Drat this working for a living all to heck.

... since Christmas, and it feels like a millions years.

We had the big cold - several days where the nights got down to minus 31 C, and the days never got higher that -14 C.

Then we had All The Snow - about 17 days of lots of deep fluffy snow, because it started while the cold was still cold though warming.

And the last four days have been Rains in Africa Got Nuthin' On Us. We need the moisture, and I like rain more than I like snow, and it is doing a nice job of melting away packed snow from roadways and stuff. But it is definitely A Lot.

The girls both viewed outdoor temps of any kind below -5 C as not meant for tender toes. Towards the end of The Cooping Up, Suzi was getting a little crazy, and she would make mad little runs out the door hoping to fool the cold into missing her - and then she would turn around and zoom back in. Maggie would stand way back inside where toes could be warm, and sniff the air with disdain and saunter away while we waited for Suzi to admit defeat were dafrozen.

Both girls are going out for all the rain. The deck is covered, and they have secret places, but even so their fur has a dampness when they return. They had a bit of a thrill on the second day of rain when enough rain had fallen to unstick the snow on my roof and cause/allow it to slide slowly and rumblingly off the roof to the east. It was very noisy and ominous, and Maggie ran around the house doing her best Chicken Little.

Current forecasts are for more rain and more above zero C temperatures, but we will see. There is always at least one more hurrah of some kind around Valentines Day, and possibly more after that.

I haven't unpacked my suitcase for my trip to Penticton.

One less thing to worry about while I consider ways to stuff two outdoor enthusiasts into boxes and bring food and litter for them. Gotta catch'em all. (Hoo boy - Maggie is *not* going to come willingly.)

Suzi goes out every night at dusk and hunts voles. I know she does because she leaves whole voles, half voles and vole stomachs on my doormat. Ugh. She is a natural hunter because she never eats the stomachs of her catches, where the parasites congregate.

This means I need to sweep off my mat every day before anyone comes to the door, because *nobody* looks for vole guts when visiting. Yes: ew ew ew.

On the other hand - there hasn't been even one rage barf since she started being allowed to go out when she asks. This I count as a plus. I'll even count sweeping vole parts as a step up in cat servitude.

Maggie is so different.

Suzi growls ferociously if Maggie is near when she is eating a vole, but Maggie wouldn't touch a vole, not even with a fancy vole poking stick. Ew, really, *who* actually eats those? Maggie's idea of a good time is sitting in the driveway, elbows up, ears on the swivel, watching everything.

Now I *do* have a dilemma.

My next door neighbour tells me that her grandchildren have recorded the voices of two owls in our neighbourhood, and at least one of them is a great horned owl - which can carry off small children, never mind tiny headstrong little cats.

Owls hunt at night.

I mean: given the number of voles Suzi is bringing home, owls would be crazy to pass up this territory.

I'd like to think that Suzi is smart enough to avoid becoming lunch, but, well, there's this whole push/pull thing on doors which she hasn't mastered. I am hoping it is not lack of ability, but that she really believes that brute force is quicker and more fun.

Oh ... darn.

I have created a really adorable monster.

Maggie started life as an unwanted kitten that was abandoned at a very rural farm in the hills. She must have been mistreated previously because she was very hard to catch, even though she was living under the farmer's porch. (And getting fed by them so they could catch her.)

There is a local animal rescue (Shuswap Paws Rescue Society), and once Maggie was caught, she was fostered out to the sweetest young woman, who named Maggie, and really helped Maggie become calmer. Then I adopted Maggie and learned what she likes and doesn't like.

Dislikes. No holding, cuddling, lap sitting, or other confining affections. No two-handed petting (because you could sneakily grab her). No leaning over her. No loud voices or wild arm gestures which appear to be directed at her (broad definition of "at").

