Home For Aged Kittycats (plus video!)

(warning: cat post!)

Since we are now a two-cat household, it's been really interesting to see how the two elderly girls we have are adjusting.

Cleo, age 14, is still mischievous and a little trouble-maker (a cute one). In the past few weeks, she's also turned into a total kitten. She follows us around, meowing, always having to be right next to one of us. She is even starting to be a little bit of a lap cat, which is amazing. I've had her since she was a kitten, and although I always wished she was a snuggler, she hasn't been. Until recently. So she's kind of taking up Tiger Lily's role as lap cat.

Katie, age 16, is also doing well. She is very arthritic and has some health issues, so she stays mostly on the bed and is bed-cat. Although it's always completely on her terms, she has been very affectionate and sweet lately as well. Especially, it seems, if we are missing Tiger Lily. Then Katie comes over and gives us kitty-kisses and pets our faces with her paws. It's very sweet.

Yesterday we deep-cleaned the bedroom and washed all the bedding. This meant Katie had to be out of the bedroom (she startles easily and we were going to be moving furniture, etc.). She spent a good part of the day out here in the living room. Although she kept going (limping, creaking) back to the bedroom to see if she could go back in, she did settle down eventually and snuggled up on a blanket on the floor. And of course Cleo had to be right next to Terri on the couch. Here they all are: Cleo (black), Terri (checking email) and Katie (on the floor).

Every night before bed, they each get a few treats. It's been really funny to watch them lately, sitting on either side of Terri, begging. This isn't the best video but Cleo is clearly quite vocal about what she needs.

My Version Of A Rest Day (and a very cute visitor)

So yesterday was my first full day of vacation (Saturday I was still wrapping up chores and jobs). I thought, "Cool. Let's make it a Day Of Rest."

Of course, when you are resting, you must have something yummy to snack on, yes? So I made a pan of Apricot Bars. These things are amazing. There is a reason I only make them once or twice a year. Serious oatmeal-brown-sugar-apricot goodness.

Then I read for a bit. Then I went to the library. Oh, and to the drugstore and the grocery store. But only to get ingredients for my fabulous dinner experiment (trying to teach myself how to cook passable Indian food).

I got home from my (enjoyable, it must be added) errands and decided to do my sewing project. Last winter our living room was so cold. So I thought this year that we ought to have big snuggly down comforters to curl up in, and we could use them as either guest bedding or extra covers on our bed for when it got really cold.

So I bought inexpensive down comforters from IKEA (at $30 each, you really can't beat it) and decided to use one of the top sheets from this king set I had laying around. The bottom sheet had started to pill pretty badly, so we weren't going to use the set anymore, but the top sheet was still just fine and such a pretty color.

So I folded it sideways, trimmed and sewed and did ribbon ties for the closure, and ta-da! The best thing about using the sheet was that there was no hemming involved!! (the gorgeous quilt on the back of my chair is my double-wedding-ring quilt that my talented mother made for me. It's one of my most-prized possessions. You can see that I did not quite inherit her talent for sewing)

(it was 85+ degrees yesterday, so I pretty much thought I was crazy for working on a down comforter, but today it's in the low 60s and I'm all curled up in it as I write this, so my efforts definitely paid off)

After sewing, I remembered that I needed to finish this birthday card for Terri's dad, who grew up near the Borax factory (and did some work at the borax mines). You know, 20-Mule Team and all that? We visited the area a few years ago and it was very beautiful. So I worked on this card for awhile. Have to finish it up today. (shh! don't tell. I'm hoping he doesn't read my blog)

And what next to do except start on my dinner experiment? I had gotten an Indian cookbook from the library (660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer) and decided to make a favorite dish of ours, Aloo Gobi (curried cauliflower and potatoes). It turned out VERY well, really yummy. I also made saffron/cardamom rice to go with it.

After my day of "rest" I was totally worn out (but happy).

**

And also, Saturday we had a very cute doctor come to the house for a specialized sort of therapy.

Golden Retriever Therapy. It's very effective, you know. Cures all ills, turns frowns upside down. (see? Here he is, showing us how, with a little help from Terri's sister)

Dr. Bluto, at your service.

