Toastmasters Speech: Can't Buy Me Love

The next Toatmasters speech focuses on vocal variety. In addition to tone, pitch, variation, etc., I was trying to focus on not speaking too fast. Plus, instead of standing behind the podium, I set my notes on the table and stood beside it (the ideal would be standing in front of the table, but that makes it hard to occasionally reference notes, which I still need to do). I feel like I made a huge leap forward with the presentation of this speech last week. 

Title: Can't Buy Me Love

I hope you all had a happy mothers’ day last weekend! I’m not a mother yet, but I do have two girls that I consider my babies - our cats Imogene and Hera. I know it’s not the same, but it does involve the occasional middle of the night wake-up, feeding them mushed up food, and dealing with someone else’s feces, so there are definitely some similarities to the human variety.

I adopted Imogene in 2009; and Lincoln and I adopted Hera last fall - I think a one-to-one cat to human ratio is ideal - they each need to have a designated lap, and each lap needs a designated cat. They’ve both been wonderful companions and additions to our family, and so I am grateful to the shelters that allowed us to find them. 

If you’ve considered adding a furry friend to your family, I strongly encourage you to seek them at a shelter, rather than purchasing from a pet store or breeder. According to the Humane Society, 2.7 million adoptable cats and dogs are euthanized each year. With that many animals waiting for a home, there’s absolutely no need for anyone to profit from creating even more. Many animals raised for breeding are not kept in good conditions, but crammed into too small crates, becoming pregnant far too young and too often. A cat can become pregnant at as young as 4 months, and can have 5 pregnancies a year. That’s way too many kittens - for the mother and the world.

I found Imogene at the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood, and we got Hera at the Oregon Humane Society in NE Portland. A bonus you get at any good shelter, is some degree of notes on what they had seen of each cat’s personality, and whether they would be well suited for a home with children and/or other pets, and have rooms to spend time with a cat before you adopt. You get to pick the best animal for your home, rather than merely a cute kitten. Granted, even shelter conditions, as good as they try to make them, are not exactly comforting to a cat, so both were definitely a bit shy and scared when we tried to introduce ourselves.

Once I got Imogene home, though, she was pretty content and immediately took it upon herself to explore her new surroundings. Estimated to be about 3 years old, she was still somewhat in the teenage phase, and quickly found a basket of toys I’d bought for her sitting on a book case. I had planned to name whatever cat I adopted “Agatha”, but the shelter had called her Imogene, and it just suited her classy, friendly but dignified, personality so well.

Hera was about one year old when we adopted her, and the information the shelter had indicated she had been a stray cat living outside. She had a little harder transition - the first 24 hours or so, she tried to cram herself into any available corner to hide, although if we held and cuddled her, she warmed up pretty quickly. We had discussed some “h” names - we have a household naming scheme we wanted to stick to - but landed on Hera, a powerful name for her to rely on for strength to overcome her fear. Though she’s still wary of strangers, she has proved herself to be incredibly NOT shy or timid overall, and is constantly meowing demands at us and chasing her older sister’s tail.

There’s nothing like having a cat curl up on your lap on a cozy evening on the couch - except for two cats curled up on your lap - or watching the intentness with which they stare at something invisible on the ceiling. Having grown up with cats around the vast majority of my life, I’ve found them to be extremely intelligent, beautiful, and loyal creatures.

They may not be able to directly speak to us, but if you’ve had a cat or dog, I think you know what I mean when I talk about how their personality shines through, and how precious their love for you - their caretaker, their family - truly is. I’m grateful to the shelters who take them in when someone else couldn’t see that, and allowed us to find them. If everyone adopted a cat from a shelter, they could provide that much better care to the animals remaining who wait for their forever home, and would be able to stop needlessly ending lives of cats who just happen to be one too many for the space available. Trust me, the love you receive is well worth it!

Clean Eating: Feline Edition [Sponsored by Influenster]

I was given the Temptations items in this post for free from Influenster for review purposes, but did not receive any additional monetary compensation. Blog posting and other sharing on social media with brand hashtags was encouraged, but not required in exchange for receiving the products. All opinions are my own. See Influenster detailed disclose post here.

I have a fair number of goals that could be aided by changing the way I eat: losing weight, helping the environment, supporting animal welfare. Beyond simply being vegetarian though, I don't put any real restrictions on what I actually eat. I just don't think that's a healthy - in a holistic sense - thing to do so (see some discussion here). Abe has some similar, sometimes more extreme beliefs and goals, which to an extent I allow him to impose on me and our household, since I don't disagree with the concept/result - for example, he goes further than I would to avoid artificial colors. But any thing even remotely resembling a "clean eating" strict diet? Absolutely not!

