Flea Troubles

A friend had come over to hang out, and Charlie was doing his usual "show off" routine a couple weeks ago. He played fetch, showed her all his toys and then started his humping routine.

Yes, I said humping routine.

When Charlie is anxious, he'll grab his bed and start going to town on it. It's pretty embarrassing. My friend is an animal person, so I tried not to make a big deal out of it, but it was still pretty awkward. It went on for about... two hours. I was actually afraid he was going to get sore.

After she left, (traumatized, I'm sure) I started to wonder if something was wrong with his boy bits. So I flipped him over to check out his junk. (Charming, right?)

One word.....

FLEAS

There were fleas EVERYWHERE all over his poor crotch. 

If one pet has fleas, you can bet all three of them do. I freaked out and ran to WalMart at midnight and spent a fortune on medication and treated them all that night. I was worried about treating Tootie because his diabetes still isn't controlled and we aren't vaccinating him because his immune system is too compromised right now (per the vet) so she wants to hold off until he's more stable. I called the vet to make sure it would be okay and they said go ahead, so I did.

I waited a couple of days, and then started checking the cats. Tootie seemed okay, but Amelia's whole tushie was COVERED in flea dirt. It was disgusting. I decided to do the unthinkable (to a cat.) I decided to give her a bath.


Sarah and I went to the store and bought a lingerie wash bag with a draw string top. When I worked for the vet, this is what they used to wash cats. They only had the cheap ones in colors, so I selected a beautiful hot pink.

Amelia had no idea what was coming, so of course she was easy to get INTO the bag.

 But then of course I did the horrible, bad, bad thing to her. I stuck her in the tub!

Obviously she was not pleased.

She actually managed to wiggle INTO the bag and then her head wasn't out. She was fine, but it kind of freaked me out. It was really good I finally did the bath though, not only for the fleas, but because she's gotten so chunky that she can't reach her own butt to clean it! It was pretty dirty and gross back there. I was glad to get her cleaned up finally.

Charlie got really distressed over her crying though and tried to comfort her. I think this is the first and only time they've ever been affectionate towards each other- only took 4 years!

Amelia survived her bath and recovered fine! Unfortunately, everybody still seems to have fleas. Charlie and Amelia both got baths (Amelia just a regular bath, Charlie got a flea bath). Everybody got at least one Frontline treatment, and Amelia and Charlie got two. We still have fleas though. It's been two weeks. Ideas? I'm freaking out. It's so gross!

Amelia the Marshmallow

The last couple of months I have been looking at my baby Amelia and thinking... "You're looking extra plumpy today, Amelia." Um, everyday.

Not just like a "fat day." Like, every day.

After somebody left a MEAN, MEAN, MEAN comment on a video where Toulouse and Charlie Brown were wrestling on You Tube (the person called them both fat and said they were going to die from obesity- the dog only weighs 19 pounds! Toulouse is within a healthy range, big cat, but still okay!) I talked to my dad and then thought the only other being besides myself in this house with a legitimate weight problem- Amelia.

So, I put her on the scale. DUN DUN DUN!

The last time she was weighed, she weighed 14 pounds, same as Toulouse. She just carries her weight differently than him so she looks bigger even though they weigh the same. But, lately I have noticed she has not been cleaning "back there" and wondered if maybe she couldn't reach! (Ick!)

The result... 16.2 POUNDS!

OMG. I died. How did she get so chubby?! She's on weight control food! She is VERY sedentary. (More sedentary than me if you can believe it.) And since we've gotten the dog she's been more isolated, does less, isn't out much. Maybe that's why? I've also felt like we've been going through WAY more food lately.

I'm not sure what to do. Toulouse is really active, so eats and needs to. They have always free-fed, but I guess Amelia needs something different now. I guess I will have to start measuring their food. The problem is Toulouse is such a pig I'm afraid he'll eat it all and leave her nothing. I even have an extra bowl of food for him on the counter (where she won't go) of perscription food and he still eats her weight watchers food. He also yowls insanely if he finds the bowls empty. He will wake me out of a dead sleep to alert me to this DISASTER. If I don't respond to that, or lock him out of the room, then he starts going through the trash or knocking things off the counter to make noise. I swear. Because as soon as I get up he runs over to me and gets all lovey- "Feed me, feed me, I'm STARVING!" If I walk away he gets loud again. Argh!

