little bitty girl

I am going to preface this by saying I am about to have a mini vent on this matter.

Lately, people have been telling me how things will change in regards to my love for Mindy. How I will no longer love her and perhaps will want to give her away once the baby comes. The funny thing is the majority of the people telling me this are dog owners. And when I say, "Well, you seem to still be able to love your dog and your child..." The reply from them is that, "Oh, that's different. Loving a dog is different..."

Granted, we have some cat owner friends who have wanted to get rid of their pets once their baby has arrived. But in general, there seems to be more hate on the dog owner side... And I don't really get that attitude. I grew up with dogs and I always envision that one day in my future, we will have one. I never ever thought I would or ever could love a cat. And then came Mindy, and I do. I love her as much as I can love any human being. I think if you love a pet, that pet simply is a member of your family.

I am hoping to take the route Marie did with Monkey when Ryo was born. Ryo was raised to know that Monkey was very much a family member. In fact, Ryo always called Monkey her "big sister."

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Posted in Lurves, Mindy-Lou

One of the things about homeownership versus renting an apartment is all the STUFF one should know or be able to do. Stefan and I are somewhat handy but definitely not to the extent of some of our friends who have single handledly ripped down, rewired, re-concreted their homes. It is times like this where I wish I had married a metal welder instead of an internet architect. Sure he can build websites and systems but what good does that do me when I need things custom built? I guess he's somewhat pretty to look at....

With Mindy being so ill, she was very unfortunately (for us and her) using our carpeted basement as her own en suite bathroom. The carpets have since been steam cleaned, litter moved to another part of the house (she's back to using her litter once she got on her antibiotics) and she has been banned from the basement unless under supervision. The only issue was that we don't have a door that closes off the basement from the kitchen so thus began the search for a well designed baby gate.

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Posted in Conversations, House Bound, Married Life, Mindy-Lou, Stefan

And the cycle repeats itself.

I feel like we go through this every time Stef or I go away for long periods of time.

The first stage is poop rage mixed with wistful looks.

Mindy poops on Leaver's possessions, butts head and paws reach out when the Leaver calls. Pictures of the Leaver is shown to Mindy, whereby she will also head butt, touch and purr at picture.

The second stage involves crying during inappropriate times.

Mindy cries at the door for the Leaver. This usually takes place at sometime in the early morning and will take place for an hour. No amount of cajoling or treats will calm her down. She will cry until she falls asleep. This is usually a very traumatizing time for the Stayer.

The last stage involves total and utter indifference to Leaver and too much love for the Stayer.

Mention of the Leaver's name brings back blank stares. Huffiness is coupled with nose in air and swish of tail. Then begins the neediness of Mindy to see, touch and cuddle the Stayer at all moments while the Stayer is within her vicinity.

The return usually results in tears (of the Leaver) as Mindy will ignore the Leaver for at least a week to punish the Leaver for leaving. This usually brings of sad stares and cajoling of the Leaver to no avail.

And they say animals are dumb beasts with no feelings.

I can't wait. Revenge is such a sweet, sweet treat!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

I know, I know. Another crazy cat lady post.

Listen, I don't think anyone realizes I grew up with DOGS all my life and Mindy is my very first cat. I am constantly amazed and fascinated by cat behaviour. And I hope dog people don't start spamming and hating on me (as I still plan to have a dog at some point in my life) but dogs seem like the much easier pet to understand in comparison. With dogs, they love you, you take them for walks, they let you do ridiculous things to them and they STILL love you. With cats, it's another ball game. You find yourself constantly trying to make them think you're a cool enough being for them to chill with you.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

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Posted in Lurves, Mindy-Lou

Anyone who owns a cat truly understands the meaning of "curious as a cat." I thought I truly did until this (which I also know is not uncommon to other cat owners): But why the hell do they always want to be in the bathroom when you are doing a poop?

The reason why I am complete bewildered, is because I was always lead to believe that cats had hyper sensitivity when it came to smell. I swear to God, Mindy gets mad if we close the door when we are doing our business (NOT together! What kind of people do you think we are?!) and I just do not understand this. Not only does she meow piteously, but she will literally use her paw and knock on the door until you let her in (this has been observed not just from personal experience but also when others are at work).

Not only will she be in the same room, but she will be purring, completely content.

The ironic thing is, if you should happen to cross her path when she is in the midst of doing her business, she will literally give you the dirtiest look as if to say,"Can you give me some privacy please? Sheesh!"

Cats are messed.

And yet, I still love her.

Comments (3)
Posted in Mindy-Lou, Weirdness

Men seem to have all sorts of "bugs" in their genetic make up. I say this all the time. It's as if their brains just aren't wired in the same way as women's brains are. Has anyone else noticed this? Men are always bragging that God made them first. I have this theory that when men were created, God realized that there were all these bugs in the original prototype and so women were created next. Women are the 2.0 version of humans.

