Pasithea

On Saturday, we adopted two new kittens into our home. Gizelle (AKA the troublemaker) and Inky, the thoughtful one.

We talked about it quite a bit. In a perfect world, I'd rather adopt adult cats than kittens because I know it's harder for them to find good homes. We met one cat who was quite beautiful and I really ached to take her home with us but it wouldn't have been good for Ashley (or little cat)

Ashley is a sweet kitty but she's really small (only 7lbs) and .. To be blunt, Hazel was never nice to her. She's spent her entire life not having someone she can play with and cuddle with and wouldn't have been fair to her to bring home an adult cat that would quickly dominate her.

But at the same time, she does need someone else around. She didn't eat for a couple of days after Hazel left. She's been standing by the door or cat carrier meowing, asking when Hazel was coming home. I guess we've all been missing her a lot.

Anyhow. It seemed best we adopt sooner because we can't leave her alone for a week when we go to Burning Man. Nor could we board her anywhere (it would cause her way too much stress) so.. We went and looked at a couple of shelters. I wasn't sure I could do it at first and I thought that 'no tabbys' would be the rule because I miss Hazel a great deal.

Naturally, Gizelle, a tiny tabby with a white blaze on her nose homed in on me the moment she saw me, climbed up in my lap and began purring up a storm. She is, of course, also a one-kitten wrecking ball.

Inky is shier, more quiet but he watches everything. he's also soft and fuzzy. He looks black but under bright light, he is in fact a very dark tabby with beautiful markings.

Ashley was pretty upset at first and she's still not interacting closely with them but at least she's stopped running from them in sheer terror. Hopefully it won't be much longer before she gets in on some of the cuddling and grooming. She's wanted a friend for a long time.

Right now, Inky and Gizelle are asleep in my lap. I still really miss Hazel and I've teared up again a few times but... little balls of purr do help. They'll never replace her but life must go on and it's good to have life in our home again.

The second day of our journey home, it began to rain. We stopped at the sand dunes of Coos bay and hiked a ways in the wind and spitting rain. It was cold but fun. I hadn't seen big dunes since I had been to Florida as a child. The surf was pretty impressive, the sea cold and gray. Different kind of shoreline up there. All sand. No rocks, no glass polished smooth by the waves and the only types of shells I found were clams and more clams. The bottom drops off pretty gradually there so the waves come way waaaay up the beach and a few times it was a pretty hard run to avoid getting soaked when looking for shells. As the rain picked up, we turned inland a bit to a brakish swampy area. Stacey spotted a really cool beetle trundling along the sand. I stopped him and took some photos then held him for a couple minutes giving him some warmth in exchange (which he seemed to appreciate once he decided I was neither going to eat or squish him) The inlet was something of a bust too. There was the dead torpedo ray laying in the mud and I found a fairly large float from a fishing net but in general it was getting too cold and rainy at that point to really enjoy exploring.

We headed back to the car and drove down the coast through dozens and dozens of cranberry bogs. When we got bored, we stopped at a little shop and Stacey stocked up on several types of mead, sweet berry wines, and jam. The best part for me though was a cut-away in their wall with plexi panes and tubes. It was a bee-hive habitrail. The bees were inside their hive, buzzing away and you could get right up close to them near some wire mesh, feel the air from their wings, hear them, smell them, and see them dance. It was entrancing and they didn't seem to mind my being so close. I admit I've always liked bees anyhow so this was a treat for me. In one area, the court was clustered in quite close. I suppose it's not every day one gets to meet the queen. I paid my respects and then we were on our way again.

It'd begun to rain pretty hard at this point and while we wanted to do more hiking, I didn't want to do it in the pouring rain. Also, we hit the big redwoods a little after dark and I didn't want to wait an entire night to go hike in them so we decided to press on and head straight home.

It's cold up here. Not quite so much as I thought it would be maybe but still pretty cold. Anyhow, Stacey and I went Christmas shopping today and wandered around on our own. I looked at a couple of coats and sulked about the Banana Republic coat some more. Anyhow, in Meier and Frank there was a brown and white herring bone wool coat. Not as glamorous as the camel coat I'd been in love with and single-breasted (I'd wanted double) but it fit nicely and was warm and would look good with most of the clothing I have. It was a bit more 'I work at a university' than I wanted but Stacey really liked it and it was more practical then the camel coat would have been and about $200 less. So... Sensible coat, no frills. Professional but not overly stylish. I do like this coat. I'm just still sulking about the BP one.

She also bought me a really expensive but very detailed book on Maya rigging. I still haven't gotten her anything for Christmas. We had thai food with her family for dinner and then played card games with her little sister. Aquarius, Guillotine, and FLUX. It was fun. I think it will be particularly fun to play FLUX with her aunt now that Katie has a one-up on how to play the game.

Anyhow, the trip is going okay I guess. I'm not getting as much work done as I'd like and I'm feeling like I should be doing more to make them enjoy my visit. :/ I don't like slouching around my own house, let alone someone else's. I feel like this trip was planned for way way way too long. 5 days would have been good. 10 is frightening. I know I'm going to step on someone's toes or mess up something. :/

... Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

Our cats are funny creatures. We seem to have inadvertently trained a very peculiar behaviour into them. About two weeks ago our house was rampantly infested with these really awful fleas. Like we'd bathe the cats in flea shampoo and it wouldn't even kill the ones on them and they'd be crawling with them again 5 minutes after they got out of the bath. (And yes, we were keeping the bulk of their body submerged in soapy water long enough it should have killed any fleas) Poor babies. They're indoor cats and seem to have got the fleas from the dogs next door (best I can figure) but they were so miserable they would come and ASK to be bathed and not put up resistance to said bathing. O_O

Anyhow, they were getting chewed to pieces so we bathed them thoroughly and got them so Advantage and quaranteened them to the bathroom (which has no carpet for fleas to nest in) for a couple of weeks. They were both so sick and flea-bitten they didn't even resist. :/ So. We went and bought them a bunch of toys and made sure we spent at least a half hour a night playing with them so they wouldn't be too miserable in their confinement. Also gave them each a cat carrier to use as sorta a kitty cubby hole.

So... Now, a couple weeks later, the door is open and I discover we have hermit cats. They're totally attached to their cat carrier shells. They seem to believe they are keeping them safe from the fleas and so they only come out of them long enough to eat and use the bathroom. Augh! What have I done to their poor kitty brains!?!?!?

And now...