Bird and people watching >^..^<

Harley, post Christmas 2013 festivities

the power of one

due to a switch in phones my mobile blogging was halted for a bit but here i am now sharing some funny harley business as he races around the apartment chasing wads and scraps of paper. sometimes i wonder what he imagines them to be. he's always good for a laugh, that's for sure. :)

as halloween has come and gone, the holiday season is officially underway. harley isn't much for halloween or thanksgiving, but christmas, now that's another story all together. the pop up tree, the wrapping paper, the RIBBONS! yea he is really something else.

what we want to share this season is the power of one, and how one person can make a difference and influence many more to tap into their power of one, too.

right now we are working on the winter newsletter for CATALES so we will be back with more later...stay tuned!

Update

Harley is about two months into no night sleeping in the bedroom and its been working well. I sleep better and if I don't it has more to do with me and my going to bed late etc and nothing to do with him nipping at me or staring me down :)

Our morning is now about me letting him into the room to visit before I make moves to prep for my day. I feed him and give him treats and while he still nips now and then he doesn't draw blood like he was. It's clear that the no nights in the bedroom policy is working.

Podcast recording tonight! Catales and Harley and I will be featured topics :)

Www.TheJSG.com has invited me as a guest tonight on their Something and Someone Show! I will be talking about Catales and my upcoming book aka the 20 year project lol So excited! Check out the JSG at the link for info on their business and ministry.

Happy Update :)

Five nights sleeping without Harley in bed or the room with me and I sleep through the night now! I actually wake up with my alarm or just before it. It's been sooo nice for me. I already have a sleep disorder so this idea to not have him in there with me has been genius!

He still nips at my calf or hand but its maybe once and he seems to understand he has been demoted, so to speak. He is also more affectionate when he for a see me after the alarm clock for a off. This is the first cat I have had that I had to evicted from the bed at night but I understand that Harley is not like any other cat lol

We will check in again soon :)

short and sweet

harley has taken to nipping a lot again. i know he misses my roommate who is on a different schedule than me and so harley had some company more often than not. i know i was off schedule with mom and her surgery and treatments that followed. i'm hoping this biting is going to end soon because now i am wearing sneakers when i sit at the table to type to protect my feet and i cant do that all the time. sometimes i put a blanket over my feet instead. i had to put him in time out this morning because he was stalking me and i couldn't move from point a to point b safely. i have been playing with him and giving him treats and we hang out during movies and when i'm reading. he has all the comforts he could ask for. i'm considering getting more pheromone plug ins again. i haven't had to use them in about 6 months or more.

here's to less nipping in our future!

finally, an update

to say I have been lax in my blogging is more than an understatement, it’s really more of a shame. life got away from harley and me after my last post which is april 2011. i returned to work after my surgery then went on a cruise to Bermuda as planned and then I celebrated two years being single and on my own after a much needed divorce. what i hadn’t anticipated was all that would come after and all that kept me away from my love of writing. what follows is a brief summary; you’ll notice harley is present throughout everything and was a comfort and a joy when I needed him most. dont let the strong silent and sometimes nippy types fool you; he stuck by me, sometimes because he had no choice but I like to believe it was because he wanted to as well.

• ·        june 2011 – a young coworker was in need of a place to stay and after attempts to find him somewhere sooner than the september gig he had lined up, he landed on my air mattress for a few days. we got along so well we decided to rent an apartment together and we have been in a two bedroom ever since, with harley loving the extra company. it’s a blessing my roommate isn’t allergic to harley as he thought he would be. I knew when i saw him on the floor playing with harley we would be ok. we are due to renew our lease this month.

• ·        july 2011 – in a sad and unexpected twist of fate, my step father, neville, was diagnosed with cancer that has already spread too far throughout his body to hope for any kind of recovery. he passed a week after he was diagnosed at 89 years old and he is missed something fierce. my mother is in year five of her ovarian cancer treatments; he was her rock and her warrior and so his passing has dealt the family a doubly hard blow. i received a lot of support from my friends during this time, bt other personal matters came up and it was a very bad time for me.

