Meh, sorry I've been quiet lately.

Got my yearly nightmarish ear infection. It happens every year after my first cold/flu, it's a different cause every time, and it's usually a 3-4 stage transforming boss. Hopefully, this is one is a routine inner ear bacterial infection and this course of antibiotics will knock it out. Past experience does not leave me hopeful.

My ACTUAL boss has been characteristically understanding, but I've been running through sick days catastrophically fast. I really need to get back in gear QUICK.

Meanwhile, the landlord for the abandoned house next door, the one whose attic Artie loves getting stuck in, finally showed his face the other day. He was getting some insurance adjusters to look at the building.

I decided to grasp the nettle with him about the cats and did NOT get a warm reception. In fact, he launched right into the standard "You know, if you feed the feral cats..." lecture without waiting to let me tell him HOW these guys wound up in our care in the first place.

I sat there defeated for about five minutes, then I got a second wind and confronted him again, attempting the good old Kindly Brontosaurus technique. (https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/the-kindly-brontosaurus-the-amazing-prehistoric-posture-that-will-get-you-whatever-you-want.html)

He softened a bit and said we'll work it out when I next see him. On one hand, I guess that feels like a victory? On the other... there's just so much that could go wrong for us and the cats. D: But hey, at least he didn't immediately want to have us arrested for bumbling around inside "his" house, rescuing cats.

I'm just stuck once again with an unresolved, scary, open Cat Problem and I really, really, really did not need that kind of ongoing threat to my anxiety level on top of the ear stuff.

I am maintaining, but just barely. One more crisis and somebody just might get mauled. If it's some asshole with no sympathy for abandoned cats, so be it. 🐯​