Frost this morning. Time to take in the hummingbird feeders - I hope the last of the stragglers have made it to the Gulf! I need to bring some plants indoors for the winter too.

Turkeys are back, and we've bought a bag of cracked corn and begun scattering it in the backyard. They look fat and sleek this year.

Boog's been back to the drrr, though his incontinence is fixed, he's still only peeing small amounts and therefore probably still has a urinary tract infection of some sort. He's back on the antibiotics for another ten days. The cat needs to lose weight! I've started putting out smaller amounts of dry cat food during the day, in small dishes here and there, instead of leaving one huge dish filled all the time. Once I tried "weight control" cat food, but all the skinny cats got thinner and Boog didn't lose any weight at all.

Seven seems like much less than eight cats. When there are five in one room and two in another, that's all! I really feel the difference.

Grrrl was bitten on her nose this week. She and the neighbor dogs run up and down the east fence barking and snarling at each other, and apparently one of them got hold of her. She has several scratches on her face and nose, one fairly deep. She licks it constantly, and has licked a lot of the black off her nose! I didn't know that would happen. It's very strange looking, this black nose with pink patches. Nothing I can do to keep her off it, short of tying her tongue down.

November resolution:

 
To blog more consistently - at least one all-encompassing post per week.

Beginning tomorrow.

bird-seed suet cakes II

 
What I did today (besides hem a pair of overalls, bake a pumpkin sheet cake and a pumpkin pie and two loaves of banana nut bread):

3 cups leftover grease (mostly chicken grease)
3 cups peanut butter
6 cups wheat flour
bird seed (1 empty crisco can full)

melt grease & peanut butter together
stir in flour
stir in seed
pack into molds
freeze

yield: 10 cakes

 
RIP Winston sweetie. You were much loved.



June 21 2001 - October 27, 2009

fading

 
Winston spent another night at the drrr, to get his feeding tube adjusted. He's had it 17 days now. He's home and doesn't seem to feel as well as he did when we took him in yesterday. Maybe it's just an anesthesia hangover.

Booger is halfway through his two weeks' worth of pills (twice a day), and is doing better than he was.

cattish

 
Winston's not the only one - today Boog went to the drrr, and ended up staying overnight. He's developed a "urinary incontinence" which is worrisome --with a 22-pound cat you always have to watch out for kidney failure-- besides being annoying to keep up with. Last night we gave him a bath and today I washed him twice more, and still by the time we got to the vet he stank of pee. I hope they figure out what's wrong, and are able to fix it. Boog is ten years old.

Today Winston's had the feeding tube in for a week. I wonder how long they can keep something like that in, without having to readjust it? His nose is runny, but his breathing sounds much better. The last few times at the drrr they said his lungs sounded good; the upper respiratory infection had cleared up. He's still not eating, but now he's getting "enough" via the tube to supply his daily nutrition. We've been switched to a canned catfood called a/d, since the vet ran out of the milk-liquid CliniCare. He still shows no interest in cat food, milk, tuna, salami, cream cheese... this is the cat who would wrestle th'Mr for first dibs on the cottage cheese container, and steal egg rolls off my plate!

Netflix

 
To the left, among other lists, is the list of movies I've seen this year, divided by month. If some months the list seems slimmer than others, it may be that we're watching series instead of movies. For a while I included series discs in my list, but later I decided not to.

The reason I'm even mentioning this is the song stuck in my head, my latest earworm, comes from the new series we started this week, Life on Mars. It's a bit silly --the protag isn't handling his time-travel experience at all well-- but the music is excellent.

So now, with "little Willie, will he, won't, go home! But you can't push Willie 'round, Willie won't go!" playing in my head I have a goofy smile on my face and I'm looking forward to the next installation.

Yesterday

 
I woke at 3AM when th'Mr came to bed, tossed & turned a little while and decided to get up. I can always kill an hour with Mafia Wars or Yahoo Mahjong Solitaire or even Spider Solitaire or Free Cell... anyway,

Winston was on the arm of the blue chairtrap as he'd been for most of the day (once I had taken off the too-tight bandage, but that's another story). He had been there when I went to bed around midnight, when th'Mr went to bed at 3, and when I got up and later went back to bed around 6AM.

