Jasmine: Stage 3

She has moved onto stage 3.

The center of the toilet cover contraption has a hole in it.

I put her up there and she looked in the hole and down at the water for a good 3 or 4 more minutes before looking and sniffing around. She jumped down. I put her up again and she peed for me. She made me laugh so much though. When it first hit the water she was startled quite a bit by the sound. The next 2 times as well.

Her training is going well though and I'm so excited! Her litter box is now a thing of the past!

Jasmine's new trick

So I've got some exciting news...

Jasmine is learning to use the toilet.

Hahahah

Yeah, I get it. Funny. I laughed, too. :) But it's actually working! She's only on the 2nd stage, but she's graduating to stage 3 on Wednesday.

Stage 1 was getting her to go on the seat contraption (on the floor). She's used to a deeper litter box and being able to bury her business.

Stage 2 is putting the contraption on the toilet and training her to jump up. It's fully solid and still uses litter. (The flushable kind)

Stage 3 has a small hole to get her used to balancing around the center and her business going in the water. And you slowly lessen the amount of litter.

Stage 4 has just a little bit of litter and a bigger hole to really balance her.

Stage 5 has no inner ring and she learns to balance on the seat itself. 

I'll let you know when she passes stage 3.

She is being trained on our spare bathroom toilet, no we are not sharing with her. And no, we are not training her how to flush haha.

Puppy for Christmas!

Steve is letting me get a puppy for Christmas! Hooray! I'm going to start looking next month though, because I know it takes a while to find the perfect one! But there's a puppy somewhere that is about to be born who already has a forever home. I can't wait to meet her!

Jasmine doesn't know it yet, but she will have a play buddy soon and will hopefully get worn out during the day and leave me alone at 3 am, 4 am and 5 am.

She is frustrating me though. I have to keep our spare bedroom door shut because she's pooped in there twice and peed once. Now that she doesn't have access, I discovered last night she's been peeing on the spare bathroom rug. No pooping outside her box though! Although, I think I'd rather have that because it doesn't soak into the carpet the way pee does. I don't know what to do about it! I keep her litter box clean so I don't know what her problem is!

30 more days until I see my Steve in case any of you were wondering. :) This part is half over!!!

Only 29 days until I leave for Texas though! Woot!

A friend from work will be checking on Jasmine every day while I'm gone. No one can actually take her, so I'm just giving my key to my friend. It'll probably be a lot less stressful for her anyway. Although, she'll by SUPER lonely. That's the only thing I'm worried about. It'll be less than a week so I think she'll be fine. Hopefully, she won't hate me when I get back.

Just a warning... stay away from my work this week. Seriously. Corporate has to turn on our A/C and they have yet to do so. It's hotter inside than outside. So today is a "hair up in a ponytail" day. On a cooler note... my landlord filled my swamp cooler yesterday and so my home is now comfy again! Hooray!

Singed

We lit a candle and placed it on the coffee table. Jasmine walked by and paused with her tail in front of it. I pushed her along with my foot and told her to be careful or she'll burn her tail.

She plops down about 2 feet away. 30 seconds later Steve and I smell burned fur, look at each other, then at her and she starts smelling the air towards her butt.

Her expression was so funny, we both burst out laughing. I still don't think she knows she singed her tail.

Ornaments!!!

 

I like matching sets! And these matching gingerbreads are just too cute

 

I've had this one since I was little. I can't remember if it came from my mom's tree or my dad's tree, but it's mine now! It has my name on it!

 

These two are just so pretty! I love crystal! 

 

Sonja kinda got me this one as a joke last year. I loved the little mermaid when I was little and would make her watch it with me over and over and over. Haha

 

This one was a gift from the place we got married, The Old South Dakota Governor's Mansion.

 

And of course, we got an ornament for the year we were married. I think my parents got us this one, too. 

 

And then here's Jasmine, admiring them all haha

Day 41: Jasmine

A PICTURE OF YOUR PET

And yet another fabulous picture of the lovely Jasmine showing her attitude!

By the way, when we get a puppy, I'm seriously considering the name Raja. Hahaha.

Day 37: Cats are people, too!

A PICTURE OF THE PEOPLE YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME WITH

Jasmine isn't a "people" but I still spend most of my time with her. I think I see her more than my husband. :(

Day 24: Animal Cruelty

A PICTURE OF SOMETHING YOU WISH YOU COULD CHANGE

I wish I could change sick and violent humans.

I don't understand how anyone can hurt and torture innocent creatures who can't or won't fight back.

