Archive for the 'Life with pets' Category

I guess this is how you know

Published at May 4, 2011 in Cali, Life with pets and Dipshittery. 1 Comment

I got an eviction notice yesterday.  I’m not entirely sure why, since my landlord hasn’t called me back. But I suspect it’s because the neighbors complain every time Junebug farts.   And every time that the dog next door barks, which is somehow my fault.

I spent the month of January and part of February leaving a voice-activated digital recorder running in the apartment when I was gone.  With only one or two exceptions, the length of the recordings were between 8 and 16 minutes.  Over the course of 9-12 hours.  Which also included me and my dogwalker announcing the time, traffic noise, leaf blowers and lawn mowers, and the cat meowing.

The property managers met with me, met with my neighbors, reviewed the materials I gave them (a month’s worth of recordings plus a huge memo) and told me everything was fine.  That was the last I’d heard from them until now.

It’s now official:  I hate this place.  I can’t leave for at least another year, but I hate this place.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with the property manager, who of course won’t tell me much because they want me to come in.  But I highly suspect that he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing.  Why?  Because he denied that he served me with an eviction notice, then when I said it damn well was an eviction notice BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT SAYS RIGHT ON THE DOCUMENT, THAT YOU’RE TERMINATING MY LEASE IN 60 DAYS, he sort of cavalierly dismissed it as “just procedure” and “I don’t know why it was done.”  This is of course after an entire fucking day in which he didn’t bother returning any of my increasingly frantic phone calls asking why I was being evicted.

As I suspected,  it’s about the dog.  Why he has to send me an eviction notice to get my attention instead of, oh, PICKING UP THE PHONE AND CALLING ME I’m not quite sure.

But I’ve decided I’m going to take them at their word.  They want to send me a termination notice?  Fine.  My lease will terminate within 60 days and I will be moving out by the end of June.   They can pay for the movers.

And I still hate this place.

Almost there

Published at September 29, 2010 in Kitties, Life with pets, Vanity and Travel. 4 Comments

Just 185 miles to go until we reach my new hometown.   Won’t be able to get into my new apartment until Friday morning, so we’ll be waiting at the current hotel until nearly checkout time, then taking our time to reach the new town and checking in to another hotel.  I’ve picked one that will allow me to get on and off the highway easily, and won’t require me to take very many local streets to get to the apartment (which is pretty close to the highway).

Zuzu has a moment every day when she suddenly realizes she’s in a cage and starts trying to get out, meowing loudly the whole time.  I call it her “Cattica! Cattica!” moment.  And then she goes to sleep.

Travels with Junebug and Zuzu

Published at September 26, 2010 in Kitties, Life with pets, Travel, Junebug and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’m a little more than a third of the way done with my cross-country trip.  I’m driving a 14-foot U-Haul; I was originally going to get the smaller truck since I’d gotten rid of so much furniture, but I took a look at my boxes, then at the five-foot-wide, not-very-high truck, and decided against taking my chances.

The move-out had some issues.  First, I showed up at the U-Haul facility shortly after 8 am.  Movers were coming at 9:30 to load me up, so I should have had plenty of time.  There was nobody there, however.  Except a guy who was also trying to rent a truck.  Several calls to Regional later, I had a new truck at a nearby facility where the staffers actually showed up to work on time, and was late to meet my movers.

Make that “mover.” Only Hector had shown up on time; the other mover (whom I started calling Skippy because he was so white-college-boy, and never told me his name) was over two hours late.  But Hector got started right away, moving boxes and one-person items down the stairs.  He told me he got paid from the time he showed up, but I wouldn’t start getting charged until the whole crew checked in.  Plus, Hector got Skippy’s pay as well for that two hours.  So it all worked out well for both me and Hector, at least in terms of money.  In terms of time, U-Haul and Skippy put me behind schedule.

To get out of Brooklyn, I had to take the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the West Side Highway and then the Holland Tunnel to the Garden State Parkway (Rte. 78).  On the map, and on all my directions, it sure as hell looked like you could get in the left lane at the Holland Tunnel and then take an immediate left to access 78.  Except for the part where you first have to, if you are driving a commercial vehicle such as a 14-foot moving van, go the long way around to the special checkpoint entrance to the Brooklyn-Battery and show your rental agreement and license (after messing up and having to have the Port Authority cop who just sent you around and is surprised to see you in the same place he just sent you away from move the traffic cones and stop traffic to let you into the right lane) and then, at the Holland Tunnel, get out of the van and open up the back for the cop, who is not very happy to be there, and is certainly not happy your dog is barking at him.  Oh, and except for the part where they’ve closed that left-hand turn and now, even though you’re in the extreme left lane, in order to get 78, you have to be five lanes over to the right really fast.  In a 14-foot truck which you’ve been driving for less than an hour.  In heavy, heavy traffic.

