Monday, 12/13 Yeah, I know - it takes me until the middle of the month to get around to updating my diary. But I have an excuse this month - I've been dealing with one kitty illness after (and sometimes on top of) another. Everyone seems to be on the mend, but I'm still worried about Spencer - he's been on antibiotics for 5 days now, and there's only been a little improvement in the mobility of his hind end. I don't know whether that's attributable to the antibiotics, or just the expected improvement with idiopathic vestibular disease. He is such a dear, sweet lad - he's taken to crawling under the covers to sleep with me. Usually, he's up near my shoulder or snuggled into the crook of my arm, but last night he was down by my knees. I don't have to be in the bed, either, for him to crawl under the covers - he seems to enjoy the warmth there, and it's now his favorite hang-out spot. I finally finished a crocheted blanked I started last winter and put that on the bed - it's toasty warm but lightweight, and is quick to trap body heat and hold it. It only takes about 10 seconds before you start to feel warm. Maybe that's the attraction for Spence.

I quit smoking today, of necessity. I simply can't afford it. If it comes right down to the nitty gritty, I can feed the cats cheap food (9-Lives, 16 pound bags on sale) for about the cost of 2 packs of cigarettes - let's see, smoke for a day or feed the cats for a week? Not a tough decision to make. But it's not easy on me - I've been smoking for 30 years now and am about as addicted as they come. I'm already starting to have stomach cramps and the spins, and I can tell this isn't going to be fun at all. Oh well, I'll get through it. And if it's bad enough, that ought to be a good deterrent the next time I think about having "just one". Since I'm going to need to keep busy to keep from going crazy, I guess I'll clean and decorate for Christmas.

I need to stay away from the boards for a while. That troll is just too frustrating; if she were right in front of me, I'm afraid I'd be moved to violence. I'd prefer not to place myself in a situation that makes me that angry. And it seems that Mou Shat is at it again - that psycho just isn't going to let go, and is going to take every opportunity she can find to drag the whole thing back out into everyone's face. I just don't understand how she doesn't "get" that nobody is interested in hearing about it anymore! (With the exception of a couple of trolls and one really, really stupid person.)

I found out something interesting today. I can compost the alfalfa pellets I use for cat litter if I remove the feces first. Apparently the urine is not bad for the soil, just the feces. Good - so I'll flush the feces and compost the rest! I love it when I find something that works and is environmentally friendly!

Wednesday, 12/15 Lots of new stuff going on. First of all, I found a new browser I really like - Neoplanet. It optimizes my connection to my server, and I can get around a lot faster now.

Second, I got a call yesterday from Gretchen (the Vampire) at MSU asking me to bring either Tika or Fritz in today to give blood. They're doing a renal transplant this afternoon, and needed an extra unit of blood. When I got dressed and ready to go, Tika was right at my feet so she's the one who got popped into the carrier. It was a really interesting experience, and Tika was a real trooper through the whole thing. First, they tucked her into one of those bags that some folks use to clip claws. Once she was safely confined, the anesthetist started the isofluorane. Tika was purring! And then, once her "brain was asleep" she started vocalizing long drawn out "moans" that had us all in stitches. She bled nice and easy, and the whole blood gathering took only about 10 minutes. Then a little oxygen to wake her up, back in the carrier, and we were on our way home. I gave her a can of the Nutro Gourmet Classics when we got home, and she scarfed it right up. We've only been home about a half an hour, and she's back to being her little pugilistic self.

Aunt Jo has decided she wants a parakeet. She told my mom that, if she was interested in a cat, she'd love to have Tika, but she really wants a bird. So, my little boxer-girl will stay at the Zoo and continue her grumpy ways. *grins*

The third (and biggest) piece of news is that I got a call from Waverly animal hospital this morning - I have an interview with them at 11 tomorrow morning! This is very good news! I'm really hoping to get to work as soon as possible, since I'm down to raiding my change jar to buy cat food. Oh please, please, please let them offer me a salary I can live on!! It will be nice to be able to get a discount on vet care, too.

Doc called me Monday night and we had a nice long chat. I told her about Spencer, discussed his symptoms with her, and she agrees with me that it's not vestibular disorder. She said it sounds like a partial occlusion of the renal artery (saddle thrombosis) - which is the diagnosis I sort of figured out on my own - and she recommended 1/4 of a baby aspirin every 72 hours. I went to buy a bottle last night (and counted out 202 pennies to pay for it, too) and gave him his first quarter before bedtime. He seems to have more control this morning, already. We'll just have to wait and see how this works out. I stopped giving him the antibiotic, since I didn't see that it was doing any good. I've cut all the pills in half, and have started Vera on them as of last night. She's had a URI that I suspected had become a secondary bacterial infection - the discharge from her eyes and nose isn't yellow, but it's sort of reddish-brown. It might just look that way because she's so white, but she got half a pill last night and looks a lot better this morning, too. I'll just keep her on them until they're gone.

It snowed a little here, yesterday, and Penny spent an hour in the yard sniffing every little bit of the snow that stuck to the grass. It was too warm for the snow to stay for long, but it's turning cooler today and the rain is beginning to switch over to snow and we're supposed to get a couple inches of accumulation this evening and overnight. And more snow coming on Friday and Saturday. It looks like we might have a white Christmas! We had so little snow in NY last year that Penny only got to go out and play in it once, and that was after midnight because there wasn't enough accumulation prior to that. And it was all gone in the morning. I'm glad I got to see her play in the snow while she was just a young pup, but she's still enough of a puppy to have fun in it this year, too, and I'm looking forward to watching her antics. I can't wait to see what she'll do with snowballs - probably eat them. *grin*

Oh man, I'm all wound up about this interview. I'd better take some deep breaths and calm down - I don't want to come off as a raving loony!

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