It’s not been a good week!

This is a double for my kitty

Actually it all started a week ago today. It did not start out well and went downhill from there. First of all, coming on the heels of the identity theft mess (more about that later), I spent the whole of Friday night preparing for a demonstration on using powdered milk and making yogurt for the Relief Society group in Red Wing, some 50 miles away. It had been a week and half since I talked to their leader and just assumed that everything was a go.
Well, it wasn’t. The leader had canceled the meeting and left town with her husband, but she hadn’t called ME (it’s all about me!). I talked to the other counselor when I was in the chapel at Red Wing, and she knew that it had been canceled, but didn’t know anything more.
Then on Tuesday, I had to go and close out my bank account, and open a new one. I also had to contact the police department, all the creditors who were taking money out of my account on a regular basis (including the IRS), and the credit reporting bureaus. I think I have everyone accounted for. What a mess. I also had to order new checks and got the management company to pay for them.
I did this because I wanted to be sure that no one could mess with that account. The police have searched the rental agent’s apartment and no trace of the check has been found anywhere. It could mean that she destroyed the check (hasn’t said she has done that), has an accomplice who has all the checks, or it’s sitting around somewhere the police haven’t gotten to yet. All I know is that I could not take the chance that someone could use the information to open accounts in my name and start charging things. I am also worried that I might not be aware of them. That means I have to monitor my credit reports more than once a year. I put a fraud alert on my reports, hoping that will help.
Meanwhile I have a new bank account that I can’t really use yet. I have some starter checks, but since they don’t have my name on them, many people do not want to accept them. I have a check card coming, but it won’t be here for another week at least, and my checks with my name on them won’t be coming for several weeks.
I also had to buy a new paper shredder, since my old one had given up the ghost a while back. And I have to go through all the trash coming out of my house to make sure there isn’t anything with my name and other information on it. I had been doing that before, but I wore out my shredder last year.
But the worst thing happened on Wednesday night. Little Guy Noir slipped out of my door when I was getting something from a friend and I didn’t realize it until later that evening. He hasn’t been seen since. I left some food out for him at the back door last night. Emme is frantic, she is so distraught about her buddy being gone. My hope is that he hasn’t left the complex and someone will see him and return him or that if he gets picked up by animal control they will scan him. He has been microchipped. I really miss him, too and hope he shows up. It’s been pretty cold these last few nights, but I hope he found someplace warm to hole up. I have left the garage door open a bit in the hopes he might figure out that it was a safe place.
Darn!