Surplus Cats » cats

Meet Karloff & Pangaea

Liz — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:50:09 +0000

Oh hey, talk about surplus cats — we have two new additions:

In which classy cats disapprove of my pjs.

Liz — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:51:23 +0000

Yes, that is a shower curtain featuring photos of real cats in fancy dress.

When I woke up Sunday and headed into the bathroom, it wasn’t until I was seated across from it — you know — that I looked up and noticed that I was being judged harshly by fancy cats. I was quite surprised. Don had been quick to veto this shower curtain choice a few months earlier when I happened across it in a small home store, stating firmly that he would not be mocked by a bunch of jerk cats. The bathroom is no place for the feline uppercrust to vacation. Wiping away tears from hysterical laughter, while being glared at by elderly ladies browsing bins of placemats and teatowels, I let the best shower curtain I’d never even imagined existed slide back into the hanging display between the more standard bathroom theme fare of seashells and sailboats, and forgot all about it. Until Sunday morning.

Don’t think for a minute that Don and I were not meant to be together. This is True Love, my friends.

Feline family planning

Liz — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:49:41 +0000

Our middle cat, Angilas, has some sort of recurring infection that causes the base of his claws to bleed and makes his them brittle and easily split. The vet says this might be caused by a hormonal imbalance and having him neutered might calm things down. (It’s a good idea anyhow, in the event that he ever gets outside.) We took him to the vet yesterday and he was in such a panic about being in the car that he tore his claws out furiously scratching at the carrier door. We didn’t realize what he’d done until we got into the vet’s office and saw his bloody paws and all the claws laying in the bottom of the carrier. I’m amazed at how he was walking all around the exam room, completely lovey-dovey with us, despite his paws and well, being at the vet.

Angilas doesnt like his cone.

Last night we brought him home (minus the kitten-making parts) sporting his new Elizabethan collar, which makes him resemble a big orange satellite dish. He is absolutely miserable and keeps walking backwards trying to get out of it, and getting it caught on everything in his attempts to squeeze himself into tiny closed in spaces under and behind furniture. The vet says he’ll be ok as long as we get all of his antibiotics in him and keep washing his paws — two tasks that aren’t terribly easy to do. Mostly we’ve just got to keep him safe from Charlie who is vicious when she senses weakness. (My little girl!)

Somewhat related — I’ve been thinking about those commercials for Mirena (the intrauterine contraceptive) where they repeatedly mention that it’s for “women who have decided their families are just the right size” as if it isn’t an option for single women who have no children. If you didn’t have friends who work in health care and family planning clinics, you might get the idea from these commercials stressing “married women who already have at least one child” that this is some serious bullshit. If you’ve had bad experiences with doctors in the past telling you that your interest in sterilization is selfish and “what would your parents think? You would deny them grandchildren?” (Yes, yes, I had this happen. While half naked on the exam table no less. AWESOME TIMES!) or the ever-popular “You’ll change your mind!” — you might just change the channel and never give it another thought. This is terrible marketing.

The website isn’t nearly as hardline-sounding:

Mirena® is an estrogen-free intrauterine contraceptive for women who are looking for a contraceptive option to help simplify their lives. It’s for women who have decided their families are just the right size, it’s for expectant mothers to consider after they have had their baby, and it’s for women who aren’t satisfied with their current form of contraceptive. And, it can be removed at any time for a quick return to fertility. Like to keep life simple? Then Mirena® may be right for you. [emphasis mine]

…but how many people are going to even bother going to it after seeing these shitty commercials?

And of course, an IUD truly might not be the best option for you, depending on your situation, but why discourage people from asking about it? My Women’s Health Oracle/Fountain of Educated Lady-Things Advice produced valuable information regarding IUDs making it easier for chlamydia or gonorrhea infections to spread to the uterus, increasing your risk for pelvic inflammatory disease and sterility. If they just said this in the Mirena commercial, instead of going the “this is not for single ladies and by single ladies we mean slutty slutty harlots” route, maybe I wouldn’t want to hurl things at my television whenever I see this ad.

Maybe I am just hyper-sensitive to “subtle” digs against women who want to control their own bodies, but commercials like these just rub me the wrong way.

Last night I dreamed that the vetrinarian asked Angilas if he was positive that his family was the right size.

an excess of newness (and cats)

Liz — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:45:30 +0000

If you’re not reading this via the feed, you might’ve noticed you’ve been redirected to a completely different domain and everything looks different. I switched to a new host and I felt it was time to leave the old name, November Foxtrot Whiskey, to the band that also uses it and find something that would be more personal. If you know me and my crew, you’ll understand Surplus Cats and appreciate the excellent visual that comes with feline excess; rowdy kittens hitting the bottle and getting surly.

After working on/looking at this new layout for several days and I don’t even feel like I can judge it anymore. Plus, I don’t have IE, so hit me with some comments if you do and this looks wonky. Heck, hit me with some comments if you think it looks wonk in any browser. Or hell, let me know if you think it doesn’t look wonky but maybe dumb or terrible or whatever feeling you might have about it. I’m not shy or closed to criticism.

Wonkiness that I am I working on: Weirdness going on with the padding in the left and right image floats. There’s a conflict with the NextGen gallery plugin and the theme. And the new server doesn’t have PHP5 so I’ve had to disable my Lifestream until I can get that taken care of.

Coming later, but probably tomorrow: My review of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977).

A party and a parasite.

Liz — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:10:52 +0000

With Elyse & Jen

Many New Castles and friends, this weekend!

Saturday was a Pittsburgh edition of Drinking Skepchickally, as Elyse, Maria and Jen were in town. It was awesome and I don’t think anyone could even tell I had a migraine. That either means I’ve become so accustomed to them that I’m basically a super hero or perhaps that I was just having such a good time that I was distracted. (Or maybe six New Castles is the magic numbing number.) Maybe a bit of all three leaning mostly towards the excellence of a Skepchick party trumping pain.

bad cat and bad at being a cat.

In a completely unrelated note — Charlie is out of control.

My young adult cat is essentially a puppy. She chews on everything and is always exactly where you do not want her to be. She loves shoes. She loves anything made of paper. She loves to torment the other cats.

And when I look at her I just can’t even get mad anymore. (Funny, at night when I can’t actually see her, I do get mad.) She’s just too adorable to yell or swat at. Maybe there is something to the current buzz about Toxoplasma gondii. If Don and I disappear, please ignore the sweet face and check the contents of Charlie’s belly.

I have always said that if I could chose my own death it would be to be smothered by kittens. Now I just need to invest in a shopping cart and develop my own language and I’ll be on my way.