But when it comes to the cats, I kind of do impose some healthy eating habits to meet my ideals. (They can't complain! Or, if they are complaining, it sounds the same to me as when they complain about how evil we are for not allowing them to drink out of our water glasses or freely chase squirrels down the street.)

The staple of their diet is Halo dry cat food (the indoor cat formulations, because that's what I've found at a store), with plenty of water always available. Looking at the ingredient list, you can see that, although it's fortified with various nutrients, the top ingredients are clearly real food, akin to what the cats would eat in nature, with salmon listed first thing.

My only minor quibbles with this product are the plastic bag it comes in (thick and sturdy - which is nice, except that comes at a price of more plastic wasted), and that it's dry food. Cats don't have a very strong thirst drive, since in nature they would get much of their water by eating whole animals (which would contain water). Dry food obviously doesn't give them sufficient water, and they won't always drink enough water separately to make up for it, which eventually leads to kidney disease.

To compensate for that, it's important for cats to also get some kind of wet food. What we've chosen is Rad Cat raw cat food as a daily treat. Less than a dozen individual items, and several of them are actually parts of the same things (e.g., turkey thigh/leg, heart, and liver; egg yolk and shell). It's not fortified with individual isolated nutrients, but with additional whole items like gelatin or kelp to provide the nutrients that cats need.

At times, when I just had Imogene, I fed her raw food as the primary food, with dry food as a treat, but the cost would be super high for both cats (especially Hera, who, especially when we first adopted her, eats ridiculously amounts), plus with the waste of the plastic containers, that's not really feasible right now. I'm glad they get a bit of it every day, but I'm also comfortable with the quality of the dry food it supplements.

With that context in mind, you can probably imagine that when I received a Temptations Snacky Mouse toy with Temptations treats to try out, I was mostly concerned about what was in the treats. The latter half of the list looks similar to the Halo dry food - lots of isolated nutrients, important albeit not from a whole foods kind of source. But the beginning of the list looks a little different: First ingredient is "chicken by-product meal", followed by corn, and shortly thereafter "dried meat by-products" and natural flavor. 

Corn isn't really good, at least so high on the ingredient list. Cats are obligate carnivores - they benefit from some roughage, which they would get in nature from the stomach contents of the small animals they'd eat - so grains in cat foods aren't providing quality nutrients but are just filler. More grains equals less animal protein.

Natural flavor also isn't great, but mainly just because it means the actual ingredient(s) isn't being disclosed. If it's "natural" versus artificial, then it's at least derived from real stuff, but it can be still be hugely processed before it gets to the flavor stage. Just like in human food, natural flavor is better than artificial flavor, but fully disclosed ingredients are even better.

And what about those by-products? By-products are basically what they sound like: the product that's leftover after other portions have been processed for human consumption. It doesn't necessarily mean it has no nutritional value, but it's definitely not the same as whole muscle meat. It's random leftover pieces - includes organs and bone that are good for cats anyway (remember, they'd be eating small animals basically in whole, if they were catching their own prey), but it can also be feet or meat deemed unsuitable for humans (such as dead on arrival animals) that at best have no nutrition, and at worst could be harmful.

On the one hand, I like the idea of all parts of an animal, once it's doomed to consumption anyway, being used for something. But my cats are my babies! The fact that I brought them into my home means I made myself responsible for their well being. I doubt the potential health risk is significant (their stomachs are made to digest raw meat, after all), but it's simply not high-quality food. It's bits and scraps, processed to meet certain numbers - but it is processed, it's not real food that should the staple of anyone's diet.

That said, like I don't constrain myself to not only eat for pure health, the girls are entitled to treats as well! While I don't think the Temptations treats are truly healthy, I also don't think they're inherently harmful, and I have no issue with Imogene and Hera have a few pieces occasionally. 

They haven't quite gotten the hang of the snacky mouse to earn their treats, but they love the eating treats part!

Influenster required disclosure: I received the Temptations products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Firsts on Caturday

Last year I took advantage of the month of November being a slow month (work-wise, training-wise, etc.) and participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) with prompts from BlogHer. This year, the month's looking a little busier (repair regs at work, half marathon after Thanksgiving), but I still wanted to take on the challenge of writing more. I really want to continue building my blog as both a place of conversation and a venue for me to learn to express myself, and I think this is a great way to do that.

