Taking care of long term business

I have to make a will.

I don't want to, but I'm at that age. I actually own property, so that also makes it necessary.

I also have life insurance and stuff, making this necessary.

Sometime ago, I made my brother and his wife the beneficiary and contingents at 100%.

After a lot of thought and a lot of soul searching, I modified it this evening and added a second benificiary.

I made the split 75% to my brother and 25% to the secondary beneficiary.

It's the right thing to do, even if its going to cause some controversy in my family. I don't care. It's what I want. I need to do this. I will be more at peace right knowing this is taken care of.

I asked Mrs. Jackson if she would take my cats in the event that something untimely happens to me. I asked that she raise them the way that I would.

She agreed, which I was counting on.

All that is left is the matter of my home, car and piano. The rest is incidental.

I am tidying up the interior and getting rid of extraneous things as well as giving away things I don't need or use. I live well, but I don't take care of things the way that I should.

Deciding how to handle the house is tough. What I want to do with it, is, leave it to one of the life insurance beneficiaries so they will always have a place to live. I don't know how that will fly or work, but I am expecting and anticipating that being the way this is going to go.

Oh and I know what my attorney will say. Again - don't care. He will advise me properly and I will listen and hear what he says, then I will do it my way.

It's an act of love, making sure that the people you love most in the world are taken care of after you depart.

I plan to have my funeral wishes written down and included in the will as well. For those of you that know me and will most likely outlive me, please, I trust you will see to it that they are followed.

Morbid... maybe.

But none-the-less.... an act of love.

If the second beneficiary is reading this.... I love you.

CATS!

My cats have a tough time relating to people with deep voices. So Wolfi has been slowly adjusting to having my bf around.

Today was the ultimate though. I spent a sleepless night and was upset at some things going on and not going on ( real or imagined). I finally went back to bed only to see my cat sleeping on him.

That traitor.

I went to sleep figureing it was a one shot deal.

Ah but no.

The little orange bastard curled up on his lap to sleep for the better part of the afternoon. Good thing I got in there in the morning or I would have had NO cuddle time with him at all. What's good for the cat is good for the mother! In fact he wanted to know if it was alright with Wolfi!

As I was walking out the the door, the two of then looked up at me and he said " this is MY cat now".

Ha,

Not till he feeds them and deals with the litter box!

Birds

For all you bird-lovers out there, I'm sorry.

But I hate birds as pets.

I think they are really pretty to look at, but this is where it ends.

I have a neighbor. They are in the process of moving out. They are the nicest people on earth.

Except.

They own not one, but TWO African Grey Parrots.

Now PArrots of any kind and I NEVER get along. They shriek at inappropriate times as if someone is being murdered.

These two however REALLY piss me off.

But let me tell you why.

You know the new song that the Ice cream man plays? I'm sure it has a title.... but I don't know what it is.

Anyhoo....

These freaking birds can SING IT. LOUDLY.

So it's bad enough that I now listen to the ice cream man, at 10 PM no less, running around the block with this freaking song on a loop.... but now I have to hear it in stereo across the damn hall!!!!!!

but that's not all.

They have expanded their repertoire to also include La Cuckaracha and the Tequila song ( A little Pee Wee Herman perhaps).

What a freaking treat.

I will miss Dan and Miriam. But not these two. Hell no, they can leave now.

I can assist by sending my cats across the hall.

THey were looking hungry anyway.....

Update on yesterday

No one got her the stroller.

I could have predicted that - but no one got her the stroller and no one mentioned it either.

As far as I am concerned it was one more baby shower under my belt. I have at least one more in my family coming in the next year or so.

I think I am going to start having pet showers. Whenever I get a new cat, we are going to have a cat shower in which I can ask people to get me wonderful things such as:

An automatic litter box - you know the one that cleans itself???
Toys for my kitties
Food
Brushes
Medical Insurance gift cards
Frontline Flea and Tick contr ol
Cat litter
Kitty Condo's and/or beds
a cardboard box or two for them to play with
a remote control mouse
a laser pointer
Cat bowls that are personalized with their names
donations to their college accounts ( that's actually going to be towards their major medical and burial)
Some really Chic carriers - soft ones that are good for interior air travel but enables me to put one cat in each one and not kill my arms or back.

Since I am not intending to have children, I think this is more than fair. There is not one thing on this list that counts as an 800.00 gift. In fact, I don't think the entire list comes up to 800.00.

