OMG!! So amazing! I was watching this video and my kitten Versace was on the desk. She got all attentive to the screen, stood up, and arched her back with a little hop just like when she plays with Coco. She *saw* the kitten! She totally watched TV (essentially) and reacted to it! OMG! My baby is sooo smart!
No wonder I went out and got her 3 new toys, a training book, and dental care items today… LOL! BTW, she hates water and getting her teeth rubbed. Wait till I try tooth brushing! (Cat care is so much more involved than I thought...)
I should already be in the shower. But as you can see, I am not. Heh. I have to relax a bit this morning. This weekend has been brutal. So I am going to just sit and enjoy one more cup of coffee. *sips* Mmm, perfect.
So I have to admit. I am becoming Crazy Cat Guy. It’s been a sudden transition. I am so consumed by my new little baby! She sleeps in bed with me, she has a super clean box at all times, and I am always talking about her. There are now pictures every day! It makes me laugh, and worry at the same time. No one likes Crazy Cat Guy, do they? But to be fair, this is my first pet that has been *mine*. Sure we had the “family dog”. Richard and I even had a hamster for a bit. Of course there have always been Coco and Chanel, Richard’s cats with us. Not the same. This is *my* baby. I picked her, well I think she picked me, but either way I think you get the idea. She’s my special girl!
November is always a tough month for me. Really. There’s the work thing that drives me insane, for one. Something you may not know about me; I work in the retail industry. This means that the last two months of the year really suck. But I do little things to make it more fun (read: challenging) like introduce new house pets, which I am doing this year. Also the past 2 years I have participated in NaBloPoMo. It’s just like that book writing thing, except we aren’t writers. We’re bloggers. So we blog for a month. Heheh.
Last year I convinced Brian to join in with me. You know Brian, right? Super internet celeb from the Cheap Blue Guitar? Him. So that was fun. Look at this post. Don’t you just feel the fun? So anyhoo, I do have a point here. Let me remember it…
Oh yeah!
So this morning I woke up to this:
it’s november! it’s national write your ass off on your blog month.
i triple dawg dare you to do it this month… with me!
Dude. There was a time where that’d been unheard of. What the hell?
Well, lately there has been a bit going on. I just recently discovered that I have used up all my weekends off till 2009. It’s a matter of a few weeks until the 6-day work weeks begin. Oy. Kill me now, right?
On another topic, we are recovered enough from Chanel’s passing to begin considering another cat. That decision has been put upon me, which makes sense since our 2 cats were Richard’s and were “in the picture” as it were, before me. Heh. So I have decided that I want, no, I need a Siamese. However I do not want a rescue cat or mixed Siamese domestic. I want the real deal. A modern Siamese purebred. A cat that is intelligent, social, and might just learn to talk. A cat descended from royalty. Not show-quality tho. I am not rich, as much as I wish to be every day. So a traditional Siamese is not out of the question.
Is it wrong? Am I selfish? Why not a shelter cat adoption? Well, because I am not a 12 year old looking for my first pet. I am a grown man and will have this cat, if all goes well, for 20 years. I’ll be over 50 when it passes. Hell, it could outlive me! I’d better be happy with it. To be perfectly frank, I am taking a risk getting a pet at all. It could just bond with Richard and hate me. Why get a cat that is less than what I want and resent it all the more because it hates me? If I found a purebred rescue Siamese I’d grab it, but those just don’t exist so far. Well at least not ones born with eyelids. I can afford a cat, but not repeated surgeries from the start.
I have always been fascinated with Siamese cats. I would love having one around, and if it loves me back? All the better. Either way it’ll give me joy just being Siamese. So I have started looking, rather unsuccessfully, for my new cat. You’d think you could just go online and look for a new cat and buy one later that day. Not so much. There is waiting. There are no kittens. They really cost just too much in today’s economy. Like $350! Imagine! But I am a man on a mission. The cost is justified by the end. My dream pet. So I search. And whine, and moan. I can picture the little guy I want it so bad. How I afford it if I do have to go with the 350 model, I do not know.
In the meantime, I do feel bad about the cats needing homes. I feel worse when folks point out the mixed siamese adopt-a-cat areas on sites. I get that there are needy cats. I have been down that road. However, this is something I have always wanted. This is my chance, since there is “room at the inn”.
It was very early Monday morning. One or so when Richard woke me up. I had gone to bed as I had an early start at work… He was sobbing, and told me he was going to take Chanel to the vet. He said he had to take him, even though he thought it was too late, or something like that. He was difficult to understand as he rushed out of the room. I called work and left a voicemail that I’d probably be late or missing that day and tried to go back to sleep. I woke again at 6:30 and found Richard sleeping on the couch. He was a mess and clearly hadn’t slept at all. I tried to call work again to confirm that I would not be in. There was no answer. Oh well. I had already left a message. I got Richard to come up to bed and stayed there with him as he sobbed for a while. I had no idea at this point whether the cat had made it or not. After a while Richard slept a bit. But not for long. He was up again at 8. He was checking on Chanel, who was very sick but more stable. There were expensive tests to be done to figure out what was wrong. Each one was a major decision. He cried. A lot.
