Zula Earl Olsen

When Mim died in February, I started to volunteer with the group that we got Dilly and Mim from, K-9 Kastle. I really believe in the work that K-9 Kastle does; they rescue all types of cats and kittens but they kind of specialize in sick (like Mim) or injured (like Dilly) cats.

A few weeks before Mim died, John and I took a little walk to Petco Unleashed in our neighborhood to get her a heated bed. We walked in and there was Emily, Dilly and Mim's foster Mom! And there were a dozen or so cats looking for families. I wanted to start volunteering with them the next weekend, but felt like Mim needed all of our attention. 

We put Mim to sleep in early February, and by March I felt like I was ready to start volunteering. To be honest, in addition to missing Mim, my life felt a tiny bit void of all the "taking care" of her activities I had been doing for months (feeding, baths, medicine, cuddles). I thought this was the perfect way to fill that void and help out some cute cats, too. 

That first Sunday that I went as I walked out the door, John looked at me and said "Babe, remember while you're there that I don't think I'm really ready for another cat yet." I thought he was nuts. Clearly we weren't ready for another cat. We just spent 7 months of our lives basically running a cat hospice. "I'm not ready either," I said to him as I marched out the door. 

That first weekend was hard for me. I loved being with the cats and the other volunteers but even considering the possibility that we might get another cat made my heart hurt. 

I volunteered a bunch in March and I got to know the cats and saw them off to new families as they got adopted, which made me so happy. 

But then the fourth weekend that I volunteered a new cat named Lucy came to the event.

I spent almost the entire day in front of her cage with the door open petting her while she slept and throwing her tiny ball across her cage for her to chase. John and I had been talking all month about whether or not we should consider getting another cat or if it felt like it was too soon. I took a picture of Lucy and sent it to him with the message "I think we're in trouble." 

One of the other volunteers came over to me and I told her how much I loved her. She asked me if I had held her at all during the day and when I said no she yelled "But you already texted your husband? Pick that cat up!" 

When I got home that night John and I talked about it. Did Dilly really want another cat in the house? She didn't really love Mim a lot, but maybe that was because she was so sick? Do we want another cat? Are we really thinking this through? Are we insane for treating a cat adoption like we're having a baby? Will everyone think we're crazy because Lucy only has one eye? 

Oh right. I didn't mention that, did I? Lucy only had one eye. And it just so happened to be her left eye. And don't ya know, Dilly is missing her left leg. Everyone will think we're nuts. But did we really care? 

The next weekend, John came with me to the event and Lucy's foster Mom brought her to meet him. We talked to her about how Lucy was with other cats and the three of us stood in the Petco bathroom staring at her while Lucy tried to get herself into the sink. She lived with other cats and she played with them nicely and liked to cozy. She ate whatever her foster Mom gave her she slept through the night. Other than her missing eye, she was perfectly, 100%, gold standard healthy. And that was a big deal for us. 

"Lets take her home," John said. And that was that. 

I had to work the event for the rest of the day, and John took her home. I kept getting texts from John "I put her in the bathroom!" "Dilly is smelling under the door!" "She is letting me hold her!" 

The other volunteers recommended that we keep her and Dilly separate for at least a week. We kept Lucy in the bathroom for 24 hours and then she wanted out and Dilly wanted in, so we gave it a go. It took a few days, but slowly but surely they started warming up to each other. I'm sure smooshing them together as though they loved each other, helped too! 

We both decided we didn't like the name Lucy so we spent four days emailing, calling and texting each other names we thought we liked. I wanted to name her Earl like Earl Grey tea. John said no she couldn't have a boy's name. Shannon suggested P'Earl (which I LOVED) and John promptly vetoed. Finally, John picked a name (from Conan the Destroyer, I kid you not) and I liked it! And I gave her a middle name even though John swears cats don't need middle names. 

Zula is such a talker! After Mim died, our house felt too quiet without her meows. Zula literally just walks around the house yelling all the time, so that has been a really great addition. 