When I woke again at 10, he wasn't there. He also wasn't on the bed or in the closet, his two other frequent hangouts of late... the kitchen window was open. Aw, crap. I looked under the woodshed & carport, by the catnip, in the pines, in the creekbed, all along the fence, under the forsythia...

Back in the house I looked everywhere I could think of, under the bed, under the beds upstairs, under couches, behind furniture, in closets, behind appliances... in the garage...

Woke up th'Mr with "I can't find Winston." Aw, crap! He got up and looked around the house, along the fence, out back, while I went next door and looked under the neighbor's house, along the creek bed...

Back inside, repeat search, this time looking up into the springs of the beds, where kittens used to hide. Under the wood stove. Nothing. It had rained most of the night and outside was cool and damp. The thermostat controlling the living room baseboard heater was off, but the one in the kitchen was cranked up to 70 for some reason... I thought the cool air from the window might have drawn him outside. Th'Mr disagreed. "I bet he's somewhere in the house." His breathing had been still loud, and while I looked I listened. Nothing.

I thought if I stopped thinking about him he'd show up. Cats are a bit psychic like that... tried to concentrate on the cross stitch I'm making for our vet, gave up after a few minutes, back outside. Searched the garage thoroughly. Searched the barn, climbing up into the loft. Walked the creek bed and crashed through briars clear to the old junk pile a quarter mile back in the woods, calling for him. Became convinced he'd wandered off to die, condemned myself for leaving the window open, consoled myself that the least we can do for them is let them control just a little of their destiny in this way. Felt bad that he wouldn't have understood that we may have the power to make him feel better, if he'd just give it some time.

Came back to the house somewhat resigned.

Th'Mr said, "Come look at this." There, on the arm of the blue chairtrap, where he'd sat for most of the previous day, sat Winston. Dry, warm, and purring, he'd not been outside.

Half a lifetime ago a man of questionable sanity told th'Mr that animals, especially deer and cats, had the ability to pop into other dimensions. If he was right it's possible that Winston had been on the arm of that chair the whole time.

Winston update

 
Monday morning (four days ago) Winston went to the drrr for a feeding tube. Wednesday morning he came home. Ideally he should have 210cc of the CliniCare daily. Yesterday we got up to 155cc total, but I think the last 30cc dose was too much too soon after a dose 2 hours earlier - he seemed uncomfortable most of the night. He took 20cc this morning without problem. Later this morning he goes back to the drrr for rebandaging & get a squirt of decongestant (DMSO) in his nose.

Winston

 
Winston made another trip to the vet today. Since a week ago Monday he's lost another pound, down to ten and a half. Monday (three days ago) he stopped eating, and since then we've been force-feeding him baby food with the syringe he takes his vitamins with. Dr. Derrickson gave us some high-calorie milk to blend with regular cat food, a new antibiotic to take once a day, and a decongestant to take as needed. Plus Winston got another shot. He's actually been taking the syringe (of food) pretty well, once we figured out the best way to do it: th'Mr holds him, holds his feet still, while I get his mouth open and squirt, aiming for the roof of his mouth, so not to choke him.

Early this morning, four-ish, he scared me. His ragged breathing woke me up, and when I petted him he felt so thin and so cold I thought for sure I'd be at the vet's with him when they opened. After checking on him several times I gave up on more sleep, got up, and went to the chairtrap with him where after a while we both dozed.

When we got up he seemed better, warmer, and somehow not as thin, though I know he hasn't eaten anything besides what I've squirted into his mouth. Just like when he and Raleigh (and Cuz, RIP Cuzzie) were kittens and couldn't smell anything.

Later today we worked wood, and he followed us out to the woodpile and hung out, and wanted to be petted. Then late afternoon we went to the vet, and now it's late at night and he's had his squirt of food and his drugs.

Dr. Derrickson said if he doesn't start eating on his own again in a couple days he'll have to be admitted and get a feeding tube till he gains some weight.

Feline Leukemia sucks! This is all so heartbreaking.