Pia’s Wednesday vet visit went . . . amazingly well! She was a perfect girl, barely sang songs of her people on the half-hour drive there, issued a peep or two during our wait to get inside to get the show on the road, and silent as the hills on the way home.
She didn’t hiss once during her exam, or meow (she might have been listening to a group of kittens in the next room plaintively begging for an end to their exam), and didn’t hardly mind pokes, prods, and nail clippings. Her bloodwork came back yesterday with the same kidney values she exhibited back in 2018; slightly elevated in one kidney and no change, but they weren’t able to steal her urine for further testing because, like a mindful, proper lady, she had gone at home before the trip.
As for her teeth, nothing obvious other than tartar buildup (who doesn’t have that?), and if we want, she can go on our vet’s dental wait list which will be a Christmas cleaning, or we can go to the pet dentist that Tessa visited a few months ago and get in within a few weeks. No broken teeth, no red or swollen gums, all is okay for now.
I could have told you I was okay! But does anyone ever listen to me? NO! Of course not! Who would listen to a cat, even if I’m the most beautiful cat in the world, which I am. Geesh!
Today is Pia’s vet visit day. It’s been a long time since her last visit. To put a good spin on this day, we’re proud to finally announce Pia is now officially eating wet food like her sisters and brother. Not only will this be good for dental work and recovery that surely will be recommended for her, in the last month since picking up a taste for Fancy Feast, she’s dropped nearly half a pound in weight. No, that didn’t come from clipping her monstrous pantaloon furs (though maybe a few ounces?).
Good thoughts for her vet visit will be greatly appreciated! Of course, once we “find” where she’s hiding.
We hope that when flowering things open up, we don’t get a blast furnace heatwave that wipes everything out in a day, similarly to what seems to happen every few years now. We can only hope we’re still around to see the weather change back to the cool, sprinkle-laden Pacific Northwest summers we loved so much.
That semi-wild Lupine that threatened to overtake half of our east county is making a good comeback in its new location. Honestly, if it weren’t a bumblebee magnet (and we really like bumblebees), this probably would have found a home in our yard debris bin long ago.
Something that almost did end up in the yard debris bin is this Star Magnolia when we planted it years ago behind a different tree that grew so big and out of control, it had to be removed, which was okay because it turned out to be diseased and full of borer beetles. Since then, this Star Magnolia has really taken off and is covered in white petaled flowers for a couple of weeks. It positively glows on moonlit nights. Yes, it’s messy. Mom says that’s what a rake is for.
A few weeks ago, we posted a photo of a floofy, orange and white cat that visited our side yard feeding station. And Mom insisted there wasn’t an orange cat in the world she couldn’t make friends with.
May we present, again, Colby who Mom petted for the first time earlier this month. He’s a big cat, has a small meow, and definitely knows what a crinkly treat bag sounds like. For being an outside boy, he has soft-ish fur and looks to be fairly healthy. He likes head scritches and drinking out of our backyard fountain and Mom is very proud of him allowing her to pet him.
A week later, Colby was near our feeding station outside our garage door and when we went out to say hi, Colby took off like his tail was on fire. We’ve seen him time and time again, and Mom petted him a second time but it seems Colby is a flighty boy who can’t decide if a petting today is okay or not.
Naturally, visitor Murray continues to keep her distance, though she will follow Mom from the backyard, up the steps to the feeding stations outside our back garage door. By following, we mean keeping a good six-to-eight foot distance behind. Murray also knows what a crinkly treat bag sounds like, and means, but Murray isn’t interested in the least in dried Chicken Catnip treats. We think she just likes to hear people tell her how pretty she is.
Lastly, visitor Lloyd says he knows darn well what that treat bag is for and hopes we’ll stand out there and feed him an entire bag. He’s no dummy. Lloyd is incredibly sweet and handsome.
We’re both still hanging in there. We’re coming to realize life will continue to be lean and tough from now on and knowing we need to stick with what we have job-wise is sad more days than not.
The big hole in our living room ceiling won’t be fixed anytime soon. Six contractors later, three of whom ghosted us (never showed up when a time was scheduled) we’ve been told 1) the job is too small, 2) that one contractor would like to allow his son to learn to drywall (on our ceiling??), and 3) we’d need to keep our living room windows and back door wide open for 7-to-10 days to allow the slow mud to dry. Um, we have indoor only cats? Take ’em to a shelter to board for two weeks.
Well then. After a while, we probably won’t even notice that big ceiling hole.