To make sure I have things to write about, I decided to take part in NaBloPoMo with prompts from Kim of Miss Zoot. She's doing a project this month to build a list in Feedly of participants and email out prompts each day. I think it's going to be a lot of fun!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today, the first of the month, is about Firsts. Since it's also Caturday, let's talk about a first that happened last night, and another this afternoon: the cats were left alone together and didn't kill each other! 

Until now, we've shut Hera in the guest room at night, and whenever we were gone; we simply didn't trust the two cats to be alone unsupervised. After a few weeks, we became less careful about supervision, not worrying if we stepped out to take the garbage out or took a long shower or whatnot. 

Finally, we decided they were coexisting well enough. Last night, we let Hera have free rein of the house. Fortunately, not only did she not pick a fight with her sister, she didn't even make a nuisance in our bedroom (until about 7:00 am, but that's when she usually starts whining even when she's in her own room).

Since that went well, I decided to try another experiment. Heading out for my run this afternoon while Abe was already out, I left Hera in the main part of the house. And they both survived! In fact, as soon as I returned, I saw this: 

I thought Imogene was willing to get that close to Hera only when it was necessary to sit on a lap, but I guess she's ok with it regardless! I hope they eventually become friends, and cuddle and groom and keep each other company, but for now this is an awesome sign of progress.

Also, I found out that Hera's tendency to take someone's spot as soon as they get up doesn't only apply to humans: 

If you want more cat pics, check me out on Instagram! I promise a minimum of 80% cat content. 

Three Things Thursday: Currently Making Me Happy

1. This blazer from Target. It's knit, so it basically feels like wearing a sweatshirt and pulling it off as business professional wear. The fit is short (even the sleeves aren't excessively long) so it seems flattering on my shortness, and I love (1) the buttons on the sleeves and (2) that the sleeves can be pushed up (I really don't like sleeves on my forearms). I'm even 98.62% sure that no one can tell just by looking at it in normal usage that it's not actually made out of suiting material.

2. I found my barrette! To keep things easy without being sloppy, I wear my hair half-up pretty much every day for work (with the very occasional deviation when I'm feeling adventurous). But this is the only barrette I've found - and trust me, I've looked for backups - that holds just the right amount of hair and has just the right amount of tension. About a month ago, I couldn't find it. :( I've had to make do with a small hair band to do my hair, and it's just not the same. But yesterday morning I had to dig a bit deeper into my main container of toiletry stuff to find my eyeliner sharper, and I found the barrette (and the pencil sharpener).  

3. The cats are making significant progress in coexisting. Ok, they're not exactly cuddling with each other yet. But this situation is starting to happen on a regular basis, where Imogene is willing to come sit on a lap even when Hera is already somewhere on the couch, and/or stay put even when Hera joins us on the couch. 

There's still some hissing and swiping going on, especially when Hera seems to be getting ready to pounce on Imogene (I think in a playful way, not an aggressive way?) and Imogene is rightfully annoyed, but she's allowing Hera to get pretty close before being too expressive. They just might become friends yet!

Caturday

Now that Hera's had about a month to get settled into her new home, it turns out that she's anything but shy! She loves exploring any nook or cranny, and has a tendency to sit in your spot if you get up (after warming it up for her, of course). She's an absolute sweetheart, except for when she's annoyed and swats at you - unlike most cats I've had, who generally bite if you're overpetting them or whatever, Hera does this move that's essentially slapping you in the face.

This past week she's discovered an obsession with my running shoes. Apparently they're good for more than just human exercise.

Imogene still isn't thrilled. Hera, though, keeps trying to make friends with her - or try to pick a fight, we're not sure. In any case, Hera fairly often tries to approach Imogene, and Imogene continues to hiss at her, but is gradually more likely to come into Hera's vicinity of her own volition. Hopefully they eventually will become close feline sisters!

Three Things Thursday: Never Thought I'd Own Part 2

1. Ballet slippers. 

I took my first ballet class on Tuesday. :) I did do "ballet" in preschool, and then jazz and tap classes through high school, but it's been years since I've done dancing, and never had a solid technical foundation. Every summer I watch SYTYCD and wish I could do that (I mean, I know I won't ever be at that level, but I miss dancing at all). 

It's a 10-week "absolute beginners" workshop through Oregon Ballet Theatre. It appears they do a season of adult workshops two or three times a year; after doing the absolute beginners class for a few seasons, you can move up to the "beginners" class. 

A lot of the terms introduced in the class are familiar to me from my jazz experience (chane turns, chasses, rond de jambe), but my muscle don't fully remember how to do them as well as they used to. I'm concerned the tendonitis issue with my left ankle might be a hindrance; while plieing and jumping it was not too happy. But overall, it was quite fun! I'm glad I finally got around to doing this. 

