All Kinds of Things!

Lots of things happening here between Sunday and today -er, tonight and early this morning, perhaps I should say.

Where to begin? This is going to be more than my usual "hop-scotching" all over the place by the looks of things but I'll try to keep things in some kind of order -if that's at all possible.

First - yesterday, my SIL decided that the cats needed bathed. I don't really know why he decided it was necessary -he does that every now and again, goes off on tangents about bathing the cats. Sometimes, I think he likes to do it because it gives up an upper hand with both of them for a while or maybe because he knows they both hate it, he loves to torment them that way. But anyway, he did Nina -the orange cat first -and she came out of the bathroom looking none the worse for wear. But Gracie - the old cat - I was really frightened when she came out of the bathroom. Gracie is our "baby" ya know - a beautiful cat she always was but age is taking a big toll on her -in her appearance as well as her physical condition -and mental too, we fear.

Anyway, when Gracie came into the living room, she was really, really wobbly - weak-knees is about the best I can think of to describe her. I was afraid maybe she'd had a stroke or something that her balance was all discombobulated. Then, she stood up with her front paws on the radiator - a place she often likes to use as a spot to recline - but it was obvious she was unable to hop up there on her own. Mandy went and got a towel, folded it and put it on the radiator and I lifted her up there, trying to help her to lay down. In doing so, I was shocked to feel how skinny she is now too. She's always been difficult to tell if she's lost weight or anything because of her fur -she's been our big old "puffball" cat you see -and that always made her look heavier than she really was. But now, well I know she's old (16 years last fall), senility factors creeping in (forgets to use her litter box) and had to have a tumor removed from her jaw late last summer/early fall which we decided not to go the distance to have it tested to see what it was because Mandy was just afraid it would show cancer or something. So while I wasn't surprised she was thinner, I was surprised she was a scrawny as she is now -just skin and bones, fur doesn't fluff up like it used to either - a myriad of problems. We're thinking perhaps we should have her put down but she doesn't appear to be in pain or anything - and well, the thought of saying goodbye to her after so many years of having her, such a beautiful cat, a nice cat too, especially easy with the kids -with all three of the grandkids -well, you can I think understand our concerns with our poor old baby Gracie.

Moving on now a bit -yesterday afternoon/evening Mandy went to State College with one of her good friends to visit her friend's sister in the hospital there. The sister had just had her third baby - third boy too -Saturday morning, so Mandy went along for the ride and to see the new baby, etc. She had called home about 6:30 or so to check in and while I was talking to her on the phone, the SIL had just come into the house and knowing I was talking to Mandy, he asked me to ask her if she wanted another cat? Say What? That's what went through my brain first and then I practically yelled at him "NO! I am not asking her that!" She wanted to know what I was talking about but I blew her off. But after hanging up, I told him not to EVER ask her if she wants another cat because knowing her, what a cat lover she is, she would take that as license to be hauling every Tom, Dick and Mary cat she came across that appealed to her then and we really don't need any more animals - unless she and SIL would relent and allow me to drag home a puppy maybe. Yeah -also something we don't NEED but that doesn't keep me from wanting one all the same!

Now -I'm going to cycle away from the current time for a moment to tell you a story about something my kids did to me back in the late 80's.

I was on a "cleaning kick" this day (something that was in and of itself, a bit of a rarity for me) and was trying to clean my bedroom. I'd done the kids rooms already and had moved some furniture into the hallway and into my son's room and in passing out of his room, I noticed this cat we had at that time, laying on a straight-back chair there, sleeping. No big deal though - that cat was always sleeping. Back to my room I went, started moving something else around and I glanced up and there was that cat laying on my bed, sleeping. Now how the heck did that cat get from Clate's room -from the chair -over to my room and curled up on my bed, sleeping away without brushing up against me in doing so. I glanced back to his room and there was the cat still sleeping on the chair so my head swivels around to look at my bed again and damned if the cat wasn't there too. WTF? Yeah, it was one of those kind of moments. Then I figured it out -we now had two cats in the house that looked exactly alike but when had they smuggled this other cat in? I called the older daughter at her workplace and told her about this mystery cat here. She completely broke up laughing and then explained to me that she knew the "new" cat was in the house and had been here for over two weeks by the time I discovered its presence. Ok, I'm not always really observant, usually not always that wide awake plus, I don't wear glasses for nothing either as I am pretty much almost as blind as a bat as well! You will see later in this post how this story "fits" with today's post.

