Bad Dog, Gag Reflex, & Oh, sh--!

Someone up there is testing me.

I walked into the neighbor's house at 6 AM and noticed an odor. House has been shut up too many days, I thought. It's starting to smell like pets. I busied myself with the tasks of the morning. Right from the start, things didn't go well.

First, the cat still isn't eating. Hadn't touched her food from last night. I fed her first this morning and she nibbled at some moist food, but really didn't eat much of anything. I put the 1/2 can of wet food out for the dog and he wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't budge. (The kitten, however, raced toward his wet food and started eating.) The dog had also not eaten his dry food from last night. I set out the kitten's food and he at least takes a few bites before wandering away.

Fine, no one's hungry. Perhaps then a walk. I'd noticed the dog hunched in the yard to go the bathroom and nothing much was happening, so I thought a walk might loosen the bowels. He seemed happy to go and we did a quick 1/2 mile loop around the block. He again tried to go the bathroom and I noticed a very small trickle of blood. Uh-oh. Constipated?

We go back in the house and as I'm walking through the back room to get to the rear litter box for cleaning I see it. Two huge piles of s--- in the middle of the floor. For those of you with weak stomachs, stop reading. It only gets worse from here.

I have an overly strong gag reflex and am very sensitive to smells. Seriously. Even a minor offensive odor can make me hack and my eyes water. And this was a doozie. One pile of fairly solid waste and another pile of what looked like the runs. God help me.

I rummaged around for some plastic bags, grabbed some paper towels, and set to work. Ugh. Even the memory of that smell fills my nostrils and makes me gag. I barely made it through the process without throwing up. The fact that the kitten took great interest in the clean-up and I had to keep pushing her out of the way didn't help.

I finally got the solids cleaned up, then walked home for an old towel to bring back and scrub the carpet with. The towel went into the trash and bye-bye after it had done its duty. I Lysoled the hell out of the place, found some pet odor killer to squirt on the carpet, put the dog out back and beat a hasty retreat home where I immediately stripped and showered. When I got out, I doused myself with my heaviest, headiest perfume. And I still feel dirty.

I'm not mad at the dog so much as I am worried. I don't think going inside the house is normal for him. It could be any number of factors though - misses his parents, sick, angry, ate something that didn't agree with him and just couldn't hold it in until morning, etc.

I put him out about 7:15. I'll walk back over about 9 and see if he's eaten any of the food I left out for him. It's supposed to be another 95 degree day so I'll also bring him in around noon although frankly, I'm anxious about putting him in the house again. I may not make it if I have to clean up something like what greeted me this morning. I think there's a good chance I'll have nightmares tonight.

Pet Sitting

I'm pet sitting for my neighbors for the next couple of days - 1 boxer, 1 indoor/outdoor cat, and one VERY rambunctious kitten. I was over there this morning at 6 AM, wrestling with cans of wet food and scooping dry kibble into dishes.

It's an intricate dance. For example, the boxer gets 1/2 a can of wet food, you wait 5 minutes, then give him the other half. He won't eat it if you give it to him all at once. The cat gets 6-8 slices of chopped up tomato and cantaloupe with her wet/dry breakfast food, and the kitten gets fed off a tiny china plate.  There is an order to the feeding, which I messed up this morning. It should go cat, dog, kitten. But I did dog, cat, kitten, and made the mistake of giving the cat the kitten's wet food instead of her own. Now I have one p---ed off cat who refused to eat this a.m.

The cat stays out all day, which now concerns me as she didn't eat. The dog stays out as well, unless it gets really hot. It's supposed to be humid and in the 90's this week, so I've cancelled plans to go into GSO tomorrow so I can stick around here and let him inside if it gets too awful.

As the final kick, the cat has been having eye issues and is supposed to receive 1 eyedrop of medicine per night. My friends insisted I didn't have to do this, but I hate to see the cat miss her medicine, so I'm dragging Blair over there tonight to catch this spitfire of a cat and hold her while I pry her eye open and drop medicine in it. (If she didn't hate me for messing up her breakfast, this ought to seal the deal.)

It's a big deal, caring for others pets. These are their babies. I'm terribly concerned I do everything right and the pets are happy. I remember once years ago, Blair and I kept a friends 1 year old baby for about 48 hours and we never left the house. We were too paranoid to get in the car and go anywhere, even with the carseat. This was someone's child.  What if something happened? We'd never forgive ourselves. So we barricaded ourselves inside the house and shot mace at anyone who approached the front door, just to be safe.

It's kind of the same with the pets. I have a feeling I'll be walking up the street quite often this week, "just to check in."  I probably ought to just take my laptop and work down there--that way the pets have company and I get something done. I'll most likely do that at lunch, when I mosey over to let the boxer into the air-conditioning for a couple of hours.

And maybe the cat will come inside and eat then, too. Fingers crossed.

Attack of the Dufusai

DUFUSAI:(noun) [Doo-fuss-eye] Of or pertaining to more than one dufus; plural of dufus; i.e., "The dufusai in the car behind us are gaining..."

Blair invented a new word. I like it. We were driving home and some hooligans (i.e., people younger than us) were driving haphazardly in a jeep in the lane next to us. "Beware the dufusai," said Blair.  We think it could be the next big thing for Webster's. Watcha think? =)

Computer Crash

Well, if this doesn't solidify my decision to get a Mac, nothing will. My desktop just crashed. I have the dreaded "NTLDR is missing" message, which means the loading program can't be found. Unknown yet whether I'll lose data. A computer technician is swinging by later this afternoon to pick up the system and take it into the shop for diagnostic's.  Sh** pretty much describes my mood at the moment.

Still, it's a slow week and I'm not on deadline so it could be much, much worse. Most everything that has to be turned in has been, and work in progress or that's been completed as been e-mailed to people, so there should be recovery available there as well.  I know Blair used to back up the system weekly. Whether he's been faithful to this, I don't know. He's in meetings all day and unreachable.

Deep, calming breath. Yes...just breath. It will all work out. Again--I'm really fortunate with the timing on this that I wasn't in the midst of some big project. It will get fixed, and life will go on. There are millions of people in the world who wish their biggest problem in life was that their computer crashed. I'm one of the lucky ones.

There. I actually feel much better. I'll keep you posted on the progress via my laptop. =)