2. A baby gate.

Well, I suppose I knew we'd buy one eventually, but this is a couple years early for needing it for kids. To help Imogene and Hera get to know each other, we got a gate (Abe found one used, it's one of the nice ones with an actual gate, so you don't have to step over it or remove it) in the doorway to Hera's room. It allows Imogene to see into the room without access for attacking, and makes us feel better about not completely shutting Hera in a room when we're not closely supervising.

However, the other day Abe left the door open, baby gate shut, while we were out of the house for a few hours. I come home, glance in the room to say hello to Hera, and don't see her anywhere. Not super weird, she sometimes hides under a blanket or could have been in the closet using the litter box. Then I happen to glance to the side into our bedroom, and there she is, sitting on our bed!

The next morning I witnessed how she did it - she has to turn her head sideways to fit in between the rails of the gate, but she can fit through. I caught her halfway out, and once I shouted no and she knew she was in trouble, she adorably wriggled her way back into the room. I'm sure she's also capable of jumping over the gate, but I don't think she knows it. For now, I think we'll only leave the door open when we're at least in the house to hear if anything is going on.

3. Skinny pants.

I've been successfully (albeit gradually) losing some weight, and finally got to the point where my work pants were too loose. I'm not super creative in my wardrobe, especially when I'm hoping to change sizes in the near future, so I mostly just stick with a couple pairs of plain black slacks, replacing them as needed, and mix it up with more fun colored sweaters and tops.

After a couple weeks keeping my waistband up with safety pins, I finally made it to Target to get a couple cheap pairs of pants. I bought one basic, trouser, straight-leg pair, and then another style stood out to me. Skinny pants. (Is that the correct term? I know if they're denim, it's "skinny jeans", "skinny pants" doesn't seem to quite have the same ring, but follows the same convention.) I tried them on mainly because they were ankle length, and I hoped that meant if they fit I wouldn't have to hem them.

Alas, I still had to hem them an inch and a half, but I found them surprisingly flattering! The fabric helps - it's a nice stretchy, thick but not too thick, twill - but I think the cut somehow actually works on me! 

Hera!

We adopted a new kitty! Meet Hera: 

Abe and I have been thinking about getting a second cat since we moved in together (personally, I prefer having a 1:1 cat:human ratio), but we holding off on doing so until we weren't planning any more nights out of town for the summer.

After Aluminum Man last weekend, we don't have any more trips planned in the near future, so once we got back, on Sunday we headed to the Oregon Humane Society to see who was there. (I adopted Imogene from the Cat Adoption Team, but a friend gave us a certificate for a discounted adoption fee at OHS, and their location is slightly closer to us, for a marginally less harrowing car ride home.)

We went in thinking we'd like to find a kitten, but it was also important to adopt a female cat (I had some bad experiences growing up with male cats who sprayed). There weren't very many kittens there, but we did visit with one male 5-month-old. Very cute, but also very active. Definitely had an "oh, kitten!" moment, but I have no doubt any one else who considers him will have that moment as well and he'll easily find a home. 

Hera was quite timid at the shelter, trying to hide in a high corner in one of the colony rooms. She's about 1 year old, a stray cat someone was feeding and then surrendered to OHS. She's fairly small, I suspect she still has some growing to do to catch up with her ears and whiskers, and a little bit of kitten playfulness once she got more comfortable. :)

Not hiding!

When I adopted Imogene she was about three years old; although it would be nice to enjoy more of the kitten experience, I also like knowing that I'm bringing a home to slightly older cats who would likely have a harder time finding a willing family. 

Hera is currently staying in the guest room, while we slowly introduce her and Imogene. For the first several hours she was most inclined to stay hiding underneath an end table, but if we pulled her out was quite affectionate and willing to sit on our laps. I was pretty proud once I finally opened the door to see her sitting on top of the end table!

She is gradually getting more and more comfortable with us and in the room. She still heads under the table sometimes, but we also find her hanging out on the bed. She's eating a ton! She went through a full bowl of dry food in one day that I think would have taken Imogene a few days to eat up, but she could use a bit more weight for sure. Even with her medium hair that makes her look fluffier than she really is, she still looks small. And she definitely feels very skinny, as shelter cats often do. 

Fierce hunter

By Monday evening she was even getting playful. Her favorite toy is our hands or feet, but she also likes hunting a particular fish-shaped, mouse-furred, feather-tailed toy.

Imogene isn't exactly thrilled with the new family member. She had one fit of hissing by the guest room door, but for the most part isn't acting as territorial or defensive as I expected. Rather, she just seems sad and confused. I feel so guilty! 

