The Price of Obsession

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Just wanted to let y'all know that Annie, the cat I posted about not long ago, went to her foster home on Wednesday. I haven't heard any news about her having the babies yet, so that's good news.

The other good news is that my beautiful Callie showed up a week ago today. The only thing I can figure is that Annie had run her off and she came back once I took Annie from the exit. The bad thing is...Callie was pregnant, too. So, Friday morning I rescued her, took her to the office, where she stayed in the back office's bathroom to stay away from Linkon. Friday afternoon, I met her foster mom to transfer her over.

Friday night and Saturday morning, it rained and was stormy. I was SO glad that Annie and Callie were safe and out of the weather.

And today I got a text from Callie's mom that the babies were on their way...( Collapse )

I have a pregnant cat in my bathroom. It's the only safe place for her right now. I rescued her from the interstate exit, thinking that I had a place to take her, but that didn't work out, so now she's in my bathroom. The other cats might run her off if I left her outside, and there are coyotes in the woods. If I let her in other parts of the house, the Doberman will think she's lunch.

She seems very young to me, and she's pretty small, and looks like she's pretty close to delivering.

If you know of anyone who could take her or foster her and the babies, please let me know. Feel free to point people to this post.

Not the greatest pictures, but to give you an idea...

I really didn't expect MuteMath to live up to the energy, fun and fascination that they held for me the last time I saw them. But they DID, oh yes, they really did.

Instead of walking on stage, they entered through a door at the back of the floor room, with lights (sort of like Christmas lights) swaying on poles above their heads, and they wove their way through the crowd to the stage. Fittingly, since they're from Louisiana, it reminded me of a small Mardi Gras parade.

Their sound is always perfect, if unusual. Paul's voice is angelic, and the rest of the guys are amazing at what they do, which is unlike any band I've ever seen. They are FUN to see because there's so much going on and they look like they're having so much fun. I really enjoyed seeing them again, and I'm so glad that jaeyn went with me.

Here are some very lousy pictures I took with my phone...not quality pics, but I was sitting in the balcony, I was using a phone I still haven't conquered, and I do jiggle a bit while dancing. I just want them to preserve the memory of a really fun night. ( Collapse )

Goodness, I'm a slacker. Been a little busy - work, doggies, sleep - that's about all I can manage any more.

Finally am getting my pics up from the last concert, doubt any of them are any good, but gotta post anyway...( Collapse )

The best pictures I have of each of the Dog Mansions, previously posted, but I wanted to have one page with all five of them to make it simpler to show someone who hasn't seen them. ( Collapse )

From an idea I had last winter, through a lot of work and expense, to the celebration last night, the Dog Mansions have been a real adventure. It's funny to think that, at the beginning, we thought four of the five houses would be exactly alike, and now each one is different even though their size (except for the Redheads' house) is similar.

Yesterday was a lot more work than it seemed like it should have been. I'm rather beat up today - I fell on a concrete block while trying to drag a big patio umbrella out of Kalija and Patty's pen (it never made it out), Oril jumped on me and ripped up my arm, I screwed my finger instead of the screw, and I have bruises and cuts on both arms and hands that I can't remember how I got - plus, I fell again today and cut my leg, so I'm sure I'm going to be very sore tomorrow, I'm already feeling it tonight. But there were three houses to finish, so we got to work around 2:30 and finished around 8:30. We made two big changes to our proposed work: we did the food bowls differently in the Redheads' house, and all my nagging about Kalija and Patty's floor being too high resulted in a surprise step, which I had also mentioned several times. :)

So I took pictures today! ( Collapse )

Whoooohoooo, we have all five Dog Mansions built!! :)

We still have things to finish on the last three:
Redheads - put in center post, finish roof, make food bowl shelves
Kalija & Patty - finish sides, make food bowl shelves
Sylvia & Petey - finish sides, make food bowl shelves

But the main buildings are all done! I said I wanted them before it got cold, and while it was pretty chilly last night, we accomplished what we set out to do. I'm SO proud of us and of the buildings. Deryl asked me last night if the Mansions were built from something else we had seen or if we thought it all up ourselves, and I proudly answered that it was my idea and we elaborated on it from there and it was all our idea, our plan, our execution of the plan.

So, here are pics of the last house, the house of Sylvia and Petey...( Collapse )

Dog Mansion #4 is up! :)

We still can't figure out why we can't manage to finish one in one day, but since that hasn't happened yet, we just need to get over it. :) We were late getting started yesterday, and worked till about 9:30pm, but still have to finish the sides and build the shelves for the food.

Still, it looks good. Now if I could just convince Kalija and Patty that it's theirs and they can get in it. :) My shy dogs are even shy of their new home. Patty, of course, hid in her (old) house the whole time we were working because she's the shyest dog I have. Kalija, however, decided to trust a bit, and was watching the whole process and coming to me whenever he thought it was safe. I am very happy to say that I had some really good quality time with my boy yesterday, and when I tell him, "I love you soooooooooo much" (a phrase he loves that makes him cuddle harder against me), it definitely is coming from my heart. I said last night that to me, he is a combination of Sly (his daddy) and Misha - he has the toughness of Sly and the sweetness of Misha. That is a serious combo for me...he's the huggable representative of the two dogs I've loved most in my life. Usually Patty is the lovey-dovey one, so it was good to get some loving from my beautiful boy.

I didn't take any pictures till today, but here they are...( Collapse )

Today we lowered the floor, which I'm amazed about since I couldn't imagine how to do it other than taking it apart completely and re-doing the whole thing. Nope, it was complicated but not that bad. And now the floor is the correct height. We also put the sides on, put the hay in, and nailed the roof. We have to get one more piece of roofing, we didn't buy enough to overlap the pieces properly but that's pretty much all that's left to do. Well, that's not true...we still have to set a center post and build the food shelves. These mansions always take longer to do than it would seem. :)

But these pictures give an idea of what a real mansion the Redheads have...( Collapse )