Wednesday, July 7, 2004 Alrighty, then. I’m here. Lots going on. I’ll start with what I feel is the most important.
My mom’s cat Miss E has gone missing. She’s Lisa Violet’s half sister. She’s a few months older than Lisa. She’s had health problems, nothing really serious, off and on. One of the problems she’s had is constipation. Mom said Saturday, Miss was crying in pain and hid under the bed for a great deal of the day. She went out for a little while Saturday night and came back in. Sunday, she went back outside and mom hasn’t seen her since. Mom thought Miss was just in one of her moods. I have a feeling Miss E has some serious health problems and Mom was in denial about them. Like treating Miss E’s constipation with mineral oil. Knowing what DeeJay went through, I’d have had Miss back to the vet for further testing (remember, DeeJay had megacolon). It doesn’t matter now, though. Please send some positive energy, light a candle or pray real hard that Miss comes home and is well enough to get vet attention.
This is just really sad because it could have been prevented. Mom said “I couldn’t do anything about it anyway, because no vets were open.” Like, how many did you call, mom? Huh? About none? There were plenty of vets open. And some of those are nearby. I would have dropped anything to help her out. Oh, well, I can’t yell at her now, I’m sure she feels bad enough, but I just wish she’d get a clue. I’ve tried giving her one time and again, but it obviously has fallen on deaf ears. Poor Miss E, I just hate the idea of her laying curled up somewhere in severe pain. I just hate that.
Well, it looks like Little Bit is preggers again. So, I pulled up all of the food yesterday morning and they didn’t get any food last night. They won’t get any tonight, either. Then, tomorrow, they’ll hopefully be very, very hungry and go into a trap where we’ll have some KFC in the back. Cross your fingers that we get both SpotTee and Little Bit. Those are the only regulars that aren’t fixed.
I’m offering a free sample of catnip to anyone in the US/Canada who might be interested. I’ve also added notecards to my store stock. If anyone is interested, go to lisaviolet designs. I’ve changed the pricing on the catnip for those who wish to purchase some. If you buy something other than nip from the store, you get a 25% discount on the cost of catnip.
Ciara is once again on a different medication for her cold. Instead of prescribing the medicine he mentioned during her last visit, the one that does the same thing that prednisone does, he prescribed another antibiotic. She’ll be on this one for two weeks. I sure hope it works.
Annie wasn’t feeling at all well last week. I gave her fluids one morning because she was dehydrated. She wouldn’t eat and wasn’t drinking much. I started her on amoxicillan and she did seem to perk up a little. Then, yesterday morning, I see that she’s passing those clots again. That’s probably why she wasn’t feeling good. She’s back on Elavil. I keep her meds right here by my desk. It’s been two days and she’s resting much more comfortably.
DeeJay is having one of his better weeks. He’s really been begging a lot for food. Not cat food, unfortunately, more along the lines of the chicken in my salad or pieces of the deli turkey for Brian’s lunch. But that’s okay, I’ll hand it to him, just to keep him eating.
The kittens are growing by leaps and bounds. You can see what they’re going to look like as adults. Ross seems to be getting a brown tinge to his fur, I’ve noticed. Rachel is heavier than he is. And he’s still as lovable as ever. They’re getting to where they come in when I call the cats in for dinner at night. Sometimes they sleep in bed, sometimes they don’t. It’s really interesting to watch them develop their seperate personalities. Rachel is getting to where she doesn’t object as much as she used to when I pick her up and give her a big smurgle. I wonder if she’ll ever be a lap cat.
Great! I noticed KittyMeeze alone outside sleeping under the bedroom window. No sign of Little Bit, so I fed him. He ate a little, then wandered off to sleep some more. I was concerned about him most of all without food out there.
The last weekend of June, we drove the Escape up to the Disneyland Resort. We went to DCA. Had a pretty nice time, it was a pleasant getaway. I was a little nervous because DeeJay hadn’t been doing well, but I figured there wasn’t much I could do for him. I gave him fluids before we left and he was fine (well, as fine as he can be) when we got home. One of the first things we did was get coffee. I got a biscotti and Brian had a cinnamon roll. Then we went over to the new Tower of Terror ride. Oh, my gawd! I don’t like elevators to begin with, always make me a little queasy. The ride was fun, I’ll go on it again. But I spent the entire time with my arms around Brian’s bicep and my head pressed to his shoulder, eyes scrunched shut. He said it was worse with my eyes shut and I asked if there was any light. Uh, no. Then why bother opening my eyes? Huh? From there, we went over to Paradise Pier. We rode on Screamin’. This was the first time I’ve been on a rollercoaster that I felt like I was going to puke. I think it was the biscotti/coffee mix. The Tower of Terror shook me up real good, like shaking a carbonated drink and Screamin’ did it’s best to open the cap. Bleh. (Note to self: ride extreme motion attractions on an empty stomach.) :puke
Then I went into a little store and got a couple of charms for my Tigger watch band. Then we went over to Soarin’ over California. It was a wonderful ride, as usual. Then we came home. In record time. The past few years we’ve gotten stuck in major traffic on the way home, but this time we had no problem at all. It was a really good day.
