Goodbye, Roady

Today at 7 a.m. Roadcat Jane died of natural causes. We were going to have her put to sleep today anyway, and I'm glad she was spared that (and so were we). If you recall, her sister, Suggs, died 3 months ago, just weeks after Brock was born. It's been a crazy few months of joy and sadness. (Here's the Farewell, Suggs post)

Here are a few pictures of our sweet 17-year-old kitty:

Suggs

First with the funny. My cat, Suggs, is 17. She isn't grooming well and as she started to shed for the summer, her fur got very matted. And so I decided to have her shaved.

Here is a before picture:




Here is an after picture:




Are your LOLing? Are you ROTFLing? I knew it. Poor thing looks ridiculous and Roady (the other cat) hissed at her for days. She seems so pathetic.

On a less comical note, she was always a "fat cat." She has lost a lot of weight, and we could tell by picking her up. The vet wasn't worried because she was overweight before. But now that I see her naked, she looks like she's on death's doorstep.

She's also having a lot of trouble in the **ahem** litter box department. We thought she was severely constipated from all the straining she was doing and the very little that was coming out.

The vet said it was quite the opposite -- she had diarrhea. I don't see how one can mistake the two, but he felt and said there was no back-up inside. So she took some medicine for a week and ate special food for the tummy.

And neither did a thing. She seems to be in pain and she is having "accidents" around the house that aren't doing a lot of good for my marriage since my husband is very upset about living like that.

**edited to add: She had bloodwork done and everything checked out great. There didn't appear to be any problems at all. The vet said next step is X-rays, but he doubted they'd show anything. After that, he said, would be exploratory surgery, which we aren't willing to put her through. She is not having issues with peeing, just "number 2."**

We both think she has something really wrong, but we aren't sure if it's time to put her down. Frankly, we aren't going to put her through treatments for something like cancer, or surgery for that matter, at her age. But she's still eating and drinking and often seems pretty happy, so it's really a hard situation. Any advice?

Itty-bitty sweater, itty-bitty cat

I wanted to show you my latest finished project, but Roady is keeping it a secret for now. Tomorrow, perhaps.

Sucked in to the dark vacuum of used bargains

I wanted to sew today, my day off. And I will, but it's now nearly 6 p.m. and I haven't started. That's because try as I might, I can't stay away from thrift stores and antique shops. Yep, I went back to "Antique Mile" today.

While all the old-houses-turned-vintage-shop locations are quaint and charming, the air-conditioning is bad to nonexistent. Considering the 100+ heat wave we're having here, I about died. I was forced to stop for a hamburger, fries and Coke at Blake's Lotaburger on the way home. It cured me.

Anyway, I did buy a set of four embroidered napkins, but no picture of those today.

Here are my thrift store finds:

A ceramic, handmade lemon juicer for $3.99. I'm always wishing I had a lemon juicer. The bottom is carved with "M Bennett." I wonder who that is.



And a giant bag of thread, also $3.99. I needed to go buy gray thread today anyway, and probably would have spent half as much on that one that I spent on this whole bag. I know old thread can be bad, but most of this looks really new.



Plus, there's gray thread in there.

Finally, remember that embroidered cloth with cats on it that was unfinished and I asked what to do with it? I think I'll cut it in half and hem, and make two napkins out of it. In the meantime, a certain real-life kitty has made herself quite at home on that kitty-cat linen.

Roadcat

My cat has computer jealousy AND an obsession with arms. If she can find an arm, she'll lie on it.

Pretty Kitty

I love how they always locate a sun beam for optimal cozy napping.

Healthy little kitties

Anyone who knows me knows that my two cats are like children to me. I talk to them constantly and they follow me all around. We're a happy family.
Recently, I've known three people who lost their cats in three weeks. My mom pointed out that her cat hadn't been himself lately. He died a week after he started acting strangely. I noticed Precious Roady hadn't been herself lately. She stays in bed longer, but they are both 14, so I guess that makes them old. I just felt that maybe something was wrong and I should either get it fixed, or consider putting her out of her misery if it was bad. I was really nervous.
Today was vet visit day, and they weren't excited. Everything checked out beautifully. Yay! I've got two super healthy elderly cats, although they'll always be babies to me.