Well, all of the kittens are still healthy and happy. Except one. Poor little Cooper still has conjunctivitis, and it's worse, so I drove him to the shelter today for a check up and more meds. He got a stronger version of the eye gel the other kitties have been on for 10 days. Tomorrow is their last day of meds! They finish the oral antibiotic (clavimox) and their eye gel (erythromyacin?) tomorrow morning. Poor Cooper has 10 more days, starting tomorrow morning. Poor little guy. He has to be quarantined in the downstairs bathroom, so he's all alone. He looked so sad when I left...

I'm really pissed right now, but I'm pretty sure I'd be shunned or yelled at or forever lose a couple friends if I posted why. *shrug* People. Who needs 'em?

TV.com isn't letting me post or see blogs (unless they're from 2006...), so I'm posting from Gamespot. Much better postability, I have to say. It's kind of like the old TV.com, like before they changed it to resemble Hulu (at least it looks like Hulu to me..)

Sorry for the short blog, but it's a full moon, and my faith in humanity is dwindling down to almost nothing.

Hello! The following will be a bit of a rant. There will be more blog that is not ranting underneath the rant, so if you're not interested in reading me complain, scroll on down. If you'd like to read my rant, be my guest!

So, the foster kittens are doing very well. They're getting over their upper respiratory infections, but their conjunctivitis seems to be getting worse. Naaiya and her family (the official foster parents) are on vacation this week, so that leaves me and Fwirrel (who lives next door to them) to take care of them. Well, Fwirrel got some sort of flu-bug-virus-thingy and couldn't help me at all this weekend, which was extremely stressful because I had another petsitting job I had to drive across town to get to. And the dog was a crazy black lab, but that's a whole different story.

Anyhoo, it's my responsibility now to go to the kittens in the morning, around 8, and feed them and give them meds. Then I drive back (it's about a 10 minute drive) to the kittens around lunch time to give them more food. Then I stay for a while and let them play and climb all over me and poop all over the place (well, they poop in the litter box, but they step in it and track it all over the place). Then I can leave, but I have to drive back over around 5 or 5:30 to feed them again and give them more meds. Then I can go home, but I have to go back over around 8:30 PM to give them more food. This is a lot of driving and a lot of responsibility.

So I decided this morning that I couldn't handle this back and forth, and I called Naaiya and told her I couldn't handle it and I needed to bring the kitties back to the shelter. She didn't answer her phone, so I left a message that went something like "Hey...I'm having trouble doing all the kitty-stuff by myself, Fwirrel is still sick, and I don't think I can handle this. Please call me back. I'm getting really stressed out. I think I should bring them back to the shelter. I mean, it's not fair to them to be cooped up in the bathroom all day and only get food and attention every few hours. I feel so sorry for them. Please call me back." So she called me back an hour later, after I'd taken a short nap that temporarily relieved my pounding headache.
-"Hey," I answered.
-"Don't bring the kittens back," she said.
-"What? Why not?" I asked.
-"Just don't bring them back."
-"But I'm having trouble with this. It's just me taking care of them, driving back and forth. It's a lot of driving and a lot of work for just one person. I'm stressed and I have a headache and I haven't been feeling well for a couple days," I said. Surely she'll understand, I thought.
-"Mom doesn't want you to bring them back. And besides, it's not that inconvenient for you."
-"Not inconvenient? I have to drive to your house. And at night! If Fwirrel wasn't sick and could help out at night, I wouldn't be as stressed, but I have to drive to your house at 8:30 at night to drop food down for the kittens and leave? That's not convenient."
-"Oh, it's not inconvenient. Just don't bring them back," she said. I didn't say anything. If I'd opened my mouth, I would've burst into angry tears. They think they can take advantage of me. They think they can just tell me what to do and I'll do it, no matter how inconvenient or stressful it is for me. Naaiya said, "Okay? Just keep them."
-"Fine. Whatever. Have fun at the beach," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. I hung up my phone and burst into tears. Now, I'm not normally one to cry when I'm angry (let alone at all...), but I hadn't slept well the night before (had a creepy dream about flying werewolf monkeys that were attacking me - no, I'm not kidding, I really dreamt that) and I had to get up early, drive across town to walk and feed the dog I was petsitting for, then drive over to her house and take care of the kittens, then over to Mass to listen to a priest from Sudan beg for money, and then home for a quick breakfast, then over to the kittens again. I could feel the breakdown coming, and I'm not surprised that that was the trigger.

