Me to the animal rescue again

So...I love animals. Everyone who knows me knows that I love animals. I don't eat animals, I have several of my own as pets, and I do whatever I am able to support rescues and shelters, whether it's sending money/donating things, transporting animals from shelter to rescue, or fostering. Most people I know think it's a little weird, but those involved with animal rescue know how rewarding and fulfilling it is.

The last foster we had was Alice. We found her fifteen months ago, cold and pregnant. We took her in, raised and adopted out her babies, and ended up keeping her. So, as rescue people say, we failed as fosters, because we kept her.

This time, we can't fail as fosters. We seriously can't keep any more animals without risking our sanity/finances/general wellbeing. We seriously don't have the space or the resources. But a few weeks of fostering? Why not?

So last Saturday I was walking Cal. I walked up the sidewalk, looking at Cal. When I looked up, there was a little cat directly in our path. I thought there was a dead mouse in its mouth, but when I looked a little closer, out of morbid curiosity, I realized it was a teeny tiny kitten. Momma cat was moving her kittens from a bush to a box on our neighbor's porch. I tried to approach her, but she hissed, growled, and spit at me, even when I was five feet away. She was totally mean! So I dropped off some food for her and left her alone. I came back later to check on her, and I saw her moving her kittens again, this time into a different bush. That's when I knew I had to do something. She was stressed enough to move her babies twice in one day, plus I knew how cold it would get that night (low 40s).

So the following Monday Chip and I borrowed a humane trap from a fantastic rescue here in town called Town Cats. At about 12:30 on Tuesday morning, we finally had success. There was a mom cat in our trap and she was PISSED! She was thrashing, growling, hissing, and generally being angry. I carefully carried her back to the apartment and woke Chip up. We went out and gathered up the kittens. There were five beautiful little babies. We quickly set up our gigantic dog crate for them with a bed, food and water, a litter box, a scratching post, and newspaper to line it. Chip spent seriously two or three hours fashioning insulation for this thing, since it's on our porch. He taped cardboard boxes to the outside, then he taped trash bags outside of that, then he lined the inside edges with cardboard so we'd have no escapees, then he whipped out an old shower curtain to cover the side that might get rained on, and THEN he made a flap in the shell into which we could put food. He's hilarious. Such the proud dad. Things like that are why I love him so much.

Since Tuesday, we've been learning all we can about socializing ferals, and trying to figure out what the hell to do with this cat. The first time I saw her, I figured she'd been a house pet, but that her owners had moved out and left her behind. That seems to happen pretty often in apartment complexes. Then I realized she wanted to claw me to death and maybe give me rabies. I thought maybe she was completely feral and wouldn't be able to be rehabilitated. If that were the case, we would have to keep the babies with her until they were weaned (about five weeks) and then spay and release her, while continuing to socialize and raise the kittens together. That's not ideal, because kittens learn a lot from their mother between 5 and 12 weeks of age, like bite inhibition, litter box manners, what to scratch, how to behave toward people, etc. But if the mother is feral, she just can't stay with the babies, because they will be feral too. I was afraid that would be the case.

But...we're totally making progress. And I've figured out why "Jill" was so bitchy before. She totally had good reason, aside from having given birth five times. I made a catster page for her where you can read about everything. I know I'm a dork, but it's a fun site and lots of people will see her and maybe one of those people will want to adopt her. Check out her site for updates on her progress and that of her kittens, as well as pictures (too cute). It's gonna be a crazy ride, but I'm totally ready for it again!

Join the Catster community

I love friends

So we had our first friend visit last weekend. We've hosted both of our families out here, but it was the first time a friend had come out to see us. It was very exciting, and we felt very grown up! Dave was Chip's friend in middle school. Then Dave moved into a house on the street next to my parents'. Dave and I met in high school and got to be good friends. Dave introduced me to Chip 7 years ago. The three of us have been close for years, through many life changes.

