Smoky update: pica.

Months ago, in late October, we took Smoky to the vet. Twice. The first visit went well.

After the second visit, I wasn't happy with that vet, for she insisted he was "eating something from outside" and that Gatito be kept indoors.

What she didn't make clear is that "you can mix in his old food when he's better" was not really what she meant. Um, be clear. I'm not a vet, if you tell me it's okay, and then it's not--! Because on his second visit, the vet was upset that I'd fed him his old kibble.

Just like she said. So her premise was that I'd messed up his stomach bacteria. Even though she couldn't figure out what was giving him loose stools.

Cat spay the second.

Short version: In the last five days [back in July] that seemed like aeons... we hosted another mostly tame/semi-feral cat during her post-op recovery.


{ Written 21-July-2017 }

We got Sweetpea fixed this past Monday.

Hell, once inside carrier Monday morning, Sweetpea methodically shredded every piece of paper I'd put in there. Not the towel nor the shirt, though.

Friday night we loosed Sweetpea back out into her kingdom.  My grey cat of friendliness still loved us, and proved affectionate -- but her trust in her humans was decreasing.

=-=

Poor Smoky...

Today Gatito's going to the nearby vet. Please send good thoughts his way!

We're hoping this is easily fixed.  My poor baby, it looked like he'd slept on the kitchen floor mat a time, and then couldn't get to his litter box, from the amount of goo there.

I feel bad. He'd had loose stools Saturday, and they got worse after the weekend. Problem is, I had a sleep study Sunday night, and that made me mostly useless yesterday; Monday I ended up achy and having all digits freaking out, along with my hip, not quite mini spasms -- yay! -- but not too hot either.


Yestereve he began dripping dung a little. :/

We let Gatito roam free all night, instead of putting him into "his" bathroom. His poor bottom was very sore, and I didn't have the heart to lock him up, not when his butt was clearly hurting him.

He didn't wake us. Odds are Smoky mostly slept. He was on our bed for a while, but found that it's harder to hang out -- or sleep -- when the bed's crowded.

I really hope the nice vet will make him better. I went by Google reviews, so I also hope that the folks gushing about this vet are not leading us astray. Plus side, instead of poking in Yellow Pages, reviews exist.

Again, your good thoughts and prayers are very welcome; thank you!

=hugs=

Recent kitten news.

We got Smoky fixed on 31-August.

He bounced back quickly [of course, being a male cat] and wanted out out OUT. I'd meant to keep him indoors 48 hours, maybe more... but after a full day of kitten-sitting, loosed him two mornings after his surgery. I think Gatito and I were both tired of his temporary imprisonment by then!

Or as SL put it, "Kitten says to other cats through doorwall: 'My humans are broken, I don't know why they aren't letting me out.' " { And he makes a sad face. }

Dingdong pawed the doorwall several times during the kitten's imprisonment; DD had missed his playmate just as much as Smoky missed his Buddy. Awwwww.

Feline news: summer.

We got Sweetpea spayed in July. THAT was an adventure!

Short version: I had to get her a cone of shame. Sweetie did NOT like that. But being trapped in the house was what she hated the most. My poor baby. 8(

May post about it at some point...


Gatito, our Smoky-kitten, became friendly and then affectionate during the summer... now he is an indoor-outdoor cat. (AND a lap cat!) I don't think Tiny Cat even realizes how much more he stays inside.

He can sleep in the house, where it's cooler during the day... and where the monsters aren't invading his space at night. Lately Smoky has been trying to explain to us how he should be allowed to roam free at night. Like he does during the day -- when he mostly sleeps, fwiw.

Saturday he became five months old.

Smoky is the chattiest cat we have. The little purrball. :D He will mrrrrrrrrow at you when he doesn't want to be picked up, among other vocalizations. 8)

Yes... "You will make it through."

A dear friend just shared this image with a great list about self-care.

It is a portable wisdom, something to help you when your brain and/or body is fighting you. Trust me, I know how that is. It happens to me (bipolar) and it's tiresome at best, horrible to you at worst.

