R.I.P. Impostor Cat

Nate and I had an unpleasant surprise as we headed to work this morning. As we turned the corner to exit the gate we saw Impostor Cat on the middle of the road. Nate saw her first and he was very upset. When I looked up from my phone I immediately recognized her. I didn't want to believe my eyes, but it was her.

We quickly pulled over to the curb and I ran back to the house to grab a trash bag and some gloves. We didn't want her to get run over again and we definitely did not want to leave her out there.

Nate knows I don't have a strong stomach for this so he carefully crossed the street and gently picked her up and put her in the bag. We then took her to the backyard to get a better look at her. I know it is a morbid thing to do but we needed to make sure she was not mauled by my asshole neighbor's stupid dog and thrown out on the street to throw us off.

Unfortunately, she had been hit by vehicle. Probably sometime before dawn. No signs of bite marks. Her collar was missing. Nate went back out on the street and we spotted it a few feet from where she was laying. It was undone. The impact must have knocked it off. Judging by her injuries, which was not visible, the damage was internal I can say she died instantly. I should take comfort in that but I don't. I find it extremely upsetting.

This has always been our number one fear for the stray cats we take care of. That they should cross the street. We take great pains to make sure they would not need to and provide shelter, food and water for our cat colony. But Impostor Cat has always been curious. More so than the average cat. Pickles and Dhani inherited that trait from her.

As of late, a new male cat had been coming over from across the street at night. He's a tuxedo. Mostly white with a black back. He has a dumb looking face and we named him Paul. After a Family Guy episode with Mayor West and the "catarang".

Nate said Impostor Cat may have gotten curious about him and may have attempted to follow him back. We know he comes from the houses past the field across the street.

Impostor Cat had a habit of disappearing for days at a time. No longer than three days though. We suspected she wandered but I guess she did the occasional crossing.

I can go on and on and speculate on who, why and how but it doesn't change anything. She's gone. All I know is that we are heartsick at her loss and I am angry at whoever hit her.

She was feral but she was friendly and allowed us to pet her and pick her up. She gave us Mariposa, Dhani, Tono-chan and Pickles.

Pickles is currently up North with my sister and her husband and it will be difficult to look at him as he has the exact same coloring as his mother. His face is a little different.

We have done and continue to do what we can with what is left with the colony. We are now down to four outside cats. Dhani's Dad, Silver, Lee and Bree. MomCat does not count as she lives in our house now. She occupies the guest bathroom. Paul comes by at night but not often and we do see a beautiful and large Siamese cat wandering in once in a blue moon. That one we know is a pet because he/she looks clean and well fed. Other than that only four. When there used to be many but that's what happens when you spay and neuter the colony. Eventually, there will be few cats around.

This is the last picture I took of her. As she playfully rolled around on her back in our backyard. This was taken on April 09, 2011. She was probably six years old. When we met her she was a young female. Possible even one of MomCat's kittens even.

Her body was taken to our long time veterinarian for disposal. We kept her collar and tag which I just replaced a month or so ago. She was a sweet and affectionate cat despite being feral. She will be sorely missed.

Purchases of the Week - April 10 - 24, 2011

I've been so preoccupied with the living room that I haven't blogged about other purchases that happened during the week. So here's a summary.

Waste-less Bags Variety Pack (6) - I was dissatisfied with the recyclable bags that are being offered at stores and I needed something that could hold a lot and be stylish to boot. When these arrived at the house, I wanted to return them because they were plastic. I thought they were fabric. I gave them a try though and was surprised at the strength and capacity of these bags. One bag can hold four 2 litre sodas. So I changed my mind and kept the set. We get a lot of compliments and questions about the bags when people see them. 

 
Purse Size Deluxe Coupon Organizer - A better alternative to stuffing coupons in my purse. Nate and I use coupons but not to the extreme stupidity as seen in Extreme Couponing. Some of the shit those people buy don't make any practical sense at all. 

 
Knocked Up - All around funny movie. I know people can't stand Katherine Heigle but she was good in this one. Bill Hader's short appearance as Brent was awesome. "You look like Jabba the Hutt dying." 

40 Year Old Virgin - A lot of things we loved about the movie. Man O' Lantern, a bag of sand, it's all about passion and public colonoscopy. The whole movie is a lot of laughs and cringe worthy moments.

Collapsible Clothing Rack: Commercial Grade - This is what started the whole purchasing of the week idea. We had a messed up cheap-o rack that had missing wheels. It was also lopsided and was standing upright only because it was so twisted that gravity didn't know whether to pull it down or up. We like to hang dry our clothes this way to prevent shrinkage in the dryer. I can't tell you enough about how awesome this new one is. If you have one of those cheap, plastic ones, invest in a steel commercial grade clothing rack. This will last us forever.

 

Kickboxer - Jean Claude Van Damme dancing. Not as awesome as his dance sequence in Breakin' but the "dancing" alone is reason in enough to make this a must buy. 

 
Land of the Lost - I honestly haven't seen this movie at all. The only reason I bought it is because it dipped down to under $10 and it has Danny McBride and Will Ferrell. I know it's been widely panned but it can't be that bad right? 

