Meandering Maunderings

So I'm sitting on the couch with a Sasha-bear curled up in my lap, purring softly, her chin warm as it rests on my leg. I need something that isn't within immediate arm reach. Clearly I couldn't disturb her. Luckily this dilemma was easily solved as there was a husband also sitting on the couch. He kindly agreed to get me the item I needed.

As he was handing it to me, Sasha woke up suddenly and needed to leave my lap immediately!

And the item I wanted wasn't even the FURminator...

Twelve years ago today I dragged my Elder Brother J with me to Midland County Animal Control. They had featured a quartet of kittens in the newspaper the day before, and I wanted to go take a look at them. A look, that's what I had said. For some reason, Elder Brother J didn't believe that's all I had planned. This may have had something to do with the kitty carrier in the back seat. I can't be sure.

We got there, I looked. Four kittens had been abandoned, I was told that they were eight weeks old, but they were really closer to six. There was the all grey one, two grey (or possibly black my memory is fuzzy) and white ones, and a little tortishell kitten. The Torti was quite shy, and avoided any attempts I made to make friends. The two grey/black and whites were very vocal, and both were more interested in biting my fingers than in letting me pet them. The little grey one was quieter, and licked my fingers. There was a part of me that thought that I should take the shy Torti home with me, but I wasn't quite sure that I was in the proper place in my life to really work at bringing a shy cat around. The little grey kitten came home with me. On the ride back to my parents's house (to drop off the brother) before heading to the apartment I shared with my sister, Sasha got her name.

Here she is on the day I brought her home:


See? Resistance was futile! I had no choice. The very next day she went to the vet and we discovered that she weighed all of 1 lb exactly. She was also covered with fleas. We took care of that, dosing both her and my sister's cat- and we managed to ward off a major infestation. Oh, and sister's cat- NOT happy about the little grey intruder. When I brought her home Liska hissed at her, later that evening Sasha was in my room, and I was in the living room talking to my sister and Liska hissed at ME. It took a bit of time for the older cat to get used to having a kitten around. Especially when the kitten got older and somehow managed to overturn the papasan chair on top of Liska. I'm still not sure how a couple pounds of kitten managed that, but on more than one occasion we would come home to a trapped Liska. Liska did try to blame the 'eating of the flowers' on Sasha, which worked once, the second time was a bit harder for her to carry off, what with a flower dangling from her mouth...

Sasha tricked me too. See, she stopped being relatively quiet. That first night home she discovered her voice, and really hasn't shut up for long since. She's a cat with a lot to say, and will carry on conversations with me (and the hubby). For that matter, until we lived with him I had no idea that Sasha had such strong political views... She does, and will carry on at length about them. They say that cats have the ability to make 100 different vocalizations. I'm pretty sure Sasha knows most of them. Oh, and those first few nights with her were interesting- apparently my eyes did this moving thing (you know, that REM stage of sleep), Sasha thought it her duty to pounce on anything that moved. Yeah. That was fun.

It seems impossible that twelve years have passed since that first day. I look back and I'm just amazed at everything she and I have been through together. We've had multiple human roommates, and animal ones. Some she got along with really well, and others she really, really didn't care for. Through it all she's been my little Grey Girl, the Grey Ghost, Queen of the Shoe People. My Sasha.

At twelve she's a grumpy ole lady cat. Healthy as can be, aside from her fur having the tendency to mat if you look at her funny. She's feisty, not hesitating to go after Kyle when he gets out of line. She's incredibly loving, on her terms, and will insist at length that it's time for her to get the attention due to her. If you try to stop petting her before she's ready, she will grab your arm and bring it back to her, generally while yelling at you. At night she's an excellent ankle warmer, as she drapes herself over them to sleep.

She's my little girl, my college graduation gift to myself, and I love her dearly. That little baby kitten grew up to be a gorgeous lady cat.

Waaaay back on September 22, 1997 I brought home ( This )

She weighed all of 1 lb and was guessed to be 7-8 weeks old by the County(I adopted her from Midland County Animal Control) and the vet suggested more like 5 weeks old... She was the most beautiful ball of grey fluff.

However, I quickly learned that when I saw the ( mohawk ) it was time to worry, because Sasha was about to go batshit crazy...

It's been an adventurous eleven years- we've been to many places, with many roommates, and many roommate's pets. Through it all, it's been Sasha and me. My queenly, cuddly baby girl. She's very sure on when it's time to be cuddled, and when it's NOT the appropriate time. She's an expert on the proper amount of exertion for the task.

Sasha was my graduation from college gift to myself. The first cat that was really 'mine' (Alex, the cat I forced my parents to adopt when I was 13 quickly became my mom's cat). As my roommates found out when I began to visit lazycatsteve over weekends, Sasha was quite attached and would attempt to escape to find me.

The first time I drove with her up to Haslett to see our future apartment- I had a doe commit suicide on my car. I'm convinced that she was despondent because men were in the woods with bows and arrows trying to kill her. As I sat in the drivers seat, trying not to panic, Sasha's purrs rumbled through thr car interior. I'm not really sure if she was trying to console herself or me, but I know what the romantic part of me says. ;) She took to this apartment, and my future hubby, quite well. Though I'm still not sure if she's totally forgiven my for Leo and Kyle.

As a kitten she was all voice and energy. There were flying lessons at night when she tried to attack my eyelids for moving... Her racing around the apartment tormenting my older sister's cat Liska. As she's gotten older she's gotten a bit cranky, set in her ways. When the boys get too rambunctious she's quick to lay the smacketh down on Kyle (Leo just doesn't listen).

