A Few Reason Why I Don’t Like Cats

I used to like cats. Perhaps I only say that because the only cats I’ve owned were outdoor cats. They came around at mealtime and when they wanted attention, but for the most part they would find a sunny spot somewhere around our house and sleep the day away. Thanks to living with indoor cats, I’ve been able to observe their quirky behavior, and I’m beginning to not like them as much.

Currently I live with four cats. For those of you who have read about them before, I apologize. There’s Holly who is an unfixed Calico Persian; she’s about six or seven. Muddy is a fixed brown, gold, and red domestic short hair; she’s about fourteen or fifteen. Surami is a Calico kitten who is about four or five months. Finally, our foster cat Ashe, is a six or seven year old dilute Tortoiseshell cat; she’s also fixed.

The reason why I specified which cats are fixed and which ones aren’t brings me to the first reason why I don’t like cats. Unfixed female cats are annoying. They yowl all the time and they present their behinds to whatever creature passes by be it a male cat, male human, female human, or female puppy. After Holly tried to get my then four month old puppy to mate with her, I called Holly a Pup-o-phile. It was just disturbing. I think I ended up putting her in one of the bedrooms–the cat, not the puppy.

Nothing is safe with cats around. We can’t even put our take-out on the table because the cats will jump up there and get into the bags. Yeah, my dogs have been known to get into bags of food, but two of my dogs are too small to reach the table and my other dog doesn’t counter-surf. Last month when we were cat-sitting, the cat we were looking after jumped up on the table and pulled off some pizza and hotwings my husband brought home. She proceeded to open one of the personal pizza boxes and eat the pizza. Yeah, she got into big trouble.

Lately, Holly has been allowing Surami to nurse. Holly used to be a breeder, but she hasn’t had kittens in several years. When we got Surami, she was eight weeks old. Now, had she started nursing on Holly right away I would have understood. Nope. She waits until she’s half grown. It’s disturbing to watch. It’s disturbing to see Holly encourage this kitten that is almost as big as her to nurse from her. Since the kitten has her adult teeth, she is very rough with Holly’s nipples, to the point that they’re sensitive. However, Holly won’t discourage the kitten. We have to separate them, but somehow they always find each other. They’re like opposite ends of magnets.

My husband and I would love to get a love seat or couch, but can’t because the cats will scratch on it. One of my chairs has battle scars from the cats constantly scratching on it. Once Holly looked directly at me and started scratching on the chair. Yep, she got into big trouble. It’s just really annoying because I want nice things, but as of yet I can’t have them.

Kittens have lots of energy and get into everything. Sometimes it’s really cute, like when my mom put Surami in a box and she and my puppy played together. Surami would pop her head out, bat the puppy on the head, and then duck back in the box. It was so adorable. Other times it’s annoying like when she runs all around the house like something is chasing her. I’ve nicknamed her Spazzrami.

I could go on and on, but I think the above sums up my life with our cats. Yeah, I say I don’t like cats and it’s true, but every now and then one of the cats will do something so sweet or so adorable that my heart melts and I realize that my life wouldn’t be as interesting without them. Besides, they provide great ammunition for starting conversations with my husband, people at work, and random people who even seem to be interested.

Until next time…pull that food off the counter and blame it on the cat

Life in Tornado Alley

It’s been awhile, I know. A lot has happened since I last posted. Last week a tornado ripped through Moore, OK. I was at work at the time; the tornado was across the street. It was an EF5 and had the tornado actually hit my workplace few, if any, of us would have survived. Fortunately, the tornado did not hit Petsmart.

Unfortunately, the tornado leveled several parts of town. Many people and their pets have no place to call home anymore. I drove through some of these neighborhoods and started crying due to all of the destruction.

However, the people of Moore are strong people and immediately after the storm everyone banded together to get things taken care of. These are the times that my faith in humanity is renewed. People have come from all over the United States to help us clean up the city. Temporary housing additions have been put up for the displaced people. Temporary shelters have been put up for displaced pets. It makes me cry and smile at the same time.

My husband and I were blessed. The tornado did not touch our house so our six animals, who were home alone, stayed safe. Once we were allowed to leave work, my priority was to get home to my crew. It took me four and a half hours to get home because traffic kept getting rerouted as there were trees and debris in the street. My husband got home before me and let me know that the animals were okay.

The only thing worse than it taking four and a half hours to go three miles is it taking four and a half hours to go three miles while having a full bladder. First thing I did as soon as I got home was run to the bathroom.

