The Dorky Vegan

Free, that is, of the e-collar and sutures. He’s healed! We went into the vet at 9:30 yesterday morning and he was absolutely fine. So he’s back to normal and exacting his revenge on Ginny for taking advantage of his lack of peripheral vision all those weeks.

And I discovered that if Ginny didn’t have Avocado to play with every day, things would be very different. I came back (after locking myself out and waiting two hours for my landlord) to find the apartment a MESS. She spilled over the smaller litter box and got litter ALL over the apartment. Papers everywhere, too. She’s a crazy cat.

It’s obvious that they now seem settled in. To the point where they’re trying to take over again! They’ve found so many hiding spots in my tiny studio that it’s unbelievable. They’ve had their own sleeping spots every night (Avocado by the window, Ginny usually on the couch or loveseat) but last night they actually both slept in the bed with me. That is, until about 4am when one of them decided to pounce on the other, which ended in them chasing each other around the apartment for about two hours. I finally shut Ginny in the wardrobe/bathroom for a little while, which always calms her down (and thus, Avocado) and when I let her out, she was fine with just curling up on my bed.

That is, until 9am when Avocado started pawing at my face because he was hungry. I tried to ignore him for about a half hour, but finally gave up and got up to feed them. The picture accompanying this entry is of them waiting for breakfast this morning. Look at Avocado’s face!

I’ve started transitioning Ginny to Innova Evo for her dry food. The shelter gave me a free bag of Science Diet with her adoption, because that’s the dry food she was eating there. But I don’t like Science Diet, so I’m trying to switch her over to Innova. I tried it a couple weeks ago, but because of the upset with being at my mom’s and everything, she ended up with diarrhea so I didn’t want to upset her more.

She’s been sneaking food from Avocado’s bowl anyway, so in her own way she’s been transitioning. But now I’m up to feeding her 50/50, and I separate them so she eats her portion and Avocado eats his (usually Avocado bullies her from her bowl because he prefers her food). I put her bowl on the top of the cabinets and his on the floor, and they’re fine.

That’s exactly the look Avocado just gave me as he jumped up onto the jungle gym and… well, something went wrong. I looked over and there he was, standing (a little shakily) on the top, looking at me like, “What’d I do?”

As for Ginny, oh, she’s all calm and innocent sleeping under my bed right now… but this afternoon I found her out on the windowsill! Have I mentioned that we live on the third floor?! The girl I’m subletting from, Gabriela, came here today to pick up a lot of her stuff (I have room to move and spread out now!) and she opened the bottom bathroom window about half a foot. I don’t know why, as the top window has a screen and was already open… anyway, she left, and I was putting stuff away in the space she created for me, and I look in the bathroom… and there’s Ginny, outside on the windowsill that’s about four inches wide! Nearly gave me a heart attack, but I pulled her back in (no time for pictures, sorry) while she was looking at me like, “What? It’s nice here. Got a great view of the birds and everything.”

I don’t think she would have jumped from the windowsill (this is the cat that won’t jump down from the kitchen counter), but she could have fallen. I don’t want to deal with more vet bills, thank you! (Would a cat even survive a three story drop? I don’t even want to think about it.)

So, note to self: remind Gabriela of just how small of a space a cat can manage to squeeze itself through if it desires (Avocado’s even worse than Ginny when he doesn’t have his e-collar on).

Other than that, they’re doing well. I can’t tell if Avocado’s depressed, adjusting to the new surroundings, not liking the heat, or if he just had his sleep schedule messed up (I worked so hard to get him to sleep at night and play during the day, and now he sleeps all day but wakes me and Ginny up at 3am walking around “talking” and playing with his balls). He does play with me in the evenings and early mornings, and then he’s just like his old self, so maybe he just doesn’t like the heat (I don’t either).

Ginny has a vet appointment tomorrow (I hope it doesn’t cost too much!), I have job interviews on Tuesday and Thursday, and Avocado should be getting his sutures out on Friday! It’s not an action-packed week, certainly, but we’re enjoying the relaxation. Oh, and the vet is only a few blocks from here, so I’m probably going to carry Ginny’s carrier (the soft one that folds up) and walk her there, since she loves being outdoors. I’ll leave super early so she can have lots of time to stop and look around.