So I got lost for a while in Jersey City.  In parts of Jersey City I don’t know at all.  In parts of Jersey City with hills and narrow streets and no signs telling you which direction 78 might be in.  I drove over the curb in a few spots, even, since I had no sense of where the end of the truck was.  I finally stopped for gas and asked for directions (but the guy was no help), and then got the maps feature on my iPhone to cooperate.  I found 78, then found my way to Pennsylvania.  I’d hoped to get to Pittsburgh before I stopped for the night, because I had to be in Lafayette, IN the next day, but I’d gotten such a late start that I got no further than Carlisle, PA before I had to call it a night because I just couldn’t see.

The next day was a long drive followed by meeting Lauren and an unfortunate incident with Junebug and a waitress who had picked up the bag of food she’d just brought out and set down to make sure we had our whole order.  No skin was broken.

Junebug has not been an easy traveling companion.  Tolltakers are out to get her.  So are the Port Authority cops and the poor waitress.  I’ve gotten her a harness which can be strapped down by the seatbelt.  I thought this might be a good way to keep her restrained when I got out of the truck, but the first time I left her belted in while I pumped gas, she chewed partway through the seatbelt.  She’s also put a small hole in the vinyl seat, though that could have been me, too.  Good thing I took out the super-duper damage policy.  After the first day, when she was terribly, terribly anxious about driving, I have given her tranquilizers, which make her a little dopey and slit-eyed like a stoner After the drugs, she’s been pretty content to spend most of the ride with her head in my lap, though she has chosen some inconvenient moments to start nudging her head under my elbow to get me to pet her.  Like construction zones.

Zuzu’s been tranquilized the whole way.  And while she had a few scary moments the first day — it is NEVER a good thing when a cat pants open-mouthed — that could have been due to having a high anxiety level from the whole move experience.  Also, it was hot.  But she’s been better since then; she’ll have a few minutes of meowing and trying to climb out of the crate about an hour after we get underway, but she settles right down and naps.

I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the truck as well, which I find kind of amusing since I haven’t owned a car in 17 years, and I don’t really drive at all.  I’ve figured out the mirrors, which make lane changes much easier, and I rather like being up high.  Tractor-trailers bother me less when I’m looking over at the cab doors rather than at the tires as they go by.  They do cause me some problems when they come alongside me, since their air currents push my back end.  The truck’s a little light since I don’t have all that much stuff back there, so it does some fishtailing.  But it’s not awful.  And I’ve even gotten fairly comfortable with it at gas stations and on local roads — as long as I don’t have to back up or do much in the way of lane changing.  And somehow, it’s not wearing on me to drive eight hours a day, as long as I break it up.

Also?  The iTrip is the best thing ever.

I’ve got four more full days on the road, and four more nights in hotels, before I reach my final destination.  Right now I’m in Iowa at a hotel which provides free wi-fi.   I’ve downloaded the first three seasons of Mad Men and plan on watching a couple episodes before I crash.

Big, big changes

Published at September 2, 2010 in Library stuff, work work work, New York Fugging City and Life with pets. 13 Comments

I got the job on the West Coast I interviewed for last month.  It’s a nice school, with nice people, a great boss, apparently ZERO tolerance for assholes.  AND it’s a lot cheaper than New York City, with better weather.

So in a little more than three weeks, I’m packing up a U-Haul and driving 3000 miles with Junebug and Zuzu (who will be tranquilized the whole way, at least during driving hours).  And in about eight days, I will be pulling into my new town and setting up house.   And it might actually BE a house — I can get an entire house, with a yard and a gardener, for a few hundred bucks less than I pay for a studio in Brooklyn.  Probably within walking distance of campus, as well.

I’m both excited and anxious.  I’m also sad to leave New York and bracing myself for some severe culture shock.

New and familiar habits

Published at August 22, 2010 in Kitties and Life with pets. 2 Comments

I’ve noticed that Zuzu is starting to do a few things that Sugarplum used to do.  These are things that Zuzu never did before.

Some of these things are charming — like how she’s begun sleeping with her paw thrown over her face like Sugarplum used to do.

Some of these things are not so charming — like kicking both litter and poop out of the litterbox.

Get your hankies

Published at August 20, 2010 in Life with pets. 0 Comments

A beautiful tribute.

Moving on

Published at August 5, 2010 in Life with pets. 0 Comments

Itchy dog is itchy:

Ignore the mess under the bed

Thanks for all the kind words about Sugarplum.  The hardest part was waiting for a signal that she’d had enough; the night before last, she started refusing food, then her breathing got dramatically worse.  So it was time; I called the vets in the morning and brought her in yesterday afternoon.  The vet who’d saved her life a couple of times was the one to end it.  The hardest part was bringing the empty carrier back home.