• ·        august 2011 – my roommate and i settled into our new place with a rocky start: on moving day he was sick to his stomach and i had some bad bug bites on my hand that tured into cellulitis in a matter of hours. he recovered with some sleep and ginger ale and i got treated at the walk in clinic and return to work after a few days.

• ·        september 2011 – yes so it’s my birthday month and you’d think i’d catch a break but no, every september has been rough for the last several years and i don’t know why. same for every birthday too except for my 40^th – that one was perfect. this month we have a freak tropical storm and during it i came down with something nasty that included a fever of 103 and was misdiagnosed for five days. this means that with no power or hot water from the storm and a fever that will not come down, i was sick as a dog and getting sicker by the hour with zero relief. i made it to the er of a second hospital and am diagnosed with tonsolitis and mono. i am home a total of three weeks and lose 20 lbs because I couldn’t eat anything and only drank water or some broth. it was the worst three weeks of my life with no talking, gross medicine – the only thing i could taste was that nasty stuff -  and terrible throat pain. i even asked my roommate to shoot me. graciously he declined. i was well enough a week before my birthday to celebrate with coworkers at a local restaurant for happy hour. during this time that i was sick, harley was my hero. he kept me company and was no bother.

• ·        october 2011 –this month i got cellulitis in half of my left leg from stepping in a puddle of dirty still water when i had an open bug bite on my leg. this hospitalized me for a week and once again i had a fever of 103. the infection is so bad and hit me within hours. in about two hours i went from walking out of bed to not being able carry my weight at all. the pain was just awful. I returned to work after eight days of rest. the state also had a freak snow storm and lot power in a lot of locations. harley and i stuck it out for four of the five days we went without. i built him a fort with every blanket known to man but even I had to admit it was too unbearable. harley and i traveled to my mom’s house where she had power restored the day before and we spent one night in heat which was lovely. harley did so well there, too, not fussing with the new surroundings at all, just making himself at home and climbing on everything. mom was pleased he was so well behaved.

• ·        november and december 2011 – relatively quiet – thankfully – with the holidays and me sorting through a lot of things in my personal/romantic life.

• ·        january 2012 – more loss. my beloved grandmother fell at home where she lived with my aunt and uncle and, at 94, she succumbed to an infection and other issues related to the fall. she had alzheimers as well.

• ·        february through june 2012 – healthy and happy, i have been following through with my “nesting and resting” philosophy since my stint in the hospital in october. i was going out about once a month special like, but now those times are spread out maybe dinner out with my sister and then a weekend with my close friend. a lot of this time was spent processing some very closely personal concerns and events that i haven’t noted here as well the ones i have.

through all of this, i worked on the CATALES newsletters, i put together raffle baskets for their fundraising dinners, and i made it to a walk a thon for them raising $250 through donations. it made me feel good to help and kept me focused on something positive. currently mom is in chemo after radiation after emergency brain surgery where her ovarian cancer has spread. I am grateful every day i wake up, even if i’m not in a good mood, i remind myself, “it could be and it has been worse” and i get moving.

harley has been a bit out of sorts, nipping more again after a long respite, and i believe it’s because my roommate and i have been keeping strange schedules with deaths and other changes taking place in both our lives. The best thing i can do is play with harley and make sure he is fed well so he knows that even if i’m out longer than usual he will have a full belly and playing with him, like with an interactive toy, seems to relieve him of some aggression or energy or both.

right now i’m focused on the next CATALES newsletter and as always, i hope i do the kitties justice. its my small way of giving back to the people who saved harley and kept him healthy and happy for when it was time for me to meet him and take him home – he was there a full four years and i can’t imagine my apartment or my life without him.

peace, love and catnip.

sharon and harley

busy few months

january is a blur as i made the decision for harley and me to move into a studio apartment in our building the following month. its a buck twenty five less a month but more importantly, we weren't using all the space we had in the one bedroom and i didn't see the sense is paying for something we weren't using. so january was spent sifting and packing and welcoming in in the new year.

february was moving month but towards the end of it. we reorganized our storage space in the basement to accomodate some new boxes and made plans for the moving folks - a couple of my mom's friends - to come by. leaving the apartment were my curio which is now with the sally army, two pine bookcases that went to mom, the desk went back to my sister, and a few odd end tables etc that weren't going to fit in the new place. the whole time this prep was going on. harley seemed a little more agitated than usual. i constantly reminded him he was moving with me to try and put his mind at ease.