It’s true. They love Modest Mouse, are impartial to Kaiser Chiefs, and absolutely hate Jimmy Eat World. We were driving on Wednesday night (or very early Thursday morning, I don’t know. We left at 8:30 Wednesday night and got here 24 hours later) and I had in Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Now, I knew Avocado likes Modest Mouse. It was obvious from the day I brought home this CD. I put it in and he just curls up with me and starts purring like mad. I don’t know.

But then the CD ended, and I put in Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity (you know, their best album), and you should have heard the noise that both of them started making! It’s absolutely ridiculous. Are my cats the only one? (Virginie told me once, driving back from the airport, she was singing and Azabel started yowling… as soon as she stopped singing, Azabel stopped, but when she started again, so would Azabel. Virginie’s not a great singer, haha.)

Okay, so we’ve been in Chicago since Thursday night, but due to the craziness of moving in (and my sucky, sucky former job not paying me and me having a panic attack as a result), I haven’t been able to find time to write a post. The good news is that we made it here without dying. And my car made it here without dying (that was a close one!). I made quite a scene at the rest stops with my cats walking along on their leashes (well, Ginny walked beside me fine; Avocado’s scared of the loud trucks so he just sat there most of the time). It took so long to get to Chicago because during the day, the car got really hot (the A/C stopped working a while ago) so I stopped pretty much every other rest stop and let them out for a half hour or more to cool off, stretch their limbs, and get them fresh ice water. Because I take care of my kitties.

We finally got here at 7:30 Central time and they immediately took over one of the windows (as you can see in the picture). After I unloaded the car, I was absolutely exhausted but took the time to set up their “jungle gym” because they love that thing. Except… I threw out the instructions after I put it together the first time (in March) so I had to do it by memory. Which took an hour. Ha, my memory’s not that good! Avocado’s glad to have it back, though. I’ve set it up in front of the window (I rearranged some of the furniture) so he sleeps on it at night with the breeze coming in on him.

Now I have the daunting task of teaching them not to run out the door when I open it. That’s the problem with going from living in a house (every door leads to another room they can explore, except the door that leads outside) to a studio (they know the door doesn’t lead outside, but they haven’t grasped the concept that it’s off limits). Well, right now Ginny’s the problem, as Avocado’s still wary of his new surroundings. But in a few days I’m sure he’ll be trying to get out as well. But maybe they’ll learn quickly, as they’re smart. Or they’ll be too smart and figure out how to dart out quickly.

Other than that, they’re adjusting really well. I think they’re not enjoying the heat too much (it’s been ridiculous humidity since we got here, although today wasn’t too bad in comparison) but they’ve been playing, sleeping, and eating like normal. Ginny has a vet appointment on Monday (I hope I can afford it!) and Avocado should be getting his sutures out on Friday. Finally!

Anyway, I need to take a picture of the adorable dishes I’m using as their food and water bowls. They’re fish designed and supposed to be used for sushi (the one I’m using for water is a dipping bowl). I picked them up 90% off their original price of $7 back in February and haven’t used them since (I didn’t feel it was appropriate for a vegan to use them for sushi dishes, even if it’s vegan sushi). But they’re cute as cat dishes.

This is the (utterly ridiculous) shot of Avocado and Ginny taking up the entire bed. Just look at Avocado’s paws up in victory in the corner! In his sleep! How am I supposed to compete with that?

And then he woke me up very early, trying to gain my affections back… and then when I got back to sleep, Ginny woke me up by knocking over a bunch of stuff (again). And it’s been like that. But I did make a trek to a new pet store for some more food, because I guess I shouldn’t starve them despite their insistence on not letting me sleep. So I went to Pet Lovers in Swansea (at least I think that was the name of it; it’s in the plaza where Building 19 used to be, and Seabra, the most useless grocery store EVER, still is, seriously how is that still in business?). And it has my stamp of approval. And I’m pretty harsh with pet stores. I mean, keep me away from Petco and PetSmart and all those (okay, so I have to go to PetSmart tomorrow to try to find a carrier that Avocado will at least tolerate, but other than that…).

