Some things I didn't feel OK posting from work. The part-timer who got the job I was going for is the lady who I've mentioned in prior posts. I have to check, but I believe I've referred to her as JT.

I can't bring myself to be mad at her. She had mentioned some months back that her husband, a preacher, might be losing his position and was interviewing at other churches. I don't know if his employment status is still up in the air, but if it IS, his benefits will go away if/when his job does. So I can see where JT would want to get a full time job.

I'm disappointed in one thing, though -- no matter what happens, when I've applied for jobs, it seems there's ALWAYS a reason to skew the decision in favor of someone else. Always. If I have experience in the job, someone eles without experience has seniority because they were a prior employee of the company. If I've already been with the company as a temp, someone with experience gets hired from the outside. People that I WORK directly WITH pulling for me means nothing: see this current job and see the receptionist's job I didn't get two years ago, about two months prior to my starting to blog.

If (*IF*) they open up JT's part-time job instead of cutting it, I'll apply. What the hey. Maybe between that and the unemployment compensation, I'd get by until I get a full-time job. A REAL job, not this temp stuff where the only thing that happens to you when you've got your foot in the door is that someone SLAMS the #$%&@ing door on your foot.

What I EXPECT them to do, of course, is cut JT's part-time position. Nothing else job-related has worked in my bleeping favor in the past four years, so why should this?

I brought home all my cubicle decorations today. Tuesday when I go in, I will make a last-ditch sweep to make sure that I'm leaving NOTHING behind that I brought in. The only stuff remaining will be whatever was already in the cubicle when I arrived, plus whatever notes I've taken on the various aspects of the job process. Someone might as well get some use from those.

Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, when I leave for the last time, the cubicle will look like I was never there.

My freaking lower back is KILLING me. At least with the long weekend, I can vegetate for the next three days if I need to. Other than my lower back, I just feel numb. Inside and out.

One of the internal applicants got the full-time job. They're giving it to someone who already works here part-time.

It's unknown at this time if they are going to make that part-time job available or cut it. With my luck, they'll just decide to do without the part-time position so I wouldn't even be able to apply for THAT. Because that's always how it seems to go, in the past four years.

My final day here is likely to be either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether they decide I'm needed for the remainder of the archiving project or not.

Every desk decoration is now packed in boxes and ready for me to bring home tonight.

And I am in the third day of a migraine which got bad enough for me to not come in yesterday. Wednesday and today, I judged my condition to be "not sick enough to stay home".

If I'm not here on Thursday, and it's likely I won't be, my paycheck will go in the mail.

And the soonest I can call in to unemployment and claim a check will be February 27. So they'd better finish getting my date from NJ by then. Right now, they're going only from the PA data I accrued in the final months of 2003, and that's not enough to warrant an unemployment claim. So I called the PA Unemployment office yesterday. They reviewed my application and said that within a week, I will be receiving a revised statement of benefits, once they receive my data from NJ (where I've worked since October 2003).

Whatever. I'm out-of-it, I can't concentrate on anything, my head hurts, my eyes hurt, my back spasms hurt, and I have other pain I won't describe except to say "my large intestine is sensitive to stress".

I slept most of yesterday and I have a feeling that I'm going to be able to say the same for this long weekend coming up. Migraines bring intense fatigue, or at least in MY case they do.

I wish I could just go home right now and play with the cats for the rest of the day. That's one of the few things I enjoy anymore. That and going to Phantoms games are two of the few things that are a GUARANTEED pick-me-up.

Buon Giorno di San Valentino! (That would be, "Happy St. Valentine's Day", for those who are curious. ;o) )

Thank God for the cats as a diversion and as something positive to focus my mind on. Because on the job front, I have been meeting frustration after frustration.

My employer finally has received permission to create a PERMANENT job to do the tasks that I've been doing for the past 16 months. I applied for it. So did two other people who are employees here, and one external applicant.

I had my interview. The other three persons, as of Friday afternoon, had yet to be interviewed. As my supervisor's boss is out all this week, it's not certain when the other candidates will be interviewed, nor when the decision will be made.

It's absolutely not known whether my 16 months of experience already doing the work will be outweighed by the fact that two of those other candidates are currently employees of this company. Even though those other people might have to be trained, from scratch, to do what I already know how to do.

Two things are certain. One is that when this permanent job is filled, my temp job will MOST DEFINITELY be phased out at that time. I'll either be here for good or I'll be gone for good.

