The Bus To Sorry

One hour till mass fireworks. Everyone is inside, tummies full, and asleep. Ahhhh.... calm.

Moshi is in the dining room. Boo is in the living room. Espressa is in the bedroom closet. Skritches is in her crate in the bedroom - no more Jackson Pollack impersonations now that I changed her litter.

With the exception of one almost-out-of-control cat fight, where Skritches completely lost her mind but was unknowingly fighting with a sofa instead of Boo, all has been nice today. I pity any cat that gets in her way - she is one VIOLENT little ball of fluff!

I've consumed an obscene amount of hot dogs, due to completely forgetting the concept of side dishes and having nothing else to eat, and have moved on to drinking "bullfrogs" - a tribute to Joel (he taught me to make them) - frozen limeade mix & vodka. Yeeummmm.

Long weekend... ahhhhhh.

Enjoying a little freedom in the backyard.

I'm still trying to catch a pic of her "googlie eyes" (when she has them wide open) but you can clearly see her 1/2 right ear (from some prior incident).

Skritches' Day Out

Skritches!

She wants to be the ONLY cat in the household. And she's more than willing to fight for it. And, despite her partial blindness, she's got some seriously good aim!

Moshi, who wanted to be her best friend, is now terrified of her.

Espressa & Boo haven't even met her yet.

I had to put a towel over one side of her crate because it's by the back door and when she smelled Moshi coming in, she tried to take him out. I found her hissing and pissy, arms all the way out of the crate, clawing at nothing.

Moshi was in the backyard, looking at the door like he was thinking, "WTF?!?"

I didn't mentally prep for this scenario. This is gonna be even harder than I imagined!

I didn't make it to workout tonight. I had NOTHING to do at work today and, with our limited internet access, was bored out of my mind. The boss gave us, including me, the okay to bail around 4:45pm. I had a workout scheduled in the area for 8pm. I managed to stick it out till 6 but, finally, could barely keep my eyes open. So I did the only logical thing... drove a car. Home.

Where I PASSED OUT on the sofa... coma city... only waking for a couples seconds after the occasional loud snore. The Xyzal (new antihistamine) left me feeling pretty refreshed yesterday but thoroughly brain dead today.

As I was just updating in comments: I'm pretty sure today's allergic rash is nothing more than a generic skin reaction to stimulus. One of the fun parts is that once the reaction starts, esp if from something eaten or smelled, it can last for weeks. I only had a slight rash when I woke up, and no itching, but then I used my scrubbie mitts in the shower (simple lather/rinse wasn't making me feel clean enough) and that kinda pissed off the rest of my skin so it got all inflamed too. But, presumably thanks to the Xyzal, the itching has been really mild & isolated - nothing at all like last week, when I wanted to kill myself.

So...
Boo goes in for dental cleaning in the morning. It was supposed to be Boo & Espressa but I've already decided to not even try to catch E. When I drop off Boo, I expect to pick up Skritches and bring her home. I am extremely nervous about this - mainly because I'm tired and not in the mood for 4 days of cat fights. But it has to happen sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner. She deserves to get on with her life too.

Other than the cats, I still have no plans for the holiday weekend. Gonna hope for mild temps and chillaxin' in the backyard.

Bad - fresh rash
Good - not as bad as prior attacks
Good - means it's NOT scabies

• Espressa has been super dooper lovey for the past 2 days. Oddly so. But nice.
  
• Moshi is back on my bed for the first time since Bella, the kitten, was here (Sat?)
  
• Boo still hasn't returned to the bed. I'm not sure where she's been sleeping. I miss her but it might make the Skritches transition easier.
  
• Boo, who now knows how to get out of the backyard, has taken to crossing the street. I am not pleased. I was okay with her out there so long as she didn't cross the street.
  
• I haven't heard the neighbor's dog bark in over a week. Not once. It's eerie cause the last sounds I heard it make were barking alternating with whining. Did something bad happen?
• I set up the collapsible dog crate in my bedroom and put a cat bed & hammock inside it. I'm preparing to probably bring Skritches home on Friday. Not totally sure yet but it's very highly likely.
• I'm actually considering taking Skritches to a feline ophthalmic specialist. I said I wouldn't but the fact that the vet doesn't seem to know why she's still got really high occular pressure bugs me. I guess I need to ask more questions.
  
