Three Years!

It's my blogiversary today! Kind of crept up on me, truth be told, but it's neat to think that I've been doing this for three years now and have been able to meet so many wonderful people because of it. Like knitnzu, who sent a package yesterday for the kitties.



It was really sent with Cougar in mind, but Tolo had to be the first to shove his head in, much to his younger brother's chagrin.



Of course, Cougar being the larger of the two managed to shove his way in pretty quickly.



To say he was pleased with his present would be an understatement. In fact, it's already been disemboweled loved to pieces.



He wasn't the only one who was pleased, since there were two mousies in the box.



Their excitement was so infectious, that Tuck ran over and started playing with one of his toys, too.



Crockpot Curry

I decided to make a curry for dinner yesterday and though that it might work well to do it in the crockpot, especially since curries do particularly well when they're given plenty of time for the flavors to meld. We'd gotten a head of cauliflower especially to make a curry, and David thought it might be a good idea to use a big golden beet I got in it, since he's not that fond of beets but likes curries. He also suggested using seitan in it as a protein. It turned out quite tasty, especially served over basmati rice.



It was also super easy. I chopped up the cauliflower, a large onion, and the peeled beet, put in about three tablespoons of curry paste, a couple tablespoons of cashew butter, a can of coconut milk, and a big (20 oz.?) can of diced tomatoes, then set the crockpot on high and let it simmer for about 8 hours. I think I stirred it twice. It doesn't look like much liquid at first, but it cooks down very nicely without any additional water added. Try it!

Thanks to a tip from VUBOQ, I've also been saving up vegetable scraps for the past few weeks and last night put them in a pot with water and cooked them down into yummy broth.



These simmered for about 4 or 5 hours before I strained out the scraps, then added salt and simmered it for another few hours to make a nice, rich bouillion. I'm not sure what it'll get used in, but I'm sure it'll be tasty.

Inga

We lost Inga last night after two-plus years of dealing with her chronic renal failure. She'd deteriorated a lot over the past few months, so it was pretty clear that this was coming. Her decline over the past couple days was particularly rapid, though. She didn't try to move from my lap at all when I gave her fluids Thursday night, and then barely managed to walk from the kitchen into the living room afterwards. When I left for work yesterday afternoon it was all she could do to lift her head. By the time David got home, she couldn't even do that.

She was the first pet of David's adult life, adopted from the shelter in Lincoln, Nebraska, nearly twenty years ago at 8 months of age. She'd been with David for practically half of his life. I was a newcomer by comparison. In her last three years she'd had to learn to live with dogs for the first time in her life and with a kitten for the first time in about ten years. She took it all in stride. When Tolo, and later Cougar, tried to play rough with her, she gave them a much needed smackdown and taught them some proper respect for a lady.

A lady is what she always was, and queen of the household. The house and our hearts will be a little bit emptier without her.

Too Cute for Words

Well, maybe not entirely.

Kitty Update

We now have two kitties in the hospital. This evening David told me that Inga, our 19 year-old who has been in kidney failure for two years, stumbled on the stairs today before I got up. Since we're leaving town tomorrow and since we hadn't checked her bloodwork for a while, I thought it would be prudent to take her in tonight and do a bit of workup. Like their human counterparts, it often doesn't take very much to get an old lady kitty down.

Sure enough, she's pretty badly dehydrated and her kidney values have gone up a good bit. It appears she has a low grade urinary tract infection, so I'm hoping a few days of antibiotics and IV fluids will make a big difference.

Dolores is a somewhat different story. Her pathology report came back as abscess, but sometimes abscesses can be caused by malignancies and I'm waiting to hear back from the pathologist with a couple questions I had. She still doesn't look very well and definitely isn't out of the woods yet, so it's going to be one day at a time for now.

UPDATED UPDATE:

Dolores's condition worsened considerably and some repeat bloodwork this morning was bad. Really, really bad. Weighing what really would have needed to be done (a lot of very unpleasant things, including very major surgery) against the slim likelihood of having a happy, healthy kitty at the end of it, I decided I couldn't justify putting her through any more. I don't believe in heaven or treacly rainbow bridges, but I do believe that it's good not to suffer anymore. I've shed a few tears and will likely shed more over the next few days, but it was the right thing to do for her and at least I know that she was well-loved.