I had a friend who had a first birthday party for her three kittens. Seriously. She invited all people who have cats, we came and brought them gifts and then sat around and drank martinis and ate snacks. It was a blast. Stupid, but a blast. Any excuse to have a party.

I'm no better though, I make my cats open their Christmas gifts by lacing the paper with catnip.

African Violets have to eat too

I have these African Violets.

I love them, but plants and I have been a source of contention since birth.

You see I have the opposite of a green thumb - I kill plants.

Oh Unintentionally for sure.

So I have these violets and I have had them for about a year. They came in a lovely Chinese urn - Navy Blue clay with gold trim.

Wolfi broke that. He knocked the whole thing out of the window sill. Where he didn't belong.

And he knew it.

Came running into me to tell me what happened, and of course I wasn't surprised.

ORANGE CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I go on ebay and find a pot that matches my china in that room and buy it. Once it gets here, I transplant the Violet with special soil provided by Mom into the new pot.

It has a matching stoneware drainage dish which is perfect.

So meanwhile, I learned from the last African Violet I got 2 years ago ( that died on the table) that one has to feed the plant, not just water it.

YOu can't water it too much - it doesn't really like that. It needs to eat but doesn't need that much.

Oh and Did you know that plant food is poisonous?

So, I should tell you that I know this because Wolfi ( again) decided that he was thirsty and hopped up there and took a couple of sips out of the drainage dish.

Thankfully I caught him before he had very much - maybe a sip tops. He may not have had any to be honest.

I flipped out. I called Animal Poison control - and they charge you for the call by the way. A lovely fee that they happily - and cheerfully, put on your MAstcard, Visa, American Expressor discover.

I paid THAT money for them to tell me to monitor him because though its poisonous, it was severly diluted in water, and had already passed through the plant. It was more likely that he was drinking dirty water with dirt than poisonous water.

So now I am on the watch. And of course tonight is the one night I am tired enough now to go to bed.

He's fine, I'm sure. My gutt says he's OK, and his behaviours say he's OK. He's eating, drinking, playing and he did try to hump his brother. All the normal things this cat does.

He had a treat, he cuddled while we watched TV and tried to steal my dinner. Truly nothing outlandish.

So in recounting this story to the neightbors, their answer was: Stop feeding the violets.

But they are blooming for the first time in months - African Violets have to eat too!

I just have to monitor the "children" better than that.

Happy Valentines day!

Today was a wonderful day.

My favorite part of the entire day was the nap I took. I know I know, a nap????

But yes a nap. My Little chou chou, Wolfi, decided to join me and crawled under the flannel afghan and settled down on my lap for a delicious 30 minute nap. He had his paw on top of my hand and purred until we were both drowsy with contentment.

What a way to say I love you. Yes, it was a cat - but honestly, it's not Romantic love, but it is love and thats what the day is about.

So in the spirit of love, I Love all of you! My faithful readers and those who are new - I hope you come back - I love you. For some of you - I LOEV you.

I never thought that I would be a blogger. But it's been a largely joyful and educational experience. It's a great place to try ideas, borrow ideas ( please make sure you give credit when you do!) vent and just lay your thoughts and experiences out. I love comments - live for them sadly. I check my stats way too often and though I don't often change my layout, I have many drafts filed away that I am always tweaking. I hate HTML but it's coming easier.

I love all my friends and my family. I appreciate them all for the things they bring to my life to help me be the person I am and the person I am always striving to be. Even the traits and behaviours that I don't like help me be a better person.

So here's to you - Happy Valentines Day. It's a day about Love - not just romantic love - but any love and I had two boys vying for my affections today - Felines, yes - but love none-the-less.

Please feel free to check out my recital at The Contessa's Recital. I would love comments on that too!

Bless all the animals

In honor St. Francis, My little episcopal church did a blessing of the animals.

Wolfi usually makes an appearance. He likes the activity, being outside, seeing his buddies.

Bandit is not exactly sociable. In fact for the first year I wasn't sure he even liked me. However he turned a corner and now loves to cuddle and play. He's just not as "Hey look at me!!!!" as Wolfi is.

Needless to say I got out the BIG carrier and bribed Bandit with treats. I got him in. Closed the door and picked up the other little man and the sneak got it and booked under bed - in the middle.

I'm out of time, so Wolfi is the only one going. One minor hitch, he hates the carrier and made that clear with the "car meow". You cat owners will be familiar (new cat owners be prepared) with this phenomenon. Your seemingly nice cat who meows quietly or even the rambunctious raucous ones during play, will be AMAZED at the sound and depth of the meow of a cat in the car.

