The Daughters of Darkness

 Well, we almost made it through January without incident.

As mentioned previously, the furnace was replaced last week and a good time was had by all, he said, sarcastically. 

That furnace is wonderful and has been a great help to us, and we have gone from wearing layers and shivering to being, dare I say, sweaty sometimes. It seems pretty energy-efficient, and despite it sounding like a 747 taking of every time it runs, it works very well.

This is good, because if you haven't been paying attention to the news, the United States is currently getting one of the worst winter storms ever seen (or, that's what the media would want you to think) across a full third, or more, of the country. 

The temperature yesterday morning in Omaha was -7. It struggled, greatly, to get above zero all day. Right now, per AccuWeather, it is -1. It is currently snowing, and we already have a layer on the ground. It is not going to get above freezing again until at least Wednesday.

We are not, however, getting the worst of it. That has gone south of us, cutting a massive scythe-shaped storm all the way across the country to the Appalachians and to the east coast/southern coast in some places -- again, a full third or more of the country. All of the places I used to live -- all of them -- are fucked. Newton, Kansas is getting an ice storm with snow following it. Kansas City is getting the same. My home in West Virginia is getting up to a foot of snow, and even more in the higher elevations of the area. My parents, in North Carolina, aren't necessarily getting away unscathed either; they will likely get the winds and some ice, and probably a 20-to-30-degree temperature drop from their normal, mostly comfortable tropical beach temperatures. 

As I type this, it is -1 in Omaha. It is 39 degrees in Oak Island, NC. Yes, I am slightly jealous.

Anyway, the wife and I have hunkered down for a long weekend. Neither of us have to exit the house again before Tuesday morning, when Emmy and Dolly have a vet appointment that we'd scheduled in advance. Dolly has three appointments total at the vet before she's good for a year or so; this will be her second. She gets different vaccinations at each one based on age. Emmy is going in for her yearly checkup and rabies vaccination. We will not be putting them in the same carrier, as at this juncture Emmy is still the one cat in the house who is still slightly uneasy with our newest chaos goblin. 

I guess I should, as an aside, talk about that for a moment. Empress is a very confrontational cat. She is incredibly protective of territory, is really skittish, and is the least receptive to any sort of attention, love, or play unless it is her idea. I have always said that Emmy is sweet, but not kind. I think that is a very apt description of her. She wants love on her terms only, and she can be very sweet and loving, but she is not a kind cat by any means to anyone but me and Hank. She tolerates the Double Trouble Boys™ and Daisy, but Dolly has become an all new variable to the house equation. There are times where she shows curiosity and sort of wants to play, and there are other times where she will growl and hiss and swipe at her. Thankfully, the latter times are becoming less and less prevalent as Emmy gets more used to Dolly toddling around the house, but she's not completely at ease yet. 

Of course, Mable and Empress do not get along and haven't for some time; Dolly has proven a welcome distraction to their almost daily, ongoing spats. 

Still, they're not buddy-buddy enough yet to put them in the same carrier together for a vet visit. Really, we could only do that for Empress and Hank, or the boys, or maybe Gary and Dolly. I dunno. We'll cross that bridge eventually, if we need to, I guess. We do need to do some research and get at least one or two more carriers. 

Anyway.

We have hunkered down for the weekend to keep warm and safe. We have nowhere to be and nothing to do outside of the little bubble of our home. We have sleep and TV to catch up on. I ordered a Walmart grocery delivery yesterday morning (and tipped very well because of the cold) and made sure we had our vital supplies in stock. I have no desire to leave this house for any reason, nor do I have anywhere to be but here in my upstairs office, in bed, or on the couch. A bonus for me is that since I worked the MLK Day holiday last week, I am taking tomorrow (Sunday) off as a comp day -- giving me an extra day of weekend. It gives me some extra time to rest and reset, and allows me to disconnect from the noise of work. Daisy does not get this luxury; her job does not give her any comp days off and her new schedule has her working all of Sunday now as if it were any other weekday.