The other thing is that I might not even be here THAT long. They might not be allowed to keep the temp job open while they wait for the permanent job to be filled. As of Friday afternoon, I am here on an as-needed basis, not as a continuing temp worker.

So I filed for unemployment today, giving Friday as the "end date" of my job, because that's when my job status changed. Right now I'm not in a long-term temp position. I'm a temp who's only here because there is a project being worked on. When the project is over, either I'm outta here forever, or I'm outta here until they say, "Congratulations, you've been selected to fill the permanent job". One or the other.

I can't believe I lost my long-term temp job EVEN THOUGH there's work to do. The higher-ups (not people I work directly with, I believe) won't assign me the duties that the worker in the permanent job would be performing. They're going to let the permanent people who are CURRENTLY doing those things keep on doing them, even though they have work coming out their ears, instead of restructuring the jobs NOW to let me ease their workload.

Interestingly enough, one of the hiring considerations for the permanent job is that they DON'T want someone who'll come on board and then move on in no time. I can understand why a company would want a certain level of commitment from the people who are working for it. But I wish I could get a crumb of that kind of commitment in return... such as letting me continue working here, doing the tasks that I not only am already trained to do, but COULD be doing to make life easier for the permanent employees, between now and the time that the permanent job is filled for certain.

As for that special project that is the only reason I'm even HERE today: it's stalled temporarily by the lack of archiving boxes. Those should have arrived today, but so far they're not here. Once the boxes arrive, it's a question of working hard to get the archiving done, knowing that the better I do, the faster I'll be putting myself into the jobless limbo until I find out who is getting the permanent job. To quote Dean Martin, "Ain't that a kick in the head?"

I think I'll un-decorate the rest of my cubicle today. I have some boxes I could keep the Bobblehead Committee and other items in. Then I'll be able to take them home on a moment's notice.

I accidentally discovered the easiest way to get Captain out of the underside of our sofa. This is easily accessible to the CATS from the back of the sofa, but jolly well impossible for Mark and me to get at. The sofa has built-in recliners on either end, so the only way to get underneath it is from the back, not the front.

Scenario: I am stretched out at one end of the sofa. Stanley is curled up napping at the other end.

Suddenly I feel little paws poking at the underside of the seat cushion. Stanley was accounted for, so the cat-paw-induced version of Bed Mice must have been caused by Captain's exploring under the sofa.

Instead of having a fit, demonstrating to Captain that going under the sofa will get him LOTS of attention, I just leaned over to the other end of the sofa where Stanley was snoozing. "There's my little boy! Let me give him skritches."

[skritch skritch skritch]
[PURRRRRpurrrrrPURRRRRpurrrr...]

Captain could hear that somekitty other than HIM was getting fussed over. Oh, no. That would never do. Out he came from under the sofa in a matter of *seconds*. He came out behind the sofa and leaped up to the top of the sofa back, mrrrrping for attention.

I got to dote on one of my cats, AND got the other one to come out from inside the sofa all on his own. I'd say that worked out well. :o)

Captain and Stanley get along wonderfully. "Inseparable" is not too strong of a term. They stalk one another, chase each other, groom each other, and use one another for pillows at nap time. Sometimes they cooperate when attacking the fishing-pole toy, There's one that's got a long fuzzy cloth ribbon on the end, and sometimes they'll attack opposite ends of the ribbon so they can share the burden of "killing" their prey.

And yet, sibling rivalry still makes an appearance now and then. Take this morning. The cats stay in the basement during the workday -- there's plenty of room to play, and nothing for them to damage or get hurt on while Mark and I are at work. They spend the night down there, too, for the same reasons.

So this morning, I went down to check on them. I got greeted at the cellar door by Stanley, whom I picked up and doted on. He was all happy and purred away.

Captain happened along a few moments later, but my hands were already full, so his morning dote had to wait.

Now, normally, when one is carrying a cat and said kitty starts to look at the floor, that's their signal that they want to get down. So when I noticed Stanley looking down, I thought he wanted to be put back down.

Then I realized he WASN'T looking at the floor. He was looking at CAPTAIN. Stanley kept watching his brother to make sure Captain could see that he was getting cuddled and doted on.

I burst out laughing. :o)

And, of course, when I was finished fussing over Stanley, the next thing I did was scoop Captain up for HIS morning dote session.

Cats. LMHO. :o)

Hey, all! Captain and Stanley here. Since our Meowmy is busy watching TV, we thought we'd stop by and say a few words.