Better (kind of)

That was me yesterday. I am so rarely in a truly bad mood (the kind where you really can't hide it) that people at work yesterday were giving me the look. You know the one... "Ummm, I'll just... step away... and, um... hope you feel better soon..."

Today I am still sad (so sad) and still hurting and stiff (with a killer headache) but was in a better mood. I could fake it pretty well. I got stuff done. I even filed a police report. So, that's better.

I guess.

Tomorrow I have appointments all day (chiropractor, car stuff, physical therapy), so I'm taking the day off. Hopefully there will be some resting in there somewhere. Next week is more busybusybusy. Then hopefully some more resting.

Although I'm terribly sad for the reason why we can spoil Tiger Lily with abandon, it is amusing to watch her gleefully lick the cereal milk and realize, with dawning joy, that she gets to be on the bed as much as she wants.

It's All A Bit Much

Dear God:

Thanks for all the good stuff, but please cut back on the bad stuff.

Thank you,
Daphne, Terri, Katie, Cleo and Tiger Lily

So.... today I took little Tiger Lily to the vet to have a lump examined. Lumps are never good. In this case, it seems particularly not-good. There's a very strong chance that she has mammary cancer. Which is not good. Really, really not good. The growth is pretty big. I'm very worried, and deeply scared.

We'll find out in a few days (maybe tomorrow) if it's malignant or not. I'm dreading all this. It's part of being a pet owner -- part of being alive -- but it sucks.

Our little Tiger Lily is the sweetest little kitty ever. She has had her share of mishaps: being a stray kitty (luckily found by me!), falling out of a 3-story window, having numerous serious bouts with mysterious viruses (and making miraculous recoveries), etc. However, she has the sweetest spirit ever, so friendly and funny and loving. We call her The Little because she just seems like a little baby, so innocent and curious and needing to be loved and snuggled all the time.

I can't imagine life without her. We have just been sitting in bed crying, praying for... we don't know what. For a benign tumor, of course. That her life continues to be sweet and full of love, no matter what. She isn't acting sick right now -- is eating fine, etc., so I'm hopeful that this means she'll have a good quality of life for however long, in any case.

I just feel like: come on. Terri has a chronic illness (she's doing a little better, by the way -- yay!), Katie has chronic renal failure (which is, miraculously, stable so far -- so we are very lucky), Cleo is getting older (she's at least 13 or 14 by now) and now this.

It's all a bit much.

I'm really glad I've been on vacation the last few days. I'm more rested and feeling better. I know I have to take really good care of myself. I'm not quite sure what else I need to do. We just bought a copy of Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart, so I think I'll be reading that. Terri also mentioned church again... I'm really not very churchy, but I could use some spiritual guidance and community support, so I'm all for it.

In the meantime, no more sad books for me. Lots of rest and fruits and veggies. Lots and lots of kitty snuggles.

Here's Miss Little doing what she does best: stealing someone else's dinner (in this case, Thanksgiving stuffing)

Good thoughts would be welcomed. Thanks, everyone. I'll post updates as we get them.

Furry Bellies Are Sometimes Helpful

Ok, is this the ultimate in 'furry belly' or what? This pose always cracks me up. Cleo, you are not very ladylike.

Furry bellies (the small, round, fluffy snuggly ones) can be helpful when you are stressed. I can barely pull myself away from the furry puppy bellies, whom I have named Chubbles and Snuggles. One is chubby, one is snuggly (well, they're both pretty snuggly). Seemed to make sense. Tiger Lily with her extremely chubby belly makes me feel comforted and loved. Katie with her huggable belly makes it easier to go to sleep.

And Cleo. Well, she keeps us snickering. She is quite a clown.

This weekend is the Major Purge. This includes books. If anyone has any ideas for quickly getting rid of massive amounts of books (including many paperbacks) -- preferably either some kind of quick-sell or trade -- let me know. We're having a garage sale on December 6th and hopefully they will go quickly. Am also looking into paperbackswap.com, but that seems sort of complicated, especially since we need to get RID of books right now and can't hold onto them to wait for someone to order one, you see? May also take a big pile of good sellers (cookbooks, etc.) to a local used book store.

I'm having to resist the urge to just call the Salvation Army to come pick up everything. We'd like to sell as much as we can because we have to replace so much furniture.