But Brandon, you may be thinking, wouldn't that make your extra day off meaningless if she's spending the whole day working?

Well, yes and no. No, because it gives me some time to get some chores taken care of, to do some writing, some cleaning where necessary, some decompression time and leisure/rest time with the cats, that I so, so very psychologically need. But also yes, because I'd much rather be spending a lazy Sunday with my wife instead of her needing to work through it. There's also a certain factor of feeling trapped inside the house when it's this cold and snowy. Do I want to go anywhere or do anything? No. But it's the fact that it would be painful and uncomfortable if I did want to, and that I would hate every second of it, that's the psychological rub. I have appreciated that since we've let Dolly roam free, and since the furnace was replaced, little of note has happened. Work has sucked, but when I'm not there and not on the clock, I don't think about it. Daisy and I both appear to be pretty healthy and aren't suffering from any post-holiday illnesses, and we're on track to, hopefully, have an okay year financially and stability-wise. 

The only thing that is slightly concerning at the moment is that Gary's intestinal issues seem to have flared up again; he is having some issues with constipation here and there, and we're doing some trial and error with foods to see why he's having such issues -- if he has a food allergy or if it's environmental or what -- or if he's just going to have the cat version of IBS or colitis for his entire life no matter what we do. Trial and error elimination diets are not overnight fixes -- they take time to see if he can adjust or if his bowels respond well. And there are five other cats in the house who respond differently to different foods and food changes, too. So far we've eliminated corn from their diets (as a food filler) but that does not appear to be the issue. We're seeing if chicken is the culprit, essentially, by seeing if chicken-based food makes it better, worse, or no change. So far, it's not really any positive change. Eventually we may have to eliminate chicken and see if he responds better to seafood or beef. If no change or he has worse issues there, then we have to try novel protein diets that don't include any of those things, and...those are very expensive. 

"I wish they could just give him an allergy test like they do humans," Daisy said last night. "Just give him a test and see what he's allergic to and we can eliminate that."

"I think it's bullshit that they can't," I said. "And I mean by saying that I think the vets are lying to us."

To a certain extent I think that's the case; you can't tell me in 2026 they can't take a blood sample from a cat and run it against common food allergen strains. I can map my cat's entire genome with a cheek swab via a mail-in service, but I can't take my cat to a veterinarian and have them tell me via a blood test what foods he's allergic to? Horseshit. Oh, he's having an allergic reaction to something in his environment, either food or dust or pollen or whatever. Again, horseshit. Is it a test that's deemed too expensive for most pet parents and that's why they don't want to do it or tell people about it? Okay, cool, we have a pet health credit card -- we paid for Mable's surgery on it. Do it. Because I can tell you, it's more expensive and takes way more time to do trial and error with multiple types of food ordered from Chewy or picked up at PetSmart, and if he has a reaction to those foods it sucks for him and we are powerless to fix it. Both Daisy and I are starting to get frayed at the edges over this and we just need a solution for the little guy. We also can't torture the other five cats in the house with multiple different foods for multiple months -- I want to keep their foods as stable as possible, especially for the little girl who has now forsaken kitten food (not that we can give it to her anyway without all the other cats  running to the bowl and absolutely crushing it) for the normal food in the house.

Anyway.

Dolly has adjusted quite well to the house environment. The first day or two she was out, she hissed at everyone and was afraid of everyone and everything except for us humans. She is an easily spooked little girl and is especially afraid of sudden movements or noises even now. But, over the course of a few days, she made cautious friendships with the boys and Mable. Hank and Emmy, who were originally very opposed to the little kitten in their midst (they always are) mostly dropped their defenses and became more curious than anything else. Emmy is still a little apprehensive, but they coexist with her just fine. Do I think she'll ever cuddle with Hank or Emmy? Psh, no. At least likely not, anyway. But do they mind having her around? Also no. Hank likes to sniff on her and kiss her head, and Emmy also likes to sniff and examine her, but they otherwise don't really interact with Dolly that much.

