I get Tofu Friday!

Tofu comes to live with me Friday! Woo hoo! His foster mommy is bringing him in the morning. Thursday night, I'll be putting away all the rest of my stuff into the storage bins I'm getting, so everything will be all nice for him. I am so, so, so excited! I'll finally have my kitty! Yes! I love that little guy, and I don't even have him yet. I can hardly wait until Friday!

Pasta's getting a little brother!

So, I checked with my manager, and I can only have one kitty. Bummer. However, I can keep Pasta, whether she is working or not. So that's definitely good news! So, decision time. Well, it ended up being a very easy decision who I wanted. Tofu just won my heart.
I don't have him yet since I'm not all moved yet and so haven't had my home visit, but it looks very promising. And yes, its the kitty with the vision problem. I went with the foster mommy to the eye doctor Wednesday and asked about the long-term care needed for his eye and if I'd be able to do it properly. My main concern was that I wouldn't be able to do his eye drops and ointment he'd been getting.
Well, it turns out, the vet thought the eye drops and ointment weren't necessary on a regular basis afterall. Since he had the herpes virus, the eye gunk he'd get from time to time was it reemerging, and the ointment and drops were more for if he got a bacterial infection as a result. They wouldn't help the virus, and all that would is giving him an L-lysine capsil with his food, which is being done. I can do that easy! I asked how I'd clean the eye if he got a break-out, and he said just to flush it out with eye wash. Heck, I can do that! The vet said he saw no problems in me adopting him and thought he'd be very low maintenance. And, it turns out, while they had thought he has some vision remaining in his left eye, they now believe he doesn't. When a light was shown in his eye, his pupil did not constrict. So, they said it may be best for him to remove the eye so he doesn't have to worry about outbreaks returning. He'd be lots more comfortable without the irritation of it, and he can see perfectly fine out of his right eye. And since he can't see out of his left anyway, he wouldn't be missing anything.
So, right now, the foster is talking with another vet she's worked with before with another non proffit to see if he can do the surgery cheaper than this vet quoted. If so, she wants to do it at the end of the month. If it happens, I wouldn't even need to flush out the eye, since it wouldn't be there. I guess they'd just take it out and suture the eyelid closed and that it'd heal very nicely, as I am told.
So yay! After the vet left the room, the foster mommy gave me a big hug and said "Yay, I'm so happy." When Pasta hears yay, she gets happy, too, so she stood up and wagged her tail. The foster mommy said "Pasta, you're going to get a little brother!" So woo hoo! I know I haven't had a home visit yet, but I'm feeling good about this, especially since she said that about Pasta getting a brother and since she didn't want me to put any money down for his adoption now. She seemed very touched when I told her I already bought a pet carrier and a cat tree.
So yes, it looks like Pasta's going to get a little brother. Yes! I love this kitty. Oh, by the way, his name is Tofu. So how funny; both my animals will be named after food! He is a boy, obviously, and is about nine months old. I'll have to see if she knows his birthdate, but I know its in July. It looks like he'll be a big kitty, so this carrier I have won't fit him long since I bought a small. He has some Siamese in him because he has the kink in his tail, blue eyes, and is quite a talker when he wants food. He doesn't seem to be a lap cat, but he loves attention, to be close by, and to play. His fur is creamy colored with grey around his eyes and ears and tail, and it is long, fluffy, and very soft. Can you tell I love him yet?
I'm just so excited, I had to share. I'll let you all know once I get all settled in and have my home visit, when/if he gets his surgery, and of course, once I get him home!

Kitties!

