Updates and Things

The prednisolone is enhancing her appetite so I also stopped the Mirataz. She’s eating well. I was encouraged that this morning she started purring when I picked her up in the bathroom to say good morning, and that’s the first time I’ve heard a real purr from her in over a week.

When I gave Lucy palliative care 16 years ago, I put my little Polish amber heart pendant around her neck on a piece of elastic cord. I’m not sure it had any effect as I never really developed any proficiency in gem healing, but no fluids ever returned to her chest in three months. I’ve kept that hanging on the lamp in my bedroom all these years. I was moved to put that on Mewsette yesterday, though I’m not sure why except that Lucy’s spirit combined with all four of them the day they came here; she had died 19 days earlier and seemed to wait. I’m sure Lucy will welcome her when the time comes but perhaps she will help her survive her longer, as Lucy did.

It seems today she’s gotten the better of the URI and she’s still weak but a lot more mobile. Until now she was keeping herself in the kitchen, usually on the rug in front of the sink, sometimes on the cabinet in the middle of the kitchen. I would occasionally carry her to my office if I was working at my desk, but she didn’t want to stay, she felt safer in the kitchen.

Today I worked at my computer in the morning and carried her in to the little self-warming bed on my desk. She curled up and stayed. In time Mr. Sunshine showed up and wanted to give her energy but was a little too energetic with kneading all around and on her, so I tempered him a bit. He settled down next to her and soon they were breathing in unison. Giuseppe showed up and settled on her other side, both of them giving brotherly comfort. They slept like that for a couple of hours.

At one point I was hungry but had cats all over me, and I didn’t want to disturb the three of them napping there. I keep some snacks at my desk so I grabbed a handful of Cheez-its. That woke Mewsette up because she loves Cheez-its as much as I do, and she sat up and looked at me. I couldn’t pass it up and gave her a few pieces of crackers. As I mentioned, returning to their own normal behavior is truly a sign of healing.

After breakfast she napped for hours on the cabinet, then I suddenly heard something hit the floor—she had jumped down from the table and landed awkwardly, I was afraid she’d hurt herself but she was in the act of getting back on her feet and headed into the office with the rest of us, looking up at all the surfaces to see what was available. I put her on the table with Bean, but she moved over onto one of the containers of goods and made Mr. Sunshine move over, so he left it to her. She napped for several hours. Things can be difficult to read, but returning to typical behavior and generally being more social is always a good sign.

I’m happy with her progress. It’s not a place she could stay at forever, but it’s good for now. She needs to gain a lot of muscle back before she’s strong enough to get through the day and her body functions normally, and she can regenerate the red blood cells to have normal, healthy blood.

I will always wonder if I should have started her on prednisolone on May 2 when Dr. Goodell and I discussed it. She gave me that option, but there was still a chance that whatever was happening would not respond to steroids, and just the presence of the steroids would skew her ultrasound results. In hindsight it would have been the best choice, but I think we can still get to a good place.

Mimi and her siblings are treating her gently, cuddling, bathing, giving her energy and comfort. Bella has been very attentive to her while Basil is more concerned with food and attention for himself. Hamlet and Sienna aren’t reacting much at all that I can see, but Mariposa is upset and a little afraid of Mewsette. She had tiptoed up to Mewsette sleeping on the rug in the kitchen and sniffed at her, then hurried away. She was up on the cabinet with a group and encountered Mewsette and hissed at her then left with really big eyes. I carried Mewsette here and there and approached Mariposa to pet her while holding Mewsette. She stared with big eyes at Mewsette, but took the pets. Now it seems like she’s adjusting. I’m sure Mariposa saw a good bit of suffering and death in her colony and she may have thought those days were behind her now. But I think she’ll find a way to accept this sort of things. She is a wise and sensitive kitty.

It’s time for Jelly Bean to have his turn at this. He’s going to our veterinarian on Monday. And in last week’s post I mentioned the ultrasound for Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe’s fun trip to emergency in May to find he has hypertension too.

In the meantime, here are some of her adventures and others’ too in the past few days with my posts from Instagram and some I’d sent to friends.

From last Thursday through Sunday Denise and her husband were away so I was feeding Mork and Mindy indoors and her colony outdoors twice each day, plus I had a last-minute design project that was bigger than I or the customer realized and took me all weekend because I’d pushed it off last week working with Mewsette. Then on Sunday…

Dogapalooza Carnegie!

It’s a beautiful breezy day in Carnegie Park at Dogapalooza! I’m here with my Custom Pet Memorial votives, custom and standard Memorial Garden flags, and Custom portraits until 2:00.

Mewsette was feeling well this morning and everyone else was a little confused that I was leaving the house.

Thank goodness for my neighbor who helped me with my flat tire, and I’ll have to deal with it again later on today and get it fixed tomorrow but it’s just how things go.

(The tire was flat when the event was finished and when AAA tried to inflate it the valve stem popped out. On Monday, surprise! I had to have that tire and another that were running low replaced. Thank goodness I’d had some sales and a donation from a friend, but $468 was not an amount I had planned on spending on tires, that was actually for my utilities. As always at this point, any donations would be greatly appreciated…see below).

June 1

Girls are considering adding a carpet to their backyard. This particular carpet was pre-owned by at least one cat.

They don’t need to know I pulled it off the curb on trash night. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it because it’s too big for any room in my house. But aside from needing a good sweeping it’s in perfect shape.

The decision on the carpet as a backyard item is on hold while they sleep on it, literally.

Later…

All the grackles in all the trees are yelling CAT! CAT! CAT! while Mewsette is unimpressed lounging on the rug, and Mimi rubs her face all over HER steps leading to HER deck in HER backyard.

Enjoying some happy moments while we have them.

Vanilla ice cream is imminent.

It’s a hot day, we all need to cool off. Maybe one neat thing about being sick is all the treats you get.

June 2

I think they slept on it and this morning they’re getting to like this. I guess even for cats having a nice rug in your living room is a thing. Really wish I had the space for it inside. I don’t even have any space to store it. Let’s see how fast it gets rolled up and stuffed under my deck. (That’s where it is now.)

Snow Peas

Those 60 days seemed like forever, from the beginning of April to the beginning of June, but so worth the wait for the first sweet, fresh snow peas, more to follow, and even still blossoming, photos first, then picking and eating.

Mimi and Mewsette and I go out into the garden first thing every morning and find what’s happening. It’s a beautiful way to start the day.

Welcome June! A little sampler of what’s blooming in the yard right now. Mimi apparently had better things to do than pose as are welcome cat.

June 3

I don’t even bother steaming or stir-frying, they are cool and crisp and sweet. And that’s just the first batch.

Hi.

They make me think of three little foster kittens at my feet, all bright and cheerful and curious.

Fleabane.

June 4

The girls are trying out our new deck rug. These girls in their need for rugs wherever they go. Or is it actually the human who keeps bringing them home? Whichever it is, the girls are game for it.

June 5

I will miss this lineup when the time comes that one of them leaves, and then another. So, while I’ve been enjoying this for just about the past 15 years, I make sure I enjoy even more each time it happens now.

And I’m glad Mewsette can still join in. I have to put her up there, but then she stays and she really enjoys it.