Spring Fever
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps, of which I am a proud volunteer.

I am still not feeling 100%, I'm sad to report. My sore throat has persisted for what is now a week and three days. I've tried everything. I have Dr. recommended sore throat lozenges, Cold Remedy Tea, Magic Potion - that concoction of ginger, cinnamon and clove that I brewed up on Andy and co.'s stove in New York. I'm gargling salt water. I'm taking ibuprofen. I'm drinking Tuica.

In less than two weeks I've consumed nearly all of a 1,000 gram jar of honey in various mugs of piping hot beverage and honey is a natural antibiotic.

All this going back and forth between I-feel-better-because-I'm-up-and-about-and-probably-also-because-of-the-drugs and the waking up in the middle of the night with a throat so sore pain is radiating up to my ears and I don't even have to swallow for it to hurt is wearing me out. I must admit I have shut off the alarm several times this week and slept in later that I wanted to. I have been napping on the couch in the afternoons. I have engaged my cat in a lazy-off and I am winning.

We were even when we both fell asleep on the couch watching The Shawshank Redemption the other day but when I discovered I could watch Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar in 11 parts on YouTube and pulled the computer up so close to my face I could open each successive window by rubbing my eyelashes on the touch pad while drool pooled on the keyboard - I pulled ahead.

It's not that while feeling like crap-ola I'm ignoring my work as a volunteer. I can still send plenty of emails from right here - mug of tea in my hand - and right now sending emails is pretty much my job.

The other half of this post, however is about how my cat needs to get a job. She needs to do something because the green on the trees and the chirping birds outside the window is calling to her and she is whining constantly to go outside.

But it can't be helped. I can't let her on the ledge outside the kitchen window anymore. And not because a neighbor told me I can never open my kitchen window because she has her kitchen window open every day and if I do my cat will go out, cross the ledge go in through her kitchen window and eat her cheese (which she had done except for the cheese-eating part). But because once I let her out on the ledge and she crawled down a drainage pipe and was frolicking in the grass yard in front of our bloc and crossing the alley before I caught her.

I can't let her out on the balcony unsupervised because she could jump into the nearby tree, slide down it and be off and away on the ground.

I can't open the window in my room because she could push the mosquito-net held in with thumb tacks out of the window frame and be on the balcony (see above.)

Now, your cat getting outside might not seem like such a huge ordeal but Outside she is in Danger of being eaten by Stray Dogs, Hit By Cars, Attacked by other Wild Cats, trampled by Angry Horses, Tortured by School Children or perhaps just getting Lost and unable to find her way home.

You may think I'm exaggerating but I hear the alley cats screaming in pain through the window at night. It disturbs me that Bella has never given any indication of recognizing the cries of her fellow species.

I understand she's a cat and has an animal's desire to explore nature and breathe fresh air. There's no way I can get this cat to forget there is an Outside and accept being an Indoor cat because she was born outside and spent the first 6 weeks of her life there. And her babysitters thankfully have a too-high-to-jump-off-of balcony where she can go in and out as she pleases. So its no wonder she's not happy to be home.

I know she she wants to climb trees and chase pigeons but it's too much of a risk. Too many bad things could happen to her and frankly I don't want to lose her and have to go back to living alone in this apartment. The thought of it is too depressing. Maybe that's selfish and over protective but its the way it is.

So now we've got some problem solving to do. Last summer I hardly ever had the windows closed. And now Bella is crying and moaning when the weather isn't even nice. The sky is gray and it's rained all but one day this week. So for now I'm considering getting her a collar and one of those free-range leashes. We'll see.

Something tells me we have a long season ahead of us.