I left work early on Thursday to go get Dave from the airport. We made a quick stop at Target for deodorant (he forgot it) and beer. I forgot until he and I walked into Target that in California they sell alcohol pretty much everywhere...gas stations, grocery stores, Rite Aid, Target, etc. Dave's eyes went wide when he saw the wine next to the dog food (much as mine did one year ago when I walked into Safeway for the first time). So after the Target adventure, we came home, relaxed, ordered pizza and salad, and waited for Chip to come home from work. We hung out for a while and then did karaoke night with some work friends. By "did" I just mean "attended." We do not sing. But we did get our picture taken by a very drunk friend.



On Friday we decided to do 17-Mile-Drive. We brought Cal along and drove along the coast. Dave saw the Pacific for the first time and I brought my flip flops this time (last time I got wet socks and was miz the rest of the night). Cal clearly enjoyed the beach (and eating sand):








We finished the drive in Carmel and went to a dog friendly restaurant called Forge in the Forest. They have a heated dog patio where you can hang out and eat with your dog. They even have a dog menu. We ordered Cal the grilled chicken. Ignore the creepy eyes.



On Saturday the boys went "mountain biking." Let's just say that the first time Chip took Dave mountain biking, Dave threw up within 12 minutes. This time was not much better or longer, though there was no vomit. We had some very tasty Mexican food for dinner in town at Sinaloa's.

On Sunday we took Dave to San Francisco. We dropped Cal off with his bff Walter so we could enjoy the day dog-free. We got to the city and took a ride on a cable car, which I hadn't done since I was 13 and hating life on a "family vacation" with my parents and 9-year-old brother. It was actually really fun and it was a cool way to see the city.



Then we went to Muir woods so Dave could see some redwoods. He was actually very impressed, which I didn't expect. We hiked around for about two hours...it was beautiful for sure.



We had Thai for dinner at a really good restaurant in San Rafael called My Thai. Dave had never had Thai before and he really liked it, which was great.

We slept in on Monday and while Chip went to work early, Dave and I hung out and packed him up. He left on Monday at lunchtime. It was so great to see him and to be able to show him California. It was awesome to catch up and I'm so excited now to go home in May.

It took Chip 41 days to grow this masterpiece. He took this picture just before he shaved it off. It was scratchy, it was ugly, and it smelled. I don't mind the beard look, per se, but this thing was just hideous. He grew it as a joke, and because the guys at work would be jealous (there are several guys who work in his department who have difficulty growing facial hair...Chip more than makes up for it for all of them). The joke turned into weeks upon weeks of me pestering him to shave. I don't like being that girl who's like, "my boyfriend has to do what I say," but seriously, it was obnoxious. He finally realized it was disgusting when I picked a piece of food out of it. He had fun shaving it, first shaving one entire side of his face and walking around talking about "Two Face" from Batman.

My boyfriend:

Work, bleh...

So when I was a bike messenger, I would go into offices and be like, "What a sweet life. Sitting in front of a computer isn't dangerous." I resented the people I saw sitting in their fancy, dry, air conditioned offices, playing Solitaire. It's not that I wanted to be them, it's that I hated that they were making double what I was, when I was risking my life every day on the streets (that's a little dramatic, but I WAS hit by three cars, as well as nearly run down more than once) to keep their business running, and they were trying to decide if they should have the rose design or the fish design on their Solitaire cards.

Now I am that guy that I hated. I sit at a desk. I work on a computer. It’s cool, because it’s a cool, fulfilling job, but it sucks, because due to the nature of international business, there are some busy times of year and some slow times. So I totally am that guy…writing on a blog, surfing the internet, making copious use of StumbleUpon. I know that I’ll be busier in a few weeks and will probably cry when I read this blog, but being not busy sucks more than it looks like. I have to act like I’m busy, doing really important things, while I’m actually reading Perez Hilton. And I also have to stay until 5, even if I haven’t gotten an e-mail since 1. Putting in the hours doing nothing sucks as much as putting in extra hours doing a lot. There were times in November when I’d stay at work til 11 at night. I had that much to do. Now that I have like nothing to do, I still have to stay til 5. I could be outside, playing and running and doing fun things, but instead I’m stuck inside, wasting daylight, reading crap on the internet about people adopting babies from Africa. And doing that is stirring my maternal instincts, which I didn’t think I had until about a month ago, and I don’t want to start getting into that yet, considering Chip can barely say the word “marriage” out loud. So basically…not working at work sucks more than it looks like it does.

