How Do You Solve a Problem Like Eve?
In an effort to improve the world, a few days ago I notified my landlord that it was no longer acceptable for me to shower under lukewarm water that trickled upon my head and body with all the force of the stream which flows forth from the genetalia of a bronze statue of a diminutive wood sprite (male). More pressure, more hot, please, I said.
And because my landlord is completely awesome, he arranged to have the water fixed immediately. But because the problem stems from our house being about ninety years old, the only solution is to completely repipe the entire house, meaning from Wednesday This until Wednesday Next I'll have big gaping holes in my walls and big gaping plumbers' cracks in my personal space all day long. Good news: I have a job to go to eight hours of the day so I won't have to be present for the deconstruction. Bad news: I have a cat that can't be left alone during Special Project Waterfall 2005.
This brings us to Special Project Kitten Crisis 2005, Numero 1. (Numero 2 is what to do with her while I'm in Italy.) I don't have any friends who can take her for the day because they all either have pets of their own or allergies, and I'm not going to put her in a kennel for eight hours, so the only solution is to take her to work with me. Disastrous is the probable outcome.
Rather than show up on Wednesday with a raging ball of fur on the warpath, I decided it would be best to do a trial run, see if Eve can handle getting locked in a carrier, driven a few blocks, and released in a foreign environment for the first time in all of her nearly four years.
I had to jam her into her brand new carrier (which I will decorate with stickers to make it more "homey"), I had to keep my heart from breaking while she cried and moaned during the drive, and I had to sing and coo and purr at her as we walked through noisy laundromat, crossed a busy street, and rode a rattletrap elevator. Once in the office, she slunk around for fifteen minutes, army-crawling into every corner, exploring every shelf and pile of paper and plant, and then she got comfortable and rubbed her cheeks on all my manuscripts and trilled at me and enjoyed some snacks.
We hung out for about hour--me reading blogs, her chewing plants--and then I had to jam her back in her carrier, take her back down the deathtrap elevator, cross the busy street, and pass through the laundromat (where we ran into a large bottle of vodka attached to a hobo who asked if he could kiss my cat). Fortunately, the crying was minimal and she made it home without incident. She just let a stinky poop and is now blissfully shredding a chair. All is well.
Click here to see pictures of Office Barbie Eve.
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p.s. Don't forget the survey below!
drive? why not walk? will you be able to drive and park during the week?
Put her on a plane and send her to me in Canada. She can frolick in the grass and catch mice & snakes in the swamp, under the tutelage of Ruby, my holy terror of a black cat.
Trilling. I've never used that word to describe my cat, but that's exactly what she does. Purrfect.
this is going to sound really inhumane, and please dont think it as such, because im a kitty mommy and i love my noisy little ball of fur.
i'm moving, and the vet gave me sedatives for him.
you could get some as a back up plan in case there is a little of the freakout, and it lasts for a few hours.
also - look up "pet sitters". youd be surprised that there are some people who do it from their own homes.
alsoalso - what about a neighbor? you have the ins with any of them?
also x3 - it IS possible to lock the sweetie in the bedroom (or another larger closeable room) with the litterbox and food. it isn't the nicest thing, but ive had to do it with my cat before for afternoons and such, and he doesnt mind a bit...
hope something in there helps :)
Good suggestions, Angie. I'd lock her in my bedroom, but she throws herself against the door until it opens, so that's no good. Luckily, people at my work are excited to meet her, so at this point they'd be disappointed not to have her visit, even if it's only for a day. The other option is locking her in a room downstairs with my landlord. We'll see what happens...
Your comments are so much sweeter knowing that Eve had something to do with it all.