Sam Takes a Trip

So Sam has pretty much been a pain in the ass since the day he showed up at my door. He disturbs the peace, tries to be the dominant male, and even makes the other cats do his grooming for him. But every once in a while he has really sweet moments, like when he cuddles up in my lap and goes to sleep. At the very least, he's quiet for a little while.

Living in a tiny apartment with him was a nightmare. There just wasn't enough room. He started doing better once we moved into the house and he had the run of it and the backyard. He did even better during the short time we had a roommate. I guess he figured it just wasn't worth competing with a 6'3" guy for dominance, so I found him sleeping under the bed most of the time. But since Brad moved out, Sam's been reverting to his old ways--with added annoyances. First, he sprayed in the house. Ick! Smelly! Disgusting!! Then he started clawing the furniture. Then he kept me awake at all hours with his loud meowing. He never really wanted anything, he just wanted to know where I was at in the house.

So yesterday we took a little trip. To the vet. For a neutering. Usually I feel guilty leaving one of my pets at the vet's office, but by the time I dropped him off, I was ready to never return. He had me up at 5 am, crying because he was hungry. Well, too bad, you can't eat before surgery. By 5:30 I was ready to dump him on the porch at the vet's and say good luck to them all. He yelled in the car all the way to the vet, he yelled like there was no tomorrow when we got into the office. I managed to speak with the vet's assistant over his cries of protest, scratched him under his chin, said "Bye Samalama" and was out the door without looking back. His cries followed me all the way out the door.

Tommy, Turtle, and I spent a quiet night at home relaxing. But it was almost eerily quiet.

This morning I went and picked him up. See, I'm not a horrible cat dumper after all. I could hear the little devil coming. He was yelling all the way from the back. The guy who handed him to me just gave me a relieved look when I took him. Then he yelled at me all the way home. I just laughed at him, because who's the dominant one now, biotch?!?!

Poor kid, when I let him out of his cage when we got home, he walked funny all the way over to his food bowl. Then he tried to eat without sitting down. He spent the evening needing love, so we cuddled on the couch. This was the best behavior I've ever seen.

Here's the poor baby coming to term with his life change. He looks kinda depressed. All right, I feel a little guilty.

Spot the Real Fiction

Well, Turtle is at the vet this morning getting his teeth cleaned. It's possible he could lose a molar, but at least he's been a little perkier since taking the antibiotics. And it's been easier on me just popping that pill down his throat instead of getting every drop of liquid medicine in there. He was pretty ticked by the time we got to the vet's office. My car now needs to be thoroughly detailed to recover from the poop and vomit on the back seat. Or maybe I'll just light a match. Kidding! I only have 4 payments left on that car and it has to last quite some time....



On to other things... I have an uncle whom I like to refer to as "the Republican Propagandist" because he will send out any email that makes fun of the Democrats and puts positive spin on the Republicans (yeah, I know, I almost couldn't type that last part! LOL!!) Today I got an email titled "Hillary's Dream." This one cracked me up not because the photoshop pics put Hillary in fictional settings, but because of one little thing in this "Driving Miss Daisy" parody:

Someone please tell me when you've ever been able to get a paper sack at a Wal-Mart!!

Craft Project Friday

I took the day off from work to take the cat to the vet and take care of some other personal business. Turtle has a massive dental infection and has to go back on Tuesday to be put under for a cleaning. In the meantime we get to take antibiotics. At least this time it's capsules instead of liquid. I'm tired of cleaning that stuff off the walls. And it tastes horrible! We had an incident last round when Turtle knocked the eye dropper with his paw just as I was squeezing the medicine out and it flew right into my mouth. It took a good five minutes of scrubbing with cinammon toothpaste just to get rid of the taste. And that stuff left a stain on my couch! No wonder my poor cat would rather fight to the death before he took it.

The vet will also be taking a closer look at Turtle's blind eye while he's out just to make certain there's no tumor or cancer involved.

After all the drama of driving the cat to and from the vet (at least this time he didn't rip strips of flesh off the poor doc), I decided to work on some craft projects that I've needed to finish and/or start.

The first project was finishing the crocheting of a felted purse. I got the body of the purse sewn together, and the handle created and sewn on. Now I just need to finish the project by washing it in hot water to shrink it, which will tighten the wool together enough to disguise the individual stitches. This is the first time I've done this, so I'm hoping it all comes out well. Here's a before picture. I'll post the after when it comes out of the wash. And since I live in a tiny apartment with no washer and dryer, I have to take it to my aunt's house tomorrow.

My other project today was a decoupaged recipe box. I've spent a month picking out the right paper and paint. The scrapbooking boom has given us a plethora of designs to choose from. I also picked out a grab bag type selection of letters to use to spell out "recipes" on the top of the box.

Here's a picture of the near-finished item:








I was thinking this was a pretty cool-looking little project, if I do say so myself, when I noticed something wrong. And no, I didn't misspell "recipes."

I realized I put the letters on the lid upside-down....












Wouldn't be so bad if the lid weren't cut at an angle. If it were straight I could just turn the thing around. Well, at least it's something I was planning on keeping for myself. But I will forever know that I screwed it up. It really messes with my OCD, but at least I can laugh at my own idiocy.