Knee deep in poop...

Sassy has started a full on campaign to cover every square inch of our house with poop.  We've found a pile every day for the last week and last night was the breaking point.  So, we locked her back up in the laundry room.  We made the mistake of leaving the mat under the litter box and the rug in front of the sink and she pooped on both of those, but not in the box.  Thinking perhaps Sadie using the box is the problem, we cleaned a box and put new litter in it.  After talking about it, Carl and I decided that we would let her out and watch her - if we found a mess, we would show it to her, scold her (not yell) and put her in the cat box.  Carl seems to think if you do this often enough, that circuit in her brain that isn't working correctly, will finally snap on - I'm not so sure but willing to try it.  So, he let her out and twenty minutes later we found a fresh pile in the living room, we showed it to her, scolded her and put her in the litter box.  The next time we scold her, put her in the litter box in the laundry room and lock her in again.  We are completely out of options.

Thoughts on scratchy towels....

During a recent trip to Florida I was re-introduced to no-see-ums.  We'd been relatively bug free on our Christmas trips to Florida in past years except for the occasional mosquito, this year was different.  On Sanibel Island by Fort Myers, the no-see-um population was out in full force.  Even the newborns must have been breeding.  The second the car stopped, the look-out would whistle and no-see-ums would come from all over the refuge to wait until the door opened.  I was bitten a gazillion times.  Of course, I'm one of those people that hates the smell and feel of bug spray, especially at 8:00 in the morning, knowing I'll have to smell/feel like that all day, so I'm always the last to spray and the first to be cannibalized.  I don't think I had an inch of exposed skin that didn't have a bite, which brings me to my topic.  Normally, I would give a hotel a full grade off for scratchy towels, but when you have as many bug bites as I did, this time they were a blessing. 

Best hotel this trip:  Paducah, Kentucky's brand new Holiday Inn.  Ya Boy!  Great beds and pillows, great towels, fresh baked cookies at 8:00 pm, big screen TV, no dirt in the corners in the bathroom, fabulous water pressure, plenty of hot water, the sink was in the bathroom and the shower head was wonderful and the internet was zippy.   Look for it right next door to Raffertys with wonderful ribs.  What's not to like? 

Home again, home again, hippity hop....

After two lovely weeks in the tropics sans cats, we returned to a world of ice and snow yesterday.  Sassy was confined to my craft room during our vacation and was on again, off again bad.  Our sitter finally put two litter boxes in the room and for the last few days she was good.  We're on Day 1 of her being good since we've been home.  Sadie was so glad to see us that she actually purred when I picked her up, that's four times since we've had her, I was thrilled.

We let Sassy out of the craft room when we got home and now we've got the aggression from Sadie again.  Hissing and chasing.  Sassy has been glued to my side all day today in the craft room as I fill orders for my Washington Strong donation.  I takes breaks and belly rub.  I've also been running downstairs to rub on Sadie every once in a while. 

We're calling the vet on Monday to get instructions on how to wean Sadie off of the drugs.  We'd like to see if it makes any difference in her attitude.  I've read that kitty Prozac causes aggression in some cats, so I'd like to see if that's her problem.

feathered and not so feathered friends....

We left our Christmas list with Santa:

checked out his sleigh:

spotted some shore birds:

and his friends:

made a wet friend:

and a scaly one:

and a feathered one:

 ate a great lunch:

and landed in Florida City.

as well as great seafood....

had a wonderful breakfast:

went back across the causeway:

did a little shopping here:

and here:

and headed back to the island:

and balmy breezes off of the gulf....

The weather is definitely getting better:

and the water is getting bluer:

and the guardian to the gates of Sanibel smiled at us:

and snow was not allowed:

 and the mangroves were just as we left them last year:

and the ibis stopped to say hi:

and the Great Egret invited us to lunch (the hapless creature in his mouth is a Brown Anole.

Searching for the great warm....

We left home in Central Illinois at 17 degrees F heading south through Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.  Five hours into our journey it looked like this:

and just kept getting worse:

and worse:

and worse:

and then a little worse:

and then a little freezing rain:

and finally some dry:

We spent night one in Athens, Alabama and had to pry Carl's hands from the steering wheel.

Down to the wire...

We've completely stopped feeding at night.  Sadie is getting 1/2 can in the morning and Sassy just gets her regular.  I need to clean up and set up the craft room today.  We also have lots of running around to do before Friday.  No messes since the last post and Sassy is asleep in the window right next to me.  Sadie spent part of last night in the basement playing with Carl's camera equipment.  We went to see Mama Mia at the Peoria Civic Center last night and a good time was had by all.  Great musical, I highly recommend it.  So, I'm off to do laundry.

Vacation is looming...

We've gone back and forth about where to lock Sassy up for vacation.  Either my craft room with the desk, window seat and chair she loves or the laundry room where we can put her cat tower and it's all linoleum.  Ultimately, I think the craft room.  It's much bigger, has a window and places she already loves to be - not so much a prison like the laundry room.  Yesterday morning one of the cats got my footstool and it's one of Sassy's favorite places to sleep (will a cat soil their bed?), so we're back with the pet carrier on the footstool, as well as my chair, the spare bed is completely covered, there's carpet runner in the living room as well as boxes on the carpet where we've cleaned up messes.  The only good thing about locking Sassy up is that we can clean up all the clutter.  And, maybe it will even straighten her out.  If not, she might end up living a long and happy life in my craft room.  We also didn't feed them dinner last night.  We want to get them used to canned food just once a day for the sitter - she will come over twice a day but her hours are eratic.  Better to lose a feeding than them not knowing what time dinner is.  Breakfast will be much more consistent and they have plenty of dry food.  Sadie hasn't been eating much dinner anyway, she ignores it for quite some time after we put it down.  Sassy, the little piglet, is almost always available for meals even though she only licks the gravy and Sadie usually cleans up the rest.  Sadie didn't even miss not getting dinner last night although Sassy was by her food dish at 5:00pm.  I gave her some treats, less treats tomorrow, and probably no treats on Tuesday.  We leave on Friday and I swear, I'm going to give a thought to these cats until we come home.