We're still here...

My Weezie at the lake yesterday

Weezie looked so pretty after her brushing. Weezie does not love the camera like Gizzy did and in order for her to look at me, I have to make shrill and unusual sounds.

See? I used to do that to Gizzy when I wanted him to tilt his head, but he was ALWAYS looking at me, especially when I had the camera. He was such a ham!

Gizzy loved being brushed with his pink brush, especially under his chinny-chin-chin!

When provoked with a squeaky toy, Weezie can be cute and coy, but it takes a lot of coaxing to get her to come out of her reserved shell.

Weezie often looks so sad and deep in tought. She is coming around in appearance, but not yet too much emotionally. She's not an affectionate dog, but I know she acknowledges me as her mommy, because when someone else takes her leash (like my neighbor) she will not budge and go with her, but stay by my side. I suppose it has to do with her having had three other homes before me.

Weezie sitting on the table where Gizzy used to sit and Romeow looking out of his carrier. He likes watching the ducks when I feed them and they get really close to him. Sometimes I stick a duck feather in there for him to smell and play with. He really is a sweet cat when he's not all charged up.

My Gizzy last year at around this time.

When I walk around the lake I constantly hear that song in my head:  "I keep seeing you in all the old familiar places..." and tears start flowing...and then I feel bad for Weezie and Romeow because I'm bringing sadness into their lives and that's not fair, but I can't stop grieving the loss off my boy. He was a VIP to me, a very important Peke!

Yesterday is the first time I actually was able to sit at the place where Gizzy and I always sat by the lake to do our bonding and communing with nature. I brushed and combed Weezie's fur like I did Gizzy's and she enjoyed it tremendously. She laid down and closed her eyes to soak up the sunshine while I brushed one side and then the other. It was an exceptionally nice day yesterday and it looks the same today. It's been a mild winter and I'm dreading it ending.

Weezie is not an affectionate dog, and neither was Gizzy, so I'm used to not being showered with kisses, but it would be nice to have someone show me that they actually liked me once in a while. Weezie is a sweet dog. She loves everyone, especially children. She's calm and mellow and endures all kinds of crap from my kitten Romeow who is getting on both of our nerves lately. He needs to get neutered next month and I'm hoping that will calm him down some. He's 17 weeks old now and getting bigger and stronger by the minute. Weezie and Romeow still play together, but not as much, because she's not comfortable with him anymore like she was when he was little. He gets very hurtful and mean when he plays. Romeow bites a lot and that's the biggest thing that bothers me about him, the biting! 

Romeow will soon need a bigger carrier - he's growing so quickly.

He's skating on thin ice and I'm toying with the idea of giving him back to my manager who gave him to me. She would take him back to her house in the country where he would live with his other 3 siblings and his mother. At least he'd have space to run and get regular meals, but I won't do that till he's neutered and then only if I can't take it anymore, because Weezie comes first. I worry about her eyes constantly,  because he's always swatting at her. She lays on the chair sleeping and he ambushes her by reaches up from any corner, swatting up towards her eyes and that just does not sit well with me. I can't keep him in the big dog kennel all day, and when he's out, I can't do anything at all, because I have to watch him like a hawk with a squirt bottle in one hand and a fly swatter in the other. Maybe the neuter will calm him down. He's adorable when he's sweet, but those sweet moments are far and few in between since he's gotten older and bolder. Our apartment is very small - it's like living in a large room - and he needs space to run and work out his energy. I already have some calming spray called Comfort Zone with Feliway to help sedate him, but I'm not sure it is working. 

On the other hand, on the rare occasions when he's calm and sweet he sits on me and looks at me with love in his eyes, I just melt. He's so much fun to pet when he purrs and loves on me. He shows me he loves me and the thought of me giving him up just because he's a rowdy young'n makes me feel bad. I really believe and hope that he will outgrow this hurtful phase and become a very loving, mellow cat. My only concern ins Weezie's eyes and that's what really upsets me. If it were just him and I, I could live with it better, but Weezie does not deserve to have her eyes scratched out.

