Skint!

Well...

A lot of calming down has been done since my last posting, which is probably a Good Thing. I am now seeing a Shrink who sports Designer Stubble. I chose him a) because he had an appointment available before the next millenium; b) because he often treats other doctors; and c) because a Person Whom I Do Not Like, doesn't like him. Which I suppose is a recommendation in itself (I suspect a diagnosis of some kind of Personality Disorder was made, which would surprise no-one who knows this Person, but of course it would have pissed this Person off). He has put me on a second anti-depressant, which has made life interesting - hello sweat, bye-bye libido! Still not much progress on the sleep thingy, either, although it's more just garden-variety insomnia now, rather than the sound of primal drums... But anyway, I see him again next week, so we shall see... But I think the depression is still there; I am still very reluctant to return calls, reply to emails or socialise generally, apart from with BJ, and there is an even more than usual inability to "get organised" than I usually demonstrate.

In other news, the first Cat Show of the Season is this Sunday and in my usual style, I am completely unprepared (in fact I don't even know if they got my entry, as it was late!). My curtains (cat shows require your cat to sit in a cage surrounded by prissy girly frilly curtains to make them look nice) are all buried under the junk in my car, which now includes a $5 bike (to go with BJ's $500 one) I picked up from Crime Converters' the other week. And my sewing machines* are all broken, so I can't make new snazzy ones for the upcoming season, even though this year I am showing the best kitten I have ever bred (for those who have seen my catsite**, she is Moonlight Sonata's daughter), plus a few others I have been assured are "raaather niiiice". It is nice to know that my breeding programme is moving in the right direction, but it will be even nicer if the judges confirm this (even though their opinions can vary widely over the same cats).

Depressingly, I owe the vet about $1800, the feed store $500 and the dry cat food people $450, with no relief until BJ gets back to full time... Oh, and we owe the orthodontist $700 (for OTHER PEOPLE's teeth). Oh well, I can always put BJ on the game or something. I have had to go cold turkey on eBay (a horrifying prospect!). And of course nobody is buying any kittens at the moment! Somehow I have to come up with the readies to pay for my entries on Sunday, too, but we get paid tomorrow so that should be OK (we'll just starve later!). A few weeks ago we actually took our surplus roosters down to the feed store (who also buy and sell poultry), and exchanged them for a bag of chicken feed, which was not bad going, considering I would have given them away otherwise.

On the plus side, I'm getting cheaper to feed - very little appetite so I drink Up 'n' Go's all day; I appear to have lost 8-10 kg in the past 5 months or so. The Shrink wanted to put me on mirtazapine and I declined gracefully***, remembering all my patients who have put on 10-20kg on that delightful medication. It's a great antidepressant - it works very well, but unfortunately you then get a subsequent reactive depression when you realise you've put on so much weight you no longer fit through the doorway any more... At least at the moment I now have a BMI of less than 25, which does a bit for the ego. Even better would be a horde of wanna-be secret admirers or something (especially ones who'd like to anonymously pay the vet bill and then gracefully disappear!), but we can't have everything...

And we will have fun times ahead over the next few days, as I wean Twinkle from her kittens (she does a nice line in foghorn noises, and as she normally lives in the house and not the cattery, there's no escaping her!). At least she had 4 Siamese kittens, in solid points, which should be popular later on with pet buyers. Although that isn't why I breed, selling the odd pet kitten does help cover the cost of looking after everyone else. But most cat breeders are kidding themselves if they think they make money!

More chit-chat eventually...!

Tournee Du Chat Noir

PS: Does anyone want a nice Balinese or Oriental Longhair Cat? Have I got a deal for you...
(see pic!)




*Sherman the Cat piddled**** on my first sewing machine and it seized up inside, and the one I got at a garage sale worked OK for a while and then started breaking needles; I repaired it using bits from the one I picked up by the roadside, but I'm now running out of spare parts...

**URL available on personal application.

***I didn't actually say,"Are you fucking joking?!"

****He's a sweetheart, but he acts out sometimes under stress; when BJ was in hospital and I stayed next to him for 4 days straight, the house cats were Seriously Displeased, but they've settled down now...