Queens of the Castle and other things

The kitties have taken over. They really do own us, and not the other way around. Gabby is the ultimate beggar, who just does not want to eat dry food. We’re trying, but she won’t eat it. We even took to putting some water/chicken broth in her dry food, microwaving it for a minute, and then refrigerating it, trying to make it like wet food. She likes that, and will eat it, but that’s as far as it goes. The kibble in her bowl stays, unless the Punk eats it. I’ve tried mixing it all up, but she eats around it. It’s not like her teeth can’t handle it- she just doesn’t want it. She likes to beg and have it spooned out as mush. (Tried spooning out the kibble- no go.) We figure one weekend we’ll just give her nothing but kibble and she’ll be so hungry she’ll have to eat. But she’ll meow us to death in the process. (I never thought it was possible until I heard this one. Sheesh. I swear she has some Siamese in her.) Plus she also runs right under our feet while we’re in the kitchen. If we’re in bed and she’s hungry, she just sticks her nose in our faces and purrs. Then whines. Then jumps and flips and tries to get us up. Punk will eventually join in a few hours later, until one of us finally gets up and gives them what they want.

Punk is the normal one, sort of, and just watches Gabby and makes sure she’s ok. She is also a beggar, but not nearly as bad as Gabby. Though when she doesn’t get her tuna, oy. We ran out this weekend and I had to go to the store yesterday for some. I was hit up as soon as I walked in the door. She just knew I had some tuna. That cat and her tuna. She’ll never leave us, unless she finds some other shmuck to feed her that. All I have to do is rattle food in her bowl and she comes running. She will stop whatever she is doing and run for the food. It’s so funny.

Gabby has started exploring more. She’s getting over her fear of heights and climbed the clothes in the closet the other day. Her only problem was figuring out how to get back down. That took a good 20 minutes and a lot of me just watching and laughing. She eventually crawled halfway down the clothes and fell. Not too graceful but it works.
She is also the lump on my side of the bed. The boy gets Pumpkin on his side, all sprawled out, taking up the bottom corner so the boy has to sleep diagonal. I get Gabby, curled up right next to me, in between my legs, or in a recent development, on top of my legs. That makes for an interesting night. She just moves with me.

Gabby hasn’t peed in the bed since I put the litter box upstairs. The boy is still against it, but it gets used, and that’s all I need. I’ve moved it to the corner now, where it’s less conspicuous.

Double vet visit this Friday for the kitties. Gabby needs her rabies, boosters, and roundworm. Punk needs the rabies. Oh it’s going to be fun with the both of them. I think I’m making the boy come with me. He’s going to be on poo duty anyway- the attempt to bring a fecal sample. Punk hates the car, Gabby falls asleep. It will be interesting. Thankfully it’s 5 minutes away. Still enough for Punk to flip the hell out.

In non-kitty news, our washer drain is clogged up. (That was a fun discovery. Nothing like wet clothes with soapy residue and water gushing everywhere.) There’s some lovely looking sludge in the pipe. No draino can be used. We called a plumber, as stoppage is covered by the blessed home warranty and he tried a bit but couldn’t unclog it. It seems that the clean out valve for the pipes in our house is in the front and our washer is in the back. So we need one of those valves installed in the back so he can go up the other way in the pipe in order to clear it all out. Makes sense but sounds like a pain and $$. But we need to do it. Urgh. We’re trying a low-tech solution tonight that he said might work, called a blow out bag, It shoots a stream of high pressure water through the pipe, so we’ll see. Might just be another mess. Who knows. I’m willing to try anything right now to do laundry. (Spent Saturday at a friend’s house doing laundry and while I know they don’t mind, I don’t want to have to do it all the time. Plus being able to do laundry when I just need to is better.) What is it with us and washer/dryer issues? I mean come on!
As to why it clogged, it seems that the connections weren’t used for a while, as we had to buy new faucets for the water hookups. So dust and dirt got into the pipe and after enough uses, everything got wet and just congealed and stuff. Ick.

The Texas book festival is this weekend. I’m still debating on whether I’m going to make it up early enough to see Barack Obama speak. He’s there at 10am but you need to go get wristbands at 8am and Friday night is the official CD release party for Cienfuegos, the awesome Cuban jazz band that plays at Cipollina every Friday. That means a late night of drinking and stuff. But I also plan to go see Amy Sedaris speak about her new book and that’s not until 2. Sadly, she’s scheduled against Frank McCourt, the only other major author I wanted to see. Oh well.