Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Rhubarb and Buttercup in the basket by all our fabric piles.

I don't know that I have a huge amount of news to report today, but, if you can't tell, I've been trying to post something every week day. I'm not talking about it as any kind of New Year's resolution, because I suspect that as soon as you label something that, you jinx it. So, forget I said anything. This is just a habit I've been trying to get into.  No pressure. No expectations.

Speaking of things like that, I am currently nearly at a 60 day streak in Duolingo. For those of you just tuning in, I have been trying to learn Japanese since.... what is it now? Forever? Yes, I think since forever. I am no closer now that I was when I started, I swear, but honestly, this has become a weird sort of hobby for me, much like quilting or drawing. Anyway, having a streak for this long is kind of new thing for me. I've stayed at Japanese for a long time, but I tend to not be great at a daily habit. So, this is exciting. Did I also tell you that I found a podcast that proports to teach me Japanese while I sleep? Yeah, I don't really think it will work either, but I also don't see how it can hurt me.

In other news, I just locked our escape artists (pictured above, Buttercup) into the bedroom because we are about to have a handyman come by and.... Ope! He's here. That's exciting. He's going to (hopefully) be fixing a drain we broke mumblely-mumblely years ago. If he can do it, it will be super lovely to have an upstairs bathtub available again. It's our clawfoot. We have another bath, but I have two very long-legged people in this house (or rather, often do, with Mason off at college again,) and the other tub is less comfy for them. I'm fine? But I could probably bathe in a washtub, I'm so short. I make up for my stubbiness by being round, so maybe not.

Tonight is my class, also, which I was smart and prepped BEFORE the handymen came. I mean, I could probably do some now, but it's always so distracting when people are in the house, banging around. Like, just now, trying to remember which circuit goes to which rooms of the house is very ??? in our 100+ year old place. 

But, anyway, it's good that we're getting this done, finally. 

Class will be interesting tonight. It's hard to gauge participation since, while I "assigned" homework, I made it clear that nothing had to be turned in. So, people may have done the assignment outside of Google classroom. I guess I'll find out when I ask. Two out of five people officially turned things in, so maybe that's also not a bad participation rate? If one other person half-assed it, that's 50%.  

Sigh.

How are you? How was you weekend?

 Saint Paul only just now called a snow emergency, which means they won't even start plowing side streets until 9 pm. I just shoveled an additional 7 inches of snow from my sidewalk. Shawn and I estimate that about ten or eleven inches. (25.4 cm or 30 cm) fell in the last day.


Image: the snow covered tree in front of our house. (The little blue sign is our "We protect the Mississippi," thing which really just means that Mason adopted a storm drain when he needed a volunteer project a few years ago in order to get into the honors program in high school. I think his favorite part of that program was getting to name the drain. These are in Rochester, but explain what I mean: https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/funny-storm-drain-names-grate)

So, yeah, it snowed? 

I have not tried to move the car, nor do I intend to. Since St. Paul won't even be dusting off the plows until after 9 pm today, I am parked on the "night plow" side of the street and that's where I plan to stay. Technically, D&D is tonight, but I am hopeful that either we will ALL move to Discord or they can let me "phone it in," as it were.

All this snow started falling yesterday. Shawn was supposed to go into work for her performance review, but that meeting got shifted to virtual so she bailed at around 11 am.  She worked from home all day yesterday, but Mason and I (neither of us who normally have work do to right now) treated it as a snow day and spent the day watching TV (he is re-watching and I'm watching for the first time FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'd seen FullMetal Alchemist a long time ago, but, even though everyone TOLD me how much better "Brotherhood" is, I never got around to watching it. GUYS, IT'S A WHOLE LOT BETTER.)  I tried to do some quilting, but was stymied by the angry peanut.


Image: Rhubarb (who is actually very sweet these days) loafing in the middle of the quilting hoop.

I should say that even though Willow and Rhubarb still stalk each other around the house, we have mostly settled into a détente. Rhubarb no longer holds any ill-will towards the people. I can't remember the last time she swiped at us with claws out. It's all been play bats. Willow would still like it very much if this interloper would move along, but she's settled back into snoozing under the covers by my legs at night, and otherwise TOLERATING this other cat. Buttercup is still baffled why his two favorite black-haired ladies don't love each other as much as he loves them.

I hope you are all being safe out there, if you are also experiencing snow (and even if you're not.)

 
Rhubarb in foreground (left), Buttercup (orange) attempting to model relaxed posture, and Willow background (middle.)

