Norvell the Twerp

We're running into problems with our new little love bug. He's begun to torment poor little Farrah! He chases after her, corners her, generally just terrorizes her. He's been returned to the cat shelter twice before for such behavior. He even did it with his own litter-mate, but only seems to go after females. Farrah's really scared and I feel awful. He only started this a few days ago. He was nothing but an angel before. I guess he was just sucking us in!

She screeches when he goes after her so I always come running and save her, but what happens when we're not home? Is he terrorizing her when no one can save her? Plus, he has nails and she doesn't. I'm worried for her. One thing we're considering is putting Soft Paws on him so that he can't hurt her. He doesn't have many teeth left so she's got an advantage on that front.

Norvell clearly knows he shouldn't be doing it because I come running and yelling and scoop her up. The last two nights I brought her into bed with us (last night about 2 AM) after I saved her. Can you tell I'm sleeping well?

I'm hoping he'll stop because he keeps getting in trouble? I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions? I told CC he better get on the job because we simply cannot have our poor little 14 - 15 year old Farrah getting her ass kicked on a daily basis. Oh, my love.

5/21 Workout

I went for deep tissue work with a new guy on Tuesday. I'm afraid he wasn't very good. He did offer me some suggestions for stretches and exercises though that he thought would help my knee. We'll see. CC bought me yet another (I think we gave 2 away because we refuse to keep things we don't use.) big exercise ball for stretches. He did buy it used though so we're benefiting from someone else also deciding he or she is not going to use it.

LC and I went for a run and then a swim instead of our normal Wednesday bike ride because the wind was simply insane! Gusts were up to 30 miles per hour. That could blow a Little One like me right off my bike!

5/18 Run

LC and I ran about 5 miles in the morning. It was still very hot though!

There was a Master's 5 K (40 + in age) in the park. It was great to see folks out there. I'm always particularly impressed with the people you can tell are new to exercise and are challenging themselves. They're inspiring!

5/14 and 5/16 Workouts

Wednesday was the fast 25 mile route. It was close to 100 degrees so it was tough out there! I rode the bike I'm planning on purchasing. I was happy with it. I had been having pain, almost like sciatic (sp?) pain, after about 45 minutes on the bike. I suspected it was because my bike was too small. Given that I hardly had that pain on Wednesday on the new (to me) bike, I think that's a sign that I was on to something.

Our ride wasn't as fast as the previous week, but that was likely because (a) it was so stinkin' hot and (b) we had worked out fairly hard both Monday and Tuesday nights. Still, we kicked some ass. It was LC and I again. Towards the end of the ride when it was hard to stay motivated, there was a guy in front of us in red and LC decided that our goal was to catch him. Ah, I love the competition! Off we went! We caught him and pretty fast too! I even yelled to him that he could jump on as we passed and he did. He rode the last couple of miles with us. Then at the end, LC said we needed to sprint. Oh, that was hard, but I did it! The guy sprinted too, which was fun.

After our 25 mile bike, we ran for 35 minutes. 3-2s still. We ran in the park on the trails, which is much nicer for my knee. Running is so much easier when you have someone to chat with. It makes you forget you're running and you're so tired because you just freakin' biked 25 miles as fast as you could!

Thursday - A bike/run was schedule with the group at 5:45 PM, but I didn't get out of a work meeting until 6:15 PM. That was likely for the best anyway, given that it was 100 degrees!

Today - morning swim, 1 hour. Oh, it was insane. My coach, PB, was tough on me. 2500 yards. The toughest part was three sets of the following -- 25 fast + 75 steady free, 50 fast + 50 steady free, 75 fast (I can't tell you how much that hurt) + 25 free, 100 steady. Between each 100 there was a short rest. We initially had to do 2 sets of those and then I made the mistake of telling PB how hard they were. Little one, you aren't the smartest some times. So, after 2 sets of the above, after an 8 * 25, he told me to do another set of those killer 100s. I couldn't believe it, but as always he likes to remind me it is good for me and he knows I'll do it if he tells me to. So even though my last set was finishing up a little after 7 AM (which is when he leaves), he made sure to stand right by my lane to make sure I did that 75 as fast as I could. Bastard! As soon I was done the 75 fast, he was out of there. I guess that's why I have a coach.

Meet Our New Cat: Norvell

After Sassy died, Farrah seemed so lonely (she's the one on the right margin of the blog), which really surprised us. Farrah never seemed to care much about the other cats, but now she seemed so lonely. For about 7 years, she had had canine companions (at one point 4 of them). Once she was all alone, she'd walk around the house crying. It just broke our heart. We even moved to letting her sleep with us.

I know lots of folks let their cats sleep with them, but our cats have always taken to sleeping on our heads and we do already have the 2 dogs in there. Plus, Farrah will not stay in a room if the door is shut. We always sleep with our bedroom door shut because otherwise the dogs will wander, eat the cats' food and do other bad things. We felt so bad for Farrah though that we made sure to leave the door open enough that she could get through. Then, Chloe took to opening it with her nose. Ah, life with animals!

