IFS Paid Me!!!!

Hello, Everyone!

Last night's Blog entry caused QUITE the stir!!! And I would just like to say: it was all worth it. Not only did I regain my self-respect, but I gained the respect of several other people as well. And...I got paid!

The IFS contacted me this morning. Both the owner/promoter and his freelance associate were very cordial and respected my reasons for leaving. They also appreciated my giving them the articles and notes. They were polite, respectful, and--best of all!--they paid me for the one article that was published.

We're square and there are no hard feelings. So, if any of you were still thinking to boycott the event on my behalf--there's no need. Please, feel free to go and enjoy the show. The tie-breaking final "rubber match" between Baxter "One-Armed Bandit" Humby and William "The Bull" Sriyapai is bound to be a good one and I wouldn't want any true fight fans missing out because of me. :)

I also held up my end of things and promptly went to the Post Office and mailed them back their tickets:
They should be receiving their package tomorrow.

And, they've already hired a new writer! Best of luck to LISA, the new IFS writer/publicist!

And THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO SENT THEIR LOVE AND SUPPORT MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It really, really meant a lot to me. I was surprised and very happy that I not only got love and support from my friends and family (who kinda have to...jk), but from strangers as well! Everyone (except for that one guy--and he, literally, was the ONLY one) really rallied behind me. Thank you all, again, so very much. If I can ever do the same for you someday, please, just let me know.

Whew!

I'm glad that mess is over and done with!!

Let's get back to the usual Lauren nonsense. Check out how big this egg was:
Ramiro and I were making breakfast the other day and were surprised to find a HUGE egg in the carton. You can see how big it is compared to one of the normal-sized eggs. But here's a picture of it in Ramiro's hand for even more size comparison:
And--here's the best part!--when Ramiro cracked it open...
...it had two yolks! TWO!! Twin yolks. How awesome is that?!

In other news, we replanted our loquat tree (it was potted, but it finally got big enough to be put into the ground) and we'll be harvesting our potatoes tomorrow. The cats dug up one of our potatoes today and it looked pretty good, so we thought we'd see what else was down there. Those of you who remember my potato-related blog entry from a while back will recall that we planted 43 potatoes... I'll be sure to keep a tally of how many those turned into when we dig them up tomorrow.

We also, finally, got the trap to capture Rebel from FixNation. FixNation has been so busy that it took several weeks for a trap to become available. Ramiro managed to take some pics of the cats on the deck:Ziggy, Rebel, and Robert
Ziggy and Rebel (see? they aren't the same cat!)

We also got one of FixNation's new brochures. And we were surprised to see this:
ROBERT!!

lol. Poor Robert. They took a picture of him on the worst day of his life. He peed and pooped all over himself and looks just terrible. I guess they thought having a really pathetic-looking "feral" cat picture would help their cause. And I hope it does!

Okay, that's all for now. I've gotta hurry and post this. A lot of people are waiting for this entry...

Because everyone wanted to see an egg with twin yolks. ;)

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

Edit (3/4/11): It has been "suggested" to me that I take down my last Blog entry. I don't want to. It was a good lesson for me and I think it could help other freelancers as well. It taught me not to stray from my "Deposit up Front" policy! A policy that I clearly outlined in that entry for future clients. And, as I said in the entry, if future clients are "threatened" by that entry, then "they probably aren't worth working for anyway."

However, I've been told that I should make something more clear: The IFS did not pay me because of this Blog (or so I've just been told) but because a board member stuck up for me and pushed for me to get paid. Which I greatly appreciate. And I'm happy they were able to find another writer so quickly.

There were mis-communications and mis-understandings on both sides. And this could have happened with ANY company, not just the IFS. And I would have gone though the exact same course of action if it were any other company! Those of you who remember this old blog entry from last July will recall that I don't just send out letters of complaint, but letters of praise as well. I'm quick to point out the bad things, but I'm also quick to point out the good--which is why I wrote this entry. I didn't have to. I could have taken their money and not said anything! But I didn't. I went online immediately after they paid me to thank them and praise them.

And, if you scroll up, you'll see that I also encouraged people to go to the IFS' upcoming event! And I meant it. I was at the Press Conference. I've seen the fighters, I know what's coming, and I honestly think it's going to be awesome. If you're a fan, you should definitely go!

Muay Thai in the United States is a rare thing. And there are some great people involved in it. It should be supported.

And, as I've said, the IFS and I are square now and I have absolutely no hard feelings and bear them no ill will. AS I'VE ALREADY SAID. Honestly, why do people even come to my Blog if they don't want to actually read what I have to say...

