Electric Weekend

Hey, Everyone!!

MANY APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE UPDATE!! I'm sorry if I worried any of you. (Paris...)

I got a bit mixed up because of the holiday weekend. I worked through it (so it kind of felt like work days) but then there were also parties going on for all three days (which felt like the weekend). I don't know. It was weird. ~_~

Anyway, here's what I did:

I worked on stuff for WebTalk Radio and Sarasota Dog...
We celebrated my mom's 57th birthday...
Saw Dorian...

My mom tamed that squirrel...it's very friendly!

And Robert tried to kill us...

But he looks so peaceful... O_o

Wait. What?!

It was an accident. (We think... *suspicious*) Robert decided he wanted to sit by the window, got his collar caught in the blinds, started strangling, panicked, knocked over a bottle of water, broke a lamp, and electrocuted the floor! JEEZ!! Anyway, his breakaway collar broke (just like it's supposed to!--Yay!!) and he got out of there just in the nick of time; but it LITERALLY scared the crap out of him. He let out the fart of a lifetime and then ran for his box. It was intense. And smelly. The whole living room smelled like...burning...and cat fart. Whew! We managed to get everything cleaned up without dying. Thank goodness.

And here we always thought Ziggy would be the one to try and murder us...

Shown here with dynamite (ah, how we miss her...)

We also took Robert to the vet. He's gotten into the habit of crying when he uses his box. BUT...only when Ramiro is out of the room! Well, we know that Robert is very neurotic and insanely attached to Ramiro, but that was taking it a bit too far. So, we did what any good pet owner would do: We took him to the vet to check for a UTI.

We were originally going to take Robert to the vet next week (after my first paycheck) to get his shots updated, but if your cat is crying in its litterbox you ALWAYS need to get them to the vet ASAP! So there ya go. Anyway, his lab results came back today: Everything was negative. Sooooooooooooooooo... Robert's just crazy. And Ramiro has to watch/talk to him while he pees or he cries. lol. Silly cat.

At least he got his shots updated while he was there.

In other news, I interviewed Ramiro on my Professional Blog. Be sure to check that out.

PEOPLE I KNOW: RAMIRO ROMAN, JR.

I've started up a new section on my Blog called "People I Know." Check HERE for upcoming guests/interviews!

Again, I apologize for the late update. Hopefully it was worth the wait!

See you next Monday! (For sure this time!)

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com Ramiro updated my Official Webpage -- Check the Contact and Links pages for new stuff!

Ziggy Update & Odd Jobs

Hey, Everyone!

We took Ziggy to the vet yesterday (that was the soonest they were able to see us) and she's going to be just fine. We were doing everything right (we were using the right kind of ointment and all that), but they gave her an anti-biotic shot to help speed the process along. She already looks a TON better today. Thank you all for the best wishes & prayers. :)

I don't have an updated picture of Ziggy just yet, but here's one of Robert that Ramiro took the other day that cracks me up:Speaking of pictures, I took one of my mom's guinea pig Algernon the other day. I finally finished painting the green parts of my parents' bathroom (but I still have to do the cupboards & borders/molding) and we got the stuff to seal it in; however, the sealant made me feel really woozy after a while (I didn't notice it until I went to climb back up on the ladder & got dizzy) so my mom gave me some tasks to do outside. One of those odd jobs was to take a good picture of her guinea pig, Algernon:This picture has been causing quite a (good) stir over on the guinea pig forum that my mom goes to. In case you were wondering, Algernon is a hairless guinea pig. The breed is called a Skinny and my mom has had a bunch of them over the years. She's written a few articles on them and even helps to maintain the Wiki page on 'em. She currently has 4 of them, but until the other day had no good photos of Algernon (he's the least photogenic of the 4).

Anyway, nice picture I took, huh?

In other news, I've restarted my online comic strip (on drunkduck.com) The Greener Side and it's updating every Tuesday. If you'd like to start reading The Greener Side, click here. So far the response has been surprisingly good. I've been getting a lotta hits! For those of you who don't know, The Greener Side is pretty much the same as my blog (all about me) only in comic-strip form.

Guess that's about it for now. Hope you all have a Happy 4th of July! (I didn't say "Independence Day" because I know some of you aren't in America. HI, DAVID!!!)

Until next time.

--Lauren*

Sick Ziggy

Ziggy got beat up pretty badly by something the other day. When she came in Friday night for dinner, she was all sorts of messed up. Her eye, especially, was pretty gross, but she also had bloody spots all over her ear as well... She wasn't acting herself and didn't want to eat. And she wasn't yelling at any of us (very not herself!).

We think it may have been a "Mockingbird" that attacked her, but we're not sure. Ziggy likes to climb trees and there have been a lot of those birds around lately (and they've been making nests). Those birds have been known to be pretty vicious to cats in the past, especially when their nests are threatened, so it seems fairly likely. Also, we interrogated the other cats in the area about the incident and since none of them were scuffed up, we think they're in the clear. If Ziggy had been in a fight with another cat, she would have messed them up too, you know?

We've been trying to treat Ziggy's eye with an antibacterial cat eye ointment that we got. We think it's helping a little. The swelling has gone down and she's no longer pussing green out her eye. We've been trying our best to keep the area clean. It's still very sore-looking and she's still very squinty (as you can see from the pic above) and it's still leaky (but clear fluids now!), but it isn't all swollen and totally nasty any more.

However, her appetite is still down (though she did eat a little more today than she did Friday or Saturday) and she's been very cold. She's also been making a burbling sound and has a very "wet" cough. We weren't sure she was going to make it through the night last night. We've been keeping her inside and have been trying our best to make sure she gets a little water & wet food into her and we even wrapped her in a towel to try to keep her body-heat up.

Our vet is closed on the weekends, so we've been having to wait it out a bit. We're going to call tomorrow and see if they can squeeze her in. They were very helpful when Robert was ill last October. Fortunately, my parents were kind enough to give me an advance on the money I earn from fixing their bathroom (which is looking great, by the way; Ramiro saw it in person for the first time today and was impressed). I just hope it's enough. :( I accept PayPal donations...

Please pray for our baby girl.
Hopefully I'll have happy updates soon.

--Lauren*