nlbarber

The renovation is done, Agatha and Fish and I have settled into the new space, so I decided it's time to shake things up some. Or a lot, depending--we'll see. I'm adding a third cat to the household. I decided on this a while back, partly in the hopes that a kitten will be more of a playmate for Fish, thus removing some of the aggravation from Agatha's life. Another reason is that Agatha is getting elderly and has some problems (chief among them the kidney disease), so this is looking ahead a little, too.

I wanted a short-haired female, but what I found is a 'medium-hair' female, currently going by the name of Linka.

( When she's coming, and of the naming of cats... )

Got a call from Mary, who was meeting Jeffrey from the appliance place at my house and (I thought) was going to do the last of the punch list, too. I asked her to talk to Jeffrey about the dishwasher--it not in-frequently leaves soap residue or the whole tablet after the cycle is done.

She called to report, and said that Fish was peering out of the green cat hut/bed, which is on the Cat Room counter. I haven't seen either cat go anywhere near that bed--Fish is usually sleeping in the blue cat bed on the laundry counter, which has a window view. Guess the green cat bed stays....

( punch list stuff )

Friday the carpet people are supposed to come and measure, then Home Depot will call me and I'll make the actual purchase. So far I've just paid a fee for the measure that will all be credited to the full purchase. And Friday afternoon the granite people are to come patch the problem areas.

The verdict on Agatha's new lump (located at the top of the incision to remove the old lump--the hair is almost completely grown back now) is to wait. Check it every couple of days, bring her in if it grows noticeably bigger, and bring her back in 2-3 weeks in any case for another check.

She (the vet) says some animals just get these lumps with infections, and Agatha may be one of them. If so, we'll have to decide what to do about them--leave it, operate again and excise more tissue, or what. Of course, lumps can still turn out to be other things....so we watch.

Agatha has spent the weekend at the vet's. Saturday morning I noticed a red area next to the incision and put in a call to the vet to ask about it. An hour later when the vet called me back, she was bleeding a little along the incision.

The diagnosis is that she's been too active and this is slowing the healing. A sort of blood blister has formed at the surgery site, and that is the source of the blood that seeped out of the incision. The vet hoped that she would spend the weekend sitting in her crate (probably in the litter box), not moving around, and hopefully letting this start to heal. if necessary, they would put in a drain.

I'll call tomorrow and see how she's doing. I could crate her here, though we'd probably have some Issues: the crate that has become a permanent fixture in my study most definitely belongs to Fish.

And I leave next Sunday for Denver: non-optional work trip. Here's hoping she's substantially improved by then.

Where did the weekend go? Or more like it, why didn't I get much of the to-do list done during it? I did manage major flea-attacks, getting all the various throws, bedding, curtains, etc., washed, and appling a flea-powder/carpet cleaner to all carpets and upholstery, and vacuuming it all up. This now exhausts my house-cleaning quota for the decade: only problem is, I'll need to repeat the flea attack at least once.

Did a little in the garden as well, forced by the delivery of the pinestraw I ordered through a fund-raiser for the area high school. This might not have been the absolute cheapest way to buy pinestraw, but having 15 bales deposited in my yard without having to haul them in my car (and clean out the resulting debris) was worth it. I got 10 bales spread around various thin spots in the mulch this morning. The remaining 5 bales will wait for mulching the hosta and the impatiens beds--but those will be a while before they completely die back for the winter.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Georgia Tech football game (vs. Clemson)--a battle for the middle of the ACC, which Tech won 10-9. Not a scintillating outing by either team. I underdressed for the game, and shivered through the last 3 quarters--it wasn't really that chilly, but I didn't bring the right jacket. Should have gone in search of a souvenir stand and bought another layer at the game.

The vet called Saturday with the results of Agatha's blood work, which all seemed normal. I missed the call, but she left a message with the details. We'll proceed with the surgery for the lump on Wednesday.

I tried to find a copy of Sword of Orion, but the local Borders and B&N either say it's on the way or it's "order only". May have to resort to Amazon on that one.

What else? Oh, pumpkins! I carved my jack-o-lantern--it's another cat-themed one from a commercial pattern book. I helped with the nieces' and nephew's, as well--they ended up with a Wile E. Coyote outline implying that said coyote had just crashed into the pumpkin. I nixed the nephew's choices for various designs rated "challenging" to carve, as I wasn't up to a challenge... Pictures will follow later.

