OC is doing his part to distract me. As I sat in a classroom bubbling in ovals, he sat in the vet's office bubbling inside. He's been there now 4 times in the last 2 weeks. Perhaps this is why the vet took pity on me and charged me nothing at all for his services? Unfortunately, OC couldn't stay in recovery as late on a Saturday as he normally might, so he came home drippier than usual. I spent Saturday night following him around with paper towels and cleaning products. Today I resisted the urge to rent a carpet cleaner but spent hours scrubbing floors and surfaces... And Erik's ottoman? Well, let's just say we're glad tomorrow's trash day. And of course OC needed bathing (twice so far, we're hoping we're done). I posted this picture to remind myself that sometimes he's happy. Here he's hanging out in a very cat friendly place - on a roof off our deck, behind a fence, under a bush where hummingbirds rest - and probly not thinking of his asshole. One good thing about his recent troubles? He's finally been sleeping inside at night. He'd stopped doing that after Monkey arrived. Oh, and the other thing I'm grateful for? He had the good sense to stay off of the bed and the couches while in his drippy state. In fact, the loss of the ottoman is totally my fault as I put him on it post shower so he could warm up by the heater...Anyway, Erik's been distracting me, too. After I got home from picking OC up, I took Erik to the urgent care facility. He's apparently been having trouble breathing for days but didn't want to trouble me with it before my test. He's always had some trouble breathing - he has a theory that when he eats rice it can get in his lungs - but he's also an avid surfer, so I figured his issues were just more World According to Erik stuff (like how he insisted the other day that all fruit is salty, except bananas, of course... I swear, I laughed so hard that I couldn't breathe...). Turns out maybe he's got asthma or something that manifests like asthma. He's on steroids and has a sample inhaler. He goes back in a couple days to see if he needs a permanent one. At least it wasn't a collapsed lung or some sort of growth. We were hoping for something more like walking pneumonia, though.
Speaking of collapsed lungs, apparently my sister-in-law Brenda suffered one after having had surgery last week. I know, you'd think I'd keep you up to date with family members having surgery and all. I believe I would have if I wasn't so steeped in LSAT preparations. I was so dedicated to (as in obsessed with) my studies that I even skipped a birthday blog (Friday was my dear sweet Yvette's birthday and her post sits in draft mode. I believe I will have to post that belatedly or rot in hell like the bad friend I am...). Anyway, Brenda had an atrophied kidney removed. It was a pretty major surgery (took 5 hours and lots of specialists) but the growth that had supplanted her kidney is reportedly benign so that's good. And my dad says having a lung collapse after being on a chest tube isn't all that uncommon. No less scary, I'm sure, but at least not wholly unexpected. In the meanwhile her husband (my brother, Billy) and their youngest (Madisyn) suffered from pretty painful ear infections (Billy's ears even bled).
And, while we're in full disclosure mode, my Aunt Carol (my mom's only sister) had surgery recently too. She had a bit of the breast cancer (which I know is like saying you're a little bit pregnant). It was stage one, which is good, and I think her lymph nodes were fine, which is great. I believe we are still waiting to hear if she follows up with radiation and chemo or just radiation. So now I've officially got breast cancer on both sides of the family tree. Makes that recent study linking breast cancer and drinking all the more disturbing...
Anyway, on a happier note, Monkey has been distracting me just by being cute. He was so bummed being left out of all the activities yesterday that he's been extra clingy ever since. He's developing all sorts of bad habits which are cute now but will be annoying when he is bigger, such as begging for food and attacking feet. He's still difficult to photograph (nearly every shot is just a blur) but I was able to get this picture which shows his cute little mutant toes. I've taken to calling him my little pterodactyl. Anyway, he's all excited that Uncle OC is now doomed to eat only canned food for life. (I know, for most cats that's a good thing, but OC loves his crunchies...) So far I'm still just offering the Fancy Feast but I'm supposed to get him on to a low residue diet (which makes way more sense than the high fiber plan I've been resisting all year). Anyway, OC will only eat the new super fancy Fancy Feast, which I personally think they should call Fancier Feast. Unfortunately, in our house we've been calling it Farty Feast, for if Monkey gets a bit of it (as he's so determined to do), we get a whiff of it - big time.And I finally had a seal shift today, but we had no action. It's been quiet for two weeks, which makes sense since it is the off season. Even so, I had to send a girl on a transport, as we had some whale carving equipment in our possession (from the last Blue Whale that washed up in Santa Barbara) that they may be needing soon in the Bay Area. (Something is floating off shore and headed for land.) Anyway, I believe I only missed one sea lion that I would've normally worked with by taking all of September off. So I threw caution to the wind and signed up for very few shifts in October also. I just don't feel I got much of a break in September what with all the cat mourning and all. And I'm pretty sure there is more cat mourning on the horizon, depending on what the surgeon says and how this low residue plan works out. Though I'm hoping maybe OC can make it through birthday season, I recognize that I've already strung him along just to preserve my LSAT score (man, I really am going to hell, aren't I?) and I am more ready than ever just to be grateful that I gave him an extra couple of years of life.
Oh, and just so we don't end on the bleak note of euthanasia in the air, I've got a different sort of bad news. Turns out the cat I want to adopt in Mission Viejo is suffering from unexplained diarrhea and is therefore not really adoptable at this time. Though I'd still love to get my hands on that fine blend of Bombay and Siamese, I appreciate that digestive issues can be frustrating for all involved. Believe me, I know. And I'm sort of glad I don't have to make OC adjust to yet another cat in his household during what are most likely his last days... I'm hoping that maybe Bali will be better once OC is no more, but if not I'm considering looking for another polydactyl pterodactyl. Apparently they are sort of addicting.
Huh. Still ending on euthanasia. Guess that's cuz it's weighing heavily on my mind.
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