Thinking Thursday

I'm thinking I had something to say in today's post, but I forgot what it was.

 Oh yeah. Mom's sewing room is filling up with boxes.

Meow Like a Pirate!

AHOY!  It be meow like a Pirate Day and I be m-rowwing and a-vasting like a real pirate of ta sea.

Arrr! I  be climbin' my tower o' boxes and chasin' the fake mice and makin' 'em walk da plank.

I be eatin' summa Ma's cheese that I hooked away from 'er with my trusty claw. Arrr!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuxie Tuesday

Mom's going back to her day hunting gig after two weeks of stay-cation. She's been making a mess of everything, moving stuff around and interrupting my naps. I'm gonna be glad to have the place to myself for a bit.

Magnificent Monday!

Lookit!!! The folks at the co-op already put up our name in front of the house!! Isn't it exciting?

Evil Intruder

Lookit!  It's an evil intruder, a vishus wild turkey, eating the seeds at the new neighborhood. Mom saw three of them yesterday afternoon. Mom says this vishus turkey is not a bird to be trifled with. She says they're stupid, but they are also BIG and MEAN.

Grr.

In other boring news, Mom has packed most of the books and is working on the stuff in her sewing studio. She has MASSES of stuff in there.

Box Overload

Lookit the two empty bookcases.

See this big stack of boxes?

They are filled with the stuff that used to be on the bookcases.  Mom has more books to pack, and she can't wait until they are all done. She says they take up more space than they should.

I think she means the boxes get TOO heavy TOO fast and she has to use more boxes. She has two more bookcases to pack and she says "Enough already!"

I have been sleeping under the table in the other room where I can watch but stay hidden.

Heh.

Got Boxes?

You don't think you're actually going to see ME inside a box, do you?

 Because you know that ain't gonna happen. However, if you want boxes, come over to my place.

These are just SOME of the moving boxes that were delivered yesterday.  Mom was eager to pack up her books. 

Mom got this many boxes packed before the tennis started last night. By the time she went to bed (after watching Roger win), she had twice this many packed, and had emptied three bookcases.

It's kinda funny looking around here, with bookcases empty, boxes stacked up all over the place; no pictures on the walls and cabinets and closets half full. 

Mom got herself a present. She bought some wind chimes for the new house. She's waiting to put them up at the new place, but you can go here to see what kind she got, and listen to the sound it makes. I like it, and (get this) the chimes she bought are BLACK, just like me!

Busted!

Mom got me in the cage. Really, it was the only one she could wrangle me into.

It wasn't pretty, and claws and blood were involved, but in the end I was unceremoniously carted to the v-e-t.

Mom: 1
Mille: 0

(DRAT!)

 I must admit I have a wonderful v-e-t.

His name is Dr Lewis and I am always a good girlcat for him.

After all, I don't let just anybody pick me up and carry me around. Dr Lewis says I weigh "about" thirteen pounds, but that's kind of a guess since he kept one hand on my back when I was on the scale. He thinks I am purr-fect!

I couldn't escape the shots, but I know I need those to stay a healthy cat.

After that I was MORE than happy to hop right into the little carrier Mom brought.

Dr Lewis and Mom talked about giving me "tranks" to help me relax come M-word day. He wants Mom to "test them out first to see if they work." He says it isn't like the movies where I take something and "go limp." He says it takes three or four hours to work. He says on M-word day he wants me to take them with breakfast, so they can take effect while the guys fill the truck, then I won't be as stressed when I get to the new house. He thinks it's a good idea to get me into the bathroom while they pack up, and he wants me to go into a room that is all set up for me at the new place. I know that is what Mom wants too.

As for "trying it out first..." I am not sure about that.

.
.
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Mom Lynne here...
Dr Lewis is very impressed with how tolerant Millie is of me and how she acts once she gets to his office. He thinks I have done very well learning how to get along with a feral cat, and earning her trust. "She's never going to be a lap cat," he said, "and she's always going to be wary, but look, she isn't hissing or trying to get off the table. And she's letting me pet her." When I told him how she gave me the business when I got back from vacation once, jumping onto the coffee table and meowing her frustration at me, then jumping back to the couch to get scritches, then jumping back to the coffee table to meow at me before finally settling down next to me, he thought it was hilarious. "REALLY? Well that just proves she really loves you."

The Crate

You all know I have an appointment with the v-e-t, and that Mom thinks I am going to get into the crate by myself.  Mom can be very tricksy when she wants to be.

Mom tried tossing treats into the crate, and then getting out of the way.

After the teeny tiny meals I've been getting for the last few days (thank you very LITTLE Poppy Q) they were certainly very tempting.

This is the ONLY time you will EVER see me get into this crate WILLINGLY.

Once I got a treat, I jumped OUT of the crate right away. There's NO WAY Mom is going to get me into that thing.

Unh uh.  Nope. Not gonna happen.

I can see it now:

Millie: 1
Mom: 0


Heh.

Wacky Wednesday

This M-word thing. I don't understand it. I thought M-word meant taking stuff from one house and putting it into another.

 But the other day some guys came over and picked up the black recliner and took it away. That didn't bother me.

And then yesterday, two guys came over, picked up my very favorite blue recliner,

 carried it out the door, loaded it into their truck and drove away.

I mean, where am I going to sit?

(Mom Lynne here... Millie doesn't know it, but that beautiful charcoal gray couch I saw at the furniture store in July is waiting for us at our new house!)

