Thursday, November 30, 2006

Bugs was Spayed

Well, Bugs got spayed & she's just as lovey as ever. My girlfriend took her in Tuesday evening and I got her back last night.

It's funny, I really missed her & was worried about her. The other cats, meanwhile, were really angry that she was gone. I think they thought I'd given her away. I kept telling them that she would be back & hoped it was true. I was really worried - Oh, I said that already, didn't I? The cats were so angry with me, that they hardly cuddled at all.

So, when I got home from work last night & the carrier was in the living room, I called to her. Even before I greeted Beasley! I said "Missy Bugs is Back!" and the cats all knew I was happy about that. They were much happier, too. They cuddled freely last night.

I guess we are a family and that I might as well resign myself to living with 5 cats.

Meanwhile, plans are moving forward to open a pet store in downtown Knoxville. I'm doing the market research right now, and it looks promising. Next comes the estimate of operating expenses and overhead for startup through 18 months. If it's feasible, I'll give the project the green light and find a location that meets my needs. I have 2 neighborhoods in mind, and those are the expenses for overhead that I'm considering.

Taking the online world into the brick and mortar world! What a concept! Don't most people do it the other way around? Well, the website needs to do better before anything can happen, anyway.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Vacation and Petsitters

I went out of town for the holiday and came home to some unexpected things. My petsitter had fed the cats wet food as well as dry - meaning I need to go to the store, and filled up my trash can with empty cans. I'm kind of fastidious about the kitchen when I go away - I like to come home to a clean kitchen and empty trash can. My cats were happy, though!

Of course, they are all very cuddly and telling me how much they missed me. Beasley has been on my lap almost non-stop since I got back.

Well, a full day ahead at work. Gotta go!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Thanksgiving is Over

Well, Thanksgiving is over & I'm back home. It was strange. I didn't feel as welcomed as usual, but there were a lot of people there, and that might be part of it. The other part was my transportation stuff. Oh, well, another year, another turkey-day done and gone. Getting ready for the holiday hustle and bustle. I have a bunch of goodies to put out in a newsletter issue in the next few hours. I'll be pretty busy.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Computer Troubles

Wow! I had a really nasty virus on the computer! It kept telling me my hard drive was full, and the poor thing was working really hard. I couldn't run a virus check or any diagnostics. I deleted a bunch of stuff that should have freed up a lot of space, and it still read 100% full. So, I formatted the hard drive!

I've spent the greater part of 3 days doing this. It's really hard to find time, especially when I work, too. I haven't been able to do anything on the website. Thank goodness I'd just posted 2 new pages before this.

I've lost all my cookies and other data. I don't know most of my user names or passwords for places I go on the internet. My browser kept all that information for me and automatically signed me in whenever I went to any of my usual sites. This is going to be a real experience! I can recover, but it's time consuming. Of course, I did a backup as soon as I had the computer working again.

Well, I need to go to bed. I'll be gone for a couple of days for Thanksgiving, but I really wanted to check in.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

2 New Pages up!

Ipve put up 2 new pages. One was inspired by my email, and has to do with getting some peppermint extract to help with your cat. The other one is about my technique for talking to your cat. I hope you like the new content! I haven't put any photos on the pages yet, but they will come.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Cars, computers and cat urine smells

Well! Lots going on. The car is down, stopped yesterday morning. It seems that the fuel can't get to the engine. It has almost a full tank. I can't even get it to the mechanic right now. I talked it over with a friend & I'll get it fixed enough to run & trade it in. The poor thing is a 1981 Volvo station wagon. It just turned 200K miles, and needs a lot of work. I could fix it up, but the cost would be the same as a new car. Might as well just get a new car, right? At least I'll have something to drive. The insurance would be more, but if the new car needed repairs, I could get a rental while it's in the shop on the insurance. I totalled this car just after I got it. It was insured but not yet registered, so the car has seen better days. The only damage was some plastic around a headlight - but the age of the car was against it. So, I'll go ahead and get a new car.

The computer was making a lot of noise in the fan, so I took it apart and cleaned it. It's quieter now, and I'm not so afraid it won't work - but I called a fellow to come help me with it. I'm putting in a CD-R/W so I can take some stuff off the hard drive - it's getting pretty full, adding RAM and another hard drive. I just need more space for the pictures and website files. I hadn't planned on building a website when I got the computer, so it's at near capacity. So, instead of getting a new computer, I'm going to spend a little bit on this one to upgrade a bit. And the thing seems so slow and overburdened. My choices were to upgrade or get new - in this case, I'll upgrade for now.

My cats are fine, but there are 2 vacant apartments in the building. My landlady came by today to check things out & asked me to get something for the cat urine odor in the back hall & one of the vacant apartments. Now, that was a Godsend! I need the stuff myself because of some things that got marked before I added the 4th litter box, and I've been dealing with it - but not too effectively. I got inundated with fleas first, you remember. We have to wait another week to get the drops, but now I can get the Microbe-Clean on her dime. Not a bad trade off, all in all.

I guess there's a plan in all this, but it just seems overwhelming right now. I've been feeling kind of disconnected this past week. I've barely been able to function, and I'm not sure why. I've been sleeping and eating well, and work hasn't been that draining, but I've just been unable to cope. In my old life, I would have blamed it on Mercury retrograde, and maybe that's it. It just feels like everything has piled up on my at once.

At least my house is kind of clean! When the computer guy comes over tomorrow, I won't be totally embarassed by the place. Just by the smell of the urine that I've still got around here. It's my briefcase, OK? I just can't bring myself to get rid of it, but I really need to. All the rest is gone, but I just can't get rid of that because I need a briefcase. I guess I'll jave to take the stuff out of it that I can keep and toss the unit, use one of my totebags instead. Not as professional, but neither is a smelly briefcase! And, by tossing it, I won't have that smell in the house anymore.

So, yes, I deal with this stuff, too!!!! I'm not some guru who sits on the top of a mountain and tells you what to do. I live it. Cats are my life, even when I (sometimes) hate them. Beasley and Princess are fine, lets not get into "rescuing" cats, OK? I just can't take 5 cats & yet, I have that many right now. I sure hope that one or more of my visitors gets a home. I'm almost resigned to having 5 cats!

Well, all for now. Best to you and "Purr" to your furpeople.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Total Flea Wars-Being busy

I've been so busy, I haven't even been able to do the email for the website in a timely manner! It's been really crazy. I'm hearing noises from the computer, too. I'm afraid it will quit working pretty soon.

The collars I got, "Breakaway" from Vet-Kem, don't seem to be killing the fleas as well as I'd like. I got the Siphotrol & that works well. The Ovitrol is for use on the cats, but it also doesn't work as well as I'd like. I'm having to comb the cats to remove the fleas. Since I can't get a comb on many of them, this isn't working.

I'm going back to the flea drops. I'll be using Advantage. I have 3 cats over 9# and 2 cats under 9#, so that's the split I'll be getting.

I had hoped to get the odor control stuff instead, and finances being what they are, I can only do one thing at a time. BUT, fleas are something I can't put off.

I received an email asking me to speak in New York about Cat Whispering. We'll see where it goes, but I'm certainly flattered.

Well, at least I've caught you up... Gotta run!