It strikes us at inopportune times. Like when we're out and about or about to go to bed. "Darn, I meant to blog about..." It's not as if we haven't had things to blog about. We've had plenty going on.
Probably the most exciting news is our entering the exciting world of pet ownership.
When looking for apartments here from Albuquerque, we were kind of at a disadvantage. We had a good idea of where in town we wanted to live, but other than that, we were kind of stuck with whatever we could find on Craigslist. We figured if we didn't like where we ended up, we could always move in a year when we would be able to see the places before signing a lease.
I'd have to say, since we hadn't actually seen the place, we lucked out. It's not the perfect place, but it's in a great location and the landlord is very nice. There were a few things we didn't like. It's a bit small, it doesn't get enough sunlight and pets are not allowed. Again, all of these problems could be rectified when we looked for our next place, but we both wanted a cat.
Jenn had asked if there was any leeway with the pets thing, and the landlord explained that there had been problem with a past tenant and he thought it was best for him to just institute that rule and we resigned ourselves to the fact that our days of having a cat would have to wait. It wasn't the end of the world.
Over the course of a few months, we had a few run-ins with mice in the apartment. We'd find food packages that had been chewed through and sometimes we'd find "presents" on the kitchen counter. We told our landlord, who sent the exterminator who set traps. The traps caught a couple of mice, but we'd still hear some rustling between the walls.
I should make it clear that this would happen about once a month, so it wasn't as if we were infested with them. Although we weren't overrun, we also didn't want mice in the house, which was reasonable.
Our landlord did what he could to find where they were entering from and making sure it was sealed, but Jenn took another approach. She used this opportunity to plainly suggest that maybe we wouldn't be having these problems if we had a cat. Our landlord either trusts us or is a push-over, because he agreed right away, and that weekend we went to the animal shelter.
We had originally sought out to get a young adult cat, because kittens can get a little rambunctious. The shelter workers took a few cats out for us to see, and they were all cute and all, but we instantly fell in love with a little 5-month-old orange tabby who was laying in a hammock in her cage named Lizzie.
After a few days for the shelter to check with our landlord, I was free to pick Lizzie up, though Jenn and I agreed that we'd be changing her name. The following morning, we settled on the name Margot Dorcas.
How we came up with the name is another long, convoluted story. Just know that the name references such things as Breaking Bad and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with a little Saved by the Bell thrown into the mix.
The shelter had told us that she had been adopted once before, but returned. She apparently had a tendency to bite. It was explained that she seems to be under the impression that feet and hands are toys, and we figured that that would be a habit that we could eventually get her to break.
And the shelter didn't lie. She bites. A lot. One of her favorite games is to hide under the bed. When one of us gets close enough, she reaches out and grabs our feet. It's literally the stuff nightmares are made of. I'm just glad that I didn't grow up afraid that a monster lived under my bed.
But aside from the biting, which is done playfully, she's a great addition to the house. Her first week here, I found her playing with a dead mouse (I'm assuming she killed it), so she's already made it worth it for the landlord.
No comments:
Post a Comment