We just want to say how glad we are to find a human tradition that makes sense to kitties!

All over the USA, humans are holding Supper Bowl parties as even as we type. Purr-sonally, we love the idea. We celebrate OUR supper bowls every day, especially when Meowmy puts cat food into them. We think it's high time that humans a-purr-eciated the glorious SUPPER BOWL for what it is and what it stands for. Supper Bowls deserve, not only a countrywide celebration full of parties, but their own worldwide holiday, in our humble opinions. In fact, we'd like to propose a parade for...

What's that you're saying?

It's NOT a bunch of parties for Supper Bowls?

It's about some human game called football, and their championship called the SUPER Bowl?

Oh. That's different. Never mind.

Purrs,

Captain and Stanley

P.S. So we thought we'd watch TV too, since everyone was talking about how this Supper Super Bowl has Eagles and Birds playing in it. But try as we might, we don't see any eagles or birds in the game. Just a bunch of humans.

Although, they're also chasing a ball, running around, and pouncing on each other. We guess that humans really DO know how to play proper games after all!

Tell us, is there any game that involves humans chasing a piece of string? We might like to watch that one next.

All three of my previous cats lived to be senior-citizen kitties, and I
never had a problem storing the cat food in a bag in a place that was
easily accessible.

Captain and Stanley, on the other hand, are Mighty Hunters. No cat-food
bag is safe from them, as I found out yesterday to my chagrin.

I thought they were ignoring the bag, as did my previous felines. Nope.
They were studying the cat-food bag's habits for two weeks, that's what
they were doing. They ascertained that its resting place/den was on top of a tool
box, and that it retired there at all times when Meowmy wasn't doling cat
food from it into kitty dishes.

And sometime yesterday when I was at work, they attacked the cat-food bag
in its den, hauled it to the cellar floor, and disembowelled it. Never
mind that there was plenty of the very same cat food in their dishes...
they wanted to have a go at the treasure chest with ALL the cat food in
it.

I suspect that Captain was the ringleader of this particular hunting
expedition, given that he's nearly always the cat who's first on the scene
to examine anything new. However, Stanley probably helped out when it came
time to actually tear open the side of the bag and eat the cat food.

Since we haven't got a proper canister to use at the moment, the remaining
cat food is now stored in a 1/2 gallon Rubbermaid pitcher. It seals
tightly and there is NO way that kitty teeth and claws will be able to
tear it open.

So much for storing cat food in bags with this pair of Mighty Hunters.
I've learned my lesson, lol.

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, until one of the cats detected the Stereo Greeblings. We were playing a rousing game of "chase the fishing pole toy" last night. Captain mistimed his jump and ran into the stereo, hitting the "on" button for the CD changer. It promptly lit up in yellow and red, and whirred to life with its quiet little motors as it performed a self-check to determine how many CDs were loaded in it.

Captain jumped back about a foot, standing broadside (but not fluffed up) and staring at the stereo with an "Aaah! What the heck is THAT?" expression.

I couldn't help laughing. :o)

I wonder what their reaction will be when actual MUSIC emanates from the stereo.

Well, it's crunch time.

They're creating a permanent position here, FINALLY, that incorporates
ALL of what I do, plus a few extra things that I don't do now (ie, data
input for another department that I haven't worked with yet).

I put in for the job.

Today I found out that one other person, a current employee of this
company, also put in for it.

So, does Other Person get preference over me because they're already an
employee here? Or will the fact that I've actually BEEN DOING this job
for 15 months count for something?

In the past four years, I've seen a lot more of "the person with the
'in' gets chosen over the outsider with the experience". Every freaking
time, in fact. And I've always been the outsider, the temp who's
actually been doing the job and trying to become a permanent worker
while the company looks for someone permanent.

You'll notice that I'm no longer AT those other places.

You'll probably surmise that I don't have tons of faith that ANY amount
of hard work I've put in will outrank the fact that someone who already
works here wants THIS job instead of whatever the heck it is they're
doing now.

Which makes me wonder what, exactly, they ARE doing now? What in the
flying blue blazes could their job description possibly be, that they
would consider an entry-level position (IMO) to be a step UP from it?

I guess I'll find out soon enough, if they take this job, because then
I'll have no choice but to apply for THEIR old job if I want to stay
with this company in some capacity.

On a related note, I had a migraine yesterday. Gee, what a surprise.
Not.