And now Zula and Dilly are best friends! They chase each other around the house like two lunatics and they follow me where ever I go in our house. Last week I opened the bathroom door one morning to find them waiting for me. 

On Missing Mim

Its been about six weeks since we put Mim to sleep. I thought it might be time to talk a little bit about what happened, why we made the decision we did and how we're dealing with missing her.

When we first adopted Mim we had every idea that she would live a long, happy life with us. We knew that it would be a wobbly life, because of what we then thought was her Cerebellar Hypoplasia, but we thought that we would have her for a long time. It became obvious to us after about four months of adopting her that something was very wrong, and that she was a road of deterioration that we weren't able to stop.

We took her to a feline neurologist (Blue Pearl Veterinary in Brooklyn, who we would absolutely recommend) in December and the vet put her on a course of steroids and physical therapy at home with us. We took her back in late January and the vet said that while she had gained some strength from the steroids, they were dangerous for her and the strength she had would vanish once we took her off of them. Dr. Williams said that while we didn't need to think about putting Mim to sleep immediately, it was something we needed to prepare ourselves for. She was still happy, she said.

One of the last pictures I have her her. She looks so cozy! 

On February 6th I came home from work and fed Mim. I ate dinner, I gave her an egg yolk (something that was recommended to give her some extra protein) and then gave her a bath since she had gotten a little dirty during the day. I took her out of the sink, and put her on her yellow towel. I turned around for three seconds and when I turned back around, I saw that she had an accident and that there was blood.

I dried her off as much as I could, wrapped her up in her carrier and ran out the door and to our usual vet, which is thankfully open until midnight (Animal Kind on 7th Avenue who we would also recommend). The vet took one look at her (and her medical records) and told me that she had a bladder infection because she wasn't emptying her bladder all the way because of her condition. She told me we would have to start manually emptying her bladder and that was it, I knew. John was still at work so I called him and I called my parents. John couldn't leave work for about an hour because he still had students with him so I called Shannon who came straight there from the city.

The vet put us in a room downstairs that was kind of crazy but none the less cozy, and me and Shannon sat with her until Becca and John got there. When it was time, Becca and Shannon went upstairs and we stayed with Mim. We held her and cried  and told her how much we loved her and how much we would miss her. When it was over I kissed her goodbye and we went home to an emptier house.

We absolutely knew that we made the right decision, but that didn't make it any less hard. All the vets we saw with Mim told us we would know when the time was, and for us, it was that night. She had dealt with so much: not being able to walk, weakness, not being able to use the litterbox anymore. Keeping her alive and having to manually empty her bladder would have been selfish and we knew it wasn't the life she deserved.

But oh were we sad. We're still sad. On Sunday afternoon, John and I picked up her ashes. If you had told me a year ago that I would be someone who would have their cat cremated I would have told you you were insane. But here we are. They made us an imprint of her paw and she's in a lovely tin that I think we'll upgrade sometime soon. She's on the bookshelf behind the big green chair where I held her every night for almost a year.

We miss her terribly and can't thank all of you enough for your kind words over the past month.

Later Losers!

ANNOUNCEMENT! American Apparel lets you print anything you want on their tshirts. BIGGER ANNOUNCEMENT! There is an employee there to help you do it. BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENT! You can even print on their dog tshirts. Yup I said it. Dog tshirts.

Did you know that Holly talks? Well, Alyssa talks in her voice, but she has been known to have full on conversations with all members of our family and guests. She even has catch phrases! For a while, she was saying "I do what I want!" whenever she did something naughty (i.e. poops on the floor, begs for food, digs on the couch, humps her puppy cousins).

Recently though, whenever she walks out of a room we're all in she says "Later Losers!". I know this entire post is insane, but the entire Holly dialogue kills us as a family. We laugh at it constantly, every time she says something!

When I went to American Apparel to get some Christmas presents and I saw the puppy tshirt.

And then I spent 40 minutes with the college student who worked the tshirt station to format Holly's shirt jussssst so. I gave it to her the day before Christmas Eve, basically as soon as John and I got to my parents' house because I just couldn't take the anticipation.

