Cat Concerns
► Stormy has been increasingly difficult this week, which has been hard for me to deal with. For the first two months I've had him the big issues have been him climbing window screens and climbing and perching up on top of bookcases and kitchen cabinets. Now it's suddenly shredding things.
Last week it started with him clawing the bulletin board in my room, and while he's doing that less frequently now, he does it much more aggressively. Wednesday evening Dean called me into the bathroom because he had clawed the shower curtain, which was slightly all right because he was grimy and needed replacing. The next morning I replaced it with one of the dollar store spares Dean bought last year. This morning I had a shock when I went to take a shower and discovered he had shredded the new curtain. And I do not mean that he scratched it, the curtain was falling apart with big chunks ripped out. It looked as if it had been caught in a lawn mower.
That really pissed me off, not that he destroyed a $1 shower curtain, but that there's now the possibility I might have to keep buying lots of $1 shower curtains if this is now his new obsession. I still don't think he's a bad cat, but the sudden jump to shredding things has me really worried that he's acting out because I'm doing something wrong, or that it's a sign that he's going to get worse as time goes by.
I had my therapy appointment later this morning and I talked about this with my therapist and he suggested that since I got the cat for therapeutic reasons and given how he's now destroying property and adding more to my already high stress levels, I might have to consider letting him go, either finding him a new home or returning him to the shelter. It stunned me how sure the therapist was about this point, but I think it was about concern for my emotional and mental well-being, and I appreciate that.
I don't want to do that. The way I see it I took the responsibility when I got him, and I don't want to fail him or have him either end up in an abusive home or "destroyed" if he ends up in the shelter again. While I was really despairing over all of this this morning, having thought about it since I'm more resolved to get past this new problem. Stormy is my cat, I adopted him, and if I can survive 2 years of a husky/akita mix chewing my legs and destroying furniture and knickknacks before mellowing out, I can manage through this patch with Stormy.
After getting some advice from a couple of people, Dad and I picked up some stuff while shopping this afternoon, including a container of catnip, "No Chew" spray for furniture, a new scratching toy, and a set of 4 water pistols (to keep in different spots of the apartment so there's always something on hand to spray him if he acts up, we rarely spray him for bad behaviour now). Also, I've been advised to finally try clipping his front claws, and actually managed to cut 2 today. Dad's coming over tomorrow to help by holding Stormy while I clip the rest. If we can.
Stormy is my cat. If he's in his terrible twos, I'll just have to deal with it. I'd only consider getting rid of him is he becomes aggressively violent and starts attacking me or others.
► From chat, regarding his Flames of War figurines:Matt: USPS tracking last had my Soviet reinforcements in NY this morning, but delivery estimate is tomorrow
Matt: kinda surprises me, I didn't expect them till Mon or Tuesday
Derek: does NATO know about this?
Derek: (damn, should have said Norrad [sic])
Matt: either wors
Matt: wprks
Matt: works
Matt: english
Derek: that's all right, you did pretty good there, Ivan
► [Tumblr] Kearstin is Not Safe for Work: Angela makeup test #1 pic 1 - That does look pretty cool.
► 9gag: Dog vs. Cat - It fits with Stormy's reaction driving home from PetSmart the day I adopted him, compared to all the times I had driven in a car with my brother's dog.
► 9gag: Happy Birthday Harrison! - Harrison Ford may be 70, but I still want a fifth Indiana Jones film. He can do it.
► A lot of cool stuff was revealed by toy companies at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con this week (it continues over the weekend). Naturally, there are things I really want, things I just find cool, and things that perplex me. Some of these are:► Rambo from First Blood - NECA action figure.
► Dutch from Predator - NECA action figure.
► Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi statue - This statue by Sideshow Collectibles seems to blend the likenesses of Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness. I think it's really cool.
► Star Wars Padme action figure - What the hell happened to this? It's chipped to hell and covered in epoxy. Someone play a little too much with it before the show?
► Dat ass. :-B
► The two items I'd want the most that I've seen so far are 2 statues from Sideshow Collectibles. Putting aside what I said the other day about Star Wars (although I stand by what I said, there are still things I do like in the franchise), they are Jedi Master Aayla Secura (blue skin) and Jedi Master Shaak Ti (red skin). I had never seen that outfit before on Shaak Ti, as she's usually in long flowing robes, but man is it impossibly skimpy, tacky, and totally awesome (she was one of my favourite things in the Prequel movies solely because I loved her visual design and first action figure). I'd love to have these both to display opposite each other, but I really want the Shaak Ti statue.
Just to be clear, I want them, but there's no way I'm ever going to get them.
Aayla Secura
Shaak Ti
Quote of the Moment
Jane: I don't want to talk about it! Every time I think about something nice, you remind me of bad things. I only want to talk about the nice things.