I brought home a couple of cat harnesses and leashes from PetSmart on
Monday night, and harness training has commenced. Basically, my intent
is to get the cats used to wearing harnesses, and then add the leashes.
Once they're leash-trained, as they will have to be if they're to
become therapy animals, then we can go exploring and socializing in
places like PetSmart.

In the meantime, every day I'm going to spend some time letting them
wear the harnesses and having a ROUSING play session. I want them to
get the impression that harness time = play time, so they'll know that
there are new, fun things in store when the harnesses ae brought out.

And as I discovered during their first harness/play session on Monday
night, the radio-controlled Flyers Zamboni is a big hit with the cats. :o) They haven't
attacked it yet, but they follow it around and never stop watching it.
Sometimes they follow it along while trotting out in the open, and
other times, they're observing it from behind cover. But the moment it
rolls out of their line of sight, ZIP! they quickly head to a new
vantage point where they can see it again. :o)

They also love chasing their "toy on a fishing pole" cat toys, so I
make sure they have plenty of THAT game while the harnesses are on.
Basically, they pretty much forget all ABOUT the harnesses once the
fishing pole toys come out. They're too interested in stalking the toys
to notice that they're wearing anything new.

Oh, and I also make sure they have a good dose of Lap Time pets and
skritches when the harnesses are on. If they're going to be visiting
any hospital, nursing home, etc, they're going to be getting doted on
while wearing the harnesses, so they might as well get used to it ASAP.
Plus, they LO-O-O-O-OVE attention, so this is just one more way to
reinforce the connection between wearing a harness and good things
happening.

At this rate, I think I can get them to graduate to having the leashes
on within a few more days. Maybe over the weekend will be good, since
I'll have more time to work with them then.

untitled

I found out on Saturday afternoon that my former sister-in-law, Mark's
brother's ex-wife, passed away in a house fire last week. :o( Reports
are that she died of smoke inhalation while trying to rescue her cats.

I don't know how they determined that she was trying to get the cats
out when she collapsed. But there were two cats, neither of which
survived.

My brother-in-law is pretty upset, and my two nephews (one in his early
20s and one in high school) have lost their mother. The entire story
just makes me feel sad.

The family is going to the funeral tomorrow morning. Including me. I
already let them know here that I need to take a day off from work for
the funeral.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

OK, I've been talking to the cats. A LOT. But it's my way of getting them
used to their new home and their new humans.

Every time they do something good, or even just something that they're
allowed to do (such as play with their own toys or sit on a particular
piece of furniture that it's OK to go on), I tell them "Good boy!" I
figure that, since they're 9 months old, and I really don't know what
rules they had to abide by before they arrived at the shelter, I'd do well
to praise them every time they do anything that they're allowed to do.
Then they'll know that it's OK to carry on with whatever it is.

So, anyway... this is how it's been for a week now. Cat comes to Meowmy
for attention. "Good boy!". Cat eats his food. "Good boy!" Cat drinks his
water. "Good boy". Plays with his toys... uses the litterbox... curls up
for a nap... you get the idea. EVERYthing legal gets them a "Good boy!"

But I realized this morning that I have "praise mode" on the brain. Why?
Because when I locked the front door this morning, then checked to make
sure it was completely closed/locked, I discerned that it was locked
properly.

And then I told the lock, "Good boy!"

Too bad I can't call out sick from work with a rampant case of insanity.
;o)

When I brought Captain and Stanley home from the shelter, I was advised
that they both love those little fur-covered mousie toys. So of course,
that was my cue to run out and get some.

I put two such mice in the basement, and two in the living room.

Captain discovered them first, and has been playing with them pretty
frequently. Last night was no exception: he has been demonstrating all the
many ways that a cat has at its disposal to kill a mouse. He stuns it with
his paws. He flings it through the air and then pounces on it. He delivers
the killing bite.

Stanley, meanwhile, opted to bring one of the toy mousies from the
basement upstairs. While Captain was beating the daylights out of his
mousie in the living room, Stanley set to work on HIS mousie in the dining
room.

Much later, Stanley had moved on to taking a nap and I went to return the
mousie he'd been playing with to the basement. That's when I noticed that
said mousie was soaking, wringing wet. DRENCHED is an understatement.

Apparently, Stanley's method of killing toy mice involves GROOMING them to
death. :o)

After being the Meowmy to a senior-citizen kitty for years, I'd forgotten
what it's like to have kittens in the house. For example, there is the
occasional almighty CRASH as they explore something new, and discover the
hard way that the something would've been better left alone.

