Fur Baby Friday!

Now that I'm back from Hawaii, it's back to my regularly scheduled blog posts. Which really may not be that many, because work is busy, and I honestly have no ideas right now. I will put together a few posts with pictures from Hawaii though! Soon.

Anyway, when Mrs. Monologues posted about her puggle with a chronic condition, I thought it was sweet, and wanted to post about how our Clarabelle came into our lives!

I had been volunteering with Purrfect Pals for a few months when Clarabelle came to the store I volunteer at. She was 6 at the time, and her family was losing their home, so they surrendered her. She had a flea allergy and was, literally, half bald. From the middle of her stomach down she had very little fur. It was slowly growing back, but living at the store is really stressful, so she wasn't getting the love and cuddles that would encourage it to go along faster.

You can kind of see her sad baldness in this picture, but it was coming in quickly by then.

So here she is, half bald, skinny, and older, in the middle of kitten season. {Everyone wants a kitten, and very often the "older" cats, from about 5 and up, are overlooked. This is especially sad because cats live to be 20+ so really, 5 isn't that old}
I had absolutely no intention of getting another cat. Though Hermione flourishes with the attention of another cat, I didn't realize she needed a companion, plus I was not working at the time, so it just didn't cross our minds. Then, a little cold went around, and turned into an upper respiratory infection in Clarabelle and another cat.
Both kitties were taken to the shelter for meds, and the other one, whose name I don't remember, was so sick that one of the staff brought him home that night. He didn't make it through the night. He was 2. Later, after an autopsy, they discovered he had what is like walking pneumonia in humans. Since cats hide their pain, there was no way of knowing.

Clarabelle needed some place to stay for 2 weeks while she was on the antibiotics and recovered. Since the other kitty had just died, I felt terrible, and offered to bring her home. After assuring my husband that it would only be for 2 weeks, I took her home.
She was so sick that she didn't eat at first, she was constantly coughing and sneezing, and was downright miserable. I was so afraid she would die on us. When she finally felt better she insisted on leaving the bathroom she was staying in, and would plop herself right down in the sun, and sleep there for hours. Her fur started coming in, and it turned out she is what we call a violent cuddler (she will actually try to bite you when you take her off your lap!)

When we had an open cage at the store, I told Geoff I would bring her back, if he wanted. Though I wanted to keep her, I knew the decision had to be made by him. Thankfully, he relented, and we've had our sweet kitty for about a year and a half. I love to tell the story and say, she was only supposed to be with us 2 weeks. That was in July 2010.

The funny thing is, despite the fact that Geoff was resistent to her at first, she has turned into a total daddy's girl, and he adores her.

So that's how our sweet Clarabelle came into our lives...and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Fur Baby Friday!

I'm linking up with Fur Baby Friday with Mrs. Monologues!

A couple weeks ago we had some gorgeous weather. It was so nice that I actually opened the windows to get some fresh air circulating through the house. The kitties were thrilled!

They're like bookends!

Hermione kitty.

Clarabelle-y

Black Cat Ball

I don't do consumerism very well. Clearly, since one of my favorite blogs is The Non Consumer Advocate. I am working on trying to remember that not everyone shares my beliefs, but it is difficult, sometimes, to watch friends go to concerts regularly, or other friends outfitting their house using more money than we have in savings, or still others who can go clothes shopping whenever they want without feeling like that money would be better spent going towards groceries, savings or credit card debt. I'm working on it, though.
Usually I find myself almost disgusted with the way people throw money around. Disgusted, disturbed and, sometimes, wondering about the state of their savings account (who am I? Try not to judge me, clearly I'm crazy). However, there was one night this past weekend, where I put all of that aside and encouraged people do spend more, more MORE!

After all, it was for the kitties.
Purrfect Pals, the cat shelter I volunteer with, and whom we adopted our wonderful Clarabelle from, held their annual Black Cat Ball on Saturday night. I've been working with Purrfect Pals for just over a year and a half now, but this is the first Black Cat Ball that I've attended or, should I say, volunteered at, because I'm not ready to be in that crowd during the auction yet!
Because yes, there was a live (and silent) auction. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. There were so many things donated, from bottles of wine with the Black Cat Ball label, to vacations all around the country (and in one case, the world!) There was alcohol, bid cards flying, yelling, cheering, clapping...it was wonderful. One man paid $2,000 to put his cat's face on the cover of the 2012 Purrfect Pals calendar.