I called Naaiya later to ask her how I should go about getting more eye-gel for their conjunctivitis, but she never called me back. I texted her, but she won't text me back. I guess she's mad at me. *shrug* I think I have more right to be mad than she does, but I suppose I did interrupt her vacation with my concerns about being able to care for her foster kittens. *grumbles*

My parents were upset that I was still going to take care of the kittens even though they're pretty much using me. I know they're using me, but the kitties need care and they'll get more love and attention if I'm caring for them, rather than if the shelter is caring for them. The shelter workers don't really have the time to give attention to the animals; they're always so busy cleaning and preparing food and doing all those important employee things. I know they're using me, but I'm doing it for the kitties, not for them. I'm also kind of taking care of their actual pet cats, dropping food in the bowl for them and letting one of them (the other one scares me...it's possessed or something) outside every once in a while.

And I don't really even like cats! Though I have found a place in my heart for the clawing, furry, meowers, I doubt I'll ever truly be considered a "cat person." *shrug* They're okay. But I love the dogs more!

Well, I started listening to a Gaelic Storm station on Pandora. Have you heard of Pandora? If not, go here. It's great. I love the music; something in it speaks to me, as weird as that sounds. It inspires all sorts of stories and such.

I watched a great movie last weekend called Unknown. It's great. Five guys wake up in a warehouse with absolutely no memory of who they are, why they're there, or how they got there. I won't summarize it because it's really hard to summarize and not give away the ending. You should definitely watch it. It's fantastic. And I hadn't heard of it before I found it at the local used book store for $3. Great buy, and great movie. I also bought Shergar, an Irish movie about an Irish racehorse. It was surprisingly good for one of those sappy-inspiration movies. I recommend that one too.

Hope you're all doing well. I'm going camping again next week. I'm finally getting new hiking boots! I've been using a pair of Vasque men's size 8, which are too big for me. They were on sale..haha! But I'm getting womens shoes this time. I'm buying them when we're up there, so I don't know what kind I'm getting yet. They're either going to be Keens or Vasque. I'm excited!

Apparently I'm not allowed to say "Sucking" in my title. Stupid censorship. It's not even a curse word! Anyhoo, onto the blog:

I stepped out of my back door after dinner this evening to take a look at my garden, maybe pull some weeds, pick a few peppers or tomatoes, or just enjoy the overall peace and quiet that comes around sundown. I spent a few minutes pulling weeds (including a dandelion that must have been on steroids; the thing was as tall as my mid-thigh, and I'm 5'5" tall). The dragonflies flitted around my head and the crickets chirped loudly at my feet.

A few minutes into my quiet-time, I looked down at my bare feet and saw three little mosquitoes lined up (and I'm not exaggerating) in a perfectly straight line, like they were pigs at slop, or fat people lined up at a Golden Corral buffet. I squealed and swatted them away, only to notice a couple perched on my other foot. I swatted them away too and was about to run in the door when Dad said "Stop!" and started doing what I now call his "Mosquito Jig" - he hopped around clapping at every little flying black speck that could possibly be one of these horrendous blood sucking devils.

But where did they all come from? We live in the south, known for it's humidity and mosquito-population, but walking out your back door, even in LA (where I am not living), shouldn't mean walking out your back door into a swarm of mosquitoes dense as a column of smoke. The culprit? Our neighbor's decorative fountain that he never uses.

I really have no complaints about my neighbors other than the typical neighbor complaints. They're nice people - very interesting, from Saudi Arabia. Their kids are irritating and like to take up the whole road when they play and leave stuff lying around for everyone else to trip over. They have a giant, ugly satellite dish next to their house (of course it's facing our house) so they can (supposedly) get channels from Saudi Arabia (because why else would you have a jumbo-satellite dish that huge?). A couple years ago they had half their back yard paved into a fancy concrete deck/patio that they rarely use. The fountain was built into their lovely patio, and for a while they used to turn it on and let it run. It was very pretty and added a sort of waterfall-meets-ocean sound to our back yard (that sent us running to the bathroom if we listened to it for too long). It turned into a lovely little nesting place for frogs and toads, and we were often serenaded by their croaking songs. But after a few months they got bored with it, and they haven't turned it on in a couple years.