We aren't even on the elevator yet - and he starts that. I blame myself. When he made the hospital trip, the carrier was MIA so he rode in the car without it. So he knows the difference and it wasn't that long ago.

I get there nice and early so that as it starts to fill up the noise level goes up slowly. He's doing OK - I take him out of the carrier as I want him not to be at the same level as the dogs on leashes. He's much more relaxed and happy that way. I make sure he and I are first on line after the prayers. He loves Fr. Christopher. He's been to the house twice to visit and Wolfi just loves him. It's mutual. Most people who meet either of them tend to love them so it's no stretch that they love each other.

I put him in the car with his carrier and I sit with him. I am waiting for my step mom to get the dog blessed. wolfi is not entirely fond of Liesel but that's OK.

It was a wonderful day and the blessing was a success. For my own part, the best was when I got home and released Wolfi. He ran right up to Bandit, they stood nose to nose chatting amongst themselves. If I had to imagine what they were saying it would have gone like this:

"Wow I'm back - man you should have been there!"
"Really what was it like???"
" Well the big box with the cage was a drag, but the big one who calls herself Mama took me out when we got there, only she held me the whole time"
"There's no WAY you were getting me in that box"
" It wasn't so bad, once you get used to it - its kind of roomie"
" She wouldn't have let me out. You know I used to LIVE outside - I was born there"
" So was I, hello, do you EVER listen to me?"
" So who was there? Anyone I know?"
" Liesel was there, she's gotten big - she had on a HIDEOUS collar. Tigger couldn't' make it, his mom had no time to get home. Sammy was there, but he and Liesel aren't speaking - I don't know why but I'm sure Freckles was involved.
" Freckles? I heard he got the axe!"
"Nah - he moved that's all"
"Anyone else - Any "newbies"?
" some new dog - not sure what her deal is, she looks like she's been through the mill - we talked a bit, but she won't say who did those things to her. She's getting help though. There was another cage with some babies of our kind. Tigger's mom seemed interested since she lost one. Luther won't like it though I can tell you. "
" Wow sounds like a lot of folks turned out for this one"
" yeah - they had those snacks that you chase and Catch too. Mama wouldn't let me near them though."
" I LOVE those. Darn I should have gone.
" Let's go lay down I've had a long day."
" Sounds Good!"

My boys like to dish! And me without my camera..... Sad.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A Stomach ache by any other name Current mood: calm Category: Pets and Animals
It started like any normal day, got up, fed the cats and made myself coffee.

Any semblance of my normal work day disappeared after that.

Wolfi, my orange Maine Coon, started to projectile vomit.



At first I thought it was just a hairball as he has some trouble processing those through his body. It usually takes an entire day and a couple of doses of his malt medication. So I did that, but things werent working.

This cat really does have me wrapped around his paw, though. No sooner would he throw up then he would hightail it to the kitchen and sit, not in front of his food bowl or water bowl, but in front of the saucer where I fed him some baby food to see if he would eat. He did this EACH time he threw up.

Still not believing he was actually sick, I spent the day cleaning up after him and making sure he was eating and drinking. Then all of a sudden I realized he hadnt been eating or drinking enough to make it worth my while and he hadnt used the box since the morning.

And I panicked.

You see, he is two years four months and 4 days old. He is actually too young to suffer from urinary blockage but thats not a hard and fast rule. Im extremely hypersensitive to that because Wilbur, my first MC, suffered from that and I almost lost him to it. It cost roughly 5000 dollars before I was done.

So you see why I panicked. The symptoms Wolfi was exhibiting were the same ones that accompany urinary blockage. Along with the target group of large, male cats 3-7 years old. Except for the 3 year old part he had it all,

So I call the emergency hospital code for CHA CHING and the receptionist advises me that he really should be seen but it costs $115.00 just to walk in the door. I decide to wait a bit longer and see how this pans out.
Then I made a fatal mistake I looked up the symptoms of urinary blockage to double check and thats when I made the connection and completely fell apart.

I call back to the emergency room. This time one of the nurses picks up. I should have known better really. She proceeds to tell me that the cat needs to be seen immediately because its obvious he cannot pee. If I dont he will die by morning.

Can you all say Alarmist???? Now my perceived panic is out right hysteria. I drop everything, I call my two best friends and both are not home. I left messages.

