Cats

Don’t get pets.

| cheriarmour

So today, it was a little cooler in North Carolina so I met up with some friends to go running on the trails in Umstead.

I like trail running because it’s a lot cooler, and that’s really important.  I spent enough time on the treadmill all over this past heinous winter, so I have yet to torture myself in that manner.  Plus no good shows are really on telly right now so I have no interest in staring at the creepy trainer in the gym who wears a sport coat over his windbreaker pants.  (Not kidding).

photo (8)Even though I’m getting really close to the wedding (2 months exactly as I write this), I’m really starting to get the itch to race again, and I’m really really dead set on making sure I don’t lose any fitness even though it’s gonna be hot as hell this summer if last week is any indication.  I feel like the little incident with the Greensboro Marathon could have been avoided had I done better with training in the heat of the summer.  As of right now, all I have planned is Ragnar in Vegas with the Bondi Band girls, and I’m starting to really warm to the idea of a trail race or to an ultra either in the late fall, or in the spring.  I’ve sort of had my eye on this Badwater Race in Cape Fear in March.  I think I want to do something like this because when I prove to myself that I can do crazy physical things, I can do amazing things mentally and in my work life.  Maybe I’m just crazy.

Don’t get pets.

So, as of this marriage, I am a stepmother to a large cat named Chester, and mom to Martin, the orange cat, and Coco, the grey poodle.  I love my pets so much, they make my life happy.  But my honest advice to you is if you like your house clean, do not get pets.

I am constantly vacuuming, cleaning up someone’s barf, or worse, steaming the carpet of Coco’s pee (the worst ever).  So I’d steamed just the other day, and I look over tonight and Martin, the orange cat, is literally sloshing like 89 gallons of water onto the carpet that I’ve just cleaned.

I can’t even dignify this orange cat’s actions with anything, so I will advise you.

Unless you want to clean all day and night.

Don’t get pets.

Any pets?

Have you ever done an Ultra?  Thought about it?

Have you voted yet? Please???!

Free cat!

| cheriarmour

Okay, I’m totally just kidding.

Sort of.

So I have this cat, Martin.  He’s young, and he’s orange, and super cute.  At least, I thought so.

So two nights ago, I was working on some stems for my button/brooch bouquets for the wedding, and after it got too late, I started putting things away to go to bed.

I shoulda known something was up, because Martin didn’t harass me to wake me up the next morning.

Here’s why.

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This is what I woke up to.

I was late to work because I was crawling around on all fours, scooping buttons into a ziplock while Martin batted them around.  Ugh.  So free cat to a good home.  Or to a bad home really.

Totally kidding.  He’s staying, get your own cat.

What are you up to this Saturday?  Anyone racing this weekend? 

–I’m on another photoshoot, teaching my Zumba class, lifting a bit, and headed to a graduation party!

I think it’s important…

| cheriarmour

To note those little things that make you happy.  They can be stupid as all get out, but they’re not stupid if they’re important to you right?  And here it is, my list of little things that have made me incredibly blissful as of the past few days.

  1. This song, called the “Story of my Life” by One Direction.  It kind of sounds like Phillip Phillips, and I’m not shy to admit that it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  I told you guys earlier that I’d added that song to my running playlist, so you know it’s serious.
  2. These two Redboxes I got, Behind the Candelabara and the One Direction Movie.  I watched them on nights when I was doing a kind-of “Cheri” night, and it’s so nice to lay around and watch movies that you can dance and sing along to.
  3. This cat.
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  5. This ring I found on Etsy the other day and I can’t find anywhere else.  And if anyone feels inclined to buy this for me, I would love it.  I’d ask Austin, but he recently bought me another ring – I think there must be some sort of statute on how long I have to wait before I ask him for more of my finds.
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  7. Clean workout clothes.  None of which I have right now.  I need to throw a load in, but I’m busy chatting it up with you all!  But I did make a New Years Resolution to be a better housekeeper, right?  ::sigh:: Being a grown-up without a housekeeper totally blows.
  8. This brown microsuade blanket I bought when I was in college on clearance from Target.  As cold as it’s been, I’ve pulled that thing out of the guest bedroom, and I love waking up with the under-blank temp between 75-80 degrees.  Caliente!
  9. And finally, this trashy television that I’ve DVRed.  I’m a sommelier of fine tasty reality television, mainly anything that Andy Cohen has touched, but I really don’t have a whole lot of time to watch it during the week.  Laying on the bed with the cat, with Austin puttering around while I catch up on all the bad telly I’ve missed during the week makes me so insanely blissful.

So what’s making you happy this week?  

Fleas.

| cheriarmour

By now, I’m absolutely sure you’ve met the newest member of the fam.

Marlon
Martin, post-vet to this day, he remains one of the most relaxed animals I’ve ever taken to the vet.

Martin, or Marlon, as he chooses to go by sometimes (Martin is very inspired by the works of the Jackson 5, and assumes the identity of one of the littler brothers,) has been nothing short of an absolute blessing in my home.  He’s cute, he’s sweet, and he’s a great lap cat, so even as I write to you, he’s sitting, watching, and purring in my lap.  But as a stray, he came in with a dirty secret.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Martin came to me as a stray.  Austin’s family got us the hookup, and Austin went and picked him up the weekend I was gone in New York that my grandmother passed.  It was such a sweet surprise to come home from a draining weekend to little Martin.  But!  I discovered Martin’s (Marlon’s) dirty secret.

I was petting him when I kinda noticed he was scratching a good bit.

Like, really good.

I flipped him over, where he was all white?

Fleas!  Left and friggin right, he had fleas everywhere.

I don’t do well with a few things.  NFL.  Fantasy football.  Lice.  Mushrooms.  And fleas, evidently, I have no tolerance for.  And the fleas sent me into a cleaning tailspin.

I tried Frontline.  Wasn’t working.  (Come to find out, fleas are kind of resistant to it). And finally, I called the vet.  Little Martin needed his kitten stuff anyways, so it was time.  And they told me I had to bathe him.  Have you ever tried bathing a cat?  It was really fun, lemme tell ya, and I don’t have vision anymore because he scratched both my eyes out when I dunked him in the sink.  While he ran around, traumatized, post-bath, I salted every soft surface in my home and vacuumed. And finally, I used this disgusting invention called a flea comb to literally comb the little parasites off my dear Little Martin.

I’m still hopelessly in love with my cat, and at the same time, terrified that there’s a nest of fleas in my hair.  At any rate, I think we got his fleas under control with a dose of Revolution, that bath from the depths of hell, and a thorough scrubdown of the home.  Ah, to be a pet owner!

Martin

| cheriarmour

Ready to be bowled over with emotion over how cute this is?

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Runners love their pets. It’s a proven fact. This is my new cat. He joined my family last week, and he spent the entire time without a name because I couldn’t think of one. But his name is Martin. He loves to play, loves to nap, and he’s a total escape artist. Pretty sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of him 🙂