that I'm feeling focused

Well folks, I had my weigh in on Thursday and only lost .5 lbs which I think I already told you about... so I was super determined this weekend. I didn't go out, just ran some errands and ate what I was supposed to. Well, except for Saturday because somehow I forgot to eat. I ate around 10am, then went to Ikea, ate a cinnamon bun (I know, I know), then went to a friend's house and had one of my pizza bite snacks (around 7pm). I kept thinking I need to go home and get more food, but i was in the middle of catching up on True Blood on demand since I don't have HBO and I only had 3 episodes to get through. So I drank a lot of water and tried to stave off the hunger. By 10:30 I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out so I headed home after True Blood's final episode pissed me off. I got home grabbed a peanut butter bar and nom'd it as fast as I could. Yup. that was indeed the problem. I felt soooo much better. I grabbed another snack and headed up to bed, but I ended up passing out before I could get another meal in. Sunday I was back on track.

So today is Tuesday and I can honestly say I think I look skinnier today! A few of my friends have said they see it, but those were during my 0.5 loss weeks and I was like , "um, yea right." Maybe they did see it, but I think they were just trying to be nice and seeing as how the clothes I was wearing look like maternity clothes it's easy to say my clothes look looser.

Anyways. That's how the diet is going. I'm feeling good and I have the OK to work out. I plan on going rock climbing tonight and hopefully set up my Yogaglo account which I keep putting off.

Now, onto a story. The story of my cat. This is how he came to be. And the reason I'm telling you this story will be in tomorrow's post. Enjoy.

In early September 2010 my roommate had acquired a teeny little stray that a friend found but didn't want to keep.



















Sharma and Ivette & Sharma on her beloved Chipotle bag

Sharma was the newest member of our family and I think we were all just so excited to have a pet in the house (except maybe Stephanie. She's not the biggest fan of cats and as she'll tell you they aren't the biggest fans of her). A few weeks into having Sharma around she seemed lonely and to always be getting into trouble, so Allie (another roommate at the time) suggested we get Sharma a friend. Triny (the owner of Sharma and the house) didn't want the added responsibility of another kitten so I gladly volunteered (I had wanted a kitten for a long time!). So Triny said yes. I knew I wanted a little boy and Triny and Allie wanted a orange tabby. Well, a few days later I went to the Humane Society with my friend Allison and in the window of the "sneeze room" I saw a cute little orange kitty just staring through the wire. We couldn't go in the sneeze room until we had visited other rooms in the shelter since the animals in there are sick and so we don't carry any germs to the rest of the shelter. So we started with the dogs. There were so many pit bulls! Most of them looked so friendly and sad I just wanted to hug them all. We circled through the smaller pets (hamsters, bunnies, snakes, etc.) then back to the cats. Mostly older cats who seemed to have been given up but all so sweet. But our goal was to find a playmate Sharma's age so they could grow up together (or as long as I lived in this house). But the whole time I was thinking about that orange kitty I saw in the first room.

We go back to the sneeze room and this tiny little guy walks over his brothers and sisters heads and sits at the front of the cage and just stares!

This picture is from the third time I visited him (about 2 days before I took him home)

He had these awesome swirls all over his body and the tag said that he was probably a month or two, male, red classic tabby and his shelter name is Bingo. I played with him a bit, took some pictures and went home to tell my roommates that I found THE ONE. We all went back a few days later and played with him. He was all claws and limbs and he just walked around our shoulders and held on tight to the back of our necks. I think Triny was a bit skeptical because he seemed a bit crazy, but I chalked it up to him being scared, being held, not really being dealt with by more than one person at a time, and being fed meds 3 times a day (he had an upper respiratory infection). We decided he was cute and perfect and a little crazy but he was just about the same exact age as Sharma (from what the vet told Triny about Sharma's age and from what the Shelter thought believed about Bingo). I filled out the paper work to adopt him, had an interview about a week later and got the news he was mine! I was going to name him Oakley.

Unfortunately little Oakley/Bingo couldn't come home. Because Sharma wasn't spayed yet and he wasn't neutered they couldn't send him home (I know it seems crazy but babies can have babies... just like people). He also couldn't be neutered until he was healthy. About 3 days after the adoption was final, he was supposed to be done with his antibiotics but unfortunately it is so difficult for the animals to get healthy when they are surrounded by other sick animals. He had to be put on another 7 days of meds. So after waiting 2 weeks to get him home I started trying to think of ways I could get him home since the shelter told me he would definitely get better faster if he was out of the shelter. Could Triny get Sharma spayed now? Nope, she was too young and it's too risky for female kittens until they are a certain age. Could I bring him home and just keep him locked up in my room. Nope, shelter won't allow it. So after a few days of thinking what I could possibly do I finally asked my mom if I could bring him home to her house so he could get better and she said okay. I called the shelter up and I finally got some good news (probably now 3 weeks after I was told he was mine and after Allie asking me everyday when he would be home). They told me he was done with antibiotics, cleared by the Dr. to be neutered, and I could pick him up from the vet the next day!

That night I was laying in bed and "To Kill a Mockingbird" was on TV. As I often do I thought about when we read it in middle school and started looking at things about the book and Harper Lee on Wikipedia. I had forgotten she was good friends with Truman Capote and both of their lives had intrigued me and something caught me about her name. I will name him Harper.

The next morning I went to work. The vet's office called me and just went over a few things letting me know he would be neutered, checked for parasites, yadda yadda, and that they'd keep me posted and would give me a call when he was ready to be picked up. Around 3:30 they told me he was awake and playing with them in the office and I could pick him up whenever I was ready. I finished up my work I headed to pick him up. On November 4th, 2010 Harper was mine!

Harper on his ride home

When I got home made him comfy in my room. Showed him the litter box, his food, his water, but he just purred and purred and mostly stayed in his carrier on the blanket I got him.

After a few hours of napping and letting him meds wear off from his surgery we introduced him to Sharma. They played with just their paws a bit under the door then all hell broke loose! Well, not really. They were just super excited but I was so nervous about his stitches and the fact that they kept playing under the bed where we couldn't see or get them so we cut play time short and it was time for bed. My friend Allison who went with me to the shelter the first time I saw him slept over that night. We tucked him into his little bed at the foot of my bed and he was home.



To be continued....