Anyway, it’s a really small store, but it’s locally, independently owned, which first off gets a gold star from me. Second, the people working there (who were all around my age, by the way. Not that I’m saying anything about that, just saying it) all knew their stuff. And the thing that really impressed me? There was no crap like Iams or Purina to be found! It was all truly wholesome, GOOD cat and dog food! I mean, I went there looking for Innova Evo, which I’ve been feeding Avocado since April (we tried one bag of Eagle Pack when I first got him but then found this, which is much better). When I was researching cat food, it was a toss up between Innova and Felidae, but the closest place that sold Felidae was over an hour away, so Innova it was. Quality-wise, they’re the same (I believe. It’s been a while since I did all my research). They’re both very high quality, human grade ingredients, no grain, high protein and low carb. Which is what a cat needs. Not like the stuff you’ll buy at grocery stores.

Ahem. I went on a rant there. Anyway, I walked in… and they had Felidae/Canidae (Canidae is the dog’s variety, if you’re looking for it)! Even before I saw the Innova, that was a good sign. I spent a while looking at the brands and… they’re all really, really good brands. So if you’re ever in the area, you should check it out.

Then I bought my 6.6 pound bag of food and four 5.8 ounce cans of wet food for $24.something (gulp) and went to Seabra, not knowing it was the most worthless grocery store ever (I walked out with a can of refried beans and a can of vegetarian chili, because that’s all I could find that I could eat. Mmm, gassy!). And then I came home and took Ginny outside for a walk, and she’s walking on the leash very well. As in, she actually walks next to me, unlike Avocado. Avocado’s fine on a leash, but he just wanders and won’t go where I want him to (he’s a cat, what can I say?). But Ginny just bounces along beside me. It’s really cute. Even though James thinks I’m ridiculous for bringing her out on a leash. I almost yelled at him, “Look at Avocado! See what happens when they go outside on their own?” I mean, I might’ve yelled at him. I tried not to. But I definitely did say that.

Oops.

You know how it is. You swear cats aren’t big animals, no problem, but when it comes to how big they can stretch themselves out over the bed… Ginny’s the worst. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, half off the bed, because of her. And she’s tiny, usually. But come nighttime, she needs her space! And I haven’t gotten it into her head that what she thinks is “her space” is actually mine.

Oh, right, she’s a cat. It’s all her space. Anyway.

It’s been, as usual, a hectic week. One of these days, I’m going to start cooking again, I swear. Until then, I’m pretty much living on whole wheat bread and/or bagels with Earth Balance and sugar on top. A lot of sugar. But as that’s all I’m eating, at least I’m not consuming too many calories. Not too healthy, mind you, but at least I’ve got one thing down.

Anyway, things were going okay. But that can’t happen in my life. Especially not when I’m trying to move halfway across the country! So, I took Avocado to his vet on Thursday to get his sutures removed. They looked at his tail and said it looked nice and started removing them. They had removed about six, had a few left, when they realized that one part hadn’t completely healed. So they stopped, obviously, gave me more antibiotics for him, and told me to come back in a week (or, if I had made it to Chicago by then, go to another vet in a week).

Then I went back to the house and started packing up the car, because I had a lot of stuff to move out over the next 24 hours or so. The cats were going to my mom’s that night and I would make one last trip in the morning for the rest of my stuff. That was the plan.

Well, I got a really late start leaving the house, because it takes forever to load a car correctly when you’re trying to fit as much stuff as possible into pretty much the world’s smallest sedan. So you have to take time to strategize. We left at 9, got a couple miles down the road (to the infamous Shutesbury Athletic Club), and realized that I forgot Avocado’s antibiotics in the fridge. So I turned around, got them, and got back on the road.

And mind you, driving down the MassPike, I was driving considerably slower than I normally do (read: going somewhat close to the speed limit!) because I was still driving with my spare on. Avocado and Ginny were very well behaved, as they are at night (during the day Ginny has to go in her carrier because she wants to run back and forth to every window to look out; Avocado just curls up and sleeps no matter what). So, even though we left at 9 (about three hours late), I didn’t get into my mom’s until 11:30.

