Musings on a Small Life

Nicki's vet visit this morning, for another blood sample, was mercifully quick. But he was hungry and very upset, poor boy. They shaved his neck a bit so they wouldn't have to poke and prod him. Anyway, we'll see what happens next week. If you look closely at Nicki's neck, you can see where they shaved him.   Yesterday, though, I had the day to myself without appointment or errands or waiting for a donation pick-up, so I toddled off downtown and walked all along the waterfront, from the Holiday Inn to the park across the street from KGH and the campus. Snapped with the crappy Elph, but I enjoyed taking them anyway. (Best viewed if you click on the first and scroll through them that way.) You know I took too many duck pics!  :-)              I don't know what the regatta was.                             ...

Crap, crap, crappity crap, crap, crap. The vet emailed me to let me know that Nicki's calcium level had come back slightly above normal (result was 2.8, high normal is 2.7, I don't know the unit measurement), so given there are all kinds of horrendous possible causes (including CRF and cancer), he wants Nicki to fast this time and be retested. Since tomorrow is my last vacation day, I better get it over and done with. Won't Nicki be thrilled? I'll be lucky if I can get him back in the carrier. I hadn't fasted him yesterday, so I suppose it could be related to food, but....Who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I didn't waste any time Googling, of course, because I can think of at least one CB cat who had hypercalcemia, but Googling is scary: http://catexpert.blogspot.ca/2011/12/hypercalcemia-in-cats.html I'm going to try not to think about it all too much, and hope for normal re-test results. C'mon, Nick-man, please be okay!...

Poor Nicki, off to the dreaded vet to be poked and prodded. At the clinic and not coming out!   He had his anal glands expressed and blood taken, but I think what bothered him the most was having the Advantage applied. They don't put it up quite far enough on the neck, so Nicki was able to turn his head and lick a little bit of it, which caused lots of drool and upset. He kept to himself most of the day, but was back to normal in the evening. I discussed the barfing and blood with the vet, but he didn't seem concerned because it's been sporadic. I've cut back the probably-toxic plant Nicki had been chewing on (pic below), meant to dig it up in the spring but didn't get around to it. Nicki will chew this like it's cat grass...even when he had cat grass right in front of him. Maybe this is the issue; I'll find out soon enough. If he (if it is Nicki) starts throwing up blood again, he'll have to go back to the vet, of course. One fina...

I nearly missed the Salvation Army pick up guys yesterday -- I was upstairs gathering a few more items of clothing, heard a truck, looked out the window and saw it driving away, down the street. Gees! I ran downstairs and out the door, waving my arms madly and shouting, "Wait! Wait!" They heard/saw me and backed up, thank goodness. I don't know what they were expecting, everything piled up by the garage door? My front door was open, just the screen locked, indicating someone was home. Certainly no one got out to knock or ring the doorbell. Anyway, it all worked out, thank goodness. Before   After. A few things for the dump and a lot of empty boxes. I headed out to Costco afterward, for Nicki's meds, then went to Tim Horton's for lunch. Now, those few of  you in Canada probably have seen an Air Farce episode, and that's exactly what I felt I was in, eating my sandwich and listening to snippets of conservation among three older men at the table ...

I've only just learned that Chris Hyndman, one half of Steven & Chris, was found dead last night, in a walk-way between two buildings in Toronto's east end, near their residence, I believe. He was 49. No cause of death is being released, though the investigation apparently is "open." http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/christopher-hyndman-co-host-of-cbc-s-steven-and-chris-dead-at-49-1.3178833 http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/christopher-hyndman-cbc-co-host-remembered-as-a-force-of-nature-1.3179002 I don't even have words. I'm absolutely stunned, it's beyond comprehension to me. I've watched Steven & Chris since the first season, it's been part of my morning weekday routine: coffee and the Steven & Chris rerun from the day before, before getting ready for work. Prior to their current program, I used to see them on a makeover show that ran on another network. Almost everything practical I know, I've learned from watching them. ...

I went to Walmart yesterday for a couple of items, then walked over to the main shopping centre/bus transfer point. Surprisingly, the mall was open, even though it was before 10AM. I'd thought they would be on Sunday hours, because of the holiday, but nope. On a whim I popped into Sears to look through the women's clothing section, then made my way over to shoes. I never look there for shoes, because my feet are so hard to fit. However, I scored a pair of Clarke's shoes for work, already on sale, then an additional 30% off at the cash register. Good buy! Then it was just a few more errands, including a stop at PetValu for the canned food I'd ordered. One of the store cats checks out my purchases. The for-adoption tortie, with serious tortitude, got snitty with Oliver, the other store cat. They got into it until Oliver managed to break free and run to a safer distance.     She's a lovely cat, but will need a human who appreciates that attitude, bit...

I actually went back to bed yesterday morning for a couple of hours, so was slow to get up and get going. It was nice to be able to do that. The groom's ex-wife stopped in for a couple of hours before she headed home, so we caught up a bit and even made a Value Village run. I hadn't been in a long time and ended up finding a lined rain jacket (cosy) and a very warm heavy fall jacket too (my old favourite one is almost done for), plus a couple of tops. A quick note about the "interesting dynamics", as Eileen put it in a comment: The ex-wife and the groom's family still are very close, they consider her to be a daughter/niece and they all closed ranks around her, hovered around her actually, to make sure she was okay. Granted, she and the groom split a long time ago, but I'm sure the entire day was quite surreal for her. This is how the boys spent part of my staycation day 3:   On another quick note: Mom and Harry's house went on the mar...

Yesterday was staycation day 2 and I was the wedding crasher, or so it felt. The groom's parents and ex-wife picked me up and we all drove out to the couple's cottage outside the city, where the ceremony was being held. I hadn't seen his parents in oh, at least a decade if not more, and then only briefly. I don't really know them -- I used to see them more often when my ex and I would spend time with the groom and his ex-wife -- the four of us were good friends at the time and had a lot of fun together. I didn't know anyone else there, either, particularly on the other groom's side (same sex couple marriage).  I did feel like the wedding crasher, not having any close tie to the groom I used to know -- I see him maybe once or twice a year to catch up, but our lives have diverged and there's not a lot of common ground, only the past. Still, it was lovely to see them married and it the ceremony was conducted by a very cool-looking female United Ch...