We have our routines, and she's quick to tell me what's on her mind... at length. And I love that, I love my little grey girl. :) We've had eleven years together, and I hope we have many many more, with bigger adventures still waiting for us.

And here she is now, with ( her friends )

Michigan weather is doing it's thing- which means for the second day in a row I woke up with a migraine. Zomig to the rescue! Feeling much better now, but so tired! I did NOT sleep well last night, and in addition to the migraine I woke up grumpy.

Okay, so I had a mini-meltdown last night right at bedtime. I told hubby I just wanted to have a good cry. He told me to go ahead if I wanted and that he would hold me. (Do I have a great guy or what?) I didn't want to, really, because that leads to stuffy noses and headaches. But I ended up doing so anyway. And of course ended up with a stuffy nose and headache. There was one plus- after I quieted hubby realized he forgot to set coffee up for this morning...

I tend to cry when I get frustrated. And I've had several little frustrations pile on top of each other and... yeah, hello tears! I think I got most of it out of my system last night. A 'good cry' can be cathartic. So no worries about me- I'm better now (though first thing this morning... not so good. ;) ).

Not sleeping well, and migraine meds added together make for a sleepy kitty. Good thing lunch is coming up- I may be able to snag a 15 minute nap. For some reason they have a problem with me doing these things at work. I don't get it. ;)


In other, positive news, I'm actually feeling writing creative again, this is a big plus. The Chris/Claire story has much to do with that. I've been focusing more on Claire lately (as those who read sashegrey have seen) so it may be time to give Chris some attention. Though should that be Chris from before or after? (this makes sense if you're me. ;) )

Hmm, hubby starts a three-evenings-in-a-row work series tonight. This means I won't see much of him this weekend. Which is never happy making. I may have to wander to the bookstore or internets cafe and do some writing on Saturday (so as to not disturb his sleeping).

Sasha was also being adorable last night. She kept trying to get in between hubby and I (while we were trying to cuddle) so SHE get get her share (and then some) of the attention. Being told no didn't bother her at all, she didn't listen, but that's to be expected. ;) Eventually we did have to kick her off the bed because biting and grabbing hands is not an appropriate way of 'requesting' affection. She did eventually forgive us.

So how's things by all of you?

Right then, so I go to get the mail today and see that the post office tried to deliver a package to me... I wasn't expecting anything so- Mystery Package! Neat. :) Who doesn't love a mystery package?

The only thing is that It's addressed to Anne 'Maiden Name' not Anne 'Married Name' so I'm all kinds of confused. Here I am trying to figure out who has my mailing address, but doesn't know my married name? I'll find out tomorrow when I go to pick it up. But I'm quite curious.



On a totally unrelated note, here's yet another way we know Sasha is MY cat. We have two dining room chairs that we tend to use (The other is a coat stand / stuff catcher). Sasha likes to sleep on the two chairs we do have- especially when one of us gets up (warm that way). When the hubby returns and sees that she's taken his chair he tries to move her, and she yells and digs her claws into the chair mat. There have actually been times when he simply uses the other chair in order to not have to fight her. Me? (this just happened) I come back from say the bathroom, see she's on my chair. So I move the other chair, call her name, and if I'm lucky she'll get up and jump to the other chair. If not so lucky I have to pick her up to move her- but she doesn't yell or dig claws in. *laughs* Apparently Sasha has decided that she has seniority over DH....

Well, she HAS been in my life longer than he has....

Except it's not, but it is and...

Yeah, very, very tired. Was up early yesterday and then stayed up very late. I had to finish my application, resume modification, and cover letter for the library job. Husband insisted. For which I am quite grateful (all had to be in to the library by 5 pm today). This was all done by 1 am (mostly because up until the evening I had procrastinated and didn't have much done), when the panic tried to set in- my new sexy Dylan does not have the right bits to connect to my printer! So there could be no printing. Hyperventilating may have taken place were the husband not there to keep me calm. In the end the final decision was for me to load things onto my flash drive and print the documents out at work. This was accomplished and the materials faxed in! :) So yay. Sleepy yay, but yay nonetheless.

Yesterday was also a trip to the parents' house with Good Dog Kyle. He quite impressed my parents with his gentleman-like behavior. :) He was also pretty good in the car, it took him awhile to settle down in the backseat, and we'll likely buy him a seat belt harness thing, but for yesterday he was fine. Fairly exhausted when we got home too, not so much that he didn't sneak his treats out of my purse... See, we brought some treats with us, and then didn't give him all of them. After we got home he pulled the baggie from my purse and into his crate he went to eat them all. Brat. At least the remains were in his crate. So far that's really the only thing he's done 'wrong' I think I can live with this.

In cat news- there's much improvement. :) Pan Cat is back. Which really, really made the hubby and I happy. Leo is still skittish around Kyle, but he's not just hanging out in his room anymore. He's taken his meal-time place on the organizer again- also a relief. So all around things are just calming down bit by bit. Not bad for Kyle only having been there one week. :)

Have I mentioned I'm really, really tired today? Oh, and it's Monday- right?

Oh! jiffjenn, Princess Sasha wanted me to pass along her thanks for the very lovely gift you sent her. The image on the backdrop is completely to her liking. ;) In fact- she wouldn't even let Leo play with the outer box the prezzie came in!

So thank you! It's great. :)