And then… I get in the house and see immediately that Avocado’s tail, the end, was missing! I mean, the skin was missing. The bloody bone was just sticking out. So I woke my mom and she found the phone number for the emergency animal clinic, and I drove the 45 minutes there (sometimes I hate living next to nothing). I was there until 2 in the morning, just waiting for everything to go through. They were very nice, and everyone loved his name, and the vet tech was impressed with his friendliness despite his situation (she was trying to check his lungs and couldn’t hear anything except his extremely loud purring!).

So he had to have surgery, which I didn’t stay for, as they said it would be hours before he was released. So I went home and somehow fell asleep (out of pure exhaustion) with Ginny (who unfortunately had just been dumped in my room when I discovered Avocado’s tail, but I called my brother and had him take care of her while I was driving to the clinic). The hospital called at 9 and I went to pick him up.

Avocado’s missing a good portion of his tail now, but is otherwise healthy (so far) and happy. I was a bit worried yesterday because he was acting strange for him: scared when anyone picked him up (he clawed his way out of my arms, he never does that), hiding under my bed, not wanting to play. Last night when I got back from moving my stuff out (which was another ordeal, I didn’t get home until almost 3am!), he wanted to make it up to me by climbing all over me and purring up a storm (I just wanted to sleep…). Today he’s been very playful (by himself, and with me and Ginny), when he’s not sleeping because of the pain medicine (he has one dose left, at 4am). The only thing is that he has no inclination to get upstairs, where he usually tries to sneak (now Ginny does, and half the time manages to get by the baby gate AND shoe-holding-door-closed [doorknob’s broken]). Upstairs is off-limits and usually not being able to go somewhere annoys him. Now, even when I bring him upstairs (when I know Jewel’s in another room), he immediately wants to go back downstairs. I think it’s because he knows that place, it’s familiar and safe to him.

And, he also has no desire to go outside anymore. When I had to bring him outside to get him to the car, he pretty much freaked out (well, as much as a very laid-back cat like Avocado freaks out. But it was very unlike him).

Note that, some day I hope to update this with humorous stories about my cats. But right now I’m spending most of my time worrying about Avocado. When I’m not worrying about him, I’m worrying about how I’m going to pay back my mom for the humooongous vet bills for his surgeries. Oh yeah, and there’s that whole moving thing.

As for Ginny, she’s enjoying the dog-free household. She hates when I spend time upstairs, though, because she loves human company (they both do, really, but she more than Avocado. Possibly because she’s still adapting to being in a home, and because she’s still more kitten-ish than he). That’s when she repeatedly bangs against the basement door trying to get upstairs.

New pictures are up on flickr. I need to move Ginny and go to bed…

I keep forgetting about this. Let’s think about this. I have WAY too many things going on in my life right now (we added two animals to the house in a matter of three days), nobody knows about this, I keep forgetting the login… haha. But still, I press forward.

Anyway. The new animals. One is Gillette, a four month old terrier/cocker spaniel/who knows what else mix rescued from the streets of Puerto Rico and brought to Massachusetts somehow to be Kali’s companion. She’s adorable but needs a lot of training (she’s mastered “sit” but that’s about all).

Then I got… Ginny! Ginny is an orange-haired cat, seven months old, from a local shelter. I can’t see how anyone could have possibly abandoned her, but someone did. She’s such a sweetheart (she was the favorite at the shelter). Okay, she has a bit of a problem with biting, but I’m working on that and she honestly is getting better. Unfortunately, she’s scared of the dogs (no longer terrified though!) but we have the baby gate set up so she can just stay in my room when they’re in the house. Which isn’t often.

And we’ll be out (in Chicago! On our own!) at the end of the week, so then she won’t have to worry about the big nasty dogs. They don’t pay attention to her, really, but one sight of them (even if she’s safe in my arms already) and her claws are digging into me.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, she’s named after the redhead from Harry Potter. Obviously.

And she gets along with Avocado. Which is what matters. I went in and said, “I’m looking for a playmate for my very playful one year old cat.” and they said, “Pumpkin (what she was called at the shelter) would be perfect.” I considered another cat, but ended up with her anyway. She’s a tiny thing, just barely six pounds even though she eats. She and Avocado enjoy chasing each other around and bopping each other on the head… especially right when I turn the nights out to go to sleep, of course! Which is what happened about ten minutes ago, when I decided to write this entry.