The Relic - A surprisingly good monster movie with actors that are not so familiar. I enjoyed the premise of it and despite some predictable elements to the plot, it is still a great movie for those lazy weekends.

Amazon Basics High Speed HDMI Cables - Since we don't have a receiver yet we needed some cables for the TV set up. These work just as well as the ridiculously over-priced Monster Cables.

Hunter x Hunter DVD Vol. 01 - I know right? A DVD set. But this is one of a few series' that I loved. More than Naruto or Bleach. I really didn't realize that companies have to re-buy a license to upgrade anime from DVD to BD. Some series' may never get a chance to see a blu-ray upgrade. HxH may be one of them. Which is a shame since it is a great series. 

XBOX 12 Month Gold Membership - I actually didn't have to get one. As a new XBOX owner, there was a deal that they offered when I plugged in my new system. I got my membership online for $39.99. I didn't pay full price for this card either but my next year's renewal is taken care of since I just saved the card. 

 
Borderlands Game of the Year Edition - I wanted a game Nate and I can play together. I just had to get this version that had all the downloadable content. We play at night when we have a couple of hours to spare. 

Plants vs Zombies - Highly addictive plus the disc comes with two other games that are just as bad.
Viva Pinata - Cute strategy game. Reminds me of Harvest Moon and Pokemon combined. Very simplistic and aimed more at children. I still like it though.

Corpse Bride - I like stop motion animation. I love the gray and blue colors and it's by Tim Burton whose movies I have always liked. 

 
Sherlock Holmes - I remember when Robert Downey Jr.'s life was a circus of drugs and embarrassing arrests but this man has the talent to be an amazing actor as much as to be self-destructive and he has truly raised himself out of the gutter and prevailed. Which is why I think Lindsay Lohan who has had so many second chances will never have the respect and acknowledgement that Robert Downey Jr. has achieved. She'll be recognized for her notoriety only and not for her artistic talent because she has none. Anyways, Jude Law kicked ass in this movie too. Very enjoyable movie and finally dipped down to affordable. Still waiting on Iron Man to drop in price. 

Clash of the Titans - Yeah I know. General consensus of this movie is that it is caca BUT it has Mads Mikelsen who is not only a sexy fiend but a bad ass all around. Sam Worthington isn't hard on the eyes either, he makes a great action hero but I find myself hoping he'll be more than just an action hero. He's got a lot of intensity without the prima donna attitude. Here's hoping he picks better movies in the future. 

Austin Powers Collection - All three movies in slim pack packaging. I hate slim pack cases. They suck. But the set dipped down to under $18 and I swooped in to get it. I can't believe it's been 14 years since the first movie came out. How time flies. It feels dated but still a lot goofy fun!

That's the lot of it I think for April. I did try Amazon Prime for a month but it didn't seem worth it. Not everything will ship in two days and I like having the option of cancelling an order especially if the price dips down. I could not do it with Prime as stuff is set to ship ASAP. So back to the old, long wait for stuff to arrive at the house.

Purchases of the Week - April 23, 2011

It has been a hectic week of bargain hunting and purchasing. The living room project more or less is done for the year. Too bad I didn't have enough funds to completely re-do the living room. I wanted to get new couches, side tables and a coffee table. I'll have to set it aside and do that project in stages.

Our nice TV stand finally has a TV on it. It was quite an ordeal and an eye opener shopping for TV's nowadays. Our original plan was to get an LCD TV. But the particular model we wanted was sold out everywhere as it was last year's model. We looked again at LED TV and it only strengthened our dislike with the format. The LED TV that can handle our gaming and viewing needs is available but for around $3000 it was not an option.

Dejected and tired we were leaving Best Buy when we spotted a display TV near the entrance playing The Incredibles. It was the scene where the boy was running over water and it was seamless! No motion blurring and deep colors. Nate suspected it might be a plasma and when he checked out the back it confirmed his suspicions.

Went back to the store and found this was also an older model about to be discontinued. No in-store had it in stock so I took a risk and ordered it online with white glove delivery service. I wanted it to come to our house in the best condition possible. The neat part about this is, I actually paid less than what I had set aside for the TV including a three year warranty and delivery. Total was around $1400.

There is some glare from the window behind me but we usually watch at night which renders it moot. During the day it is tolerable. I have replaced the curtains behind me with black-out type and it's closed at all times.

Samsung PN58C550 58' Plasma HDTV
Sony 3D Blu-ray Player BDP-S580
XBOX 360 250 Gig HD

Future additions to this set up will be a receiver, center channel speaker and two floor speakers flanking the stand. That will have to wait as we will have to save up and purchase.

Of course this TV is not just free-standing on the stand. It is bolted on the back to the wall for security reasons. I would not want this to topple over and hurt a small child or our furkids.

I finally have my own XBOX and account. Gaming down here with a big screen is so awesome. Nate and I have been playing Borderlands when we have time.

Our small family is now enjoying hanging out downstairs and watching movies. The cats watch TV to from their cat tree. This is probably one of the best purchases I have made in a long time as it benefits everyone.