Going Home Again

Well, I've been moved out from my parent's house for a whole two and half weeks and already I'm back home, though it is just for a night! I came back up to visit and watch chick flicks! My poor mama is outnumbered by Dad and Troy so she can't watch girlie movies. I decided to stay and sleep in my old bed and snuggle with my cats, so that they don't crowd mom and dad like they have been. I hear that once the cats snuggle in--usually one between your feet and one by your side and one by your head--mom has an impossible time moving without disturbing kitties!

We are watching the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, set in Botswana, a TV series based on a book series. It is simply adorable.

Vaccine Nightmare

You may recall that I was laid off two weeks ago from the veterinary clinic where I worked for three and a half years. One of the most difficult parts of this laying off (aside from my boss not saying good-bye or giving me a heads up) is that now I have to pay full price for everything for my animals. Add to that some horrendously unlucky timing since I was laid off right when I was planning on bringing in all the animals for their vaccines and heartworm/lyme disease tests . . . and I was looking at a few hundred dollars instead of less than fifty. 

Since I'm a cheapskate, I decided to take them to the County's Spay and Neuter where it costs less, yay! Also, I'm not ready to see my old boss yet. I don't know if he didn't say bye because he would miss me and get sad--I'm wanting to think that but don't think it's very probable. 

We left the house at eleven. I hauled the two cats in their two carriers into the tiny crowded office and waited twenty minutes to get checked in. The tech said it would be fifteen minutes so I took the cats outside and got the dogs from the hot car (it's in the nineties today) and we waited on a bench in the shade. For at least thirty minutes. Finally it was our turn! Everything went spiffingly. We waited again for our test results and then paid $148 (zomg) and left in my car that needed gas to go fill it up and drive to the foster kittens veterinary clinic so I could drop off a fecal test for Nellie, our black foster baby girl. But by now we'd been out for over two hours and I had two hot dogs and two upset cats, so I decided to postpone those other errands. 

Two minutes later I look over and see Oz panting. Like a dog. Mouth open, tongue out, quick breaths. I grab the form the clinic gave me about vaccine reactions and difficulty breathing is one of the emergency ones. I hang a U-y and call the clinic to tell them and they say come back right away. We park, I grab Oz, leave the dogs and Io in the hot car with the windows down, and high-tail it back into the clinic where a tech takes him and whisks him into the back room for a doctor to examine him. I sit down, practically wringing my hands and trying not to be too upset because I'm feeling like I might cry, worried that my baby boy is gasping for air and not liking being on the client side of a veterinary clinic at all. I'm also worried that my animals in the car are too hot so I tell a lady I'll be outside when they need me. I turn on the car but don't have enough gas to be comfortable doing that for however long they will have Oz, so I take the carrier and the two dogs back up the stairs to the waiting area while the lady pops back in and out and asks me how long Oz has been in the carrier, how long in the car, etc. Finally she comes back out with him in his carrier and tells me that he's okay, probably just in shock and that they gave him some benadryl at no charge, and to watch him carefully all day. 

I can't get outta there fast enough. I reload the animals and take off watching Oz, who is calmer but still occasionally panting and then licking his paws. I'm still upset and not sure that Oz is okay and trying to convince myself that he's okay and then belatedly remembering to check on Io, who is stuffed in a tiny carrier and has been for nearly three hours now. I had this terrible urge to get home--I think a teeny anxiety attack as well--because I was trembly and trying not to cry and just knew that if I got home it would all be okay, which is totally irrationally. But it was true. As soon as I got back home and let the cats out I saw Oz acting normally and could pick him up and smoosh him and kiss him, I was better. And he was better. 

All in all, much more of a hair-raising vaccine experience than I'm used to. All of us were exhausted and went upstairs and collapsed on my parents bed and the cats snuggled close. All better. 

First Real Veterinary Visit

Io, my six year old boy that I've had since he was a teeny kitten, woke me up at about 7:20 this morning by banging on my closet door. (The litter is in there. He bangs on the door when he's trying to cover with litter.)

Slowly waking up, I realized that he had banged on the door a lot and that a few times in the night I had drowsily ordered him to "STOP. IT." before falling back asleep. I started worrying that he had a blockage or crystals in his bladder. 

I took him to work and my boss said that his bladder was pretty full, so we knocked Io out so that we could flush out his bladder in case there were crystals. 

Of course, Io has to be one of those few cats that stops breathing when you put him under. (Of course! AAack.) He finally started again, but I think I have some gray hairs now. We flushed him by putting a catheter up his urethra and found some fine sand crystals and a mucous plug. He was blocked but not too badly. We woke him up (and DR scraped his teeth to 

get rid of some plaque). And then he threw up. 