As for Avocado… well, things have been exciting with him, to say the least. But of course they have! Sunday night, somebody let him out accidentally (I don’t know who: Virginie’s parents have been visiting and were packing the car that night to go back to the airport, as well as Virginie constantly letting the dogs in and out; all I can say is that that day, I was inside all day writing so it wasn’t me because I didn’t step a foot outside). I was outside at midnight for a good 45 minutes looking for him to no avail because he likes to chase bugs (he stays right in the yard but won’t come when called, unlike during the day, because it’s too much fun). So Ginny and I had a sleepless night, and 6:30 in the morning I went back outside because that’s when he usually starts waking me up for breakfast. There he was, just sitting outside the fence waiting for me!

So I fed him, but I realized that his tail was bleeding so I cleaned it up and went back to bed (like I said, I hadn’t slept all night). I woke up two hours later and his tail was still bleeding, so on the advice on the VB, I called my vet. She was on vacation (of course!), so I went to the (much more expensive) emergency animal hospital, where we had to spend three hours. They shaved off part of his tail, had to put him under anesthesia and do emergency surgery and everything! He had a huge chunk taken out of his tail, but it wasn’t broken.

So for the past week, he’s been walking around with one of the e-collars on, which has been amusing because he kept walking into doorways and knocking things over (and we thought he was a klutz before!). I’ve gotten really good at giving him his medicine, but he’s an easy going cat anyway. But he’s done with his antibiotics, and he gets his stitches taken out on Thursday! Then the e-collar can come off and I’m sure he can’t wait for that!

And if you’ve made it this far, you deserve a treat, so… I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures of all the crazy animals to Flickr. Actually, I don’t know if there are any of Azabel, because she’s not very photogenic, but there are a bunch of Avocado. I need to take more of Ginny, but she’s new and in the past week I’ve just been absolutely preoccupied with Avocado. But yeah. You can find them at:

http://flickr.com/photos/dorkyvegan

Some of them are quite good, others are just snapshots. You know.

Kali has decided that Avocado is her new playmate. She keeps bringing her vacherchen (rope toy) over to Avocado and dropping it in front of him, like he’s going to play tug of war with her. Haha. This, of course, is after a failed attempt two weekends ago to get her a companion dog… Virginie went to a shelter in Worcester and got a wonderful dog named Wrangler, he got along with Kali in the shelter and was very playful. But once he came here, he attacked her, and eventually started snapping and trying to attack Avocado (Azabel wouldn’t even come in the house). So now Virginie’s looking at getting a younger dog, probably four months old or so (we think Wrangler was abused, he had no history, but the way he reacted when Virginie yelled at him…). Other than that, he was adorable and very playful with us.

As for Avocado, I’ve realized that he loves having the company of other animals (even if Azabel doesn’t particularly enjoy him), so I’m looking to get another cat just before we move to Chicago. That way, I’ll have all my expenses planned out (hopefully), and they’ll have enough time to get used to each other before getting thrown into an unfamiliar location. But that means, if Virginie gets another dog before then, we’ll have three cats and two dogs in the house! Won’t that be fun?

Note: this was edited on September 2, 2007, after I adopted Ginny and moved from Shutesbury.

I guess I’ve started this blog here, instead of continuing on my livejournal, because I want to integrate my webpage more. I want to get my livejournal back to being friends only, mainly because of personal security issues. But I don’t want my vegan entries to be friends only, that defeats my personal purpose of striving to live by example. So here it is.

Also on here, I’m going to write about the anecdotes of Avocado and Ginny. Avocado is my year old cat whom I’ve had since March, and Ginny is eight months old and I’ve had for a month. Avocado is the most easygoing cat I’ve ever met. He’s also the klutziest and messiest. Ginny is extremely affectionate, loves being around people, and either running around like crazy or sleeping (there’s no happy medium). When I’m not yelling at them, I’m laughing at them and taking lots of pictures, which end up in flickr.

I’m trying to move to Chicago, and things are getting in my way. I’m originally from Massachusetts and have spent pretty much my entire life there. It’s apparently got a death grip on me as I’m trying to leave, though.

Other than that, I did put something in the “about me” page at the top so check that out if you’re not sure who I am. Or just go to my main page: dorkyvegan.com. I think there’s some more stuff up there (I’m working on it, I swear!).