I realize that “Unintentional Grounding” is not a criminal charge. In fact, it isn’t even a penalty in football, which is actually intentional grounding: “when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion” [via]. But I’m running out of charges so I have to be creative with the episode titles.

Anyway, in this week’s episode of CSI: Cat Scene Investigation, which actually occurred on the morning we left for Iowa, Hee Seop jumped onto the bed to join me. I went to welcome him, then immediately recoiled when I saw that crap on his cheek you see in the picture above — evidence that poor Angelo unwittingly began to dispose of (click on pic for larger image). Brian and I thought our little culprit turned into one of those cats who likes to eat litter — they exist — Google it if you don’t believe me. But based on his previous offenses, we ran into the kitchen and found this:

Oh, relax. They’re just coffee grounds. Apparently, Hee Seop had to get past the coffee filter in order to get to the real treasure: scraped out, leftover cat food, which we know he never got to because paper towels and other debris weren’t strewn all over the floor. And no, this did not cause his stomach flu. That happened over a week later. *sigh* Will he ever stop?

A lot of what you see on my blog I copied from other people’s blogs. For example, I got the Human Calendar from Sheri, my DandyID I got from Robin, and I would love to know what WordPress plugin Megan uses for the Current Photo on her blog. I was using the Photo of the Day Widget but it’s been broken since yesterday. I started using Flickr Widget, which shows your latest uploads, so at least it doesn’t show one of my old hockey pictures every day, but I can’t figure out how to center the thing in the sidebar. *sigh* Oh, well.

Enough of that. Today, in lieu of Friday Cat Blogging, I’d like to tell everyone about Freekibblekat.com, which I got from Robin’s site. It’s a fun little site (see the badge and link in my left sidebar, or click the kitty here on the right) where you’re asked a different cat trivia question each day. Whether or not you answer correctly, 10 pieces of kibble will be donated to 13 different shelters. The program began in Oregon by a 12-year-old girl (figures, right?) and actually started off as a way to help feed homeless dogs. Freekibblecat.com sprouted from that program. On the site there’s a link to feed the doggies, too. Please visit both sites and have fun while helping feed dogs and cats. They have a variety of banners you can place on your own blog. And be sure to tell all your friends about the sites, too!

• It seems that the kitty stomach flu has spread to Angelo because he didn’t eat his breakfast. However, he did eat his second meal today, including the dregs of Hopper and Basil’s leftovers. Hee Seop didn’t eat the special “bad tummy” food, but ate half of his regular food. Hopper seems fine and no one has vomited (that I’ve found).
• I’m feeling a little less exhausted today. I dragged my upstairs neighbor to Starbucks before returning home for my therapist session, so at least I got out of the apartment. Maybe the extra .5mg of Klonopin is easing my anxiety, after all. It’s still too early to tell, though.
• My therapist agreed to a phone session this morning because I was all up in arms about the cats. Anyway, she advised me to let go of the incident yesterday morning, when the desk clerk at the new gym gave me all kinds of bullshit when I canceled my fitness test. I was ready to cancel my membership, but I actually had the insight to ask myself (and my therapist) today: what is rash and what is rational? So I’m letting it go. My therapist said that if it happens again, however, that’s a different story.

  I’m not going to totally go into it but let’s just say that the desk clerk gave me very poor customer service, and I was already upset because of the sick cats and from being absolutely exhausted. If I’m unable to reschedule the fitness test due to their cancellation policy (that the desk clerk was unclear about), then whatever. It’s a free service anyway. But OK, part of me still wants that girl fired.

• I’m looking forward to having a quiet Thanksgiving with Brian, which is our little tradition. He cooks, we eat, we watch football. And probably I’ll play Mafia Wars and lurk on Twitter. And hopefully catch up on blog reading and poem writing.

Wow. What an utterly boring post this is!

My first bullet post!

