Ahhh We Lost the Guster!

The Guster is not a very courageous fellow. The saying, “Curiosity killed the cat,” almost doesn’t apply to him — that’s how fearful he is.

Until we brought him to his our new home Saturday night.

We didn’t really plan the move well. We thought we would take our time, but then when push came to shove, we had an empty gleaming apartment to move into and we didn’t want to do anything else.

We dropped everything, and brought the bed and the Guster over. Living there has been a little like urban camping — not much furniture, only the basics. Just what we need to survive: some food, a litterbox, a bed and Gus.

He was pretty upset and meowing a lot, but I could tell he was okay because we were there. He walked the perimeter of the house over and over sniffing everything. Eventually he took a sit on one of our familiar kitchen chairs and just watched us.

We went outside to sit on the stoop and enjoy a celebratory beer. Gus came along. He likes to come outside with us. He sniffed around… I went back inside for something and he followed me right back in.

Good Guster!!

We went back out to join Will. The Guster went back to sniffing the neighborhood. Will and I stopped paying attention for a bit… and then when it was time to come back in, he was nowhere to be found!

We called him over and over to no avail. Not willing to leave the front door wide open, we reluctantly turned in without our best furry buddy.

I didn’t sleep a wink. Every noise the new house made I was sur was Gus coming to the door. Eventually I put together a pile of blankets and tried to sleep next to the door so I could be sure not to miss him. Every hour or so I got up and tried to track him down.

Nothing.

The morning arrived, and we combed the neighborhood shaking our cat food and calling him. Nothing. Now, he’s not a young cat. He can’t scale fences and is terrified of anything new. I knew he couldn’t have gotten far, but at the same time I was sure that he might have been scared into running away by the howls of the neighboring dogs. Who knows where he’d end up??

Distraught, we asked our new neighbors. I made signs and we posted them throughout the neighborhood. With nothing else to do but try to ignore our heavy hearts, we went back to unpacking. It was lunchtime, and I made sandwiches in our new kitchen. Ham and cheese. Pretty good, though we hadn’t moved the toaster yet and toasted bread makes sandwiches better.

Sandwiches in hand, I went out to our stoop to call Will for lunch. He was out looking for the Guster again. I looked left and wonder where Will could be. I looked to the right and lo and behold! Who do I see cautiously walking towards me? No one else but the Guster.

I screamed and grabbed him and gave him the biggest hug he’d ever gotten. He was sleepy; just waking up from a nap in the neighbor’s overgrown yard and deaf to our pleas.

Cats. I swear they don’t care about anyone but themselves.

Continue Reading

In Case You Were Wondering

This is how you address a cat.

The Ad-Dressing Of Cats

T. S. Eliot

You’ve read of several kinds of Cat,
And my opinion now is that
You should need no interpreter
To understand their character.
You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are same and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse—
But all may be described in verse.
You’ve seen them both at work and games,
And learnt about their proper names,
Their habits and their habitat:
But
How would you ad-dress a Cat?

So first, your memory I’ll jog,
And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG.

And you might now and then supply
Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie,
Some potted grouse, or salmon paste—
He’s sure to have his personal taste.
(I know a Cat, who makes a habit
Of eating nothing else but rabbit,
And when he’s finished, licks his paws
So’s not to waste the onion sauce.)
A Cat’s entitled to expect
These evidences of respect.
And so in time you reach your aim,
And finally call him by his NAME.

So this is this, and that is that:
And there’s how you AD-DRESS A CAT. Continue Reading

New Office: Pros and Cons

This whole work-home separation has been really a) wonderful and b) hard.

a) Wonderful

– More stairs! I walk up and down at least (and this a conservative estimate) six times the number of stairs I did when I worked at home.  This has to be good for my butt and my general well being.

– Biking! I bike to work!!  So fun.  And Real Simple says that biking gives you more energy which is something I definitely need.

– No cat.  No one is meowing and clawing and trying to eat some of my lunch.

– People!  I talk to at least one extra person every day.  It rocks.

– Way cool space.  Warehouse 416 is a way inspiring place to spend my time.

– Friendship! (Yes, this is somehow different than people.) I have an office mate who is pretty freaking awesome and takes great photos that make the office look even better than it actually is:

(Photos by Sarabek Images)

b) Hard.  And stressful too.

– Rubberbands are hard to locate. I always kept a well-stocked home office which, I now realize, was relied upon in non-home affairs.

– Where to file?? My desk is at work.  I pay my office bills and my home bills at the same time (always have).  Where do my home credit card bills go?  Where do my work bills get filed?  (off subject — why are they not all e-bills??)