I am not without fault. If I hadn't been panic-stricken and desperate for money to pay off my never-ending stack of bills, I wouldn't have taken the job in the first place. I should have known better than to stray from my payment policy. And I think that should be a lesson to other freelancers. As I said, issues like this could happen with ANY company--ANY client--and we, as freelancers, need to remember to protect ourselves. NEVER STRAY FROM THE DEPOSIT-UP-FRONT PAYMENT POLICY!! And read all contracts very, very carefully.

Again, and I feel I have to say this because apparently people only skim my entries rather than actually read them (maybe if I say this enough times, people will actually see it?), the IFS and I are square now and I wish them the very best. I have nothing against them and I love the Muay Thai community as a whole. I think it's a great, exciting, sport and that it is filled with wonderful people!

If my stance on the matter STILL isn't clear after all that I've said then maybe I really am a terrible writer. Personally, I think that I've made myself VERY clear.

Now, please, can we all just move on?

Thank you.

Edit: If anyone is interested, The Science of 8 Limbs heard about me/my Blog (word travels fast in the Combat Sports circle) and stated their own opinion on the matter here: http://thescienceof8limbs.com/2011/03/04/ifs-and-the-tale-of-the-delay-paid-writer/

Rebel Rebel

Hey, Everyone!

Just wanted to say that congratulations are in order for Ramiro as well. He's working at the same company I am now:That's the view from my cubical looking into his (there's a window).

Sorry, I didn't mention it before. He was on a "trial" basis at first and I didn't want to announce it until they made him a legit employee... And they did! Yaaaaaaaaaay!! Congrats, Ramiro! :)

Also, a while back I mentioned a "stranger cat." Since then, that same cat has been hanging around a lot. We don't know whether she's a boy or a girl, but we call her(?) "Rebel." Ziggy's Mom had her before getting spayed (another litter of one!). She hangs out with Ziggy's Mom and Robert's Mom. She looks a lot like our Ziggy, but much smaller (she's a lot younger) and she only has half a tail. My best guess is that someone ran over her tail with their car (like she was sleeping under a car and it rolled over her tail). I knew a squirrel as a kid who had their tail run over by a car and it looked very similar to Rebel's.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Rebel that I took this morning:Other than her(?) messed up tail, she's a very beautiful cat. It's a shame she's feral.

When we can, we're going to get a trap from FixNation and take her(?) in to be fixed. Go through that whole rigmarole again... Sigh.

That's about it for now.

Until next time...

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

Update On Robert's Mom

Hey, Everyone!

We just saw Robert's Mom for the first time since we released her after her surgery. She looks really good. :)

Also, I got my first job on Textbroker! (By the way, I think I said my payscale for Textbroker was 1.5 dollars... I meant 1.5 CENTS. My bad! I WISH it were 1.5 dollars!! Haha).

It's been super hot lately. Stay hydrated, Everyone!

Until next time...

--Lauren*

Caught Robert's Mom!

Hey, Everyone!

After months of failed attempts, we finally caught Robert's Mom (the last of the feral cat colony in our neighbourhood that needed to be neutered). She was spade at 8:04am this morning. :)

In other news, my piece on Sun Valley (as seen in my last entry) was evaluated by Textbroker and they deemed me a "Class 4" writer. To clarify, there are 5 classifications of writers:
1 = lousy (not even allowed on the site)
2 = legible
3 = average
4 = excellent
5 = professional

As you can see, I'm in the "Excellent" category. They're also starting me off on a $1.50/per word pay scale (which is slightly higher than most "Excellent" writers start out on). That made me feel really good. I'm hoping that I'll start getting writing gigs on there soon and, someday, become a "Professional" writer.

My OFFICIAL WEBSITE now also has links to my writing. http://littlezotz.webs.com

Until next time...

--Lauren*
PS: Dannon More of KEMPO HIKES asked me to fix up his MySpace page. I wish I'd taken a "Before" picture of it. It looked really awful. It was plain brown, his logo was squished off to one side (only half of it was showing), and there were a bunch of empty white boxes with no text. Anyway, here's what it looks like now that I've fixed it up: http://myspace.com/kempohikes I advised him that it would be good to "trim" that big block of About Me text, but, of course, in the end it was up to him. Special thanks to Ramiro for helping me figure out the technical stuff!

Last 2 Kittens

Hey, Everyone!

Great news! We were able to catch the last two kittens. They will be taken to the East Valley Animal Shelter as soon as they open in the morning. We've made sure that they have been fed and are well-hydrated.