Anyway, we decided she really must want a friend. This time we decided CC would pick the cat(s) because I seem of late to only pick out cats that are on their last legs. First, there was my dear Trapper Bob and then my lovely Edy. We also have had Sebastian, Speckles, and Sassy die in the last couple of years. Can you believe all that! Of course, Sassy was 14 and Speckles about 13. Still, losing so many loved companions in the last few years was both a shock and a great deal of sadness.

We decided that CC might have better luck than me and that we'd rather have a younger cat. Here we had a problem though. There was no doubt that we'd adopt from the organization I volunteer with. They are a no kill shelter -- a true no kill shelter. We have a separate facility for FIV+ cats, for example. Any kittens we get, we generally can place them very easily. That means that we exclusively have adult cats. Furthermore, I've been seeing these animals at least once a week since 1999. I'm very close to many of them and would like them all to find forever homes. [Btw if you're worried about the condition of the shelter, don't be. It is more like a luxury resort for them. My mom calls it the cat hotel.] So, even though we wanted a "younger" cat (so that we didn't have to worry about death around the corner again), as always, the concept of age is relative.

CC decided that his method for selecting a cat would be to go to the shelter, lie on the ground, and see what cat came to lie on his stomach. Are you kidding me?! Most of these cats have never lived in a home and a significant percentage are still feral. I didn't think there was any way that any cat was going to walk up to him and lie on his stomach. It just seemed crazy. Of course, I forgot about one character of a cat -- Norvell!

CC was down on the ground but just a few minutes before Norvell had run over to him and started rubbing up against him. Most of our volunteers are women so the cats generally are cautious of men. CC is also 6'5" so I'm sure he appears as a scary giant to them. A few other cats came over to sniff him though. Then, in fairly short order, Norvell jumps up on CC's stomach, curls up in a little ball, and proceeds to purr and purr and purr and purr.

I have to admit to not being too pleased. Norvell is kind of a pain in the ass and isn't very nice to other cats. I was looking for a companion for Farrah and Norvell had been returned twice for not getting along with other cats. On the other hand, he'd been in the facility since 1998 (with the exception of the two short stints in homes) and he surely deserved a home. Plus, he's always desperate for attention so I felt bad for him. I said yes to Norvell on the condition that we also got a cat for Farrah (we were planning on getting 2). We still haven't gotten the other yet, but that's another post.

Norvell LOVES his new home. He's a crazy cat. He follows us around like a dog, which reminds me of Sassy. She loved to do that. He likes to be carried like a baby. He loves the dogs. Norvell walks under them and rubs his head up on their faces. Sadie is already scared to death of him, just like she was Sassy. Chloe, on the other hand, loves to play with him. We worry a little though given their size differences. When she gets too riled up, I let her outside to calm down a bit.

Norvell's also decided that he likes to lay on the dog beds. Sadie, of course, will just let him have hers. It is pretty funny to watch a little cat (he's pretty small) lying in the middle of a huge dog bed and the big dog lying on the ground next to him.

Norvell's love for attention cannot be overestimated. No matter what position one of us is in, Norvell will figure out a way to lie on us. He's just so happy with all the love he's found.

Apparently he used to have a problem with spraying (glad I didn't know that), but hasn't had a single problem in our house. Norvell also likes to investigate. He's our little Pink Panther. Anything he can get into, he will. He pulled stuff out of our hall closet the other day. Every time CC feeds them, Norvell jumps into the cabinet with all the cat stuff.

So, all good stuff. Norvell's found a home and we're so happy it is ours!

Standing & Climbing

Our scheduled evening group rides with our coach are almost always skill building sessions. Yesterday we focused on standing up while climbing. Hard work! We also did some cornering work.
I tried out the new (to me) bike. I like it. It feels pretty good. We'll see if the person selling it is willing to take what I want to pay for it. While it is enticing to buy a new bike, I feel good about reusing rather than buying something new.

A New Workout Buddy?

When my friend SM was in town and training, I was great at doing everything I needed to. She didn't have a car so she relied on me to get us to the workouts. I couldn't let her down, so I always made the training sessions. I've been a little lost since she's moved back to Minn. so I'm starting to feel pretty happy with my recent workouts with LC.

After not having done anything this weekend, I emailed LC to see what her plans for today were. Turns out she was going to do both a run and a swim. I was in! Remember, she's running 3-2s, which means runs for three minutes and then walks for 2 minutes. We did this for a total of 40 minutes and then swam a mile.

The best thing about working out with her is that she always has a plan and she sticks to it. Well, actually maybe the best thing about working out with her is really how positive she is. It's pretty amazing.

She's just started training for a marathon in October. She's done several 1/2s before. She's concerned about getting injured so she's intent upon taking the training slow and measured. Hence, the 3-2s. She's also considering doing another 1/2 Iron Man and even tried to talk me into it. I can't imagine. Nice to have someone believe in you though.