Well, for starters :

Happy Birthday Miss Mew!! .

  My little baby turns two... Can't take pics as my mom has my camera... once I get it back I'll pop up some new pics of the kitties (Nim has grown to surpase Mew in size....much different that what the pics show..). As well, since I see there's option for embeded videos, I'll see if I can up Nim's bath video at one point..really needs to be seen to be believed...

  So, a bunch of things to touch on as it's been a while, so I figure I'll make a real post rather than a silly one that everyone knows the answer to (and yes Shawnna, all women are evil, 'specially you, after the other night ).

  For those who don't know, I met a real special girl, the aforementioned Shawnna , a couple of weeks ago..Started chatting Feb 1st, and had our first date Feb 10th, which was a great evening...she has a little girl, Caiti, who's probably the most polite and articulate 6 year old I've ever met. she's just as amazing as her mom, which I guess shouldn't be surprised about.

  Shawnna and I were slightly interupted on our second date last Monday due to my sister going into labour... Vicky gave birth to little Isabella at 1:38 AM, February 13th/2007, weighing in at 6lbs, 9oz. There was a bit of a scare earlier in the evening when she had stopped moving around so much that they went to the hospital to check her out...there they noticed that the heartbeat was quite elevated...at almost 11:30 they decided to induce, however 3-4minutes later, even before the drugs kicked in, her water broke. Labour lasted about 2 hours, and she only had to push for about 6 or so minutes, so it happened pretty quickly. Will upload some pics of her when I get home tonight.

  On the professional front, I got some great news from my boss last Friday; I'm an operations analyst with a designation of Tier D/Non-Management, which is pretty much the same as all our agents on the floor, which also means I'm classified as a "part time" worker, despite the fact that I do 37.5+ hours per week. Well, my partner and I were told friday that we were being moved to full manager status, which was great news to get on fridaym and it was about time that this happened because we were filling management roles doing what we do.

  My partner is not as affected for most of the changes that comes with this as he had many of the "perks" already, having been management before, and keeping most of his status when he came back to workforce, but I like the fact that I get my 3 weeks of vacation back (I had it reduced to two weeks due to going from contractor to employee during last years re-org), I'll be a salary employee rather than an hourly one, which is great if I have to miss work for whatever reason, although has the downside that I'm expected to work overtime without compensation if needed. This really isn't so bad because I can always work it with my partner to take time off to compensate. And of course, I get an ok raise (no where near what I should be getting, due to budget constraints, but that should even out year over year relatively quick), and I'm put into another band when it comes to bonus's, savings plans and such...all in all, very good news..

  So the last two weeks have been very good...not so much to make me more inspired to write more often, but enough to make me want to share some great things happening to my life as of late!

Take care!

Steph.

 

 

 

 There Jen, Happy?

 

  Seriously, I'll try to do an update later this week, but I really don't have anything new to say *shrug*

 

Take care,

Steph.

 

 

  Been a hell of a month so far. For those who don't know, I work in a helpdesk as an analyst. I've worked here for almost 6 years now. June 30th our helpdesk (or at least the main part of it), closed the office here in Ottawa and moved operations to both Montreal and over sea, and in the process, laid off a bunch of people who were working here. I believe I might have mentioned something about it in a previous entry. It was just hard to see all these people I've gotten to know over the years leave. And of course, when it rains, it poors; my boss's last day was this past Friday. This was even harder to take as she was the best boss a person could have; She gave us our autonomy to do our work, knew how to use each of our strength's, encouraged us to speak our mind and share our idea's, and didn't mind accepting when she was wrong.

 

  While I know she will never read this, I just wanted to say thank you Suzanne for a great two years. May you have all the success you deserve in your new position and know you'll be leaving a very huge void with your departure, and you'll be greatly missed!

 

  This of course leaves myself and my colleague bossless as there are no plans to fill the vacancy. This made us a little nervous, but we're getting assurances from multiple managers that they really do need us and not to worry. I know that they want to bring in another departments work to us, so we'll see what the future holds...

 

  In Kitty news, Nimbus has figured out that he can jump onto the counters quite easily, forcing me to actually clean my kitchen so there's no more loose items on the counters or on the fridge...and I know I've mentioned this, but he really REALLY likes playing in water...Lately he's been playing in his water dish, sloshing water around the kitchen...man I can't wait until he grows up!! :D

 

 Anyway, have a great week folks!

Steph S.

