On 6-February, we trapped our associate cat, Blackie. A day we're never gonna forget, I promise you.
He'd hurt his paw; I suspect he'd got frostbite, and/or sprained his paw, which dangled unhappily for a few days. I consulted our vet, explaining that he was partly tame, not a purely feral cat. We set an appointment for Tuesday.
Monday night, we trapped him, not knowing what we were in for.
I was a college undergrad for years. So I moved around quite a lot, up to 0-4 times a year. Most of my roomies liked having me around; alas, that doesn't pay the bills.
Usually I couldn't afford to not live with my parents, not until the mid-1990s. Paying for a car and food and rent, let alone utilities, was just too much.
~ Income ~
For years, I earned Michigan's minimum wage, which was $3.35/hour from 1986 onward. I want to say until the 90s; FRED says it went up to $5.15 by 1998!
Not a living wage, most certainly.
(I'd been doing temp jobs from 1988-91, and in 1993, so my wages would've been higher. Probably as much as double. I clearly recall my final assignment in 2001 for Kelly Services. I said I could not afford to make only $9.00/hour for more than the fortnight* they claimed it'd last.)
A couple years ago, we had guests over for a long while. Back then, a game I'd play with our two kittens was throwing dots -- dots are what we call the Blue Buffalo kibble, you see.
The kittens loved it. Chasing prey! Eating prey! Wheeeeeee!!
After our guests left, the kittens were full of energy, and I threw too hard: the dots escaped and went hurtling down the stairs. Ooooooooooh! said Digger and Misty, and promptly hurtled after them. I promptly blamed our guests for this--
Thus the "stair dot game" was born. :D
I'd have to go down the stairs to rescue the lost dots. Once I ran out of steam, each kitten would get to snarf up the leftover dots in a bowl. Digger would try stealing it from his sister too. The pawsy squirt.
It has been a crazy year in many ways. For one, our cat Jack elected to adopt more tomcats!
No, really. First he'd mentored Little Guy, back in March 2022. Jack decided he liked it -- so after we trapped LG and adopted him ourselves, Jack found Cheeto, a fluffy-tailed ginger tabby, and then His Own Doppelganger cat, Blackie, another panther.
Months ago, possibly last year, Blackie got accidentally let into the house, when my roomie realized the black cat present wasn't Jack.
*** UPDATE at end of this post. ***
So since today the "Chief Twit" has decided that other social networks don't get "free" [wtf!!!] adverts in His Site...
[ Written 9-June-22 ]
My SO is out of town; therefore I am currently Little Guy's main caretaker.
I'm so used to him going and checking on LG that I keep forgetting, except that I do remember he'd need his boxes cleaned. And my roomie has helped too -- apparently I strained my leg Tuesday morning. After twinges, my leg freaked out last night. So she kindly checked his box last night for me.
LG has been very good, and barely hissed much at all. Heck, the last few times he did hiss were muted. Pretty much stating to us: "I am registering my dislike, but not horribly put out."
