Belly Flap goes to the vet

Poor sweet Buddha Belly Flap. Since we got him on Saturday, he has managed to urinate on both beds and on the carpet of each room that has carpet (two rooms). A lot of washing going on over here! He went to the vet this morning and he was diagnosed with a mild bladder infection. Poor baby! We have meds to give him and this evening he's already peed in his litter box. Yay!

*Sigh*

I'm such a catmom.


The Princess is adjusting to her new housemate. Less hissing, more sniffing, same amount of staring. I think this picture sums it up.

The Return of Belly Flap

At the beginning of May 2005, we had an unexpected visitor arrive on our back porch. A lovely tabby was begging to be let in. He was unrelentant. We did not let the tabby into the house. Mia was jumping around, trying to go through the windows. Rags wasn't too fussed about the cat outside the window. We called him Belly Flap.



In the evening of the same day, we took Rags out for his evening walk. Belly Flap followed us the whole way, for the whole walk, meowing all the way. We were quite perplexed.

After a few days of Belly Flap hanging around and following us on each nightly walk with Rags, we looked around the neighbourhood to see if anyone was missing a cat, nobody seemed to be. We determined that Belly Flap might be abandoned so we decided to find a home for him. We took him to the vet where he got a clean bill of health. We let Belly Flap into the house.

Belly Flap was in love with Rags. All he wanted to do was hang out with Rags and put his stinky rub on Rags. I was terrified that Rags would eat the cat, but of course, he did not.

We took Belly Flap to DH's Aunt who lived on the family estate in the house that DH's great grandfather built in the town that was named after him.

After leaving Belly Flap there, I was heartbroken. I had fallen in love with Belly Flap too. I second guessed our decision and worried that we had made a bad decision by taking the Belly Flap to the farm. DH's Aunt's health was feeble and I worried she wasn't able to look after him.

DH's Aunt fell in love with Belly Flap and Belly Flap with her. He brought her joy. She christened him Tiger and he started living the life of Riley on the family estate. We would go out there to visit every now and then, the last time we were there was in the middle of August for Family Reunion.

This past Saturday morning, DH's mom called and told him that the house had burned down. His aunt was OK, one of the cousins was with her when the fire started and he pulled her out. They didn't take the cat with them. We went to the estate to get Belly Flap. It started to rain during the drive up there and it began to come down in sheets.

When we got to the house, and I saw what was left, I burst into tears. I was horrified and terrified that Belly Flap was lost in the fire. We parked the car and I went up to the porch and called out, "Tiger".






He answered me. He was right there.

I snatched him up and ran to the car. I was so relieved. We drove back to Houston. Belly Flap wasn't too impressed with the car ride, and complained the whole way. When we got home, we set him up in one of the rooms and let him recover.



Mia was none too pleased, even though they had met before. She's been growling and hissing and having staring matches. Belly Flap has no reaction. He just oozes serenity.

We're glad you're back, Belly Flap.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold. Princess Mia Bella lounges on her sofa, looking lovely and serene.

Wheel is fixed!

Got the wheel back from the repair shop on Wednesday and drove the car into work today. The wheel is all bright and shiny and new looking...um, unlike the rest of the car.

Now I have another problem. After driving home today, I opened the boot and noticed that their were a lot, a lot of ants crawling on both sides of the drains of the hatchback/back window thingie. Yes, ants. Black ants, so they're not biting ants. I suspect they've come for the water.

Water?

Why yes. The water that collects and soaks the carpet on the driver side floor everytime I use the air conditioning because there is an as yet unlocatable leak in the drain from the air conditioning.

Yes, that water.

Saturday night, date night.

Miller Outdoor Theatre, Herman Park


The happy couple.


Cindy Blackman Quartet...

performs for free. Yay!

Good times, good times.

See the wheel

See the wheel? See the mild dents on the rim? So sad. What's more interesting though, is the other junk in my trunk (bwahahaha)

1. Houston Texans plastic cup.
2. Singapore Airlines pattern umbrella (broken)
3. Bar of Old Spice, High Endurance Soap (!)
   
4. Label for digital beta video cassette
5. Borders plastic bag
6. Silver reflecty sun visor (what good is that in the trunk?)
7. Jumper cables.

