The House: Project One

I post this as the first project because it's actually done. As mentioned before, there are 5 cats living under our back porch.

Ahhhhh...look at all that great cat access! And garbage!

Here is my solution:

1. Staple chicken-wire to wood, bury other end in the ground


2. Cover with dirt
3. Construct a swanky little one-way door so that any cats left under the porch can get out, but not back in:


Close-up of the one-way door. It's super high-tech. The door is wider than the hole it covers, allowing it to swing out, but not in. Cats are able to find said door because everything else is buried in dirt, and it's the only thing letting in light.

Ta-Da! I'm sure the rest of the house rehab will be just as simple....right?

Here It Is!

Here's a conversation I had with my dad a few months ago:

Dad: So, what needs to be done with this house?
Me: You mean, rehab-wise?
Dad: Affirmative.
Me: Not much.
Dad: What does 'not much' constitute?
Me: Um, just a new roof and siding. And updating the plumbing and electrical. And the ceiling and walls need to be fixed. But that's it!
Dad: (pause) Are you sure you want this house?
Me: Yeah. Why?

I've been resistant to putting photos of the house up on the blog until after we bought it. It's like not telling anyone the unfortunate name you picked out for your child until after it's legal on the birth certificate. But, it's all ours now. And the rehab has begun! It's more like demolition - and it seems like we keep making more work for ourselves, but it'll pay off and it will be a very nice house. Or at least, we're probably not going to lose money on it. Unless the whole economy collapses, and then money won't really be an issue. We'll just need a few firearms to fend off the zombies. (Don't you know there's a direct correlation between economies collapsing and marauding zombies?)

Just for Comparison....

January 16, 2009

March 29, 2009

Whiskey Weigh-in

Someone pointed out that there haven't been any Whiskey pics for a while. Well...ask and ye shall receive!

What has our little girl been up to?

Afternoon Naps with B. and Teryx

Afternoon Naughtiness

Size Comparison - that Johnny Walker bottle is starting to look like a mini!

Housing Update 2009

Finally! A Tasty Treat!

We closed on the house! It had all the finality of Voldemort biting the dust, but oh well (oops - spoiler alert!). It's ours! Every dilapidated inch of it! We started tearing out all the nasty carpeting on Sunday - it has nice hardwood floors. It will be about a week or so before the bank sets up monkey for the contractor (oops - that should be "money" - but in these troubled financial times, perhaps banks are bartering with monkeys....)

First impressions: The neighbors on one side informed me that:

a: they wanted to buy the house, and we stole it from them. I don't feel bad, because the house had been sitting vacant since June, and the bank accepted our offer around Thanksgiving. In the words of Mike Doughty, "You snooze you loose, and I snost and lost"

b: The former owners left their pregnant cat, who had 4 kittens this fall, and are all living under our porch and in the garage (where the neighbors have been putting out food for them).

I spend Saturday and Sunday constructing a cat exclosure (to keep them from getting under the porch) with a swanky one-way door in case they are under the porch and need to get out. Once the contractor comes, I'll have him put the garage door back on and this will hopefully further discourage the cats. The neighbors tried to tell me that the cats lived there and I just needed to keep them. I disabused them of this notion.

I also me the neighbor on the other side. Here's how that interaction went:

Her: Did you just move in?

Me: Yes, we just bought the place.

Her: (Pause)...Oh, you and your parents?

Good to know that no matter how old I get, some people will still assume I'm 16. Not too bad.

Pictures to come! And more Whiskey pics too - stay tuned!

The Add-a-post of Adipose

Teryx has many joys in life.

Drinking from the faucet,


And nesting on things are two of them.


But her great joy in life is food.

Isn't she cute? Let's give her kitten chow.


Um....let's stop feeding her the high calorie kitten food.


Ugh - let's put her on an indoor cat type food


Oooh - let's get serious with the low-calorie indoor low-activity cat food.


How is she still getting bigger? Does she have a secret stash? Low metabolism? Will she ever stop growing?


