Cat sitting and digressing on sprained ankles and spider-filled apartments
And so starts my cat sitting duties. *pauses* Haven't mentioned it? Well poo. Thought I had.
Every once in a while (usually around major holidays) I get to watch my neighbor's pets. Mrs. G used to have a dog (one of the small breeds, hell if I know what Penny was. Small, had a fluffy tail and ears and tended to look like a small keg) but recently had her put to sleep. Now I just get to watch her cat, Bella, whom I simply adore. Good thing she seems to have adopted me as one of her humans, with as much as I watch her. Every once in a while Mrs. G will even call me over to get Bella in the downstairs area if she has trouble gettin' her to leave th' upstairs (it's a half-floor. The downstairs is the ground floor then about five steps up is the upstairs, where the main house is). I simply call for her and stand still and she comes to me.
Well. I get to watch her for a whole week. Yay! And the REALLY good thing? She pays damn well. $100 for one week and a few days. Used to be the same when I was watchin' th' cat AND dog, but this time I'll be bringin' Bella over come Thursday and keepin' her 'til th' followin' Monday (day after Christmas). See, Mrs. G has family comin' in and for some bizarre reason her family (son, I think) won't put his two dogs in the kennel while he's away. His dogs, evidently, are mean enough that it'd be a bad idea for Bella to stay over there. So. They come Friday morning, early-like, so I get to bring Bella over the night before then keep her until they leave.
I guess Mrs. G thought Maddie might be the lesser of two evils. Either that, or she thought we could always put Bella upstairs in the apartment behind our house (it's above the garage--but we don't rent it since it's kinda my summer home each year when OUR family comes. *snerk* Most kids have a tree/club house. Me? I had a club apartment growin' up. Sweet.) for the time she's hear. Yes, well, we'd hafta turn on (up, really) the heat to make it livable and I'd hafta stay up there with her to keep an eye on her. Which I don't mind. Too much. Getting me to stay up there for more than a month has kinda been our goal for about five years now. The problem? Well, last year I stayed a month and a half but I was comin' down one morning in late Sept. and on the second to last stair (there's, like, 15 steps) I twisted my ankle. Ended up with a very bad sprain that to this day, over a year later, still gives me probs. If I plan on doin' any serious walkin' (such as shopping) or heavy lifting I gotta wear hightops to support my ankle. The real kicker is that this is the third time I've sprained this ankle.
First was when I was five. My bed was in a corner and, as all kids do, I had a fondness for jumping on the bed. Well, my foot when down the corner crack and there I was, in kindergarten and on crutches. I rode a bus back then and gettin' on and off was fun. *note sarcasm*
Second time I was 13 (pretty sure, anyway. 6th grade and I was a year older than the others so...). I was wearing...loafers? Flat-soled dressy shoes? Dunno what they were. I jus' know now not to run on dew-wet grass at night in shoes with no tred whatsoever. Was at church and thankfully my best friend's dad was a doc. Was on crutches then, too. It was the last week of school, too, and I missed the pool trip the class took. Not a great loss, really, since it was a chilly over-cast day but oh well.
This time was the worst, I think, though. It blew up to the size of a softball, making my foot look like an unnatural growth cause it was pushed to a very sharp angle by the swelling. Thankfully, I was on some damn fine drugs (codine! Or however you spell it). I was so drugged up that I didn't feel a thing and ended up kinda limpin' on it, sorta, while usin' th' walker (I denied crutches since we still had grandma's walker. Walker was easier anyway). As a result, it probably didn't heal as quickly as it might have (I was walkin' without support by the end of week three) and now the entire joint is a bit loose (it pops a LOT easier and feels liquidy when I move it certain ways). The muscles/ligaments are noticably looser, too, and still a bit swelled. And it swells a hair when I'm on it too much. Also? I can kinda do that weather prediction thing now. Or at least tell when the weather's bad. My ankle doesn't ache, but it feels subtly wrong somehow.
Anyway. There was a point to this, I'm sure. Oh. Right. So that's why I came down last year. This year I had a massive spider infestation. Smaller ones were all over the ceilings and walls and I hate 'em when they're above me. The last day I was there I saw three spiders and it was the third that ran me out. I was in the kitchen doin' a puzzle on the table and down the wall opposite me comes a spider the size of a quarter. I shrieked and jerked back and the spider fell. I jumped up and waited a few minutes to be sure it was safe then gathered my blankets, laptop and a few clothes and bolted downstairs. I refused to even enter the apartment for weeks afterward. Momma had to go up and get the rest of my clothes. I have nightmares on a moderately regular basis about huge spiders (the size of baseballs) in large webs livin' in that apartment. So many you can't turn without runnin' into one. They normally don't wake me, but one did once and I even did that whole "sit up in shock then wake breathing heavy" thing you see in movies. Only time I've ever done it.
Though with as often as I have the dreams, I don't wonder if the spider isn't my spirit animal. They supposedly represent creativity, which is something I have plenty of. Kinda ironic, if that's the case.
So. Yeah. But we likely won't go upstairs. Chances are we'll jus' stay in my room the entire time. *shrugs* I don't mind. I'm a cat person in a dog house. It sucks.
I'm gonna go now. *snaps fingers* Oh! Finished organizin' th' Triangle caps. I'll try and get them up tomorrow. I've got lots of readin' t' catch up on (I've got seven fic windows! Oi) so I like as not won't get to it tonight.
