Today is better. I wonder if it's tied in at all to exercise...you know? With the pheremones and stuff that are supposed to make you happy? Well, anyway, I got off my lazy butt this morning and did a little 20-minute dance routine and I feel better because of it. So, that said, here's the story of Friday night...

Friday afternoon, I heard from the mechanic. $875 plus tax, they wanted, to fix the water pump, thermostat, and timing belt. I called Howard, my neighbor, and asked him if it was worth it. HELL NO, was his response, and he told me to tell them to stick it up their ass and that he'd fix it for less. So Jessica ran me over to the car place, and I paid them the check-out fee of $60. They said I had until 7pm to get the car that night (it was already almost 6), or I could get it the next day. So we ran over to Howard's, and I asked him if he wanted to go get it right then, or if he wanted me to call Allstate and see if they could do it. Problem was, you never know when the Allstate tow-truck people will show up...once I waited for 4 hours, and they still never showed. So he hooked up his trailer, and we all ran back to the car place. Jess and Howard pushed the car while I steered, and we all tried to get the car up onto the trailer. However, due to the angle of the parking lot, I had to turn the car to get it up on there. Needless to say, this did not go well. The two front tires made it just fine, and the left rear tire got onto the little ramp, but the right rear one didn't. So there I sat, bottom of the car hooked onto the edge of the trailer on the right side. Add to that, the side of the car was now scraping the edge of the trailer. Howard said that pushing the car off the trailer would scratch the hell out of my door. :( So we thought about it awhile, and 7pm came and went, and finally Howard was able to get what he called a come-along to yank the car over to the left a little so the door wasn't hitting the edge of the trailer.

As he got the come-along out, Jessica asked what it was. "A come-along!" he said. "Ain't you never seen a come-along before?" "No," replied Jessica, laughing. "You ain't never had a redneck boyfriend, have you?" was his response. That kept Jess and I laughing for the rest of the evening.

So anyway, there sat my car, still stuck. For some reason, it wouldn't allow itself to be pushed off the trailer. So Howard told me to sit tight and hang on, while he tried driving his truck forward, hoping the car would fall off. AACKK! WTF??? Well, it didn't work, and the car lot now has 4 deep grooves in the parking lot, from the ramps that were dragged along under my car as he drove forward.

I don't know what he did that ended up working, but we finally did get the car onto the trailer and he drove it back to his house. Jessica drove me (and Connor, for he was with us) to Mike's so I could get the gross-gooey-van to drive while the car was being worked on. On the way, we came upon a cat lying in the road. As we neared it, it lifted its head up and looked at us. AWW! "Should I stop?" Jessica asked. "Yes!" I said. She stopped, and I jumped out of the car, and went to the cat. It wasn't flattened, but it did have some blood on its head and coming out of its mouth. I picked it up carefully, and it didn't make any sounds. Having worked as a vet tech before, I knew something about caring for hbc (hit-by-car) animals, but I'm obviously not a vet. Even so, I couldn't bear the thought of knowing this cat was going to be run over again and again until it was dead, so I brought it into the car with me, cradling it in my lap. It was a Siamese cat, and stunk to high heaven. But it started moving its head around, so I knew its neck wasn't broken at least.

We got to Mike's and I put the cat into the backseat with Connor, and it just laid there as we drove home. I brought it into the house, and took it to the bathroom, where I sat with it for a few minutes. It was able to stand briefly, but spent most of its time sort of squatted down the way cats do. It meowed a few times, and I found out that it was a male...not neutered...so if this guy made it out alive, he wouldn't be able to stay in the house. No spraying or fighting for me.

I took him to my bedroom, and he prompty went under the bed. And there he stayed. For 3 days and nights. Without eating. On Sunday morning, I finally dragged him out and gave him a bath, thinking that maybe that would kind of refresh him and get him to lick himself and I'd have a better understanding of what was wrong with him. I knew he didn't have any broken bones, but was concerned that maybe he had a broken jaw, or concussion or something. Turns out, I think he had probably just been grazed by the car, and had gotten his head scraped up a bit, but not much more. The bath went well...better than expected, and then he went back under the bed. He seemed to be a very sweet cat, but very skittish. I knew that animals will often heal themselves, so I gave him his space, and kept my other cats out of the bedroom, so he could just sleep and rest, and would hopefully get better.

Well, last night, I came home (after spending about $170 on car parts per Howard's request), and walked in the door and was hit with a horrible cat-pee smell. "UGG!" I said. "What is THAT??" Brenna excitedly said that well, at least we know Lucky (as that was what we'd named the cat) can pee! She said he was being very sweet, and had come out from under the bed at last. I went to my room, and there on my bed he sat. :) I petted him, and he purred loudly, and rubbed against my hand, and rolled onto his back and everything. I carried him downstairs to the litter box, and he was unimpressed, though seemed to be very wary about being down there. My guess is that he knew other cats were around, and wasn't up to a fight just yet. So I carried him upstairs to the other cats' food dishes...still not impressed. So I carried him outside, to see what he'd do, and he instantly seemed to be at home. He jumped off the porch, and walked along the flowerbed edge, and went off into the night.

I don't know if I'll ever see him again, but if I do, he's welcome. I'm just glad he's doing better, and hopefully he knows now to watch out for cars. :) Lucky cat, he was....very lucky.

Doing stuff like that makes you feel really good inside, even though it's sad to see the animals leave.

Oh, and the cat-pee smell is already gone. He'd gone on a blanket I'd put under the bed for him to lie on, and so I tossed that into the washer, and Lysol'ed the heck out of the floor under my bed (it's sealed hardwood, which is a plus), and burned some candles and incense in there. Yay, all around.