Hazardous waste dump kitty

Tuesday, February 3, 1998

        Alice is a teacher, and she's been writing me with updates on the "school cat," a stray that has been adopted by her school. She stays in Alice's room mostly, and when the kids have been extra-good, they get to visit with her as a reward. She disappeared for a few days last week and everyone was extremely worried about her. When she came back, they named her Grizzabella, or "Bell" for short.

        Pyewacket got a get-well card from Bell this morning. It said "I hope you are feeling better. I'm afraid this may happen to me soon!"

        Animals add so much to a place, I think. It's wonderful that Alice's school allows the cat to stay. There's a store downtown at Crown Center called "The Cat's Meow." It's a nice store, but the best part is that they sometimes have cats there. They usually hide under things, but it's still nice.

        I'm writing this in the morning, so I don't know yet how it's going to go tonight. I plan to pick Pye up after work, but I don't know yet how late they're going to be there. I need to call and find out. And then I may go back out to the drugstore to pick up a few things that Bob needs for his trip. He's not leaving until Friday afternoon, and I guess I could do it tomorrow night after yoga, or even Thursday evening, but I hate to leave things for the last minute.

        I'm taking a couple of floating holidays on Monday and Tuesday. My weekends have been especially busy lately and I just feel like I need a few days off in a row. I want to make some postcards and work on the web site; I wrote and cancelled my local ISP on Sunday, and it just now occurred to me that I have some of my old journal entry archives on my server space there. So I guess I need to move them over to the main site, or put them somewhere else. Or maybe I'll just let them go. I don't know if there's any reason to keep every entry I ever wrote. The first ones weren't much. Just a paragraph or so a day, an entire month on one page.

Later . . .

        I'm typing this by stretching my arms out about as far as they'll reach. Pyewacket is sleeping on my lap and the laptop is on the other side of her. She's pretty subdued. Not her usual bouncy self. I picked her up after work tonight, and the vet said he wasn't going to let her go home, he liked her too much. He kissed her head, and said that even with nine staples in her tummy, she was still sweet. He said he's still mystified by her internal organ jumble. He just threw up his hands. I told him that we really don't know anything about her or where she came from. She could be a hazardous waste dump kitty.

        In this picture, she's lying on Bob's sweater which is on the sweater dryer. It's kind of like a little hammock, one of her favorite places. It probably feels better on her sore tummy. She hasn't done anything tonight except sleep. Bob gave her a little bit of ham, and she ate that, but mostly she's been sleeping, either on my lap or in one of the dining room chairs. She looks thinner. I'm sure in a couple of days she'll be her old self.

        Bob's leaving for Phoenix Friday afternoon. I intended to go to the drugstore tonight, but decided that it was more important to be cat furniture for Pyewacket. I can do it tomorrow night after yoga class. I need to get vitamin C, and antibiotic ointment in case he gets blisters, and maybe that's it. I'll have to look at my list again. I had everything else he needed--shampoo, toothpaste, disposable razors. Oh, a Phoenix road map if I can find one newer than the one he has. So I guess I'll be going to the bookstore, too. Maybe I can do that on my lunch hour tomorrow. I'll run around for a couple of days, then I get a four day weekend.