Window dressing

The curtains have been washed and re-hung. The lights are on. They are just waiting for the tree. We moved the furniture around yesterday. Before we went to get the tree. It used to be that my daughter and I would walk the few blocks to purchase the tree and carry it home through the snow. You know, like families do up on Walton Mountain or something like that.

Last year my brother happened to be there and drove my tree to my porch. This year I really thought I could do it. Forgetting that moving the furniture around gave my lower back a good thumping over. I would have made it, but we got stupid and decided to take the dog. She was so excited by all the people she was almost unmanageable.

Walking home we were freezing. My daughter had the top of the tree and I had the trunk and the dog. It was cold. We must have looked pathetic because my neighbor stopped with his bright and shiny new red truck and put the tree in the back and drove it to my back porch. We were halfway home. I thanked him and put the tree in the garage for safe keeping overnight. My Mom had a tree stolen right off her porch before.

We will cut the trunk today and get it into water. We may get it decorated by tonight, I don't know. My daughter wants to practice backing into the orange cones today so that she can be ready to take her driving test. Ugh. It's going to be cold. Then she is meeting some new guy at the mall. She is so excited about this, she is over at her computer dancing to her hip hop. She said she wants music today, but not Christmas. I've been playing the holiday music for a few days, now.

I've got a real cat problem. Not poor Titten who got both eyes infected. We took her to the doctor and they gave us drops to put in three times a day. She is getting better and fortunately no other cat seems to be affected yet. No, this is a more serious problem.

Moose has always been picked on by the other cats. I try to let them work it out for themselves. My big male cat, Casper won't let her go downstairs. So, she ends up going to the bathroom upstairs. This is not acceptable. I tried taking her downstairs myself but she ran back upstairs as soon as I put her down. She is always scared. She has the long fur but barely weighs five pounds. She is so light when I pick her up. She is the one that vomits, too. Not very often, though.

Sigh. I don't want to get rid of any of them. I will not get rid of Casper. He is my baby. I am torn. This bathroom problem started happening this week. She is using my nice pink area rug in the bathroom. This last time there was blood in her stool.

I may get a litter box, food and water dish and begin putting Moose in the back bedroom by herself during the night. We do pick Casper up and put him in the backroom for some "time out" when he picks on her. He chases her. The other cats have started to pick on her too. What to do, what to do. I've talked to the vet when this happened before. We talked about shaving her to get ride of the mats still embedded in her coat. Maybe she is in pain. Maybe there is something wrong with her that the other cats sense and they don't want to be infected. Maybe animals know this stuff.

The paper is full of "free kittens" for Christmas. We have a cat shelter. The last time I was there it smelled so bad I couldn't stay for more than 10 minutes. They have dozens of cats. I don't want it to come to that. I will try the separation technique until the first of the year and then deal with it. This may be the reason she was put out by the people who owned her before. She was already fixed when she came to our back door. My daughter snuck her into the basement without my knowledge.

Well, it's time to go and get that tree up.