Oh and let's not forget that everyone and their aunt is losing their minds lately. Wtf is going on?! I know there was a full moon and everything, but that can't account for ALL of it. There's a bench on the sidewalk outside our bakery that now has some bad juju attached to it. 3 events within a couple days of each other convinced me of this.
Event 1: Senor Douchebag riding down the sidewalk on a bike without a helmet crashes into a 6 year old girl and falls over smashing his right eye on the corner of the bench which then falls over. He then falls and starts bleeding from the eye all over the sidewalk as the parking cop comes to investigate. At the same time, I'm dealing with Senora Crazy inside who takes at least 20 minutes to decide what she wants to buy, and insists on vocalizing every thought flying through her ridiculous brain. After she pays and heads out the door (of course making some retarded comment to Senor Douchebag bleeding on the ground), I follow and ask the cop what happened. The cops come to take statements, shortly followed by the ambulance. They take Senor Douchebag away on a stretcher.
Event 2: 30 mins after Event 1, Senor I-Think-I'm-Black-And-Badass-And-Have-Nasty-Dreads (AKA Senor ITIBAB for short), sits on the same bench and proceeds to harass passers-by for cigarettes. When they ignore him or tell him they don't have any, he becomes enraged and tells them to go "have a fucking beer" and other such nonsense. Knowing I'm the only one to shoo him away before harassing more customers, I ready myself and head out to converse with Senor ITIBAB.
Me: "Sir, I'm sorry, but I can't have you sitting here and harassing passers-by for cigarettes."
Sr. ITIBAB: "Wh-what? How did you know I was doing that?"
Me: "I was right in there making a coffee and watching you."
Sr. ITIBAB: "Well you need to mind your own fucking business!"
Me: "Oh really? Well see, this here IS my business, and you're sitting on MY bench, so I need to ask you to leave now."
Sr. ITIBAB gets up and in my face yelling something ridiculous and rather un-noteworthy. Since my nerves were a bit frazzled at this point and I was pissed that he wasn't just getting up at leaving and that he had already cussed at me, I told him to "fuck off". He then proceeded to tell me to "fuck off" at which point I replied that this was my business......again. He didn't seem to understand this. In the middle of this insane confrontation, some fabulous regulars came to my defense and the owner of the restaurant nearby stood in between us protecting me. The guy finally left stating that "my business was stupid".... If I hadn't been so rattled or pissed I would have laughed. Oh and why was I rattled, you ask? Because, honestly, I'm terrified of confrontations and the universe decided to help me get over that fear apparently.
Event 3: I was not present for this event but was told about it. A flat-bed truck was backing up to park in front of the bakery and backed right into that poor bench tearing it apart at the hinges.... I actually feel bad for it. Hopefully we will be getting a couple new benches in the near future.
Ok, now back to the Kitty Toilet Training Saga:
Merlin is bothered by even minute changes so it takes awhile to convert them to the next stage as I can only go as fast as he allows me to. He cries and wanders around, looks at the new contraption on his toiletting spot and cries some more. When the poor boy gets desperate as we are all wont to be when we have to pee so badly, his default spot is the soon-to-be-discarded kitty bed/couch when he sees no other place to go and which he has taken advantage of on almost every stage.....sigh.
Here are some pictures of the green stage!
At this point they are successfully peeing and pooing directly into the water and I no longer have to scoop anything! Hooray! After a week or so, I let the litter in the shelf run out -- Merlin's favorite game was to bat the litter into the water and try to catch it before it fell... as a result, the litter ran out real quick! I thought this would bother him, but it surprisingly did not. He still scratched at the green tray but would continue to do his business as usual -- a positive sign.
As I type this he is having a hissy fit -- literally. I recently removed the green tray and was pleasantly surprised to see Dumbledore hop right up and do his business after meowing a bit about the difference. He had a little issue with balance since the toilet seat is more narrow, but he's bigger than Merlin so I was expecting him to have a harder time. After him, I thought Merlin would follow suit, but apparently I was wrong. He's wandering around and crying. On Tuesday he chose to pee in the bathtub instead of the toilet so I relented and put the green tray back up. Today I'm standing my ground. I'm determined to coax him or trick him (whichever works) into using the toilet. He can be stubborn for sure, but I'm soooo much more so. Muahahahaha!
In the mean time, here are some pictures of Dumbledore doing the deed without anything but the toilet seat. Woohoo!
This was after the pee and before the poo. He seems to be asking me if he really has to poo without support of the tray. "Bitch, seriously?!"
And of course as I was typing this, being distracted, my darling little Merlin decided to go in the bathtub yet again. Am very frustrated, but will persevere. I have a feeling he won't poo in the bathtub, so there will be another chance. I'm really not sure why he's having such an issue with this stage.
And, of course as I wrote that..... he pooed the the tub.... ugh. Seriously?! So I just put the litter kwitter toilet seat WITHOUT the green tray on the toilet. Maybe taking a smaller step is the way to go. We shall see. I'm signing off for now feeling frustrated, slightly defeated and stubborn. >:-(