And wouldn't you know it, Holly loves to be dressed like a human. She wore that shirt for basically the entirety of Christmas, and if you asked her "Holly, want to put your shirt on?" she ran right over and picked up her front paws. She is a genius.

I anticipate Holly getting a full wardrobe, even though my Mom tells me that dog clothes are "too expensive". Whatever, Mom! I have at least two pairs of flats that cost more than $100, and those don't even have my catch phrase on them! Side note: do I have a catch phrase?

Happy Adoption Day, Mimosa Megan!

Dear Mimosa Megan Olsen,

Sunday is your Adoption Day! It is the anniversary of the day that Becca, Stephanie and I got in our car, drove to Bay Ridge and fell in love with you (see picture below for evidence).

 

When John and I decided we needed one more cat in our family and then we saw you online, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

You ended up being so very much sicker than we thought (or anyone for that matter, even your foster Mom) thought you were. And this year has been a lot of vet visits, a lot of tears (on my part) and a lot of you getting weaker and now stronger. Do you have CH? We're not totally sure. Are you going to walk again? We can't quite tell. But we are sure that we will get you as well as your little body will let you get.

You are such a strong little baby girl and you have shown your Dad and I that we can do basically anything (including giving you baths and giving your oral steroids) as long as we are together.

You are also such a funny girl. You put up with my crazy and at my Bachelorette Party, you even wore my necklace! You let me sing to you and you hang out with Dilly and Dad at night when he plays video games and I am asleep.

And ohhhh Dilly. It took nearly six months, but she finally warmed up to you. Sometimes you push her to far and she smacks the heck out of you, but most times you just want to be near her and meow and meow until she comes to sit next to you or until me or your Dad put her next to you in the hopes that you stop meowing!

But generally you are a meow-ey cat! The first vet we took you too just told us you were "mouthy". But really, you're letting us know who the boss is. You meow and meow until we pick you up...in fact as I type this, you're laying on my chest knocked out like a light. John and I joke that we're going to get one of those baby slings to put you in, at least that way we could hold you and both our hands would be free.

We don't know what the next year will bring for you. But we know that we'll keep on loving you and spoiling you rotten until we can't anymore. And we'll keep thanking all of our friends and family who love you too (because they really are the best).

So happy first year as an Olsen, Mim! We love, love, love you!

Love,
Your crazy cat lady Mom

Sidesgiving Prep & Giving Your Cat a Bath

The weekend of November 9th is usually when John and I host Sidesgiving. This year though, we were getting married and so since last Sidesgiving everyone has been talking about when we would be hosting it this year. Maybe our reception should be Sidesgiving themed, people suggested! Perhaps we could do it the next day! Could we have it the weekend before?

No, friends. Our reception will not have cranberry sauce, I was exhausted the day after the wedding and the weekend before we were celebrating Aunt Lau's birthday. SO this weekend, John and I are hosting a revised version of Sidesgiving, Sidesmas!

Sidesmas prep has been fairly extensive this week with cleaning and list making and tonight, Stephanie is coming over to do some crafts with glitter paper (my favorite!). In addition to cleaning the house, on Tuesday night John and I gave Mim a bath in the bathroom sink (to make sure she is ready to see guests!). We usually do it in the bathtub, but she gets so upset when the water hits her, so instead we tried the sink. It was a h-u-g-e success. John held her, I sudsed her up with some Johnson's baby shampoo and in less than ten minutes, she was like a new kitty cat girl. We typically go as fast as possible when giving Mim a bath, but I had to take a picture of this face! Oh Mim!

Also for those of you who have been asking, Mim's diagnosis is not as terrible as we thought it might be. For now, she is on steroids and antibiotics for a little longer and John and I do physical therapy with her every day. She says thank you so much for all your thoughts, she loves you for loving her!

Fun with Mim and Boxes

A few Saturdays ago, John and I did a heavy duty clear out of our house. Do you ever need to do one of those? When suddenly you look around your home on a Wednesday and say to yourself "Holy crap, when did we get all of this stuff?"

