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Okay, new rule. I am not allowed to spend any more money except on strict essentials until March 10th, 4 weeks from now. I'd say until March 31, but let's set an attainable goal. I have a substance abuse problem: I'm addicted to books! (that's not strictly original. I heard it in some movie or TV show, I forget which, except it was "addicted to shoes," and I modified it to suit my own personal addiction).
I had been doing so WELL, too. Granted, Christmas was expensive, but Christmas is expensive every year.
But I bought a book on Kindle. And then I bought another 5 books on Kindle, all about the English Civil War. It's going to take me forever to get through them all. But they all looked so interesting! I need to go back to getting books out of the library. I was good and willpower-y like that for a while.
Last week, YMW woke me up at about 2 am yowling like a crazy cat and scrabbling at the bedroom window. I looked (rather blearily) outside and saw what appeared at first to be an exceptionally large, fluffy cat. Then I looked again and realized it was a raccoon. Bearing in mind this is an urban neighbourhood, and our urban wildlife aren't particularly fussed about humans. My neighbours above put out crusts for the birds on their balcony ledge, and sometimes the crusts fall onto my patio, which I presume was the attraction.
I hoped a light and human movement in the bedroom window would scare the wretched thing off. Yeah, I know they LOOK cute, but they're still pests. It did not scare the varmint away, and it seemed highly unlikely that YMW would allow me to go back to sleep with her still caterwauling and trying to get out and attack a wild animal twice her size because it was on HER patio. Though I don't know why she's so frelling possessive of it. She's an indoor cat and has never actually set foot on the patio. So I went into the living room, which also overlooks the patio, in hopes light and human movement in another room would scare it off. Didn't work. Also, YMW followed me, continuing to kick up a fuss and scratch at the glass valiantly.
Finally I went into the kitchen, picked up a roll of paper towel and went back to the sliding glass door. The plan was to open the door just a crack so YMW wouldn't get out, then chuck the roll in the raccoon's general direction and hope it ran off. If it worked, great, if it didn't work, I'd have to think of something else. I started to unbolt the door, at which point YMW looked at me, looked back at the raccoon she'd been trying so hard to confront, then turned tail and FLED!!!
The little brat left me on my own to fight the scary monster. Fortunately, the sound of the door unbolting finally spooked the raccoon (or maybe it had finished its snack) and I didn't have to sacrifice any paper towels. I went looking for the turncoat coward, and found her hiding in the cupboard nearest the front door. In other words, as far away as she could get from the raccoon without physically breaking down the door and ending up in the lobby. She is definitely not guard cat material.
I still owe people comments and I promise to get to them this weekend.
I had been doing so WELL, too. Granted, Christmas was expensive, but Christmas is expensive every year.
But I bought a book on Kindle. And then I bought another 5 books on Kindle, all about the English Civil War. It's going to take me forever to get through them all. But they all looked so interesting! I need to go back to getting books out of the library. I was good and willpower-y like that for a while.
Last week, YMW woke me up at about 2 am yowling like a crazy cat and scrabbling at the bedroom window. I looked (rather blearily) outside and saw what appeared at first to be an exceptionally large, fluffy cat. Then I looked again and realized it was a raccoon. Bearing in mind this is an urban neighbourhood, and our urban wildlife aren't particularly fussed about humans. My neighbours above put out crusts for the birds on their balcony ledge, and sometimes the crusts fall onto my patio, which I presume was the attraction.
I hoped a light and human movement in the bedroom window would scare the wretched thing off. Yeah, I know they LOOK cute, but they're still pests. It did not scare the varmint away, and it seemed highly unlikely that YMW would allow me to go back to sleep with her still caterwauling and trying to get out and attack a wild animal twice her size because it was on HER patio. Though I don't know why she's so frelling possessive of it. She's an indoor cat and has never actually set foot on the patio. So I went into the living room, which also overlooks the patio, in hopes light and human movement in another room would scare it off. Didn't work. Also, YMW followed me, continuing to kick up a fuss and scratch at the glass valiantly.
Finally I went into the kitchen, picked up a roll of paper towel and went back to the sliding glass door. The plan was to open the door just a crack so YMW wouldn't get out, then chuck the roll in the raccoon's general direction and hope it ran off. If it worked, great, if it didn't work, I'd have to think of something else. I started to unbolt the door, at which point YMW looked at me, looked back at the raccoon she'd been trying so hard to confront, then turned tail and FLED!!!
The little brat left me on my own to fight the scary monster. Fortunately, the sound of the door unbolting finally spooked the raccoon (or maybe it had finished its snack) and I didn't have to sacrifice any paper towels. I went looking for the turncoat coward, and found her hiding in the cupboard nearest the front door. In other words, as far away as she could get from the raccoon without physically breaking down the door and ending up in the lobby. She is definitely not guard cat material.
I still owe people comments and I promise to get to them this weekend.
