Easter Vacation (Now Known as Spring Break)

Hey, Everyone!

Last week was "Spring Break" for most of my friends still in school. Which meant that I got to do some socializing! (Rare, I know).

My friend Elaine came over to visit us Tuesday night (4/19). It had been the first time we'd seen her since last November. She's doing well.

Then, on Thursday (4/21), Ramiro and I went to Descanso Gardens with Paris.

Paris was surprised that pine cones could get this big:And I was surprised at how fat I look in pictures:
I've gained 10 pounds since January. Sigh. I've gotta start exercising again. (Ramiro looks very handsome though, doesn't he?? :D ).

We went all over the garden. From looking at the flowers on the main walk......to climbing to the top of their highest mountain...We even saw a few animals...
...some beautiful ferns...
...and some giant mushrooms!Paris loved it. She had never been there before. In fact, she liked it so much that she built herself a hut and decided to live there:
Just kidding. She didn't build that hut.

Good times.

I also got a lot of work done last week. And I built a few more Squidoo lenses:

ARE YOU A WILLIAM CASTLE SUPER FAN?

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAUREN R. THARP (this page was awarded a Purple Star!)

MY TOP 6 TEEN TRAGEDY SONGS (I'm going to be doing a sequel to this lens soon!)

Thanks for tuning in! See you next Monday!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Photo Credit goes to Paris for all pictures except for the ones with her in them.

Steff & Paris

Hey, Everyone!

It's Monday again!

Robert has recovered nicely from his surgery last week. Thank you, Lord! He's doing really well. We're so relieved.

Also, I have more articles up at WP PRO BUSINESS.

I have some other things in the works, but nothing I can talk about just yet...

But, since you (my sweet, loyal, Blog reader) bothered to check in, it would be a darn shame if that's all I had to write. So, in an effort to keep you entertained, I'm going to turn the spotlight on a couple of my friends! The first is:

STEFF TURNER

It was Steff's birthday last Thursday (April 14th) and, for her birthday, I created a very fun Squidoo page/Lens for her! Click here to view HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW STEFF TURNER?

The other friend is:

PARIS MATIC
Those of you who frequent my Blog probably recognize Paris as the friend I went to the tea party with a while back.

I've gotten Paris hooked on Squidoo! She just started an account yesterday and she's already a Level 8 Squid and has two lenses. To view her account, CLICK HERE.


That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Speas, Squidoo, and Hello World

Hello, Everyone!

I'm sorry I missed yesterday's update. (My Blog updates every week on Mondays--usually).

Robert was in a very bad way over the weekend. He's been depressed since Ziggy went missing, but, on Saturday, he stopped eating. We kept him alive by syringe-feeding him Gerber's chicken baby food (the one that's just ground up chicken & water) and lots of water. We figured this would get us by until Monday when our vet opened back up again. Eventually Robert began refusing the baby food, but he was still taking in lots of water...Unfortunately, yesterday morning (Monday), Robert began refusing water.

We called our usual vet(s), but they were booked until Tuesday. But Robert was looking really, really bad. And, with no food and no water, we knew that he wasn't going to last.

Luckily, my mom found a pet hospital that was willing to take him right away.

This one:

The Crescenta Canada Pet Hospital.

Where Robert's life was saved by this man:Doctor James D. Speas.

Dr. Speas was able to locate Robert's problem almost immediately. Robert had an abscess in his mouth from a puncture wound (it's unknown how/where he got it) and the abscess was so big and gross that it was blocking off his throat and displaced his tongue. That's why he couldn't eat or drink anything!

Dr. Speas kept Robert over night and operated on him, getting rid of the abscess. Hooray!!

The rest of the staff at the Crescenta Canada Pet Hospital were excellent as well (at least the ones that we met anyway). And the rates were very reasonable. They went above and beyond to give us quality service for reasonable prices. We had told them that we were broke (tax season...) and they put their heads together and came up with a treatment/payment plan that we could handle.

And Robert just finished eating a bowl of food! :)

Highly recommended.

In other news, I've made a few pages ("Lenses") on Squidoo:
HOW TO BE AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BULLY

ROBERT THE CAT

ZIGGY, THE ANGRIEST CAT IN THE WORLD

DORIAN, THE MOST UNLIKELY PET

HOW TO GAIN FOOD AND NP ON NEOPETS WITHOUT MAKING A REAL EFFORT

I was also published in a zine called Hello, World. It came out on the 2nd, but with everything that's been going on, it got pushed to the back of my mind.

In theory, I'm supposed to print out copies of the zine and sell them for $6-$7, but I don't have any printer ink [and can't afford to buy any (tax season...)], but, as a compromise, if anyone would like a copy of Hello, World: Volume 3, I can e-mail you the .PDF and you can print it out yourself! For only $2!

My contributions were the comic "Follow Me" and the poem "Another Degree of Nine" (they reprinted my award-winning poem for some reason!).