Again, if you would like to adopt these kittens, please visit the shelter's adoption section here: http://www.laanimalservices.com/adoptapet_eval.htm

We still haven't had any luck catching Robert's Mom for FixNation, but we think we may have a significantly better chance now that her kittens are no longer distracting her.

Speaking of FixNation, after we caught the runt kitten last time, I mentioned that I got some hate mail. One of the complaints I received that I didn't mention was that everyone presumed we had caught the kitten in a FixNation trap (which are only meant to be used for FixNation purposes). This time, to avoid that particular argument from coming up again, I'm posting this picture:As you can clearly see, the kittens are not in a FixNation trap.

We felt bad lifting up their towel (covering a cat when it's enclosed in a trap or carrier helps to calm it significantly!) to take this picture, but we didn't want to get any more guff over something that isn't even an issue.

Again, if anyone out there is adopting these kittens, or any of the numerous other kittens at the shelter who need homes, please click here.

If anyone out there sends me hate mail over our taking these kittens to the shelter, their e-mails will not receive an answer.

Until next time...

--Lauren*

Precious Ruby

Hey, Everyone

After my last post, I started receiving hate mail about the fact that we took the runt kitten (and will be taking the other two kittens) to a shelter. At first, we were upset by it, but we're not anymore because, look:

a.) We've been saying for over two months now that we were going to take the kittens to a shelter if nothing better came up,

b.) That kitten needed medical attention, which we could not afford to give (and the shelter was willing to provide),

c.) Those kittens wouldn't do well in the wild as we've been handling them pretty much since birth & they depend on us for food (which is what FixNation told us to do!),

d.) Even if the kittens DO get euthanized (as the writers are insisting), at least it'll be quick and humane--unlike starving to death and/or being eaten alive by parasites--though I highly doubt they will be (why would the shelter lie to us that they thought he had a great chance?) and,

e.) If those people liked the kittens so much, they could have stepped up and adopted them!!!! We've been advertising these kittens for a long time now!

I'm taking a stand right now. If you write me a hate mail message on this subject, you won't be getting a reply.

On the bright side, we got to go visit the kitten who DID get adopted today. She looks WONDERFUL! She's the most spoiled kitten in the universe and she's so clean and happy and tame and well-adjusted. He eyes are sort of brown now and she looks just lovely.

Her name is Ruby.

--Lauren*

Quick Update

Hey, Everyone!

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on a few things:

1.) We were unable to catch Robert's Mom with the laundry basket trick. FixNation has now told us to try securely tying a chicken drumstick to the very back of the trap and see if that works. We'll be trying that Tuesday night.

2.) A while back I mentioned I was doing a "creepy" black and white 5-page comic? Well, I finished it, and I was invited to have it published in a zine called Hello World. Here's a panel from it:
That's all my own work. However, Ramiro has been going over the comic adding "additional inks" to make it look EXTRA nice. I'll be sure to post the whole thing once he's done sprucing it up.

3.) I have an interview at Macy's tomorrow! I'm not pinning all my hopes on it, but it's super nice to have someone call for an interview. It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes, sending out application after application and then not hearing anything back. Just the fact that I got another interview makes me really happy.

4.) I've been making steps toward starting up my own writing company, just like my (now very successful!) friend Danielle did. And a few hours ago, I just got my first job offer. I'll be writing an article. I'm far from being rich & famous (I'll be making enough to buy Ramiro & me a dinner at IHOP, pretty much); but it's a good first step and I'm extremely happy/excited! Working as an illustrator was nice, but I really do prefer writing. :)

5.) Yes, there are still 3 kittens available for adoption if you or anyone you know is interested. My e-mail address is littlezotz@gmail.com

Until next time!

--Lauren*
PS: It's now officially Tuesday! Be sure to check out The Greener Side.

Robert's Mom = Our Weekend Plans

Hello, Everyone!

I'm sure you all remember Robert's Mom (also the mother of the kittens we're trying to find homes for)...
She was supposed to have an appointment at FixNation today, but, again, we were unable to catch her. We set up the trap and, once again, she used her paws like a raccoon to scoop up the bait without triggering the trap. Though, one time, we DID catch her kittens! And, man, were they pissed!!

So, from 7pm to 12am last night, we sat outside with a long piece of twine attached to the door of the cage. Like a cartoon trap... You know. With a box, some bait, a stick, and a piece of rope. Like the way you catch the rat in Monkey Island 2.