Anyway, so ideas and suggestions are welcome. I have probably heard them all (separate them, timed feedings, blah blah blah) but maybe there is something new. Maybe I just need a cheerleader!

Next I decided I better take action RIGHT AWAY, so at midnight, about 4 minutes after weighing her and receiving this devastating news (it took three tries to weigh her because she kept cheating and taking one paw off, making it look like she weighed around 10 pounds. But I knew that was wrong!) I put on her pink halter and we went for a walk.

This is what she did:

Shimmied on her belly across the grass, started EATING it, and then waddled back to the house!

What am I going to do with her?!

Dog vs. Cat SMACKDOWN

I've been wanting to show these for awhile, but had trouble gettiing online and I have been out of town and SO BUSY. Here is Toulouse my little boy cat and Charlie Brown my Beagle engaging in their nightly wrestling match. in the first one it may look like Charlie is picking on Tootie, but if Toot doesn't like it, he can just run away. And trust me, there are plenty of times he just walks straight up to Charlie BB and smacks him on the head to get things started! lol Excuse the mess... why clean up when they're going to run all over it anyway?

Wordless Wednesday: Ever wonder what it's like to drive 9 hours with 2 cats?

Amelia uses the litterbox on the freeway.... Toulouse made THIS FACE...

Toot puttin' in his order at Arby's. He REALLY liked the lady who waited on us. He wanted to jump in the restaurant and snuggle her.

I RAN!

Last night I did something I haven't done in months and months... for a lot of reasons, and most recently, for the obvious reasons I have been talking about on this blog for the last two months. I went to the gym.

I had been thinking about it for a few days. I got dressed to go several times and was too... afraid? (not quite the right word...) to go. Last night I finally went. I got dressed to go in the morning and I didn't make it out the door until after 930pm at night but I did go.

It was hard. It was scary. I was afraid of people looking at me. I was afraid of MEN looking at me. I wore a jacket, three shirts, a sports bra, a bra, pants and a pair of bike shorts underneath. I still felt really exposed.

When I got up to the treadmills I about had a heart attack because out of the 20+ treadmills there were probably 4 or 5 guys up there and they were all equally spread out so I couldn't be more than one machine away from any of them. At that point I wasn't sure I could stay, but I did, and I just set up camp next to a woman, and prayed that the guy two machines over would leave soon.

I watched Law and Order on the tv. I was sweating like crazy in all those clothes but I didn't want to take my sweatshirt off because I didn't want the guy on the machine two over to be able to see my body. Do you see what an issue this is becoming? I was completely aware of how out of control it was getting and at the same time I couldn't control my anxiety enough to just take the darn thing off.

This is the "exciting" thing, if you can call it that. I ran! I have had a knee injury (patello-femural syndrome- runner's knee- basically my knee grinds bone on bone) for the last couple of years and haven't been able to take care of it with PT on my own. I have really missed running, especially now with all of this adrenilne from the anxiety built up in me. Well, yesterday, I RAN!

Guess how fast I ran????

3mph.

LOL

Do you have any idea how excruciating it is to run that slow? What was sad was that I was wiped after "running" at that pace for 5 minutes and had to go back to walking! What sucked more was that my knee still ended up hurting afterwards anyway. :( But the pain during was minimal, which is good... but the pain after indicates that my joints are still grinding so I probably shouldn't do it.

So I did leave my house this week, I did an activity, and I did something physical for the first time since everything happened. Lots of firsts.