That's how the boys (probably Captain, since Stanley was curled up in the
cellarway when I went to investigate) met the ironing board at 1 AM today.
You know, the one that WAS folded up and leaned against the wall.

As I said, I opened the cellar door and Stanley was curled up in a little
powder puff in the cellarway. Captain, meanwhile, came RACING up the
cellar steps, mrrrrrping and trilling. Then he ran back down, and back up.
He couldn't have been more obvious about wanting me to follow him if he'd
just finished watching a marathon of LASSIE episodes. :o)

And it was clear why he wanted me to go down there. The Evil Ironing Board
was lying across the food and water dishes. Horrors! (How it didn't
overturn any of them is a mystery.) So were a few books that had conspired
along with the Evil Ironing Board and fallen off the nearby bookshelf at
the same time. I probably don't want to know what transpired to bring that
about. :o)

Captain was all brave once Meowmy picked up the Evil Ironing Board. He
figured I had it subdued, so he kept attacking it. Or at least he kept
attacking the 8-inch-long string that was trailing from the hem of the
cloth Evil Ironing Board Cover. He grabbed that cord between his teeth and
hauled at it with all his wee weight, like a dog playing tug of war.

It's really hard to maneuver an ironing board to a new wall on the other
side of the basement when you're laughing uncontrollably. Did you know
that? I didn't know that. I know it now. :o)

This morning, I went down to check on them. The Evil Ironing Board was
right where I'd left it. I hope they continue to give it a wide berth.
:o)

My MO, when I bring cats into a new home for the first time, is to set
everything up in one room for the first few days and let them get used to
that. Once they've made that room (usually the basement) into their safe
haven, THEN I introduce them to the rest of the house.

Captain and Stanley looked ready to come upstairs, so I decided that today
would be the day. This afternoon, I opened the basement door and left it
open, then woke the little guys out of their respective naps to show them
that they could come upstairs now.

They're so outgoing. They came out of the basement and were interested in
everything. Rather than being fearful, they were more in a state of,
"Oooh, what should I sniff first?"

Stanley sat back and watched Captain exploring under the kitchen table, as
well as a couple of other nooks and crannies. He did the same thing when
the cats first arrived on Friday night, and Captain made the rounds of
some parts of the basement. He appears to be quite willing to let Captain
demonstrate whether various things are cat-safe. :o) But he's sitting out
in the open while this goes on, so it's not like Stanley seems to be
afraid of anything. He's just letting his brother do all the work.

At first, they would check out a few things, go look in the cellarway for
a moment, come back out and check more things... it was like that was
their security blanket.

Then they switched over to using ME as their security blanket. They'd
check out some things, stop by the sofa where I sat for a skritch, explore
some more... :o)

This was when I noticed that they were responding to their names. If one
of them was out of my line of sight for too long, I'd call his name, and
that particular cat was the one who would come to me for attention.
There's no such thing as too much praise when THAT happens, so they got
mega-doting as their reward. They love that. It's been a long time since
I've seen cats who REVEL in attention like this pair does.

I'm actually pretty impressed with them both: BOTH of them have come to me
for skritches when I've called their names. They've only been here for a
day and a half, and they not only recognize their new names, but they
respond to them.

I think it's the mega-dote sessions I had with them on Friday night and
several times yesterday. Whichever cat had parked himself on my lap at the
time got his name repated to him, in a loving voice, many many MANY times,
while I gave said cat the fussing-over of a lifetime. They LOVED it. And I
noticed that yesterday, Stanley started to look up at my with That Soft
Gaze. His facial expression was changing from "Oh, it's the nice lady who
pets me!" to "Meowmy". Which I encouraged by looking back with the kitty
Slow Blink and praise and more petting. And more repetition of his name,
of course.

This morning, it was Captain's turn to start looking up at my face with
That Soft Gaze. I responded the same way I did when Stanley was doing it -
slow blinks and half-lidded-eyes and petting and praise and repeating his
name.

Anyway, I think that's why they're answering to their names after living
here less than 48 hours. :o)

They didn't get into much mischief. Stanley tried to sharpen his claws on
the love seat. The first time, I went over, took his paws off the arm of
the love seat, said a stern, "Stanley, NO. No, no." He looked like his
little fuzzy feelings were hurt, so I carried him over to the
carpet-covered Kitty Tower. I mimicked kitty scratching with his paws on
the side of the tower, to try and indicate that scratching THAT was OK.
Then I put him atop the tower so he could look out the window. Problem
solved -- no-longer-hurt-looking kitty was no longer scratching
furniture.

