Not quite bedmates…

We’re still trying to come up with a name for our newest addition.  Everything we’ve come up with so far just doesn’t suit her personality.
She’s an adventurous, feisty little bundle of love, with a purr so loud you can hear it across the room.  She just doesn’t have a name yet.  Nor does she have a close relationship with Oliver, our other cat yet.
While they’re no longer sitting at opposite ends of the house from each other, they’re not quite sharing the same lap or cushion yet.  Well not without being held in place, and a whole lot of spitting and hissing.

Matilda was the latest name thrown into the pot, along with:

• Willow
• Lily
• Roxy
• Galena (a silver grey crystal)
• Pantone 643 (Blue Grey) *laugh*

We’re completely stumped, hopefully something will come to us soon, in the meantime she’s been sharing herself between Mark’s and my laps.  She’s such a little lover that she takes turns with each of us.  Oliver’s still getting lots of attention and treats, but he’s making it very clear that he is not amused.  Not even remotely amused.

Hopefully in another couple of days they’ll be best of friends, and she’ll have a name.

Any suggestions are still welcomed.

Quandary!

After spending a day with our new little girl “Annie”, we’ve decided an “Annie” she most definitely is not.  She’s a lovely little girl, all kisses, smooching, kneading and purring, but most definitely is not an Annie.

That leaves us where we were yesterday afternoon.  Nowhere, as far as names are concerned.

So if you’ve any suggestions, I’d be more than happy to accept them, because right now I’m drawing a blank.

Anyway, it’s feeding time in the zoo, best go sort out the beasties!

I present to you…

Consensus has been reached.

As it turns out, I’d selected the name “Annie” for a new female addition to the house way back on September 7; Another sighting.  Only I’d forgotten.

This afternoon in the car while driving home from collecting her, Mark came up with Anastasia, a Russian Princess.  She’s a Russian Blue, and is already ‘Daddy’s Princess”.

Mum also suggested Annie.

So, as of this evening our new furry daughter formerly known as Gracie-Alice, is now “Annie”.  For formal occasions, and to appease Mark her stage name is Anastasia.  Everyone’s happy.

We now have Oliver, and Annie.  Two little orphans made good.

Now they’re just going to have to learn to love each other.

Speaking of Oliver, he’s pretty damn special himself.  Recently Mark submitted a photo of him (Oliver) for a fundraising calendar.  The calendar will raise funds for the Forget Me Not Animal Shelter of Ferry County.  Oliver’s photo was accepted.

Oliver, my eldest kitty, who’ll be 4 next month, is now Mr July for 2009.

Let the accolades roll in.  😉

Hooroo!

The family has grown…

We decided back in August after Mulder was killed that we’d get Oliver a new “sibling”.  That acquisition got postponed somewhat.  There were a couple of reasons.  Primarily, that I was going to be out of the country for a month, and that we’d just bought a house and wanted to have moved in to the new house before introducing another pet.  This last one was more to ensure that neither cat had a chance to stake out any territory before being introduced to each other.

Well today was that day.

I woke up insanely early this morning, and not being able to get back to sleep, decided to search online for a sibling for Oliver.  There were literally dozens to choose from.  We’d been tossing around the idea of another Burmese, perhaps a Siamese, and even a Russian Blue.

This morning I found two Russian Blue’s online.  One a 10 month old boy, and the other a 6 month old girl.  I emailed both advertisers detailing my interest.  Only one of them got back to me.  The owner of the little girl.

Daddy now has a princess!

Her addition to our family was apparently destined.  Her name is Gracie.  My Mum’s name is Grace.  On the way there, because I don’t like the idea of my cat being named after my Mum.  No offense Mum, but it’s just weird.  I tossed up the name of “Alice” instead.  Not seriously, but I put it out there.

After a good two hours in the car driving to meet our new little girl, we finally arrived and were introduced.  She’s gorgeous, and a complete little lover.  Affectionate, lively, let me roll her on her back, and play with her claws and teeth.  All things I want my cats to allow me to do, as it makes Veterinary checks so much easier.
While I was talking to her current (at the time) owner, I found out that she (the lady) and her boyfriend, had argued over what to name the cat.  Each of them wanting a different name.  The outcome of that argument…

She was named Gracie Alice.  It was meant to be.

Of course, that won’t be her name for long.  We’ve not long arrived home and allowed Oliver to meet her through the door of the cat cage.  They both hissed at each other, but I expected nothing less.
Oliver’s now sitting at my feet, ensuring that I know that he owns me, while little (for now) Gracie Alice, is having dinner in the bathroom, which has just recently been temporarily converted into her bedroom.  She has her own bowls, new bed, new litter tray and a scratching post.

The next few days are going to be fun, but I don’t think it’ll be too long until Oliver accepts his new sister, and his life is restored to luxury with the input of someone to wash his ears, and ears for him to wash in return.

We’re still stuck on ideas for names though.  Some of the options so far have been, Nancy (Oliver reference), Lacey (rhymes with Gracie, all other rhyming names have since been dismissed), Stoli (Vodka brand), and a few others I can’t think of.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Okey dokey, better get going and check out how my newly enlarged brood is going.

Cheers!

Thanksgiving Mk III

Today was our third Thanksgiving in America, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun.

We spent the day with our good friends Tom and Brad, had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, accompanied by a great bottle of wine, then spent the afternoon together playing games, of course, accompanied with more wine.

Awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there that celebrate it, and thanks again Brad and Tom for a great day!

Another box checked

I finished moving the last of our items out of the old house today.  Last night was a late night cleaning, and today the professional cleaners came to finish off.  I left them the shower and the floors.
I’m generous like that.

