Yesterday, I did it again. I managed to walk holes in the bottom of my feet. It has been a good couple of years since I have done this but it still is painful. I was helping with a trail ride by walking with the horse and rider. My job was to act as "an emergency break" or, more accurately "anti-munchy assistance" (the horses weren't likely to take off,..stopping dead in their tracks and munching which is a problem for inexperienced riders) and all of a sudden, my feet started to hurt badly. I very carefully keep walking and when I get back, off come the boots and one foot blister had already torn open and my other foot had a much bigger one that needed to be opened in a controlled manner.

What I think happened: wrong socks plus sweaty feet plus foot swelling issues equals blisters.

On to the fun stuff, my kitty is having a lot of fun with the new apartment. And now I have a second kitty. A four month old kitten, who looked remarkably like my cat, came up to Asurea at the beginning of July and mewed at him and, Asurea being Asurea, brought the little beasty home with the intention of having the kitten checked for a chip and either returned to his original owner or taken to a local shelter. After taking the kitten to a veterinarian, he didn't have a chip so no chance of finding if he had an owner or not and finding out that the local shelter is not a no-kill shelter (Austin is a no-kill city, Bastrop isn't, probably due to lack of resources) we decided to keep the kitten. The only place I felt comfortable trying to find a new home for him was work and that was a dead end. We will have to get him neutered in about a month (which is when he will be old enough, according to his vet).

So the new little ball of fur is named Chir'up for the noise he makes (his full name is Chir'up the Chirping Boomerang, for one of his more amusing behavior, he gets booted out of the bed or off Asurea's desk and comes right back like a boomerang). He is an extremely affectionate little ball of fur. He comes up and head butts/nose butts me in the morning, likes to lie down on my arms while i am in bed, sometime lies on my head...purring all the while.

Only complaint I have with him, he likes to steal my food. Doesn't matter how full the food bowl is, doesn't seem to matter if it is wet food or dry food in his bowl, he still prefers mine...including my milk glass. I figure that is it because he is a kitten and needs to be taught boundaries. I am taking a page out of my older cat's book and using my best impression of her "back off" noise and cat hiss and swatting him like another cat would when he gets too close to my food, it is working amazingly well.

Neither Asurea nor I think he was a feral born kitten. The best guess is that either he got out or his behavior got him booted out (people really don't like food thieves) and he was out on his own for a few days before he found my mate. When we took him to the vet, she noticed burns on his feet which would make sense, pavement can get really hot in Texas.

Commissions are still open. With both Asurea and I being furloughed and on unemployment, I could definitely use the income.