Raven
The following is the “cat diary” I kept while I cared for my parents’ cats during their two week vacation in September. Before you read my diary entries, there are a couple of things that you should know. My parents have several animals: 3 dogs, 7 cats, and 4 birds. One dog travels with them on their trip, and the other two stay at my house. Secondly, my mom is a veterinarian. What this means is that care for her animals doesn’t simply involve throwing down some food and water. The following are the contents of two emails my mom sent me prior to their departure for vacation:
Email#1:
Subject: (no subject)
CATS–YIKES!
FEEDING:
- Fill water bowls (kitchen, by laundry tub
& in cat room), and change daily.
- All cats except Rava get one scoop of
dry per day plus two teaspoons of canned. *Maddy gets one can Fancy
Feast per day instead of regular canned. Rava gets one can of the
Science Diet per day. (If the Science Diet runs out–get canned Nutro,
Iam’s or Science Diet–5.5 ounce cans.)
- AREAS: Maddy : Cat room .
Chimi: by the water heater, Ginger: Screen house. Seamus: behind
the garage under hosta. Rava: dining room. Raven:
bedroom. Zip: bathroom (then move to basement before leaving).
MEDS:
- IMPORTANT! Prozac: 1/4 tablet once daily to Chimi & Rava.
- Cyproheptadine: 1/2 tablet if any cat does not eat for 24 hours.
YUCK STUFF!
- TRES IMPORTANT FOR CLEAN UP AVOIDANCE! Boxes: 3 in dining
room. 6 in basement: 3 in cat room, one behind furnace, one by the
fuse box, and one by Strider’s kennel. PLEASE scoop daily and bag in
provided bags and place in Granger. REALLY, it only takes 5 minutes and
no clean up! Please rinse cans and put in supplied container by the
back door.
BIRDS:
- Feed and change water once daily.
- Use the stool to reach. The food will be labeled and in the dining room.
DOGS:
- Easy! 2 1/2 cups per day with two tablespoons of
canned.
- Water after feeding and leave water in kennel.
THANKS! WE ARE FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT!
Love, Mom & Dad.
Email#2
Subject: ADDENDUM
Here we go! Are you ready?
1) Pigeon: one scoop of food
daily to every other day. Please change water daily.
2) If you have time to fill the bird bath, that would be great.
3) I forgot to mention to change and refill the water bowl in the screen house every
day. Be sure the cat door is open so Ginger can get in and out.
4) The pigeon food is in the screen house labeled appropriately.
5) All the cat meds are in the kitchen window.
6) Sorry about Rava–I’m hoping that he will come around after things settle into a new routine.
The paper towel is under the cupboard by the fridge, the cleaning stuff
is under the sink–including the scrub brush. Water pots daily to
every other day depending on the heat. Take some basil if it starts to
bolt.
7) Do not leave the light on over the dog kennels!!!
9) Back to the pots–there are four in the side yard—2 on the clothesline, 2 on the
dead tree in back. All the pots on the patio. There are 4 pots in the
front garden–2 hanging, one “wedding plant” pot and the pot with pink
flowers. One hanging basket in front of the house.
There is one hanging basket at the back of the back yard, and all the
pots on the fountain–which will be turned off. Obviously, if it
rains–don’t bother watering.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, your only mother.
Ah, how I love the instructions. Here’s how it went:
Day 1:
Arrive at the house and proceed immediately to the backyard to collect Ginger’s and Seamus’ food dishes. Seamus greets me, but Ginger is nowhere to be seen. I call her a couple of times before heading into the house. She does not appear.
It’s a very warm fall day and all of the windows in the house are shut. Collect cat dishes for inside cats and shoo said cats into their designated eating areas. Load dishes with food and begin to distribute. Return outside to feed Ginger and Seamus. Ginger is still missing. Continue to call her and give Seamus his food. Return inside.
Now that the inside cats have finished eating, it’s time to give Rava and Chimi their Prozac. Instructions say that Prozac is in marked bottle on window sill. However, neither of the two pharmaceutical bottles on window sill is labeled Prozac. After consulting the Cat Bible, I discern that Prozac must be Fluoxetine through process of elimination. Split a pill into quarters and begin to stalk Rava and Chimi for pill distribution. Find Rava behind one of the sofas. Pull out the sofa and Rava runs out. Spend a good 10 minutes chasing him around the living room before catching him and distributing the pill. Now, on to Chimi. Chimi is in the basement. The basement is dark. Spot Chimi sitting under a clothing rack. Chimi sees me and runs off. Spend another 10 minutes or so chasing Chimi around the dark basement before catching him. Pill distribution completed.