Likes: Petting. All the petting. Especially the head, but even the belly is okay if she flops down and wriggles around (which she does a lot once she feels safe) (I'm seated on the bed, so there is no looming over her). To yell at you (I'm pretty sure there is some very vocal siamese in her background) when it is time for dinner, or petting, or something she can't quite articulate. Sleeping in the heating-pad-enhanced box between the window and the computer. Getting her ears washed by Suzi.

Unlike Suzi, Maggie initially expressed no interest in going outside. Warm, dry, fed, pets as wanted - what more could a cat want?

Well, you know from my reports that Suzi has been a maniac for getting out right from the get go. Once Suzi had escaped, and was outside investigating the foundations of the trailer, Maggie's need to go out was piqued. I don't say "interest" because her first motivation wasn't for the outside itself, but rather to go and protect Suzi - and bring her back inside.

So, whenever Suzi escaped, I would let Maggie out, too, so she could keep tabs on Suzi. Since we are in the no-bug season, I left the door ajar so that Maggie could run in and out if she wished. Suzi rarely wants inside once she is out, but Maggie loves to run in and out, having a snack, checking on me, checking on Suzi.

So. You know I had been letting them out twice a day, then reduced it to once a day in the evening. This has been going so well for Maggie that she has begun to follow me around all day, yelling about how the door isn't open, and what kind of a crummy joint is this, anyway; and so on.

If only they would leave the birds alone[1], I would let Maggie stroll in and out 24/7. I would even install a catflap (because bugs). Oh well. I am enjoying our conversations.

[1] - "if only the cats wouldn't cat"

I have the same intensity of feeling as Edna Mode has about capes.

Suzi went out, caught a mouse, and brought it in to kick its last on the rug. Ten minutes, from out the door to gack.

I used a paper towel to pick it up by the tail, and fling it outside, where both cats followed.

Yes, I am letting Maggie and Suzi out every day, at least twice. Once while sunny and F-ing freezing, and once while dark and even-more-F-ing freezing. I know I am storing up trouble for summer, but Suzi was tearing the house apart. She chewed a hole in the little zippy make-up case I use for tweezers and whatnot. I think she ate the missing bit.

I have long since stopped bringing in plants or cut flowers. Hah. Nothing is safe - she can open drawers and cupboards. Double hah.

So. Now I need to check lips before opening the final door. (Big door and screen door.)

No mice!

Well. Today was a day.

I had an in-person doctor's appointment to meet my new physician and get my prescriptions lined up again. I realize how incredibly lucky I am. My Mom snuck me in with her doctor when we moved to Salmon Arm, and then she, when she retired, divvied us up between the other doctors in her practice.[1] Super duper lucky, me.

So, in my normal angst about an appointment (will I wake up in time, will I rant idiotically, will I forget something, will I be rebuffed by fat phobia[2], blah blah blah), I was not paying close enough attention to my knee and I fell. It was very odd. I was in the process of standing up and then I was sitting on the floor. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think my knee (right) gave way. So I skootchied along the floor to the door and out across the front stoop to the steps where I stood up by pulling myself up.

The girls danced across my downed body while I was going through the door, and, once in the driveway, smirked furrily.

So, I got myself inside and closed the door on the traitors and went to have my shower. The two miscreants were still prancing around the yard - well, really, Suzi was prancing around the yard, and Maggie had already gone into hiding - when I was ready to leave - So I Left Them Outside.[3]

Doctor's appointment was okay, and I gave in and asked to have my knees investigated for help. I have an xray requisition. I have been reluctant to ask for help for two reasons.

One is the weight. I know that, if the answer is knee replacement, I will be asked to lose weight. I was put on my first diet before I could walk and I have never been successful, so I expect this to be distressing and not productive.