Don't even think about typing "animal cruelty" into google. It will make your heart hurt, make you want to cry, and hate humankind if you are anything like me.

Instead, enjoy my adorable Jasmine.

Round and Round We Go

Jasmine vs plastic bag

Whenever we go grocery shopping, we ball up the grocery bags as we empty them and toss them across the room because Jasmine loves to chase them.

I went to Target a few days ago to pick up a few things and threw my bag at Jasmine. Then I was being lazy and didn't ever pick it up. That was just fine with her! She ended up pushing it around the room with her nose for hours in little spurts. I think she was trying to get under it.

She has since flattened it out and uses it as her bed - even though she has a bed.

Sometimes, when she is going back to it, she pounces and just starts gnawing on it.

She did manage to get inside it at one point.

I like to torture cats

I put a leash on Jasmine today and took her outside because it's not freezing.

She didn't like it too much, even though she used to sneak out of my in-laws house every chance she got.

I haven't been playing with her much lately and so she's been being a brat and getting into things. So I figured a little torture would make her more appreciative haha. Don't worry, it was only 5 minutes.

I'm hoping to get her a companion puppy within the next year or so once we are settled at whatever base we'll be sent to. Or maybe during tech school if it's going to be a long time. Who knows? I just feel bad because she always seems to be so bored!

Love - It Goes Both Ways

If you really know me, you know how much I adore animals. You'd also know that unless my husband is in the kitchen when I get home, my cat gets love and kisses first.

She rushes to greet me EVERY time I come home from work, or even after 5 minutes to run down to the office for something.

If she's tired and wants to sleep while I'm on the computer, she's under the desk curled up around my feet.

If she's awake and just wants to be near me, she's on the back of my chair leaning against me.

If I'm in the kitchen, she's in the kitchen.

If I'm in the bedroom, she's in the corner of the bedroom watching.

I absolutely cherish her, and I'm glad she feels the same! She's definitely a mama's girl.

A weekly ritual

You may recall my cat... Jasmine?

Yes, her. Yes, she often sleeps with her tongue sticking out.

She doesn't really like those plastic balls that jingle. She doesn't really like any plastic balls. She loves Christmas bows though. We have 2 floating around our apartment.

My friend NB bought her own cat some crinkle balls. They are shiney, colored foil balls. They are "crinkle balls" because they make that crinkle sound.

I thought maybe Jasmine would like them too so I bought a pack of four for like a dollar. She loves them. She bats them around like crazy, and gets sad when they all disappear - and they ALL disappear eventually... under the oven.

And so it is our weekly ritual to stick the broom under the oven to push them out. She anxiously awaits their return, as you can see.

Early Christmas

I was bored today, so I randomly decided we should put our Christmas tree up! It's beautiful! I had it on a color scheme when I first got it a few years ago (blue and silver bulbs with white lights) but since people keep giving us ornaments... it's gotten much more colorful.

Now all I have to worry about is Jasmine getting into the tree. I hope in the last two years that she's learned to leave it alone, but it is a change and she gets curious with changes.

I learned today that taking a "family" picture with her is very tough. This is the best we managed, and her eyes are glowy. *Sigh*AND the tree ended up not being in the background. Arg.

I almost decided not to put the tree up at all this year, but I just love the sparkly too much. I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit simply because we are not buying gifts for anyone this year. Not even each other. I mentioned before how tight we are on money because I'm only getting two days a week. I've decided to look for either another part time job, or just a full time job to replace my bookstore completely. We'll see what I can find. I've already done a few applications. I put one in for a clinic, and I so desperately want it! I would love to be a receptionist and get away from retail!!!

Isn't that sad though? I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit because I can't BUY gifts. I'm rather annoyed with myself. That's not what Christmas is about, but I just love GIVING people things - especially my little sister since I can't be with her. That, and I can't go to my annual Christmas party since we moved. :(

So what about you? When are you putting your Christmas tree up? Are you in the spirit this year?

Sorry it’s been so long… we moved

I know it's been a while. I've been busy. And lazy. I also partly blame my dad though because I want pictures of his retirement to go with this post, and he has yet to email them to me.

September 18th: We left for Utah with high hopes. It was a good drive, until dark. That's when the deer decided to show up. LOTS of deer. We stopped in the next town because of this. Rawlins, WY had some big college game going on and so all the cheaper hotels were booked. We ended up staying in an overpriced room because we didn't really have any other option.

September 19th: We arrive at CC's and spend some time with her and her mom. I stopped by a bookstore and dropped off an application. We learned to play Farkle and Apples to Apples thanks to CC.

