What Once Was, Is No Longer

Everytime I log onto my blogger account, what's the first thing I see? My baby Syrie's smiling face in the picture I have posted at the top of my blog. This was taken the day I saw her dance to music for the first time. The day she got to enjoy sun and a parade. She can be the happiest baby at times, and then she can be the crabbiest, too, which in turn, makes both her mom and dad crabby, as well. Today I'm fighting off the urge to just collapse on my desk. It was another early morning with Syrie's first wake up beginning at 4 a.m.  After fighting with her for 15 minutes she laid back down in her crib and slept until 5:30 a.m.   This still wasn't good enough for David and I, so I let her cry it out in her crib. She was in and out of sleep until I finally got her out of bed at around 7 a.m. 

I am anxious to get her to the doctor tomorrow for her 9 month shots because I'm about 90% sure she's got another ear infection. After my last blog post in early June, we took her in after I noticed her tugging at her ears, and sure enough, it was an ear infection-her 3rd.  Her doctor suggested tubes and I was quick to say, "Yes, please!"  We are scheduled to go in for a physical with a specialist in mid July and they will schedule the 10 minute procedure thereafter. I guess it's a fairly simple surgery, and if she wasn't so young there wouldn't even be a need to put her under. I'm not looking forward to the goodbye as they stroll her away for surgery, but I am looking forward to the cuddly little girl that I will get back.  That's the only good  part about a baby who's had something done whether it be a hospital visit or what have you. All they want to do is cuddle.  As she gets older, I know these times are dwindling, so I'll take 'em while I still can.

It's not often that I talk about "Mister", what we like to call our cat, Hermes in my posts.  We got him from a house out in the country, outside of Waterloo two years ago in October.  To be completely honest, when we went there and saw him for the first time I wanted nothing to do with him. He had a really funky eye with a weird infection and it scared me.  Turns out it's Herpes, haha, but before you get concerned, don't worry, it can only be passed on to other cats.  The eye has since healed, but one thing that has always been consistent with our cat is his bathroom etiquette or lack there of.  Now Hermes is a clean cat, don't get me wrong, but from the time we got him as a kitty, he never was very good at making it into the box when he would go #2. He has no problem going #1 in there (thank god!), but occasionally as a kitten he would just miss the box and drop one right outside of it.  We didn't worry to much about it then, but over time he started to go #2 more often outside and around his box then in it.  We tried EVERYTHING to fix this.  We got him different litter, a bigger box, we had his poop checked by the vet, we moved his box, we moved it back, we changed his litter twice a week. I think you get the hint: WE TRIED EVERYTHING.  So, when we moved into our condo in late March 2010 we put his box in the basement. He was still "missing his box" occasionally, but it was no big deal. It's not as if we had to go searching for the surprises, they were always right there next to the box, and it was only a cement floor at the time, lined with newspaper or a rug which made for simple clean up.  In July, when we finished our basement and had a carpet installed, I had no idea the disaster that lied ahead!

This carpet is amazing. It's super soft and has a nice thick padding underneath. I remember watching Hermes lay, stretched out on it, enjoying its loveliness just as much as David and I.  All of a sudden we started to notice he was occasionally going #2 on it, instead of in the back room of the basement near his litter box where we opted to not lay carpet, and instead leave as is.  We would pick up his mess, and luckily it wouldn't leave any marks, but we still cleaned it like crazy.  I'll just cut to the chase...this has been going on since last August and I am all out of ideas, as is our vet. We tried those plug-in's that are guaranteed to keep a cat from going anywhere near them. That guarantee was about as good as if Tommyboy took a dump in a box and marked it Guaranteed!  We tried laying air fresheners all over the carpet, and we even layed out old bed sheets over all of the basement, but he still managed to find a 1 square foot area that wasn't covered by sheets and laid a nice one down.  Thank you Hermes. We do everything for you. We gave you a water fountain as your water dish. We feed you good, not ashy cat food. I make you homemade cat biscuits on your birthday, even though it makes the whole house reek of tuna, we buy you cat clothes (okay maybe that's more for me), and we provide you with a lot of love and attention. Why oh why?!  If any one knows of a cat whisperer or has any other tips/ideas, I'd love to hear them.  I'm sure we've already tried it, but if not, I'm willing to give anything a shot.  I do NOT want to have to get rid of my Hermes.

Our little mister, Hermes doing what he loves-playing in a bag.