But it's seriously tempting to have it just be GONE.

I can't wait for this move to be done. It's going to be a huge pain. But with hopefully lots of gain!

It's True

...puppies make everything better.

I just got back from checking on the little 4-week-old puppies. Oh my goodness. They are adorable little bundles of wiggly puppy joy.

I think a twice-a-day dose of puppy love is exactly what I need. I'm not sure I'll be able to leave them when my puppy-sitting stint is over. One of them might happen to fall into my purse and come home with me.

Will Waddle For Food

No, not me (yet). We're still figuring out all the joys of the Flip video camera. Last night Terri caught this nightly ritual, called Tiger Lily Wants Dry Food. She only gets a little bit in the evenings (because she is on a diet). She is a very tiny, very cute kitty, with a very large belly. I know there are 1001 cat videos out there, but Tiger Lily's desperate waddle is pretty funny. As is her delighted 'whirring' noise she makes when she realizes the food is coming.

I threatened cat videos. Here's the first of hopefully not too many:

Meet My New Nephew

...of the feline variety. Young Master Oliver James Cat. Isn't he adorable?

This little guy found his way to my soft-hearted brother's house, waking him up by crying under his porch one morning last week. As my vet said, it's pretty hard to resist a kitten. Especially a desperate one.

Cats just find their way into your life. Sometimes you go looking for them, but often they find you. We have three of these little creatures, each with their own story.

Katie, the eldest, is Terri's baby. Katie was abandoned by her mother as she was transporting kittens across a playground. She got dropped and left behind. Terri has handraised her from 4 days old. She wasn't expected to make it, she was so young. However, she has thrived under Terri's excellent care. Because she was abandoned so young, she has some personality quirks. She can be a little hot-and-cold, you might say. However, once she accepts you, she is the sweetest girl in the world and has a way of wrapping you around her little paw. Katie rules the roost. The entire king-size bed is Katie's territory and she chooses whether any of us (humans included) are allowed on the bed at any given time. She 'chirps' at us when it's time for bed, and will sleep nose-to-nose with Terri which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Cleo is the middle "child" and an adorable troublemaker. I got her from the humane society when she was just a little fluffy kitten. I'd had family cats all my life but she was the first cat that was all mine. I got her while I was in college and she has always been a persnickety princess. Now, in her later years (she's about 13 or so), she has become a prankster. She steals food, runs around with kitty-crazies (literally climbing the walls), bats at the other cats, causes things to fall down... generally creating chaos whenever she can, earning herself an occasional nickname of Loki. She is the only one of the three who I suspect deliberately causes trouble. She also has a very special relationship with her water fountain. She MUST visit it several times a day and speaks to it in her own language. We think perhaps she is consulting the water oracle.

Tiger Lily (otherwise known as "Little") is the baby of the family. I found her six or seven years ago under the apartment building I lived in at the time. From three stories up, I could hear her crying desperately. There was simply no question that I had to take this kitty in, and in the way of most foundlings, she has rewarded me with amazing amounts of love. Miss Tiger Little is just about the sweetest cat on record -- there is no way you can not love this kitty. She is also, perhaps, not the brightest bulb in the box. Her favorite things include my lap, warm laundry, dry cat food, and talking to the kitty who lives in the oven (her reflection). Perhaps because of her desperate straits when I found her, she is a bit of a food addict, and will paw things directly off plates if not watched closely. She has very small paws and a tiny head, and a very round belly. She also has a heartbreaking habit of meowing pitiously when she 'can't find us' -- for instance, if we are all in the bedroom and she is in the livingroom next door. She breaks and warms my heart simulataneously every day.

Those are our girls. Troublemakers and angels, each in their own turn. It's a cliche, but our lives would be so much poorer without them. Why is it that when you are feeling sad or bad, a pet can make you laugh and feel better even when the most well-meaning human can't? I used to do pet therapy and it was amazing to watch people who hadn't spoken in days or weeks start to pet and talk to the kittens I brought to nursing homes. Someday I would love to have a dog that could do pet therapy. Our girls are a bit too squirmy for it.

Let's just pray that no little fuzzies show up on our doorstep anytime soon. Three makes a very full (but happy) household.