I thought this was a good time to keep a copy of the list handy. Because we'll be off to Convergence, and this is the time many of us get sick. Not just con crud, but meeting family and friends at everything from weddings and open houses to picnics, cookouts, theme parks, you name it.

So... PLEASE take care of yourself. Please.

Cat: Jekyll and Hyde.

Yesterday [?] I introduced Smoky to the fish toy. At first he wasn't too sure about this odd thing. What was it? Why was it on a string?

The fish seemed like a toy, but it resisted. Smokepuff could smell that Mommy had gnawed on it, and his aunt Vee too. Hmm!

Then Sweetpea played with the toy right there: Mommy liked it, oh, it must be fun then. 8) He was enthralled.

Smoky played like any cat does with a pole toy, and he clearly enjoyed himself.

Past: Two pet stories.

In May 2007, I rescued a Maine coon cat named Gamble. He lived with me in Michigan, and in Ohio, and of course in Vegas. That's where I got him. 

He was about seven years old when we met. We lived together nearly 3.5 years. 

In Sept. 2010, I moved again; it was somewhere that Gamble couldn't live with me. He went to a good friend, who loved him, and who took good care of him. I could tell that he was happy.

I still miss him -- Gamble will always be my cat.  He passed away a few years ago, sadly.

=-=

In July 2010, I had taken Gamble to be de-flea'd, after finding his thick Maine coon fur had hidden his bleeding from me. I'd never had a cat with fleas before; I was horrified, and I wanted my baby helped right away.

The vet gave him a newer 30-day treatment. 

I remember her saying with caution how they'd "had less luck with" the more usual brand. [Probably fleas are immune to't now.] Revolution was its name...

Edited to clarify -- the newer treatment is Revolution, not the "more usual brand" mentioned previously; sorry for any confusion! I love Revolution, it seems to work well on the cats we've had here in Michigan. 

Vee's Thursday.

Today Vee-cat is having the Terrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Day. My poor bossypants cat.

Well... at least she knows who to blame == me. :[

The cutest thing!

Today Sweetpea was a-stalking... not in the grass. No, she was stalking something in -- under -- the steps.

I watched with great interest, curious. Eventually I discovered what Sweetie stalked.

It was her kitten.

Medical stupid. -_-

[ Written 10-May-17 ]

I'd been wondering about the adverse effects of the second drug my doctor "layered" onto me, as a friend wisely put it.

I'm still having those effects. They appear to cycle.

MANIA may cycle. If a drug is somehow cycling in you, that's perfectly horrible. It shouldn't do that.

I took frickin' Risperdal  Vraylar for three [3!] days. I stopped it myself. Same as the previous drug the doctor tried on me; after barely two weeks on RisperdalVraylar, I realized I was seriously hypomanic.

I stopped taking that and told him why.

[ Edited Feb. 2018: Apparently I mix up these two, maybe because I took two drugs too close together!]

Fandom welcome -- via Austenland.

Brief summary... 

Maybe you didn't expect this slant about fandom, but it's about you, about me, about friendship. And about Austenland. No knowledge of the book nor the movie required.  

Links at end of post.

Jane says:  "Okay, since we have to spend so much time rehearsing this thing... just....
Let's try not to annoy each other." 

Not looking at her, Mr. Nobley replies: "You don't annoy me.
You make me nervous." 

Cats' yard empire.

On 14-April, I finally succeeded in reaching the local Humane Society, and fetched home a cat trap.

Too late, apparently. :/

I'd thought I might catch Vee in time, but getting the trap on a Friday made that problematic. I didn't want to catch her Friday evening, not and leave her trapped for days! She'd be prey to coons who'd consider her a convenient snack.


Sweetpea had her kittens sometime during 15 or 16-April.  Maybe even on Easter; but we weren't here until evening. 8(

Then Sweetpea went rather feral for a few days. Wednesday [?] she turned back into her usual affectionate self, and was very happy to see me, to come inside and be petted more, and to keep telling me that she loved me. "Pet me MORE!" said my grey cat.