Fast forward now to Monday morning. Mandy had taken Kate to the foot doctor so when Maya woke up, she was upset because it was me, not her Mommy coming to take her downstairs. This made for a bit of crying and whining for a while early on but then she finally calmed and quieted down. My son came down to have coffee with me and I was showing him the recent pictures we had done last Thursday at Sears from my file on the computer. We were talking back and forth about the pictures as well as our current "blog mystery" and his stalker too. Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen Maya leave the living room, heard her go into the bathroom but initially, I didn't think any more of it until it seemed to be an inordinately long period of time - of extra quiet too -that she'd been in there. Okay, every parent reading this knows quiet with kids spells trouble with a capital T, doesn't it? I got up to investigate and when I walked into the bathroom, there sat Maya on the floor in front of a small plastic chest-type thing (has about 6 drawers to it) that she keeps all kinds of little doo-dads in the drawers and on the top, it holds a myriad of things from hair sprays, to perfume, to lotions and baby powder but the baby powder container was on the floor beside Maya. She had a Q-tip in her hand and was drawing little wave type designs on the floor in a thick covering of good old baby powder! Lovely! Not! I called Clate to come and see the present his niece had left for me and we both had a little giggle over it too as he went and got the broom and dustpan and cleaned it up for me. Thanks, Son! See there's a reason I call him my "favorite son" ya know!

Now when Maya woke up Monday morning I noticed she was very, very warm to the touch and it was obvious without even hunting for the thermometer that she was running a fever and a pretty good one too - I would have estimated it was probably at least 101 if not higher. (No, I didn't take it, just saying that from touch.) I convinced her to let me give her some cold/cough meds that Mandy has here for her and by 11:30 a.m., you could feel the temp had begun to come down. However, I also noticed she was beginning to develop more of a cough and her voice sounded scratchier than earlier as well.

Shortly before my son left, she disappeared into the kitchen and again - the dreaded silence. I got up to check on her and found she had managed to somehow find the bottle of Children's Tylynol cough/cold syrup and had "measured" some of it out too -into two -not just one, but TWO -of those little dose cups. Ok, more of the meds were actually spilled on the counter by the sink but it was the principle of what she was attempting to do - self-medicate herself! I wasn't worried though that she had overdosed or anything as I could see none of it had yet made it to her mouth. Got that mess cleaned up then!

Then, Mandy and Kate finally returned home from the doctor's visit around 2 p.m. or so. Kate's on the couch reclining and all of a sudden I see some strange movement in the room. I do a double take and realize she's holding a cat -roughly about the same size as Nina -the orange cat -and I ask where the hell that cat came from. The answer - seems the SIL had brought the cat home last night from the garage where he works part-time and where someone had dropped the cat off and he was worried about it, etc. Yes, this was the cat he had wanted me to ask Mandy about on the phone last night -if she wanted it or not! I was stunned that he had snuck the cat into the house on me cause for openers, he tends to be allergic to most cats -more so the shorthaired ones (and this one is, like Nina, a short hair.) However, this cat is sooo cute -really HE is -and I learned too that Kate had named him last night too - Jorge. (Say that with the Spanish accent there if you will, please.) Anyway, I pick this cat up and am holding him and he is snuggling up against me, purring as nice as can be and very much having made himself quite cozy and comfy already in the household.

Here then is our newest member of the family - I present "Jorge!" Isn't he cute though?


Now, moving forward here -to supper time. Maya comes and sits up at to the table and one look at her face and you can see the fever is definitely back and is in FULL Blossom too! Her cheeks and nose look like a clown's face has been painted on there with Kate's darkest shade of rouge. I have never seen Maya run a fever like this before and it scares me as I begin to worry that perhaps she has scarlet fever or scarletina and not just the head cold we thought was coming on earlier in the day. We got a little more cold medicine into her and the fever seemed to be starting to come down but by 10:30, Mandy came and told me she had called the ER and they had advised her she should bring Maya in there to be checked -which she did. Four hours later, they got back home shortly before 3 a.m. and thankfully -the cough which had become deeper, croupier and more wheezing/whooping type sound to it they said was not pneumonia although the chest x-ray had shown she did have a lot of goop in her chest, they got the fever reduced further at the hospital to 99.9 and sent her home with instructions for otc meds Mandy could pick up at Walmart and give her.

Here's Maya, on the loveseat shortly before she and Mandy left to go to the ER -and there's sweet little Jorge lying on the loveseat with her. You can't help but notice Maya's cheeks and nose and how red they were then, can you? Definitely, she was a sick little girl tonight and I'm really relieved now too that Mandy took her over to the ER to get her all checked out.



And, to add to all that, the little guy is now starting to run a fever too -developing a bit of a cough as well and his nose seems once again now to have become its on spigot-putting out a steady stream there that he gets really ticked at us when we try to wipe it away.

I just heard a slight rustling noise behind me and looked over at the loveseat -there was Jorge upon the arm, leaning over, watching Nina who was on the floor almost directly in front of him. Slowly, his paw reached down to bat at Nina and before she knew what was happening, he had hopped off the arm of the loveseat, pounced on her and they were rolling on the floor, playing together.

Now - the next step here - hopefully the income tax refund check will come really soon so Mandy can schedule a very important visit to the vet's office for Nina - maybe for Jorge too - so that we won't have to worry in the future about more gray or orange or mixed up combinations of those colors - kittens to try to find homes for in the future!

Never a dull moment -is there?