Cat Scratch Fever

So, our doggie is back home from boarding, and he's fine.  A little too fine.  He didn't really seem to miss us, which is good in a way, but kind of ... sad.  We were worried he wouldn't follow commands and maybe forget everything we taught him.  But he didn't, thankfully.

Stinksy, however, has been naughty.  I was trying to train Rudy not to take things off the coffee table without permission.  So, we were instructed to leave food or treats on a plate on a coffee table to represent when we set our plate on the table.  So, Rudy looked at it longingly for a while, and then he lay down on his pillow.  A little while later, Stinksy jumped on the table to snatch the treats, and Rudy became alert.  If he can't have it, Stinksy shouldn't have it either.  So, I yelled no, but Stinksy had to swipe at Rudy before running away.  What a little dick!

And then there's the issue of our couch.  Our beloved comfortable couch.  Stinksy started scratching it, and we got a few scratchy boxes, which deterred him for a while.  But when Rudy came into our lives and we were paying more attention to training him, and he chewed up some scratchy boxes, Stinksy went back to full fledged tearing up the couch.

So, yeah, I know we need more scratchy boxes.  But, also the guy likes to be destructive, I swear.  He feels neglected, so he's acting out as the bad kid for attention.  That's my theory.  I mean, I watched him purposely knock a glass of water off the table the other day!  He didn't even try to drink out of it, just knocked it off and then looked at me.

I guess when one child is behaving, there's always another to act up, especially when you have three!

Ssup Pussy

So, we finally got a storage box for some of our outdoor shit today.  Actually, I ordered it from the Wal-mart site to store deal, and it came like a week early.  So we went out to the dreaded Wal-Mart in Hallandale this morning and picked it up.  We went early, and it was so cold, so luckily there weren't many people out or about yet.  The customer service guy wheeled it out of the stockroom on one of those forklift dolly things.  So, the FP went to pull the car around, and there the guy appeared and helped load it in our car and took the dolly back.  That was nice of him.

So, we took it back and put it together.  It was pretty easy because it was just a resin snap on job.  It was one of the cheaper boxes, so if you were looking to put it outside with no fence and store valuable stuff in it... I wouldn't recommend it.  But for keeping stuff dry and packed away in the lanai, it's fine.

It's just kinda big.  I mean, I wanted the biggest deck box I could find, and I got it.  I just didn't realize how big it would be.  I was hoping we could use it for a bench, but it's high and the lid is kind of convex, so it wouldn't be good for sitting.  It wouldn't really be good for a table, either.  But, maybe we could somehow get a tabletop and stabilize it on top of the thing if we ever happened to have a party.

Anyway, so, after we were done assembling it, we had this big huge box.  So, rather than break it down and try to cram it into the recycling can, I thought I would make a scratchy box for the cats like I had been wanting to do.

Let me tell you.  I'm kind of not a perfectionist with tasks like this.  And I get tired and frustrated with stuff like this.  And I didn't have a good blade for cutting boxes with.  I also did not have a proper work surface to work on.  I used the tile floor.  Luckily, it's pretty indestructable, and my blade on my exacto knife kept popping out before it could damage the floor.

We went and got lunch at one point.  I had a light pork belly sandwich.  So obviously, when I came back and started working on the box, I got tired.  Very tired.  So, I had to take a nap.  I just kind of laid down on the couch and fell asleep for what I think was maybe 30 minutes.  Then I woke up and slowly started working on the cat scratcher again.  It took several hours.  If I had been more precise and careful and rolled the thing tight enough, it would have taken twice as long.  If I were working, I'm not sure this is something I would have ever tried to start.  And of course, the cats looked at it and were like, "What is this shit, mom?  It'll all ghetto and shit like you made it out of an old box!"  But I just put a whole bunch of catnip leaves on it.  Hopefully they will grow to like it and it will have been worth the effort.

If you want to make one better than mine, here's a tip.  Roll the damn cardboard strip out before trying to roll them around into a spiral.  That way, they will be more circular than hexagonal like mine turned out.   Also, make sure you use lots of tape to attach each new piece to the old piece.  It probably wouldn't hurt either to use some non toxic glue too.

Anyway, this is what I did most of the day.