Cold Meds and Cat Training.

My nephew turned one last Friday and I was lucky enough to be able to make it up to spend the day with him Saturday.  Because I don't get to see him really consistently I think he forgets who I am sometimes between visits.  But then after a while he stops being shy and starts being my little buddy again.

The downside of the visit was that I spend a decent chunk of time driving and I didn't get enough sleep, so Monday I woke up with the cold that Yoshi had last week.  I am swimming in a sea of mucus.

Today was the first test in my economics class and I got to play the medicine vs. test game.  You know, the one where you have to figure out how much medicine to take in order to not have to blow your nose a bajillion times or drip snot on your test but also maintain the highest level of cognitive function possible with a cold.

It's especially bad for me because my medication tolerance is pretty nonexistent.

How nonexistent, you ask?  Well, if I take Nyquil colors are brighter for almost the entire next day.  Nyquil, Dayquil, and Sudafed all make my heartbeat super erratic.  It might be a little worse than coffee, but without the armpit sweats coffee gives me.

I took Sudafed after I was home for the night (so around 3:30) and then needed to not leave the couch or engage in any in-depth conversation for a while because words are hard and colors are pretty.

I took half a dose again like two hours ago when I woke up from a much-needed nap and I honestly don't know how I'm typing cohesive sentences right now.  But if I had to speak words that made as much sense as I think what I'm typing does, I couldn't.

I'm not that great at verbal communication anyway, but when my pupils are this dilated I just seem like a crazy stoner.

In light of my bad response to cold medication and actual cold, I realize that this week was not a good week to start training my cats to sleep through the night.  But it's too late to go back now.

The hardest part right now is not just letting them out at five in the morning when they decide they want to have a snack, poop, and then come back inside 20 minutes later.

The second hardest thing is the transition from free-feeding to regularly scheduled feedings.  I've never fed cats on a schedule; all of my cats, even when I was a kid, were free-fed.  Hunter and Sammy really don't eat that much, so the combination of those two things made me feel as though free-feeding was okay.  But in order to get them on a specific schedule I need to feed them at a specific time.  Which sucks, in a way, because sometimes I can't be home at consistently the same time every day, but in the end will be a good change.  They need a better schedule.

Because they're used to being free-fed, though, they keep trying to let me know that the bowl is empty.  I go in the kitchen.  Hunter runs in and gives me this look of blame, then looks at the food dish.

"Mom! Where's the food?  I will starve to death if I can't see that the bowl is full at all times..."

Silly kitty.

I've also begun walking them on leashes and harnesses.  We've only been out twice so far and it's still slow-going, especially with Sammy.  But there was definitely a big improvement between the first time they went out and the second, so I'm hopeful.

The looks I get from some of my neighbors are entertaining.  The women and children are entertained and think it's cute.  The middle-aged Mexican man that took his teenage daughter to buy a soda from the machine yesterday obviously thought I was nuts.

The thing is that I just can't bring myself to let my cats be indoor outdoor, especially where I live now.  But probably not ever.  After our cat got killed by a coyote when I was in fourth grade I didn't want to lose a cat like that ever again.  And statistically, cats live markedly longer, like almost three times as long, as indoor cats than they do as indoor/outdoor cats.  My cats are my babies.  I couldn't handle it if something happened to them that could have been prevented by keeping them as indoor only pets.

Also, you never know where cats go and it would gross me out to let them be in my bed without knowing where they'd been all day.

At least if I walk them they get to go outside and explore and be cats, but I know they're safer than they would be outside on their own.  Plus, they don't have to spend all day cooped up in the apartment and it makes them more tired, so they're happier and more likely to sleep through the night.

Yes, I know I'm basically a crazy old cat lady at this point.

No, I don't care.

Not even a little.