As I am now getting Wolfi together, S calls me back. She calmly listens to me as she always does and proceeds to impart this logic:

If he isnt eating or drinking anything and hes throwing up stomach fluids, why on earth would he be peeing and pooping? What is there to pee or poop?

Of course, this is perfectly logical and makes perfect sense. But the snowball is rolling downhill already and I decide to follow through just to be safe.

No carrier Lord knows who borrowed it, So I bundle him in a blanket and hustle out to the car. Mr curious has never been in the car before so this is of course going to be interesting. He wasnt too inquisitive but I did drive one handed all the way to the north shore.

Once there I hold him in one arm and fill out forms with the other. We wait for 45 minutes ( for which they charged me $115.00) and then we are called in. The same nurse who advise me that he would die if I didnt bring him in, bustles in importantly, weighs him ( 14 LBS) and proceeds to tell me what his diagnosis is. I ask her if that is her opinion or fact? She looks confused. She was very abrupt when she tells me that she has been a Veterinary nurse for over 20 years and that she can diagnose by looking at the animal. Then she tells me the doctor will be in shortly and leaves.

I shake my head in wonderment, pet my cat, then it comes to me. I know her. And I know from where, and I didnt like her much then either. She was the nurse who assisted when I had to put Wilbur down. She told me that I was not allowed to be in the room when they put him down. When I asked why she told me because she would have to catheterize the cat before they do it. I hit the roof, they are putting my cat to sleep and I cant be there because it will put her out? The vet put a stop to that quickly and fast forward, Im in the same room dealing with her crap again.

The Doctor arrives, she is wonderful. I respect her very much. She checks his heart and his lungs ( both clear and healthy heart has no arrhythmia or murmer), takes his temp (102 perfectly normal), checks gums ( perfect), eyes ( perfect) and says.

Tell me whats going on. There doesnt appear to be anything wrong with this cat.

I share with her the story of the day. She offers up an x-ray but says its very pricey and she doesnt believe that its necessary. In her professional opinion, this is not a cat she is going to lose sleep over tonight. There are some, but hes not one.

So we decide against the x-ray. She tells me that she is going to give me something to settle his stomach. I told her I almost gave him some pepcid and she tells me thats exactly what shes giving him. I gasp. For 170 dollars? Are you KIDDING Me???? So she laughs and says that there are more injections than just that. He also got subcutaneous fluids, and an antibiotic just to kill off any secondary infections.

They bring him back smelling like the nurses perfume. He has been flirting with them in the back. They are all in love with him and as usual he has been charming the pants off everyone.

We settle the bill. They hand me the insurance forms pre-filled out and ready to go with all the copies necessary. We leave. The poor baby is shaking like a leaf from fear. We get in the car and head home.

We step off the elevator in our building. He immediately recognizes this place hops out of my arms and trots down the hall. He stops at the corner to meow at me to hurry up. We get into the house, he goes to sleep. We get one more bout of projectile vomiting and he is out like a light. I pick up all the food and water so no one gets anything. I go to bed.

Somewhere around 3AM, Bandit joins me on the bed. 10 seconds later he is joined by Wolfi, who proceeds to start bathing Bandit. See below:








By 5AM my life is no longer my own. I am unable to sleep because Wolfi either wants food or love or both. This continues till 8:30 when I finally get up. I feed him some baby food per the vets orders. He eats it in record time and start barking for more. Then he starts eating the regular food. He uses the box and sleeps most of the day. Hes not 100 ut hes about 85 and Ill take that.

I read the bill this afternoon. For the diagnosis of Gastritis with a treatment of Pepcid, fluids, antibiotic we paid 287.00. Code for A stomach ache.

Now thats the most expensive trip to Garden City Ive ever taken.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Feline Loev Current mood: content Category: Pets and Animals

I would classify myself as an animal person. I like dogs and cats equally but have developed an allergy to dogs in the last decade of my life. Cats however - that allergy disappeared the same time the dog one set in.

I am not picky about my cats. I always have two and they are always going to be male (neutered) in the future. One will always be a Maine Coon the other - whatever.

My very first cat was Wilbur, a stunning Black Maine coon with green eyes. He was the love of my life and died 4 years ago. I had him cremated and he sits on a shelf over my desk every day. He was quite a personality. Such a gentle boy - 18 lbs but not fat. MC's are BIG cats. He was a mouser and since we lived in the woods back then, he would catch the unlucky mice that would have the nerve to set paw into our home.

