Celebrating small successes

So much has been a battle in my home lately, including finding motivation to clean, cook and organize.

My hubby has been out of town for work quite a bit in the past few months. (China, Vegas, China, Taiwan, China. Did I mention China?) And while I miss him terribly, I typically use his business trips as my motivation to organize and purge.

I started off well as he left for his most recent two-week trip, and I donated three bags of collected items and some of his old suits to a local secondhand store.

Small success! Stuff left my home and would be used by others. Gently used clothes would be sold and old rags would be given to an animal shelter. Even donated toiletries will go to people in need. I love it when items can be re-purposed.

Then I did all the laundry I could find. You know, everything he didn’t pack to take overseas that was let in small piles all over the house.

Towels, check. Pantry-purging, check. Clutter-clearing, check.

Small successes continued! Huzzah!

Then I hit a snag.

As you may know, last month we took in a new kitten. We love her. She’s tubby but sweet and always under your feet.

And that kitten, she loves to make messes. She unravels the toilet paper nearly every day. She swipes socks and stockings. And everything on the coffee table is daily knocked to the floor – pens, paper, coasters, magazines, napkins, cups.

cat1Oh look, adorable new cat also stole my remote.

Our older cat was less than pleased with the new furbaby. She’s barricaded herself into our loft/attic area and screams (really) and hisses whenever new cat catches her eye.

loftcatUnhappy old cat, perched in the loft

Oh, and she started to poop up there. (And yes, there was a litter box in the next room. She used that too, but apparently leaving piles in the loft was far better.)

Most definitely, that was NOT a success. That was payback.

Let’s just say choice words were uttered and she was temporarily locked in another room far away from me as I scrubbed and cursed. And I repeatedly yelled at the cat as I uncovered each new landmine.

I tossed box after box over the balcony to the living room below. (They were later broken down and recycled.) Most were already empty and for some reason I’d held onto them. Some contained old clothes I couldn’t bring myself to part with 9 years ago, when I shoved them into the loft. Some were brought by my mother, who in our first year in the house brought boxes of childhood memories each time she visited.

Nearly everything went over the balcony or in the donation box; Even the misbehaving cat. (Don’t worry, I took her out.)

Saved were my old swimming awards, old newspaper clips and a box of my late grandfather’s sweaters. (I just couldn’t discard them even though he’s been gone nearly a decade.) Oh, and Meri, I found some fun stationary, a 22-year-old framed pic of us and my senior prom photo. I’ll share those gems another day.

There’s now an old area rug over the former minefield. And I added another litter box to the loft. (and huzzah! She’s using it!)

loftboxWhatever works!

Unfortunately, she also leaves me extra piles outside the box. I’m hoping that will soon stop.

My typical hubs-is-away-cleaning-effort was officially derailed with cat cleanup – then cat maintenance.

When Hubs came home from his trip on Friday, two days early, I hadn’t quite finished all my organizational efforts. But do I ever?

But with his return, old cat ventured into the second-floor spare bedroom for a cat nap. And last night, I woke in the middle of the night to find her snuggled next to me, purring.

Small successes.

I know this had nothing to do with fitness, but it had everything to do with not wanting to murder my cats. Thanks for bearing with me! How do you deal with a misbehaving pet? (heck, or child?) And how do you introduce two uncooperative animals? Will they ever get along?

10 thoughts on “Celebrating small successes

  1. I completely understand. I have a yellow labrador ( who is mostly perfect 🙂 and my husband has a weimaraner who is a pain in the neck. He is 14 so he does not hold his bladder well and he rarely makes it off the porch before relieving himself outside. It is so frustrating!

    • Aw, poor pooch. It’s hard to watch them age and struggle with something that was once second nature.

      Our older cat last year was throwing up her food all the time (TMI? Sorry!) We finally learned she may be having a kidney issue and put her on super senior food and she (usually) keeps it down now,

  2. I love your small successes! Bravo lady! I probably would not dealt with a pooping hissing cat as well as you…. so you did well in my book. I go into the same cleaning-im-going-to-organize-my-home mode when Mr Speedy is away for a night or on a trip. It has only happened a few times but golly, it certainly feels good to go through things and de-clutter!

    • Thank you darling! I feel like I ALWAYS need to work on de-cluttering. When Hubs is away on months-long business trips I really go to town. One time I redid the spare room and switched beds between rooms and another time I organized and painted the storage area in our great room. (It was still drywall) There are other times when the donation collection is all I could handle.

  3. your kitties are so cute! we have one and we’re thinking about getting her a baby “brother”, but bringing together two cats is definitely something we need to dedicate time for. Sounds like you’re going in the right direction though!

  4. I adopted a 4 year old shelter boy two years ago to keep my 11 year old problem cat company. The first month was a challenge. As it turns out, Duchess did not want company, she merely wanted me to spend my every waking moment fawning over her. Drake, on the other hand, looooooves Duchess. He wanted to cuddle her and snuggle her, and maybe call her George.

    Two years in, we’ve mostly reached a truce, although minor skirmishes crop up. Drake would mostly still like to cuddle Duchess, and she would mostly still like to set him on fire and then dance on the ashes, but I’ve caught them happily curled up in bed when they think I’m not around, so the battle to the death seems to have been called off.

    I will say that the Feliway Comfort Zone system has been remarkably good at chilling my two out when the skirmishes get a little too drawn out. It works sort of like a glade plug in, only humans can’t detect it. I was skeptical at first, but after a truly traumatic “hi mom! Hi! I peed ALL OVER your last remaining piece of living room furniture! ISNT THAT COOL!” incident, I got one and it cut down on drama about 90%. They’ve also got separate feeding areas (although they share a water bowl without incident) and three litter boxes to choose from.

  5. Pingback: Good bye, sweet girl | Scoot A Doot

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