Post-op

To those who have inquired about Tuck, his surgery went very well. It took more time to get the equipment set up than for the actual procedure. He'll probably be the tiniest bit sore for a few days, but he's eating and seems to be acting pretty normal today.

I actually had an entire post written out last night, but our connection went down and after I got it back up and running, I somehow got sidetracked and forgot to post it. Anyway, I came up with a great alliteration which must not be wasted, especially since my sister will love it (Are you reading this, Little Girl?). After we got home yesterday afternoon, I went to the gym and then stopped by our Positively Piquant Pasta Purveyors® to get some gourmet ravioli, some of which was our dinner last night.

And now it's time to get ready for work. Bai!

Everybody Loves a New Sweater!

As Chris has pointed out, today is National Dress Your Pet Up Day. And it so happens that I just finished a new sweater for Tuck, which he absolutely loves.



As I have recently commented elsewhere, I'm not one to dress up pets for the sake of dressing them up. I knat Rosa a sweater once because she was getting old and more susceptible to cold, but she was mortified and I didn't try again.

Tuck, by virtue of his small size and thin hair coat, gets cold easily and really likes having a warm sweater. The first one is kind of scratchy wool, though, and while he likes the warmth, it irritates his sensitive, allergic skin a bit. This one is somewhat softer Paton's Classic Wool Merino in brown and some leftover blue heather Cascade 220 for the stripes. I did this one on the fly, too, and it's turned out a good bit longer than the first one. Fortunately, his *ahem* equipment hangs fairly low, so the snug-fitting sweater doesn't get in the way of anything.

Anyway, I finished it up just in time, because once again we're in the middle of a nor'easter that has already dumped a considerable amount of snow on us this morning. Because Tuck's airway surgery requires us to be about 40 minutes up the coast from my workplace at an early hour tomorrow, and we live an hour in the opposite direction from my workplace, I decided it would be prudent to hole up somewhere closer to the surgery venue. So we are about to head to a motel in Freeport where we can hang out and watch cable TV until we fall asleep.

Wayback Machine, BSJ, & Kitty Smackdown

Since I'm very near the deadline for KitKat's contest, this is going to be heavier on photos than words.

One year ago, I was working on socks in Mountain Colors Bearfoot for my nephew:



BSJ

The BSJ I referred to, for the person or persons who didn't know, is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. This is in stash yarn (wool/mo blend, as I recall) from Rhinebeck two years ago:



The colors are a bit lighter than the photo - chocolatey brown with purple undertones and a complementary skein of hand-painted multi.

Kitty Smackdown

This has been the scene in our house for the past couple weeks:



It's actually a bit more than Tolo wants, though he instigates a lot of it. At this particular moment, he wasn't in the mood, but Cougar wasn't gonna take no for an answer. More photos on Flickr.

In Case You Live Under a Rock...

...and considering I really haven't flogged this properly this year (because, you know, I've had nothing else going on around here), today is the very lastest day to sign up for Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo 2007, at least if you would like to be a square. We shall once again be Bingo Headquarters, in Barn 39, booth D. There is a map of the fairgrounds right here.

I get to be Paul Lynde! So your center square is practically a freebie, which means you absolutely must join in the fun. And come get a look at my kilt, under which I shall be wearing boxers. I know what kind of people you all are.

Oh, And Another Thing



Guess who's getting a new home. David came by the clinic this morning to meet him. He (David)had four preconditions for this adoption:

• David gets to name him.
  
• No more cats are to be added to the household.
  
• No dog for "a while".
  
• I have to let my parents know.
  

These are all quite reasonable and very much in line with my thoughts on the matter. The last one is important because I have two girl kitties who currently live with my parents. My father, in particular, would be glad to see either or both of them come live with us, but the whole point of this adoption is to have a buddy for Tolo to take his (very unwanted) attention away from Sylvie, because this is Sylvie on one of her good days better moments. Bringing either one of my neurotic girls into the house with Little Miss Sybil Sylvie would not help the situation. As long as the news is accompanied by delivery of several large bags of cat food, though, I think it will be accepted without too much fuss.