I haven't paid the bills, finished reading the paper, straightened the desk, done any of the work I brought home (though I did answer some emails on Friday), gotten to the library to pick up the books they are holding for me, or placed the order for some clothes I need from LL Bean. At least a couple of these have got to happen before bedtime!

Why, when the desk on one side of the keyboard has been cleared almost to bare wood (or wood-like substance), does this cat insist on flopping on the other side, where I must move the mouse by sticking my hand up his butt? And where he periodically moves the mouse himself, and occasionally even manages to click a button?

And he's tucked his nose against my elbow and is purring, just to defuse my thoughts of moving him.

Agatha got hauled to the vet this morning, to her distress. She has started over-grooming around the base of her tail, and as a previous episode of over-grooming lasted well over a year and at its worst had removed all the hair she could reach from one side, I wanted to catch it early.

This time the vet spotted actual signs of an allergic reaction (which she didn't show before that I recall) both where she's removing hair and under her chin. He gave her a shot of a steroid which should easy the allergic reaction for 3-5 weeks, hopefully past the time that the allergen is present. And also, hopefully, breaking her cycle of over-grooming.

In penance for taking her to the vet, I was sentenced to providing a lap for a long afternoon's worth of cat naps, and to provide head scritches on demand. She demands lots of head scritches. It was a nice way to spend a lazy Columbus Day holiday, actually.

While in Denver I did make it to a Rockies game, and it turned out to be Rockies laundry tote day. We were early, so were among the lucky 10,000 or so who got this folding tote made of wire and cloth. It folds flat to about 18"x14", and pops open to a square, sloping-sided container with cloth handles.

I unfolded it yesterday, and Fish promptly turned it on one side and decided it was a cat nest. He dragged a couple of toys into it, and played in and around it for a while before going back to other spots for the day. Then the tote migrated into the computer room today, but he remained uninterested.

A little while ago I heard Agatha growling her "leave me alone, pest!" growl, and turned around to reinforce the message for her. To my surprise, she was in the tote, and Fish was just in front, poking at her.



She left but returned later, and the cycle repeated. Fish has now taken possession, as the desirability of the tote has gone way up with Agatha's interest.

Things got busy at Thanksgiving, then there was a family funeral, and a business trip, and then the Christmas rush really kicked in. And somehow I see that my last post was in November. So...there were lots of posts I meant to make in December, and some I may yet make, but for now, I'll just try to get back in the LJ habit. And I haven't read my flist in almost as long, so I've got lots of catching up to do there as well.

But this is a devil Fish post. Sort of. Fish has really become a good bit less devilish as he's gotten older, though we're still having problems about getting on the kitchen counter. Anyway, a couple of nights ago he wandering into the study, sat on the desk, and lifted a front paw as if he was going to wash it. And then put that paw down unlicked, and picked up the other front paw. Then put it down unlicked. When he repeated this dance, I went over and sniffed said paws--bingo. He had gotten into something that left a smelly residue on the paws. He wanted it off, but wasn't willing to wash them himself. So, I carried him off to the bathroom, and with some effort (ha!), soaped and rinsed the front paws and roughly dried 'em off. Fish was then willing to finish the job.

In case whatever this substance is poisonous to cats, I want to know what it was. The smell wasn't familiar--sort of perfumey, but not really. I walked through the house and garage (Fish is allowed to go in the closed garage and explore, if it's not too cold for me to leave the door ajar) and didn't see anything that looked like a possibility. It didn't smell like anything associated with the car. His paws were dry, though that doesn't mean he didn't step in something wet or damp and let it dry before I saw it. I'm still looking...

Weekend before last was sunny and warm, and spring fever infected Fish. In the space of 3 hours, he settled in on the dining room table (forbidden surface); let himself out of the garage door while I was going in and out of the patio door working in the yard (he's not allowed outside unescorted, and usually on a harness and leash as he has no learned behaviors for dealing with cars, dogs, etc.--to be fair, after letting himself out, he came into the fenced back yard and then let himself be recaptured with no fuss); jumped repeatedly upon the kitchen counter (another forbidden surface) in an attempt to catch a horsefly that must have flown during the previous stunt; ate said horsefly in one bite when I knocked it down with a fly-swatter; and pulled down the curtains from a bedroom window.

Fish has also revived his old fun of dunking a small stuffed toy into water (usually a water dish, but he has used the toilet upon occasion) and then hauling the sodden result around the house. He usually leaves it on the hardwood floor somewhere, or else somewhere I can accidentally step on it barefoot.