I am now a fur mommy

 

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links within the post, I may receive a commission for your click and purchase. You do not have to make a purchase to enjoy this post, I only highlight products to help with the cost of running the blog, and I only post links to products relevant to the topic in that post and to companies I use and trust.”

One of the things about being a single person with no children is you become a mommy to other species.  Let me explain today’s topic….

About almost 3 years ago, my nephew and his girlfriend came to me at the time and ask me if they could bring home a kitten.  This family, especially me and mom are not fond of cats.  I do not know what is it about cats, but the cats that were around mom when she was a child were outdoors cats, and they roamed where they wanted to roam.  They were not allowed in the house (both mom and dad were raised in a rural area, outside a small town called Moundville, Alabama).  Neither were dogs but they were tolerated for the most part.  The only cats I had been around as a child was a family friend’s cat named Monkey.  I was scared of cats because Monkey scratched me when I was 6.  I never had any cats around me until I laid eyes on Gizmo.

Meet Miss Gizmo Elizabeth

Anyway, up until today, I have always referred to Gizmo as my nephew and his girlfriend’s cat because they were the ones who basically took care of her, until their daughter was born in February 2020.  I knew they had to move to a new place because there was barely enough room for the 5 of us (me, Gizmo, nephew, girlfriend, and Strype, who is a miniature Husky), with the baby would make 6.  The baby is now 5 months old, and every day that she grows, she needs more room.  Eventually, this means her own room.

When she was born, my nephew and his girlfriend moved into my parent’s home with them.  They have more room than I need.  Gizmo stayed here, and I started feeding her, and my nephew came over once a week to change the litter box.  Now they are moving to a new city where his father and step-mom are staying, which is an hour and a half from here.

I got upset when I hear the news.  So, they decided to let me have Gizmo, and I am now officially a cat mommy.  I had hoped to be a human mommy first, with my child begging for a dog, cat, or the occasional hamster or gerbil (sorry future children, mommy does not do snakes, mice, lizards, or spiders), but I will take being a fur baby mommy as well. So, what does it take to be a fur baby mommy?  Well….

1. In the first two years, I learned of her temperament.  Gizmo is a pretty chill cat.  She wants to be cuddled, but she also is in a place that I could be sitting at my desk (like I am now) and she lays at my feet or goes someplace to lay in the sun.  She loves her sun.  She will lay there for hours if I let her.  I will get up on occasion to check on her. This includes what she likes and does not like.  She will scratch or slightly bite me if she does not like it (stroking her head for too long).
2. She loves belly rubs (but not for long).
3. She does not like her cat bed.  It is going back to Ikea.  She has not laid on it.  She will lay around it, but I have never seen her on it, even for a minute.  I gave her two months with it and nothing.  I am going to try a cat tree.  By the way, Ikea has a 365-day return policy.
4. She is not crazy about wet cat food.   I give it too her every once in a while, and I got a can with my grocery order this time.  I am going to try a Chewy.com subscription.  She has never had any cat treats before.  I am not sure how I feel about that.

So, now I have some tips for all you first-time fur baby parents.

1.  Know what type of animal you are getting.  Do you want a dog? A cat? A ferret? Fish?  It does not matter what type of animal you are getting as long as you do the research.  I knew Gizmo since she was 6 months old, but she was my nephew’s cat. I had dogs before…at my parent’s home.  Guess who took care of them.  Yep, my parents.  We were in charge of the feeding and the cleaning up, but it was my parents who took them to the vet, making sure they had the food to eat (the right kind), and where they were going to sleep at, not only at home (the dogs were mostly outdoors, except in really bad weather; Gizmo is an indoor cat) but where will they be boarded when we go out of town.  I have a retreat in January out of town.  Cats can take care of themselves for a week.  I will be gone for 3 days, but to be on the safe side, and since I will have a carrier to take her back and forth, I may take her to my nephew’s house.  If the family goes to Walt Disney World next year, I will have to board somewhere for a week because my nephew, his girlfriend, and baby will be at Walt Disney World too.  I have not seen any rules about boarding cats at Disney, only dogs.
2. Establish a routine with them.  Gizmo has a routine already, but I am changing it up a bit.  What I mean is I am getting rid of the current litterbox for a new one so that I can change it.  I got her a cat bed, but it is not working, so I am getting rid of it for a cat tree.  I will have a chewy subscription, and she will have a regular vet.
3. Speaking of which.  Like you need a regular doctor, so does the animal.  Get a vet that is friendly and board if you need it.  One of the dogs had a vet who also boards them.  Most will clean and groom a pet while you are gone. 
4. Finally, talk to it.  I have mommy and me time with Gizmo.  I will sit and cuddle her, and say something positive to her.  I tell her she is a pretty cat and a good fur daughter.  Not only it helps them, but it also helps you too.  cuddling a pet has been known to lower blood pressure.  This is why doctors and therapists use them in hospitals.  Call it animal affirmations.

Well, that is it for now on the pet end.  I will have more, since your pet is part of the family, and I do have family posts on here.  I will also talk about the adoption of a pet, rescue pets (Strype is a rescue mini Husky), and other pet care areas.

Until then, be well.

Food Delivery-One year later

 

Today, I am going to follow-up on a subject that I talked about two years ago.  At this time, I was not sure if I like the idea of having meals from my favorite restaurants delivered or not.  My feelings at the time were, if I could take the time to order from them, I could take that same amount of time to go into my kitchen and whip up a meal or two.  After all, there were three advantages of cooking your own meal.  One, I know what goes into my meals, two, I can shop my grocery store for those meals and spend less money on those ingredients that the restaurants have to buy in bulk and keep on hand because the entrée is on the menu, and three, I can portion control my meals.  In order for the person to get their money’s worth out of a meal, restaurants feel that bigger is better.  Not if you are watching calories.