Anyway, she went in the trap when we did that too, but she managed to slip out as the trap was closing. She's FAST!!

We wrote to FixNation and got this in reply:

Will this cat go anywhere near your feet? If the cat will get close enough to your feet, you plop a laundry basket trap over the cat, then "spider" the cat onto a piece of secure plywood, which becomes the "floor", then duct tape the whole thing together. Bring along an extra empty trap for the cat to recover in. Make sense?

You're officially on the roving reservation list. Let me know when you've been able to trap her, okay?

Yes--keep the trap and keep trying!!!

don't give up--you'll get her.

liz

So, I guess you all know what we'll be doing Sunday night. Wish us luck!!

--Lauren*

1 Down; 3 to Go!

Hey, Everyone!

We found a home for one of the tabbies!

There's still 1 tabby and 2 black kittens left.

They have about 2.5 to 3 weeks left until they're fully weaned. They were eating a smidge of wet food from my hand last night, but are still primarily living off of their mother's milk.

Once again, please contact me at littlezotz@gmail.com if you or someone you know is interested in adopting one of the kittens! Thank you!

--Lauren*

Other entries on the kittens can be found:
http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/07/4-kittens.html
http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/07/better-kitten-pics.html
http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/07/taming-day-1.html
http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/07/taming-day-2.html
http://littlezotz.blogspot.com/2010/07/momma-cat-babies.html

4 Kittens

Hello, Everyone!

I'm sure most of you remember who Robert's Mom is:Anyway, we FINALLY found her kittens. There are four of them that we know of for sure. Two black and two striped. Here's a picture of one of the stripy ones:I'll try to take better pictures of the kittens soon.

Robert's mom is (hopefully!--if we can catch her this time) going to FixNation on August 6th to be spayed. They told us that the best thing to do for the kittens (rather than taking them to FN and releasing them back into the wild or taking them to a shelter) would be to try and tame them and find them good homes.

If anyone out there, in the Southern California area, is interested in adopting a kitten, please write to me at: littlezotz@gmail.com

Or to my usual/personal e-mail if you're a friend who actually knows me.

I can also be contacted via Twitter or comments on this blog.

I'll make another update soon as I can.

--Lauren*

Moms & Babies

Hey, Everyone!

We've been seeing Ziggy's Mom around a lot lately. She's looking really good! Actually, she looks the best she ever has. Not having kittens every other week seems to be agreeing with her.We've also seen Robert's Mom hanging around a lot more lately too. Like I said in my last post, her nips are all stretched out, so she's obviously had that last batch of kittens somewhere. Anyway, she's been hanging out a lot lately and she's looking a bit "plump" again. *groan* We're hoping we can catch her and take her to FixNation sometime soon. Anyway, here's a picture of what she looks like. It's from August of last year. Robert's in the picture too, as you can see. He was such a silly kitten.
Robert and Ziggy are both doing well too. We bought them new collars. This is Robert's third collar and Ziggy's second. We were getting them the cheap collars and they kept breaking and getting lost, so we finally shelled out a couple bucks more and got them something a little nicer ($6.99 each). So far, so good. We also got them tags. They have their names on one side and Ramiro & my phone numbers on the other. They look very nice. We had a little trouble with fraying at first because we had to cut the collars to fit (which is what they told us to do at the pet store), but once we lit the ends on fire (OFF of the cats, of course!!!) the fraying stopped. :)They look a bit like a yin-yang when they sleep together, don't they? And Ringo has been doing pretty well too, for the most part. He's been sleeping a little more in this hot weather, but it has also made him a bit more mellow. He's usually a bit grumpy, especially when it comes to Robert (Robert's rambunctious antics tend to bother the old man), but today he let Robert sleep on the bed with him. I wasn't there at the time, but Ramiro took this picture for me to see:And where was I, you ask, when cute cat sleeping things were going on? Well, I was at my parents' house working on their bathroom again. And, while I was there, a lil baby birdie flew into their glass door. Here's a picture of my mom holding him/her:The birdie splatted into the window and then landed right in front of Dorian. Dor-Dor was about to eat him, but Mom was right there and scooped him up. The poor bird was pretty addled, but Mom took care of it until it calmed down and then she let it loose again. It flew away, so I guess it must have been all right.

Anyway, I have to go cook dinner now.

Until next time!

--Lauren*

Ziggy's Mom

Hey, Everyone!

Those of you who read my last post know that Ramiro and I trapped a feral cat the other night and took her in to be spayed yesterday. Here she is:For those of you who would like some history on this cat, we call her "Ziggy's Mom." Because, of course, that's who she is! (How appropriate that I should have a "mom" post right in time for Mother's Day, eh?).