We tried feeding her a treat by the guest room door, but she refused to even stay by the door, despite loving that food. When she's downstairs she seems relatively normal, but overall is avoiding being upstairs (where the gust room is) at all. The next step we plan on trying is letting Hera explore the rest of the house while one of us hangs out with Imogene in Hera's room so she gets used to her scent.

A Familiar Face on Caturday

Check out today's Caturday post on Hannah Violin - featuring Imogene! :)

Crazy Cat Family [Runner Photo Challenge]

For most of my childhood, my family had a minimum of two cats: (top left photo clockwise from left) Al, George, Ellie, Malcolm. We got Al and George during the summer, I think in between first and second grade. Al was my sister's cat (named after Alexandria, our parents' first cat who had just passed away), and George (Curious George, because I was 7) was my cat. We got Ellie and Malcolm when I was in middle school.

These are my family members' current cats. Sydney is my sister's. Emma and Sophie are my parents'.

And this is my baby, Imogene. I adopted her from the Cat Adoption Team four years ago, when she was about three years old.

Put A Bird [In] It

One nonnegotiable feature to me when renting is a washer/dryer in the apartment. My current apartment even has a little laundry room off the kitchen; the machines take up about half the floor space (the water heater is also in this room, which is awesome since so many apartments seem to use up bedroom closet space for that).

Imogene's litter box is in a corner of the laundry room. Sometimes she goes a bit wild digging and scratching at the box, and since the laundry room is fairly centrally located in the apartment, it's a very audible activity. Over the weekend, it seemed like I was hearing her do this a ton. It sounded like she was bumping the box around, kicking up lots of litter against the wall. Then I realized she was also trying to get around the sides of the washer and dryer, as well as jumping on top of them. Well, that also explained some of the sounds - just her jumping onto the washer. 

Gradually it dawned on me I was hearing these sounds while seeing Imogene elsewhere in the apartment.

Well... maybe there's a new puppy or something next door, and I'm just hearing it bang against the wall? No, it was too loud, definitely coming from inside the laundry room. I narrowed it down to either the dryer hose or inside the wall itself. By Sunday night, I was convinced there was a rodent inside there somewhere, but mostly managed to push it out of my mind and not think about it too much.

Monday morning, though, as I was getting ready for work, there was more noise, it seemed louder and more frantic, and Imogene started to look more creeped out as well. It was really loud for just a rat or mouse, though. Given how long it took me to realize the noise wasn't being made by Imogene, it really did sound like something the same size as her - and the idea of a 9-pound rat in my laundry room was terrifying. 

Eventually, I decided to shut Imogene in the bathroom, and also shut the door to the laundry room to keep anything from escaping into the rest of the apartment. I called the apartment office as soon as they opened and asked that they send maintenance to look at the laundry room and confirm there was something alive there, and call pest control to take care of it. I had a dentist appointment over my lunch break, and stopped by my apartment before returning to work to let Imogene out of the bathroom for a little bit. I still hadn't heard back from the apartment office, and it was clear they hadn't been there yet. At first all was quiet, then I shook the washer a bit, and the - thing - started moving again, banging around the dryer hose. 

Since I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately (I think I even got Abe hooked on it!), and in the past have had recurring nightmares about cats entering my home and not being able to tell them apart from my actual cats, I'd almost convinced myself that the cat I was holding was just a figment of my imagination that would disintegrate into dust if someone pointed a sonic screwdriver at it, and the real Imogene somehow crawled into the dryer. (Seriously - I almost texted Abe to ask if he had truly seen and held Imogene while at my apartment over the weekend, to confirm that the real cat hadn't been trapped in the wall the whole time).

Finally, just an hour later, I got a voicemail from one of the apartment managers letting me know that she and the maintenance guy had gone in. First they thought they heard it in the wall, and cut a hole in the drywall but nothing was there. Then they started taking apart the dryer hose... and a little beak peeked out! And then the bird flew out, and they got it to go outside. 

I feel so bad for that little bird now! I think it was trapped inside for at least two or three days. (Would I feel this bad if it had been a rodent... I'd like to say so, but I don't think I would.)

Maintenance has to come back later this week to finish repairing the drywall from the hole they cut in it, but otherwise the ordeal is over. It sounds like the apartment management hasn't had to deal with this particular situation before!

Party Animal

Came across this drawing by Gemma Correll on facebook - this is absolutely me!

In semi-related news (i.e., related to the fact that I'm an anti-social cat lady), today is the fourth anniversary of adopting Imogene!