low light (!lighting) = *yawn*") spending time upstairs when we have to turn on fifty lamps just to get sufficient lighting.

- I sent an email to Cat Adoption Team, asking for more information on fostering.  I'm not making any promises right now, because I'd want to talk to B about this all first, get a door or something for the stairs, and see what the investment (time, money) is like.  Frex, I'm not sure I could do kittens, because that would require more time-investment than I have.  We'll see.  I hope I can.

- GoLoco: "GoLoco is a service that helps people and communities create their own personal public transportation network. Your cars, your friends, your trips, your expenses -- GoLoco puts them all together for a seamless way to share travel and expenses."

- Kiva: "Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back."

- ParentProfiles: "If you are pregnant and considering placing your baby for adoption, Parent Profiles, a service of Adoption Profiles, LLC gives you the opportunity to become familiar with hundreds of couples hoping to adopt a child."

Ocho is a goon.  I went to take her picture for B, and she came out and now is head-boofing everything.  She's freaking my shit, to the tune of growling a lot while boofing me.  oO

She knows where the essentials are, though she hasn't used any of them yet.  She's too busy hissing at the carpet.  *amused*  She almost jumped into my lap, eee!

She likes her jaw and chin skritched, and dislikes side and rump.  Classic "Aiee don't touch, maybe!" stuff.  When I take her to the vet, I'm going to ask them to groom her, as she has a leftover clump on her back (the original owners tried trimming it, but I wanted to make sure, but I fear her pointy bits).

And now, I go for beers and karaoke.

To make up for having had an otherwise annoyingly pissy day, I'm going to be fostering a kitty for a few weeks.  Secretly, I'm a bit insane.

I'm writing this out because (a) if I don't, I'll forget (I'm working in ASP and SQL again), and (b) maybe someone has input on things to remember.

( To-dos. )

This is also useful because if this works out, I'll have a feel for how B's kitties react to new kitties (I know how they were with Magic (skittish), but Magic didn't like other kitties, so), and maybe I can help foster more kitties in the future, like I've wanted to do.  See also pet_assistance.

note to self