La Pared

Sabes que sin tí ya yo no soy
Sabes que a dónde vayas, voy
Naturalmente



Those words come from a Shakira song called "La Pared." I know. It's Shakira. But she's really a brilliant songwriter and while she's had some poppy English-language hits, her Spanish songs are more emotional and more complex, with wrenching lyrics and haunting melodies. I've been listening to her Spanish language music since I was a dorky ninth grader who studied Spanish for fun.

Chip's been gone essentially since Sunday morning (he was home Sunday night but I was asleep and he left Monday morning as I was waking up). He is driving a truck along with the Tour of California for mechanical and other support. He'll be back on Monday, the 25th. I miss the crap out of him! Going home to an empty apartment, while I did that for years while living on my own in Baltimore, is just not fun. There's only so much fun to be had hanging out with a dog and three cats. There is endless litter-scooping, walking, feeding, vomit-cleaning, etc. to be done though. Great.

So I've been listening to music. And cleaning. And reading. And watching Law & Order. And listening to more music. Chip's not one for talking on the phone, and when he is, it's an inconvenient hour (such as the two 1:30 a.m. phone calls I received in the last week..."oh, were you sleeping?" "YES! I'm NORMAL!") So I've been having Katie time, and while it gets kinda boring, it's also kinda fun.

Jeff Goldblum

Does anyone else have a favorite actor that embarrasses them? I've been in love with Jeff Goldblum since I was 10 and saw him in Jurassic Park (he was like 40 then, but whatever). As I've gotten older, I've found him to be intelligent, witty, talented, and...sexy. Why did it take me so long to type the word sexy? I couldn't get my fingers to type that word. Because every single person to whom I've told this has laughed instantly. Instantly and a lot. Most people think I'm joking. I'm so not! I think he's funny in a smart way and sexy in that I apparently have a thing for tall skinny men with big noses. The only guy I've dated who wasn't tall and skinny with a big nose broke it off with me within six weeks. After that...back to the big noses. I once made out with this guy I worked with because he looked like Jeff Goldblum.

Anyway...I've been watching this a lot and I think it's great. Not just because it's Jeff Goldblum, but because it's hilarious. Jamie Kennedy is seriously underrated. It's ridiculous how much leeway people give "celebrities." If a regular person were tapping like that, or talking about himself in third person, or saying things like, "masterful, yet self-effacing," everyone would walk out of the room. But someone "famous" does this crap and people just play into it. Ridiculous.

Creating the aura of Goldblum...

I heart Mexico

One thing I love about my job is that I get to interact with people from around the world every day. Actually knowing people from other parts of the globe has me learning Cockney rhyming slang, getting birthday cards from Mexico, and hearing how the surfing is in Portugal.

This week has been especially exciting and international for me. Over the weekend, our distributors from the Czech Republic and Portugal flew in for meetings. On Monday evening I found myself having dinner with two Americans, a German guy who lives in France, two Czech guys, and 2 Portuguese guys. On Tuesday I spent time on the phone with people from Bermuda, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Chile. On Wednesday I'll be in meetings all day with our Mexican distributors, conducting business in Spanish. On Thursday I'll be flying to Salt Lake City for more meetings with our Mexican friends and our colleagues in Utah. On Friday it'll be back to English and some serious resting.

I'm so excited to get to meet the people I've been e-mailing for eight months and put names to faces. I am so excited to get to chat with them in Spanish, and learn more about how we do business. I'm so new to all of this still that I just love to soak up everything I can. I feel like the moron who said on his resume's cover sheet, "I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone's door to absorb as much as possible." Not a wedge-shaped sponge. A wedge that has a sponge TAPED to it. What.

In any case, I'm being very productive, important, and international this week. Work's been going really well, and I'm finally falling into and feeling comfortable in my first job. It's taken so long, but things are finally pretty awesome. Yay for my professional life!