in an effort to help with his postential anxiety of living somewhere new, i asked my aunt to make him his own cat bed. the results of which are shown here. he loves the thing and often tuckes himself in it without any coaxing from me.






march we moved in and harley has done amazingly well ever since! i sincerely believe he likes this space better for some reason or another. maybe because the bed is always accessible to him, or maybe because he can see everything from one spot in the apartment? the comfort zone with feliway plug in was here before he was to help with the transition, but he has a peace about him that is refreshing. i think he must pick up some good vibes here.

march was also the month harley and i wrote up the first of our newsletter issues for CATALES, harley's shelter home. i love how it came out and encourage you to check it and the shelter out through the CATALES link provided on this blog.

today is april 2nd and its a couple of days after my gall bladder surgery. when i first came home, harley was alllllll snuggles and head butting me and wanting to lie on my stomach which he couldn't cause of his weight and claws etc on where they'd operated. he has since found a way to lie on the pillow i hold against my stomach to ease the pain when i cough or laugh or clear my throat. he's also slept on my legs in bed to avoid my stomach. he just has to be near me, even serving as sentry by the bathroom door.

from now through may it'll be equally busy as i recover and return to work in a week, have a few events to attend to, one being the Spay-ghetti dinner for CATALES' spay and neuter program, and then in may its off to bermuda for a week with mom, my step dad and my friend, lisa. harley will have the company of our pet sitter, donna, who owns FurNanny 911.

now i think i might take after harley with a nap after some preparation for the cruise :)

peace. love. catnip.,
sharon

harley was home fur the holidays

hello and happy new year from harley and me :)

the holidays were loads of fun which is in large part why the blog has been idle since november. harley celebrated his first thanksgiving, christmas and new year's eve in his new fur-ever home. yea! i've included key pics from the holidays with harley.

his encounter with my collapsable and fully decorated christmas tree went better than i had anticipated. it was up for about three minutes when he launched himself into it, making his way through the space between the green garland covered springs. he also quickly launched himself back out! after several chomps on the faux greenery and an equal number of squirts to his bottom from the water bottle, he left the tree alone and came to enjoy the lights on it at night as much as i did.




in addition to the single girl christmas tree, harley seemed to take issue with the holy family as represented by the delicate precious moments nativity set given to me by my mom many christmases ago. at first i thought the issue was just with where i had placed them, on his favorite look out spot on a dresser that serves as a linen chest. this was when i discovered the shepherd had been thrown off the cliff, mary and joseph had been smacked down, and a wayward sheep was found under foot on the floor:





in response, and for their safety, i moved the holy family to an undisclosed location. it was actually the center of the dining table but harley should have found no offense in that.

wrong!



seems a wise guy got it this time and was moved to have his back to me, baby jesus was moved away from his parents and the poor lone sheep was tipped!

at this point the family has been packed away for safe keeping until next year when they'll either be behind glass or on a shelf where harley won't be able to reach them. either way it will be a win-win in 2011.

blessings to all,
harley and sharon

more harley news

its been another long break since i last posted, due mainly in part to my net book having contracted a virus and leaving me uninspired to blog. with the exception of a nip here and there that does still draw blood, harley has come a looooong way from the striking bites he was making back when all this new training began. i attribute his better behavior from a combination of the Feliway room difuser - think glade outlet room air freshners - and my learning to read his signs, plus, he doesn't sleep with me in bed anymore so when he does its a treat and its monitored. i also make sure i spend more time with him if i have been away longer during the day and that he has a good supply of food, which he always did have but which seems to put him at ease to know he's going to have food a plenty.

harley has taken to a new morning ritual of greeting me on the bathroom sink as i step out of the shower, usually in the morning. he will purr and head butt me and loves being petting up to a certain point at which time he lets me know he's had enough. it seems to bring him some comfort knowing that we have this time in the morning.

