Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

The local SPCA

I was disappointed when Amazon ended its AmazonSmile program to presumably cut costs. The program donates a tiny percentage of your spending with Amazon to a charity of your choosing. My chosen charity have been the San Francisco SPCA, the local animal shelter and care organization. No big deal, though: I also donate to the SPCA directly.

Last week a friend of mine finally put into action her plans to adopt a rescue dog. She’s been talking about it for nearly a year, and last Friday seemed as good a time as any. She found a suitable two-year old pit bull-terrier mix on the SPCA website, and wanted to adopt it before someone else does. Who wouldn’t want to spend a precious Friday evening at the animal shelter?

I’ve never been to the SF SPCA, so I happily tagged along to see exactly what my vanishingly small donation is going towards. I have to say, it is an impressive facility. Clean, and surprisingly spacious. The pets aren’t crammed into the kennels together as I had imagined. Each room is big enough for them to roam around relatively freely. There’s a tablet for you to swipe through for more information about the particular dog or cat.

What people say is true: you do want to rescue them all when you go to an animal shelter. I avoided the kitten section at the SPCA because I knew I would be hugely tempted to bring one home. It’s definitely not a place you go for a casual browse. Only those of the sternest hearts would be able to resist.

The SF SPCA does same-day adoption. An hour and about $200 dollars later, my friend is now the proud parent of a pit bull-terrier. Nothing against those who pay exorbitant sums for a specific breed, but adopting a pet in need for a home from an animal shelter is indeed the more noble pursuit. An extra responsibility and duty that you take on. I’m so incredibly happy for my friend.

The lucky flow

The best days are when you get into a flow, and everything seems to fall into place. This past Sunday was like that. I woke up at normal time, and as per usual on a weekend day, I lazed around in bed reading up on the latest nothing from twitter. What I really should do is get up and take the car out to the wash before I go my parents’ for breakfast.

It would be too easy to keep being lazy and skip that, but natured called and I actually had to get up to use the restroom. Well, since I’m out of the bed anyways, might as well do take the BMW M2 to the car wash. The poor thing has sat outdoors for two months since the last time I washed it, so I am happy to spray the layer of crud off the paint.

Quite a few people had the same thought as me: the car wash place was decently busy for 8:00 AM on a Sunday. I got in line behind someone that looks to be just about to start the process. However, the guy couldn’t get his credit card to work for some reason, so he took off in frustration after a few minutes. This lucky happenstance meant I didn’t have to wait much at all for my turn. The same smugness that comes from choosing the faster checkout lane at the grocery store.

I got to my parents’ house on time, feeling good about having done an errand in the morning. I even managed to find a nice parking spot right on the same block, which in that particular neighborhood is practically a miracle. It was looking to be a good day.

After breakfast I had to take our pet kitten to the vet for vaccinations. The typically busy vet means finding parking in front is nearly impossible. But on this Sunday, I found a spot to park right in front of the entrance (albeit blocking a fire hydrant, but if it wasn’t me, it would definitely be another patron). The appointment took a total of 10 minutes, and soon I was back on my way to enjoying the rest of my Sunday.

Go with the flow, and sometimes life will reward you.

Good news!

Great news: our dear pet cat does not have cancer!

Frequent readers would know that our kitten has been dealing with a stomach issue, leading him to not eat or drink much, and therefore losing weight relatively massively. We took him to the doctor a few weeks back, and found a critically inflamed intestinal tract. As a precaution, a biopsy was taken to check for potential lymphoma. Results came back early last week, and it confirmed it’s but only a bad inflammation, nothing more serious. As of this writing, the beloved cat is well on the mend and back to his old cheery self.

The past week is one of much anxiety for different reason. I had ordered a custom MacBook Pro to replace both my old MacBook Pro and iMac desktop - one laptop to rule them all, if you will (hello, Tolkien fans). The laptop arrived fortuitously on Thursday, which I was lucky enough to be home to receive as it was a day I was designated to not physically go to campus. Of course, with a fresh new piece of tech to entice me, I couldn’t wait until I was properly off work hours to get started with the data migration, so I started to multitask.

Let me be the umpteenth person to say: multitasking does not work. The brand new laptop distracted me from work all the way into Friday, because there was a snag with transferring my huge music collection (I don’t do streaming). As someone who practices the buddhist art of going with the flow of life and patiently waiting for events to play out, when reality presents me with an opportunity to put it into action, I utterly failed. The “unfinished” state of the new MacBook Pro was such a distraction that I had trouble going to sleep until the data transfer was finally completed on Saturday.

Indeed it can be tough sometimes to have patience, even when you know a particular process will take a bit of time. I am the type of person who would constantly check shipping updates, agonizing over each detail: I dropped the package off at the post office an hour ago - why hasn’t the tracking reflect this? Oh my god, what if they lost the package?! I get quite antsy when various things are in progress, and won’t find peace until those things are brought to a conclusion and taken care of. But that’s a false promise, isn’t it? Life continues on and will continue to bring more things and challenges.

As always, it’s a work in progress.

A different kind of joy

Recently, our pet kitten got a case of the stomach virus. He’s been refusing to eat much food, and was not drinking any water from the bowl at all. At the initial phase, the cat was vomiting regularly as well. He’s lost a few pounds of weight, and has been quite lethargic around the house. It’s the first time since our family adopted the kitten back in April that we’ve experienced it being sick, and I have to say it’s rather heart-wrenching to see your beloved pet struggling with energy.

