Pets – Page 97

A Night Without Scout

Scout suddenly started feeling ill a few days ago so we took her into the vet. Of the possible causes our initial hope was hyperthyroidism, as there is not only medicine to treat it but even a cure, but the problem turned out to be anemia from an unknown cause. She was transferred to a clinic with more diagnostic equipment and underwent a battery of tests yesterday that didn’t reveal the cause, but no red flags either, and at least she seemed stable.

She spent the night there and took a turn for the worse this morning when the oxygen levels in her blood dropped to dangerous levels. She’s getting a blood transfusion now to try and stabilize her, and then more tests this afternoon once she’s stable. The doctor gave 50/50 odds it will be treatable, but it’s hard to say until we know the cause. It’s pretty serious and I’ve been a wreck the past few days, but hope to know a little more this afternoon.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Sam looks down from atop the landing at the top of the stairs.

Birdwatcher

One of my favorite pictures of Emma, she was watching the scrub jays and flickers and hummingbirds that are regular visitors to our wildflower garden. She spends more time watching the garden than the rest of the household combined. While redecorating my office I tried to figure out a way for me to sit there instead, but access to the closet behind her was a sticking point I couldn’t get past. The cat tree fits in that space quite nicely though.

Besides, how could I deprive her of her favorite non-string related activity?

Cat Signal

Like Batman, I can be summoned with a signal cast upon the heavens. He with a silhouette of a bat, I with cat ears. He to fight criminal masterminds, I to evict trespassers in Scout’s bed.

We all have our roles to play.

Suddenly Salmonny Sam

Sam and Emma get a serving of Tiki Cat wet food in the mornings. We’ve alternated flavors over the years, sometimes even getting a variety pack where they get a new flavor every couple of days. That was all good and well but now they’re hooked on Wild Salmon and won’t touch anything else. Emma I can kind of understand, she’s always been a bit picky, but little Samwise was a surprise as he’ll eat anything that isn’t a vegetable.

If they ever discontinue Wild Salmon, may God have mercy on our souls.

Even a Dog Likes To Be Comfortable

I don’t normally pose my pet pictures but I must confess to draping the blanket across Ellie for this shot. I would have preferred that she be asleep but it was a hot day so I only left the blanket on for a few seconds. The pillow, though, she sought that out on her own.

Comfort

We bought this Kivik loveseat from Ikea for one sole purpose: to give our sixty-five pound lapdog a place in my office to snuggle. We weren’t exactly looking for heirloom furniture given the abuse of paw and claw it will endure, and also went for comfort over style.

I’d say we chose wisely, wouldn’t you, Ellie? Ellie? Ellie?

I’m sure she’ll get back to us.

The Comforter Has Come

Sam lay beside me on the loveseat, too agitated by the 4th of July fireworks to sleep. Scout came in but walked past her normal spot in my lap or her cat bed and instead lay down beside him. Sam immediately curled into a ball and fell into a deep sleep, safe and secure in his sister’s shadow. Sleep wouldn’t come so easily for Scout, but hours later exhaustion took hold and she too fell asleep.

Soon sleep beckoned me as well and I walked to the bedroom with the darkness murmuring at my feet. The murmurs jumped onto the bed as I approached and I eased myself under the covers so as not to crush them. As Sam and Scout curled up on me the murmurs turned to purrs, the purrs to silence, and at last we all were at rest.

Mr. Ambassador

I’ve been doing a lot of work on my home office lately, but it isn’t just my physical life that’s getting organized. I’ve been shooting digitally since Christmas of 2000 and over the years my pictures ended up pretty scattered around. Worse yet I have gotten hopelessly behind in sorting and editing. Worst of all I wasn’t sure which ones were properly backed up.

So it was time to start getting my digital life in order too.

Thanks to a few days of drudgery, all my pictures are now stored in a common directory format on one big hard drive, loaded into Aperture, and being backed up onto a second hard drive as I type. While loading in my older pictures, I couldn’t help but take a break every so often to play around with a few.

For some reason I never edited this picture of Templeton back in the day, he was inspecting my 15″ Powerbook shortly after it was delivered in May of 2004. I’ve written about the two of them before, so it was kind of funny to see them together at the moment the laptop arrived. I was rather ambivalent about cats until I met him, but he was such an ambassador for the feline kind that I can’t imagine my life without them now.

What a wonderful little creature he was.

Attack Dog

When we first adopted Ellie a few years ago, it seemed pretty clear she hadn’t been in an urban environment before as she wasn’t particularly good on her leash and she was much worse when off it, at least in open areas. Inside the house, or in a fenced backyard, she was in top form, no worries there.

In the hopes of one day being able to let her off leash at the nearby dog park, I began working with her in the backyard on learning to heel & stay & come, even when excited, and eventually she got the hang of it. I got brave enough to try her in the dog park and she did well, but we also started a little game where I would sprint from one side of the park to the other and, if she stayed by my side the whole time, she got a treat.

We still run wind sprints together whenever possible, even though she has long outgrown the need for the training, because she just loves it. But the other day as she caught me from behind she bumped into my legs and sent me sprawling face first into the mud. I had been running pretty fast so I hit hard and as I tried to sit up, found it hard to breathe. It was hard to tell exactly where the pain was coming from, I suppose that must have been the adrenaline kicking in, useful for when you’re trying to escape a lion but not so much when you’ve been attacked by a giant goofball and only want to know what is broken. I forced a few deep breaths and was relieved there were no sharp pains in my chest.

I was also relieved when I could stand and put weight on both my legs without shooting pain, so my streak of never having broken a bone stays alive. Once I got home and a little time had passed, a bruise the size of a dollar bill appeared on my thigh with a matching silver dollar bruise on my knee. All from an accidental bump.

Although word around the house is that it may not have been so accidental but payback for having had to smell ribs cooking all day and then I didn’t even share one bite with her during dinner.

Lately she’s been sidelined not by my leg but by hers, she somehow hurt it so she’s been on bed rest but I think we’ll start up short walks tomorrow, because boy howdy is she ready. I lost count of how many times she pelted me with hedgehogs today. Here she is curled up with one of her favorites (as you can tell from the stuffing that is escaping) on the dog bed in my office.