he has done well with guests but has a thing for running out into the hallway of the apartment building. sometimes he has driven me to say, "remember you were a stray once and think of how good you have it here." shame, i hear, works well with kids so why not cats? ;-)

i do love him though, its just taken a time of transition from a long line of lovers and not fighters. my scars are healing and hopefully they'll eventually fade. they stand as reminders of how far we've come and where i don't want to go with him ever again.

this holiday season is our first together and i admit i miss tiger quite often but i know i gave him a good life and i'm trying to do the same for harley bug. we're a work in progress. :-)

long overdue update

hello, friends of harley :) its been too long since i last posted but i'm happy to say its because harley and i have been busy enjoying every day and training and haven't been on the computer all that much.

i'm pleased to report that harley's biting has all but stopped in that he hasn't drawn blood in over a month now. he did attack the top of my foot which is about all he does now and so he gets a little time out, not the full 30 minutes like originally, to remind him its not acceptable behavior. my wounds from earlier bites are pretty much scars now so i'm using a scar cream to reduce their appearance. right now harley is curled up in his look out post that was formerly my tiger's favorite spot. he has the softest blanket i own in there with him and the slider door is open so he has all the fresh air he can handle. plus, have i mentioned how nosy he is? he could provide a full report on the neighborhood if i let him lol funniest was when the lawn sprinklers were on. he could here their signature "phht phht phht" but not see them. it was hilarious to watch him trying to scope out the source of the noise.

i attribute his change in biting habits to more attention paid on my part, to both him in general and also being more aware of the signs that he was agitated. many times i placed him in the crate at the mere suspicion that he was getting worked up and would bite. it seemed to calm him and or get him to stop the agitation he was feeling. also rewarding his good behavior and enjoying the new routine of head butts and brushing him as he sits on the bathroom sink in the morning when i'm getting ready for work.

he also is no longer allowed in the bedroom at night and that's been for almost 2 months if not longer. during the day when i'm at work i might leave the door to the bedroom open so he can chill on the bed without me, but i want it to be a treat and not the norm.

i have yet to procure a bird or mouse viseo for him to watch but i haven't actually gone looking for any. i'll make a point to do that this month. and i firmly believe the feliway room diffuser plug in thingy has also helped to keep him calmer 24/7.

i will say this though, harley has replaced biting with being on the no harley zone kitchen table lol i suppose its a trade off.

peace. shalom. namaste.

operation harley - week one

its been a month since i've posted but it seems like longer. especially the last few weeks.

operation harley is my concentrated effort to break harley of his biting habit. for clarification, i don't mind a friendly or warning nip that is brief and barely makes more than a general impression on me. what we're working on is harley's drawing blood.

first and foremost it must be said that harley is a great cat. he has a sweet and comical side, and he always greets my guests at the door, rubbing against them and smelling them part of his training now involves guests greeting him with a treat. my thought is he'll immediately associate visitors as friends and if they pet him, he is gentle and gets a treat, it's not just me rewarding him for good behavior. but this is a small part of the whole training program.

thanks to deb at Catales, harley's shelter mom, and donna, our cat sitter from Furnanny 911, and my own years of having cats for pets, i've come up with a multi pronged approach:

* time out: harley now has a time out crate whichis used only for time out. he gets no more than 30 minutes for his offenses and it'll only be shortened when improvement is seen and the biting is rarer than it is now. the clock timer is his buzzer and i don't use it for anything else. this way he knows the buzzer is for his timeout and he won't be confused by hearing it another time. when he goes in i tell him why, i ignore him when he's in there, and when its time up he is let out.

* reqarding good non biting behavior. harley gets greeted at the door with a pet on the head and a treat. the rest of the time i only pet him if he initiates, then i watch for the signs that he might bite: tail whipping around, angle of his head, puffy tail. i redirect with a toy, never a hand or foot which he likes to bite, and even physically remove him from the area if it looks like it's going to be an issue if he stays. when he's good, he gets treats and i tell him that good harley gets treats for being friendly and calm.

* the squirt bottle of water haas been in use for awhile but is now reinforced by time out.

* harley no longer sleeps in my bed or my bedroom at night. we say our goodnights outside my door and i sleep better knowing i'm not going to wake up to a toe or my arm getting attacked like i had been. this is the first time i've had a biting pet so this si new for me to not have him in bed at night.