The sisters [Sweetie and Vee] now that they're both mothers [maybe] aren't on the greatest of speaking terms right now. I had to tell Vee to behave when she growled at Sweetpea... which is likely a Sign that Vee does indeed have a couple of live kittens stashed somewhere. The shed, probably.

Copyediting: 2008+...

Tom Lehrer talks about people advertising what they've done... and as y'know, I too can do that. 8)

Back when I was starting out, I did more pro bono work. Not only because it is what TNH recommended to me, it was also that I had more free time in 2008.

I'd done nonfiction proofreading since 1989. I was anxious to do fiction next.

What I didn't know... was that inside of two years, I'd be proofreading and/or copyediting two nonfiction magazines, and two fiction 'zines. I started working on fiction novels barely four months after becoming the freelancer who proofread Locus.

Lists and surviving ADHD...

Instead of blogging about the cats [alas!] or other things, like copyediting or rants... today I'm doing an informational blog post. This is for my reference as well as anyone else, of course. 8)

It's also so I can close more tabs. :b

Some c/e highlights...

I do work on a wide variety within genre. Horror, dark fiction, GLBTQ sf/f romances, fantasy, sf/f alternate universes, YA, urban fantasies, paranormal fantasies, and much more. Just because I enjoyed working on a project doesn't mean you'll automatically like reading it, of course.

So I highly recommend checking genre first -- unless you, like me, have widely catholic tastes in reading (catholic the adjective, not the religion). If you like being surprised, then just leap in. That's what I do. :D

=-=

In 2014, I was offered Tekken: The Dark History of Mishima. That was fun. Only time I've ever been allowed to use "cartoon physics" as a guideline.

Tekken was translated into English, by an editor I knew... and who'd recruited me for my first paying gig as a freelancer. I really enjoyed working again with her.

Temping in 2000, cont'd.

Just in 2000 (blog post here), I worked as a temp at:

• Multiple places as reception; several requested I return, and if I didn't have a conflict, I did so -- at least twice for two different clients  

• Two dealerships: Flannery Ford [one week] and the original Saturn dealership** in Michigan [several weeks] { Newsweek link for Saturn's demise }

• The OCC Chancellor's Office, where I once answered the phone with "Chancellor's Office speaking" -- as another university's chancellor's office was calling! 8) 

• Advanced Medical Metpath, doing data entry on lab work forms (O that horribly dull place, no one spoke to other employees or temps! as you can imagine, I couldn't stand that; it was like working in a mirage of other people.) 

• March '00: My first Kelly assignment was at a psych clinic, which amused me, since that was the first time I'd ever been on the other side of the glass.  Plus one of my previous shrinks was there, and greeted me with joy... ("Where have you been?" he exclaimed. "California!" said I.) 

• Handing out paychecks in California for Adecco. *** Cushiest temp assignment ever.  ;)  They were sweet and even paid me for a couple extra hours, since they needed someone just to do this one thing all day long.  I sorted people's time cards on the side to keep my hands busy; this may be the real reason they loved me that day.

2000-05 income: temping.

Back then, I temped constantly.  I enjoyed being able to leave a place I didn't like, or that had a rotten work environment... or was boring.

Most jobs never took me long to master.

(Unlike the coupon-book publisher I worked for in 2003.  That job, ahhh, that was nice and meaty, and took me weeks to learn what was what.  Involved filing, much proofreading, plus using both PCs and Macs.  Lovely workplace...)

In just 2000 I had 15-odd assignments.  I was really proud of that.  I remember people who were horrified by this, and I could not understand why.

C'mon, having companies who clamored for me to return, that's pretty neat!

Labor Day 2016: Writing fail.

{ Draft written 5-Sept-2016, primarily. }

Ooooh, let's discuss Idiot Ball, shall we?