Still no sign of Ziggy. We're still searching for her nearly every day and we've been making all sorts of phone calls. And, please, don't suggest coyotes. We've heard you and we've looked into it. And I don't mean we just walked around looking for coyotes at dusk (though we did that too), I mean we called a bunch of places about it: Animal Control, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Fish and Game, and the Wildlife Waystation. They all said the same thing: "It's possible, but not likely." The Department of Agriculture was especially helpful. They said there was a lone coyote that made it to our area (traveling through storm drains) about a year ago, but, when that happened, it wasn't just cats missing, it was people's little dogs and their chickens. Coyotes do not discriminate. Also, since Friday/Saturday/Sunday is "Party Night" on our street, and Ziggy went missing on a Saturday (when a huge party was going on!), it's even MORE unlikely that it was a coyote that took her. The D of A as well as the Pet Detective we called, thought that it was more likely to be a cat hoarder. We have several hoarders in our area, but they're hoarders of things--could they have moved onto cats? Maybe. It seems to be happening in a very concentrated area. When we fan out to do our searches, cats are still plentiful. It's in this little section.

We're still investigating all possibilities and checking the shelters daily. I'll let you know if something turns up.

Also, Happy Birthday, Vincent! Enjoy your last year as a teen!

Until next time...

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Missing: Presumed Dead

Hello, Everyone...

Ziggy isn't coming back.

Ramiro and I have been searching the neighbourhood every day. We make a very wide spread--miles!--but haven't seen any trace of her. We've been putting up posters everywhere. We've even gone to the local shelters, the vet, and FixNation.

I've blacked it out for the Internet, but in real life those posters have our phone number. We got some calls today...
As it turns out, Ziggy isn't the only cat in our immediate area that's gone missing within the past month. Not by a long shot.

Old Man Wheeler has lost all four (4) of his cats (two in early March, Buckwheat went missing at the end of March, and Blacky went missing last week). The old "Cat Lady" of the neighbourhood has lost eight (8) cats since March (she's down to one cat now--a 15 year old that she keeps inside). Old Cat Lady says she's lived in on this block for 35 years and has always had at least two cats. She also told us that the people who live diagonally from them lost one of their three cats last week as well.Rebel and Robert's Mom went missing last month as well. We didn't think much of it at the time because they're feral... Feral cats like to roam. And since Rebel had yet to be fixed (he/she went missing right before we rented the trap from FixNation), it was fairly likely that he/she had wandered off to mate. Cats can sometimes travel for miles when they're in heat. Not so for neutered/spade cats like Ziggy and the other pet cats who disappeared. The Old Cat Lady said that one of her ferals (she likes to feed the local feral cats on her back porch) has gone missing too.

So, that's 17 (seventeen) cats missing in our neighbourhood (14 pet cats; 3 feral cats).

All of the cats that have gone missing have not come back.

My last/most recent pic of Ziggy. Being a bed cat on 3/31/11

The neighbourhood "theory" is that someone is trapping the local cats and either killing them or dumping them far, far away. They might be trying to get rid of the feral cat overpopulation and getting pet cats by mistake, but, either way, they're sick effers and they should rot in Hell. (Old Cat Lady thinks they might even be using poisoned bait to get our cats--apparently she found a nibbled chicken leg in her yard after her latest cat went missing--but that could just be paranoia; we're not sure).

We're going to be contacting all the proper "authorities" tomorrow during business hours. Not the People Police (with no bodies/hard evidence, it would be silly to get LAPD involved when they have so many other hardcore problems). We'll be contacting all the animal authorities. As well as the shelters, the vet, and FixNation.

As for our remaining cats...Robert (our black male--he just turned 2 on April Fool's Day) and Ringo (Sarahe's old man cat) are now INDOOR ONLY cats. They were mostly indoors before, but we'd let them out to do their "business." Not so as of today. We went out and bought them a litter box. They're not going outside anymore. Ever, probably. Not so long as we're living in this crap neighbourhood with some maniac out and about catnapping everyone's pets! (Isn't it bad enough that we have murderers, rapists, and drug dealers on this block without having a catnapper too?!)

Ramiro and I are absolutely heartbroken (as are the other people who have lost their kitties). We're trying hard to be tough and love on the cats we have left, but it's hard. We don't want to be those people that spend all their time focusing on the dead to the extent that they forget the living (I've seen it happen...). Poor little Robert is taking it hard that his chair buddy isn't around anymore. We both really, really miss Ziggy; but we don't want poor little Robert to go ignored. He's a little sweetheart. We love him too.

It feels weird/wrong that I have work to do. I have a Press Release due tonight and two articles due tomorrow.

I guess I should get going on that. If Ziggy were here, she would have yelled at me if she knew I was procrastinating.

We miss our Baby Girl so much.

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Ziggy is Missing

Hey, Everyone

No update today.

Ziggy went missing Saturday. We had gone out that afternoon/night to visit my parents and when we came back, Ziggy was nowhere to be found. And she hasn't come back since.

We're spending the today trying to find her (walk around, talk to people, put up posters, etc).

If you have any helpful tips, let us know.

--Lauren*