* rescue remedy for cats. per the bottle, place 4 drops on a pet treat and 4 in their daily water. its used in situations of extreme stress like when animals are rescued from an emergency situation. deb had seen this work very well for a dog they had and i'm hoping it does the same for harley. i love that its a natural remedy and there are zero chemicals.

* last but not least is feliway which is a feline pheromone in a spray or plug in. it is supposed to calm him instantly. i have seen it work well and am waiting for the plug ins to arrive. they last 4 weeks and have refills available. i got two ordered from the pet store and plan to place them strategically in the apartment.

operation harley has been in effect since this past tuesday to we're not quite at a week yet, but so far i've only sustained a clean scratch on the back of my calf which drew blood. he's had 3 time outs, including one while i was blogging this. mom was here for a few hours last night and he needed no discipline. but he did jump up on the kitchen table which is a no harley zone so he got a squirt for that.

i'm off to run errands and sttend a nature inspired writers and artists workshop at white memorial in litchfield, ct. after a week of training harley, overtime and general loose ends to tie up, i hope this is a nice break and a time to feed my creative side. despite my present headache.

the "no harley" zone

harley has free range of the apartment, including the book cases where he will sometimes jump almost straight up to roost on a shelf, pushing all else to the side while he's up there, to make room for himself. he has a down feather pillow in a gold thread case on his favorite spot on the linen dresser where he can sleep or observe and see into the bedroom and the all the rest of the apartment except the bathroom, and also look out the slider door.

the one place harley isn't allowed is on the new kitchen table. it's actually the only table he's known here as i didn't have one when i moved in.

the glass top lets me see when he's sizing up the distance from the floor to either the cushioned seat of the chair or the glass top itself. this gives me the advantage of time as i grab the water bottle and give him a surprise squirt while saying, this is a no harley zone!

whether or not he is on the table and chairs while i'm gone i don't know. somehow i don't doubt that he is.

proud mama moment

harley and i ventured to the vet's office again yesterday afternoon. his third time in the carrier going to the vets and he is officially no longer happy about it.

the last visit they mentioned possibly stitching up one of his openings where the incisor had been removed during his recent surgery. i didn't want him to go through that so i'd been hoping he was healing well and they'd say he wouldn't need stitches afterall. additionally, he'd been scratching one of his ears lately and it seemed to be more than usual, and then there was that piddling incident to address.

after a little bit of a wait that had both harley and i napping on the cool metal exam table, him with his nose buried in my elbow as my arms encircled him, and me resting on his soft fur, the vet came in. harley's gums, she said, have healed nicely and stitches aren't needed (yea)! she checked his ears and said he has almost no wax in them, and that the little extra scratching could be environmental allergies. i vowed to run the air purifier i have more regularly for both of us. with the humidity more stuff may have been hanging in the air than usual which would explain why both of us hadn't been well last week during that hideaous heat wave.

next was the piddling. she asked some questions about when the incident happened, has it happened again, does he make pain sounds when in the box or otherwise. his bladder was empty so she couldn't get a sample for a UTI test, but when she examined him she said his kidneys and bladder felt like they were in good shape and the fact that his bladder was empty, and i could attest to his box being used regularly, she said she didn't think it was more than behaviorial when it occured. trust we will be addressing that at home. since it happened last week when the weather was awful and i was sick from it, i think i didn't pay him as much attention and he was letting me know. i hope thats all that comes of it.

harley now weighs 12 pounds, having lost a pound or two since i first weighed him in may. the vet said its a healthy weight, his shape is just right, his fur is shiny though even i know i need to comb him more often if he would let me. we'll work on that together. and finally, the vet said he had a clean bill of health, see you next year for his check up, and she wished all of her cats were in as good shape as harley is.

yea, that was a proud mama moment, knowing he's doing so well, and that we make a great team.

post op harley

it's been several weeks since my last post as harley and i have been both working with his post op, less teeth than before, care and making the most of the summer before this heat wave hit the area.