Pulling It Together (Sort Of)

Actually, I've not been falling apart, really. Monday's events took a bit of a toll and it's very weird being dogless for the first time in 16 years and UPS delivered today a harness I had ordered for Rosa last week near the start of her problems, but we're okay, for the most part. Mostly.

David called me here at work well after midnight and well after he would have gone to bed to tell me he had been having severe abdominal pain for an hour. Once I ascertained that no, it wasn't lower right quadrant pain, I called Paula and Wendy, and Wendy whisked him off to the ER. The pain suddenly stopped right as they were getting there, and a short time thereafter he peed out a kidney stone. He said it was very jagged. And, not unsurprisingly, that they had found blood in his urine on urinalysis.

He also said that when he came out of the bathroom with it he announced to all present, "I got the prize!" Which was a huge relief to all of us.

And I've decided to keep the harness. It will fit another dog someday, perhaps (hopefully?) a standard poodle of moderate size.

When I got to work this afternoon, this little guy was back for a bandage change (one of our techs is fostering him). See how well he's doing?



He's lost a couple of toes and will end up with some scarring on his right leg, but he's getting around great and I'm told was very good for the bandage change. Seeing him now, I'm even more convinced that he'd be a perfect companion for Tolo, who has been tormenting Sylvie even more now that Rosa's gone.

Tolo is a kitty who needs to have someone to hang with, and even though Rosa didn't really play with him, I think he at least saw her as company once Poqui wasn't around for him anymore. Now with Inga sleeping in the kitty condo at night to keep her from pissing on the carpet, all he has is Sylvie, and she's not liking it one little bit. So I'm thinking a buddy for Tolo would be a good thing for all of us, and after a few nights of listening to Sylvie scream, I think David may be starting to agree.

The Big News, Though, Is...

...that in the midst of what has turned out to be a rather chaotic and difficult week, David's cousin Greg is arriving today from South Dakota for a visit. This is a very significant visit because Greg is the first member of David's family aside from his parents to visit since David moved east in '94.

We've got a good bit planned for this visit. I've taken the entire weekend off (first time since April) and tonight will be making dinner. David's decided that it should be Indian, so I'll have to do a bit of shopping and thinking about menu beyond naan and daal. Before I get in a nap.

Then tomorrow we'll be off to the Fryeburg Fair. Maine doesn't have a state fair, but this is the closest thing to it, being the largest fair in the state. I haven't been in about 20 years, and David's never been. Then we'll continue north into the mountains and spend the night in Bethel, near Sunday River ski resort, which is having a fall festival, and not far from Grafton Notch State Park, which has some hiking trails with nice summit views to see the fall color.

Photos, of course, will be posted. After I get around to getting those kilt photos up.

One More Thing (Not for the Weak)

In thirteen years in practice, I have seen a lot of dogs with porcupine quills. Despite worrying about the possibility, though, I have never seen quills actually embedded in a dog's eye. Until tonight. I'm not posting this one on here because I realize that not everyone can handle eye stuff well, but you may see it on Flickr here if you are so inclined. Embiggen at your own risk.

The eye, of course, was not salvageable, but it's a surgery that I've had a lot of practice at and Tippy should do quite well with the one remaining eye. And now all she needs for Halloween is a pirate hat and eye patch.

Supposed To Be

There were supposed to be kilt photos, but when I downloaded them onto the work computer last night they were too damn dark to see any detail on the kilt. They showed off my legs nicely enough, but I'm really not enough of a hits whore to show gratuitous leg shots. When I have a chance to lighten them up in Photoshop, I'll see what I can do.

I was also supposed to be home sleeping right now, but I'm sitting here at the clinic waiting for a phone call. Rosa's condition got slowly but progressively worse after bringing her home, so David drove her up this morning so I could take her down the road to see the neurologists. Now I'm waiting to hear results of a CT scan, and there will probably be surgery involved. She's a good surgical candidate, in general, but a horrible patient, so to say this situation is worrisome would be an understatement.

UPDATE: There was no surgery. It was a tumor within the spinal cord - the worst possible scenario. Despite her pain and despite being barely able to walk, she started the day off wagging her tail and happy to go for a ride in the truck, and I decided that after almost 13 years together, that was the best note for her to go out on. David, Paula, and Wendy all drove up to say their goodbyes with me. This is the first time in 16 years that I've been dogless and it hurts horribly, but it will be okay.