Well that happened to me and it happened particularly strongly in our bedroom. Why do I have so many sweaters? And how did I get so many T-shirts? And most importantly why do I have so many pairs of yoga pants that have holes in them?

And so, I locked myself in our bedroom with an NCIS marathon and got to sorting through my clothes. I threw out/donated (because no one needs clothes with holes in them) two giant garbage bags. I would say I'm only about half way done.

But that's not the point of this story. The point of this story is that about two hours into the closet purge when I heard a pound on the door and running away. "I'M ABANDONING HER!"

I opened the door to find this.

I laughed for about 10 minutes. Two hours later, I emerged moderately defeated by my closet and my cardigan sweater collection. John heard to me opening the door and yelled, "Hey Kate, come down here for a second!" I walked down the steps to find this.

Seriously, our lives.

Holly Does Brooklyn

A few weeks ago, my parents went on a cruise and left me and my sister home. Something about it being their 35th wedding anniversary and going away with their friends? Needless to say, Alyssa and I were pretty offended.

Instead of staying home by herself in Pennsylvania, Alyssa and Holly came to stay with me, John, Mim and Dilly for the week!

Holly isn't really used to going on big walks (she doesn't like them) so Alyssa and I spent their first night here training her to walk on the sidewalk by making her walk all the way to Prospect Park. Joke was on us though because we were halfway home and she just sat down. She sat down, looked at me and basically said with her eyes "I am done! It is too hot and I am tired. Carry me!" And so I threw her in my tote bag and carried her all the way home. Kate: 0 Holly: 1.

Holly got the hang of the walking pretty swiftly though the next morning. So much so that we were able to walk her all the way down to 4th Avenue for some bagels at our favorite place, Bagel Pub! She was such a good puppy girl!

During her stay, Holly and Mim also solidified their relationship as girlfriends. Seriously, neither of them would eat breakfast or dinner unless they got to eat it next to each other.

By the end of the week, Holly was a certifiable city puppy.  My Mom said that when she got home, she slept for about three days. So did Mim! They really tire each other out with the playing and the licking and the barking and meowing at each other!

Come back soon, Holly!

There is Nothing Worse than Cats in the Summer

Seriously, cats go through a terrible transformation in the summer.

When it is not the summer, this is what cats are like.

They are super cozy and adorable.

They shed sometimes, but its pretty manageable with a vacuum cleaner and some vigorous petting to dislodge any fur that has to come out (you then vacuum it up).

But then it starts to get a tad bit warm and a little bit muggy and BAM cat shedding becomes TOO MUCH and your home looks like you have 100 cats with baldness issues and not two slightly handicapped ones.

Am I right cat owners? Your cats are basically leaving a wake of their own fur anywhere they walk (or in Mim's case, pull themselves).

Thankfully when we first got Dilly my Aunts, (Dilly's great Aunts) sent us a Furminator. Do you know it? Its way more money than a cat brush should be (one of the reasons we can't thank them enough for it) but seriously it is a miracle product.

Here's what happens. You brush your cat the slightly intimidating tool. If you're Dilly's Mom, you chase her around the downstairs of your house while she runs away from you and brush her when you catch up to her. The brush totally takes out their undercoat which is a thing I didn't even know cats had until Dilly came to live with us.

Cat shedding maitenence is especially important if you live with someone who has cat allergies. THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS. John is allergic to cats. And we have TWO. And he's the one who wanted them. I know, the man loves cats...he's even getting allergy shots, but allergy shots are no match for cats in the summer.

This is what you get after 20 minutes of Furminating. Its disgusting but it is totally worth it.

I just proof read this post and realized it sounds like a sponsored post. The Furminator in no way sponsored this post. That is how much of a crazy cat lady I am. You're welcome, Furminator.

