Week 7 - Day 45: 37th Day of Dallas County Shelter in Place

There were miracles of a particular kind at my house the last two days straight.

Miracle #1:  After a year in exile, Miss Kitty of her own will, has decided that she can in fact venture beyond the walls of my office.  That story starts almost a year ago exactly when I brought her home from my grandmas house to live with me.  Miss Kitty had been yet another stray that my grandmother took care of.  She was very fond of this one, and I have to say, this cat provided her most excellent company.  As she aged, Miss Kitty became the primary reason my grandmother was so mobile.  Seriously.  She was obsessive about knowing the location of the cat and Miss Kitty was resistant to cooperation, aka coming when she was called.  Their routine went something like this:

MaMa - Call the cat several times
Miss Kitty - Stay where she was unmoving
MaMa - Get the flashlight and get out of her chair
Miss Kitty - Stay in place like a statue
MaMa - Open closet and look while calling
Miss Kitty - Blissfully ignoring

MaMa and me in 2017

MaMa - Get on her knees to look under the bed
Miss Kitty - Stare at the flashlight and sigh
MaMa - Go back to her chair

They did this same routine dozens of times a day. If you were there, you could say, MaMa, she is under the bed - you just looked a few minutes ago.  But inevitably, she would get up to look again.  I do not know how many 99 year olds you know, but I bet not many of them are getting up and down off the floor from their knees dozens of times a day!  

At night time, Miss Kitty always came out and sat in my grandma's lap, sometimes for an hour or more, while MaMa scratched her head as she watched TV.  After my grandmother would go to bed, she would come out and sleep near her knees on the bed with her, and be there when she woke up.  Then it was right back to the game of disappearing to the closet or under the bed for the day, while MaMa sought her out.  Both of my grandmothers cats were good company for her as she aged.  They gave her purpose and companionship.  Whitey died several months before Miss Kitty had to make a change of homes.  She was very ferrell and very attached to only my grandmother, so that was probably for the best.

Whitey (on the bed) and Miss Kitty (near the closet door on the floor)

Miss Kitty was not happy when I removed her from the only home she had ever known.  I think she was clinically depressed her first many months in Texas.

Izzy was definitely just as unhappy, if not more so, when I showed up with yet another new cat in tow. She had decided she liked being an only child and so she exerted quite a large amount of female cat pissiness on Miss Kitty upon her arrival.  She also started marking her territory like a male cat.  So they were separated.  Miss Kitty went into my office as it was one of the only places with a door I could shut.

During her time there, she has been visited often by myself when I was home, by Renee, and by Teresa.  About 5 months ago, when I would come home on the weekends, I would open the office door and leave it open.  Izzy would go in and check things out - see what she was missing.  But Miss Kitty would never leave.  I would drag her out to my bed once in awhile, for a change of pace.

During this 45 days at home straight, I started a new routine with her.  Going in more, talking to her a lot, and dragging her into my office/room for hours at a time.  Low and behold, three days ago she walked into my bedroom on her own.  Now I grant you she may have been searching for dinner, but we are not going to focus on that because yesterday she did the same thing when she had plenty of food and crawled up on the bed on her own and stayed there all afternoon and into the night.  Two nights in a row!!

...which leads to Miracle #2: Izzy crawled up on the bed at the same time last night and we all went to sleep.  I could not have been happier.  I think there is a small chance they could become friends.  Miss Kitty is still not venturing far.  She walked half way down the hall yesterday then chickened out and went back to her safe zone.  But hey, I will take what I can get.

Final Miracle #3:  I was able to get my computer started to get all of the media off of it.  As it turns out, the fan was fried and I had LEFT it plugged in after I spilled water on it (ARGHHHHH) and it was HOT.  Very HOT.  I unplugged it and let it dry in the sunshine with the battery out. Then I took liquid air and sprayed into the vent where the fan blows out.  Got it rebooted and just kept dousing it with air every 10 minutes or so while I backed off the contents.  I will get a new second computer as I need a backup (always) when working for myself.  But I am most happy to have the CONTENTS of the computer safely moved to an external hard drive.  YAY.  Happy endings.

Here's to more miracles in our lives!

Happy Hump Day!