Something Andrew and I are looking forward to a lot is our trip to Georgia in April. Zach and Holly are moving their family to Atlanta for Zach’s job, and it’s such a great opportunity for them! We will be going to visit them in the middle of April to see their new place, hang out for about a week…it will be so much fun! Something I am really, really excited about is the Georgia Aquarium. It’s the largest aquarium in the WORLD, with over 8 million gallons of water! I’m super excited to see their exhibits, it’s going to be amazing! Andrew and Zach are both great cooks and so they love and appreciate good food. So we’re hoping to hit up some places featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives for some authentic local fare. The most awesome part? Baby time with Amelia!!!!!!!!!!!! =)
The end of this month has been draining. We recently discovered a stray cat that has been hanging around our building. We saw it in the parking lot one night, and I always try to call stray cats over, I just hate to see homeless animals, it truly breaks my heart. Well, every cat my WHOLE LIFE has always run away. This one ran right up to Andrew, and then halfway followed us home. We saw it around for a couple of weeks, and it was always super friendly. One night I was talking to Andrew as I was driving home, and I was still on the phone as I was walking through the parking lot. There was that cat, sitting on top of an AC unit. It jumped down and started rubbing against my legs and purring. So I stopped and pet it for awhile (we thought it was a boy, ended up being a girl), and she followed me up the stairs. I knew it was going to be raining that night and next day, and I just couldn’t go inside and leave it outside. So I told Andrew what I was doing, sat down at the top of the stairs (she sat by me for over 30 minutes), and began calling people. Operation Kindness was the only open place, they were full. A few animal lovers I called couldn’t take her in for the night, so I just started calling everyone. Finally came to my coworker, who I just knew would say no because she doesn’t want animals in her house, and SHE SAID YES to keeping her for the night. We took old food/water dishes and a litter box and some wet food, put her in the carrier, and drove her to my coworker’s apartment.
I stayed up until well after 1:00 in the morning looking up shelters to call the next morning, sending out some e-mails that people would see first thing in the morning, things like that. Then I stayed up after Andrew left for work calling rescue groups and no-kill shelters. No one was open that time of morning, but I left voicemails saying “I know your message says you’re full and not accepting any animals at the moment, but if you know of any foster moms or ANYONE that might be able to save this little kitty, I’d love to get a call back.” One lady from a group called Cat Matchers called me back at one point, and basically told me I needed to take the cat in, I needed to be doing my part to help. When I tried to explain that the deposit is too much, I already have on cat that I didn’t think would react well, etc, she replied with, “I hear a bunch of I can’ts, but the fact is that YOU CAN help, and YOU SHOULD.” Had me in tears. Not only was I tired and feeling like this little kitty’s fate was in my hands, this woman was trying to tell me I wasn’t being a good person and I needed to take her in.
As the morning went on, no luck came my way, I became increasingly frustrated with some people’s just utter lack of caring about the whole thing. I had to go to work, so I did. At work, I finally began to get calls back that I’d been HOPING for. “Ma’am, we’re all full but I do know of another group you can try…” People who couldn’t help weren’t just telling me that and hanging up, they were giving me other options. It was nice to get these calls. Finally a lady from a dog rescue place I’d called returned my call, explaining that obviously she couldn’t take a cat, but she knew a few foster moms, and gave me their numbers. One lady I reached was the one. She was from an organization called Texas Paw Prints and was also a foster mom herself. I assured her I would take the cat to my vet and get her checked up and cleaned up. When I went Friday afternoon (my coworker kept her another night, eternally grateful!) to pick up the kitty from my coworker’s place, the cat won me over the rest of the way. She was just THE SWEETEST little girl, I couldn’t resist. I talked to Andrew and he agreed that we could try to keep her IF she was disease/flea/tick/bugs-in-general free. Which she was (I found out over $100 later, animal tests are EXPENSIVE). So Andrew took her home, and everything went downhill from there. Poor kitty had been shuffled around, been poked at, all sorts of disorienting things, and now she was being locked up in our bedroom, knowing a big cat was on the other side of the door. So by the time the end of the night came around and we moved her to the bathroom, she was so distraught that she peed all over our bathroom. The foster mom had given us some advice on how to introduce the cats to each other slowly: lock new kitty up for awhile, then lock up Dewey and let them roam around where the other one was and smell each other. Then at night, leave new kitty in the bathroom so Dewey doesn’t feel left out of too much of his place. Well, we never were able to lock up Dewey and switch them out. He FUH-REAKED out and scratched and hissed and was CLEARLY horrified out of his mind. I knew he would react like that: Dewey isn’t your average cat. He’s more than a little bit neurotic and sensitive. So after a long night of him being afraid and her crying through the night and pulling at the carpet and chewing our bathroom door, I was worn out the next morning and just couldn’t do it anymore. After Andrew got off of work, he drove the kitty to Irving to the foster mom. She will give her a home until someone adopts her. And if that baby girl is even HALF as lovable as she was around us, someone will adopt her soon. She’s just too sweet and adorable to pass up. =)
Saturday after I got off of work, Andrew and I got to work sanitizing the bedroom/bathroom where she stayed. The floors were Swiffered twice and scrubbed with antibacterial soapy wipes. All towels and the bathmat were removed to wash, as was the comforter she peed on. The shower curtain was heavily Febrezed, and Andrew had bought a new floor rug at the store, so we threw the old one away. Windows were opened (a new experience for Dewey, he was fascinated!), carpet was vacuumed and Febrezed, bedroom curtains and bed were Febrezed…as much of her smell as we could get to was removed. We stayed in the rest of the evening to make sure Dewey started to calm down and relax. When he got it through his thick little skull that there was no monster kitty that was going to eat him in the apartment anymore, he CRASHED and finally looked like he got a real bit of sleep. Poor kitty!
Dewey was mostly back to normal by Sunday afternoon...
...so we decided to go out to dinner with my sister and her family. We went to Tin Star, our second time to go. I just love that place, it’s SO YUMMY!! We’re definitely going to have to go back more often, there are so many tacos I want to try (chicken-fried steak/chicken tacos?? Yes please!!).
I got to go to Ladies’ Night at The Melting Pot this past week, I went with Sara and Robyn. We had a blast. It took them about 45 minutes to get us our table, so the manager bought us a round of drinks: nice!! I hope the next LNO is a menu we love again, because that is just too much fun at a fraction of the price!
I haven’t been reading my book too much. I’m still only a few chapters into Moby Dick. My problem is that I don’t ever read at home, I’m watching TV and hanging out with Andrew. So I only have time to read at work, but this book is tough to read when I’m getting interrupted a lot. The language is such that I need to read uninterrupted and really pay attention, and I just can’t do that at work. So hopefully I’ll get to find time here, soon.
And that’s about it! I’m looking forward to this upcoming three-day weekend so I can sort of recharge my internal batteries, catch up on some zzz’s, and get some things crossed off the To Do list. Hope all of you had a great month of February!!
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