Finally defunkified

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny and warm day. I got quite a bit done. Cleaned the house, finished finding all I need for my costumefor thie weekends party and then I took a nap. Todays weather has been dark, drizzly and downright crappy. As a result, I slept in way to late, which of course caused me to feel like shit for hours. Even so, I did somehow manage to drag my ass out of the house and get the last of the party shopping done.

I will be honest. I almost canceled this years party due to complete and udder apathy. This year has been so full of suck, I just found it hard to get motivated. But, then I thought, we ALL need this party. We need a blow out. A reason to shout "Fuck it!! Let's have some fun!!" Now I am really geared up and looking forward to it again. Even the cats seem to be in an extra fun mood.

Kicked in the gut

Beau went to work this morning, like he does every Monday. After he had been there for a couple of hours, he recieved an IM from his supervisor.

They closed his office.

Once again, he is without employment.

4th of the 4th

Steph over at The Incurable Insomniac tagged me for this fun little meme. Go to your 4th photo file and choose the 4th picture, post it and explain what it is. Well, I don't really have photo files, so I went to the 4th page of my mySpace page and found the 4th photo there.

This is a picture of one of my dearest friends Cteev. I believe this is his senior High School pic. Circa 1986. Cteev was one of the original "Bohemites" back in good old Ventura County California. I met Cteev in the summer of 87, "pimping" alcohol outside of a liquor store in Ventura (for those of you unfamilar with the term "pimping"..in this context, it means trying to get someone to buy alcohol for you because you are under 21) Anyway, a couple of weeks later, another friend of mine took me to the house his boyfriend was living in at the time. He was living with a family of 6, plus a few other "street urchins" Lo and behold, there was Cteev, living in the house as well. We became the tightest of friends from there on out. Even going so far as to become engaged. After we broke up, we stayed close, actually I do believe we became even closer. He was one of the loves of my life. Cteev contracted HIV in the late 90's and on October 23rd 2001, a blood clot found its way to his heart, and he lost his battle.

OMG..... it seriously just occured to me.

He died 7 years ago today.

Wow.

The perils of being a crazy cat lady

So, I have this "pride" of cats that live in the neighborhood. They are here much of the time, because being the crazy cat lady that I am, I feed them, regularly. Every morning, and in the evening when I get home from work, they are there, waiting for me. I don't want to go into how many there are, because I really don't want to see the number myself.

Anyway, last weekend, one of the mother cats (she has 4 kittens) was injured badly.(She is in the picture here, near the center of the photo, the patchwork Calico) We think the back half of her body was run over by a car. She lost the use of her back half entirely. She has been dragging herself around with her front legs only. We called the police, and an officer came to the house, he was going to help us catch her so we could take her to OSU animal hospital. Well, who knew a 2 legged cat could run so damn fast!!! Our neighbor, who feeds them on occasion as well, called Animal Control on Tuesday. Well, even they couldn't catch her. So, she has been dragging herself around like that for an entire week.

My husband, Beau, saw her this morning and called me to let me know she was in the front, dragging herself to bathe in the sunshine. I went out side about 2 hours later, and saw her lying in the grass. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the inevitability that we knew was coming. The poor little mama kitty had died. Heart broken, I found a plastic bag and a small box and lifted her from her happy sunny final resting place and put her empty vessel in the box. Now, she is happy and whole once again and chasing blue-jays under the trees in our backyard. At least, that's what I am telling myself. She was a tough little cat. Over the summer she had been attacked by a hawk and had a big chunk of the front of her neck torn out. I didn't think she would survive that. But she did, and she had 4 cute fluffy mouths to feed shortly thereafter. Her kittens, while not fully weaned, are big enough to eat dry cat food on their own. Thank goodness for that, or I would be nursing kittens around the clock. ( Oh, no, seriously, I would have done it too.) It is emotionally draining to have to clean up the debris left behind by the circle of life, but I had to be strong and take care of it. Then, I had to break the sad news to my neighbor. With tears in his 80 year old eyes, he said "Thank you , friend" I just smiled and told him to take a nap and think about her chasing those damned blue-jays." He smiled and nodded and closed his door, and I walked off with the box and came home. That was about 30 minutes ago.

Did I tell you?

We kept the little dude. We renamed him though, well the husband did. He called him "Buddy". He pretty much wriggled his way into our hearts, and found a way to stay. Even I think 4 cats is too many!! But oh well. He is a warm and welcome addition to the family and we love him very much.

Over medicated and under the weather

It's freaking nuts how many meds I take in one day now. And still, I feel like crap on a cracker.

