"I'm just holding it for a friend"

Mandy had a thing for catnip. I guess it was more like Kate Moss' 'thing' for coke, and not the soda kind *zing*. Mewska would act like she really didn't care when the nip came out. Mandy, on the other hand, would do what ever it took to get to the nip.

Mewska would be all like, "trying to get me on the nip just enforces the stereotype, created by the dog organization, that all cats like nip. It's not true, man." She was a strong-minded cat.

However, I came home one day and found both Mandy and Mewska got in the nip. Mandy was no where to be seen, but Mewska showed her true colors.

Killmouski, Mewska Killmouski

I don’t remember her given name, I just remember it did not fit. I think it was something like 'Flower', or 'Hope'. It proved to me that teen aged volunteers should never be able to name the cats....ever...

She was found in St. Cloud and was transferred to St. Paul with her sisters. Her sisters were not in the same room so either they were adopted or, well, taken care of.

Mandy had a new sister, but she hated her. When I brought her home I found out a funny little tidbit about Mandy, she snorts when she hisses. However, it took only a couple days until they were playing together.

The next big problem was the name. She reminded me of a Russian spy and I wanted something with Mew in the name. Her fur pattern looked as if she was a white cat that had a black cloak draped over her. There was even a spot on her chest for a button. To me, that meant Russian spy.

Her fur markings made her a spy, but her attitude helped a lot. There were many times I would turn around and almost step on her. She was sneaky! Hence, Mewska was born. The Killmouski came later after a friend told me about a friend with a Killmouski.

When Annette met Mewska

I started writing the story of Mewska, but realized it takes more than just one post. This is Mewska part I.

I got my Dotty when I was 7 years old. She was a ‘I’m sorry your Dad and I are getting a divorce, so here’s a cat!’ present. I picked her because she was different from the other cats. She really didn’t care to impress me, she was just herself.

It took me days to finally pick her name. I remember talking to my Dad about her and he asked what she looked like. I said, “she has a lot of dots.” There after she was named Dotty Linda (her given name) Buttons (what my sister wanted to name her) Hanley.

Dotty was never spayed. We didn’t have the money and she was an indoor cat. She died in 2006 from cancer. Cancer, that was 80% more likely because she was never spayed. From that point on I vowed to take better care of my pets.

It took me a couple months to adopt Mandy. I walked around for hours until I found her. She was cowered in the back of her cage, but the second I put my hand in there, she came out. Her previous owner abused her and kept her in a closet and she had nothing better to do then rub her hair off. She was gross.

I never intended on getting a second cat, but Mandy would keep me up at night wanting to play. I had to give her a friend because I was going to be a better cat owner.

When I went back to the humane society, I had an idea of what I wanted. I needed a cat a couple years old and she had to be small. I wanted someone Mandy would play with, but wouldn’t get too big.

I was just about to give up when I went back into a communal cat room. I accidently kicked the top of a cat box that was detached and I realized something was in there. Inside I found a little tuxedo mew. I picked her up and fell in love.

Bathroom...part 2

The bathroom was one of the things that made me not want to buy the house. It was gross. Gross-a-la-gross. The sink was lop-sided because it molded out. And it smelled like pee. Only when we pulled the floor up did the pee smell go away (I am guessing Fernando and his friends did pee in the sink.)

After a lot of work I finally finished the bathroom. Now it is very nice. Not perfect, but nice. The tub is too shallow and I don't like the layout. However, I am happy with it not looking like a 3rd world-country bathroom.

I had to do a lot to make it some place people would want to pee:
- New sink
- Remove glass shower doors
- New floor (since the sub-floor is pretty bad we went with cheap tile)
- Paint storage area
- New storage area above the toilet
- Paint vanity.

My neighbors will hate me...

Right after one of the biggest snow storms, we decided to go out. Beth was at a bar near the house so Mike, Kari and Kassi bit at the idea of hanging out in NE MPLS. When Holly came home from work, she was interested in coming, but still needed to get ready. That meant that we had some time between her getting ready and my friends coming over.

Upon learning that Holly was coming, Kari needed to clean out her back seat. The day before they went sledding and had sleds in the back seat. The natural reaction was to sled down the large hill in front of my house....at 10 at night...

Long story short, we ended up drinking way too much at the bar. At some point we were shoving ice-cubes down each other's shirts. Then I made out with a 22 year old. Good times, good times...

THEY...ARE...GONE..

I don't 100% know how I feel about this. The economy is crap and so many people are losing their homes. It is really sad, especially when there are children involved.

I have been complaining about my neighbors across the street since I moved in. They would hangout on the street until all hours of the night during the summer. They had two dogs, one pit bull in the back and a small yappi dog in the front. When they would get picked up, they would honk the horn over and over and over and over.

I came home a couple days ago and say a for-sale sign in the front. I was super excited because I thought it would only be a couple more months of them. They would probably sell by the summer! Then I realized that the lights were out and no one shoveled for days. Then I was sad again. They got foreclosed on and had three children.

Once I got over feeling bad, I checked to see if it was already listed. It was! I could not believe they actually were asking 150K for the place. Plus, the place looks really small, but is 4 bedroom and 2 bath.

It said "Great neighborhood! A block from St. Anthony and many parks. Place needs many updates". Yeah, I live in a good neighborhood! Now even better.

A few days later I came home and the neighbor was shoveling. I asked about the place. I guess the people living there were renting and couldn't make the rent so the owner was going into short sale. That made me feel a little better.

71 visitors!

I checked my Google analytics and there has be 71 visits. I am guessing 20 of those have been my pseudo mom, auntie Shelly. That still leaves about 50 people. Wow, people area actually reading this blog.

So some people warm their socks up against the heater. Not me, I warm my cats so when I want to pet them, they are warm.