(Days of work remaining before holiday time off: 13)
It is the last day of November. Any sort of pretenses about it "not yet being the holiday season" ends at midnight tonight, as once December hits, nobody can deny that the holidays are now upon us. November 30th means the end of Pumpkin Spice Season and the beginning of Peppermint Mocha Latte season.
I mean, figuratively anyway.
I neglected to mention in my last entry here that sometime over those many days off, I'd like to take some hours or the majority of a day to focus on my writing. My actual writing, not what I put up here that probably less than ten people read during any given six-month time span. I've been trying to work on the book for years now, and when I have the time to do it, that time is always filled with something else that needs to be done, somewhere else to be, or (more frequently than not) I'm too tired to focus and need sleep. So, doing some writing during that time will likely do me some good.
I have been very tired this week, and really unable to get true quality sleep. It's not that I don't sleep, but I don't really count passing out in my lounge chair half an hour after I get off work in the morning and then sometimes, but not always, moving to the bed later in the day to sleep somewhat fitfully as "quality." I mean I want the sleep of the dead, where I can lie motionless in a dark room with the cats for twelve hours and actually feel somewhat reinvigorated when I awaken -- and that's not something I can ever really do anymore. I might be able to get that, somewhat and occasionally, when I have my time off -- but I can't count on that as a certainty. I can't do it during the work week, and if I do it during a weekend it sacrifices large amounts of time I'd otherwise be spending with Daisy.
This was not helped by Daisy -- who worked from home today, I might add -- waking me up at noon telling me to call her.
Call her? She was home.
Well, she wasn't. She was at the humane society the second they opened because there was a cat there that she'd fallen in love with. That cat was not a cat I was interested in, but one I thought was cute. She wanted to send me videos. This cat wanted to love her, wanted to sit on her chest and shoulders and lick her lips and up her nose like Hank did when he was a baby (okay, well, he still makes out with Daisy every day, he's a weirdo).
I...did not approve.
Look, I have my reasons, we'll get to that in a bit.
Daisy was of the mindset that she was going to come home with this cat whether I approved or not -- she later told me that she hadn't had vibes like this for a cat ever before, with the exception of Hank -- the strongest vibes she'd ever gotten from any cats she'd ever looked at in the humane society.
She was in line to adopt her when the lady in front of her said she wanted to adopt not only that cat, but the one in the cage with her, together. The humane society is first-come, first serve. Daisy was heartbroken.
I did not have a hand in any of this -- meaning that regardless of whether I gave my approval of not, Daisy still would not have been able to bring that cat home. That's how it goes sometimes in the first-come, first serve system -- it's why we were there waiting in line long before the humane society opened the day that we got Hank, because we knew we wanted him and knew if we were the first people there, we'd very likely get him, and we did.
And he has a very happy life, as you can see.
But this time just wasn't in the cards for Daisy. There have been a few cats we've missed out on (not that we're particularly really looking at the moment most of the time, with few exceptions -- I'll get to that) because they've either been very swiftly adopted or they've been moved to local PetSmart stores where they've also been very swiftly adopted out same-day. There are a lot of cats in this town and there are also apparently a lot of "cat fans," like ourselves, who hover over the humane society's website and wait for their dream cat(s) to be posted.
I have long said that I don't want any more cats at the moment -- with one exception. Our next kitten (it must be a kitten, so she can be raised/conditioned properly in our household) as I told Daisy, will be a long-haired, black (or otherwise dark) female, preferably one who will become huge, with a very loving, cuddly, teddy-bear personality who wants all the love, and her name will be Empress.
I have had this dream for a long time, and I am somewhat particular about all of the details. I don't care if she's black -- I prefer it, of course, but I'd be fine with a tortie or a brown tabby. The two big things for me are long hair, potential for large size, and the proper personality. She can be the most beautiful cat in the world, but if the vibe check isn't there and I don't think she'd get along well with the old farts and Hank, it's a no for me. Not being mean, just being discerning out of concern for her as well as for our current children.
We've had several candidates pop up over the past six months or so, of all different colors and, well, breeds, I guess. There was a very sweet male named Ghost who fit the bill, but he wasn't a little girl. There was a very sweet gray-blue female who liked most attention, but hated the other cats around her in the shelter and wanted to hide -- yeah, I don't need another Sadie, I already have one of those. Daisy herself has seen a few kittens that she thought may or may not make good candidates, but either I didn't feel the vibe looking at them or I had a very strong "that's not my Empress" feeling.
I told Daisy months ago that she didn't have to get me anything for Christmas, but if Empress magically showed up on the website or otherwise we were able to find this elusive cat of my dreams, she could be my present.
Well....
Last week, this cat showed up in the "lost and found" pets section of the website.
She is a long-haired female, approximately 8 weeks old, who was found on the streets as a stray and was brought to the shelter. The shelter will hold onto these cats for a bit to see if anyone claims them before they're spayed/neutered, cleaned up and any medical issues are taken care of (including fleas, parasites, etc) and then they're put into the adoption pool a day or two later once they've recovered.
Look at that little bow tie!
Ahem.
This little girl was fixed on Wednesday and was not available tonight (we checked -- we actually went to the humane society again once Daisy was off work to see if she was in the holding kennels to get a vibe check). She was not there yet. The expectation was that she'd be put into the holding kennels for viewing on Friday night and likely made available for adoption on Saturday morning once the place opened.
We absolutely plan to go back tomorrow night to see if she's there. She checks many boxes for me right off the bat. We won't be able to like, touch her or interact with her, likely, but we can view her personality and see if she seems like a good fit -- and then if we have the right vibes, or even a hint of them, we can be there when they open on Saturday morning and make our decisions at that juncture.
I'm so excited.
No comments:
Post a Comment