I finally got a hold of a real person at 8:15 to be sure work was not expecting me. I stayed with Richard all day. Sometimes holding him. Sometimes just sitting there with him as he stared at the wall. Chanel has been with Richard longer than me! The little cat was 13 years old and has been through a lot. He has always had health issues but we managed them. He was leading a pretty normal life, and was in great shape before this latest illness set in. In fact he behaved like a big kitten the last few years, since he could run and jump and play when for many years he couldn’t.
Anyway, he was to have an ultrasound in the afternoon. After that we were told we could visit, which we did. The doctor spoke to us first to discuss more tests beyond the ultrasound to find out what was going on. The ultrasound had been pretty inconclusive. After more tears (from both of us now) Richard agreed. After a bit we were able to see him. He was very sleepy from the sedatives but definitely feeling and looking more like himself. He had been severely dehydrated and after some time on the IV he appeared more normal. He recognized us and purred and head-butted Richard as best he could. He even wanted to jump off the table! We were hopeful as we left the hospital.
At about 11 last night Richard’s phone rang. My heart sunk. I heard only half of the conversation, but knew it was time to go. I gathered my wallet and keys. Richard was already waiting at the car. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing. First, I was surprised at how emotional I was. Then to see the man I love in so much pain… He hugged his cat and sobbed as they helped him along. His body was shutting down, and it was best that he be allowed to ‘go to sleep’. Richard’s cries tore my heart out.
When it was done they gave us a few minutes with him. I could plainly see that Chanel was gone. As I held onto my crushed man I reached over and covered Chanel with the blanket they had brought in. Richard cried out louder.
After a bit Richard was ready to go. I had to get him home. I went out to see what if anything they needed from us. They said we were clear to leave. As we passed through the waiting room there was an older couple. I will never forget the sympathetic pained look on the old woman as she watched Richard and clutched her husband. It was like she felt his pain.
Once at home we both cried on and off until we were able to sleep.
At least I don’t think so… The filter on the fish tank died at 11 o’clock tonight. No way to replace it at this hour. Hundreds of dollars worth of fish with lives in the balance. I have time to go get a filter tomorrow morning assuming there are fish to save, but I don’t have time to set it up. I will have to be very very late. Then there is the cycling of a filter. If I can’t reuse enough of the components with good bacteria living on them the tank good essentially become a deathtrap as the biological filtration chemistry starts over. The last time we got a new filter I think we did 50 percent water changes (40 gallons) every hour for a full day to keep the water livable… It was awful and so many fish died. The water becomes poisonous and they suffocate. They try to jump out before they die.
And I get to deal with potentially any combination of the above possibilities tomorrow before work. Joy.
UPDATE: No one died, the new filter is bought and up and running. I’ll test the water in a bit to see if there is any bad stuff happening.... so far so good!
I was working on the fish tank when I heard something fall. I stopped what I was doing. One of the cats, Chanel, looked startled. I thought in that second that maybe the cats were playing. They do that. But the sound continued and Chanel was in front of me. I went up the stairs. What could they have knocked down? I turned the corner and there was Coco. I thought he was dying. He was at the foot of the stairs. His legs were all akimbo. He was rolling his head oddly and kept pressing his forehead into the bottom step. I was freaking out. I spoke his name calmly and put my hand out. He let me pet him and slowly steadied himself.
He wasn’t dying. He was dizzy. He had fallen down the stairs.
Now that I know he’s alright, nothing broken or anything, it’s kinda funny. What the hell? How did a cat fall down the stairs??? Should I worry? He is getting older…
Celebrate! There were no further casualties. A miracle I tell you! But I still went to the pet store and stocked up on the chemicals. And to be safe poured a half a bottle in the tank. Just in case my bacteria levels were still off. I’d like everyone living in there to stay alive thanks.
Big drama here kids. Drama with the fish tank. None of it is anyone’s fault.
Richard decided to do a big water change. Great! Except that he also decided that the filter had to be done immediately as well. Now normally we space those two chores out. Not because they both suck, which they do. We space then out for the safety of the fish. A big water change can stir up a lot of dormant pollutants. The filter has bacteria in it to deal with said pollutants. If you clean the filter you weaken the bacteria inside, so doing both on the same day can potentially harm your fish if the tank is dirty. Ours apparently was, and worse than we thought. We are on schedule with the chores, as both get done once per month. However, a fair amount of plants died while we were on vacation. Since we weren’t home picking out the leaves and such the filter was filthy and a bit clogged. This made the tank extra filthy. We hadn’t noticed. You see, the water chemistry had balanced out to the dirty conditions, and sustained life (although we have lost two fish since we’ve been back). We just destroyed that balance and now the water chemistry is out of control. Sort of like a brand new tank that you aren’t supposed to put live fish in. Richard has now done two consecutive 25% water changes. That amounts to roughly 50 gallons emptied and then replaced 5 gallons at a time. Yikes! That’s a workout! But the hope is to dilute the bad bacteria while the good bacteria re-establishes itself.
To make it all worse, there are two chemical products on the market to save you in just such an emergency that will rapidly eliminate the bad stuff in your water. We always have these on hand. Always. Except for right now. We have neither. I really wish we hadn’t put off that trip to the pet store. There really should be a 24 hour pet supply. I am surprised that there isn’t actually.
Anyway, even if this all makes no sense to you, please cross your fingers that the fish are alive when we wake up in the morning.
UPDATE: No one died, the new filter is bought and up and running. I’ll test the water in a bit to see if there is any bad stuff happening.... so far so good!
relieved 