to re cap, harley went in to have a few infected teeth pulled. when they called me with the update, he was 12 teeth lighter than when he went in. the vet said there were impacted teeth and in the end it was a lot for a 6 yr old cat but we don't know what his life was like before the shelter, like what he was eating, and it could well be genetic. he came home, happily, i might add, and after reluctantly taking a yucky liquid antibiotic for several days, he seemed to have turned a corner.

the result is he bites a heck of a lot less, and when he does, it hurts a heck of a lot less! he lost an incisor which is part of that transformation. he is more snuggly and purrs a lot more than he did before. he even encourages me to pet him as he purrs, and that can go on for up to 15 minutes before he moves on to something else. the vet will see him again on monday. hopefully he won't need stitches for the incisor gap. they wanted to have it heal up on its own first.

good thing he sees the vet soon anyway. i don't think he has a urinary tract infection; no i'm pretty sure he was just delivering a clear message to me at 330am this morning. i was online checking something and without any fear, he peed on a beanbag foot rest i have in the living room. this was done right in front of me. i was amazed at his brazeness, but i had to say he wasn't happy with his food selection the last few meals - he expresses his dissatisfaction by scratching the cloth placemat so its covering his still full food dish - and i wasn't feeling well so i hadn't yet cleaned his litter box.

so i got the footrest and his litter box into a garbage bag and cleaned everything up. this morning he got a new placemat, a new bowl, and new food with new water. he ate then .... you guessed it ... proceeded to very cleanly pee in his litter box, followed by a ton of chasing his milk ring toy. when i made myself a sandwich for breakfast, he proceeded to annoy me for some of the turkey then moved on to a catnip toy.

i'm thinking he's just fine but i'll ask the vet to be sure.

what a character.

harley at the vet's

harley survived his first vet visit since sharing mi casa, and i'm pleased to say he faired well, though my wallet didn't i'm afraid, and he's going thursday to have some bad teeth pulled. but aside from that, he's received a good bill of health. he's been micro chipped in case he pulls a houdini, had his nails clipped (thank the lord!), weighed (12.11 lbs), and otherwise updated with shots. the infection in his tooth means antibiotics each night which he hates but takes and then the surgery thursday. i also picked up something akin to advantage to help with ticks, fleas, etc. all told, he now officially costs more than my new dining room table which is still on order.

but i have to say he did the crate thing very well and actually was bugging to get back into it after his exam. he's been very mellow since returning home, which is kind of nice for a change. he seems very comfortable around the apartment and is currently sleeping with his hed snuggled into the goose down pillow in a gold fabric i adore.

the pictures posted in this note are harley hiding out at the vet's office, on the exam room counter behind the computer.

random harley moments

harley lounges on me during a movie...he looks so content


it's been a busy few weeks since i last blogged and harley has made some strides in not biting as much and snuggling more. the squirt bottle is now second to simply blowing in his face and saying, "no biting!" to which he looks more offended to the air in his face than anything else. he actually attacked a kleenex box when i put it between us as he was going for my hand again. he's getting the hang of just relaxing with me, mostly on the couch as we watch a movie. he seems to be channeling tiger, my late cat, because he does some of the same moves and stretches and even lays on me in bed like tiger used to. i'm fairly certain that by now he weighs more than 14 lbs. his first vet visit is saturday. i'm sure they'll confirm it for me. lol he also tries to open cabinet doors and jumps into the tub now and then. the vet will be clipping his nails, thank goodness. getting him into the carrier will be interesting i'm sure. meanwhile he's relaxing on various pieces of furniture, loves the sun and the slider door being open, and continues to bring joy to my life by just being himself.

and in this corner, weighing in at...

14 pounds!

harley stepped on my scale last week as he's nosy, which we know, and i was getting ready for my day. with all four pays sqaurely on the scale as if i'd put it there just for him, he weighs himself in at 14 pounds.

i looked at him and said, in all seriousness, "WHO is FEEDING you?!"

uh, yea, that would be me lol

gosh, he sure is cute.

new harley pics posted

in this pic is my harley bug and charlie's angels as depicted in the full throttle film. he likes the heat of the dvd player and snuggling in bed. i think he has pretty good taste.

more pics of harley at home are posted under the photos of harley link on this page. enjoy the many faces of my furry monster.

this one is like he's staring down the water bottle i have to squirt him with at times...