One of the things making me crazy watching The Flash season 2... was the idiot ball plot breakdowns.  Sometimes it was so bad they were idiot plots too.  8(

Character acts out of character, i.e., irredeemably stupid?  Guess who's got the idiot ball tonight!

Worst is when said character had said in a past ep why s/he wouldn't do that thing, only to decide to do it in this ep.

Specifics follow.  Also SPOILERS.  

Skip this if you have not seen the The Flash s2.

[This past] Saturday. :)

Yesterday I went to Pentamere Academy of Defense (aka PAoD). It's a local SCA event -- specialized for fencers.

So I got to see my fencing family. 8) I hung out with people I knew and people I didn't. Very cozy.

I learned how to fasten a clasp onto a necklace.  I went to a class about exercises, stretching, and managing pain -- as well as to help you not injure yourself -- taught by two of my dear friends.

In short, it was a good day.

I still want to return to fencing -- I loved fencing so much! Haven't fenced since '08. I plan next to become a marshal in training [MiT] again... We always need marshals.

Feline news: mixed.

KayKay was the first customer today. She has more white hairs in her pure black coat. She was cool with being petted -- before her tail mostly -- and arched at me when I petted her. 8)

I tried to not be pushy about petting her, since she seemed to be most interested in being affectionate and petted the last time she was in heat.

Vee arrived after KayKay and kept back til her aunt left. Understandably skittish!

Vee-cat is still in heat. (Sweetpea seems to be done with hers.) Yesterday I saw a lovely Maine coon [almost calico and huge!] waiting politely for Vee to finish drinking before the running began again. Vee has attracted the most tomcats I have never seen before.

Friends-- O friends!

When I was a lonely teen, I desperately wanted friends.

Friends near me.  Friends I could hang out with all the time.  Best friends.

I was in my thirties before I realized how lucky I was -- that I had so many friends.  That I'd had a goal, and achieved it, all without even noticing.  A heart-goal... a deep-seated need.

My friends who are kindred spirits, fandom [and fangirls/fanboys!], SCA and my fencing family, gamers, geeks, pros, penpals: so many friends!

Cats a-questing...

It is so cold out. :/

Last night Vee pawed at the doorwall.  I opened it again, pretty sure I knew what she was saying. Sure enough, :: Let me in, I want the warm! :: was what she was communicating.

Shadowcat now comes indoors too.  She remains wary, and any movement can spook her.  But she got used to the microwave making noises, and has been trying to figure out if she feels safe enough to walk out of the dining room.  She can scent that the kittens have done so, that Vee often sits under the dining room chairs...

Ferret syndrome: BAD.

Still having hypomania... as previously reported.

Today I haven't yet eaten, but am not ravenous, a win for me, since the voracious hunger has been waking me up mornings for days now. Over a week, I'd say... possibly up to the last fortnight-plus.

I suspect the meds ramped up my metabolism something fierce.

To the author: kudos!

Dear Maureen Johnson, thank you. I am really glad I found your book in my library, and more -- they appear to have the first three books!

Dumb meds... AGAIN. :(

First -- do not panic.  (I'm a little panicky, but it's because this is stressful for me.) This too shall pass, I'll be better.


I'm hypomanic.

I stopped my new med this weekend. I was having problems sleeping -- as in sleeping longer, and/or being awakened earlier and earlier. I need sleep, dammit!

Saturday I noticed that I was talking faster, interrupting people (often), which meant I'd have to stop myself and let others finish what they were saying -- or trying to say.

I was doing that again today, at chiro. 8(

Beads 'n' beadery!

I like beads.

Several years ago, a dear friend taught me how to make a beaded rose. (English style.) Later on, I found another pattern, which I called the "cabbage rose" -- its leaves are shaped differently.

I made a lot of roses. Red, black, silver (hi, Corwin!) -- yellow, lavender, blue. Green, white, even an eldritch Colour out of Space rose.

Seed beads. Got lots!

We just stocked up, so to speak. The bulk of my beads and supplies are in storage, trust me. Here at home I lacked blue beads until we went bead/craft shopping Monday.