• A crated cat in my bedroom...  Seriously, I'm never getting laid again!! (as if there was much option otherwise)
  
• My rash is substantially reduced and itching is virtually gone right now. I think it's due to the new antihistamine - Xyzal. The chest/heart pain was gone too but as of a couple hours ago it started returning (which might also signal return of the itching). I'm enjoying the break while I can.
• I was in a SUPER good mood today. Probably cause I finally got a decent night's sleep.
• No plans for 4th o' July weekend. Fri is a company holiday and I'm taking Mon as a personal day - figuring I'll still be dealing with hissing cats... or the return of hives and putting myself in a benadryl coma.
• Housekeepers came today. Other than a quick vacuum of the house and wiping down the bathroom counter, I'm not sure they did anything. I mean, they probably did - they seem pretty motivated. It's most like just stuff that I don't appreciate.
• I need to ask them to wipe the inside of the fridge & freezer on their next visit. I'd appreciate that. (ther is cat hair IN my freezer) (hell, there is cat hair in EVERYTHING right now)
  
• Vacuuming the window screens would be nice too... but that probably just sounds crazy to anyone who isn't sitting her, staring at the random patterns of dust/non-dust reflecting via the bedroom light at night.
• Gotz to remember to ask Adrian to come over and anchor the upper window pane in the spare bedroom so I can open that window again (otherwise, I'm afraid it will fall while there's a kitty in there).
• MUST THROW SHIT AWAY. I'd really like to use my spare bedroom and/or stripper pole again! Where do I get all this crap and why am I not willing to get rid of it like other people do?
• Moshi is being cute in his sleep. Espressa is being a princess. Boo just walked in - maybe she'll join us after all.
• I'm going to bed.
  

Got a voicemail that Bella's owners brought her home today.

I'm celebrating by being far less itchy today.

... which I had to look up to learn that scabies is kinda like having lice, except it's from microscopic mites. And you usually only get a few of them, which then trigger an allergic reaction.

With this as a topic of discussion, and thinking this stupid attack started around the time I found Skritches (but I really don't know any more), I thought maybe I picked them up from her but the doc said that would be unlikely cause human & animal forms of the mites are different (in animals, it's mange - and that doesn't live on humans).

The doc doesn't really think it's what's going on, since I don't have any tell-tale bite marks or "burrows" in my skin. But since i'm not reacting as expected to the steroid shots and allergy meds, and the itching originally presented in the common scabies places ("groin area" - which was originally horribly itchy but I thought it was due to shaving rash) that she decided there's no harm in treating scabies too.

This feeds perfectly into a long standing paranoia of mine - about micro bugs (specifically mites) in my home and, particularly my bed linens. It's based on nothing really - just paranoia. But maybe my subconscious was trying to tell me something.

So the linens are currently being washed in ultra-hot water. And my dirty clothes are out in the garage, awaiting their turn. But with my house, and piles o' crap, if it really is mites, they could be literally anywhere and re-infest anytime. I used some spray crap on the bed and will treat the couch I'm usually on too - even though the spray is pretty toxic and WebMD said there's really no effective environmental treatment so this is just high-risk placebo effect.

I apparently get to slather myself in some kind of lotion for the night and wash it off in the morn. If it IS scabies, I might be magically cured. Or I might keep having allergic reactions. Or I could still be reacting to something, anything, else.

Current theories are:

• several flea/spider bites in a 2-day period set off a histamine overload
• avocados have salicylic acid in them - to which I'm known to be allergic - and I ate 4 avocados in 2 days before this started (hey, cool, this is the best salicylic acid food chart I've ever seen)
  
• any of a billion plants are blooming waaaaaay more than usual due to a cool spring - could be coming from my yard, neighbors, the dessert... anywhere
• mites/scabies - and severe allergic reaction to them
  
• i'm  just crazy

Current theories aren't (so non-voxy people can quit asking me):

• cat allergy
  

Head to toe itching again. Have to take bathroom breaks to scratch my boobs. Can feel my blood pressure all over the place. Got okay to get yet another steroid shot today. Will prob in do that soon.