Sweetpea Manor Musings

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And then I went to the CEO's meeting yesterday. Sounds like we'll have 20-50 people laid off but they are offering some small perks for those who are thinking of retiring soon to encourage them, first. I miss that bunch by 3 years. :::heavy sigh::: Anyway, I think the Respiratory dept might be targeted because our director got reamed for poor productivity a couple of weeks ago. But they will be going by seniority so I think my job is safe this time. Mr CEO was doing the big crocodile tears about how tough it is to let go of people. Uh huh. He's been here a year and all he has done is trim, lay off and harp at productivity. He reminds me of that bear in Toy Story 3. He even has the same accent.

He had another bout of vomiting last night so I rushed him off to the vets. No frank blood this time, just some pink tinged, and his heaving wasn't as violent as last time. He stayed overnight and if he can eat something this afternoon, they will let him come home about 8pm. I picked through the vomitus (an act of love, obviously) and found a partial part of a seed shell. It looks a lot like a partial of a castor bean seed. WTF?! That's the ingredient of ricin. There was a plant growing wild behind the neighbor's property. The symptoms fit. I'll go up the hill in a bit and look around.

I think a certain 10 year old cat has just lost his outdoor privileges. He's lucky he didn't die. And that's the third time for him.

He has spent the last three weeks in the kitchen. Week one, he was camped in front of the oven and defended his position with threats to nip us. Week two, he was in front of the fridge so there was no going in the freezer without a confrontation. This last week he had wedged himself between the L in the counter and a cardboard box that is sitting on the floor. We're talking a space about 6" x 12". We'd check him and he'd just look up and purr. Yesterday, Mom decided to make him go outside, hoping that normal cat activity might 'reset' his frame of mind into a more normal behavior. Who knew he'd go out and start eating castor beans. He is such an emotionally damaged cat. He can be so sweet but then he'll just turn. And his mental state is spending more time in BrindleLand than in the normal cat attitudes. Can cats get dementia?

Took Coco to the vet for her booster shots. I asked if what I could do to make assimilation easier and she suggested Feliway from Amazon. Apparently it's a plug in that diffuses pheromone oil and is to cats what chocolate is to women. I've got some on order so I'll let you know if it works.

Coco is now up to 7 pounds 11 oz. She was 5 12 at the beginning of December. I gan see her little breasts between her back legs and I asked the vet about them (since I'm not familiar if they could be a problem) and she turned Coco upside down and grabbed her round little belly and declare it fat. Then she burrowed her face in the tummy and gave her a kiss. She told me to finish out the kitten food and that she was close enough to a year old to switch to adult food.

Once home, since Buddy and Abby had reclaimed Mom's bedroom, I left her in the cage and place it on the bed so everyone to could see eye to eye in safety. Trouble was that Abby wasn't about to leave so after a few hours, I shut Abby in and brought Coco out with us. She curled against Mom for hours and was quite content to be out with us. I'd check on Abby occasionally and she would be lurking behind something, ready to pounce on Coco. Eventually she did leave and everyone could go to bed. I hope Feliway is the Chill Pill that Abby needs.

It will do Brindle good too, I hope. He bit me tonight and he hasn't done that in a long while. He was hovering at the door trying to keep Buddy outside. I pick him up to give him lovin', but saw he was irritable so I put him down. He whirled around and sank his teeth into my arm. Only one went in and another left a skid mark but he needs a Chill Pill, too.

I had a tough night at work on Sunday. Busted my buns for 10 hours straight before I begged for relief and finally got to eat and drink something. As a result, I was knackered. When I got home, I went to sling my purse over my shoulder and something went POP! just below my shoulder. The left arm wouldn't go forward or to the side after that; went backwards just fine though. So, I had to call in 'sick' to work for the last two days since I couldn't drive and certainly couldn't perform my job. This morning the arm can go forward again so I have hope that this is something that will heal up on it's own. Yay!

So, I've caught up on TV. In fact, I'm currently watching one of the Olympic Curling games I tivo'd but didn't have time to watch. Mens, Denmark vs. Canada. I have 4 more to go. *g*

I'm catching up on my flist. Don't be surprised if I answer old posts. Maybe I'll try the AO3 next since yard work is definitely out.

And playing with the cats. Hey, I saw Abby growl at *Brindle* when he was trying to block Buddy from coming in the house! Our little girl is growing up. Brindle just looked very pained and and stomped away with a wave of his tail that said, "oh, the indignity of it all!" Since then he's been very sweet so I have hopes that in a couple of years the three of them will be very happy together. *g*

Wet skunks look really pitiful.

Cutiepie, the old raccoon is still with us. There's also another raccoon that is notable. On Wed and Thursday, I saw it stretch like it was waking up from sleep from the center of our backyard in late afternoon. It came down to the courtyard to drink and eat. It looked like a yearling and was thin-ish. It looked like maybe it was recovering from an illness; I know everyone leaps to rabies but an abscess from a scuffle/injury is probably more likely, or even pneumonia from poor nutrition. Other than that, it acted okay. It's been raining the last two days and I haven't seen it. I'm wary about it. The cats have all had their rabies shots and they would be much quicker than this fellow. Anyway, they've been staying in. But still....

Brindle has been diagnosed with asthma. We took him in for a pre-op for teeth cleaning on next Saturday. They did blood work and since he has an occasional cough, we okayed a chest x-ray (still spooked from Reggie's cancer.) Brindle has a narrowing of his trachea due to a 'mass' but the young vet said it could be the thymus or a fat tumor or cancer. She sent it to a cat x-ray expert and he noted the asthmatic changes but said nothing about the mass. Anyway, he gets a quarter of a pill of terbutaline twice a day sprinkled in his food. He's been on it since Tuesday and it's going well. No adverse reactions and perhaps he feels better.

While he was in the back room getting the blood drawn and such, they also decided to clean his right ear as it looked infected. Whatever is going on with that ear it's been stable for years. Never any mites. She felt it might be fungal. When they came out of the back room, Brindle's ear/neck was all wet and he looked victorious. The vet looked harried, but would only say that it was difficult to clean all the way down and they would try again when the cat was under anesthetic. I didn't see any blood so maybe...no...I know he went off on them. I'm just glad they weren't savaged.

Abby is quite affectionate if one is stationary. She likes her ear scratched and her back rubbed. She sleeps cuddled up to our legs. Of course, if one walks towards her, she's quite likely to run away with a "OHMYGOD!!" expression. We find her toy mice everywhere and she seems quite content to be indoors for now. Things continue to progress. :)

Still researching photographing the auroras.

Just a quick note, mainly for myself.

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Where I update Emma, Buddy and stuff.

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Just an update, maybe I'll do this in bullet points...except I don't know how to in lj. *g* So, since I last updated:

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Gotta go. I hear Momma coon snorting in the courtyard. There's probably one or two other coons there. Maybe a few more peanuts will calm them down.

Blah, blah, blah...where Tenaya crosses a few things off the To Do list.
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Brindle was very happy to see me. ( Read more... )

And now I will quit spamming you all. *G*