I later found out that two friends of the family lost their homes. One of the families lost everything including one of their dogs. As for the other family, we’re fostering their cat. There were two cats, but yesterday one of them had to be put down–kidney failure; he was thirteen years old.

All in all this past week has been physically and emotionally draining. I am happy to report that my job has been kind enough to give free baths to those who suffered damage from the storm.

On a less depressing note, I got a new laptop. It’s an HP Envy I do believe. I got it because my husband and I like to play Minecraft and my other HP didn’t run it all that well. This laptop does. As for my other laptops, I gave my HP to my mom and my Toshiba will go to my dad. Yeah, that’s what we do in our family. Whenever I get a new laptop, one of my parents gets the old one. Usually my dad will even pay me some for my old laptop.

Well I think that’s it for this post. I promise the next post will be less depressing. Oh, and concerning the next post, cat lovers beware. I talk about my dislike for cats and the reasons why.

Stay tuned…and remember to keep your friends close and your favorite squeaky toy closer.

What Do You Get When You Cross a Future Groomer with a Shih Tzu Puppy?

A Shih Tzu puppy with a Lion Cut.

**I need to do some touch-up, but overall I’m proud of myself**

Interesting Dogs Who Have Come Through the Salon

I love making bullet lists; it’s one of my favorite things to do. So I decided to make a list of interesting pets and pet parents who have blessed us with their presence. Some of these dogs I’ve bathed; other dogs I’ve just observed. I hope I’m not violating any laws by posting these stories.

• A woman came in with her maltese named Twinkie Diva. How she got her name? The dog’s mom wanted to name the dog Diva because the dog wears dresses. The dog’s dad wanted to name her Twinkie because he believed that Twinkies were going away. So they compromised.
• A chubby Chihuahua named Poo Bear.
• An English Bulldog who was supposed to be a normal bath and brush (usually lasting about 3-4 hours) was bumped to an express (usually about 1.5 hours) because she was in heat. I won’t complain about this dog though, because the owner gave me a nice tip.
• A three month old Shih Tzu puppy that was the size of my six month old Shih Tzu puppy. We speculated about whether or not this puppy was actually three months old.
• A three month old German Shepherd puppy that cried every single time someone passed his cage. He was yelling so much that one of the managers ran into the salon thinking that he was hurt. I think all of us lost a percent of our hearing due to his yelps.
• A six month old German Shepherd puppy who had few, if any manners. I didn’t think he knew sit until I realized that his owners probably speak Spanish to him when they’re at home. So I used my limited Spanish and told him to sit. He sat. Who knew?
• A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Shih Tzu. One moment she was enjoying the blow dryer; the next moment she screamed bloody murder; the next next moment she was enjoying the blow dryer.
• (One of the groomers told me this story) An owner called the salon and made her take the phone to his dog so he could talk to his dog.

Those are the only ones I can think of right now. When I collect some more, I’ll post them.

A Few Stories to Tell

While bathing dogs, I always have blog posts in my mind, but by the time I get home I’m too exhausted to write anything. I have today off so I decided that I’d post a few entries today. I apologize for the multiple posts. They won’t all be posted at once, but probably throughout the day between running errands, shaving a Shih Tzu puppy, and bonding with Netflix.

So, stay tuned…

Ticking Biological Clock

Like many women in their late twenties, I have a biological clock that ticks from time to time. However, my biological cock doesn’t tick for babies, but for puppies. While working, I see many tiny (and not-so-tiny) puppies walk past our glass windows and sometimes they even come into the salon. It makes my heart beat fast seeing or holding a puppy and suddenly I want a young puppy to cuddle with.

Then common sense hits me with a baseball bat and I return to my senses. I don’t want another puppy. I have one of my own and she’s teething. I certainly don’t want to go through the teething stages yet again. We don’t have enough chew sticks and chew toys for that.

Besides, we have enough animals in our house.

I did get to bathe a puppy today. She was so cute–a Jack Russell Terrier mix that will probably be close to the size of a lab. I really enjoyed bathing her, but I was more than happy to send her home when it was time.

I have to say that Shih Tzu puppies are my favorite…obviously. Unfortunately, as a mere bather I don’t get to bath Shih Tzu puppies all that often because most of the time they come in to get a haircut. Perhaps one day in the future I’ll have my Shih Tzu puppies to groom. Until then, I own a couple that really need haircuts. Perhaps on my next day off I can finally give them that needed haircut.