Tag: Aphro

Our cat Aphrodite (Aphro for short)

Happy Upsetting

2018 was a quite a year, and I am somewhat happy that it is over. I left my job at the end of January, but located another fairly quickly. It was good, but there were a few indicators that it was unstable. Sure enough, in August, the company went under, and I was again on the hunt for work. Unfortunately, the company was behind on paying us, so cash was a bit of an issue. This eventually resolved itself though.

Other things of note that happened, were several large vehicle repair bills (the car was regular maintenance, but the truck ended up in the shop on a tow truck as well as some other fixes that were sudden), a great RV trip, and the passing of our cat Aphro. Losing Aphro was really a low point for the whole family and very upsetting (I still miss her). Sue and I did the Chafe 150 (80 mile length) in Sand Point Idaho, and I raced several of the Island Cup Enduro races.

Things turned around near the end of the year though. I got a new contract to fill my time, the family is happy and healthy, and we are looking forward to 2019. I’m looking forward to more riding and racing, and getting some more runs into my legs (without hurting my knees).

Pets Crazy

People that have met my pets, or have heard some of the stories know just how crazy they are. I have a couple more stories.

Aphro the cat is a pretty reclusive and quiet cat. The other night Sox and I were just about asleep (around 11:30pm or so) and I could hear her scittering around downstairs, then come bounding up the stairs and into our bedroom. Silence for a couple minutes, then she took off quickly down one flight of stairs, around the corned, then down to the basement. That was a little weird.

Moments later I heard Aphro coming back up the stairs at full speed, then up the second flight of stairs. The bedroom door was only open a crack, and she didn’t fit through, and bounced off the door sending it flying into the wall. WTF? Sox turned on a light and I looked at the cat on her cat tree. At first I thought she was sitting on one of our Thrifty’s shopping bags. I got up to verify then discovered it was around her neck. Woops. That explains the crazy behaviour; she thought the bag was following her, and she got spooked.

Yoshi is a special kind of nutcase. Lately he has been bad, and has been chewing on a lot of things. I’ve been keeping a list of the things he has wrecked. On the weekend Sox had Yoshi at the vet for a checkup, and it turned out that when we switched his food we should have upped how much we gave him. We were starving him, and he has lost a significant amount of weight. Felt bad about that one.

The vet ordered a blood test for Yoshi, and she needed a urine sample as well. I can now add to the destruction list a urine specimen cup. Crazy dog. I stopped at the vet’s office today to pick up another one, and when I told them what happened, the two women behind the counter couldn’t help but laugh, and another gentleman dropping off his cat was laughing as well.

Crazy I tell you!

Aphro Sleeping

Dear Aphro:

You are a cat, and I am a human. When I am sleeping on the bed, I don’t mind if you want to curl up next to me. I actually like how warm you can make the bed feel.

What I do mind is you sleeping between my knees. Don’t do that. When I wake up it is hard to roll over with you there.

Plus, when I want you to move at 3 in the morning, I’d appreciate it if you just moved, then curled up again. I certainly don’t appreciate being hissed at while you give me the evil eye. I don’t like being smacked with claws, and I hate it when you scamper around the bed. It’s my bed and I am trying to sleep. I don’t care if it inconveniences you or upsets you.

This has been going on for too long. Keep it up and I may seriously entertain the idea of moving you to the basement.

Sincerely

Greg

Outside Leaving

Jungle Kitty! Aphro has been more interested in being outside lately. Sometimes she zips out an open door when we aren’t looking and other times we let her out. The other weekend we were just about to leave for Nanaimo, when Sox thought to check on Aphro one last time before we drove away. The car was loaded and the kids buckled. That was how close we were to leaving. Sure enough Aphro was outside.

We managed to corral her back in the house, then we were on our way.

Here Aphro was exploring our deck, and in particular our tomato plants.

Wammy Combo

Wednesday night’s arrival home was interesting. It was a double whammy from the Yoshi and Aphro.

I noticed the door to the downstairs wasn’t propped open like it normally is. Yoshi could have done this, or maybe Sox or I forgot to set it before leaving.

As I went to go check on the cat, I noticed the gate to upstairs was pushed open. Great. The first thing I noticed was that Yoshi had been sleeping on the futon which has just been furnished with clean sheets for a house guest set to arrive on Thursday. Argh. That dog. Easy to fix, but is still a pain to clean the sheets again.

I then noticed Yoshi had been in Sprouts room. A plastic bowl and lid combo that Sprout had been playing with had been chewed up. Yoshi also chewed the corner of one of Sprouts books too. That dog!

I then followed up with Aphro, and found she had peed on some of my riding clothes that I had planned to use the next day. 2 loads of laundry now. Anybody interested in a neurotic dog and a skittish cat?