Well after that, he tried to claw the love seat again. This time, DH was
closer and did the honors of, "Stanley, NO." Stanley stopped what he was
doing, went over to the Kitty Tower, and jumped up on it. LOL. Fast
learner, isn't he? :o)

Most of the rest of the time, if Stanley wasn't exploring or sitting in
the window, he's been napping. First he purred himself to sleep on DH's
lap. I think that's a first for DH, who didn't grow up with pets. Then,
when DH had to get up, he carefully placed Stanley on the love seat
cushions. From then on, Stanley napped NEXT to DH. Or, right now when DH
is outside shovelling some snow, Stanley is still snoozing on the love
seat.

Captain, meanwhile, started out by alternating his exploration with coming
to Meowmy for attention. The only time I had to correct him was to tell
him not to go into the opening under the sofa that's created when the
recliner is up. (Both ends of the sofa, as well as the love seat, have
built-in recliners.) He went in. I took him out and said, "No." He went
back in. I took him back out and said, "No.". He hasn't gone back in.

Well, there was the time when he discovered a radio while exploring and
decided that the antenna was a good playtoy. Wrong, of course. So I got a
cat toy and distracted him with that instead. Issue resolved. He liked
chasing his own toy better than playing with the antenna.

Speaking of chasing his own toy, I thought it was time to help burn off a
little of his excess energy. So I took out Harmony(RB)'s personal
favorite, the Feline Flyer. That's one of the fishing-pole sort of toys,
with two feathers on the end of the string. Well into her senior-citizen
days, Harmony happily chased after it. So I figured a 9-month-old boykitty
would love it, too, and BOY, does he ever!

So I spent a good while trailing the Feline Flyer all over the living
room, with Captain speeding after it as fast as his little feet could
carry him. I only stopped when he looked like he was getting a bit TOO
tired and breathing hard. (He is still sneezing, and Stanley is still
coughing, but not as much since I started running the vaporizer in the
basement.) Then I put the toy away when Captain wasn't looking, so he'd
have some time to rest.

I watched him rest, and he was stretched out so long that I wondered if he
hadn't overheated himself a bit. So I thought it would be a good time to
try those Kitty Bath Wipes we got at PetSmart. I wiped the little guy down
with one of those, and though he meeped a couple of protests, he let me do
it.

After the moisture dried from his fur, he seemed like he was resting more
normally. And he came over and napped next to me on the sofa. :o)

Right now, Stanley's still snoozing on the love seat, and Captain is
lounging on the living room floor. Yep, they look like they're feeling
right at home. I couldn't be happier about that.

Well, as you can see if you've been scanning this blog recently, I haven't updated it since the 19th. It's now the 27th.

The good news is, the reason I haven't been posting is that I've been way too busy doting on Captain and Stanley, the new kitties. :o)

So, what I'm going to do, to save time, is copy and paste some posts I wrote to the Usenet newsgroup rec.pets.cats.anecdotes.

I will apply the date/time to said posts on my blog so that it corresponds to the date/time that the post was created for the RPCA newsgroup. That way, the posts are in chronological order and are timely.

So, here goes....
----
I'm a Meowmy again! :o)

Here are my two 9-month-old boys, Captain and Stanley. They are definitely
brothers -- I verified that at the shelter tonight.

Here's the photo album of their first pictures:

http://members16.clubphoto.com/donna674416/2979870/guest.phtml

untitled

So I delivered a fax this morning to a Higher Up. It apparently was
printed out from my employer's job-search-related area of their
website.

The person filled in their current contact and employment information,
printed the webpage out and handwrote the attached note on the page: "I
hope to learn more about your co and to appointmet to write ins your
co". Then they faxed it here.

With spelling and grammar like this, I was surprised to see that the
applicant's qualifications listed a current job title that included the
word "Manager". Don't people PROOFREAD anymore? I don't know if there
even IS an opening here (if there is, it's not posted on the bulletin
board yet), what it might be, or what the Higher Up thought when he
read the fax. But I can tell you what *I* thought. I'd have big issues
with a person who didn't take the time to ensure that their spelling
and grammar were accurate, when they were sending correspondence
related to a job request.