Their comment to me, “In 8 years of cleaning, we’ve never been to a house this clean.”
Yay for me!  If the landlord makes even one comment I’ll slap him so hard he’ll have to insert his toothbrush in his ass to clean his teeth.

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, so food a plenty, Friday will be the carpet cleaning at the old house, followed by inspection with previously mentioned landlord, then hand over the keys, and continue on with my life.

Yay!

Right now though, I’m going to have a glass of wine and have an early night, relaxing in front of the television.

Cheers!

Almost nearly…

The old house is almost a thing of the past.  I spent the entire day there today like a whirling dervish of cleaning.  The entire place smells like a swathe of (mostly environmentally friendly) cleaning products.

I’ve also transported a large majority of the remaining items to the new house, and this evening with the help of Mark we removed the last items from the house.

The only things remaining are in the garage, all securely locked away until morning where I’ll relocate them for what will hopefully be the last time for a while.

I’m also pretty glad that I got the lawns all mowed yesterday when I did, as from the moment I finished until pretty much early this evening it’s rained, and more rain is forecast.  My timing was pretty good.

So that’s about it.  I’ve worked my butt off, literally and figuratively.  All this effort has been in place of going to the gym, I’m not so mad that I’ll do both right now.  Besides, my back is pretty sore, and I think I can safely say that for someone with a herniated disk I’ve sort of over done the physical aspect of things lately.

Oh, I also made a new friend today.  A fellow Aussie, Marilyn, who works for Invisible Fence a company that makes solutions for ensuring your pets stay within the boundaries of your property.

Now though, I’m home for the evening, fresh from a nice hot shower, blogging away merrily with the cat on my lap, monkey pj’s on, and a nice hot cup of tea.  Civilised if I do say so myself.

Until next time.  Hooroo!

Back in the loop!

That is, we have Internet, phone and television again.  It’s nice to have a connection to civilisation again that’s not pilfered.  Eg:  Unsecured wireless Internet.  Thanks neighbours!

The day started too early for my liking with a session at the gym, followed by some unpacking, Physical Therapy, then the rest of the afternoon finalising the yard work in the old house, and in doing so, undoing all the good work from Physical Therapy.  At least it’s done now.
One less job to worry about.

Still a few things to finalise there before we hand over the keys and close that chapter.  Not too soon either.

Otherwise, it’s too damn cold here, I predict snow in the next four week, it’s already frosting over now that the sun’s gone down, and each morning for the last few days, the car has been icy and the lawns frosty.

Brrr!

Only 12 and a bit more weeks until I’m back in Australia again!  Yay!

Another busy day

I’m still making progress on the unpacking front, but there’s still a few items, such as a majority of our clothes and all the food still at the old place that need to be collected and moved to the new place, and the final clean, and lawn mowing to be done.

It’ll be nice to finally be out and able to wipe my hands of the place.  The landlord is up to his usual “stupidness” again.  This time he’s issued us with a new cleaning list to be performed and signed before we leave.  My thoughts, aside from the fact the house will be clean anyway, as I’m pretty thorough, and have already booked a cleaning team and professional carpet cleaners to come through, is that he can jam it.  Anything he has for us now, is in addition to the lease we signed and not relevant.
We also discovered today that he’s advertised an Open House on the last day of our tenancy without consulting with us.  Admittedly we’ll be out, but technically we’ve paid rent for that day.
We’ve since contacted him, told him it’s unacceptable.  Had it been one inspection, no problem.  But a four hour open house…  No chance.  We’re getting a days rent refunded, although apparently he believes he’s being generous.
I’ll be so glad this time next week when it’s all over.

Back to this house.  I fenced off half of the yard today to ensure the dogs can’t escape through the holes in the fence.  They’ve been bathed, and groomed, their bed washed and bedding replaced, and they’re now happily in residence at their new home.  The whole family is back together.

Better go, have to get some more stuff done in readiness for gym in the morning.  We’ll also finally have the house phone, cable television and Internet connected – YAY!

Hooroo!

Piggyback surfing

Today is day 2 in our new home, and so far, so good.  The dogs are spending a second night at the old house, but spent the afternoon with us, inclusive of being taken shopping.

Oliver is starting to settle in to his new abode, and I believe is enjoying it more than the previous one as it’s so much easier for him to patrol and maintain his knowledge of my whereabouts.
The only problem so far, aside from having to unpack.  Is that we don’t have any Internet, Phone or Cable Television, and won’t have until Monday.  Urgh!

So far I’ve been using my mobile/cell phone as a connection device, which fortunately doesn’t cost us any extra, it’s just super slow.  Tonight though, I’m being naughty.  I discovered that someone nearby has a wireless connection that’s unsecure.  Tonight, that’s how I’m able to blog.

I’m going to behave myself though, and not abuse it.  Although I must admit I was tempted, if only for a moment, to start downloading movies.  *laugh*
Fortunately for our Internet benefactor, I’m just not that evil.

Or am I?  We were at Home Depot (American Bunnings) tonight to get a few items for the house, when I asked Mark for his opinion on something.  He answered, but was completely oblivious to the fact that I’m not blind and could quite clearly see he was answering but staring blatantly at the guy behind me.
Admittedly, he was worth looking at.  But much to Mark’s horror, I quite loudly told him “I’m over here, stop staring at the guy in the green shirt”…
Poor Mark, he turned bright red and I’m sure wanted the earth to open up and swallow him.  😉

Ok, I’m outta here, I hurt all over, have just had a hot shower and am in my sexy monkey head pajamas, and am going to settle in for the night.

Hooroo!