Putting Clueless to Work

At least, it would be Indian Summer, were the sun out. It’s in the sixties, and the bit of rain we had earlier this morning has passed now. I can even fancy seeing a bit of blue sky to the west, but I’m not counting on anything.

I stopped by the shipping store last night and let them do their thing with the Hummels. I nearly hope these do disappear in transit. It will save me the grief of having to sell them. I’ve looked further into selling on e-Bay, and it’s daunting. Both eBay and PayPal take their pound of flesh. Indeed, eBay has both a front end load for listing and a back end load for selling.

I have been watching eBay auctions of pieces similar to mine. Most of them have newer trademarks, so perhaps that explains why they are selling for single digits. I honestly can’t tell why people bid as they do on these. More than once I’ve seen virtually identical pieces on sale: same trademark, same condition, same information provided on the description. One piece will have no bids registered on it though, while the comparable piece will have a fierce bidding war driving the price into the hundreds of dollars. “Mint in Box” does seem to help, but I’ve only seen that on newer pieces.

OK, onto more important stuff. Clueless is doing nicely. He’s eating well now, and I’ve switched him to a kitten chow/young adult chow mix in hopes of boosting his weight. I’ve also increased his meal portion from a quarter cup to up to a half a cup each feeding, letting himself eat to satiation. I really can’t tell if he has gained any weight back yet. His ribs and backbone can be readily felt still, but he looks like he might be plumping up in the belly a bit. Friday night we have an appointment for a urinalysis and weigh-in at the vet’s, so I’ll have a better idea of how he’s doing after that.

Friday’s appointment is going to cause me some small problems. I have a forty-five minute commute to work, and it’s another half hour to the vet’s from home. I was counting on being able to get out of work no later than six o’clock, so I could be sure to make the appointment on time. I’ve learned that we may be working late Friday, though.

My solution? I’m seriously thinking of taking Clueless to work with me, and keeping him in my office Friday. I’m not entirely happy with the solution, but I could work it so no one other than me knows he’s there. My office is remote enough that there is no extraneous traffic. The Mouth is seldom in her office nowadays, and the Minion has already agreed to keep it mum if I have to do this. I cut him a huge break last week, and he’s still in a thankful mood.

I’m not entirely sure that CW would be happy in my office all day. I won’t be able to let him bask in the window, and there is little else of interest to a cat in there. Still, if I can’t come up with any brilliant ideas in the next few hours, that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.

I’m wrapping Christmas gifts at our local Barnes and Nobel the evenings of December 21st and December 24th to raise money for the cat shelter. Everybody who volunteered to help me on the 24th backed out. I found this out on Monday, when the head of fundraising dropped me an email apologizing profusely and asked if I knew anyone who might be willing to help me. She said I could offer a free kitten if they would help. *grin*

The Mouth and Minion were next door chatting when I got the email, so I stuck my head in their office and asked if they wanted to help Christmas Eve, offering to give them each a kitten if they woud. The Mouth has a dog, and the Minion has a dog too, so the joke offer would have been especially poisonous to both of them. Indeed, the Minion started making the sign of the cross and reaching for his silver bullets the moment I asked. The Mouth, on the other hand said, “I don’t want the kitten, but I can help with the gift wrapping.”

Consider me stunned. I apparently have help on Christmas Eve.