Ode to the kitty

One of our cats was killed by a pitbull yesterday. She (the cat) was on the porch watching Kevin mow the lawn. Kevin saw the dog come from nowhere, running into our open garage to explore. The cat sort of stalked towards the garage to keep her eyes on the dog. The dog saw her and gave chase. She ran into the garage where he snapped her up, shook her, and came out with her still in his jaws. Kevin grabbed the garden hose and hosed him down. The dog dropped the cat and ran down the street.

She wasn't torn up, but she's an old frail cat and she was obviously dying. He called me out wondering what to do. She just laid on her side moaning. Within minutes she died. Kevin wrapped and put her in the garbage can.

Right then Chanel arrived from Boise for her family b-day party. This cat was her childhood pet, born in 1996.

We went in the house crying & Kevin continued mowing. About 10 minutes later a lady was walking her min-pin across the street from our house. The pitbull showed up again, spun the lady, grabbed her dog, shook it, and ran. Traffic stopped in both directions and Kevin called the police. Police & animal control officer arrived. The min pin lost a piece of one haunch and it's back skin was hanging. It wasn't dead but wouldn't let anyone touch it.

While the police took Kevin's & the lady's story, the pit bull owner showed up. He was a kid in his 20's who said the dog had escaped his yard through his open garage and had only been gone 10 minutes before coming home.
The owner was very upset to hear what the dog had done, but he signed papers to have it put down Monday morning and animal control hauled him off. Meanwhile the min-pin was rolled into a carrier box and taken to a vet.

That's the story. We're surprised by our grief for an animal and to have a member of the family gone so suddenly and so strangely. She was our bulemic cat whom I thought would die from old age or starvation eventually. Never occurred to me that sitting on the porch was dangerous. Our big cat, who is 2 years older and never cared for the other that much, has paced the floors tonight.

I will not miss Pooperki's carpet messes or her Siamese voice, but she was very affectionate and good to have on a lap when watching TV. She liked us. The big cat barely tolerates us.

Playing the odds

Prequel to the story: I work for Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), a corporation which owns many,many hospitals all over the nation. My office is called a central billing office (CBO) because we bill for 8 hospitals. CHI has 3 CBOs in Nampa, Fargo, and Kentucky. My particular billing niche is commercial insurances such as all the Blue Cross plans + several dozen others insurances. Other coworkers bill the Medicare/Medicaid plans. And a third section of our office bills patients. All together we are expected to collect between $33-$36 million/monthly. The hospitals set the target--this is what it takes to keep their doors open, payrolls solvent, and capitol improvement projects funded. Generally we hit the goal, but there have been months (spread over the 8 years I've worked there) where we've missed by as much as
$4million in a month.

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SO last week an email came from headquarters bemoaning the sorry state of the economy.
same old, same old. i.e. CHI's stock market investments are shriveling (just like everybody else's) so they can't use market profits to compensate for our collection shortfalls. With so many workers losing their jobs/insurances, patient censusses are down plus it's virtually impossible to get patients to pay big chunks of money such as an insurance company would.

Bottom line: There will be layoffs at the CBO. When or who? Nobody knows. There are 60 people in my office and management could spin the dice any which way. Going by seniority, I win. (Eight years is an eternity in my job.) Going by productivity level, I win again. Going by seniority in my particular dept, dicey. Going by steadfast personality (as opposed to drama, drama, drama) I really win. Going by cutest-grandchild-ever picture displays, I WIN BIG TIME!!!

Odds are I will stay employed. If not, I plan to turn alot of cartwheels to celebrate my freedom the first week. After that I guess I'll wake up & wonder why I didn't get
eyelids done and all those other surgeries that would have been free under my ins plan.

Stay tuned.............

What The Cat Thought

Aaron & Melanie were in Nampa for the holiday. They consented to loan Morgan to us for his first overnight sleepover.

We don't have a crib but I thought he would do fine in Arielle's bed. (She was at Chanel's house for the weekend.)

So I jammied Morgan and took him into Arielle's room. There, ensconsced on a heaping pile of quilts lay the cat, Dashaway. She owns this bed, all the other beds, the couch arms, and all patches of sunshine on the floors 24/7. She took one look at Morgan; he chirped, "kitty, kitty, kitty"; she put on her grump face, and scrammed away.

We proceeded to pray, read stories, sing, etc and Morgan was completely happy to snuggle down. I turned off the light, left the door cracked slightly, and what followed was 30 minutes of silence. I was pretty sure he was asleep.

Meanwhile the cat must have forgotten her bed had a new occupant and jumped on again. Presently I heard Morgan in the hall chirping, "kitty, kitty, kitty?'. Dashaway dashed and I put Morgan down again.

Dashaway barely tolerates her people (us) and has no love whatsoever for strangers. Evidently, short little strangers are even worse. She spent the next 24 hours skulking and scowling, ever on the defense for the Young Usurper.

Why DO we keep her?