He got a bladder antibiotic flush, an antibiotic injection, cortisone injection, and sent home with some more antibiotics. 

I got to spend $30 on Chicken Soup for the Soul cat food (or any low magnesium food. ALL VERY EXPENSIVE.) Whee!

Dear Io, 

Please don't ever get sick or scare me ever again. 

Love, CrazyCatMommy

Introducing the Newest Symington

Meet Oz Symington, our newest member. I finally bit the bullet and decided to adopt him! The deciding factor was finding Oz snuggled up with Io underneath my dresser--Io's favorite hangout--and I was so surprised to see them together that I stood there dumbstruck for a moment. My cat doesn't usually take to kittens, but he and Oz have been playing and eating and exploring together, so I knew it would work.

Our new tuxedo boy loves to play with "presents"--or rather bows for wrapping presents. He carries them around and plays and jumps and then drops them in his food dish--his favorite place for his toys.


He also gets along well with my hamster Gus-Gus. Never fear, the hamster is not in the cage. I took Gus-Gus out to let him roll around in his ball, and Oz hopped right on in!


He is a pretty adorable kitten. My family likes him too, but my mom has made it clear that Io and Oz come with me when I move out. Good thing Nick likes him a lot!

Freaking Cute Kittens

Here's something to brighten up your day . . .

Hugs!


Squish!


ZzzZZZzzzZZZzzz


Just take a moment to appreciate the above picture . . .this is the first time that I have seen Io actually snuggling with a foster kitten. Cute little boys!!!

Clean at last!

A few days ago I finally had enough.

I moved my cat Io's litter box out of my room (ew, I know) and also bought him a space-age litter box with a top and a clear door flap so he couldn't kick litter everywhere.

So I spent all day today cleaning my room from top to bottom. I vacuumed and mopped and steam cleaned, moved all of my furniture so I could get under and around them, washed walls and scrubbed, windexed and febrezed and ran loads of laundry, and sang along with music really really loudly while I was doing it all.

I also cleaned the kitten's bathroom and wrote a spanish speech and paper and worked on selling my car.

My back aches like a bad word and I really don't like Spanish right now, but my room is clean!

(Except I want to wipe down all of the surfaces of my closet . . .later. And I need to let my carpet dry before I move my dresser and bed back. But ohmigod I think it might not smell like poop. Amazing!)

Kali does not agree with my cleanliness and protests in her passive-aggressive way. I am NOT cleaning her this time.

Bleagh

I am sick. So much for hoping for a nice relaxing weekend. Also unsure if I will be able to go camping with my family at the ocean. And now I am at home feeling like crap instead of watching movies with Nick! Waaaaaah!

At least Io doesn't mind keeping me company. Sweet kitty cat.

....never mind, he's gone now. Sniffle.


Update:

Had to have Vic cover my shift at work because ew.

Must find a way to let my parents know that I will not be camping when they have no cell phone reception!

*Insert Witty Yet Thoughtful Title Here*

Sometimes, when adult life gets too hard, I wish that I could go back to the more carefree days of being a young teenager; when the biggest drama is why so-and-so is flirting with so-and-so's boyfriend. To go back to when good grades were easy and I had time to fit TaeKwonDo into my life, and had my huge circle of friends that I could see nearly every single day. Back when my Grandma gave me piano lessons and I actually practiced and sounded so good, and Grandpa would listen from the other room as he sat in his chair.
Everyone always wished they could grow up: first there was the hurdle of getting your license so you were "free" to go where you pleased; then you turned eighteen and we officially an adult; you graduated from high school and started at college, supposedly knowing how you wanted your life to go. As an adult, things were going to be big and grand and amazing all the time. You'd have an awesome job and buy cool things with your money, and somewhere along the way you would fall in love and get married and have kids.
No one even mentioned that when you get old, so does everyone else.
Last September, within about a month's time, we lost my Grandpa, my Boppa, and our dog Rosie. My Grandpa had emphysema and it was a horrible, drawn-out process that absolutely reaffirmed my decision not to smoke. For Boppa, it was very sudden; he went from okay to bad off in nearly a week. Every time, we were heart broken.
Now my Grandma has been battling ovarian cancer for months. Five days ago she went into the hospital, and we are in a fugue state, not knowing if or when she will be able to come home.
Add to that normal family dramas--which have shot up exponentially lately--and overloaded school and work schedules, plus friend dramas (should be a soap opera, swear to god), and pet medical issues, all of which combine to make me crazy absentminded and tired, I am nearing meltdown.
And here's the kicker: I get home at 9:15pm from work, and Mom tells me that Nathan, my 10-but-11-really-soon year-old baby cousin Naters, went to the emergency room today for an appendicitis attack and is undergoing laprascopic surgery this very night.
I just really, really want everything to be okay.