Zara's Big Adventure

Oh, what a day.

I was meeting an advisor this morning about my financial situation, and I wound up staying up until 5 AM gathering the information that I needed. As a consequence, I got very little sleep. However, I got up on time; in fact, I had time to stop by work to grab my pay stub because I forgot it.

I came home after the meeting, did kitty maintenance, and took a nap.

I had gotten up, changed my clothes, and was having a cigarette before leaving for work, when I opened the door--and Zara dashed out. Part of the reason was my spaciness; I didn't react quickly enough.

I closed the door to make sure that Mimi didn't get out too, and went after Zara. I came close to her, and she got my hand with one of her claws, and was hissing and was generally freaked. I tried again, and she was still hissing and lashing out.

I decided that she needed time to calm down. I went inside, posted on Facebook (a friend suggested getting a blanket to throw over Zara, which I did) and fed Mimi and Harlee, and brought Zara's food outside. I stood a distance away and started talking to her. I eventually got a slow blink from her and a meow, and she came near me, but then backed off.

At that point, I was around a half-hour late for work. I went inside and e-mailed my boss what was going on. (Thank goodness, she has a cat. She said that she would have done the same thing.) I came back outside, and Zara meeped at me, so she wanted me to know where she was.

But then one of my neighbors came out with some friends, and they were talking in the parking lot for a long time. Zara backed off and hid. I know that they had a perfect right to do that, but I wanted to tell them to leave so that I could get my cat. Finally, they did leave.

I was talking to Zara again. She was behind a bicycle, and I let her sniff my hand, and she didn't back off. I walked around behind the bicycle, and let her sniff my hand again. She rubbed against it. I petted her for a while, and she let me. I moved closer to her and kept on petting her. Then I dropped the blanket over her and picked her up. I opened my neighbor's door by mistake, but then got Zara into my townhouse. She didn't struggle until I got her well into the house, so I think that she wanted to come in, but didn't know how. I put her in time-out (my bedroom). I brought her food in, and she made a big fuss over me. I think that she wanted to snuggle, but I told her that she had already made me an hour and a half late.

Whew. (I mopped my brow.)

The rest of the evening was an exercise in trying to keep myself awake. I can't believe that I used to work with this little sleep as a tech writer. It was rough. But now it's the weekend--again.

Z seems a little agitated tonight, but she seems to have calmed down somewhat after I had been in the bedroom for a while.

Hammered

I figured that I'd be hammered today, and I was right. I slept until 4 PM, ate breakfast, lay down for a little while, and slept until 7 PM. I'm feeling better, but still a little spacey and headachey.

I've been scared to let Zara out of the bedroom, but she's been crashed out most of the day too. I guess that the stress of yesterday really took it out of her. I've made it impossible for Mimi to go by the back door, and she's not pleased about it. Zara, though, can squeeze through spaces that you wouldn't think that she could squeeze through.

I need to get a few things done around here. I want to go to bed earlish because I have a lot to do tomorrow. I need to get Zara's meds, go grocery shopping, go into work for a while to make up the time from yesterday, and call my mom.