Men in my family have their own set of bugs or flaws. The most prevalent one is Lackofloveitis. This "bug" is actually a mental delusion where the party suffering from it feels that they are loved slightly less or not at all in comparison to others. Every week or so, some member of my family is declaring that one of the guys or the guys themselves are complaining about how they're loved less than the girls. Trust me, they suffer from various other more serious bugs such as Painintheassitis and I.P.S. (Irritable Personality Syndrome) to be concerned with the lack of love. Because them being loved less is simply not an issue.

Thank goodness the women in my family are made from sterner stuff. It balances things out.

To my family, whom I love best in the world: my life would feel like less of a life if one of you were not in it. Happy Valentine's Day.

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Posted in Family Shenanigans, Mindy-Lou, Stefan

It's been a little bit insane in our household since the news of Mindy possibly having some sort of sickness. So it turned out that her pee had a higher than normal pH level. Sometimes this is an indication of stones in the bladder (bad) or a urinary tract infection (also bad). The vet decided that we needed to do X-rays just to make sure that she had no stones.

I had to drop her off at the vet and I confess that I was tearing up a little as they took her to the back and she gave me the most bewildered look. I hate the idea of her not feeling safe or happy. Truth be told, she's never had to be away from her home for any long periods of time. When we go away, we have her cat nanny come and hang with her the entire time we're gone. (God help us when we actually have children since we're so obsessive with Mindy now).

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

I am sure many of you out there have thought that perhaps one day, you would like to collect a urine sample from your cat. Let me tell you that it's not as fun as it seems.

Mindy's been licking a part of her belly and now it's turned into an awful rash. We brought her to her doctor because I thought she must have some skin allergy but the doctor said sometimes cats lick their bellies because their stomach or bladders are bothering them. They do it because they think if they lick it, it'll get better. Or it could also be a behavioural thing that she's recently developed. To rule out any internal issues, we had to get a pee sample.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

Sometimes, they like to sneak off and take naps without me. Then, my inner paparazzi comes out....

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

Someone made a comment that whenever I have pictures of my bed, it tends to be the green floral one and whether I ever changed my sheets.

For one thing, I am a notorious neat freak so yes, I change them weekly. Secondly, those sheets were a wedding present from Marie and happen to be my favourite ones. So I try to clean them as often as possible so that I can use them as much as I do. And the third most obvious (Duh!) reason why I have so many pictures of those sheets, is that they bring out the green in Mindy's eyes.

The cat madness ensues.

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Posted in Added Thoughts, Mindy-Lou

I have indeed become the crazy cat lady that talks and blogs about her pet. I am up early this morning heading off to wintery West Coast. I still cannot believe our weather reversal. I am still not quite sure why I picked the early flight.

Anyway, I received this in an email yesterday and found it particularly funny, so thought I would share with fellow pet parents.

PET RULES

To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door - nose height.

Dear Dogs and Cats,

The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

I sometimes let Mindy play with this small ball of yarn that has been completely covered by her fur. It was from one of my Ryoko projects. She had discovered it and totally managed to create a huge giant booby trap for us in the apartment from her batting it all over the place. I couldn't use it after as it was completely covered with Mindy's hair.

I usually only allow her to play with it under supervision because you never know what shenanigans she'll be up to left on her own. This morning while I was checking my email, she had somehow managed to bite off about two feet of the yarn and proceeded to ingest it. I was first alerted to the situation by the sounds of her gagging. Which I naturally thought was a fur ball. I usually don't deal well with her throw ups so was yelling for Stefan to wake up.

Except then I noticed the string and tried to pull it from her. And then I started frantically shouting for Stef to wake up to help as she wouldn't let me get to her. He managed to pin her down and proceeded to pull the yarn out from her. I was terrified that she had actually swallowed the entire ball.

Needless to say, it gave us all a terrible scare. Stefan carried his baby to bed, cuddled her and quietly told her that she shouldn't put random things in her mouth. Then he proceeded to clear up all my random balls of yarn from various projects and put them away.

I feel like such a terrible cat mum.

Comments (2)
Posted in Mindy-Lou

kitty!

I am so very jealous of Lisa's Matilda. I really think that very spoiled Mindy would benefit from having a little baby brother or sister, but Stefan is convinced that Mindy is a one cat type of cat.

Since we(I) adopted Mindy when she was about six years old, I have never been exposed to kittens. Now that Mindy is twelve years old, I constantly worry about how my heart will take it when it's her time to go. Many cat loving friends always say that it's a little easier to take when there is another one to love. I worry that the reason why Mindy is so lazy and overweight is because she's so very bored. Plus, I definitely have it in my heart to love another kitty.

I showed Stefan the following kitty pictures in hopes of changing his mind about adopting another cat -

First Steps
Baby Blue
My Little Kitten
Baby Chihiro

and he still says,"No!"