Ta.
Every once in a while (usually around major holidays) I get to watch my neighbor's pets. Mrs. G used to have a dog (one of the small breeds, hell if I know what Penny was. Small, had a fluffy tail and ears and tended to look like a small keg) but recently had her put to sleep. Now I just get to watch her cat, Bella, whom I simply adore. Good thing she seems to have adopted me as one of her humans, with as much as I watch her. Every once in a while Mrs. G will even call me over to get Bella in the downstairs area if she has trouble gettin' her to leave th' upstairs (it's a half-floor. The downstairs is the ground floor then about five steps up is the upstairs, where the main house is). I simply call for her and stand still and she comes to me.
Well. I get to watch her for a whole week. Yay! And the REALLY good thing? She pays damn well. $100 for one week and a few days. Used to be the same when I was watchin' th' cat AND dog, but this time I'll be bringin' Bella over come Thursday and keepin' her 'til th' followin' Monday (day after Christmas). See, Mrs. G has family comin' in and for some bizarre reason her family (son, I think) won't put his two dogs in the kennel while he's away. His dogs, evidently, are mean enough that it'd be a bad idea for Bella to stay over there. So. They come Friday morning, early-like, so I get to bring Bella over the night before then keep her until they leave.
I guess Mrs. G thought Maddie might be the lesser of two evils. Either that, or she thought we could always put Bella upstairs in the apartment behind our house (it's above the garage--but we don't rent it since it's kinda my summer home each year when OUR family comes. *snerk* Most kids have a tree/club house. Me? I had a club apartment growin' up. Sweet.) for the time she's hear. Yes, well, we'd hafta turn on (up, really) the heat to make it livable and I'd hafta stay up there with her to keep an eye on her. Which I don't mind. Too much. Getting me to stay up there for more than a month has kinda been our goal for about five years now. The problem? Well, last year I stayed a month and a half but I was comin' down one morning in late Sept. and on the second to last stair (there's, like, 15 steps) I twisted my ankle. Ended up with a very bad sprain that to this day, over a year later, still gives me probs. If I plan on doin' any serious walkin' (such as shopping) or heavy lifting I gotta wear hightops to support my ankle. The real kicker is that this is the third time I've sprained this ankle.
First was when I was five. My bed was in a corner and, as all kids do, I had a fondness for jumping on the bed. Well, my foot when down the corner crack and there I was, in kindergarten and on crutches. I rode a bus back then and gettin' on and off was fun. *note sarcasm*
Second time I was 13 (pretty sure, anyway. 6th grade and I was a year older than the others so...). I was wearing...loafers? Flat-soled dressy shoes? Dunno what they were. I jus' know now not to run on dew-wet grass at night in shoes with no tred whatsoever. Was at church and thankfully my best friend's dad was a doc. Was on crutches then, too. It was the last week of school, too, and I missed the pool trip the class took. Not a great loss, really, since it was a chilly over-cast day but oh well.
This time was the worst, I think, though. It blew up to the size of a softball, making my foot look like an unnatural growth cause it was pushed to a very sharp angle by the swelling. Thankfully, I was on some damn fine drugs (codine! Or however you spell it). I was so drugged up that I didn't feel a thing and ended up kinda limpin' on it, sorta, while usin' th' walker (I denied crutches since we still had grandma's walker. Walker was easier anyway). As a result, it probably didn't heal as quickly as it might have (I was walkin' without support by the end of week three) and now the entire joint is a bit loose (it pops a LOT easier and feels liquidy when I move it certain ways). The muscles/ligaments are noticably looser, too, and still a bit swelled. And it swells a hair when I'm on it too much. Also? I can kinda do that weather prediction thing now. Or at least tell when the weather's bad. My ankle doesn't ache, but it feels subtly wrong somehow.
Anyway. There was a point to this, I'm sure. Oh. Right. So that's why I came down last year. This year I had a massive spider infestation. Smaller ones were all over the ceilings and walls and I hate 'em when they're above me. The last day I was there I saw three spiders and it was the third that ran me out. I was in the kitchen doin' a puzzle on the table and down the wall opposite me comes a spider the size of a quarter. I shrieked and jerked back and the spider fell. I jumped up and waited a few minutes to be sure it was safe then gathered my blankets, laptop and a few clothes and bolted downstairs. I refused to even enter the apartment for weeks afterward. Momma had to go up and get the rest of my clothes. I have nightmares on a moderately regular basis about huge spiders (the size of baseballs) in large webs livin' in that apartment. So many you can't turn without runnin' into one. They normally don't wake me, but one did once and I even did that whole "sit up in shock then wake breathing heavy" thing you see in movies. Only time I've ever done it.
Though with as often as I have the dreams, I don't wonder if the spider isn't my spirit animal. They supposedly represent creativity, which is something I have plenty of. Kinda ironic, if that's the case.
So. Yeah. But we likely won't go upstairs. Chances are we'll jus' stay in my room the entire time. *shrugs* I don't mind. I'm a cat person in a dog house. It sucks.
I'm gonna go now. *snaps fingers* Oh! Finished organizin' th' Triangle caps. I'll try and get them up tomorrow. I've got lots of readin' t' catch up on (I've got seven fic windows! Oi) so I like as not won't get to it tonight.
Ta.