This is the post where I complain. So if you’re not into it, take off now. Or, join me. Because misery loves company. Except when it doesn’t.
A few things have been making me feel like I might fly into a murderous rage.
Thing number one:
What’s this, you say? Oh, a pile of cat shit. Again. Last year, after I had Emil (I had to wait until I was no longer pregnant so I didn’t risk contracting toxoplasmosis), I dug all the dirt out of our side garden because it smelled like cat urine and feces from the neighborhood cats. Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time adding new dirt and 8 new boxwoods to this area, as well as spraying it with an eco-friendly cat repellant twice daily in order to break them of the habit. It worked for a while. But only when I saturated the area with the repellant. This got expensive, so we stopped buying the repellant. And sure enough, the damn cat (s?) came back. And now, every two days, I have a pile of cat crap to pick up on top of the dog poop from our own dog and all the tushie-wiping I have to do on a daily basis.
But the mind-blowing part?
THIS is the sign that I have to walk past every day, which just so happens to be in the cat-owner’s yard who comes over and uses our garden as a litter box (and the only cat I have actually watched poop in our garden):
It says, “Be a good neighbor, pick up after your pet.”
I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Oh, and yes. These neighbors actually know about their cat doing this. They have apologized, but have not taken any steps to rectify the situation. What would you do?
Thing number two:
The sleep situation around here. Sheer torture. I will not go into every detail suffice to say that these kids don’t sleep. Not naps. Up at 5:30am. Up several times throughout the night. The result is an exhaustion I cannot begin to explain. My eyes are dropping shut at 7:30pm every night, and so I would otherwise just go to bed. But someone is always up. Needing something, crying something. It makes me crazy beyond comprehension. Oh, and I have a constant headache from lack of sleep. Andrew is going out of town for three days this weekend. So I have decided to duct tape all three kids into their beds for a few hours for some real shut-eye. Is that frowned upon?
Okay. Those are my top two. That’s all. Good night. Ahahahahaha! Just kidding!!!
Oh, my. Having Neversleepers is a problem. It made the first two years of Audrey’s life almost unbearable for me. And sadly, I don’t remember much of that time because I was so exhausted that it was all I could do to barely function. I so understand you on the no sleep thing. It’s brutal. And having 3 Neversleepers? I wish I lived closer so I could watch them, just so you could get a nap. When we were very desperate with Audrey, our doctor told us she had a Neversleeper too, and that melatonin spray from a health food store was okay to give. It didn’t do crap for Audrey, but it might help your dudes out.
As far as the cat poop goes, that’s a hard one. I have a cat. His name is Stevie Wonder. He’s an asshole. He was supposed to be an indoor cat, but was very upset about that decision being made without consulting him first, and he took out his anger on us by crapping on very expensive pieces of sound equipment. Now you know why he’s an asshole. So we made him an outside cat. We recently went to a neighborhood get-together and I am not kidding you, like 5 different families went, “Ohhhh, Stevie belongs to YOU! Ohhhhhhh.” And I laughed nervously and said, “Haha, yeah. He gets around. Neighborhood slut, that one.” For all I know though, he’s murdering all their beautiful song birds and crapping up their yards. I have no idea. He’s un-containable. Outside cats are so much different from outside dogs because they can just go wherever they want, and nobody ever supervises them. It’s really weird. I think that if it were my cat that was the known culprit for crapping up your garden, I would at least offer to help clean up or something.
Hahahaha! You are now Andrew’s hero because you have a cat named Stevie Wonder, asshole or not. And I totally get it. I had a cat when I was growing up and she did whatever the hell she wanted, probably crapping up other peoples’ yards as well. SO I guess karma’s a bitch, huh?
Oh man, sleep deprivation is just brutal. We have had phases of poor sleep with Wyatt but overall I have to sheepishly admit that he’s a good sleeper. Of course I type this at 1AM because to quote Allison, I am a neversleeper… and in a constant state of tiredness with no one to blame but my very own self 🙂
I’m sure you’ve tried the black-out shades and white noise and all the stuff that has worked for us, I truthfully think it just comes down to luck of the draw. You also know that it will pass! Someday soon they will finally sleep.
