No, this is not the workout I promised. I forgot my camera at work again. And with all the piano lessons and shit I have this week, I am not going to have time to record the workout, so I am postponing it until Sunday. Sorry guys. Blogging is supposed to be fun, but right now I am STRESSED. (Not by the blog, by other things. Which interfere with me doing fun things... like blogging and recording workouts!)
ONWARD!
I love my cats with all my heart. Chrissy definitely has some behavior problems, but we are in it for the long haul. We love him. The truth is, animals can scratch up your house, pee on things, and make things messy. But that is something you have to accept when you decide to have pets. It's their house too. We are not fair weather pet owners. Christmas bit me. Twice. He has peed on lots of things. I have ripped poop off his butt hair with my bare hands. This is my life, and I love it.
But let me show you all the things Christmas ruined in our house!!!!
This is the side window in our music room facing the carport.
These curtains used to reach the floor. Until Chrissy peed on them. So I cut them shorter.
This is the back corner of the couch in our music room. As you can see, Chrissy scratched it pretty good. Jelly has to take a little bit of the blame for this one too.
Funny story: I once found red pen marks on this couch that were from one of my piano students. She would do little art projects while she waited for her sister to be done with her lesson. When I discovered the red marks, I was FUMING! The little kid ruined my couch! Then it dawned on me... This couch had been ruined by the cats long before the little girl put her pen marks on it. Calm down, Megan.
This is the front bay window in our music room.
There used to be curtains and a valence here. But they are gone. Somehow, they got covered with cat urine.
These dark marks are from a pee stain we didn't find because the pee had seeped under a floor lamp.
I was pretty surprised when I moved the floor lamp for the first time in a year and realized that oh, the hard wood floor is ruined.
This picture isn't of anything Chrissy ruined. I just wanted to show you that we have a litter box in our dining room.
This is one of my dining room chairs. The other 5 look the same or worse.
Thanks, Christmas.
Again, nothing is ruined in this picture, but I wanted to show you how we have to block Chrissy from getting up on things. That is a fake Christmas tree on top of the cabinet. Christmas likes to jump on the folding table and then up onto the cabinet and eat the fake pine needles. He is a pig and doesn't care if it's real food or pretend food. So we used a pillow and my foam roller to block him from killing himself via the constant ingestion of artificial pine needles.
The corner of the couch in our sun room. Jelly can take a little bit of the blame.
Of course it is super annoying cleaning up after Christmas and seeing my furniture get wrecked. But you know what? When I die, I am not going to say, "Gee, I wish I had nice dining room chairs." I'm going to say, "Damn am I glad I got to have Christmas."
A couple weeks ago, Paul and I sat down with our dinners, ready to watch Jeopardy. Well, Christmas pranced into the room and started peeing in the corner. We had to jump up to stop him and clean everything up before we could continue with our dinner. It was very frustrating, but I said to Paul, "Someday, Christmas isn't going to be here and we are going to wish he was here, peeing on all of our stuff."
I am so thankful I have been able to experience what unconditional love is. Christmas and Jelly are pretty special little bundles of fur.
Have your pets ruined anything in your house?
This post made me laugh--wow, you guys have to deal w/ a lot but it's so awesome how much love you have for Chrissy (and Jelly) They are both so lucky to have you and Paul. We have Macy (red lab) and before that had Cuervo (yellow lab). I feel bad for saying this, but neither dog ever destroyed anything in our house. They just shed quite a bit, so we have a few rules: no dog in the kitchen, on the master bed or on the furniture. The one area Macy LOVES is to lay on the spare bed and bask in the sun that comes through the window. I just have an inexpensive comforter on there so after I feel like it won't come clean anymore I just replace it and not worry about the cost. But other than that, she really is just totally mellow and likes to "hang out" and watch what we are doing :)
ReplyDeleteYour doggies sound so easy going. :) It is nice you let her lay on the "spare bed" which I am sure she thinks is HER bed!
Delete..well, she basically thinks it is her house. And it is...we just pay the mortgage :)
DeleteYou gotta love pets--they are a lot of work, but they keep me laughing, and make me go outside when I don't want to (which always makes me feel better when I am having a bad day)--and they greet me with unconditional love, even after going outside to get the mail.
ReplyDeleteMy dogs haven't ruined anything, but when I leave I put books, or a child gate, or things on the chairs in the office so they don't jump up on them and "dig" in them before sleeping on them. Oh, wait...they did scratch the office desk pretty good. apparently, they can get up on there too!
I would rather take the extra "life" in the home and the fun that goes with it than be without them.
I agree! They bring so much joy and love to the home and that trumps the work and little annoying things they do. I never had real pets before Christmas and Jelly, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. These crazy behaviors didn't start until Christmas was older though, so during their younger years they were barely any work at all!
DeleteThere is something about that couch! When we had it Cecil had one corner all scratched up too, but we've had two couches since then and he hasn't scratched them at all!
ReplyDeleteCecil is really well behaved except that he has no boundaries when it comes to people food and constantly tries to steal it when Adam and I aren't looking. Also, he bites me at least once a day. I'm used to it but when other people come over and want to pet him I get nervous! I don't think he would ever bite anyone else, I think he reserves that for me, but I have to give everyone a warning!
Oh I give people warnings about Chrissy too! My piano students are not allowed to touch him. I am straight up and say if you don't pet him the right way, he may bite or scratch you. I don't need anyone suing me because I will go bankrupt defending Chrissy!
DeleteThe couch is really good at collecting cat hair too. Ugh!
Hahaha I would go bankrupt defending Cecil's right to bite too. "Luckily" I really think it's a special pain that he reserves just for me. He never bites Adam! I wish I could explain the concept of "don't bite the hand that feeds you the treats!" to that little cat!
DeleteNaughty little thing! Our kids do enough damage around here. On any given day there are sticky bits of jam on the furniture, marks on the wall, it goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteAnd see if I had kids tearing apart my house I would NOT be able to take it! But little fluffy fur balls? All good. :)
DeleteLOL an exorcist! It must be the aging thing because Chrissy was an angel when he was young...
ReplyDeleteI was cracking up at this!!! I'm such a cat person. Love it. I have a summer kitchen (my house is an old farm house so there is a separate house outside that used to be the kitchen in 1890) and my kitties live out there. They have destroyed their little house!!! I can't imagine what they would have done if I let them live inside...which I would, if my husband wasn't deathly allergic!
ReplyDeleteAw that is so cute they have their own little house!
DeleteYou are so much better than me. I would lose my mind. I have a cat and she is purrfect (lol) she just leaves hair everywhere she goes. She also is exotic so she has red tears that she drips everywhere. I think you are amazing for putting up with that.
ReplyDeletebakingrunner.blogspot.com
Red tears? I have never heard of that! Must google.
DeleteObjectively, I look at this and wonder, why have a pet?! And then I remember all the wonderful things that come with with having a pet, and it really makes all the mess not matter. They're priceless, and you can always buy a new couch! lol
ReplyDeleteI know, right!? If you like nice things, don't have a pet. Or get like... fish. I agree, I can buy a new couch but there will only be one and only Chrissy Boy! And honestly, he is LUCKY to have such an understanding mommy and daddy. Not everyone would be as patient!
DeleteWe love our dog, but he had ruined the carpets in our house. We finally found a steam cleaning company that made our house look perfect, and we were able to get the carpets cleaned every couple months to prevent the dog smell and hair from getting ground in. We are so happy because no one can tell we have a dog now.
ReplyDeleteNathan Riley @ Steemer Atlanta