September 20th: I went to a fake interview. The company is stupid and doesn't know how to manage its system. They ended up blowing me off. The rest of the day we went looking at apartments. We looked at about 12 different ones. Some were an immediate no. In the end, we were interested in three, but could only afford one.

September 21st: We called around to other places to see if they allowed cats. Most of them said no. We called around asking if they had any one bedroom apartments opening soon. Most of them said no. We called around asking for our price range, most of them said no. We then spent the rest of the day doing job apps.

September 22nd: We decided on the one we have now and got our deposit down, then did job apps the rest of the day.

September 23rd: We flew to Virginia - stressed about being jobless, but happy we found a place to live and excited to see my family!

September 24th: My daddy had his retirement ceremony. He's accomplished so much that I didn't know. I'm very proud of him, and I feel like I'm letting him down even more by being unemployed. I feel like I'm disappointing him by not having my degree already. I love him to death, and I want to make him proud. I also got to see all of my family. My grandparents, my aunts and my cousins. I got to meet my newest cousin (JW) for the first time. He's a handful, haha, but what toddler isn't? We just hung around my parents' house and had dinner outside. It was a nice day.

September 25th: (Our anniversary) We went to the beach and took family pictures. I know my grandparents are all about the bloodline, but I always feel bad when they don't include step-mom, and now Steve. After pictures Steve, AW and KI got in the ocean. I would have too if my swim suit fit properly. It was just a little too snug, so I wore a dress over it. Instead, I took turns with my aunts holding JW up in the waves. He had a little bit of rash, so we couldn't let him sit down and get sand in his diaper. He really seemed to like it! My grandparents, aunts and cousins had to leave early though to drive back to Ohio. So after saying goodbye, Steve, AW and I started collecting seashells. The ones we kept are in a little dish by my bathroom sink. My parents went to a play later that night, and I helped AW with her homework.

September 26th: We went to Busch Gardens. We went on a bunch of rides, ate dinner and then the Halloween event started at 6. First, we went to a little Halloween musical show that lasted about 20 minutes. Then we started walking through the haunted houses. My little sister apparently scares easily. She refused to be first or last. She had to be in the middle. The people that work there know that the scared ones are always in the middle though, so they really focused on her. She giggled like crazy when they would follow her or one of us. It was a lot of fun!

September 27th: Step-mom got super sick. Throwing up all day, so we decided to just hang around the house. Steve and I were worn out from everything happening since we left South Dakota, so we needed the break.

September 28th: Steve got super sick. Throwing up all day. Step-mom was feeling quite a bit better though, so after AW got home from school, the three of us went shopping for her first homecoming dress. Daddy wouldn't let her go with the boy that asked her, because the boy wanted to do the whole dinner/date thing. Our dad is very protective of his girls. Daddy made his super awesome ribs that night too as promised, and they were delicious. I felt bad that Steve didn't get any, but it was better for him not to. He was still throwing up after all.

September 29th: We flew back to South Dakota. 10 hours. It sucked. Steve was better though. Waiting for our last flight, my phone rang. The bookstore wanted to interview me on Friday. I told her I wouldn't be there 'til Saturday, and she said she'd make an exception for me.

September 30th: We went to the post office to do a change of address; went to the bank to open an IRA account for Steve's 401K; went to NB's to say goodbye and pick up a few things; stopped by my work to pick up my last paycheck and say goodbye again to my girls there; picked up the uhaul; emptied our storage unit; and emptied our room in his parents house.

October 1st: October already!? Got up around 7. Left at 8:30. Jasmine was not happy. She was meowing very loudly. She panted from time to time. I gave her lots of extra love whenever she started freaking out. After the first half an hour, she was fine. She'd meow from time to time, and I'd pet her and she'd be fine. She kept switching between our laps and her own seat in the middle. We got to CC's again at about 830. She wasn't there so we went to bed pretty early.

October 2nd: Got up and went to my interview at the bookstore. She loved me! I was so happy and excited! She said she just had to do the formalities of checking my references and such, but that she wanted to get me into orientation as soon as possible! Yes! After that, we went to our apartment, signed the lease, handed over a huge check that would cover our whole lease. They wanted all of it because we were unemployed. I had to borrow money from my dad. But hey, no interest! We're going to pay him back the money we would normally being paying for the rent. So it works. We got our keys and moved in. We started at about noon and we were finished by four. So we took the truck back to U-haul. AG was able to help with a few things before ZG woke up. After that, Alicia babysat our truck in case of thieves by playing with ZG in the grass. Thank you AG!

