Signs of Burnout
19 Feb 2023 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneStress report: We've both been stressed out specifically due to constant cat crises and Situations since early January. Before that we were just exhausted because it was the armpit of the year. (The sunlight has started to come back now, but the weather still blows.) We have both been exhibiting indications of burnout for several weeks, because we just can't catch a break, which is to say, we can't ever properly relax or chill at home because of the cats. We can even potentially, on the weekends, stay in bed as long as usual, although still being woken up by cats demanding food periodically (Snookums has diabetes, and Anubis is just a loud boy and wakes Wax when he's bored as well). But Wax is still sleeping on the dining room floor, and we still have needy cats who both want to be around people all the time but who can't be in a room together, so we have limited time in the same room as each other, with alarm going off after perhaps half an hour with whichever cat is people-less on the other side of a door starting to cry about it.
Cat status report: After Anubis pounced and tried to eat Tristana's head a couple of weeks ago they spent a week in 100% isolation from each other, requiring us to build a barrier when we couldn't find the door to put back on the living room (part of the garage is locked on the inside and we'd have to go through the tenant's side of the house to it, but that requires social interaction, so we haven't). A huge piece of particle board was nailed to the doorframe and then propped up with furniture on both sides. After one week of this separation Tristana was less frightened so we needed to let them interact through a gate/screen. We have previously failed to rig up baby/bunny gates that would keep them in, though; they kept climbing over increasingly improbable things (in Anubis's case, to get out/pursue Tristana; in her case, to get in/demand attention from us). Our current solution is the "bunny gate", actually a maximum-height folding hexagonal puppy play pen, folded flat and hung in front of the door using cup hooks in the crown molding and fastened to the doorframe at the base with chain and carabiner so it can't be pushed aside. It's nearly impossible to use this door as a door like that, so for the last two weeks or so we've just been treating that as a transparent wall and using the other doors while continuing to divide the house up and keep either Anubis or Tristana locked up in one or more rooms at all times. Tristana has gone beyond reclaiming her confidence and will taunt Anubis through the gate sometimes, and was caught climbing up it and hanging at shoulder-height for no reason in the middle of the night just to make him Screm about it, keeping Wax awake all night, so we have to disassemble the gate and close the solid door there at night in order for her to sleep.
And Now this weekend we've had the most snowstorm yet this year, even though it's just barely freezing, and I had forgotten that now is when Luci the tiny fluffy footstool dog is arriving for a week of dogsitting. I came close to lying down on the floor and crying when reminded, but as Wax points out she is unlikely to actually be able to make everything worse. Just more feeding times and doors to open and more walks to take. The snow is deeper than she is tall, so she comes back in with tons of little snowballs stuck to her belly fur.
Cat status report: After Anubis pounced and tried to eat Tristana's head a couple of weeks ago they spent a week in 100% isolation from each other, requiring us to build a barrier when we couldn't find the door to put back on the living room (part of the garage is locked on the inside and we'd have to go through the tenant's side of the house to it, but that requires social interaction, so we haven't). A huge piece of particle board was nailed to the doorframe and then propped up with furniture on both sides. After one week of this separation Tristana was less frightened so we needed to let them interact through a gate/screen. We have previously failed to rig up baby/bunny gates that would keep them in, though; they kept climbing over increasingly improbable things (in Anubis's case, to get out/pursue Tristana; in her case, to get in/demand attention from us). Our current solution is the "bunny gate", actually a maximum-height folding hexagonal puppy play pen, folded flat and hung in front of the door using cup hooks in the crown molding and fastened to the doorframe at the base with chain and carabiner so it can't be pushed aside. It's nearly impossible to use this door as a door like that, so for the last two weeks or so we've just been treating that as a transparent wall and using the other doors while continuing to divide the house up and keep either Anubis or Tristana locked up in one or more rooms at all times. Tristana has gone beyond reclaiming her confidence and will taunt Anubis through the gate sometimes, and was caught climbing up it and hanging at shoulder-height for no reason in the middle of the night just to make him Screm about it, keeping Wax awake all night, so we have to disassemble the gate and close the solid door there at night in order for her to sleep.
And Now this weekend we've had the most snowstorm yet this year, even though it's just barely freezing, and I had forgotten that now is when Luci the tiny fluffy footstool dog is arriving for a week of dogsitting. I came close to lying down on the floor and crying when reminded, but as Wax points out she is unlikely to actually be able to make everything worse. Just more feeding times and doors to open and more walks to take. The snow is deeper than she is tall, so she comes back in with tons of little snowballs stuck to her belly fur.
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Date: 19 Feb 2023 11:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 05:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 06:41 am (UTC)I do feel rotten mentioning it, but over a month of cat crises is a lot.
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Date: 20 Feb 2023 07:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 07:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 11:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 11:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 11:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 12:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Feb 2023 12:54 pm (UTC)