When I posted last week, our cat Toby wasn't feeling well. We did end up
taking him to the vet that day, as I didn't like the way he was looking
at ALL. Basically what it boiled down to was stress + his usual "weak
immune system" ended up with a kitty cold and viral outbreak all at
once. He has a herpes-like virus that periodically inflames his eye, and
that flared up at the same time as he got a cold. So all of it together
and the poor guy had a fever and dehydration and was just not doing
well. Fluid, antibiotics and $200 later, he was feeling a whole lot
better. Not quite 100% but close. After the "guest" left on Saturday, he
bounced right back. All the cats cheered up. Funny how that is. They
react so strongly to our stress.

It ended up taking a call to our landlord to get rid of the guy. We
asked her to give us paperwork saying we were in violation of the lease
having him there. She was happy to help, and gave us a 3-day notice to
comply or vacate. He (the "guest")  was unconcerned. I called my
brother, whose best friend Matt is a local cop, Matt said he'd be happy
to swing by with a couple buddies in uniform and get him out of the
house on Saturday if he hadn't yet left. I told him to stand by, we'd
call if we needed him.

We told the guy he HAD to be out either Friday night or Sat morning. If
he chose Fri night we'd drive him wherever he wanted and pay for one
night's lodging. If Sat, he was on his own. We thought he'd opt for
Friday since he'd get something out of it. We were wrong. He was going
to go with the path of doing nothing as long as possible.

Saturday morning, he was all packed and ready to go, as agreed. We told
him that the landlord was coming by to check if he was truly out at
around 9am, and that we had to clean before she got there, so we wanted
to go get coffee and take him to the hostel early. He tried to say he
wanted to put his bags in Tish's car, then go hang out at the Barnes N
Noble down the street until the landlord was gone and "hope she doesn't
notice the bags" and then come back!!! We said "abso-effing-lutely NOT."

He then proceeded to give us his 89,426th sob story about not having any
money (which we know is untrue but were not willing to deal with
arguing) and so we put his @$$ in the car, gave him $80 and dropped him
off at the front door of the hostel. We told him he's on his own. And we
got our key back, but are changing the locks this weekend either way.
Why we gave him the money: because it was easier than having him show
back up on our doorstep on Sunday claiming he couldn't afford another
night in the hostel. We knew someone else had mailed him money that
would arrive on Monday.

We spent at least 3 hours scrubbing the house top to bottom. It usually
takes less than an hour to do the "heavy" weekly cleaning, as we vacuum
daily and keep it clean, so all we do extra on a Saturday is the
bathrooms and a heavier vacuuming and mopping. The bedding he used for
the last month we washed twice with a lot of detergent and Oxy-Clean to
get the funk out, and the sheets were salvageable, but the comforter had
the stench worked into the batting. We had to throw it out. It was a $25
comforter. No point in paying $20 to dry clean it. It wasn't even
donate-able. He doesn't bathe but maybe once a week or every 10 days, so
he simply reeks. I think he took two showers in the 5 weeks he stayed.
One of which was the first one he'd taken after getting off the
Appalachian Trail, when he hadn't showered in well over a month. He
slept a night on the bedding before he took that shower - he "didn't
want to wake himself up with a shower" the day he got here. He arrived
in town at 6am and spent an entire day running around town with us after
refusing a shower! UGH! The bedding, he didn't wash the entire month he
was here. The stench was unimaginable.

I didn't talk much about all of this because he'd basically taken over
the office here, and my computer as well, while he was here. I now have
both back. That's part of the reason I've been even more MIA than usual
-- usually I at least lurk.

We smudged the house with sage and copal last weekend, and this weekend
we will be burning some sweet grass and smudging again to try to recover
"our feeling" in here. It still doesn't "feel" right. I've got a friend
sending a blessing for us to hang up, and that will help, and we're
working on a few things to do in here to make it feel right again, but
the stress and bad feeling has a way of lingering. We've got some plans
this weekend that revolve around relaxation and meditation, as well as
inviting friends in and cooking and having a good time to drive out the
negativity that was brought in by him.

So I know this was long. After all that, I did see my doc this week for
the first time in a year. It was weird. He didn't even notice that I'd
lost 40+ pounds, even though last year he was buggin me about my weight?
And he didn't have much to say. I dunno. I am still trying to decide how
I feel about it.

Much love to you all!

Aim