Writing In Twilight

adafrog How about your thoughts on pets.

Pets are a responsibility and a pleasure. I mention the responsibility first because they're a lifetime committment - the lifetime of the pet. Yes, circumstances change and sometimes you have to give up a pet for reasons, but when you take an animal into your family it should be with the firm intent and willingness to give it a Forever Home.

( I never needed this explained to me )

Talkmeme Masterpost

Mal's gone to the vet for The Operation. No whining and writhing for Mal!

Smokey is not so fortunate. We have to wait until she's out of heat before we can get her desexed.

In the meantime, she's practising her "I can kill you with my brain" look. It's quite impressive, actually...

My cat, the mafia boss.


Although right now, she's sitting on the laundry basket taking a nap. Way to debunk the Mafia boss image...

After being here just on a week, they seem to be settling in nicely.

If there were Olympic categories of sheer cyootness, I think these guys would win hands down!


( the most adorable cats in the world (don't all owners say this?) )

Anyway, that's a rough of the last week in pics. It's been busy on the personal front...and deadly quiet on the job front. I'm thinking I might have to start taking up secretarial work again, although I'll start applying for those after I go talk with a few contracting companies to determine if they have any projects on hand in need of random programmers.

So, we have cats in the house again after what feels like a very long absence. (For me, anyway.)

Meet Charlie and Crosbie:


( cat shenanigans )

First my moggy, now the stepbro's Russian Blue. Found lying in the hallway at the parentals this evening. No idea why.

I think they're a bit in shock. She was only 7 years old, seemed quite fine this morning when I visited, and then...boom!

Bye-bye, Kiki. We'll miss your attempts to be human by sitting at the dinner table, your attempts to be friendly by insisting that we pet you on your terms, and your prim elegance measuring us up when we came to visit.

So, cat count at start of year: 3. Cat count by end of August: 1.

Not a good year for cats around here. :(

So, I've started cleaning my room, prepartory to selling a whole lot of stuff and throwing out even more.

Along the way, I found:

- a battery charger for which I bought a replacement just this morning
- wedding invitations dating back to 2005 (azheva and laughinghatter's)
- wedding invitations dating back to 2001? (aldiara and alsha's)
- a 'homework booklet' from my Yr 12 English teacher that she gave the class upon our graduation in 1994
- 15 years' worth of Christmas cards
- 15 years' worth of postcards
- a helluvalotta hair
- way more autographs and photographs than I know what to do with

I haven't even started in on the BPAL collection (it's all going into a box and I'll sort it from there).

There are some things I don't know what to do with - like the cat comb (*sniffle*), more cards and postcards of places I've visited than I'll ever send out (anyone want one?), and bubblewrap enough to package my bed in.

I should start tidying up the clothes on my bed tonight. Work out what's winter wear and what's summer and put the summer stuff away...

--

( cat stuff )

Last post about the kitty. Well, maybe one more when I get home and bury her.

*exhales*

( cut because you don't want to read me being maudlin )

I understand why people go out and get a new pet shortly after their old one has died. I'm not sure if I want to do that. I guess I'll see how things go when I get back.

And now I'm crying again.

My feet are so sore. So so sore. They feel like I've been on an airplane straight for four days.

Paris is...amazing. I didn't get this feel of it last time - probably because I was always driving about where I was going, rather than having to self-navigate. It makes a difference. There's a definite feel to the city and the weather's been lovely to us so far.

Have not yet murdered parentals; am getting close to it, though. Need more sleepytime, less walkytime. Going to skip out of a museum in which I have no interest tomorrow - but starting off with Sacre Coeur Church, and finishing with a concert at St Chappelle.

Have eaten a lot these last few days. The food is...variable. I think I'm spoiled for food. Tonight, I had the most boring pork belly I've ever eaten. The pork itself was great quality, but the mode of cooking was...well...boring. No spices. No marinades. No secondary flavours. Will prob'ly come back from Europe at least 5kgs heavier, possibly 10.

Cat news is not good. She stopped eating entirely and is back at the vet, staying overnight for a few - getting another ultrasound done today to try to work out what's gone wrong. I'm a bit stressed about her, actually. All I want is to have my kitty here with me, snuggling up in my arms and purring...and I'm half a hemisphere away. And I'm worried that she might think I've abandoned her.

*sigh*

It had to happen while I'm away.

After the vet gave her a cortisone injection on Saturday, I took her to the parental house (with a/c) to wait out the heat. We had further cortisone tablets for her to take morning and night Sunday and Monday.

She still wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink all Sunday and I really wasn't sure that she was going to make it.

Monday morning, very early, I woke up to the sound of her cleaning herself. She hadn't done that in about two weeks. I gave her the AM feed with the medication and she yowled at me, then started eating and drinking on her own. She munched down on the food we put out for her and, while I was at work during the day, drank the other cats' water, ate their food, and ran about the house. (Parental's house still.) She looked so much better and obviously felt much better, too.

So I took her in for the ultrasound this morning. Vet got back to me: no cancer, no ulcers, nothing they can spot that's out of the ordinary - just the liver failure indicators.

So we're going to complete the medications against infection (amoxycillin, etc.) and start giving her the cortisone medications for two weeks, and then take her back to the vet to see about the liver enzyme indicators. The cortisone medications may have to continue on into the foreseeable future, since the vet said she's found that most animals don't take well to being taken off it entirely, even if it's only one tablet every few days or something.

So...bullet dodged this time.

Hopefully, she will plump herself down in the middle of many future quilts, much to her mummy's chagrin.

*snuggles her kitty*

*hugs her f-list who were so very encouraging when things looked dire*

Thanks, guys.

Sulking a little and she hasn't eaten or drank anything yet, though.

We gave her the medication, put a little food in her bowl, have water stashed all over the house, and are waiting to see how she goes.

Unfortunately, what with the crazy heat (it's still around 32C and it's 10pm), her appetite is going to be down in any case. And the heat is going to continue until next week, when it's predicted to drop to a much more manageable 24C.

If she hasn't eaten anything by tomorrow night, I'll call the vet Thursday.