I "saw" Grandpa Ison

An irrigation canal runs through our neighborhood. In warmer weather it's quite the hang-out for Mallards and geese because friendly people supply food.

Yesterday I was driving up the street when I saw a large white goose pacing about the curb next to the canal. But no--at closer range it was actually a very chubby and bright white Leghorn rooster. And a magnificent speciman he was, especially compared to the scraggly, manure-caked hens we grew up with.

I wondered why a rooster would be strolling the neighborhood. Nobody keeps chickens as pets. Nobody keeps chickens for food or eggs nowdays either. I had an incredible urge to pick him and bring him home.

I laughed. He must be a sign from God. (Who evidently dispenses humor along with His tender mercies.)

Got more patience than a 2-yr-old?

Turns out I don't.

Aaron & Melanie took us on a grand tour of IKEA. Here's my description of IKEA. Teeny tiny bits of apartment furnishings in a GREAT BIG MONSTROSITY OF A STORE!!! Do you love to walk from Draper to Provo all under one roof? (And back again, because it's 2 floors.) Morgan does. He would make an excellent pioneer. I loved the looking but could have used a Sedgeway or Wickistick or wheelchair. Thanks goodness we sandwiched all this between visits to the IKEA restaurant for free breakfast and a Swedish meatballs lunch. By the way, this was Black Friday.

So we get back to A&M's apartment and I throw myself on their couch. Arielle, who has eked out $38.00 from her miniscule Subway wages and saved it for just such an occasion as Black Friday, says it's time for the University Mall. I had promised in a weak pre-Thanksgiving moment to take her to DEB, which has blue jeans her size and good sales. But after IKEA, I think clemency should be granted for lying to her. You are not getting me off this couch.

She begs, "But you promised and I want you to come and I need you to come!" repeat, repeat, repeat

Kevin throws in guilt, "Now Jana, you won't have that many more times of her wanting your company." "Well, heck", I think. I don't know which of the 3 people in this conversation I should be maddest at.

I surrender, with concessions.

Arielle pores over a map of the mall, finding the nearest entrance to Deb. Kevin drops us at the door. We walk two storefronts to Deb. She finds 2 perfect pair of jeans + a gorgeous blouse (marked down from $31.00 to $9.00) next door at Maurices, and we are DONE. May I never step foot in another mall on Black Friday.

You know what my favorite Christmas was? When Arianne & Ciarran did all my shopping for me. I had a hysterectomy as an excuse that year.

You want to be my new favorite niece? Come see me before Christmas.

8 different things

TV shows
1. Everybody loves Raymond
2. So you think you can dance
3. Food unwrapped
4. that cake decorating show that's on cable
5. that "what you should wear" show on cable
6. that "buy the wedding dress" show on cable
7. Gen Conf ha ha guilt on the rest of you for not mentioning this
8. all the dejunking/house selling, remodeling shows on cable.
The thing is, we don't have cable. This is why hotel rooms are so fun. Unlimited cable and junkfood and Kevin

What I did yesterday
1. Woke up at 5:30AM thinking what I always think: "How soon before I can get back in this bed again?"
2. Worked 73 medical billing accts/did not lose temper
3. Read LA Times article on picketing LA Temple & all the comments attached to article. Decided Pro-props & anti-props will never speak the same language and never get each other.
4. Wondered if God was feeling like some Old Testament vengefulness If so, I was looking forward to it. KA-BOOOM
5. Told Arielle to pick up her room
6. Bought 5 loaves of the best Oat Nut bread
7. Drove Arielle to Subway ONLY because it was raining!!
8. Worked on my next SS lesson/banged head against wall, as is normal during early week prep

Looking forward to:
1. Saturday's BSU game
2. my lunch hour every day--its like a mini vacation from work
3. Thanksgiving
4. all weekends with Chanel
5. all weekends with Kevin
6. extracting cash from Aaron after winning yet another annual snow bet
7. reading to Morgan, playing with Morgan
8. sleeping in on Saturdays

Favorite restaurants--forget that. How about favorite food?
1. Focaccia bread
2. all forms of salt & grease wrapped around a potato
3. Cheetos
4. Pringles
5. Salmon
6. Pizza
7. Almond Joys
8. hamburgers cooked on a grill--smokey taste yum

Wish list
1. to move my house to a quiet street
2. to do a combo Disneyworld/cruise vacation with my kids
3. to take a writing class on a regular basis because it forces discipline
4. to be rich
5. to get a new kitten when the 2 elderly ladies die NOT a dog, Kevin
6. to take more vacations with Kevin and explore more interesting places
7. to knock the socks off my boss with awesome productivity so that he.........
8. ......pays me double for only working parttime
9. to see Arielle safely, happily, financially stabilly esconsed in college

Tag on:
Jocile
Angela
Lora Dawn
Kristen
Aaron
Arielle
Kevin
Chanel

Dad's gravestone

It's finally up. I haven't seen it yet, but mom has and she was delighted.

This calls for a field trip.