Dolly very much seems like she's going to be a people cat, not a cats' cat. She has bonded extremely hard with Daisy and rarely wants to leave her side. She sleeps on Daisy's lap or shoulder when we're watching TV or eating dinner. She sleeps with Daisy on her pillow or chest every night. She is always in sight of Daisy (or me) when she can be, and when we're sleeping in bed together she's always either between us or on the cat tree with us in full view.

Who does that sound like to you?

Pete.

These are all things Pete did, and excelled at, down to the sleeping positions with me and Daisy. Dolly will make sure she teddybears up to Daisy, as Pete always did with us. She also has bonded to the boys like Pete did, though I think that's happening a little more slowly than with Pete. Still:

However, the cat she spends the most time with -- by far -- is Mable.

I mentioned before that Mable was very curious about Dolly. She was never really scared of Dolly, but was intensely curious about the tiny fluffball that looked like a miniature version of her. When Dolly was still being sequestered in the bedroom, Mable would intensely stare in curiosity at the child through the baby gate, and they would smell each other, Dolly would paw at her through the gate, etc. Mable was always the observer.

During the past six weeks or so since Pete died, there's also been a sea change in the personalities of the cats of the house. For some it's been subtle -- Hank will now get up on the couch with us a lot more, and has no qualms about sleeping on my desk bed with me while I'm working, and Emmy only very rarely sleeps in the middle of the couch now (read: where she used to cuddle Pete). Gary is now much more intentional with both of us when it comes to love or cuddle time, and Mable...has become much more of a Daddy's girl.

Daisy is bitter about that, by the way. She says I "stole her cat." In reality, Mable has been getting closer to me for months, and the catalyst of Pete dying and us adopting Dolly a few weeks later has likely  been somewhat traumatic for her, even if she's not really showing it outwardly. On the other side of that coin, she always knows where I am, she knows I am safe and would never hurt her, she knows I will protect her and give her treat sticks. On another level of that I also think she is trying to show Dolly possession, as in "you can have the mom, but the big man is mine." This would also explain why, every day now, Mable will sleep on me when I'm in bed during the work week. Safety and comfort, yes, but this man is mine is also the message she's sending.

Currently, as I type this, she is snuggled up on top of my right foot.

Here's the thing, though -- Dolly also adores Mable, and loves to jump and run and play and spar with her...to varying degrees of success. To her credit, Mable is exceedingly patient. Mable will never start shit with Dolly, but also won't really be like "oh, so you wanna go?" when Dolly starts play fighting with her. Dolly also doesn't have the shutoff switch yet, which means even when Mable is like "okay, come on, stop, I don't want to play anymore" Dolly doesn't understand that. It'll come in time, of course.

Over the past week or so, if she's not been our shadow, she has certainly been Mable's shadow -- her Mini-Me. I will hear Mable cry at my office door to be let in, and I will open it to find my daughters of darkness sitting there together, with the same posture, waiting to be allowed entry into my office.

First we had the Double Trouble Boys, now we have the Daughters of Darkness™.

Mable likes being around the little girl, but I'm not sure it's in a motherly way -- more like a big sister sort of way. She is very much an observer. I have not yet seen the two of them cuddle together, but I only assume it's a matter of time. Mable isn't much of a cuddler with anyone anymore but us humans, not since Pete died -- something else that's changed. I am hoping she warms up to the little girl more and more as time passes, because Emmy's certainly not going to be that patient role-model cat for Dolly. If Pete and Mable had a daughter, it would be Dolly. Dolly is their spiritual daughter personality-wise at the very least. 

Dolly isn't destructive. She doesn't even really seem to be incredibly curious, to tell you the truth, about most of the house. The wild, unhinged energy she had when we first brought her home and had her sequestered in the bedroom has all but dissipated. She likes to toddle around the house and run around with the boys and play with Mable, but she's a much more subdued cat than I expected her to be. I guess that wildness was something that was a very young kitten thing and just with us. She still has her moments, but I think it's great that she's finally fully integrating into the house.