Chimi
Head back upstairs to feed the birds. Sweat is pouring down my face from the warm house cat chase.
Spill bird water on my Rava/Chimi hair-covered, sweaty shirt. Head back outside to water the ten million hanging baskets that are located in every nook and cranny of the yard. I soon find out that the water wand is leaking. Water pours down my arm on to my shirt and shorts. Now it’s time to look for Ginger.
Ginger is not under her favorite bushes. She is not sleeping in the hosta garden. She is not in the adjacent park or woods. I jump in my car and cruise the neighborhood. “Ginger, GINGER, GINGER!!!!!” Still missing. I give up and begin my drive home. Catch a glance of my reflection in the rear-view mirror: red faced, sweat rolling down my cheeks, cat hair all over my clothes, and water -stained shirt. Guess I am not going to the grocery store on the way home.
Call husband. Report Ginger’s missing status and ask him if he would be kind enough to stop by the Cat House of Fun on the way home to see if she has turned up. He agrees.
6PM: Husband calls to report that Ginger is sitting peacefully under the garden arch when he arrives. Husband feeds Ginger. Day one is over.
Day 2-Backyard Cat Party:
Arrive at the Cat House of Fun. Ginger is nowhere to be seen…again. I call her a couple of times, but she is a no show. However, it seems that all the other neighborhood cats are there. As I round the back of the garage, I notice that the neighborhood villain black-and-white cat is entering the garage through the cat door. I yell at him, but does he listen? Of course not. I turn around and the neighbor’s cat ‘Teddy Bear’ is watching the scene, waiting to eat Ginger’s food. I chase him like a mad woman and he takes off for home. I leave the backyard cat party and head into the Cat House of Fun. Feeding and pilling of inside cats is uneventful. I have sharpened my cat stalking skills and was able to pill both Chimi and Rava in record time. Now, back to looking for Ginger.
After calling Ginger a few times at a neighborhood friendly level, I completely lose my cool. “GINGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “Screw it”, I mutter to myself and start to head towards the car to leave. Ginger immediately emerges from the shrubs at the very back edge of the yard. I quickly feed her before the neighbors summon the police to apprehend the crazy lady in the backyard of the Cat House of Fun.
Day 3:
Arrive at the Cat House of Fun after dropping my 13 year old dog off for surgery. Stress level upon arrival: high. As I am walking up to the Cat House of Fun, I say out loud “You cats better not mess with me today”. As I head into the backyard, I immediately see Ginger. Finally, they are starting to listen.
Day 4:
Arrive at the Cat House of Fun after picking up my father’s VW Golf from the repair shop. I haven’t driven a stick in ten years, so the ride thus far has been… interesting. As I exit the vehicle outside of the Cat House of Fun, I accidentally set off the car alarm. It’s 8AM. After several attempts to quiet the alarm, I finally hit the correct combination of buttons and the honking stops. Cats are cooperative today.
Day 5:
Another day at the Cat House of Fun. A fairly uneventful day. Planning for a camping trip over the weekend with my sister and nephew to visit my parents on their campsite in Canada. Husband will be taking over cat duty for the weekend.
Here is his blog for days six and seven: http://jsmrva.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/pet-sitting/
Day 8:
I throw upon the kitchen door and say “helllloooo cats!” Raven, Rava, and Zip all come running. Both Zip and Raven are rubbing against my legs. I tell them that the bad man who chased them is now gone and they don’t need to worry. Raven runs to the back bedroom and waits to be fed. She gobbles down her food after a weekend of being too terrified to eat. Rava also seems glad to see me, but he’s generally crazy, so it’s hard to tell what he is feeling.
Day 9:
Waited for the fog to lift, and then headed over to the Cat House of Fun. A neighborhood cat is strolling down the street. This tabby cat is huge! Seems to be almost twice as tall as a normal size cat. Is this a new character on the scene? We’ll have to see.
Days 10-14:
These days are fairly uneventful, so I will spare you the mundane details. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be relieved of cat duty!
That’s what my mom said when she found this beast in our vegetable garden last night. Hiding under a pile of cucumber plant leaves was the marrow. My dad, who is English, always calls large zucchinis marrows. My mom complains about marrows and gives me grief for missing them during picking trips. However, given the size of this one, she also must have missed it when we picked cucumbers and zucchinis a few days ago. I think this one will be a candidate for freezing, given the size. In honor of marrows and the manner in which they are cooked in England, I have prepared zucchini boats for my husband that are stuffed with a saute of leftover taco meat, tomatoes, onions, basil, thyme, and garlic. Here’s to hoping this is the first and last marrow of the season.