I realize that not everyone is a perfect speller or has perfect
grammar. But that's what proofreading is for. And if necessary, that's
what your friends/family are for: to lend a fresh pair of eyes to
review a document and catch the errors that the original author might
have missed.

On another subject: here we go with the good news/bad news again.

The good news: I called the animal shelter this morning and all is
well. The cats passed their blood tests with flying colors (yay!) are
neutered and vaccinated, and are ready to come home. As I spoke to the
lady at the shelter, the kitties were together in the front window,
sleeping in a basket. (See? They're so cute that even though they're
adopted, they're being used to attract interest. :o) )

The bad news: the weather has turned to slop and the shelter, which is
normally open late on Wednesdays, might close early today. DRAT. I want
my cats! I don't WANT to have to wait until Friday night!

I guess we'll see what happens. I'll call the shelter before I leave
work, to find out if they're going to remain open during evening hours
today or not.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

untitled

I had to read the headline twice to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding
it. The death toll from the tsunami has now exceeded 226,000. Dear
Lord. :o(

The big jump in the numbers came because nations have begun listing as
"dead" many victims who had previously been classified as missing.

Even so, there are still thousands of people listed among the missing.
So the casualty count, unfortunately, is likely to continue to rise.

We may never know the full scope of this tragedy, particularly in the
hardest-hit regions where whole villages were washed away. Lord have
mercy on all their souls. And on the people left behind.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

untitled

Aaaargh. Suddenly I'm reminded of one of the parts of the
kitty-adoption process. The fact that waiting several days is enough to
drive a person CRAZY.

At least this time, I'm already approved to adopt. That's a change in
procedure for the animal refuge -- that a person has to be approved
PRIOR to selecting an animal, or even being allowed to handle a pet
outside its cage.

When I adopted Melody and Harmony in 1990, I was permitted to handle
them and multiple other cats, prior to even filling out any paperwork.
That meant that I had to wait a few days to be approved and even *find
out* if I would be able to take home the kitties I'd chosen. If someone
else had applied for the same pet(s), and their application was
approved before mine, they would have gotten the pet. During those few
days, all I could think of morning, noon, and night were my two kittens
and when/whether I'd be bringing them home.

This time, my application is approved and it's just a matter of waiting
for a few veterinary procedures to be done. There are blood tests,
vaccinations, and neutering that the shelter will perform prior to
sending them home with me. The end result of a few days' wait is the
same, but the reason behind it is different. The wait is still driving
me up the walls. All I can think of is the dote session I had with each
of the kitties on Saturday, how much I've missed doting on cats, and
how much I'm looking forward to having felines in the family again.

The shelter was closed yesterday for the MLK holiday. They told me that
they would try to do the procedures ASAP, either today or tomorrow, and
that they'd call me with the results of the tests. (Lord, please let
the tests come out OK.) Once everything's done, we'll know when we can
go pick up the cats. The refuge is open late on Wednesday and Friday,
as well as being open on Saturday afternoons. So with any luck, the
family will go from two to four members at some time this week.

Wish us luck.

And patience. This waiting is driving me bananas.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Good news!

Mark and I visited the Morris Animal Refuge on Saturday. We (mostly me)
met a bunch of kitties, and started the adoption process for two of
them. They're both 9-month old boykitties, and though I don't think
they're related, they did both come in as strays. They have also been
housed together at the shelter, and are already buddies. They're both
IMMENSELY affectionate and outgoing, from what contact I had with them
at the shelter. So I suspect that this pair of purring, cuddlebug
attention sponges will be a good fit both with one another, and in our
home.

I'm actually glad that the cats already know one another and are
friends. It'll save some time for them sorting out the hierarchy once
we bring them home. Plus, each of them will have a familiar face on
hand until they get used to their new humans and their new
surroundings.

Neither of them has been neutered yet, but as part of the adoption
process, the shelter will do that prior to our taking them home. The
kitties will also have their first round of shots, a vet check, and
blood tests to check for things like FIV and FeLV. The medical
procedures should start tomorrow, since the shelter is closed today for
the MLK Day holiday.

I love them already. :o) One is white with orange tabby spots, and the
other is a grey-with-a-hint-of-brown tabby. Their names at the shelter
are Spencer and Bruno, but I've got a couple of other names in mind.
All I have to do is see if the names REALLY fit them once they come
home.

I'm looking forward SO much to their arrival! I can't wait. :o)



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250