5 posts tagged “fritz”
After posting a link to my YouTube account where most of my Fritz videos go, I realized it's been awhile since I actually posted one. Fritz got a kitty tube and tent this week and he's loved diving into them--I realized it was time for me to learn how to use iMovie so I could present the highlights of his play time. Maybe now that I know how to edit video I'll post more of him!
(Sorry for the abundance of Fritz on this blog. It'll calm down eventually. Although really, if you get sick of seeing animals, I'm not sure how we became neighbors in the first place.)
I meant to include this in the last update as an example of Fritz's madness; Deltan's comment reminded me. Fritz is entirely obsessed with this folding planet chair we have. It used to be a lovely, solid black. It now looks like:
My friend and Vox neighbor Heather recently (and not at all hypocritically) pointed out that I haven't updated in 3 weeks--and she's right! I'm sure you've all just been lost without reading something from me in your 'hoods, so here goes a little update-age.
Life has mostly been pretty boring for me lately--thus the lack of posting. Thanks to our slow but steady weight gain since living together (and my graduating--you really underestimate the exercise you get walking to class carrying 50 pounds of books), Brian and I have been utilizing our Wii Fit to try to motivate ourselves to get into shape.
Side Note: If you're interested in Wii Fit and don't already have one, I'd recommend waiting for the newer version, announced at this year's E3 and coming out soon.
Besides failed attempts at improved fitness, I've been working hard to "train" Fritz. (I put that in quotation marks because with cats, I think it's less training them and more requesting they behave differently.)
His playful aggression was getting to be way too much to handle.
Brian and I have also taken to nature a bit lately--with mixed results. On the one hand, we're thrilled to have this lovely trail that starts at the park 100 yards or so from our apartment and winds through the woods and past a lake to another park about 2 miles away. It makes for a great walk with some interesting sights.
A week from tomorrow we'll be leaving for California for Brian's family reunion. I'm looking forward to some vacation time! And what I'm (selfishly) looking forward to the most is getting on a plane knowing it's not taking me away from Brian for an indefinite amount of time. Barf, right?
Hope all of my neighbors are well! And I'll try to post more. In terms of quantity of posts, that is. In terms of length of posts, I'll try to post less from now on. I'LL POST MORE AND LESS.
I leave you with Regal Fritz:
Note: This post is super long and picture-heavy. Hope no one in my neighborhood is on dial-up. :/
Two weeks ago, I made a teaser post about finally doing what I've been wanting to for 3 years now: getting my own kitty! Sorry for the delay, but here's an in-depth review of what happened.
This all started because Heather felt compelled to send me a video of an adorable cat at our local PetSmart (a company which adopts out animals from shelters--I'd never buy an animal from a pet store). Of course I was powerless to resist my need to go see this kitty for myself, and while she turned out to be a tiiiny bit too wild for my tastes, I did happen to really like a sweet chunky cat named "Jewel" (um, a name I would've changed). I made myself wait to adopt, and that Friday I decided to take some old newspapers to donate to the shelter--and you know, maybe I would look at the cats a little. Of course, I fell in love with a billion, but one in particular: Mozart, a lovable Siamese whom someone else had had declawed. My mind was made up to get a cat, but I needed to wait for Brian to go with me since it would be his cat too.
The next day my awesome parents came up to help us out. We spent at least 2 hours obtaining various cat supplies, still undecided between Jewel, Mozart, and now a new fiesta of cats that ANOTHER shelter had brought into PetSmart just for Saturday. (Including a cat that looked eerily like Donatello, the cat I'd had for some 17 years. Ultimately, though, I know I wouldn't have been able to deal with that.) But I'd spent all evening thinking about Mozart, and my heart was getting set...
...only to find when we arrived at the shelter an hour and a half after they opened that he'd been adopted! I was happy he'd found a home, but now more decisions had to be made!
After looking and playing and ear-scritching the 30 or so cats, I was becoming very drawn to Fritz, a cat I hadn't even considered the day before. (Actually, just before we left for the shelter I told my mom about him--I knew she'd love his coloring.) He was affectionate, friendly, and quite sad when we left the room. I felt bad for Jewel--and um, still do--but I'd been charmed by Fritz.
Brian and I are both taking Claritin every day in an attempt to thwart allergies, but to make sleeping a more bearable undertaking we've decided that at least for now, we're not letting Fritz into our bedroom when we sleep our on our bed at all. This was an adjustment for Fritz the first night.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked his litter box to scoop it... only to find nothing in there? That seemed odd, because he hadn't pooed since we'd gotten him some 18 hours earlier. I went to my office to check my e-mail and smelled--as you might be able to guess--poopies. Apparently Fritz was not quite as litterbox trained as the shelter thought.
The following Monday morning I took Fritz to the nearest vet for a post-shelter check-up and to get some treatment for what looked like an upper respiratory infection. To make a long story short: my experience was not good. It was very, very bad. I won't bother going into extreme details, but we're talking hour-and-a-half wait and being given improper instructions regarding Fritz's medicine (including a lack of information about a vaccine they gave him). After three days of poor Fritzy having to have antibiotics (and poor me having to give them to him), I woke up the next Thursday morning to find Fritz puke-puke-puking. I was worried sick (as was he, apparently) and decided to take him to the vet recommended to me by a number of my coworkers--and had the absolute best vet experience I could've hoped for. They determined he was probably allergic to the antiobiotic and gave him a one-time shot, which seems to have cured his URI. They also took care of all the other things the other vet couldn't/wouldn't, including trimming claws, getting mats out of his fur, checking his ears thoroughly, testing and treating him properly for any possible worms, etc. I could've bought him 3 more kitty friends for the amount I paid for this particular vet visit, but I'm so glad to know I have a vet I trust now. (You know, one who will tell me that he needs a second shot to complete his feline leukemia vaccination.)
Fritz seemed to feel better almost immediately, and we quickly realized that while he is still a very easy-going cat, Fritz is perhaps not quite as mellow as we had thought he was when he was apparently not feeling well. We began to see the Fritz Monster.
Edited to Add: Although the shelter listed Fritz as simply a domestic shorthair/mix, I did a little research and as far as I can tell, Fritz appears to be a Colorpoint Shorthair, which I happen to think is awesome. I don't even know if that's a Serious Big-Time Important Breed, or if he's even officially considered that breed, but I love his coloring and beautiful blue eyes. He's also incredibly soft!
I'm exhausted and have to get up early, so consider this a teaser trailer for an upcoming blog post:
