I'm still here...They haven't beaten me down yet

Sorry......I've been busy with dentist,  doctor and vet appointments all through October.  I'm still not done.   I'll be doing doctor and dentist appointments all through January.  Amos and Hunter have been to the vet several times.  Hunter had a Urinary infection which he must have had for a very long time since he decided to urinate on the carpet in front of me to show he was sick.  There was blood in it.  He just finished a two week round of antibiotics.  He had lost weight and had a dull look in his eyes.  He is now pretty well back to normal and is eating like a little piggy.  Amos, we have determined, must have a growth in his nose.  We have tried every antibiotic we can find and the infection keeps coming back.  We can't afford to have a cat scan on him (at his age) I think we need to just make him comfortable.  I hate to think about saying good bye to another fur child but I know we don't have too long.  The hard part is that Hunter is actually older than Amos.  Though neither one is young...like older than 13 years........It's still too short of a life for my animals.  My cats usually last close to 20 years.  Anyway...I don't want to think about that now.

Thanksgiving is coming very fast.  I shopped  today for all the goodies to cook on Thursday.  I'm not looking forward to all the work but I sure am anxious to see my grand daughter and her significant other Randi.  Misty assured me she would be here for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Then there's Christmas.....
Oh Lord!  More worry about what to get for everyone and lots of work to do both in decorating the house and yard and then cooking the meal again.

I have my husband's family gifts bought. Now a couple of gift cards and I'm done with buying.  Well maybe not...I still have to get my husband a big fat gift.  It's so hard to buy for someone who hates everything you get for him.  I can even purchase something he said he wanted and he would never use what ever it was because I gave it to him.  I swear I'm not making this up!  Well enough of that.......

I'm hoping for Snow close to Christmas this year.  I love the Christmas lights with snow all around them.  I'm not crazy about the new LED lights though.  They aren't as bright and showy as the old ones.  My husband is going to put them up tomorrow morning I think.  That means this week I will have to put up the huge wreath on the front of the house and the lights, ornaments and topper on the Blue Spruce in the front yard.  Oh, I almost forgot....the air-blown Snowman on the side yard too.  I never got out all the decorations last year so I think I'll start early this year.  I always feel guilty when I don't put them all out.  I don't feel guilty however.....when it's time to put things away because it's a lot faster without all the extra stuff.

I went out to lunch with an old friend of mine last week and we had the best time.  She gave me some advice about our current flea problem.  She uses Cedar chips in her dog run and it keeps the fleas to a dull roar.  I think after the holidays we need to do the same thing.  Our two girls are both California girls and DO NOT like to go potty in the muddy dog run.  It's bad enough that we have made them come to a colder and wetter climate....but now we expect them to use a muddy bog instead of soft green (dry) grass?????  How uncivilized!  I'm hoping that the cedar chips or shavings will entice them into using the dog run again.
Have a pleasant one today
Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place's

Into the Dungeon

We have a room in our home that is for nothing but storage.  I have shut off the heat to the room since we don't really live in there.  There is only one tiny window in the room also ...thus I call it the dungeon.  It's packed to the ceiling with boxes.  Many of them contain Christmas decorations.  It's time to bundle up and head into the dungeon.  I also keep the cat carriers in there for easy access.  Can you imagine how many of those we have?  Actually not as many as you would think.  We have one that's big enough for a huge Lab, one that's big enough for three cats, one that's big enough for two and then a single one.  For space I have to break them down and put them in the closet when not in use.  Another fine use for the room is hiding the Christmas presents.  There's so much stuff in there you can't focus on any one singe item, so it provides a super hiding place. We keep extra stuff in there...like dry cat food, bird seed paper towels etc.  OK....the reason I mentioned the dungeon is if I don't start putting out the Christmas decorations they won't get out.  The closer it gets to Christmas the more I seem to lose steam.

There is always a problem with the cats wanting into the room too.  You have to be aware and alert when you open that door or they will shoot into the room and you won't see them.  There are about a trillion places to hid in that room and just like the Christmas presents...you won't see them.  Next thing you know, there's a crashing sound coming from that direction..... and one very innocent ball of fluff sitting in the middle of the floor after riding several of your prized possessions to the floor from the top of a pile.  This scene is repeated several times during the unpacking of the decorations.  Maybe I should try a baby gate?  I know some of them could jump over it but the element of surprise might get me in and out of the room a couple of times before they got wise.

One of my biggest pet peeves is that everything in this house is covered because of the cats.  There's a cover on all sofas, chairs, in front of the fireplace, throw rugs in front of the doors to cover the spots they've torn up and even small rugs under some of the doors in the interior of the house because Paddy has separation anxiety and rips up the carpet under the doors if he get left alone. If I had the money..... I would get those colorful cat claw covers and glue them on each one of the cats.  They don't go outdoors anyway, so what's the harm?

 I guess you could say this house is run solely for the comfort of the animals.(not the humans)