Experiment #1 on the cat

This is what my cat looks like right now:








No, I'm not a Beauty School Drop-Out and I didn't try to cut my cat's hair



She started a stress habit of cleaning herself and ended up licking all her furr off of her stomach, sides, and even most of her tail. She is pitiful. I have tried "Kitty Prozac" and she hates me every time I try to give her a pill. I also talked to a friend who can make this into a trans-dermal form, but requires me to pay again for the Rx. Trans-dermal is absolutely wonderful, but I would like get her to stop this without Rx medication.

Right now, she licks all the time. and I mean all the time. If she's not in my lap, she is cleaning herself or eating or drinking. (Freudian complex, yes I know).

And she has started attacking people. She is usually the cat that likes to rub on your leg and follow you around, but lately, she has been acting bipolar and flips to Psycho Kitty and bites your leg.

After hearing from a friend that her cat had the exact same issue (with the furr) and after a recommendation from a vet, started the cat on Fish oil, her cat grew its hair back in a month. I hadn't heard of this as treatment for stress or depression or anything that kitty prozac targets, but I do know Fish oil helps the hair stay shiny and smooth, and can lead to weight gain. While I don't really want my cat to gain more weight, I could see how the Fish oil could help her coat, even if it doesn't grow back.



So, now I'm playing Dr. Dana on my cat, Aria.



Here is how the experiment goes down:

Subject:
Aria (see horrible pics above)

Expectations:
See hair growth in 4-8 weeks (some sites say to expect hair regrowth in 6-8 weeks, combined with my friend's experience, maybe we'll see some results sooner than those expectations)

Controls:
Same Purina One salmon & tuna flavored food for length of experiment,
same amount of food at each feeding,
1 pump of Fish oil supplement each night at dinner onto dry food,
No changes in environment


Data:
Pics of hair growth and monitoring of cleaning habits. (I know this will only be from how often I see her cleaning herself, which is not an easily controlled data source)





Now, what I consider hair re-growth, is for those patches to be fully covered with furr. Some might consider a few hairs to be "re-growth" but this aint "Rogaine for Men" - a few little hairs aint convincing.



I'm excited! I feel like I'm starting AA for nerds: "Hi, I'm Dana, and I'm a nerd..."

What is this world coming to?

Dare I even say it..??


I found myself pulling for....THEM ....


What have I done? What am I doing?? why do I have them even winning even 1 game in these brackets?


I caught myself cheering and thinking "Go H**ls!"....yes, that word, when used in that context, is a curse.


Seriously, I am ashamed of myself.

Laundry

We did laundry on Sunday. About 8 loads of it.

I'm tired of looking at clothes...I'm tired of folding clothes...

And I haven't even started ironing the ones that need to be ironed so I can wear them this week.

Only to have to do this all over again, all too soon.



And I feel like we have really cut down on our laundry amount since we have to pay quarters and walk the hamper across the parking lot. We do things like wear our jeans atleast 3 days (unless they are John's work jeans in which they are disgusting and have to be washed), wash delicate things by hand, Hang at least one load on the drying rack to cut down on money for the dryer.

Doing a load a day is not really an option for us. For 1-I dont get home until late, and by the time I even get dinner done, it's almost 9, which is not a great time to be walking around, downtown, in the dark. 2-We tried, we forgot they were in the washer, and they ended up sitting there for an extra day...yuck.



I know some of you have kids, and have to do a lot more laundry than just John and I, so I felt the need to ask:

What things do you do to cut down on the laundry loads?