It's always slightly embarrassing taking her to the vet. They put her on the scale (which she immediately nests on), then they raise their eyebrows at me.
"You know, " they say, "If you could get her to loose a few pounds she's be able to groom that crusty bottom of hers better..." (Ewww...I know....). How? how do I get my Buddha-kitty to stop meditating and run around the room and get her heart-rate up? The last time she had a check-up, the vet took her heart rate and said, "wow - that's the lowest heart rate I've ever gotten from a cat. She's pretty calm!" I didn't have the heart to tell the vet that Teryx hsn't realized we had left the house yet.

We're hoping that the addition of the puppy will make her move around a little bit more - unless she starts eating the puppy chow....

Stay tuned for the story of Whiskey and Teryx!

Sibling Rivalry Part II

When Caspian was about 6 months old, I decided she needed a friend.

I didn't actually check with Caspian on this first, I just went down to the Humane Society. If you've ever been to a Humane Society, it's a lot like a used car lot. The folks working there just want to move the inventory outta there, and they'll tell you anything to get you to take one home. I was immediately taken by a kitten with striking coloration.




However, when I held her, she was, well...floppy. Lethargic. Boneless.

Me: This cat seems floppy.
Used Cat Salesman: No no! She's very active. She was just playing, and now she's tired.
Me: Well, if you say so....
Used Cat Salesman: What can I say to convince you to take this cat home TODAY?
Me: I just don't know if this is the cat for me. She doesn't seem that bright.
Used Cat Salesman: (shifty eyes): Look - don't tell my supervisor I did this, but we are having a special on cats under 4 months old. This baby isn't that young, but for you, I can make that deal happen. Come on, waddya say?

So home she came.

It's been three years, and that must have been one heckuva a play session, because she hasn't recovered yet.

Teryx is the calmest, un-catlike cat I've ever met. She follows you around the room like a dog. She eats scraps off the floor. She likes water.

She is happy to snooze all day, preferably on your head. She loves company. She doesn't bite or scratch, nor does she bury her poop or groom herself.

Caspian wasn't to thrilled about this new addition, but fortunately, Terxy didn't mind not being Alpha. Caspian frequently pummels Teryx, and Teryx doesn't mind. Terxy is also fond of nursing on things (exposed skin, Caspian's ears) which increases the amount of pummeling.



And while Caspian will never admit this, I think she's usually glad Teryx is around.


Sigh. This posting nonsense is hard work. I still haven't gotten to the incredible corpulence of Teryx, or how she and Whiskey interact. Stay tuned!

Sibling Rivalry

We get asked a lot how the cats and Whiskey get along. Pretty well, actually. I think it helps that they had seen other dogs before (although they didn't like them) and that she was smaller than either of them when she arrived. I thought I'd give a brief background on the cats first.



This is Caspian. She is pure evil, and for that, we love her. We plucked her from a feral litter when she was eight weeks old. For those of you who think that being feral is purely environmental, you're wrong. And if you'd like to know how wrong you are, I invite you to pluck an 8-week old kitten from its' litter. She spent the first several weeks absolutely hating us, which was okay, because she was a tiny ball of fluff and it was cute.



She was wild and crazy and full of claws. She was a lot of fun, not all that cuddly, and kept any and all vermin out of the house. Although she has never lived a day of her life outside, she is still
very much a wild kitty.

Now that she's a respectable three-years old, she has calmed down a bit, and has learned the art of cuddling in the cold Minnesota winters. However, she keeps her own countenance, and sometimes we can go the whole day without seeing her (a feat in our tiny apartment). She keeps the vermin down, and we like her attitude. Since the arrival of the puppy, she's been staying on top of the fridge a lot. She's reminiscent of the Ceiling Cat, if anyone is familiar with this phenomenon.
After the first few days of Whiskey's arrival, she realized Whiskey was smaller and had duller claws than she. Whiskey is fascinated by the cats, thinking of them as slightly misshapen litter mates. Caspian has been surprisingly tolerant of the puppy, and while she did give Whiskey a whuppin', she didn't use her claws. They have a truce at the moment, reinforced by periodic hisses and swats from Caspian.
I was going to move on to our other cat, but it's time for ice cream. Next up - Teryx!

Ears Lookin' At You, Kid

When we first got the wee puplet, she has these cute little floppy ears.

Early January

And as she's getting older, we are noticing that her ears just keep getting perkier.

Normal perkiness

Extreme Perkiness

And not just symmetrical either - one ear flops forward, the other flops backward



They'll still be floppy when she's asleep

But not always