IC and a Poop Storm

This is the cat who does not live here.


3:00 am found the Sray household once more in cat conflict, this time from inside my son's room. Jackson woke up screaming and when I went to see what was wrong, there was Sam cat sitting outside his door having a cat screaming match with the cat who does not live here who was in Jackson's room. I got David up to help in case they started clawing and scratching and going at it. I didn't want to get into the middle of it with out backup. It didn't come to that, David got intruder cat (IC) out of the house while I comforted the small scared boy. I let him in bed with me for a little while and he was ok.

I was hoping for a while today that maybe now that IC understands that we already have a male dominant cat, Sarah isn't the only one here. But tonight he was back. I threw him out three or four times and even threw a glass of water on him out back and he came right back. Worse is that Sam was on the back porch the whole time, agitated and cat growling. I think that Sam cat is no longer the undisputed tough guy of the neighborhood. He seems to be letting IC win the turf war. I was as mean to the cat as I could stand, which was a few tosses out the back and the glass of water, but when he kept coming back to nibble at the food bowl, I gave up for the night. I just can't be mean enough to him to truly discourage his coming around. I start to think of all the reasons he could be hungry; his family moved without him, he's lost, his family couldn't afford him and dumped him here.

But he can't run my cat off and take his place. If he would just surreptitiously come in to snack and not affect the pecking order of my household everything would be fine. But we can't let him chase Sam off. Sarah isn't a threat to him and doesn't really seem to care if he is here, but Sam is another story. I have noticed that IC has some furry appendages on his hind quarters and Sam no longer has such things. Could this be why IC is winning? Sam is unmanned and IC is not? I don't know how these things work and I really don't want to know and I certainly don't want to be responsible for another cat. Sigh. Wish he would go home without me having to do anything mean to him. I don't want to be mean to him. Course, really all I would have to do is let him hang out long enough to let Jackson get ahold of him. Jackson has taken to mercilessly chasing the cats under the bed and pinning them there while he 'raars' at them and giggles. Perhaps this balzy fellow would leave willingly after being subjected to Jackson games for a while.

So potty training. It continues. The boy has made leaps and bounds in the pee pee department. Few pee accidents. He doesn't volunteer to go to the potty, but he goes a lot more willingly when I tell him it is time. He is really catching on. He has had a couple of accidents but far less than I had anticipated.

Number two is not happening though. He is going infrequently to avoid the subject of pooping in the potty. And then he simply goes in his pants. I try not to make a big deal out of it. And we put it in the potty and discuss that maybe next time he will go in the potty. Just like all the books say to do. No fuss, no reprimand. No freaking out or shame.

But sometimes shit happens. At Luby's. And though you try not to get worked up about it, when the child insists on dancing around while you attempt to get the poopy pants off of him, thus spilling the contents onto the floor of the bathroom stall then dances some more, stepping into it and smearing it all over the stall floor, and getting it clumped and stuck between his toes. And then he gets upset about it and tries to get away and leaves poop footprints until you finally grab him roughly and stick him feet-first into the toilet to wash them off and make him stop spreading it. And then you realize you only have three baby wipes left in your bag which is not even close to enough to clean his butt, feet, legs and floor. And toilet paper sticks to the poop on the floor and barely manages to wipe it up. You might just end up cursing loudly and hoping to dog no one comes into the bathroom right then to witness, hear and smell the commotion. You might be completely unable to address the accident with the no big deal, no shame, response you are supposed to give. And when you do finally get yourself under control and talk about how next time he will get his poo poo into the potty instead of into his pants, the boy might tell you that poo poo is supposed to go into the potty so it doesn't make his mommy angry.

Shit.

So I had to explain and keep explaining that I wasn't angry because he pooped. That he is perfectly entitled to poop and that poop does not make me angry. It was the dancing instead of paying attention to what we were doing and the poop smearing that made me angry and that poop is yucky and I didn't like cleaning it up. But I wasn't mad cause he pooped. This is probably too big a distinction for a boy who will be three in a month, but I felt I had to try. I can't let him think that if he poops mom will get mad. Because ultimately, I want him to poop. I know he will eventually get it where it needs to be, but I don't want to make him worried about it. Wish I had been able to laugh in the face of the poop storm instead of getting mad. But what can I say? Other than I am sorry. Which I said several times to Jackson and I hope he understands.

And I so totally get to tell the story of the Luby's poop storm to his first date.

After Luby's we headed to the theatre for a pick-up rehearsal. One of our actors can't do the show this weekend and we needed to work the scenes for the two actors changing parts to fill it. Complicated to explain, but we got it covered and all the girls seem ready to do the different parts tomorrow. Jackson had to come with me since David is rehearsing the show he is directing - it opens Friday next week.

Jackson did well, behaving and talking quietly and playing with his ball. HE watched intently whenever I was onstage working something. And when I came off he would ask me to go back up there. I think he was maybe understanding that I was acting differently than I usually do as his mommy. Pretty neat to see him watching.

Got home at nine and got the boy in bed and commenced getting my house ready for the carpet cleaners to come bright and early in the morning. Cleaned, vacuumed, moved toys and light furniture. The carpet in my living room is once again a mess and I will be glad to get out all the juice, chocolate milk and whatever else Jackson and the cats have dragged in on it.

And now I am blogging. Busy day.