On the flip side, I was in WalMart last week and needed to stop and take my blood pressure at the pharmacy area (I have to monitor it because of the medication I am on can cause high blood pressure, so I am supposed to check it every time I see a machine). A man was sitting at the machine, but was getting up to leave. I almost cried to see him sitting there because he had touched it. I had to check my BP because it had been a long time since I checked it since I haven't been leaving the house, but I didn't want my body to touch anything he touched. Without even thinking about it, I pulled a piece of paper out of my purse, wrapped it around my arm, and stacked some products on the machine so my skin wouldn't come into contact with anything he had touched and I could still check my BP. Then I cried.

I know it's not normal, and I dont know why I did it. I didn't even think about it, I just did it. It really upset me- both that I did it, and that I was so disturbed that some man had touched the machine. Intellectually I know it's ridiculous. But the rest of me... ??? I don't even know what to think. I told my therapist, she seemed to understand, she said that it was consistent with the trauma I had, she also said that I might need EDMR therapy because of what happened in the house, which is some sort of eye movement thing which desensitizes you from trauma, and she also offered to refer me back to IOP (the outpatient thing.)

I have to go shoot a wedding today. Can't we just shoot me instead?

Oh, and the cat learned how to slide the window open now too, in addition to pulling the screen out. So, the window I had opened a crack, was slid open 8 inches so he could let himself out to go play outside this morning, where I found him wandering around yowling for me in the grass, covered in mud. Thanks Tootie. YOU ARE AN INSIDE CAT! READ THE MEMO!

Attacked by the Cat!

ITS NOT TRUE!

It's not true! I have not fallen off the planet, I promise. Well, ok sort of. I sort of fell off, but only a little so it doesn't count.

So I was having a really rough time the last time I posted with finding out David was getting married and having a horrible time trying to study for the Baby Bar.

I am still struggling, and am totally slacking off in the studying department. As in, I am basically not doing it at all, and every time I sit down with my books I fall asleep. I am not sure what to do about that. I am pretty sure this is what I want but I am totally unmotivated. So, what do I do to fix it? I have no idea. There is only about 5 weeks until the exam and I am totally out of time. I need to get rolling or this is going to be a big fat waste of money. ($600!!!)

I think part of what the deal is, is that I am totally DONE with being at home. I want something to do, I want a change. What I really want is to go back to work and be around people again. I have been home since the end of May and I have had enough. I am lonely, and I long for a regular paycheck and co-workers to be around... a regular schedule and not feeling like I am supposed to be working all hours of the day or night on my photography stuff. So I am frustrated. I think I am sort of subconciously just waiting until the exam so I can stop being at home and look for a job. But I am supposed to be studying until then, and instead I am just screwing around waiting. Like I am going through the motions but not really doing it. Which is stupid and defeats the whole purpose of staying home this whole time.

Next up, I have been a bit distracted by the sudden overflowing of interested men in my life. There were 3 main guys who were chasing me starting the weekend after my last post, totally bizarre, they all just popped up at the same time. After a couple of weeks, one of them had me completely hooked, but I didn't want to put too much pressure on him by just focusing on him, so I kept the other two around but wasn't really interested anymore. So a month goes by and it's down to just the one guy I liked the best, and then he goes and spooks himself and falls of the planet! So I am back to being lonely. I am up for keeping things casual with him, but he's not around much so I'm not sure what to think. So I reconnected with one of the guys from before, but I'm not really interested so that doesn't seem fair to the poor guy. lol RAWR!

And lastly, my cat attacked me. I already posted this on my other blog so I am cheating and just copying and pasting. Here is the story:

My neighbors were having a party and were being really rude and loud. They threw some stuff down into my patio and I made them come down and clean it up. After awhile I tried to go to sleep, but someone in their unit was snoring so loud I could hear them through the ceiling, and I actually finally had to switch my sleeping position ( my ultimate doom) so that my head was by the footboard so the noise from their unit wasn't so distracting and so I could sleep. I was suddenly awoken by a horrible slicing/choping sensation on my neck following by horrible owchiness pain.

Amelia tried to kill me.