 

Hi Folks,

 

   Had a bit of a scare last night with Mew...I had washed both Mew and Nimbus earlier in the evening (using a waterless bath), and once they dried, brushed them down...I remembered that I had bought some zodiac spot on flea treatment when I got Nim, but hadn't used it yet. I had bought the same product when I got Mew just incase she came from a home with fleas. At the time, she had no adverse affect, but this time, around midnight she was rubbing up against anything she could to get it off. I didn't really pay any attention as she seemed fine otherwise..Around 12:30, I found a "mess" on the carpet...it seems that she had developed the runs..I don't know if it was because of that or the soft food I had given her earlier in the evening.....I cleaned her and the carpet up and she went back to rubbing all over the place, dodging attacks from Nimbus every so often..

 

  Around 1:15 I started to get worried as Mew was still rubbing like crazy and was panting like a dog. My first instinct was that she was just over exerting herself with all the rubbing she was doing, not to mention having to fend off Nimbus ( In the end, I'm pretty sure that's exatly what the panting was for). I put Nim in my room to give her a break (he really didn't like be closed off, but was really affectionate (more so that usual) once I let him out...for about 5 mins at least, until he spotted mew again...). I figured giving Mew a breather might help, but by 1:45 she was still rubbing and rolling around and panting like crazy. Also, when I tried to touch her, she got very vicious when  I went around the top of her neck, where the flea treatment was applied; I think in her rubbing and scratching, she might have scratched herself a little too much that it was slightly tender...she bit me once, but it was enough to draw blood.....

 

  I called the Altavista Animal Hospital as they have an emergency service and explained the situation...I was expecting "bring her right in..it doesn't sound good", but instead the woman on the other side didn't really sound like she was prepared for the call and told me to just keep her under observation over night and bring her in if I thought it was nessasary...nice...  I wasn't impressed..

 

  I had tried bringing her to her water earlier to see if that might help and she just ran from it, rubbing and rolling away...but this time I thought of giving her a little milk...she lapped it up and it seemed to help a bit, but once she went back to the rolling around, I had to figure out something to do..

 

 I went back to the packaging, and noticed the warning to human ingestion and skin irritation...not so obvious was the pet warning which was in the same paragraph (sorry, but I don't really read all of the human warnings). It mentioned that if it irritates, give them a bath and wash it out with alot of warm water...

 

   Well, I don't know if anyone remembers my first posts about mew and bath's; There's a reason why I use a waterless bath: She HATES water....Nim, on the other hand, seems to love it, having jumped in the shower with me a couple of times now. Anyway, I figured I really had no choice and filled up the tub, and covered the floor with a  bunch of towels. As I tried to put her in, the fur and water flew...Luckily I didn't take any damage this time, thanks to the declaw. Of course I'm thinking that this isn't very good for her as she's panting even more now, but eventually she calms down enough for me to completely rinse her off..I didn't have any shampoo for her so I just used the waterless soap and rinsed her off again.

 

 By the time I took her out of the tub, she was spent (as was I...she's one strong cat...), still panting as I dried her off...I let her into my room where she started to groom herself and eventually the panting stopped, and no more rubbing and rolling...I let her out and locked Nim back in and we both went to the computer room. She sat in the crease of my chair as I sat on the edge, grooming her self while I did some work. She did seem alot better after this; I'd rub her temples and she'd press up against me...So by 3:45, I headed to bed...

 

 When I woke up this morning, I knew that what I had done had been appreciated; When I first got Mew, she used to sleep right up against me, very much like Nim does now.. As she got older, she moved away, to the point where she was sleeping at the foot of my bed on one of the corners. Once I got Nim, she got off the bed all together. Well, this morning she was up close to me again, and quietly purring, something else she hasn't done in months.

 

  Anyway, I should get to work...I had called at 2am to say I wasn't going to be in because of all that was going on with Mew, but since all seems ok, I should make the effort .

 

 Take care folks, and have a great week!

Steph S.

 Hi Folks,

 

   Man it's hot out there...not that I'm complaining; Much prefer it over the cold. Anyway, just added some new pics of Mew and Nimbus. Mew has even gone so far as to groom Nim. I'm so proud of her.

 

  On the downside, since her operation, I've found that she's gained alot of weight. At the time of her operation, she was 6 pounds, but she's since jumped up to just over 11lbs. She's been getting more physical activity since Nimbus was brought in, so that's definitely good, but I've also changed her diet to a weight control type and I've started to feed them both a certain amount per day rather than the free feed method I had been using. Hopefully this'll help bring her weight down a bit.

 

 Anyway, hope all are having a great weekend! Take care,

Steph S.