Tuxie Tuesday

Mom finished a Christymas quilt yesterday while she watched the tennis.  You can see more photos on her quilting blog, here. After she finished the quilt, Mom put it in the washing monster so it would get nice and soft and wrinkly. After that she gave it to me to do the final QA (Quality Assurance) check. It met all the requirements, but I thought it needed more fur.

Mom has been shopping for the new house. She has bought two lamps, a chandelier, a couple of floor mats, some towels, a wind chime, a shower curtain, rod and hooks, a small table and a new bed.

Yup, that's right. She got herself  us a new bed. She said the bed cost more green papers than my bionic leg. This, I have got to see.

A Little Bird Told Me

My ears are burning. Has somebody been talking about me?

Tiny meals. Locked in a room. Feliway. Jackson Galaxy Herbal Essences. Moo-vers. Hmmm.

Saturday, Not Caturday

Mom Lynne here.

I wanted to answer some of the questions and the comments about our prospective move. Millie has allowed me to take the floor, so to speak.

Signing papers at the closing.

We're moving about 4-5 miles away, to the next town north. It's an over-55 cooperative. We'll have our own 2 BR, 2 bath home with a large living room and a sun-room. Everything is on one floor, which pleases me to no end because I won't have to go down to the basement to do the laundry. The house is climate controlled, so it won't get too hot in the summer. The driveway is significantly shorter so snow removal will be a lot easier, and I've got room for a garden. Millie and I will also have a small screened in front porch. I know she'll love it, but it may be too cool to enjoy it by the time we move in.

I've been contemplating a move for about the last two or three years, and I've been de-cluttering since then so although I've lived in this apartment over 27 years, I don't have 27 years worth of stuff. At this stage of the game, if it's in the apartment, it's coming to the new house. I'll be getting boxes next week and I'll start packing.  Millie is always aware when I am packing for a trip, and she'll certainly be aware something is up when I start putting things into boxes.

I want to leave as many things the same as possible for as long as possible to keep her stress level down. No matter how messy the new place is, I want to set up her food area, her litter boxes, and the kitty condo before I do anything else.

I had a long talk with April of The Teacher's Pets about how to handle Millie during the move itself. I cannot stress enough how fearful Millie still is of being captured. April and I agreed that it would be more traumatic for Millie if I boarded her somewhere than it would if I stuck her in one room during the move. April suggested a homeopathic solution to give Millie to help her relax a bit. The plan is to somehow get her into the bathroom during the move, and leave her there. When the move is completed, I can go back, corral her into a box and bring her to the new house.  That's the plan of course. We'll see how it works out. We also do not want to keep Millie in a crate all day either.

I'd love to be able to get her into a carrier and then let her out into one room at the new place, but unfortunately I can't simply "get her into a carrier" and I don't think I can expect the movers to come in and out all day and leave one room alone. Besides, heavy stuff needs to be moved into each room and I need the movers to do that.

It's much too risky to let her run around while the guys come in and out. We just can't guarantee Millie will not bolt and run outside.

I'll try the anti-stress solution to get her to the vet next week too. Once the vet sees her, he may be able to proscribe some other medication to help manage the move.

That's my biggest concern. Otherwise, Millie will be with me, meaning wherever I sleep, Millie will too. I won't leave her in an empty apartment alone overnight.  I also plan to take a few days off for the move so if I move mid-week, I'll be with Millie for four or five days in the new house before I go back to work.

I've worked up floor plans for each room so we ought to get settled fairly quickly. The neighborhood is VERY quiet, so there won't be a lot of traffic going by each day.

Thanks in advance for all your help, suggestions and support.

MONTY Q is HOME!!!!!

OH MY BAST! I just heard, MONTY Q is HOME!

MomBean called Mom and said he didn't seem to be hurt in any way. She said Monty Q was skinny and hungry, but he's home.

My Monty Q has always had a bit of wanderlust in him, and he just LOVES my Mom. I am SO GLAD he is home.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to teleport myself to Maryland to offer comfort to my sweetie...

The Close

Mom and I we be "closing" on a house of our own today. The M-word will be implemented and we will be in the new place before Halloween.

Mom has hired "M-word" guys to come over and put our stuff in a big truck and then bring it over to the new place. Yesterday one of them came over to count all our stuff so he could tell Mom how many green papers it will cost. Next week he will bring boxes and Mom will start to fill them up.

In the meantime I'm getting back to bird-tv.

Appointment...

Mom says I have appointment with the v-e-t next Wednesday.

Let the games begin.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Holy carp, Mom knows how to do needlepoint too?

Tuxie Tuesday

Mom is home for staycation. She's got to do more "sorting" and de-cluttering.

Check this out. This is the bookcase that Mom uses for her cookbooks. She's had it twenty-four years.

This picture was taken ten years ago, but you get the idea.

This picture is from six years ago. You can see the cookbook bookcase is full of cookbooks. This bookcase won't fit anywhere at the new place, so Mom has had to adjust.

It took Mom all day to sort through the cookbooks and the three boxes of printed recipes she's been collecting over the years.

Believe it or not, Mom got rid of a lot of cookbooks. The old bookcase has been de-constructed. There was lots of scary squeeeeeeeeek-ing as screws were removed and banging as the thing got taken apart. I stayed firmly under the bed while it was happening.

Now it's all gone.

It continues to be verrrr-y interesting here in New Hampster.

Happy Birthday Auntie Karate

That's Auntie Karate in the sunglasses in this photo. As you can see she is full of mischief.

Happy Birthday Auntie Karate!