I take him on our walks with us, but  of course, he's inside his carrier, because we have too many cat-hating dogs running lose and he'd have his neck broken in an instant if he were only on a harness and a leash. He needs some protection. I once had one of the big spotted hunting dogs (who lives by the lake) run up to me with his teeth showing. He looked like he meant business, because he smelled a cat and his fur was raised on his back. Thank God his owner was pulling out of the driveway and when I screamed bloody murder, he put on his breaks, got out of his truck and got his dog back. He apologized and reprimanded his dog and later - after I was out of sight - I heard him giving his dog a whipping (that's how men train their dogs around here - but better him getting a whipping than Romeow or Weezie being mauled in front of me) but so far, he's never done it again. Whenever the dog sees me, he must remember because he stops and waits to see which direction I'm going and then he slowly goes the other way. I just feel safer with Romeow in an enclosed cage rather than on a leash. There is no leash law for dogs in this city and  the majority of people hunt and fish, so there is a lot of big dogs who are trained killers. That's how I keep losing our stray cats. Since I've lived here, we lost four or five cats who got their necks broken by dogs.

Speaking of stray/feral cats. I still feed and trap them for spay and neuter day once a month. I got one of the youngest ones last week. He was one unhappy, hissing and spitting little kitty cat, but I'm glad he got done. 

He was about Romeow's age and size and also orange, except with white paws and chest. He has two more siblings, one tri colored and the other black with a white face and I think the cutest. I wish I had a tranquilizer gun to sedate the mother cat and get her spayed, because she's pregnant around the clock and it's getting too much for me to keep up with feeding them all by myself. Besides, with me feeding them regularly, she does not teach the kittens how to hunt, but only to beg from the humans and shows them the way to the cat feeding station. Then when I'm dead and gone, they will all starve because they never learned to forage for food...and yes, cats do starve in the wild. My late Middi was skin and bones when I found her here...she would not have lived much longer if I had not took her in and nursed her back to health - and even she ended up getting her neck broken by a dog. She was an outside cat who felt trapped in here and Gizzy hated cats, so cried and cried to be let out to the point it was driving me nuts, so I let her and she only had a couple of days of freedom before the dogs got her. I have a small apartment with very limited space. It's only 800 sqft and the bedroom is off limits because it's full of my yarn and crafts stuff, so imagine being locked up in a big room when you are a cat wanting to run. It's not fair. It will drive them mad too!

Now I have four more of the stray/feral cats to trap (I didn't catch one last month because it was raining) unless the mother cat (who is impossible to trap) brings me 3 more, but I can barely keep up feeding them anymore and in the summer will have to cut down to once a day instead of twice. I have to wean them off gradually because it's not fair to feed them regularly and then quit cold turkey. Besides, in the summer, I'm probably out of this apartment because the owner of these buildings has started the rebuilding process...so far apartments 1 through 18 have to be empty by the 15th of April and next month is another meeting on the 22nd so I will find out when I have to be gone because I'm in number 22...I will most likely live in another unit on the other end of the complex because management has stopped renting so that there are some empty units for people who have no place to go. Then I'll live in that temporary place for 2 or 3 months and move back here.

My car quit running and the mechanic said he will look at it tomorrow to see what's wrong. Two different people have looked under the hood and said it's probably the coil because it's not firing, not even with a jump from a battery cable and the battery is new and so are the wires because I've had a tune up a few months ago and have not driven it very much.

