Teddy Radiator

He never lost the kitten-soft feel of his fur. When I would return from our month-long visits to the States, he would crawl into bed beside me, against my leg, and lie close for hours. He always looked like he was sporting a chocolate-milk moustache. He had freckles on his nose. He flew to the States in a plane with his buddy Mouse, and loved nothing more than roaming the woods outside our back door, and bringing us gifts of mice and voles and baby snakes.

He always had delicate health, and there were several times we thought we might lose him to strokes and urinary tract infections and intestinal problems, but he always bounced back and proved us wrong.

He was tired of fighting. Today, I told him goodbye. He's gone. My little orange boy is gone.

I've felt a little under the weather today, but I have been delighted with the reception my grangersnape100 drabble series received today. I've also tried my hand at playing a game I've been intrigued by for ages, Bioshock Infinite. It's fascinating and nerve-wracking, but I like it.

Saw Trailer 2 of Severus Snape and the Marauders. I love the guy playing Snape. He's bang on it, IMHO. All the actors are American, but their accents are pitch perfect. Looking forward to seeing the full film:



I plan on showing some photos of the Christmas festoonities soon, as well as photos from the Steampunk Library, which is now, for all intents and purposes, done. I'll leave you with photos of our boys, courtesy of TheHubs™ and a little quality PaintShopPro time:

Mouse


Sevvy and Bosco.


No cats were humiliated in the creation of these photos.

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it is already Saturday, a week later than the worst week I've had in a long time. I feel ashamed mentioning it, after all the terrible things that have happened to my dear friends here lately, because I have to much to be thankful for.

Two Fridays ago we had a torrential rain. It started before we got up (around 6am) and pretty much rained all day. Our orange cat Bosco had gone out the night before and wouldn't come in, no matter how much we called him. TheHubs® and I were up until 2am trying to get him to come in.

The next day I had to run a quick errand, and when I got back, Bosco was sitting on the front porch, which he never does. When we tried to get him to come in, we found that his back legs weren't working. We thought it might be arthritis giving him trouble from being out all night. Saturday and Sunday, he could not walk. He wouldn't eat, drink or do anything but lie around. Everytime he tried to walk, he just fell over. It was heartwrenching. I called the vet on Sunday night, and he said Bosco had in all likelihood had a stroke. He suggested we get Pedialyte and start making him drink it.

Also on Sunday, I was told at work that I would have to do two 7-hour projects in addition to the almost 40 hours I already had. As I say, this is the most full-time part-time job I've ever had. And this wasn't counting the 30 plus hours TheHubs® had to do.

We got no sleep on Monday morning. I was convinced the vet would suggest we put Bosco down, and we discussed it all night. We made one another a promise that if the vet said he was suffering, we wouldn't be selfish. It was a sad night. Both of us cried all night.

However, TheHubs® did a little research in the wee hours of Monday morning and discovered that many cats will recover from a stroke. In all likelihood, Bosco had caught and killed a rat that had been poisoned, and this had caused it. The vet confirmed this, and told us that if he was going to improve it would be in the next two weeks. He gave Bosco an injection and two prescriptions - Amoxicillen and Prednasone.

By last Friday he was walking (albeit a little wobbly), eating and drinking, weeing and pooing. He is still on meds, but last Monday the vet announced he was "proud" of Bosco's progress, and thought he would make a good recovery. Alas, he will no longer be an indoor-outdoor cat. The vet said that the next stroke might disorientate him to the point where he might not find his way back to the house. So, he's a permanent indoor cat.

I apologise if I have been so remiss this week. Poor toblass has been sending me all sorts of goodies online, and I've been making grabby hands at them and not even thanking her for them. I've been a complete numpty with irishredlass, whom I finally got around to calling after she asked me two months ago. I still owe jenidralph a phone call as well.

Another week has past, and I've just caught my breath. I don't remember being so tired. I'm heading off to bed now, to give Bosco his meds and to read a little ASOIAF, which is the best sleep aid I've ever found. I don't know what it is - I don't really find it boring, per se, but I can read two chapters of it and I'm out like a light.

Oh, before I go, I'm on the quiz_sshg this week for Lay Me Low, which thrills me to bits. The story received a lot of puzzled reviews at the beginning because of all the song lyrics, but there was method to my Muse's madness. Click on the shiny to play the quiz!!

I was recognised at our local Writer's Guild tonight. It was kinda cool, accepting my 2nd place certificate for my song. It was also an interesting little meeting, surrounded by all these writers, not one of them under 60, talking about how and what they wrote.

My Dominant friend Bri was the keynote speaker, and he gave an amazing, impassioned speech about learning to write as concisely as possible without losing the humanity of what you are writing. He spoke of school, and the months spent in the Caymans after the great hurricane wiped out the island. I heard his voice grow thick with emotion, and afterward I said to him, "You bloody Slytherin." He just smiled very smugly at me.

It was inspirational, in a way.

The Hubs was in the local supermarket buying ice (our ice maker in the shop died right after New Years and we've not been able to afford to fix it, and he ran into the owner of the restaurant across the street. When he saw what hubby was buying, he said, "I've got a huge icemaker and we have more than enough to spare. Stop buying ice and bring your cooler over here anytime you want. We have to all help each other.

I love it when these opportunities come together. I no longer call them coincidences. They happen too easily to be mere coincidence.

The Hub's kids arrive from the UK on Monday. The house still looks like a cyclone hit it. I've got a game plan on how to make it better. I just don't have any energy, and this is the house-elf's century off.

Poor Bosco, our ginger cat, has an abscess. Again. Actually, it's the same abcess the vet sutured up, and it opened back up again. We are going down the close itself naturally route, but the poor fella is so miserable, I can hardly stand it. I hate seeing him so unhappy.