We didn't notice it so much last year. We realized there was an abnormally large mosquito population hanging around our back door, but we didn't really care because we didn't have our garden last year. This year, though, we can't spend more than 5 minutes outside without getting eaten alive. I have a bite the size of a dime on my wrist! I tallied up all my bites - totalled to about 8 or 9. I couldn't really tell for sure because a couple are either one really huge one, or two really close together.

We're getting really close to contacting the health department, or some other government organization in our city, to report them. Mom wants to talk to our neighbors first to see if we can sort it out, but they didn't really care when their kids took our mail and threw it all over our yard and into the street, so would they care that their fountain is making our lives miserable? Probably not. But having a fountain full of stagnant water and mosquito larvae has to be against some sort of city code, and I'm determined to find one that they're breaking so that we can finally rid ourselves of the horrendous mosquito problem.

Our foster kittens are doing well. Magnus has been renamed Cooper (as in Mini Cooper, because he's the runt - though he has done quite a bit of growing over the past week), Kaydence is happy-go-lucky and nuts, Keesa has a URI so she's on antibiotics (her sneezing and wheezing is finally getting better), Callahan did something funny to his paw and won't put pressure on it or use his claws for anything, and Kesler is acting strange (doesn't want to walk, rolls in waste, won't use the litter box, doesn't like to be touched or picked up, etc). I want to take Kesler back to the shelter to get him checked out, but the foster-mom-in-charge wants to give it a couple days to see how he is. If something is seriously wrong with him I'd rather know now (especially if it's contagious!). Hopefully it's nothing. *crosses fingers*

My parents invaded Facebook! Apparently when I sent my mom a link to one of my photo albums she thought it was an invitation and signed up. Dad got into it for "work purposes". And he joined Twitter as well, which was my last final private online place to share my thoughts (other than here). I was enjoying the privacy of Twitter because no one I knew was on it (except for my cousin) and I didn't have to worry about offending anyone or making anyone mad or being myself and saying what I think. Now I'm going to have to guard everything I post: "Is this something I wouldn't mind Dad reading?" *sigh* Maybe I'll open a brand-new Twitter account that isn't in any way linked to the one I have now. It's really annoying. Facebook I didn't mind quite so much, because I already never act like myself on Facebook. I tone my morbidity and sarcasm and dry humor down as much as possible because it freaks most people out. But I loved Twitter because I could keep my thoughts short and sweet and I didn't worry about who saw it because no one I knew was on it. Oh well. I suppose all good things must come to an end...

I started watching True Blood on Monday night and I'm almost done with season 1. I really like it. I didn't expect to because of all the great things I've heard about it. I tend to not like really popular shows/music/movies because everyone else does like them. I hear so much about it and before I can get around to trying it I'm already sick of it. Anyway, I decided to give it a shot and I think I may be addicted. I've been up until 2 am every night (or is it every morning?) watching as much as possible. Hah...Yep, I think I'm addicted.

Hello!

Well, Naaiya and her mom and I picked up foster kittens on Friday. They're so cute! We got five of them. Four of them are from the same litter and are about 3 weeks old. One is from a different litter and got mixed in, and she's about 4 weeks old. She has a cold right now, though, so she's quarantined in the downstairs bathroom. Poor baby...

We have three boys and two girls. The boys are Callahan, Kesler, and Magnus. The girls are Kaydence and Keesa. Magnus is the runt, so he gets a special name. Haha..

-Keesa

-Callahan

-Magnus

-Kesler

-Keesa on the left and Kaydence on the right

They're so cute. We have them until July 20, so I'll post more pictures as they get older and bigger.

I'm going camping next weekend! We're going to visit my Grampa for Father's Day (leaving Saturday and spending the night with them) and then we're going up to the campground and staying till Wednesday. I'm so excited. We only got to go camping one time last year, and we already have three different trips scheduled for this year. Yay!

Hope you're all doing well!