The other reason is that I also have knock knees. I was born with them and was given special shoes to push my ankles together when I started walking, and they were pretty successful - but my ankles never ever touched. I fear that the new inserts will be for straight up and down legs, not legs where the forces are at an angle, and that this may cause the bone in which the inserts are placed to crumble. My fear of this is based on the one and only crown tooth I was given, which was one-size fits nobody, and which hurt the whole time it was in my mouth[4] (yes, I asked, yes, they fiddled, but they were exasperated), and which popped off the insert stem, was reattached, and then finally the stem broke out of my tooth root shell. If the knee insert breaks out of the bone and causes it to crumble - what will I be left with? Argh.

Anyway. I did some grocery shopping (I haven't felt well enough to do that for *ages*), took my winter coat in to be dry cleaned (definitely pongy) and came home.

Suzi was waiting uncomfortably on the stoop steps. It was sunny today, but cold (7 C with icy breeze). However, she couldn't just come in, oh no, she had to run around the yard with her tail up squeaky meowing. Eventually she came in, but there was no sign of Maggie. I called a couple times, and I think because I was obviously in the house, Maggie came and cried at the door and I let her in.

Both girls crashed and snored the rest of the afternoon - and are still sleeping.


[1] - this is the province where a woman in Victoria put an ad in the paper looking for a doctor to prescribe her husband's medication after his doctor retired. Family doctors are that thin on the ground.

[2] - has happened to me. May that doctor's digital interface fade to grey every time she touches it.

[3] - I felt bad, but not bad enough.

[4] - I have deeply dimpled teeth, and the crown was not crevassed enough for my meeting tooth to fit in the tooth trough. Tried to explain - it should have been bloody obvious just from looking - but humph humph humph, it was too much trouble to fix.[5]

[5] - and really, my deeply troughed teeth are obvious, and the right kind of crown should have been ordered, but oh no medical father knows best struck again. I am worried that I won't be able to get the knee specialist to take my worries seriously - or to even *listen* to why I am worried.

The girls escaped the day before yesterday (translation: Suzi escaped and then I opened the door for Maggie), and had the best time ever ever ever. They were in disbelief that it didn't happen again yesterday, and are sulking around the house today.

In other news - I am feeling human again. I *think* I know what the issue is/was with my back. I believe it was my intestines (full complement) objecting to being underfed and underwatered while I was really really ill with the flu-thing. Without going into gruesome detail, once I started getting things regular again, the pain subsided (mostly), and when in desperation I bought a pound of fresh ginger and began drinking strong ginger tea, things improved much much more.

It does mean that anything that has ever given me restaurant-tummy is 100% more effective at doing so, so very very careful food selection is required, or back we go. No little tastes, either (my cousin had a blue-cheese steak salad, and it was soooo good (and soooo bad)).

It is soooo good not to be in pain (knees don't count).

So, I left the doors and windows open again last night, and something else snuck in and regretted its impulse.

Actually, to start with, I cleaned up barfed mouse, so there was that.

Then in the middle of last night, I woke up to Suzi chasing something around and growling. I think she was growling to keep Maggie away. She was so focused on her growling that she actually did one of those backward snorts as she drew breath to continue growling.

I went back to sleep (I never let any blankets/sheets/whathaveyou hang over the edge of the bed, so the likelihood of the chase crossing my face is slim). I woke up this morning to Maggie being sent off with a flea in her ear by Suzi who thought she had cornered something in the cold room.

So far no barfed mouse. There has been enthusiastic paint removal where they *think* the mouse may have gone.

The air is still so nice that I am going to chance the doors and windows again. ;)

So. Jailbreak Baby escaped last night while I was bringing in groceries. Fortunately it was minus 6 C, so her tender toes brought her in after 30 or so minutes. She was very happy with herself, and once she was warmed up again, she yodelled at the door for a while.

This morning I went out to put the bird seed out before my brain was engaged, and yes, she pranced through the door. She didn't go far, but it was more than an hour before she gave in and came in. Again, it was minus 4 C, so every surface was most inhospitable.

I am going to have to build a catio come spring, or I will never get my groceries inside.

Here's our smug girl: