who let the cat out of the bag?

What's a teacher-blogger to do when school is out for the summer?! I'm forced to blog about my cats!

I was going through some pictures the other day, and I realized that Mrs. Hufflepuff has a soft spot for tight places:

If I had any creative energy in me right now, I'd caption these for LOLcatz!

the fat cat sat on the mat

We have three cats, and ever since we've moved to Texas into a house with no stairs, we've watched them steadily get fatter and fatter. It doesn't matter that they each get half a cup of food total per day. Somehow, they're still packing on the pounds.

So, Santa came a little early for them and brought them a five foot tall cat tree in the hopes that it would provide them with a bit of exercise. (Santa got a bit of exercise trying to fit the cat tree in the car, let me tell you!).

Thankfully, all three of them took to it right away:

And here's my favorite shot:

Does Santa bring your pets anything for Christmas?

Mowgli speaking

Dear Diary,

Today marks Day 5 of Doggy Domination. It all started when the humans brought in a second monster dog. Maybe forever? It's too soon to tell. New-dog is gigantic. Perhaps a horse? Will need to look it up. New-dog barks loudly. It makes my fur stand up on end. It's also thirsty all the time. It gulps water down its' gullet so noisily and so sloppily that a stream of liquid trails in its' wake.

Per my observations, three days ago boy-human left. Maybe forever. Girl-human is here all day. She only says "No", "Go outside", and "Play nice".

Old-dog and New-dog run and crash around my couch, my rug, my kitchen, and my hallway. There are only two places that are safe (note to self: look for more safe places): 1. under the guest bed in the nice hole I dug under the box spring, and 2. on top of the refrigerator.

Fool-cat goes anywhere she pleases, even in the middle of the dogs. She doesn't know she will get eaten. Good riddance to her, I say.

Nice-fluffy-cat slinks low to the ground from one place to another. She claims she has safe places, but they're not really. I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen. Poor soul.

What New-dog doesn't know is that I have a secret weapon. I've been sharpening my claws to razor sharp daggers for years now in anticipation of just such an emergency. The humans try to clip them, but their efforts are always fruitless! So if New-dog manages to get anywhere close to me, I will scratch the snot out of his gullet.

Consider this a warning.

This post was written for Word Up, Yo! This week's word of the week was "gullet". If you'd like to play along, you link up at Mommy of a Monster, A Belle, a Bean, and a Chicago dog, and Taming Insanity. Have fun!

Feline Friday

For the next ten days or so we'll be dog-sitting for Sawyer, a lab-mix puppy that belongs to my husband's classmate. They dropped him off today and things have been, how you say.... CHAOTIC. Barney is very glad to have a friend but they are both testing the waters, our boundaries, and our patience.

Our three cats may never forgive us for adding another monster to this household, however temporary. In honor of them, I thought I'd participate in Feline Friday, brought to us from The Thought Bubble.

This week's theme is "hepfulness", a trait all three of our cats have plenty of. Here is Mrs. Hufflepuff, who thought she would help me clean the windows by getting those pesky drapes out of the way:

I thanked her very profusely, of course, then promptly told her that her services were no longer needed. In fact, (after I took her picture) I told her quite forcefully to stop.

If you have a helpful cat, please share! You can join the fun and link up right here (you have until next Thursday).

Happy Feline Friday!

Note to self: close all doors

Today was Day One of Barney's new living arrangements. Over the weekend, we furnished our guest room in preparation for my parents' arrival for Thanksgiving next week. That meant that it was no longer this nice empty space for Barney to roam around in during the work day (we put up a baby gate in the doorway since we don't have a door there yet).

So today we decided to let him loose in the house while we were gone for work. We still put up the baby gate so he couldn't get IN to the guest room, then we scattered his toys, bed, water dish, and pee towel across the living room.

Imagine my surprise when I got home from work, totally expecting to see an excited puppy greeting me at the door, and instead am mobbed by three hungry cats! "Barneeeey!". No answer. (Where did he go?). "BARNEEEEEY!!". And then I heard a whimper from the other side of the house.

I walked down the hall and sure enough, the doof had gotten himself shut into the office. I opened the office door to be greeted by a leaping dog, and I looked past him see the wreckage he had left in his wake: a river of pee flowing from a chewed up Intro Psych textbook, and a two-inch gash where he stripped the black bookshelf of its wood.

I have no idea how long he had been stuck in the office. I have no idea HOW he got himself stuck in the office. Was it for some alone time? Was he trying to preen in the full length mirror on the back of the door? Or was this some evil scheme on the cats' part?

I guess we'll never know....

The couch cushion covers are in the washing machine right now

On Wednesday, we brought home a puppy from the local animal shelter! He is half papillion and half toy fox terrier and his name is Barney. We actually had a difficult time naming him. We settled on Barney (actually short for Barnabas) because he reminds us of the Barnabas in the Bible who followed Paul around on all of his mission trips. Barney-the-puppy likes to follow us around wherever we go :). Also, Barnabas was an evangelist; and our little Barney is already making friends for us. Do you know how many strangers want to come up and talk to you when you are holding a darling puppy? Lots, as it turns out!

Anyways, you may be wondering how our three lovely cats have reacted to their new brother. I made sure to film their very first meeting (it's by no means thrilling, but I know some family members have asked!):



As of now, Mrs. Hufflepuff is the most tolerant of Barney, Mowgli is the most hissy and upset, and Gizmo.... Gizmo acts like she just wants to sniff him and get to know him but then she'll surprise us by biting down on his head or his tail very deliberately to see how he tastes. Naughty!

Right now Barney is not acting like himself. He's got "kennel cough" and he's feeling quite lethargic. Also, he's coughing, flinging snot everywhere, and puking. The good news is that the vet based at the animal shelter didn't charge us for all the medicine she gave us when I took him in yesterday. The bad news is that we're kind of sick of cleaning up his pee and his vomit!!

More pics when he's feeling better!

Small preview of a 20 hour horror film

Well, we've finally moved out of our apartment and into our in-laws. You'd think that moving in stages over a period of weeks would be a smart thing to do, but you'd be wrong. It was a terribly drawn out business... Glad it's finally over!

When it was finally over and we had thrown out the last bag of trash, we captured the cats and brought them out to the car. They were not pleased. In fact, Mrs. Hufflepuff was so upset, she left a permanent claw mark in the fabric ceiling of our car! We set out for our in-laws' (a 90 minute drive) to the tune of three angry cats yeowling in three part harmony. We stopped briefly at Burger King for dinner, and while Max ran out to get our food, I took some footage of the cats' indignation (you'll note that Gizmo, our calico, is suffering in silence here):



And this was them relatively calmed down! When we were about thirty minutes away, Mowgli decided she had had enough and barfed in the little plastic basket she was sitting in. (Max: "Hey what's that smell??"). Then, as she had barf on the end of her tail and on her paw, she decided it wasn't very comfortable to sit there anymore, so she moved to a different plastic basket and sat down. I thought she sat down, anyway, but it turns out she was just squatting to poop. Poop! In our car!! With no litter on it!! Do you have any idea of the stink we went through for the next thirty minutes?!?

On top off all the hoopla, Max's allergies decided that three cats shedding hair in such a small confined space was not acceptable and so he spent most of the trip sneezing violently and trying to breathe.

If this is going to be a preview of the twenty hour trip it will take to drive down south in August, we're in BIG trouble...

Sometimes I wish I was a cat

Because cats don't have to pack. In fact, cats don't have to do anything except eat, drink, sleep, and poop. Max and I, however, have been very busy with putting things in boxes. And then putting more things in more boxes. It never seems to end!

Here is how Mrs. Hufflepuff has been helping out:


And if you're really a cat lover, you'll enjoy this one too:


I can hear you go "Awwwww..." all the way over here!