I adopted Shadow, a domestic short hair, female found on the beach as a kitten, from a childhood friend of mine. The family had passed her from house to house within the family due to allergies but she was Mallory's cat from day 1. They missed each other. Shadow never liked to share her "people" with other animals. She was a little bit of bitch too. She was vindictive with as much ferocity towards her peoples as the love she had for them. Shadow adored me. She truly loved me. I loved her too. But when she got mad at me for some slight - real or imagined - she would pee somewhere. Never hidden - right out in the open - and damaging something. My leather briefcase was the one that really irked me most.

She passed away a year an half ago at age 18 also. She had some disease that defied even my vet. She had lesions on her body that would erupt and no one could tell me what was wrong with her. I was forced to put my poor shmoofy to sleep because it was slowly killing her with extensive pain and there was nothing that could be done for her.

In between, I had adopted a 4 year old neutered male Maine coon named Toby. He was gorgeous. Traditional tortuous shell tabby cat with brilliant green eyes. He had an aneurism after 9 months with me and we lost him.

Both Shadow and Toby are buried in my parents yard.

My current loves are Wolfgang and Bandit. Wolfi is my Orange Maine Coon. Hes 16 lbs and was the runt of the litter. A roly poly baby who I got at 3 months old, he was the first kitten I ever took care of by myself. He was so beautiful and sweet, he would fall asleep while running to sit on my lap, right on the floor. Such a sweet face, this cat has the perfect 8 points for showing a Maine Coon. I wouldnt show him though hes all mine and hes neutered. He can be very loving and a big pain in the butt. He sleeps with me, eats with me and sometimes my food in addition to his own.

He has a unique habit with his litter box. When its time for him to use the Lil kitties room, he goes into the bathroom, closes the door, does his business, cleans up, opens the door and comes out. Just like his humans do.

He feels that it is his right to share a yogurt with his mom and we have finally come to an arrangement with that. When I take out the yogurt, if hes not with me and thats highly unlikely

I ask Who wants to have a yogurt with mama? He comes running if hes not with me, and we walk together, with him chirping the whole way, to the couch. I tell him to settle down which means lay down until mama finishes her yogurt. He then takes the container between his front paws and licks it. I eat activia yogurt which has a very small container and his big head doesnt really fit, but he does pretty well.

He also has an unnatural affinity for the hallway. The one OUTSIDE my house. He sits at the door and whines, or talks to me, if he hears anyone or anything in this hallway. No matter that they may not be there to visit us. We do have neighbors. He does have a girlfriend 3 doors down named Ginger. She loves him and she loves me. She sits outside my door and they sniff each other. Its so funny to watch.

These stories may illustrate Wolfi as the smart one. I assure you, he is smart, but his brother bandit is brilliant.

Bandit is not out going, he is not terribly interesting looking, he is domestic short hair black and white cat. He was also the runt of his litter. He is very sweet and very loving. He loves to do things in the house that hes not allowed to and sets up Wolfi for the fall.

I had changed the type of litter the boys were using to the crystals. They deal with smells better and last longer so I thought this was a great idea. Bandit felt differently. What he would do, was take the multicolored blue crystal covered poops and use them as toys. Wolfi being the more active player IMMEDIATELY joined in. It took me months to catch Bandit as the culprit and poor Wolfi was always getting yelled at.

Likewise with the closets. Wolfi is dumb enough to open the closet doors to root around in there, but he learned this from Bandit. Again took me months to find out.

They play together all morning long. One chases the other than they reverse. They run through the house like this. 2 or 3 times a month, there are scratches on one anothers noses, but thats part of the territory. Bandit is getting better a fighting back. Hes the lover not the fighter. They play like this at my bedtime as well. There tends to be under the bed action here, they fight, hiss, and talk freshly to one another, until I turn the spray gun on them. If this continues through the night, one or both get thrown out of the room.

Bandit is a love bug more so than Wolfi. Wolfi is loving and affectionate but Bandit can go 20-30 minutes of petting and purring where Wolfi only has about 5 -7 minutes in him. Bandit is very responsive to being called the love bug, He is very sweet and very cuddly, and He is NOT the dominant one.

Wolfi is.

And you know how I found out? Wolfi mounted Bandit when they were 6 months old. Not really clear on what either was supposed to do, Bandit rolled over on his back and the two of them looked at me and had the most perplexed look on their face. And me without my camera! Like I said there is a supreme lack of intelligence here.
Bandit only sleeps on the bed in the winter Wolfi is on the bed all year round and under the covers during the colder months.

They both worship me, or at least, I like to think so.