Best Friends Forever: Mim and Holly

Last weekend, John and I headed to Pennsylvania on Saturday morning for our tasting at our venue and for our Pre-Nuptial Investigation with the Parish Priest (terrifying, I know). Everything went really well...we're thrilled with the food, and the church said that because we've never been married before and since we're not related by birth or adoption we can in fact get married in November!

All of this was pretty exciting but nothing was as exciting as the newly discovered love between Holly and Mim!

Here's how their relationship goes: we put Mim on the floor and Holly runs around her/licks her/pushes her around with her nose for as long as we let her.

Sometimes Mim ignores her and just lays there but other times she bats Holly's nose and purs like a crazily happy cat. Eventually though she gets punchy and then its time for her to go back upstairs to her prison (read: my bedroom). You should know that Holly does not accept her removal and chases me up the stairs. Once Mim is back in prison, she realizes how much she misses and loves Holly and then she puts her tiny kitty paws under the door and cries while Holly loses her mind in the hallway. This is how you spend an entire weekend!

Occasionally, John gets the idea in his head that Mim needs to experience grass and so he takes Mim and Holly into the backyard. Adorableness ensues!

You should know that when you pick Mim up after play time, she is literally wet from Holly kisses. Its both disgusting and adorably cute.

Happy Hump Day! 

Mimosa Megan: An Update

One of my friends told me I better put Mim on the blog more because she's going to get upset slash jealous of Dilly. So here we are...fair warning this is TOTALLY a crazy cat lady post.

You may have noticed things have been a little quiet on the new kitty cat front lately. That's because Mim has been a little (a lot) under the weather and we were pretty worried for a while. About a month ago, Mim's mobility took a turn for the worse.

Before we got Mim she was diagnosed with Cerebellar Hypoplasia, so she was always a little "dizzy" as her vet says. At the end of February though, she really started falling after not walking very far at all and then it got to the point where she couldn't bring her self to her food bowl or the litter box in the kitchen, which is a non-carpeted area.

We got new curtains in the kitchen for our sliding doors to the deck that week and as we were taking down the old ones we realized whoops, she had peed on the bottom of them (which were on the ground because they were too long). She couldn't get herself across the kitchen to the litter box (needless to say I flipped out for numerous reasons).

The next weekend, we rearranged our entire living room so that Mim could have her own, totally carpeted space to eat, sleep and pee on (meaning we moved the litter box, not that she was allowed to pee on our rug). She was good for about a day but then she started falling in the litter box, which got really messy. John got the showering situation down to a 90 second process but seriously we were giving her a bath nearly every day. Exhausting. AND now she couldn't hold herself up at all.

This picture? Some of you may have seen it on Instagram. I think the caption I wrote was "Mim is a real lady during dinner". Turns out she was having an actual problem and I was Instagraming her. #worstmomever

We finally took her to a vet Mim's foster Mom recommended (after I had diagnosed her via the internet with everything from neuropathy to diabetes) and 45 minutes and more money than I'd like to admit later, he basically said there was nothing wrong with her other than her CH. SO frustrating.

Two days after the vet though, Mim started to get a little better. She was putting weight on all of her legs, her paws weren't doing that weird bending thing, and she was getting around a little bit. She hasn't progressed much since, but she can hold herself up in the litter box (HOORAY) and now that we put her in it, we haven't had to give her a bath in ELEVEN DAYS!

Before we got a handle on the litter box situation and before we brought Mim to the new vet, she was peeing all over the place (as in not in the box) because she couldn't get there. We were really upset and didn't think we were going to be able to keep her since we weren't home all day and it wasn't fair to her to be uncomfortable all day slash for our home to smell like cat pee. That was a no go for us, and especially for John.

When we met with the vet though, he said "you could put a diaper on her". No. Absolutely not, I will not do that, it is too much (I thought though tears because I knew we were going to have to give her back). The next morning though, John looked at me and said "I think we could diaper her." I do not think I could have loved him more.

Thankfully we didn't have to diaper her and I think for now we have a handle on the situation. Which make so happy because holy crap do we love her. I couldn't even think of giving her back at this point even though she is the neediest cat in the world. Not because we have to put her in the litter box or because she has to eat special wet food or because she hits Dilly when Dilly walks past her ("PLAY WITH ME, DILLY!").