I would be working throughout the day and at the back of mind I’m instead thinking of the well-being of the cat, hoping the stomach sickness will soon pass. As I go to check up on him every now and then, it’s utterly discouraging to see him sitting down with downcast eyes, lacking in the usual pep and welcome. The worst feeling is to watch him refuse to take any food or drink, try as I may to switch out the variety, hoping that something would catch the cat’s taste buds. How can an animal go so long without taking a sip of water? Apparently cats can, though probably not the most ideal.

There’s a joy of relief when the cat does take a bit of food, and some vitality have returned in him. It’s enough to make a person emotional, and it’s a feeling that I reckon is unique in pet owners and parents with young kids. These little creatures are absolutely under your care, and you will try your best to accommodate it in any way. When your pet is sick, you feel it as well, and it’s a constantly nagging pain that won’t go away until its revived to proper health. It’s difficult to concentrate at anything I am doing when I know our lovely little kitten is sick and unwell.

To be selfless in caring for another being whose well-being is totally dependent on you. I get it now.

For the kitten

I get it now.

The enduring and unconditional love that people have for their pets is something I’ve finally come to experience for myself. Readers of this blog may know that our family adopted a two-year old kitten a few months back, and he’s simply been a tiny bundle of joy ever since. No matter how much of a bad day I’ve had, it instantly melts away as soon as I see our cat, him meowing back in greeting. How can I possibly stay in a bad mood when all he ever wants to do is lie on his back, begging me to scratch his tummy.

I totally get it now, why people get pets. I use to think I wouldn’t be a pet owner: why spend that money and time on raising an animal when raising an actual human baby (of my own, obviously) seems far more useful and rewarding. Your child would and should outlast you; meanwhile, a cat has an average of 15 years to live. I didn’t want to go through that anguish of falling in love with a being, only to lose him in such a relatively short amount of time.

As life would have it, I didn’t have to make the choice: it was my brother who adopted our kitten, and I’ve been thrust into the life of a pet owner through circumstances. After only two months, I’m really glad it happened that way. I deeply adore and love our little cat; some of the best times during this COVID-19 lockdown is feeding him and playing with him on the carpet. I’ve found that I don’t think or worry about the cat’s short lifespan at all; it’s so easy to stay in the moment when interactions are so pure and simple. It’s as if the anxiety burden of being human gets momentarily erased when I am playing with our cat.

A joy of the most natural kind.

The joy of pet

It’s been a little over a month since my family adopted a two-year old cat, and I have to say the experience thus far has been an absolute joy. It’s a special sort of feeling when I wake up in the morning, head downstairs for breakfast, and the cat is there to meow and greet me enthusiastically. It automatically makes all the mornings that extra bit happier and nicer, even if there’s a dreadful workday up ahead. In some ways it actually makes me want to get up from the bed, rather than laze around a little more scrolling through twitter.

Unlike a dog, the cat doesn’t ask for our attention constantly: it’s fully content just lying around here and there as we go about our daily business. I’d be working in front of the computer, and often times the cat would jump onto the loveseat to take a nap. Because we adopted a relatively older kitten (compared to one that’s just been born), it’s already domestically trained (and neutered!). We don’t have to worry about it going to the bathroom outside of the litter, and it knows where the food is being served, so long as we keep the bowls full of its favorite cat food (Purina One).

Whenever I get bored or am taking a break from things, it’s wonderful to have the cat there to play with. Our kitten loves to lie on its back, showing us its stomach so we can playfully scratch it. In true lazy cat fashion, it wants us to do all the work, while it just lie there not really moving anything. I can forgive it for that, because it sure beats having to take it outside periodically like we would if we had adopted a dog instead. Dog owners during this time of coronavirus quarantine must have it slightly tough.

We definitely should have gotten a cat way sooner; I’m looking forward to many more splendid years with our little mitten.

We got a cat

What do you do during these trying times when you are stuck inside the house all day everyday with seemingly no end in sight? Well, if you’re my brother, you adopt a cat. Indeed, our family gained a new member today as the adoption of our black cat named ‘Oreo’ was completed. A two-year old that was formerly kept by another family that had to let it go, Oreo comes already highly domesticated, very docile and free of commotion. It’s like getting a baby after the phase where you don’t get any sleep because it’s crying the whole time.

I’m sure you’ve read the articles about how during this coronavirus quarantine, there’s been an uptick in pet adoption. I think it’s a really good thing that these animals are finding a home that wouldn’t have otherwise during normal circumstances. My brother’s been in a bit of funk since being laid off from the car dealership (obviously not a lot of car selling happening these days), so hopefully having a cat to occupy his time and mind will be a huge positive for him.

I always had the notion that if I were ever to get a pet, it’d be a cat over a dog. Not that I don’t like our canine friends, but a cat is far lower on maintenance, and they simply keep to themselves most of the time. There’s no need to take them for walks, and about the only sort of fuss with cat raising is trying to give them a bath, and trimming their claws. I never got around to adopting a cat, even as I entered deep adulthood, because I rather spend the money and time towards cars. Surely you’ve all kept up with my GT3 diaries.

Now that my brother did adopt one, however, I get to somewhat live the pet ownership experience through him. I think it’ll be nice to have a furry little monster running about the house, and a good distraction from what’s going on in the outside world.