Ziggy's Mom has been hanging around our house for a while now and is between 1-2 years old. Her first (that we know of) litter was during the Station Fires and contained one cat. She ditched that kitten at birth and refused to come back. Ramiro waited a whole day for her to return, but she never did. In the end, he ended up rescuing the kitten and, in the end, he was given to our friend Darlene. His name is Smokey and he's now a fat & happy cat.
Here's a picture of Ramiro with Smokey when we went to visit him (and Darlene, of course!) a few weeks after he was given to her:Smokey is much bigger now.

Anyway, right after she had Smokey, Ziggy's Mom got pregnant again right away (back-to-back litters!) and she gave birth to Ziggy, the angriest cat in the world:Photo credit goes to Sarahe for the Ziggy pic.

Ziggy's Mom took care of Ziggy for a few weeks (she put in an effort!) but eventually she ditched Ziggy too. When Ramiro and I started taking care of her, she wasn't even fully weened yet. Fortunately, like Smokey, the litter that contained Ziggy was a litter of one.

Ziggy's Mom was pregnant again a couple weeks ago. She didn't have the kittens in our yard this time, but we know that she had them somewhere. One day she was pregnant and the next day she wasn't. FixNation said that she definitely gave birth recently and they seemed a tad perplexed that she wasn't still lactating. Wherever those kittens are, they're probably dead. Looks like she ditched another litter.

Anyway, the happy ending of the story is that we released Ziggy's Mom this morning and she's doing really well. And she'll never have unwanted babies again! :)

Hopefully, on my next post, I'll be telling you all about Robert's Mom. She's next on our list to Trap-Neuter-Release. Especially since she's pregnant again! We have to trap her this upcoming week, so please send lots of prayers and "good luck" wishes our way. Robert's Mom is a tricky cat who seems to be savvy to what's up. We've already gotten her in the trap twice, but she somehow manages to eat all the bait without setting off the trigger! So yeah... Wish us luck.

Until next time!

--Lauren*
PS: This is what Ziggy looked like as a kitten:She was always an angry cat.

Robert & Ziggy Neutering

On Sunday, May 2nd, we kept Robert and Ziggy locked in our room overnight to a.) make sure they didn't eat anything after Midnight and, b.) to make sure they'd be here on time for their appointment at FixNation the next morning at 7am.

Robert was a bit confused about the purpose of the litterbox and seemed to think it was a bed:My mom says it looks like he's trying to hatch something.

The next morning, at 7am, we took them both to FixNation to be neutered. Ringo was very confused around breakfast time and spent the bulk of the day until they returned looking for them:
We brought Robert and Ziggy home at around 5pm that same evening. They were both neutered and ear-tipped (if you can't afford to pay, FixNation will neuter your cats for free, but only if you agree to let them cut off a part of your cat's right ear). We hated to do it, but seeing as we have no money, we had no choice. Thankfully, the people working there were very nice about it and made sure that the ear-tipping was minimal. You can barely see it:
We kept both cats in our room again overnight. The next day, Robert was bouncing around as if nothing had happened. Ziggy, however, was having a bit more trouble. Not only was her surgery much more invasive (spaying a female cat is an internal surgery whereas neutering a male cat is purely external), but she had been pregnant! On the 5th, she was still very very weak and wasn't looking so good. She didn't want to eat or drink.

We ended up keeping Ziggy in our room for one more night (we made our own litterbox out of her carrier. We took it apart and filled it with dirt. Unlike Robert, she was able to figure out what it was for). We managed to get her to eat and drink and poop and pee:
The next morning, Ziggy was starting to act like herself again.

We've been checking their incisions twice a day and so far everything is clean and good. We have high hopes that they'll both recover nicely and be happy cats again very soon. :)

In the meantime, Ramiro and I have set about capturing the feral cat colony that lives in our area. One of the females is pregnant again!

We set traps last night (provided to us by FixNation) and managed to catch one of the females in the colony, but unfortunately it wasn't the pregnant one. We were happy we caught her, but we're worried... FixNation is closed over the weekend and the pregnant female looks like she's ready to blow any second now! We're praying that she doesn't have her kittens over the weekend.

The female that we caught last night is at FixNation being spayed and ear-tipped right now.

More updates soon-ish!

--Lauren*
PS: This product is AMAZING! If you ever have animal "stinks" to deal with or stains/odors you need to get out, I highly HIGHLY recommend getting some Nature's Miracle.