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Drinking: water
Eating: French Onion Sun Chips
Watching: Bewitched: Season 7 (DVD set);
Last Watched: The Big Bang Theory (2007 - ; 5 Season 5 episodes);
Last week it started with him clawing the bulletin board in my room, and while he's doing that less frequently now, he does it much more aggressively. Wednesday evening Dean called me into the bathroom because he had clawed the shower curtain, which was slightly all right because he was grimy and needed replacing. The next morning I replaced it with one of the dollar store spares Dean bought last year. This morning I had a shock when I went to take a shower and discovered he had shredded the new curtain. And I do not mean that he scratched it, the curtain was falling apart with big chunks ripped out. It looked as if it had been caught in a lawn mower.
That really pissed me off, not that he destroyed a $1 shower curtain, but that there's now the possibility I might have to keep buying lots of $1 shower curtains if this is now his new obsession. I still don't think he's a bad cat, but the sudden jump to shredding things has me really worried that he's acting out because I'm doing something wrong, or that it's a sign that he's going to get worse as time goes by.
I had my therapy appointment later this morning and I talked about this with my therapist and he suggested that since I got the cat for therapeutic reasons and given how he's now destroying property and adding more to my already high stress levels, I might have to consider letting him go, either finding him a new home or returning him to the shelter. It stunned me how sure the therapist was about this point, but I think it was about concern for my emotional and mental well-being, and I appreciate that.
I don't want to do that. The way I see it I took the responsibility when I got him, and I don't want to fail him or have him either end up in an abusive home or "destroyed" if he ends up in the shelter again. While I was really despairing over all of this this morning, having thought about it since I'm more resolved to get past this new problem. Stormy is my cat, I adopted him, and if I can survive 2 years of a husky/akita mix chewing my legs and destroying furniture and knickknacks before mellowing out, I can manage through this patch with Stormy.
After getting some advice from a couple of people, Dad and I picked up some stuff while shopping this afternoon, including a container of catnip, "No Chew" spray for furniture, a new scratching toy, and a set of 4 water pistols (to keep in different spots of the apartment so there's always something on hand to spray him if he acts up, we rarely spray him for bad behaviour now). Also, I've been advised to finally try clipping his front claws, and actually managed to cut 2 today. Dad's coming over tomorrow to help by holding Stormy while I clip the rest. If we can.
Stormy is my cat. If he's in his terrible twos, I'll just have to deal with it. I'd only consider getting rid of him is he becomes aggressively violent and starts attacking me or others.
► From chat, regarding his Flames of War figurines:Matt: USPS tracking last had my Soviet reinforcements in NY this morning, but delivery estimate is tomorrow
Matt: kinda surprises me, I didn't expect them till Mon or Tuesday
Derek: does NATO know about this?
Derek: (damn, should have said Norrad [sic])
Matt: either wors
Matt: wprks
Matt: works
Matt: english
Derek: that's all right, you did pretty good there, Ivan
► [Tumblr] Kearstin is Not Safe for Work: Angela makeup test #1 pic 1 - That does look pretty cool.
► 9gag: Dog vs. Cat - It fits with Stormy's reaction driving home from PetSmart the day I adopted him, compared to all the times I had driven in a car with my brother's dog.
► 9gag: Happy Birthday Harrison! - Harrison Ford may be 70, but I still want a fifth Indiana Jones film. He can do it.
► A lot of cool stuff was revealed by toy companies at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con this week (it continues over the weekend). Naturally, there are things I really want, things I just find cool, and things that perplex me. Some of these are:► Rambo from First Blood - NECA action figure.
► Dutch from Predator - NECA action figure.
► Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi statue - This statue by Sideshow Collectibles seems to blend the likenesses of Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness. I think it's really cool.
► Star Wars Padme action figure - What the hell happened to this? It's chipped to hell and covered in epoxy. Someone play a little too much with it before the show?
► Dat ass. :-B
► The two items I'd want the most that I've seen so far are 2 statues from Sideshow Collectibles. Putting aside what I said the other day about Star Wars (although I stand by what I said, there are still things I do like in the franchise), they are Jedi Master Aayla Secura (blue skin) and Jedi Master Shaak Ti (red skin). I had never seen that outfit before on Shaak Ti, as she's usually in long flowing robes, but man is it impossibly skimpy, tacky, and totally awesome (she was one of my favourite things in the Prequel movies solely because I loved her visual design and first action figure). I'd love to have these both to display opposite each other, but I really want the Shaak Ti statue.
Just to be clear, I want them, but there's no way I'm ever going to get them.
Aayla Secura
Shaak Ti
Quote of the Moment
Jane: I don't want to talk about it! Every time I think about something nice, you remind me of bad things. I only want to talk about the nice things.
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Drinking: water
Eating: French Onion Sun Chips
Watching: Bewitched: Season 7 (DVD set);
Last Watched: The Big Bang Theory (2007 - ; 5 Season 5 episodes);