– What to do? Get up earlier? The office is in a warehouse that has an art gallery on the ground floor, artist studios and one other business office.  It’s pretty vacant and rather creepy late at night.  Which is when I’m used to accomplishing most of the coding necessary to develop websites…what can I say?  I’m a night person.  It’s quiet — no one calls and I can put on a soap, and get in the coding flow.  I’ve been tried staying late by talking myself out of American Horror Story memories and dissolving into the comfortable lull of Days of Our Live, and then boom!  The timer from the weekly Toastmasters meeting goes off startling the wits out of me and bringing back American Horror Story memories.  SO SCARY.

– No cat.  When I drop some food on the floor, I have to clean it up.  That’s a serious bummer.

 

The Gus Report

Every year the Guster gets his annual exam from our holistic veterinarians, Creature Comfort. He does not like going to the vet.  He meows and meows and meows and nine car rides out of ten pees in the cat carrier.  Such fun!

Last year, we discovered that he had arthritis in his hind legs and that he was a whopping 17 pounds! His rings of fat only make his arthritis worse. Poor buddy.

Since that development, we’ve been working diligently on getting him to lose weight — even going so far as to subbing out some of his food for mashed pumpkin!  He was really unhappy with that in the beginning, but he’s acclimated alright.  He meows to high heaven all day long because he’s starving, but if he were starving, wouldn’t he have lost more than a pound in the past year?  Sure you’re starving, cat, sure you are.

The vet was sure to point out that losing a pound is quite an accomplishment for an older kitty like Gus.  It’s over 5% of his bodily mass after all! Five points for our furry hero.

I shared with the vet that overall he’s pretty happy (besides the starvation complaints) but that he’s having trouble jumping up on the bed.  To combat that, Dr. Jenny recommends that we sprinkle Nutramax Cosequin for Cats on his dinners to help with his joint health.  He’s turning 12 this year and Cosequin for Cats is apparently a good addition for any aging feline.  Good joint health means a happier kitty.  Done.

Sidenote: Do you have a recommendation for some sexy pet stairs??  I’m in the market.  All the pet stairs I’ve found are terrifyingly ugly.  Gus has an eye for style, you know.  He’s not going to use just any pet stairs to get up to the bed.  I’m thinking something that makes him feel like the king he is…fuzzy red carpet…luxurious padding…

We won’t know for a few days how his blood work turned out, but Gus was sure a sport about the whole thing.  He only peed in the cat carrier once!  How’s that for a happy ending?  Five more points for the Gusman!

Continue Reading

I wish I was a different person

Someone who likes getting up early. (And also one that wasn’t such an OCD crazy person when it comes to living with people. That one sucks. But it must be noted, also keeps a very tidy and wonderful house 🙂 )

This morning I intended to get up at the same time as my boyfriend (6 a.m.!). I’ve always wished that I enjoyed the mornings…but I don’t. I’ve toyed with the idea that in 2012 I will get up at 6 a.m. every day.

Get up, do some yoga, read a book and head to work by 8am. If I were to get up at 6 every morning, then t hose 7 a.m. meetings I might have won’t be such a horrible shock to the system.

But 6 a.m.! It’s still dark! You can’t even tell what the weather is going to be like. Today I looked out at 6 a.m. when I was up making my boyfriend a heart-shaped egg in a pan I got him for Christmas, and I wondered, will it rain? Will it be sunny? Will it be cold or temperate? I don’t even know!!

How is a person supposed to get dressed with such a scarcity of information?! How is one supposed to enjoy the mornings when there’s no sunshine and that bed is so damn warm and a cat so fluffy to cuddle??

Really, I need to know. I want to enjoy mornings in 2012! Continue Reading

sometimes my cat serves the same purpose as an inkblot

Look at what a cutie he is!

Lately, he’s been looking to me like a crawfish:

You can see the resemblance right?

I suppose that means I want to eat him. I mean, he is pretty cute.

The boyfriend mentioned last night that to him Gus looks a lot like Louis CK.

Now, there is no way that Gus looks more like a man than a crayfish.  Sure he’s got the right coloring, but where are the whiskers?? They are both fairly crotchety old men, though.  I have to concede a resemblance there.
Continue Reading

I’ve been coveting an ipad.

Really, really coveting.

You see, even my cat loves electronics. The proof is in the photo.

iPads are good for cats*. They can play that one game with the fish in the pond and never actually catch a fish. Eleven is too old to have that hurt his self esteem, right? It would only give him hours and hours of amusement.

And me too. Also, it’s a justifiable expense. How can I possibly be operating a web business without an iPad to test websites on? For instance, this one looks awesome on an iPad. Or so I think…

Ah the many justifications of life.  Who will win?  The battle of indulgence verses sensibility wages on…

*What do you think of the capitalization here? Does Apple have a protocol for when you start sentences with “iPod”, “iPad” or “iPhone”?? Twenty-first century problems, man. I tell you.