Here's the run down

Morning

Metformin 2 tablets

Glimiperide 1 tablet

Avapro 1 tablet

Lyrica 1 tablet

Januvia 1 tablet

Prevacid 1 tablet

Fexofenadine 1 tablet

Noon

Lyrica 1 tablet

8 p.m.

Lyrica 1 tablet

Metformin 2 tablets

Crestor 1 tablet

65 u Lantus injection

***sigh***

I looked in the mirror....

.... and I'm not happy. I am bigger than I have ever been in my whole life, and I am not going to take it anymore. I put my foot down on myself. It wasn't easy. I didn't even think I could get my foot that high.

But I did.

I got apples, carrot chips, banana's and other healthy options to keep here at work.

Ever since I quit smoking, I have been filling the void with all the wrong things. Now, I have better options.

I am also planning on joining a gym that is just about 1/2 block from my home. As soon as I can afford the fee. Hopefully at the end of the month. Anyway, I have already lost about 12 lbs in the past month. Not going to say how much I need to lose. Nor will I say how much I weigh now. I will however, try to keep some kind of log as to how much I am losing. Wish me luck.

Georgestein update

The little schmoops is doing really well. He had his bandages finally removed yesterday (Thursday) and has gotten a good bill of health. Dr. Cowell wants to keep him on his antibiotics for 2 more weeks. Just to err on the side of caution. Other than that,his leg looks a bazillion times better. He is scheduled to get his butter beans removed next week, and to get all his vaccinations.

I have to admit, the little sombitch has worked his way into my heart. Damnit!! I can't have 4 cats!! ***sigh***

Our Redheaded Step Child

Meet Georgestein. This little guy showed up in our back yard about 2 months ago.

He had a collar on then,

with a little bell on it. So, he was either abandoned or somehow lost his way.

Either way, he became a fixture on our back porch eating right along side the numerous feral cats that I keep an eye on. We noticed he began limping about 2 weeks ago. We thought maybe he had gotten into a fight, or had been bitten by a dog, or something like that.


It happens, he's out side.

Well, last Saturday some neighborhood dogs got loose and were wandering the neighborhood. Georgestein decided to hike up the neighbors tree to get away from them. I did the Turkish rebel yell "kitty kitty kitty", which prompted him to come down and run to me. (He is very sweet and cuddly and loving you see, he WAS someones house cat) He ran to me and I immediately noticed that his sore paw was now dripping with blood. I called Beau to come look, and then I went to find the phone book, hoping to find some vet clinic open.

It's 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night, chances aren't good. But then, a glimmer of hope. On the outgoing message for the Perkins Vet Clinic is a message "If this is an emergency, call the OSU Vet Med teaching hospital". I called, we went.

3 hours later we brought the lucky little dude home. They didn't really do anything. I mean NOTHING!!! They looked, they gave us some pain meds and antibiotics and told us to follow up with our own vet. Follow up?? Follow up on what???

Well, now we know the Vet Emergency room in Stillwater is equally as shitty as the people Emergency Room in Stillwater.

The nurse and the vet were very nice ladies, and seemed to be genuinely concerned, but he didn't receive any treatment. The more time passes, and the more I get to thinking about it, the more pissed off I become. Anyway... I called and set up an appointment with The Cat Clinic of Stillwater. I have taken all of my cats to them. They are wonderful!!!

Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. I kept the appointment and was greeted by Dr Peakhearts always caring smile. She took his vitals and we chatted a bit about his condition and the fact that he was never supposed to have been an outside cat. Anywhoo, I left him in her capable hands and went back to work.

Dr. Cowell (The owner of the clinic) along with Jacye (Who happens to be a friend as well as a nurse who has been working for the Cat Clinic for the last 10 years) put him under heavy sedation and took a good look at his wounds. Cleaned him up well, and took some cultures.

I went back to pick him up after work and talked to Dr. Cowell. She was concerned because the culture came back with nothing to report. I mean, NO bacteria, NO organisms. Nothing.

His tissues were not necrotic as they should be with a typical wound and there were no pathogens living in the wound at all. Organisms and bacteria are everywhere. Even a healthy sample shows SOME bacteria and organisms. Strange. She also had bandaged him up and wanted me to bring him back this morning the have the bandage changed. I took him in the morning and dropped him off, chatted with Jacye for a bit and headed to work with the plan to pick him up at lunch and take him home. About 10 minutes later after I got back to work, I get a call from the desk nurse. "We have a group of kids coming today at lunch, and Dr.Cowell wants to talk to you in person, can you pick him up later?" Ummmm sure. "How about 5:00?" ok...

So I am getting ready to head back to talk to the vet now, and hopefully I will be bringing the little guy home. He is a sick little kitty and I really want to see him thrive, and then find him a good home. Sooooooo.....anyone wanna kitty???