#january 12th

he’s not yowling at casper through the door now! we’ve moved down to either hissing or silence! huge!!!

he’s VERY food motivated and will try and steal food out of your hand. but we love him anyways.

starts off great with gianna sleeping over last night and this morning we worlds worst-ed. i couldn’t afford anything because we had fish’s vaccination later and i needed to afford that but annie got some nice nails and gigi got a cool sweater. we get home, gigi leaves. we’re cuddling on my bed with fish and i look at his lip and then his neck and realize. oh my god.

this fucker has fleas.

i point it out to annie and she’s like omg we have to bathe him. google and reddit says dawn dishsoap. fish quickly realizes the jig is up and gets really mad and defensive when we trap him in the bathroom and we realize he’s not doin this willingly. so we let him back out and then have a second realization.

he’s been all over the apartment (minus annie’s room).

so we start worrying about the other cats. eventually he chills out and we love on him and by some new years miracle: he lets us put him in the tub.

of course he hated it. BUT HE WAS SUCH A GOOD BOY ABOUT IT. he didn’t scratch, yell, his, bite at us or nothing !!!! he let us scrub and bathe him like such a good boy!! i even got his feet!!!!!1 we saw lots more fleas on him and tried to pull as many as we could off but those fuckers we’re LATCHED on.

we let him out of the tub and he was really mad and vulnerable and when i tried to dry him with a towel, we think he had a ptsd moment when the towel wrapped around him because he really got mad and hissed and swatted because that’s how you grab a stray. anyways he hid for a little bit while we set up the carrier. we coaxed him out from under my bed and miraculously got him into the carrier! he walked right in! yowled a lil bit when we zipped it up.

we had made an appointment at the vetco vaccine and testing clinic and we got there, introduced him to the tech. we made the mistake of being honest and said that we had taken him in last night. she had to go get her manager and came back about 10 mins later and explained that they couldn’t take fish today because he was considered feral and they didn’t know what he had so they couldn’t take him back. we had to wait 3-6 months then they could check. we asked if there was anything we could do today because we had 3 other cats to protect. they said we could take him to the local shelter and have them declare him ours and microchip him, then they could take him. so off to the shelter we went.

we arrive and the lady up front asked what we needed. we explain that we have a cat we’d been feeding for a few months now and want to make him an indoor cat but we need resources on fixing him up. she looked us up and down and told us that he’s a healthy adult cat and due to free roaming laws, animal shelters in our area can only take in kittens or sick/injured/disabled adult cats. when we asked her what to do because we have 3 other cats to protect she literally said “quarantine him in the bathroom for 10 days or let him back outside.”

obviously that’s fucking crazy right? what would 10 days do? let him back out?? and have our landlord call you guys to take him anyway??? whatever. we thanked her (for nothing) and left.

we called vetco saying we did what they said and that the shelter couldn’t help us. she told us the exact same thing of “we don’t know what he was so wait 3-6 months and try again.”

so fuck those guys. annie and i google last minute and find a local non profit sanctuary and said fuck it what do we have to lose.

we pull up to Fake Name Cat Sanctuary and a woman addresses us as soon as we walk in and the dialogue goes roughly as follows:

“Hi there, what do you guys need?”

“We have a cat from our complex and we need to get him vaccinated and fixed—”

she cuts me off, “we’re not a vets’ clinic.”

i look at her. my gf speaks up, “we’ve been to a vaccine clinic and we’ve been to the shelter. but neither of them could help us. please we just need resour—”

“hang on, i can’t help you. you need an adoption counselor. let me get someone for you.”

we just look at her. she walks a few feet and turns back to look at us, “hang on is this a Fake Name Sanctuary cat?”

“no.”

“okay hang on.”

she talks to someone in an office who then comes out and tells us she’ll be with us as soon as she finishes this adoption (we got to see someone take a kitten home it was really sweet).

while we are waiting i smell a suspicious smell. i pick fish’s carrier up, feel a dampness on my jorts and realize.

lil bro pissed on me.

i just had to set him down and pray no one else smelled it. but poor baby had been in the carrier for ~2 hours at this point and was definitely stressed as fuck. anyway, about 15 minutes later she comes out and we give her the run down. she very kindly explains that while the shelter isn’t able to take the cat in tonight or vaccinate or fix him, they can help us. she gave us the number of someone higher up than her who handles stray intakes. she then went to get someone who helps handle intakes.

a very kind woman named becky emerges. we once again explain our situation. she explains that they of course have a waitlist on neutering and intakes, but that she will take our information as they’re currently booking for early march. i give her everything and ask how the process works.

“do we give him up to you with the intention of adoption? if we pay the adoption fee what else do we get? is it possible to get an earlier appointment?”

she looks at us blankly and says, “give him up? no he’s yours, we’ll just fix him for you. no adoption fee. and the neuter appointment comes with tests, vaccine, and deworming. a lot of the cast we fix are trap and release, so often times people are trying to capture the cat the day of the appointment and there are lots of cancellations, so odds are they’ll call us sooner!” i said this is great news! but of course i had to ask about how much all this would cost.

“cost? what do you mean? everything here is done on volunteer work and donations. we would just ask you to donate whatever you could.”

folks i could have cried. we were so tired and the previous workers were just so heartless about it. we were in disbelief. i got her card and she told me to shoot her a follow up email sometime this week.

fish is currently quarantined in the bathroom. we gave him anti flea medication and had delicious garlic noodles for dinner. he spent the night in there and is coping as best as he can. but since we’ve given him his flea medication last night, he has stopped itching so much!!!!!

and we washed EVERYTHING.

i hung out with him today and colored while he slept on the floor. he’s also much softer after his bath (which he was SUCH a good boy for oh my god).

i can’t wait to see where my life with him goes.

On this day in 1988:

Erinn Veronica Westbrook was born in Long Island, New York.

Erinn portrayed WMHS Cheerio Captain Bree in 7 episodes of Glee season 5.

On this day in 1987:

Naya Marie Rivera was born in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California.

Naya portrayed WMHS Cheerio and New Directions member Santana Lopez in all six seasons of Glee.

▪ “Come to bed. You've worked enough.”      “Just give me a second, I need to finish this, baby.”

▪ “You're missing our kids' lives in your office. Please, just come home…”      “You know it's not that easy.”

▪ “I'm going to be working late today, honey.”      “At this point, I hope you have an affair. If you really are working all that overtime fully, you must be miserable.”

▪ “Baby, sit down. You look exhausted. Come, rest.”      “I can't…”      “You can, and you will. No more arguing.”      “Okay…”

▪ “Did you manage to sleep a bit?” “Not really. I can't stop worrying.” “I wish I could take this burden off you.”

▪ “I.... I don't know what to do. I can't focus, but I can't afford to slow down. There is no time, this needs to be done now!” “Look at me. You are exhausted and overworked. You need sleep, no matter how bad of an idea you think it is.”

▪ “I'm sorry I missed dinner even though I promised...” “Don't worry, I never even set you a plate. I knew you wouldn't show.”

▪ “No, no! Stop! I am begging you to slow down! What good does it do for us if you work yourself to death? Just slow down, take a break with me, or... Or I can't stay.” “You... You want to leave?” “No. Not with a single cell of my body, but I can't watch this any longer.”

▪ “I took some time off.” “We'll figure it out, my love. We will, I promise. Let me take charge for now.”