jenepel: (Buffy: Willow "bored now")
[personal profile] jenepel
It's Friday, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am SO ready for this week to end. Not exactly sure why, but it's been molassas. I'm sure Rach would like to think that's because she's away (in the States) but I hesitate to attribute it entirely to that! Either way, this afternoon cannot come soon enough. Well, I guess technically it is afternoon, but not late enough for me to be leaving work, which is what I would most like to be doing right now.

I went out again last night with [livejournal.com profile] outforawalk and friends, which was fun. They very kindly schlepped out to East Finchley for me, so we did dinner (and then strolling) in Muswell Hill. Nice to show someone my (kinda) neighbourhood. Also, there were pictures taken of Rose and Ten,

which I much enjoyed. Possibly I myself need some small posable figures to play with?

I'm going home this weekend, although I am not remotely ready. Last night, when I should have been throwing some things into a bag (seriously - like 20 mins work) I fell asleep instead. On my covers. In my clothes. With my light on. And woke up this morning just like that. Lovely. So I need to run home and get stuff ready after work, which is going to make catching the 615 train very difficult. What a pain in my ass. If it was just packing I would be fine, since I have enough stuff at my parents that I usually don't bother to bring things. The actual problem is that I need my Halloween costume, and although I have the pieces in mind, I haven't yet raided my closet to get them ready. I kinda wanted to try stuff on. Which is SO not gonna happen in the 15 minutes or so that I have to be ready and run out of the house. Why do I need my Halloween costume this weekend, on the 18th? My friend is having a birthday party, fancy dress MANDATORY (her stress, not mine). It has already been impressed unpon me several times that I must have a costume and it must be a good one. Now considering mine will be home-made, I have a feeling she's not going to be happy about it. But she can suck it up! I've already bitched to (almost everyone) in my life about the British need to spend money on (rent/buy) a costume. What happened to home-made costumes? When I was at Uni in America, everyone just went to the thrift store or goodwill or their closet and made one up. Why can we not do that? If you must steal a holiday (oh PLEASE no All Hallows comments) then at least don't make it harder to participate in. Blech.

ANYWAY. Besides the party, this weekend has been designated as kitten weekend. The rescue centre that I was planning on getting a kitten from is actually near my parents' house (long story) and they are having a "kitten fair" this weekend, so I'm going along to hopefully pick one out. I mean I really don't see why I won't end up with one. I've got stuff ready at home, and I have a cat carrier, and I've already checked with the train website to make sure you can take a cat on board. So it's all good. Speaking of the kitten, I put it as my FB status, and there is now a thread of 12 replies. It's getting to be like LJ over there or something with the comments. Weird. Also, if you haven't already voted, go do my KITTEN NAME POLL! It's fun! It's easy! Your vote might count!

In other cat news (themed entry? who knew) I have a weird story from my parents about our family cat. For background, his name is Snowflake, he's a black cat (WE DID NOT NAME HIM) and he's a bit (let's be diplomatic) unsociable. I mean he's okay, but he can be a snot. Anyway, he doesn't wear a collar. We haven't made any of our cats wear a collar since the time years ago when our old cat almost died by strangling himself on his collar when he caught it on a tree branch. Thankfully, it was in our backyard and we heard the yowling. But it was a very tall tree and climbing was necessary to retrieve him. So no more collars. But at this point, the cat is micro-chipped anyhow, so although that's not as easy as a tag on a collar, it's still a way that any vet or shelter would know he had a home. BUT I DIGRESS. (Oh man, it's just that kinda day.) So no collar, so people may not know who he belongs to. We already had issue a few years ago with the people across the street feeding him b/c they thought he was a stray. In actuality he's just very greedy - no wonder he was getting fat.

So here's some weirdness. A few weeks ago my mom was telling me that he had come home with some weird substance all over his back. She said it was kind of slick and oily, and seemed to smell like onions. They tried to wash it off, because they were a bit worried about him licking it and getting poisoned or something (we had another cat come back wtih oil all over him - he fell in a tanker maybe?! - and cleaning him off was NOT FUN). I guess they decided it was harmless enough, but couldn't figure out what happened. My mom's hypothesis being that perhaps someone had thrown cooking water (hopefully cooled) on him - although whether on accident or to make him go away was not determined. So it seemed an isolated incident, and we kind of forgot about it. Then, a few weeks later, my dad tells me that the cat came home with a flea collar on him. Now this is strange, but he doesn't wear a collar, so we thought perhaps someone thought he was a stray and took pity on him. I actually don't know if they left the collar on or took it off (given our earlier stated misgivings about collars) because I forgot to ask.

BUT THEN, a few night ago my parents have a visitor, and all is revealed. There is an older guy who lives next door, who (as described by some) is "a bit off". Actually he's not older - well I mean I had that impression, but according to my mom he is younger than they are, so maybe in his 50's? So he came by and explained that he had just found out that the black cat was ours (WE'VE HAD HIM FOR LIKE 8 YEARS NOW) and that he was worried about him. He thinks Snowflake has fleas. Not sure why, since according to both parents they have seen no sign of this, nor does the dog (yellow lab) seem to have a problem either. So he put the flea collar on, and ALSO (this part I love) he put the onion-y stuff on. It turns out that it was a home remedy (this makes me think of [livejournal.com profile] basilm - I just bet she would LOVE to make a home flea remedy) that consisted of garlic and I'm not sure what else. My dad gently explains that they do frontline (that medicine stuff) for fleas, that both the dog and the cat have had it recently, and that they haven't seen any problems. Which evidently cued a long lecture on the difference between dog and cat fleas and the reason they may not have noticed. (Most of which google doesn't agree with btw.)

The entire story is just a bit bizarre, and made me laugh quite a bit. I mean seriously, this guy was so dedicated to this random cat who might be a stray (although he wasn't feeding him) that he MADE A HOME FLEA REMEDY. And then came and lectured my parents on their cat flea care. I love it.

Okay, it's 430. Surely I can survive another hour? Surely.
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December 2011

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