Next month I have several doctor's appointments, one in particular I'm not looking forward to and that is with my GI to discuss my Hep C treatment, a new treatment that was approved for 2012 and is supposed to be better and more effective than the old. I have the most popular strain of Hep C and the most difficult to treat and this one is supposed to be working better, but still, I have to give myself daily injections (which I HATE) and it will still make me puking sick and depressed and anemic (because it affects the blood) and who wants to move in the middle of that?  So, unless my liver is totally shot I'm going to wait till after the move is done! I will discuss my liver chemical profile with my GI next month to see how it compares to last year's and then make my decision - after all a doctor can only recommend and not force! I am known to not take my doctor's advice - if I did, I'd be taken a bunch of pills and inhalers that all have side effects and would have stressed my liver even more. I'm just not a big believer of suffering just to postpone the inevitable for a few months or a couple of years. In my case, I really have not much to live for other than the animals. Romeow can go back to my apartment manager (or my daughter in CA said she would take him) and I have a friend in Michigan who would probably take Weezie. So,what else is there? I go through days where I really want to be with Gizzy because I miss him so much - still - every day I cry for him. I'm pathetic (I know!) but I can't help it! It just sounds like such a busy and strenuous year ahead with the packing and moving - I'm tired just thinking about it, who needs a new and improved Hep C treatment to add to that stress?

In retrospect, Romeow has given me lots of laughs with his antics and here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:

Romeow celebrates Chinese New year: by eating Longevity Noodles (aka Ramen) and really seemed to enjoy not only eating them, but mostly playing with them. (and YES, that is my Christmas tree still up and I don't care - I like the lights at night!)

Romeow and his kitty grass: More than eating it, he loves to dig in the dirt and get it all over the floor

When I bring in my houseplants on cold nights, I have to watch him not only so he won't eat the leaves, but make sure he does not dig out all the dirt...he just loves to jump right into the plants and start digging.

Romeo at play:

Romeow chewing on Weezie's doggy bone

Romeow attacking Weezie

"I'm faaaaaalling"

I gave him a stuffed kitty cat to wrestle with and chew on instead of us - it works only some times.

When he was smaller, he played better on his own, but just a couple of weeks later, and he started to attack me or Weezie for his entertainment.

I have so many cute photos of Romeow, too many to post here, but if you want to go to my facebook site and click here on my photos, you can see them all, if you want. I don't think you need a facebook account to just look!

Facebook Doris' Photo Albums (just click and chose which one you want to see)

I know Romeo loves his Nana Weezie because every chance he gets, he lies down beside her, and Weezie lets him as long as he's calm and quiet, but as of late, she's been hiding from him, not wanting to have anything to do with him because he's too rough.

Attacking Weezie's tail

Weezie's saying "Stop that!"

Gizzy's spot by the lake

An "Awwww" Moment

I have named her Saint Weezie because the most she'll ever do to Romeow when he annoys her is growl or snap towards him, but never bite, and amazingly he backs off when she does that...but all to often I hear her yelp out in pain when he swats or bites her and darts off...

A friend of mine asked me if I did not anticipate that this would happen before I took him in? In all honesty, I did not know what to expect. All I saw is a little helpless 8 week old kitten out on the streets. (At the time the manager still lived here on premises and since she is allergic to cats and can't have them in the house, she put him outside.) I have not had a kitten for decades and Gizzy hated cats. I only adopted adult cats. They both kept their distance. I did not know how Weezie would react and in the beginning, when he was still very young, she loved playing with him, but now, she can't do it anymore. I already had her at the Vet's once for her red eye (which turned out to be not a scratch) but it makes me worry about her eyes...and even if I had to end up giving him back, he would not be any worse off than he would have been before. I only had him for two months and he'd still be with his mother and siblings running free in the country with people to feed them.

I found this new program online called Imikimi and been making all sorts of pretty pictures. They are on facebook, but I want to share some with you. With your indulgence, they are mostly of my precious boy, Gizzy, whom I miss every day. I promise to keep my next post light hearted and less serious, but I've not written for a while and maybe some of you may be interested in reading about my unimportant little life.

I'm giving you the link to all of the pictures I made on facebook, but if you don't want to go there, here are a few I find especially precious:

Imikimi Photos

(I still look for his flyaway ears in the clouds)

 Gizzy was indeed my little honey bee - sweet with a bit of a sting!

I found this video and it made me smile:

Till next time!