One of my first cats, Cali, recently passed away. She was sick (inflammatory bowel, pancreatitis, and cardiomyopathy) beyond saving and we had to let her go Friday, June 13, 2008. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

Thinking about her life got me thinking about my own life. 10 years was Cali’s lifetime. What part of my own lifetime had 10 years been?

Well, let’s see.

1998

I was newly “rich” from my first “real” job, which I started in February.

In April, I moved into my first apartment by myself without roommates.

In July, I adopted Jade and Cali. They were adorable. My parents loved to come over and see the kittens.

I had an on-again, off-again (finally off) relationship with a pretty unstable girl.

Nicci and Troy moved in close by to my apartment in University City, so we hung out quite a bit.

2000

Though Neela and I had met before, at one of my brother’s parties and a few common friends’ parties/weddings, we finally started dating in February.

In April I was offered a job at Proxicom, in Los Angeles.

In May, we (Jade, Cali, and I) moved to Marina Del Rey, where Proxicom was located. Neela came up after her spring semester was completed.

Worked like a dog on Proxicom’s Toyota/Lexus.com project. Took over the Project Manager position for Lexus.com halfway through the implementation. Crazy hours.

In September, Neela and I we were engaged. Married in December. Small Vegas ceremony with just a few friends and family.

2001

My manager at the time, Sean, and a few other Proxicomers went to a small startup online gambling site, in Long Beach. We moved to San Pedro in February.

We met Dr. Steed, hands-down the best vet we’ve ever had, when we moved to San Pedro.

Soon after we moved in, Max found us and decided to stay. We discovered he was very sick (hyperthyroidism and fibromyalgia).

We did the whole Indian ceremony and reception. Then we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon.

After some political drama at Action Online, I ended up being a casualty in December. Luckily, I had just interviewed with Intuit, and had a job offer to start a week after my job ended at Action Online.

We put an offer on a house in San Diego and it was accepted.

2002

Started the year living at my brother, Poorvesh’s, house while I worked in San Diego and lived in San Pedro. Neela was also finishing up her semester (both teaching and working) in San Pedro. I came down on Sunday nights and went back up Friday nights. Neela took care of the three cats.

We closed escrow on our house in January. Before moving in we ripped out all the ugly (dirty blue carpet) throughout the house and put wood and new carpet in throughout. We moved in to the house (and Neela moved down) in February.

In March, we found out Max had lymphoma. He passed away March 23, 2002. That was a tough time for us, and the whole family, as it was the first time we lost a pet.

In May we adopted Sammy and Leo. Jade and Cali were not impressed with their adorableness.

2003

My 10 year high school reunion. I did not go.

2004

The six of us had apparently outgrown our first house, so we moved about a mile away to our current house (not our stuff in the pictures, these were the sale pictures).

I was (and still would be) extra paranoid that realtors would let my cats out, so we decided to move to Poorvesh’s house for a few weeks/months until the house sold.

Right before the move, though, Cali was hospitalized for three days. She had cholangial hepatitis. We actually noticed her being disoriented and acting weird right when we came back from a Vegas trip.

After being in the hospital, Cali had to come “home” to Poorvesh’s house. In addition to her being sick and generally not happy, there being three other (unknown) cats in the house was causing all kinds of unhappiness.

As soon as we had a buyer for our house, we moved back in to our old home to pack it up and get going.

Everyone loved the new house – much bigger! And a pool table (which arrived before any of the other furniture or belongings)!

2005

After almost 4 years in the same group, I moved into the Consumer Tax Group in October (still within Intuit), and got a promotion in the process. Cool!

2006

Neela found Toby the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Toby came home. He didn’t leave. Craziness ensued. Followed by training. Craziness didn’t stop. Ever.

2007

Four managers into my new position, I got another promotion in December. Sweet!

2008

Starting back in March, I am once again working for the same person who hired me into Intuit 6.5 years ago. Easy learning curve.

We notice that Cali is eating less and less, but she seems to be annoyed by the other cats, so we give her food in separate rooms. We get her checked out and back on inflammatory bowel medication.

After a while she stops eating her food, but no vet, even internal medicine specialists, can find anything wrong with her. I figure “she’s old and picky”, so I give her canned food 2-3 times per day. Her appetite returns for a week.

Again she stops eating, so we take her into Veterinary Specialty Hospital at 10PM on June 11th. She’s checked-in and diagnosis begins. I have a bad feeling that she’s not coming home.

After much turmoil, we decide the right thing to do is to let Cali go on Friday morning, June 13th.

I am very sad and thinking about Cali. I begin writing this post. I finish writing this post.

Technorati Tags: Retrospective

I have been a Petco customer for years and years and years. In fact, Quicken tells me I have been a loyal customer since 2002 (at least 2002, but that’s when I started using Quicken), spending $500 on average per year. And it looks like almost $3,000 of that is since Toby came home, less than two years ago.

In that many years, I have never returned a product. I have purchased many things my cats & dog did not use or like, but I always took that on myself and never returned anything. I often gave away the product(s), taking the loss as a cost of having a pet.

However, a few weeks ago I bought two pet fountains. When I got them home, Neela pointed out that the cats/dog would have to lick plastic to get to the stream of water. Cats and dogs love to get the stream of water, something about it just excites them. But given that licking plastic isn’t good, period, I decided to return them both and get the Drinkwell Platinum Pet Fountain, which I was actually looking for when I got these two, anyways.

Keep in mind that these boxes were unopened, the products unused, and my return well within the stated 30 day return policy.

When I got to the store, I realized there wasn’t a “Customer Service” desk. I asked the cashier where to go for a return, and she said to just get in the checkout line. No problem.

When my turn came up, I showed her the receipt, and said I wanted to return both the fountains. She asked why, and I talked about not wanting my pets to unnecessarily lick plastic. She asked if they were used, I said no. She seemed OK with the return, and called the manager over to provide an “override”. Odd, but OK, whatever.

The manager gets there and asks why I’m returning them and are they opened, again. I provide the same responses. He then argues with me about the cats needing to lick plastic on one of the fountains, saying there is a bowl they can drink out of at the bottom of the fountain. I explain that the water streams on plastic and that’s unacceptable to me. He argued a little more then finally completes the return.

It wasn’t much of an argument, but I was annoyed (enough to write this post!) that he argued with me instead of just returning the items, like I wanted.

So now I won’t be going to Petco for my pet needs. I will buy off Amazon.com (of course!) and try PetSmart a bit more. But Petco, you lost my business. There are too many choices (most better priced anyways) for me to waste my time being argued with by a manager.

Technorati Tags: consumer, petco, retail