Our sweet Clarabelle, working on a catnip pillow

Halfway through the night they stopped and did what is called the Friend in Need. This is where the shelter is simply asking for money (starting at $5,000, working down to $25. Anyone who wants to donate at any of those levels raised their bid card). They played a slide show of our wonderful cats and kittens and the vet working on them, along with a song. It was a little along the lines of that ASPCA commercial. (Don't click unless you want to cry!)
I wasn't the only one who teared up! Anyway, after all the bids were collected, they totaled up the Friend in Need donations: $38,000 were donated in that part of the auction alone.

I know there are so many charities out there, believe me, I do. Many of them get lost in the shuffle of the big ones, but they all deserve to be supported. Every single charity out there has suffered due to the recession, and though I can't speak for every other charity, I know that Purrfect Pals, despite facing budget cuts and a far lower income than expected, continues to give their cats the very same level of care they deserve, and which they've always had.
I wanted to remember this night, but I also wanted to remind you that Purrfect Pals, along with many many other charities are still out there. And, if you're so inclined, set aside your clothes shopping, or your saving (though please don't spend money you don't have!!) and think about helping out a kitty shelter that could really use it this year. Here is a link to their Amazon.com wish list. If all you do is donate a $7 cat bed, then you've made someone's day.
Remember the $38,000 that was raised? Most of it was donated at the $25 and $50 levels. It adds up, and it's so wonderful to see people uniting for a good cause, spending money, but selflessly, rather than selfishly.

Sisters

When I came home this afternoon, this is what I found.

Clarabelle and Hermione haven't always gotten along. When Clarabelle first arrived, Hermione was very upset with me, hissing and hiding all day. I felt terrible.

Clarabelle was so sick, she didn't care, at first. By the time Hermione came around, Clarabelle was feeling better.

They will occasionally groom each other; Clarabelle will more often groom Hermione than the other way around.

I have no idea whose idea this was, or who arrived first. My guess would be Hermione curled up with Clarabelle, but I will never know for sure.

Either way, I think it's safe to say that these sisters have bonded.

And that makes me feel all warm inside!

Favorite toy

Why play with

those silly little toys

Mommy brings home

when there are twist-ties available??

Life is tough...

...when your day consists of lying in the sun and napping.

Trauma, trauma, trauma!

I was getting ready to head out for several errands this afternoon, but I was first playing around on the computer, and watching Hermione. She was staring intently at the refrigerator, which really isn't all that unusual, she tends to stare at random things from time to time. However, I soon realized that she wasn't just staring at nothing when she lunged and then trotted into the living room with a mouse in her mouth!

I had no idea what to do, so I called Geoff. Being the girl that I am, I immediately started yelling into the phone: "Geoff!! Geoff!! It's a mouse! In the house!! How did it get here?? What do I do??" and so on and so forth, until he got me to calm down.
I ended up covering it with a pan, running down to the office and having one of the men there take care of it for me (he didn't kill it, just took it away and said he was going to drop it off far away from this part of the complex)
I'm not normally a girly-girl who screams at mice, honestly, but it completely shocked me! Plus, I really don't want to hear that we have mice in the apartment, that's just not good. What most likely happened is that it squeezed in, somehow, most likely last night because it got really cold. We haven't found any droppings so there is no reason to think it had been here for a while, or has friends.
Luckily, I think Hermione traumatized it enough that it won't be back here!

I would never let this happen...

When I came home from the grocery store, I discovered that a whole chicken I'd just bought had leaked into my reusable bag!! Normally I would have thrown the chicken in a small plastic bag, but I didn't think time and regretted it!

Of course, I was hungry, and didn't feel like dealing with it, so after putting the chicken into the freezer, I set the bag aside to eat lunch and deal with it later (luckily it leaked only onto the plastic bottom, so I can just wash that off).

Well, someone else had other ideas! I looked up to see Hermione cleaning out the bag for me!

Of course I stopped her, right? Um, no. I quietly snuck over to try and take a picture!

Caught licking her lips!
Don't worry, I will still wash off the plastic bottom. I just couldn't resist taking a few pictures of our little troublemaker!