October 3rd: We unpacked 80% of everything. We were so sore from the previous day from the heavy lifting and all those stairs. Those stairs aren't much a few times a day, but 50 bajillion times, they are torture. Tylenol was our friend. We also got a few groceries. Cold stuff mostly that his mom couldn't pack for us.

October 4th: Finished unpacking and since then we've mostly just been vegging out. Me waiting for my job to start. Steve doing more applications. We passed one of the places Steve had applied for, and decided he would go in the next day to talk to them.

Steve got the job after going in. He started yesterday. It's a temporary job, but they should have permanent positions opening up in a few weeks. If not, this job should last long enough for him to do more apps and find a permanent position elsewhere. Please pray he finds a good permanent position soon!

I know it's long. That's what we've been up to.

Steve Drew This

Jasmine is officially mine

One of my first posts was about Jasmine, the spoiled brat pictured here and how I would one day kidnap her from my in-laws.

I love her to death, and I'm happy to announce that she is officially mine! Her chip information was changed over yesterday, and she is moving with us to Utah.

We've known for a few months now that she would be ours because my in-laws are sick of her. She was peeing in the spare bedroom upstairs, and the computer room downstairs. It smells pretty bad in there. She had a bladder infection at the time, and so I think she just started going wherever because she associated pain with her litter box.

The bladder infection is gone, and she hasn't done it since we've moved back in with his parents. Although, she did do it while we were gone on vacation in Virginia.

I really don't think we are going to have any problems with her. Now that I think about it, cats do things like that when they get mad. Maybe she was mad that Steve and I had moved out, and now that we are back, she's perfectly content again. Maybe she knew all along that we were her owners?

Anyway, Jasmine's mine. She's a pain in the butt when she wants attention, she bangs on the door with her paws when we shut the door at night, and she sheds all over my work clothes, but I love her and I'm so happy and excited that she is coming with us to Utah!

The trip should be interesting. I bought her a cheap little harness to wear for our drive down. When we stop, I'm going to let her out of the truck on a leash so she doesn't feel trapped and scared. When we get to our new home in Utah, she's going to start wearing a collar. She does have a chip, but if someone finds her and tries to keep her, they'll know she already has a home and hopefully turn her in. Although, I'm really hoping she never gets out. She is an indoor kitty only.

She's about four years old, so here's to at least another ten years with her! (Hopefully)

Meet Jasmine

This is "my" kitty. Her name is Jasmine and she's about 2 years old. We found her at the pound and they guessed she was almost 1 when they took her off the cold streets in the middle of winter.

She lives with my mother-in-law currently, but she is secretly mine. One of these days I will kidnap her and not tell anyone. Her disappearance will be such a mystery! Although, revealing my plan may not work out since my mother-in-law will be reading this...

When we first got her, Steve and I were living with his parents because we had just moved into town and needed a place to stay. When we got her, she was very sick. She wouldn't eat or drink anything. My in-laws were going out of town, so my husband and I took care of her. We had to mix wet food with water and then force her to swallow it with an eye dropper. I think her illness was made worse because the pound did surgery on her to fix her (a requirement for all that are adopted) even though she was so sick. Since we were force feeding her, she started to regain her strength and started eating/drinking on her own and she has been healthy ever since.

This second picture is the same week we took her home.

Her neck is shaved because she also got a microchip.

I absolutely adore her. She is cute and crazy. She has a very unique personality and I wouldn't trade her for anything! Sometimes, when she looks at you she is slightly cross-eyed and it makes me laugh every time.

Unless there is food in front of her, she comes every time I call her.

She’s very playful. She'll play with just about anything. A ball, a laser, string, squeaky mouse toys, a peanut that fell on the kitchen floor, a box... anything.

She eats bugs if she notices them and I hate bugs. So that's perfect! Protein is good for her.

She’s a clepto. She steals things off the end table and you never see them again. Things like bottle caps. God forbid you leave jewelry lying around. We have no idea what she does with them... I'm sure she has a secret stash somewhere full of all kinds of things.

She sleeps in the strangest positions.

She'll sleep on anything... even shoes!

She talks to me. I can have full conversations with her. She is very agreeable and tells me exactly what I want to hear.

She’s very loving. If I'm holding her close to my face and just giving her attention, she licks my cheeks. She loves me and I love her.

Everything is exciting to her. Boxes, shelves, laundry baskets... if she can climb in it or on it, she is a happy kitty.

She loves being in my lap. She's an attention-hog and gets mad when I ignore her for too long.

Like I said, she's cute and crazy, but I absolutely adore her!