Catspeak

How do you tell your cat that you are VERY SORRY that you accidentally closed her paw in the door (evoking a giant cat scream-yelp)?? I can't stand the reproachful looks anymore....

Leaving My Mark

This morning, Mrs. Hufflepuff (one of our three cats) left her mark on the kitchen counter by way of a gigantic hairball--complete with splatter against the wall.

This afternoon, our dean of curriculum and instruction told me that I had already left quite a mark on our school after not even a full year of being there. He wanted to thank me for starting up and implementing two school-wide curriculum (Rocket Math and Read Naturally). That was a nice bit of encouragement!

Messy mark = bad
Resourceful mark = good

Fly

Yesterday, Max and I were entertained for a long time watching our cat Mowgli hunt a fly. Usually, I hate flies in the house during the summer, but the cats seem to think that flies are candy, and behave as such when they see one. Mowgli reminded me of a boxing prairie dog the way she was up on her hind legs and swinging in the air with her front paws. If only I'd had the camera nearby! Even more amusing is when she would take a running leap into the air (paws swinging wildly) in an effort to trap the unsuspecting fly. At one point, she even climbed to the top of the treadmill for a height advantage. But in the end, it was our patient hunter Gizmo who finally ate the tasty treat. She calmly waited until the fly came to her, then trapped it between her paw and the floor. Our cats are way better than fly swatters!

In other news, I fly to Washington D.C area today to visit a good friend of mine I haven't seen in three years! I'll update when I get back next week!

Just Your Average Monday Morning

Sunday nights are bad. Sunday nights after a long weekend are waaaay worse. Last night, I laid in bed for nearly two hours, trying to keep a rising wave of panic from overtaking me. As soon as I my head hit the pillow, I thought of about a million things I needed to do today and NOT FORGET. Then I thought of a thousand other things I needed to do THIS WEEK. Then I tried to sleep, but couldn't.

I must have dozed off at some point, because I woke up twenty minutes before my alarm with the most deafening crash I'd ever heard. It sounded like an entire bookshelf and all of its contents had tipped over. I rushed out to see what the cats had done now. I looked in every room. Nothing was out of place, except the guitar (and the crash didn't sound like it would come from a guitar). I was so confused. I decided to get dressed and ready to go. When I walked outside, I realized that there was snow on the car. When I had scraped it off, I sat for a minute in the car in order to let it warm up. As I sat there, I saw Mrs. Hufflepuff DART AROUND THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE! I freaked out IMMEDIATELY as any indoor-cat owner would do. Especially our indoor cats. They think cars are their friends.

So I turned off the car, and ran out after her. She dashed into the darkness. I spent six minutes circling the house calling "kitty kitty" and feeling the kind of fear I imagine parents feel when they've misplaced a child. Before panic could completely overtake me, I decided to open the door and make sure the other two cats were in. As soon as I got in and closed the door behind me, ALL THREE OF OUR CATS came sauntering down the stairs, all calm and collected, and with no regard to my hysteria. I was this close to crying, people. THIS CLOSE!

After I snuggled them goodbye, I got back into the car. Lesson learned: don't forget the neighbors have an outdoor cat.

Mischief, Mayhem, and Medicine

Lots has been going on with our kitties. First of all, they are still sick, despite over one hundred dollars in medicine since September. When they started puking snot and spit when I gave them their new meds last Friday, I knew something had to be done. Thankfully, our vet was concerned as well, and said he would see them again. So we all piled into the car after work today for the 25 minute drive to the vets' office. Mrs. Hufflepuff REALLY does NOT like the car. She meows constantly, and freaks out the whole way there. She was downright frightened of the windshield wipers...

Anyway. It turns out that all three of them have this rare bacteria thing called Pasteurella. New rounds of medicine for all! I just know they will be so excited to have more stuff shoved down their throats. We'll also have to decontaminate the entire house in about two weeks so they don't reinfect themselves.