I still have those feelings, but I now have a soft spot for companies like Uber Eats, Postmates, Grub Hub, and DoorDash.  You can read the original post, and see my results.

What’s changed?

Covid-19, that’s all I can say.  Before March 15, I ordered my meals to be delivered every once in a while.  I really did not have an excuse for ordering out. I had two other people living with me at the time.  It was my nephew and his girlfriend, and sometimes we would have a family meal, and sometimes they would have their meal and I would have mine.  We shared the groceries.  On February 23, 2020, they welcomed a baby girl into their lives, and they went to live with my parents while looking for a place of their own. So now, they live 5 minutes from me.  I have their cat, but as soon as they move, the cat goes with them. She is the sweet little thing. I am talking about both the baby and the cat.

When we sheltered in place, I was not sure how I was going to get my groceries.   This was new territory for me.  Luckily, I did start to order out, but I started getting bored with it. By July, when the governor said it was okay to open up the bars and other eating place back up, It was my cue to start getting back to normal. I was getting tired of pulling up the Uber Eats app on my Ipad, then I thought to myself that I really like this.

Uber Eats pros

Naturally, when I start to think about the pros of using Uber Eats (or any other delivery service) is the convenience.  Sure, there is the “I’m too tired to cook”, and when you have to deal with kids all day and you are sick of cleaning, and you feel like unappreciated by these tiny humans, the last you want to do is to cook for them. This option is also a plus if you are a single person like me who has no kids and you now work remotely from home. I usually order something that I would normally not cook in the kitchen like poke or sushi. Both are easy to make (I have made them before) I do not have the proper skills to make them.  After all, it is not easy cutting up raw fish.

The next pro is no cleanup.  It is nice to get out your paper plates or eat right out of the container, with the utensils they provide, then throw away once finished with your meal.

The last tip is to save on gas.  Most of our lives are spent traveling in a car unless you are unable to afford one.   One of the problems I have especially in the winter months is the routine one must do to prepare to go to a simple place a drive-thru.  First, you plan where you want to go, put on shoes, 10 points if it is snowing really badly, then it is booted.  Next, put on the outerwear, another 10 points if what you are wearing is a double-layered parka, I bought one at Costco last year, that thing is so cozy, too bad I cannot drive in it.  I will have to explain to you my whole winter month ritual while driving when January comes around.  If there is snow on the ground and roads, retreat, or risk doing donuts on black ice. Get to the fast food place and you better have exact change or your debit card out.  At the moment, coins are scarce in the United States.  Put in 10 more points if they get your order right, another 10 for a nice teen.

Cons of using food delivery by Uber Eats

I already mentioned two of them:

Not a good choice for calorie counting.  If you are looking to see how many calories your favorite sandwich in your favorite eating place, this is not it.  Even though they are required by law to disclose that information, sometimes they do not. The best place to find out is to go to the restaurant’s website and look around.

Same with Macro counting, which I will be starting next week.

Budget:  Not good.  Listen, if you want to save money, cook it yourself.  Your card gets charged twice.  Once for the food itself, then the fees for the service.  You will see it on your statement.  It is a small charge but added up over time, it can take a chunk out of your budget.

Items can go missing.  Three weeks ago, I order a drink with my meal.  I do not order one that often because I am trying to stay hydrated and have water with my meals.  Not only that, but it is also easier to have this stuff at the house.  Like I said, I only order food that I cannot recreate in my own kitchen.  Anyway, I felt like having some iced tea.  I did not have any in the house, not even a teabag.  I had sugar, but no tea. So, with my poke bowl, I place a bottle of iced tea in my cart and paid for it.  When the meal arrived, no tea.  I stated that on the review site.  I hope I get my $2.00 refunded.  This was the second time this happened.

So, the question remains today, do I still like food delivery despite the pandemic.  Um, yes.  I love it.  Before I can put this post away, I want to talk about the other type of food delivery.

Shopping for groceries…

You heard me right, having your groceries delivered, more important, delivered with other items.

I have used Target’s delivery for two months.  I miss going into the store, but you know, Covid-19.  So far, I love it.  The first two deliveries, I paid $9.99 for the delivery charge, and the third time, I signed up for Shipt.  The one thing that I noticed about Shipt is how inventive the driver is. I had been tempted to use Shipt for a while, but I never had the nerve to use them before now.  The first is free, and then it is $99 annually.

Likewise, I used Kroger’s delivery, and I was not pleased with it at all.  I ordered at the store that I normally shopped at (which was the one near my doctor’s office, while the one near my house sucks), and they switched the order to the one by my house.  They did not get half the items I asked for.  I knew now all stores are the same, even if they are from the same company.  I thought that at least they would have the substitutions, and they did for a few, but not all of the items I asked and paid for.   

One of the food services I did not mention that I used was Walmart.com.  I used them when the pandemic started.  I never got out of my car, and yes, they do deliver, but the store they would have delivered from, is like the Kroger’s close to my home.  It is not in a favorable location, and they do not care about the products that I would be looking for.  The reason I stopped picking up from the location was they too had a lot of substitutions or were out.

I think that most of the time, it was when I had the groceries delivered or when I picked up.  They were later on in the day when products have been picked over.  I work at home and I need my beauty sleep, which is no excuse for not getting the quality of foods that I seek.  This is not a problem for prepared food delivery, but keep in mind if you use Uber Eats that each restaurant does have an inventory of entrees that made for delivery. 

 

Sites mentioned in this post:

 

Uber Eats

Kroger’s

Target

Walmart