so i don’t forget

today my mom ella and i are going to a pottery painting cafe!!!!

and listen like at the end of the day she didn’t do anything wrong nor did she make any bad decisions! i’m just really sad because i miss her a lot and that’s okay.

work was boring. i’m bored. i think im slipping into a little bit of a depressive episode and im trying really really hard to keep my head above water but god damn it’s hard. classes start on monday and we’re going to a kings game so that will be a good day. but i need a therapist. because that helped a lot when i was feeling like this a few years ago.

poor fishy has fleas :(

we gave him treatment that we thought worked but didn’t. we’ve bathed him 4 times. we’ve trapped him in the bathroom and he wants out so bad.

the cat sanctuary who said they could help us fucking can’t apparently. the woman i spoke to gave us misinformation even though i CONFIRMED WITH HER but whatever.

so now we’re back to square one. but that’s okay! work ended on a shitty note (tedious project i was working on didn’t save + cat) but i see annie later. i cuddle fish. i see gigi. so life can’t actually be that bad. i’m very grateful fish trusts us so much and i will find him a place to get fixed up. i’m determined (๑•̀ ᴗ•́)૭✧

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.

yesterday annie and i hit the gym for a cardio moment, and i did a little bit of core which felt really nice! then we had leftover tamales which were so scrumptious and then we watched THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE PITT!!!!!!!

i’m so excited for the rest of the season now. the writers are giving so much fan service to the ships and SO MANY CANON LESBIAN SHIPS??? life is good :’)

work today is cool so far. we have a celebration of life for an old member who passed and lots of people showed up. lots of people crying. he sounded like a cool dude.

i got peets on my lunch :p and lost my parking spot in the process :(

SISTERS COME OVER TONIGHT WOOOOOOO

norah and rio are coming over to play video games and hang out i’m so so so so so excited !!!! im sad annie won’t be there because she’s seeing her friends one more time before they go back to college but that just means its ultimate sibling night :) we’re gonna make spaghetti and sausage for dinner it’s gonna be so yummyyyy

makes enough sauce for pasta for 2 but can easily be doubled!

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons of basil pesto

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

pasta shape of choice

protein of choice

start boiling your pasta. salt the fuck out of your pasta water (like ocean salty). once boiled, add your pasta.

add heavy cream to a sauce pan and simmer on medium-low for 2-3 minutes. you’re really just heating it up here, so don’t leave it unattended because it’ll form a film on top and/or separate and that’s bad

add in your pesto of choice! you can home make it or store buy it bc it really does not matter. i added 3 tablespoons but this is your recipe bbg you can add more if you desire

mix until the pesto is evenly distributed through the sauce.

once evenly distributed turn the heat down to low and let the sauce reduce to thicken it up. tbh idk if you should stir or not when reducing something but i stirred and it came out fire so !

once reduced to a thickness you like, add parmesan!! i know i put 1/2 a cup in the recipe but i wouldn’t be surprised if i actually added more. i don’t measure cheese with a cup i measure it with my heart <3

once cheese is sufficiently melted in turn the heat off. then strain your pasta (if you haven’t already) and stir it in!

add protein !! i add chicken, girlfriend added crusted tilapia, you could prob do shrimp idk. follow your heart

the chicken came out PERFECT. it was soft and tender and juicy and perfect perfect perfect. 10/10 cannot wait to try more things. this is going to be such a goated option when annie is out of town and i only have to cook for myself.

oh and the pasta i made? fuckin incredible

annie put fish on hers (i bought it fresh from the butcher and he was so nice! i was asking him about sous vide cooking and tips and if i can ask them to marinate an individual chicken breast so i don’t have to buy a 3 pack and they can!!! life is so good and exciting!!!!!) and i added my chicken :)

i will say, trader joe’s basil pesto isn’t my favorite :/ it was good but like i think they use a different basil so it wasn’t the taste of home i was looking for. will use kirkland next time lol.

and the pasta reheated perfectly for leftovers the next day :D