Ok, not really, but that's what it looks like! I think because I was sleeping the wrong way, she didn't realize I was there and thought I was a pile of blankets and so she accidentally jumped on my neck on her way to jumping on the window sill.

My assailant, on the left.


Pouting over my ugliness.



If you've ever wanted to check out my moles...



When I realized I don't have any turtlenecks...



It has been almost a week and I obsessively rubbed neosporin on it every day so it looks alot better now but this story was too good not to post. Crazy cat.

MY CAT REALLY IS A FREAK

 

Ok, #1, my new favorite song is "Lovely Tonight" by Joshua Radin. I found it on a wedding photographer's blog for a slideshow and I adore it. Go download it. I love the sound. It's fabulous.

#2. Clearly my cats are freaks. Here I set forth the evidence.

a.) Two nights ago Tootie got up at 3am and "killed" a bag of cotton balls. He dragged it all over the house, and sprinkled hundreds and hundreds of shredded cotton balls all over the house. Now my theory is I hit a bunny ( my first road kill incident- I cried! I fel tawful for the baby bunny :( ) and I think Tootie was traumatized by his Mommy being a bunny killer and he acted out the murder (Peter Cottontail=Rabbit=Bunny=Cotton balls) LOL Ok I am kidding, but seriously he made a HUGE mess. See pictures of huge mess. When he finnished doing this, I guess he got hungry because he then got a bag of baked pretzels OUT OF THE CUPBOARD and OPENED THE BAG and ATE THEM. Not kidding. No one believed me. WHich brings me to part b....

b.) I am up late working and I hear a noise, and here is Tootie, walking out of the kitchen with ANOTHER bag of baked pretzels. He carried them around in his mouth, ripped open the bag and ate them.

Therefore, my cats are freaks. And I have proof!!!

Additionally, for your viewing pleasure, here is Tootie trying to dig a HOLE in the mirror, and hiding in a pile of blankies.

:/

STILL WAITING IMPATIENTLY

My grades won't come out until the middle of March. So I am still waiting. I will be waiting for a long time!

I worked really hard on my contracts papers this week for my legal writing class, but I guess I still don't totally understand the material, but then again for the life of me I could not pay attention in contracts class tonight. Bleh. I'm trying.

I am watching a special on the LDS church. I like it. It is fun for me. Yes, I have a little obsession. No, I can't help myself. It is a good show. I still haven't made it to the Institute of Religion to post flyers for wedding photography. I really want to do an LDS wedding before I "retire" from wedding photography, but I just don't know that I have the time to add any more clients to my plate with school and everything. There has to be a limit. But hopefully I will still get to to do ONE, maybe if I am lucky. The Sacramento Temple is small but it is so pretty and I bet they will have great flowers in the spring.

A boy I like at school likes my friend. It is annoying me. I told a lie and said I was ok with it. Then I told her the truth and it is sort of making things tense between us. I had to watch her and him text message each other under their desks during class tonight and it was very annoying to me. I miss David alot. I just wish there was somebody who liked me like that. You know? I am lonely, but I am not really ready to move on. And I was talking to two of my school friend's tonight about the whole thing and they were pretty much yelling at me about how I obviously was ready to move on since I have this little crush, but I think obviously I am not ready since I am choosing to fixate on someone who is not interested and who is not a good match for me anyway. I miss David. Alot. Did I say that already? lol I miss him so much. I haven't talked to him in a long time. But how do you stop loving someone? I don't think I will, it's just a matter of finding more people to love I guess.

I have a new outside cat. He's my little buddy. I was calling him Penelope because he's so girly looking but then after a few months I found out he is actually a little boy! LOL So then I was calling him Peter. But he loves me, and I am starting to love him, and if I adopt him, his name will have to be Berlioz (bear-lee-oh-s) so I have all of the cats from the Disney Artisocat's movie. Marie (My Mary), Toulouse (Toulouse, aka Tootie) and Duchess (I call Amelia Duchess Amelia). If I adopt Peter and call him Berlioz then I will have a complete set of kitties!!!

Here is a picture of Peter the fluffy girly boy cat.