Struggles Last Week & Life Loves

Last week was sooooo long. I did a lot of crying. My workout seemed harder than usual and the kids were cranky about school (“It’s booorrrinnnnggggg!”) and the days seemed so short. I cried a lot over our dumb cats….our “fur-beasts”, as I like to call them…. because they are still not being great. No medical reason has presented itself as of yet, so we are left with questions. The problem? They are both peeing and Thorin is occasionally “middening” downstairs. I have never used so much stain remover in my whole life. We get the smell out by wet vacuuming and a nifty trick to lift the smell and stain out that I found on Cats of Australia which works: when I use it the cats stop marking that same spot…they just go find a new one. We have consulted cat experts and literally tried everything on the internet except anxiety meds for cats…and the officials think that may help as it may be a fight for who is dominant between them. Any little shift can cause this and it isn’t about who is meaner, it is more subtle than that. Our only hope is to bliss them out on meds and hope the behaviour stops; then hope the urge is stopped in them forever. (An internet search made a few months on anti-anxiety meds a promising solution.)  I did try one last thing that may help without meds. Since it may be a fight over the use of the litter box, I put one in a place only Kali is willing to go, so she gets one dedicated to her, and that may help stop the behaviour. Here’s hoping. Otherwise, meds are worth a try. If that doesn’t work, we are forced to separate them. Josh gets so exasperated and done, but both of us would only feel okay handing one to a new home if we were sure it was a safe one, so then it causes frustration and fear in us, which causes tension between us. All of it just sucks. Thorin is my alarm clock. He comes and wakes me up with a meow, then cuddles and purring, every weekday at 7am and every Saturday and Sunday at 9am….how does he know the difference of the weekend?? Kali is my little talkative companion during the day and besties with Josh and the kids….to get rid of them would be to give away a piece of my heart. But if they need to be separate to be good kittens, then we have to. I couldn’t choose one, so to keep one would be too painful and we would need to give away both. But if the behaviour continues…that, too, chips away at the soul. Last week was a continuous conversation on possible solutions, as well as a lot of hair-pulling and crying.

 

But there was a lot of good, too. We had a lazy weekend last week, spending a lot of time hanging out, playing board games, watching movies (BFG is great!) and cuddling. Isabella has a crush at school so we heard a lot about that and Hunter spent a lot of time creating an original Harry Potter Lego set from scratch to play with out of Josh’s childhood Lego pieces. We ate really well and I didn’t step in to the kitchen once! Thanks, handsome husband. I did a lot of crocheting over the weekend, instead of cooking. Here are some of my favourite photos from our family time:

So that was our last week and our long weekend, in a nutshell. I love my kids, they were fantastic helpers last week and even had some good suggestions for the cats. Oh, and I got to try my new bath products from a local artisan, which I promise to review next Monday!! I hope you had a good week last week.

 

Other posts to read:

Setting Up Grief Counseling

Making Time for Myself

Why I Mostly Failed at the First Attempt to Have a Capsule Wardrobe

Five of the Easiest Ways To Get a Handle On Your Finances.