Hmmm, what does it say about me?

On the brighter side.

So I called around a few places to see about the wheel. Apparently, a new wheel really would cost about $4oo. Per wheel. Which, personally I think is crazy. Did you see the picture? Would you pay $400 for that? I think not.

I called up Keith at friendly Auto Place Across the Street from my old job to ask for recommendations on where to get a salvage tire or get the wheel repaired. I called the recommendations and decided to go to the wheel repair place on Saturday. I asked Keith to order the tire/tyre and picked it up on Saturday and took it to the wheel repair place. The wheel repair place turned out to be a custom shop, like you see on MTV, West Coast Customs, but much more low key. Very interesting.

The final damage:
Tire: $157 + tax
Wheel Repair: $175 + tax

boo! hiss! for unscheduled car repairs.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold! Princess Mia Bella surveys her estate from her royal cat box. 

Wanted

Today, I succeeded in shredding my tire and (maybe) damaging my rim (see picture) by driving out of the parking garage at work and somehow entering the twilight zone where you unknowingly incur a flat and try to get on the freeway. Suddenly, you realize that something is just not quite right, and you should probably get off the freeway, except you can't because the next exit spits you out on the tollway, so you have to crawl along some more until you can finally exit. Then you pull into the carpark of a restaurant off of the service road and then you call your husband. You get out of your car and you see that not only can you smell it, but it is indeed smoking.

Slightly.

Damn.

You go into the restaurant and have a water while you wait for DH to rescue you. After a while, you decide to "prepare the car" and you dig out the doughnut and the jack and the tools and prepare to do this thing.

Immediately, Greg, on business from Wyoming, appears to help you. You let him, of course, but you keep the wrench in your hand. Greg removes the shredded tire and applies the doughnut and goes on his merry way.

DH arrives right then and we decide that the doughnut could probably use some air in it, so we take it off, take it to get air put in it and come back and put it on again. Then we drive, each in our own car to the Tire Place Close By to get a new tire.

Tire Man looks at the rim and advises that we might need a new rim and suggests that we get that before we get a new tire.

Great.

Finally get home and start looking for places to get a salvage rim and this is what I find (see picture up there?) . Are you kidding me?

Tuesday, already?

Jeez, I need to find more time.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold! Princess Mia Bella, looking oh so very bellissimo.

So many things, so little time.

Oh my, it's Tuesday. I've been quite light with the blogging lately. I'm gettin ginto the swing of things at new jobbie. When I come home I have part-time work from 2nd jobbie and I still have a blogging habit to feed. By the time I go through my bloglines list, I'm spent. I haven't even look at the nest in days. I need to do better.

Tomorrow (Aug 9), is National Day. Happy National Day, y'all! hah!

Saturday, tax free.

It (sales) tax free weekend in Texas this weekend. I went to the Galleria to get some new clothes for work. I was there at 10 and split at 12 when it started to get a little "hectic". Funny thing happened while I was there: I was walking to Ann Taylor Loft and I could see this Chick With Clipboard (CWC) coming my way. I'm walking quickly, and I know I look like I'm on a mission. I see CWC zoning in on me. I try to avoid her but it's too late. I immediately start thinking up an exit strategy from her approach. I'm sure she's going to ask me if I want to participate in a survey. CWC finally stops me and asks me if I would like to sign up for, wait for it; a modeling class.

What? I chuckle (yes, I chuckle) and tell her, "Sorry, hon, I'm 32." CWC gets a little flustered and says that the classes are for all ages. I suppose I was flattered, but at the same time, it's not like she was a professional scout. I chuckled because I used to teach classes like that in SG.

I got some new outfits for my new, fantastic-and-so-meant-for-me, job. It was a hectic week and there are tons and tons of things to learn and absorb, but I'm loving it. Thanks for all y'alls (Damn, I'm Texan!) good wishes and compliments and binkies, baby! They are much appreciated.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold! Princess Mia Bella with roses from her Sweetheart Cat. 

First day on the job.

First day today and it was very cool. I'm pretty overwhelmed with all the information and procedure and all that type of stuff but I'm happy.

I'm also exhausted.

Yawn.

Off to bed.