This past weekend was probably one of the best we’ve had in some time. Brian spent the day helping his brother move (long story, his brother’s wife, the head of my fan club (not!), has a son a few years younger than Brian’s brother; the son is a loser and is in jail right now and they want to get moved before he gets out in a couple of months since that seems the only way they’ll be done with him…Brian’s brother has been putting up with his crap for almost their entire marriage and it’s taking a toll on him, both emotionally and physically, since his wife can’t seem to say “no” to her son…other than that, I’d best keep my opinions to myself, only that it’s affected the entire family and not in a positive manner). Saturday, we went for an early breakfast, then over to WalMart. I picked up some baggies for larger orders of catnip, since the ones I’ve got don’t hold much more than a quarter of an ounce. We looked at patio furniture. I’ve really been wanting to have a table and some chairs on our patio for the evenings. Brian has been reluctant, but has gradually come around to the idea.
So, we each got a couple of things and came home. He washed vehicles, I piddled around in the house. Then we went shopping to CostCo and the WalMart in Santee. We took the Ranger, just in case we decided to get the patio furniture. We went to the bank to deposit some money, went to the pet store to buy cat food, then over to WalMart (CostCo is across the street). Brian found some chairs that he really liked and the table was good, too, because it was metal, not glass topped. The chairs are kind of springy, very, very comfortable. It was two and a half times what the set we’d seen at the El Cajon store was, but it’s our very first patio set and we hope to have it a long time. And it was a lot more practical than the other one. We bought it.
Then we went over to CostCo and got some stuff there we needed. We came home and set up the furniture. Those of you who peruse the cameras on a regular basis will have noticed the new furniture on the patio cam. The cats also like the new furniture. Strangely, I’ve seen none of them on the table, but when the cats are allowed outside, you can usually see a cat or two on the chairs.
I was in the process of making this diary entry when the phone rang. It was my mom. Miss E was home. Now, she’s at the vet’s office. There is something wrong with her left eye. Something is pushing on it from behind. She said it’s either glaucoma or an injury to the back part of Miss E’s mouth that became abscessed and the abscess has gotten so large that it’s pressing on her eye. She said there were a couple of different ways to treat it. She gave mom a list of options, from least aggressive to most aggressive. I looked at the vet and said “if it was my cat, I’d go aggressive”. My mom said “then that’s what I’ll do”. They kept Miss E, she’ll be on IV for the night, fluids and antibiotics and they’re going to run a complete blood panel to see if that will point them in the right direction. Hopefully, Miss won’t need surgery. This is a problem that most likely has been ongoing and this is why Miss E was crying so much. Mom is more relaxed now that she knows where Miss is and that Miss is in very good hands right now.
So, back to this past weekend.
Saturday, Brian returned one of his contractor’s calls and found that he had gotten another job. After thinking about it a while, he told me that with the jobs he had lined up, we’ll be able to repay the bank for the Escape without selling any of the other vehicles. We’re keeping the Bronco II and the Mustang.
Sunday, I told Brian maybe we should barbeque and eat dinner on our new furniture. He thought that was a good idea. I made up a big picture of margaritas (without ice, that’s added later). I went down to the grocery store and got hamburger and hot dog buns, a red onion, a small apple pie, vanilla ice cream, tomatoes and celery. When I got home, I made potato salad.
When Brian started the coals, I sliced the tomato and onion, got some lettuce leave out, sliced cheese and we were ready. Dinner was delicious. Best cheeseburger I’ve had in a long, long time. I hope we do this more often.
Monday Brian had planned on waxing the Escape. I said “why don’t we go for a ride?” He said “where?” I said “how about we go to the beach, then to the mountains? I can make a picnic lunch, we can eat at the property, then come home.” Which is exactly what we did. I took a bunch of pictures, I still have to get them up, but I’m trying to get caught up on lots of other stuff at the same time. I’ll just keep plugging away at it.
It was a wonderful weekend.