We are currently trying something new. All the articles we've read about cat introductions are really insistent on this whole continued separation thing, but they also seem to want us to have screen doors in the interior of our house so that the cats can get used to the sight of each other. Well, we can separate, but only with solid doors. This has been leading, we think, so a lot of anxiousness. Where did that interloper go? Did I chase her off? Rather than, "Ah, yes, the annoying look-alike that lives here with me is still here being annoying and looking exactly like me only smaller/bigger."

So, we decided to devote the day to supervised observing. We are only isolating briefly if there is actual teeth out, claws scratching fights. And, even then, we are only closing off the attacker for a few minutes before reintroducing them.

This seems to be working better.

It helps that Buttercup is LITERALLY putting himself between them during tense stare downs and flopping around as if to say, "What? It's chill here. I'm chill. How are you?"


Image: Rhubarb, Buttercup, and Willow. Two tense ladies and one chill boi.

 
Image: Willow and Clover eyeing each other on the bed. Clover is hiding behind a green comforter, her ears forward with wary worry; Willow has murder glinting in her yellow-green eyes. Blade of the Immortal lies open between them.

We are committed to a slow introduction.

The friends who were possibly interested in Clover came by on Sunday, had a short, if somewhat unfruitful introduction (more on that in a bit) and still are, but, for reasons, can't take her in for another week, regardless. Meanwhile, we have been having more and more moments like the one above where the two ladies warily regard each other in close proximity with only a small amount of growling and hissing. Our friends are very patient and kind and are willing to remain as back-up in case we simply can't introduce these two no matter what. In the meantime, we have scheduled a spay for Clover on Monday next, with the intention that we keep her. 

So, our friends came by on Sunday around 1 pm. They got a little lost because St. Paul repels anyone from Minneapolis. It's just the nature of the rivalry between the two cities, I firmly believe. (I used to be able to navigate Minneapolis no problem, but after decades of being a St. Paulie, Minneapolis now sees me coming and jumbles up the streets.) We had shut Willow up into the TV room in preparation of the visit. Likewise, we'd let Clover have the run of the house hoping that she'd make her way downstairs. She didn't. In fact, when I picked her up from the bedroom windowsill to show her off to our friends she grumbled and hissed in my arms.

I'm beginning to believe she has decided we are her people and is having none of this being shown off to other people.

Because, wouldn't you know it, the first time our friend very carefully reached for her there were growls and snaps... and then she literally turned tail and ran upstairs to hide under the bed. Said friend later went upstairs with Shawn and had, from all accounts, a much better interaction, but Clover remains very... I swear to all the gods, intentionally unlikable when in the company of other people, particularly other people whom have expressed interested in taking her away from us.

Despite all this, our friends are very willing to remain on stand-by. So, they are the good people we always knew they were.

In the meantime, a fascinating new cat dynamic has emerged in our household.


Image: Like a hidden object game, find all three cats in this messy living room. Hint: big orange tail on the floor, two voids on either chairs.

When Clover is on walkabout at the same time Willow is out, there have been a couple of times when Willow seems surprised to remember that there is an interloper in her household and she will actually make sudden aggressive moves towards Clover. Both times that this happened, I was moving to interfere when.... Buttercup got there first. The first time, Willow had been on the porch and suddenly spotted the smallest little girl out of the corner of her eye and freaked out. She made a mad dash at her. I was standing up to grab her when Buttercup flashed in-between the two ladies and physically blocked Willow's attack, allowing Clover to escape upstairs. He then bullied Willow back a bit before running upstairs to check in on Clover.

I have long joked that Buttercup was a Golden Retriever in a past life, but this is the single most "dog" like behavior I have ever seen him do.

Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he ended up doing it again when Willow attempted to corner Clover under the dining room set. 

For the record, I am not afraid that Buttercup will hurt Willow. He is similarly fiercely protective of her to the point that, if I am giving medicine to Willow and she squawks at all, he will come up and give me a fierce stare like, "You'd better not hurt her." If any of you remember the story of when Willow swallowed a needle, you also will remember that he was the one who literally brought me to her, Lassie-like, when she was hiding in the basement and alerted us to the problem. 

So, I don't think he has simply shifted his affection. From what I saw (and granted it was only twice) he will made a jump at Willow, but only to get her to back off. They did not fight at all. Fingers crossed their relationship stays this way. I'm not depending on it, but I do think it's kind of amazing that Buttercup is acting protective like this to the littlest one. 

We are, of course, separating them immediately when this happens. We kept them apart for several hours, and we're still making Clover sleep in a shut room. We are trying to be slow and careful with our introductions so that we can have as few of these incidents as possible. Hopefully, Willow will get used to her. I suspect that even if she remains wary the rest of this week, that it all might change once Clover is spayed. 

Fingers crossed at any rate.

 
Image: Looking down at the big, orange, fluff belly


Image: black cat, being sleepy, manages to look eeeeevil.