She is the neediest because this is literally how we are sitting while I am writing this. I basically typed this whole thing with one hand. She whines like a baby if I put her down.

xox,
Crazy Cat Lady

Here Are Some Pictures of Our Cats

I feel like we've been lacking cat pictures on the blog lately! So here you go, you're welcome.

This is Dilly on our kitchen stool. She thinks she's a person and wants to participate when we have friends over.

This is me and Mim after I accidentally drank three glasses of wine at Happy Hour last Friday and instantly got intoxicated (also the wine was $3.50 a glass, I love you New York). Obviously since John wasn't home when I got there, I took pictures with the cats instead. After I took out my contacts and put on my pajamas at 8:20PM. I have priorities, guys.

This is Dilly waiting for me after I took a shower last week. She's mad at me because I wouldn't let her in the bathroom. PRIVACY, Dilly. PRIVACY!

This is not Dilly or Mim. This is a crazy yarn cat that I saw at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio a few weeks ago. I love that place, but seriously Yarn Studio employees. This is a lot...even for me, a lover of cat and yarn.

Squirrels in My Car

My car battery was super dead on Saturday when we tried to take my car to shopping in Long Island (Target with a parking lot oh how I have missed you!). We decided not to deal with it then, so yesterday I woke up and called AAA.

The woman who helped me on the phone told me that the guys would be to my car in 15 minutes so John and I threw on real clothes and ran around the corner. The AAA guys were unbelievably helpful.

They ran some super serious diagnostics and then told me that there was no saving the battery but that they would replace it for me for $149! Great, sir. Honestly, I would have given them $700 if it meant that they would do it then and there. Take note, AAA.

After they replaced the battery, the guy told me to come look at some things to keep an eye on. Blah, blah, blah something about my alternator, blah, blah, blah, there is squirrel poop under your hood. Say again, sir?

What's that you say, blog readers? You don't believe me? Well you're welcome I took pictures.

Car owners beware! When its cold, rodents and vermin climb under your car's hood and warm themselves up/poop everywhere. Richard, the AAA guy, told us that once he got dispatched to a car near Prospect Park that hadn't been turned on in six months (alternate side parking tickets?). When they opened the hood to jump the battery, there was a giant pile of leaves and a POSSUM JUMPED OUT OF THE LEAVES. IT HAD CONSTRUCTED A NEST UNDER THE HOOD.

So gross. Can't deal. Vermin poop in my car. Happy Monday.

I Hope This Brightens Your Monday

Holly is the first pet my family has ever had. As such, I think we deal with her in kind of a crazy way. For example my sister, Alyssa, speaks in Holly's voice. She says things like "Hey guys" and "Dad I want a cookie!" or "I AM A MANIAC" when she runs around the house like an insane puppy.

My Mom and I also have an obsession with Holly wearing pants. We would really like her to wear pants and we don't know why but we feel that we might love her a tiny bit more if she wore them.

My Dad refuses to kiss her. He will kiss his hand and then put his hand on her head but his lips will go near her. This is in direct contrast to my Mom, who I have NEVER seen even touch someone's pet, who kisses her one million times while saying "Who does Mommy love the best?" (Note: the answer to this question is not me or Alyssa, who my Mom actually gave birth to)

And when I'm visiting my parents, I can not leave Pet Smart without purchasing her presents. I once spent $50 on a new harness/leash combo for her. And when I went home for Christmas, I bought her a lovely festive collar you see in the picture above.

All around, Holly is a pretty good puppy. We basically laugh all the time when she is around and she only smacks us with her front paws sometimes (read: whenever she wants something and we do not pay attention).

But then last weekend I got this text from Alyssa, who was still home on winter break from school. My Mom swears that Holly didn't actually pee, she just licked Alyssa's pants so much that Alyssa just thought Holly had peed.

I maintain that the fact that we are even having this conversation makes us absolutely and totally insane.