But despite being sick, they are just as rambunctious as ever! Their new favorite toy is toilet paper. We've tried lots of ways of hiding it from them, but they are determined to do whatever it takes to find the toilet paper, and kill it to shreds. I have evidence to prove it:

Notice how they were nice enough to pose. They really didn't care that they were about to get scolded...

They stood proudly at the end of their trail of destruction.

"What, me? I would never do such a thing..."

Empty Nesters

At the tender age of 25, my husband and I are already empty nesters.

Well, at least temporarily.... I dropped off all three of our kitties at the vet tonight because they're all getting spayed tomorrow (it's nice they work around my schedule and are willing to house them overnight for free). So. All is quiet on the home front. As soon as I got back into my car, I felt TOTALLY LONELY. Even now, I'm pining for a furry cuddle that I can't even get until tomorrow evening. I'm worried they're totally traumatized by having to spend all night in a foreign place. I also learned that there will be another kitty spending the night with them, and we all know how mean our kitties can be with strange animals...

It is totally pathetic how much I miss them! This does NOT bode well for if/when we have children of our own....

Modern Day Miracle

Last Friday morning, I noticed that something wasn't right with our cats. They were eerily still (usually they are tearing around in the morning). In particular, Mowgli, our wildest one, was sitting still and having difficulty breathing. All three of the cats have been sneezing for months, but this was a different story. Max and I finally decided that we should bite the bullet and bring them to the vet.

I called around first, and everyone said that it was going to cost around 30 bucks a cat, just for the office visit! This was unacceptable, so I found a place that had the word "affordable" in the name, and they said that it would be 25 total for the office visit for all three cats! Hooray!

I packed them all into the most ghetto cat carrier you could ever imagine (cardboard box with holes, wrapped in a mesh laundry bag) and drove to the vet. Mrs. Hufflepuff hates being confined in anything, and she got out of the box and strained at the blue mesh bag. She reminded me of a thief wearing a nylon over its head.

It was a relief to get to the vet and an even BIGGER relief to find out that he was willing to do everything for free (as long as we contacted this foundation who helps low-income folks to pay for vet bills--they would reimburse him if they took our case. If they didn't take our case, he was willing to take the loss). This miracle occurred for a couple of reasons:

1. I told him they were rescued cats.
2. I told him I was an unemployed teacher (his wife is in the same situation and now works as his receptionist)
3. GOD WAS LOOKING OUT FOR US!

Anyways, each of our kitties got two shots, then the vet sent me home with the rest of the medicine they needed. He also gave us free flea treatments, heart worm treatments, and special kitty food. I only ended up paying 39 dollars!!! I was ready to give that man a hug!!

So, we should be snot free by the end of this week. Already the kitties are doing much better. They can breathe, Mrs. Hufflepuff's right eye is staying open, and they are all more active.

And I'm a happy Mama!

Introducing....

Gizmo (our calico kitten) and
Mrs. Hufflepuff (our gray and black kitten)

Ironically, we named our cats before anyone could suggest cat names on my previous posts, but I enjoyed hearing your ideas anyway (Mom: next time we have two pets to name, Mona and Lisa will be in the running!). I wish I had a great picture to post of them, but since this internet connection is mind-numbingly slow, it was out of the question. So just picture two adorable kittens, and that will have to do.

Other than that, there is not much else to report! Still waiting on a job.... still sleeping in and lazing around the house doing nothing :).

Not Much to Talk About When You're Not at School Everyday

As it turns out, Michigan isn't so bad in the summer, especially when the temperature has dropped to the mid-seventies and the humidity has disappeared! It's downright nice out! Wow!
For those of you dying to know, I have been spending my lazy days reading, making cards, and playing with our new kittens. Our two kitties have yet to be named. It's become a real conundrum, and I'm afraid that Max will forever refer to them as "cat" and "other cat". We've gone through several possibilities, but none seem to stick (suggestions? anyone?). So for now, we just watch them tackle each other, chase golf balls, chase birds, and rest in our laps. I've waited twenty-five years to own a real pet (our bird Gaby doesn't count--she didn't enjoy being petted), and I can't believe the day is finally here!