So, I am happy to report that I can have a kitty in my new apartment! Woo hoo! Finally! They don't even charge a pet deposit.
I get to get my keys and start moving in on Saturday. I'm not sure how much I'll do then, but I'm just happy I'll have my keys. I'll be doing a little at a time since I'm still in class, so most of the moving will be on the weekends. So, the kitty won't be coming home until a month or so from now. But I'm still so happy!
I found one on petfinder that I was really interested in. He is long-haired and has Siamese in him. He has Herpes in one eye so can't see well out of it. I felt bad for him with this and sympathize with him not being able to see well. Yeah, I'm silly. Anyway, he is awesome! I visited his foster home and met him and all the other kitties there. He is super cool! He's playful and sweet and has a super cute meow when he wants food.
My only concerns are how I'd be at taking care of his eye. He gets an ointment, and that seemed relatively easy. She just puts it on her finger and rubs it around his eye while she holds him on his back. He didn't like it but was calm and good about it. I think I could do this fine. The eye drops he gets is what makes me nervous. I'd have to figure out how best to do it so I got them in. That's my worry is that I wouldn't get them in and wouldn't know. Its a concern, but he is just so cool, I just have to figure out how I can do it right. I just love this little guy.
He's about 8 months old, and he's been in the foster ladies house with kitties and a golden retriever. He didn't seem phased at all by Pasta, and she was great, too! He even moved her paw out of the way so he could eat a kibble off the floor I dropped. It was adorable!
But, here is going to be the tough part. I was only thinking I'd get one kitty. I'm not sure if my apartment allows more than one or not. I never asked, but they never laid out a pet policy, either. I'm going to have to ask because another kitty pulled at my heart-strings, too. She's orange and white and came up to me right away, too, just like the semi-blind one.
To me, that was a great sign. I had Pasta right there, and both these kitties came up once I had the food. And, this girl was supposedly shy. But with me, while I had the food especially, she was not shy a bit. She and the other guy even both stood on my lap for awhile. And, after awhile, she went and curled up in her little house and fell asleep, only a few feet from Pasta. She was very comfortable with her, and she even sniffed at her tail.
So, yeah, I'm going to have to find out if I can have two kitties and if the foster would let me have two in a studio. Otherwise, I think it'll be hard for me to pick since they were both so cool in different ways and both so sweet and beautiful. I'm going to go back on Monday for another visit and not start with the food this time and see what happens. I'll go back at least once more, too. I think this is best so the kitties get more familiar with me and Pasta and Pasta with them.
I know there'd be advantages for the kitties if I can adopt two of them. They have basically grown up together. The female is about a year and the male is about 8 months. She even groomed him after he got his ointment on. Aw! And then they wouldn't be alone when I was at school or work, and they'd still have someone familiar with them after being taken out of their home and put in a new one. So, we'll see how it goes, but I just love those two! Cross your fingers for me that I can get both, and if not, that one of them makes it clear that they want to come home with me. I want the kitty to be happy!

Hi all. So I got really excited tonight when Anthony was showing me this
E-mail he got about something called the Justice Corps. I've heard about it
before and basically, you help people who can't afford legal aid. It sounds
much cooler than my short little discription here, especially since I'm
into crim. Anyway, there was a summer program, and since I am hoping/planning
to be here in the summer, if I can find an apartment I can afford, I'd be
able to do it. They have 30 spots so I may or may not even get selected, but
it sounded awesome!
Its volunteer and you have to get yourself to the place, but they said if
you provide receipts, they'll reimburse for transportation. They'll give you
$1,000 at the end of the completion of 300 hours, 32 a week. So it isn't
much but is something.
So, what's the down side?
Well, as I soon realized, if I'm working for them 32 hours a week, I
wouldn't have much time to work in the high tech center on campus. Hence, I
wouldn't be bringing in much money a month besides my SSI and Social Security
Survivor benefits, which amounts to less than $900 now. If this wasn't
California, that'd be enough, but here, I'd be hard pressed to live off of that.
So dang it! This would be really good experience for me, would be really
interesting, I'd be helping people, and it'd be great to put on a resume. But
I in all likelihood will never find a place I could afford without being
able to work. Ugh!
It'll be hard enough to find a place I can afford even if I can work, since
it won't be a full-time job. So I'm all bummed out now and confused as to
what I'm going to do with myself. If I find an apartment, it'd be great so
I wouldn't have to always move out of the dorm every summer and pay extra
if I wanted to stay on breaks. I could also work this summer, and still go
to other events out here that I wouldn't be able to do if I went home for
the summer. I wouldn't have to have anyone store my stuff while I was gone,
either, and wouldn't have to keep having people help me move in and out of
the dorms at the beginning and end of the years. But if I go to Iowa for the
summer like I always have before, I wouldn't have to ppay for food, rent,
etc. But I wouldn't be getting any experience working or anything, and when
I came back, I'd have to get help moving back into the dorms; and the
cycle continues.
But I'm so worried about affording a place out here. I can get a loan again
for next year and use it to help pay rent/food/other living expenses, and
rehab will help with tuition if financial aid doesn't cover it all, but for
the summer, I'm worried. So
anyway, I've saved what I can but it isn't much since I'll have to make one
and a half more dorm payments, I think about $1,600 worth, before I'd be
moving. How can I afford to even move? How can I afford the security
deposit? How can I afford the rent until I'm back in school? And lots of places
want to see you have two and a half the rent as income, which I won't,
working or not, so I might not even find a place that would rent to me. The
stupid dorms want $400 next month to hold our spot for next year, and its
nonrefundable, so if I pay it and then find a place, that's $400 down the drain.
And even holding the dorm room and keeping the payments at what I'm paying
now, they are ridiculous! I couldn't afford them anymore without a loan,
and I really hate living off of student loans. I'll have to pay them back,
and I'm already paying about $300 a month out in bills to credit cards and my
cell phone.
So this is really stressing me out right now, trying to figure out what to
do and what will be best for me. Why can't I just win the lottery or
something? I guess it'd help if I played the lottery. (smile) Thanks for
listening to my long-winded rant and whine.