He's convinced that if we get another, he'll just be a permanent slave as Mindy already treats him like her personal butler. That, and he doesn't want to slip any further on my totem pole of "loves". At this point in time, Mindy is at the very top. I think he's ranked fifth. The god-daughter bumped him down a notch.

I cannot believe that he could look at these pictures and feel nothing.

The man has a heart of stone, I tell you.

Comments (2)
Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

Stefan seems to have just left the apartment without saying goodbye to Mindy.

That was an interesting move on his part. I wonder what thing of his she's going to poop on when she discovers that (a) he's not home, (b) he's not going to be home for a couple of days and (c) he didn't kiss her goodbye.

Comments (1)
Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

Yes. I have indeed become one of those "crazy cat" mamas who talk about their cats. Stefan always warned me about that when I first started my blog. Oh well. It is what it is.

I am always constantly amazed how human like cats can be. I grew up with dogs and dogs are definitely the simpler animal to take care of. They just don't hold grudges the way cats do.

Anyway, I don't know what it is about Mindy but when she's annoyed she poops in random places. Usually on something that Stefan and I particularly like. If she's pissed with either one of us, she'll wait until we're cleaning and take out our favourite piece of clothing or most often, our favourite shoes and poop on/in them. This usually happens when either one of us are travelling. When I was travelling all the time, I had to remind Stefan to put all my things away. I think her tolerance for either one of us being away is about 7 days and then she just rages through her poop. When Stef was away for a month in Australia last year, almost all his favourite things got pooped on and then she refused to acknowledge his presence for about 3 days when he got home. He would cajole, tempt her with treats and she would just look at him in the haughtiest manner, eat her treat and then flick his face with her tail as if to say,"You still have not been forgiven, peon!"

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

We have really large windows in our loft and since I am loathe to take away the wonderful light they bring in, we have very sheer drapes. So often, I usually pull the covers over my head as soon as the light hits.

A couple of days ago, I woke up, full body under covers and realized that I absolutely couldn't breathe. My heart racing, I thought that my constant eating and non-exercising had finally caught up to me and I was having some form of heart attack. All of a sudden I felt something move and a paw swiped at the cover over my face. One green eye met one brown eye and freaked us both out.

Turns out, Mindy thought I was part of the unmade bed and had decided to take her morning slumber on my chest, something that she has never done. It's also safe to say that there hasn't been any noticable difference in her (my) quest for weight loss.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

The ongoing saga of the new diet.

Mindy, being a 12 year old cat is not into me trying to introduce new things to her. New food, new bed, new anything.

So, she's got pretty dirty back teeth since her previous owner (ahem! mybroinlaw) didn't bother to take care of her properly. But, she won't let me brush her teeth. So, I have to put some teeth dentrifice in her kibble occasionally. Stefan, (who has a mental allergy to cheese) is convinced that she too is allergic to cheese, one of the ingredients in her dentrifice.

Yesterday, I must have put a little too much dentrifice in her food because she had eaten everything other than the bottom bits with the powder. On top of it, she had thrown a piece of her raw food on top of her powdery kibble to show her displeasure. SHE IS SUCH A PRINCESS!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

In the mornings, if we don't make the bed fast enough, this is what happens. If you should even attempt to try to lift her up and make the bed, she either gives you a sad, soulful, "Don't you love me?" or a scornful, "Do you know who I am?" look. It's hard not to succumb to Mindy's every wish.

As you all know, Mindy has a bit of a tubby-licious problem. I've talked about it, here, here and here. It's such a cause of concern for me especially since my dear friend Jen's last kitty died of diabetes. We're trying to do everything we can to avoid that problem.

So recently when Mags was over, she had talked about how her kitty Piper (who was Mindy's doppelganger) is half her size, with shiny coat and no dandruff bum (a problem with chubby kitties). I asked her what the secret was and Piper is on the raw food diet. Eager to try anything, I set off on my new quest to make Mindy lose weight.

The first night, Mindy just gave me this really scornful look and refused to eat anything. The second night, I tried to trick her by putting treats in her bowl, and she took her paw and took the treats out, left the food and gave me a "You have to do better than that" flick of her tail. The third night, I read that it was better to try and mix the food with her current wet food and she ate two little bites and left the food alone. The fourth night, she actually ate around her wet food and even took out chunks of the raw food with her mouth and dumped it on the floor.

I definitely needed to try something new. So last night, I mushed all her wet and raw food together and she actually ate 75% of the mixture! Oh the elation! I always thought Mindy had my sweet but bossy disposition, turns out she also inherited Stefan's stubborn and unwillingness to try new food attitude.

Looks like this is going to be a long road ahead.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

What does one do with a mouse in the house after it's been caught? That has been the question of the weekend. I guess the dip in the temperature caused the little critters to come out of their hiding places, as many reports have been made of various mouse trappings and killings. The most common suggestion has been killing by drowning, letting it out just to die in the elements. A friend, who is an environmentalist and animal lover, said that using a trap is the kindest way because it usually kills them instantly. Well, we did none of the above. And before anyone protests too much or sends PETA up our asses, I just wanted to say that we are mouse catching virgins and truly had no idea what to do.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

As you know, we live in an apartment in a rather old building. There are all sorts of weird cracks in the walls and sometimes you can even hear the wind between the buildings. Today, when Stefan came home from the gym, he noticed that Mindy was in her "hunting mode" near the fridge. I usually ignore this because it very easily could be the wind but Stefan is more proactive than I, offered to hunt with Mindy.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

We had people over on Saturday because we were celebrating my birthday. Inevitably, strangers will comment on the fatness of Mindy and I will just nod and tell them we try but she sleeps 10 hours a day. No matter how little we feed her, when someone sleeps 10 hours a day, there just isn't enough cardio burning anything off. Stefan, on the other hand is in constant denial.

Lisa, "God, your cat is fat."

Stef, "Well, you should talk."

I was completely appalled when Lisa told me the story. Thank God for me, Lisa is an absolutely gorgeous girl, who is not the least bit fat and has known Stef for donkey's years and has become used to his caustic barbs.

I confronted him later on about his sensitive behaviour towards people's comments especially since the comments are true.

"Ok,"he admitted quietly, "MAYBE, she is just a little plump."

I give up.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

Sometimes when you are on the road, you tend to get caught up in what you are doing that home sometimes seems like some far away thing. I have been so busy here at the trade show and have barely had any time to breathe, much less think about the people at home that really matter. Today, Stefan sent me an email with one line, "Here is who is missing you at home" and he attached a picture of him holding Mindy. My heart just blew up to its maximum capacity and I just realized that I cannot wait to get home to the ones I love. MOO-MOO!

Note: I would attach the picture but Stef says he doesn't like it. I think he looks beautiful (because he is!) and that Mindy seems a little perturbed at being held. MOO-MOO-MOO!

HAH! He let me put in on after all! Aren't they the cutest? It makes a girl want to rush home!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

I have issues about going away for long periods of time because Stef, like every other dad, takes child rearing with a totally different approach (usually lackadaisal) — which in my mind, is obviously the wrong approach.

Anyways, Mindy is on her diet and she needs to eat it mixed with some other good, organic, human grade cat food. However, she cannot just eat the other food as it gives her diarrhea which distresses her because she is a very neat cat and cannot bear being dirty. And when she gets diarrhea, she gets horrible poo bum that she cannot clean because she's too fat and Stef won't wipe it clean for her. Then she ends up getting even worse poo bum that usually requires one of us, pinning her down and cutting off the excess dry poo and leaving her feeling even more unhappy about the whole debacle.

So before I left, she was running out of diet food and I kept on reminding Stef but Stef kept on procrastinating. He called me this morning to say she has diarrhea. GRRR! Men!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan, What's Buggin' Me

I don't believe it. I think my bathroom scale is broken. We had to load up fatty onto the scale for her monthly weigh in (it's too cold to drag her to the vet) and guess what? SHE LOST WEIGHT! A WHOLE ONE AND A HALF POUNDS! I mean for a cat that's like 15 human pounds, right? But she still looks so fat! However, she is now sixteen and a half pounds, as opposed to the twenty when we first inherited her. Woo hoo! Eight more pounds to go and she will eventually look like a normal cat.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

Yes, Mindy in her full glory and Stefan still says she is "big boned." HELLO? SHE IS A GIANT BALL WITH A TINY HEAD AND FEET!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

I know I promised myself that I wouldn't talk so much about my cat, but sometimes things happen and you just gotta talk about it.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

So I was here typing all my Mindy entries when I heard some rustling coming from our recycling box. Do I go up and inspect the rustling? No, I wake Mindy up from her daybed and make her go and check it out. Although overweight, Mindy is still quite the alert little hunter. She sussed the situation out for about 12 minutes, then sauntered off in her so elegant way and did her little bark(yes, she does little barks for attention) "Ufh! Ufh!" to indicate everything was ok and went back to bed. I cannot believe I woke up my cat to go check out the situation whilst I stood on the office chair. Pathetic!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou

Mindy is fat, obese actually. There I have said it out loud. I am not in denial, unlike Stefan who still tells everyone that she is big-boned. She is not! STEFAN, SHE IS FAT!! CAN YOU HEAR ME? She is almost the same weight as a toddler for goodness sake!!

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan

I am sure most who know me are shocked that I haven't yet mentioned my little joy and love, Mindy the cat. Stefan, the boy has already told me that there are too many blogs out there that mention their cats.

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Posted in Mindy-Lou, Stefan