THE CATS

• We’re still waiting for Hee Seop’s lab results, but his appetite has improved. It isn’t normal, but he’s been eating. Apparently, he has something like the stomach flu. The vet sent us home with i/d, which is easily digestible. When he wasn’t interested in that last night, we gave him some of his usual food but he didn’t care for that either. This morning he ate all of his i/d. Instead of 2 meals a day we’re spreading them out to 4 — same amount as usual, though: a 6-oz. can a day. His stool is still loose but better.
• Unfortunately, Basil had loose stool today and his appetite was down this morning. When Hee Seop showed no interest in his second helping of i/d today (nor in his regular food), Basil ate the i/d. He vomited a little bit late in the afternoon, but that’s not unusual for him. Hopper also vomited a bit, but that isn’t unusual for her, either.
• When we returned home just now someone had diarrhea and didn’t bother to bury it. My first thought was that it belonged to Hopper or Angelo because they have this alpha thing going between them and neither one buries his/her poop. Well, the vet will hear all about it when she calls this evening.

ME

• Meanwhile, I’ve been utterly exhausted all day. I didn’t sleep well. Again. I wonder, too, how much of it has to do with recuperating from vacation. Why is it that Brian, my sister, my brother-in-law — all can go out of town for a weekend and return to work just fine? I really hope that I’m not coming down with anything because I absolutely can’t stand being sick. I’m a baby as it is, but I’m worse when I’m sick.
• Needless to say, I didn’t make it to my fitness test, but I at least made it to my pdoc appointment a little while ago. He thinks that my anxiety is what’s affecting the depression, rather than the other way around, or that the anxiety is a symptom of the depression, during the past few weeks, anyway. So he’s increased my Klonopin from 2mg a night by adding .5mg in the morning. We’ll see how that goes. I’m going to lie down now.

What does that even mean for me? I don’t work and my days consist mainly of being on the computer sending and answering e-mail; Twittering; reading blogs; blogging sometimes (NaBloPoMo doesn’t count); posting silly (and a few not so silly) things on my Tumblr blog, The Insane and Mundane (shameless plug); playing Mafia Wars on FB. When I’m not on the computer I’m reading or watching TV. Once a week I go to therapy. Every 3 or 4 weeks I see my pdoc and there are various other appointments in between.

When I started working out again, I’ve had to rearrange my schedule and that still isn’t ironed out. I’m one of those people who needs routine. I need to know what to do next or at least have an idea or I’m completely lost. Do you have any idea how hard this is when most of what you do is stay home all day?

When we returned from vacation, I dreaded today. It meant that I should have gone back to the gym. All weekend I worried about whether or not I would, though I tried really hard not to. I wish I could just take things in stride. I told myself that I wouldn’t beat myself up if I didn’t make it to the gym today, that I’m still exhausted from our trip and that it’s OK to take a day to relax. Besides, I have a fitness test tomorrow so I’ll be at the gym, then.

But in the middle of the night, Hee Seop threw up, then immediately headed for the litter box and had a bout of diarrhea. This is very unlike him. He rarely throws up, not even hairballs. We were worried, of course, but I’m glad I was able to fall back asleep. Then he didn’t eat his breakfast, which is also not like him. He inhales his food. Something was definitely wrong, so I called the vet and luckily they had openings this morning. It was also an “excuse” not to go to the gym.

He’s still being held for observation and treatment (fluids for dehydration and some anti-nausea meds), though his abdominal x-rays were clear. His labs won’t be back until tomorrow. The vet said that he was the third cat she’d seen today presenting with those symptoms, and that one of the other vets saw 2 others. It could be that something’s going around in the kitty world, which the vet says can happen, but she said it definitely isn’t swine flu, so that’s good. OK, she called it H1N1, but come on, it’s swine flu.

In the meantime, I’m still waiting to hear back from them and trying not to be too anxious. I’m sure he’s fine. He rarely has to go to the v-e-t except for his annual check-up.

In the meantime, I’m worried about whether or not I’ll make it to my fitness test tomorrow.

In the meantime, I still don’t know why I’m so exhausted even though I’m getting plenty of sleep.

In the meantime, I’m worried about how I’m going to fit working out into my daily schedule.

Good thing I see the pdoc tomorrow and my therapist on Wednesday.