Junebug and Zuzu seem to be wondering where she is, though it’s not the first time I’ve taken her away and not come back with her.  They still have each other, and I have them.  And Junebug had a bath and a fresh application of powdered neem oil for her flea issues as well.

Have to say, although I was bummed out on the bus coming home with the empty carrier, it brightened my day considerably to see that Prop 8 had been declared unconstitutional.   I love my iPhone.

What we have here is failure to communicate

Published at September 13, 2009 in Kitties and Life with pets. 13 Comments

We have A Situation with Miss Zuzu here.

Oh, sure, *she* can sleep

Since I moved into this apartment, over a year ago, I have not had one uninterrupted night’s sleep. And why? Because Our Girl here agitates to be fed at the first hint of light, no matter how late she gets her evening feeding.

This agitation takes the form of nipping, running over my head, meowing loudly, knocking things over, tearing up any paper left around (which is quite, quite loud when you’re trying to sleep), jumping on my nightstand and rattling the lamp, getting the dog antsy and generally being a pain in the ass.

I tried to ignore it at first. I’m sure the guy who lives downstairs didn’t appreciate it when she would knock the remote off the dresser and onto the hardwood floor just above his loft.

At 5:30 in the morning. Continue reading ‘What we have here is failure to communicate’

Busy

Published at July 20, 2009 in Gardening, Library stuff, Kitties, work work work and Life with pets. 9 Comments

Life interrupts.  Pardon the lack of posting, but I’ve been working full-time and taking two compressed summer classes, which is like taking four regular classes.  And I’m taking four in the fall, too, trying to graduate early because who the hell knows if I’ll have a job past August.

The pets are more or less fine, though Sugarplum, on top of everything else she’s had to go through this year, has had a mammary tumor removed.  The edges are clean, but the tumor is highly malignant, which means that if it shows up in her lungs, that’s pretty much all she wrote.

The tomato plants, so promising in early June, have suffered terribly from June’s wet, cold weather.  I don’t think they’re showing signs of blight, but they’re mildewed and the leaves are falling off.  I’ve gotten a few large-cherry-sized tomatoes from them, but nothing to write home about.  It’s going to be a lousy year for tomatoes in the Northeast.

Since I’ve made the decision to graduate in December instead of June of 2010, I’ve begun poking around looking for jobs in law librarianship.  While I can’t really begin looking in earnest until October because I won’t be available until January, the market looks pretty decent in that there are, actually, jobs available if one is willing to relocate.  I’ve also got 11+ years of legal research experience, so I’ll definitely have an advantage over anyone who’s coming right out of law school/library school who doesn’t have that.

Another thing I’m finding out is that either jobs are scarce in New York, or people hang on to their jobs forever so there are never any openings, and if there are any openings, they’re not advertised.  But I’m very willing to relocate, at least within reason (like, I don’t want to get stuck somewhere with miserably hot weather, lots of fundamentalists, and no city life as compensation).  I’ve also been told this is a terrible year to be looking because nobody who was ready to retire can afford to now that their 401(k)s have crashed, so they’re staying put, which means nobody else can move up, which means the entry-level jobs don’t open up.

Hope springs eternal, though, and I’m headed to the AALL annual meeting next weekend in the hopes of at least networking if not actually snagging a few interviews.  Got my suit, got my reasonably-priced hotel not far from the convention site, working on getting business cards, and my shoes are in the mail.

Making another boat payment for the vets

Published at May 27, 2009 in Kitties and Life with pets. 7 Comments

So Miss Sugarplum is having Health Issues again. This time, it’s some kind of abdominal mass that barely shows up in an X-ray but is pushing her intestines and stomach out of the way (and is thus responsible for the vomiting and diarrhea she’s had lately; literally, she puked 15 or more times today and I suspect she’s been barfing when I’m not around, though I don’t want to ask what happens to the stuff that doesn’t just dry onto the floor). Tomorrow, she goes in for an ultrasound to see what’s what. With luck, it’s a cyst that can be drained. Without luck, it’s a tumor. Either way, it’s $500.

UPDATE:  Well, the mass appears to be neither a cyst nor a tumor but a lipoma, since when it was aspirated, fat came out.  So it’s still there, and she’s on a special diet now, both to get her to lose weight so the lipoma shrinks and because the damn thing is pressing up against her bowels and pancreas, and the vet wants to treat this as an irritable bowel/tetchy pancreas issue as well as a lipoma.   I just bought a case of food, too, but luckily the nice folks at the local pet food store will let me exchange any unopened cans, and I’ll just stock up on Junebug’s food instead.

Oh, and did I mention the mammary tumor?  When she stabilizes, she’ll need to have a mastectomy.   Perhaps the vet can get a skidoo.