And I love cats but that is some bullshit that they use your bushes as a littler box! Ick, I don’t even like to clean up after my own cat (in fact I used pregnancy as an excuse to get out of litter duty and then extended that to breastfeeding and now I’m hoping James just doesn’t notice he is still the only one doing it).
Maybe you guys can just alternate, one night Andrew gets to sleep but he is on cat crap detail, the next you swap? 🙂 Hang in there!
Lauren, you have my sympathies on the sleep front. That is a tough one, I don’t think I could be a decent mama without sleep. You have had the worst luck with your babes sleeping. I wish I had some trick that would solve all your prolems. Keep your chin up, and teach the older ones how to make their own breakfast in the morning.
The cat stuff. Ack! If I were you I would take some food over to my neighbors, so they knew I was coming in peace, and then lay it all down. You’re super busy with three kids and you work really hard to have your yard be a nice place. Their cat is making that difficult. Now of course since it’s an outdoor cat you can’t just tell it no and expect it to stop but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be done. If my dogs were going over to a neighbor’s house and repeatedly crapping in the same place I would feel an obligation without anyone even saying anything to me to pick up after my animals. Just because it’s a cat doesn’t mean they aren’t responsible for clean up. Ask them if they’re willing to pick up after their cat or buy the cat repellent. And if that doesn’t work let your dog crap in their bushes? Ha, no. Don’t do that.
I wonder.. Are there any plants that are cat repellents? Maybe you could plant something that cats hate where the cat likes to crap! Good luck!
I’m a big-time animal lover, but that cat business would drive me crazy as well. If the repellent seemed to work maybe planting some of those scaredy cat plants or something would keep them away (a plant that’s supposed to deter the cats with its smell). It would still costs something, but at least be a one time thing instead of constantly having to buy repellent. There might be other plants out there that could deter them as well but I’m definitely not educated on them. We have our own cat problem with a neighbor cat coming each night to seduce our own through the window which causes her to start hissing and howling like a maniac and waking us up in the middle of the night. We’ve had to resort to moving furniture each night to keep ours out of the window, but I definitely wish there were an easier solution.
This might be crazy talk, but what if you installed a litter box in the spot the cat likes to poop? He might poop in the litter box, then you can make your neighbor scoop it out. The litter box should probably be of the covered variety, in case of rain.
Thanks for all the suggestions, you guys!
The funny thing is, the offending neighbor has said that he (the cat) will not use his litter box and instead waits to go outside… directly over to our yard, I presume. So I don’t know how much use a litter box would be if it were outside as opposed to in!
We have a HUGE red tailed hawk here in our woods…. I’ve noticed that the cats don’t come down here from the stable while he’s around. I wonder if you could purchase a fake hawk or owl at the local farmer supply store and perch him somewhere closeby? Just a thought…
Ack! I totally empathize with the no-sleep thing. I’ve got a couple of little trouble-makers of my own on that front. (The other night Frankie called me into her room at 9pm with a burning question: “What are you having for dinner?” Ten minutes later it was: “Your shirt looks like a bathing suit!”) We have a rule: You can call us two times and we’ll come. After that, we stand at the bottom of the stairs and say, “That’s three. I love you. Good night!” Doesn’t always work, but sometimes is better than never….
Perhaps you can get that stinkin’ cat to meow them to sleep? :0
Hang in there, kiddo. It truly sucks to have a long, long day with active kids and then on top of it all have them whine all night. Sending love and sympathy.
Also, wish I could come over to help. Can you get a sitter or family to help when Andrew’s gone? Even an hour or two would be a huge relief, I bet!
xoxo
I use vinegar to keep the bazillion outdoor cats out of my garden boxes. You can’t spray on the actual plants or grass because they’ll die, but you can spray in on the dirt around the plants. Plus, you won’t have to weed. When the cats were really a problem, we got a larger, bigger predator (i.e. my husband) to pee around the area. Gross? Yep, but it worked.
As for the sleep issues, that is rough stuff and vinegar won’t help you at all, sadly. Just know it’s perfectly acceptable to arrange for a sitter so you can get a good nap in. Good luck.