lumy12

R.I.P. my beloved Snickers... the kitties don't use their journal anymore, but it's still a nice place for memorializing. Only two of the original five remain.


( Cut for sad... mostly for me, so please don't feel obligated to read )

I got 2 things in the mail this week!

( Click for a pic! )

No, I didn't receive them together. But I quite like them together! They mesh well!

It does make you wonder, though, how these two get along...

( MOAR )

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(warning: my answer is sad and trigger-y)

I would ask Pants how much pain she's in, and if she's ready to go. Yesterday was the first day I started thinking "Now might be the time" but I still have doubts. People say "you'll know" -- well, I don't know for sure, does that mean it's not time? Or that I'm not ready to let her go?

I thought I was. I've accepted that she's dying, I haven't even cried about it in weeks -- until yesterday.

I wish I knew what she wanted. She's not making her wishes as clear to me as Bailey did.

Bailey died a month and two days before his 11th birthday. If I put Pants to sleep this week, it will be about a month before her 15th birthday. Kind of a strange coincidence.

ETA: Thank you for your comments. I made an appointment to put her down tomorrow (Tuesday). :(

At 7:00 this evening I finally received the diagnosis on my poor Bailey kitty.

He does indeed have cancer. Small-cell lymphoma. I've poked around online a bit and haven't seen the "small cell" part attached to the lymphoma, but I'm assuming he has the intestinal kind of lymphoma they refer to. I have to go pick up some drugs for him tomorrow. Steroids first, then chemo in a couple weeks. The vet said chemotherapy isn't horrible for cats like it is for humans, that the side effects are minimal, so that's good.

One site I found says 70% of cats with lymphoma respond favorably to chemotherapy, most of them living another 4-6 months, with 30-40% of those that respond going into remission for 2 years. That doesn't sound very encouraging to me, but the article made it sound like this is a great success rate.

I'm glad I didn't go the conservative route last week. I just had a feeling it wasn't merely a food allergy type thing. Trusting your gut pays off sometimes.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Bailey and his little girlfriend. Bailey's the gray and white head covered by Snickerdoodle (Snickers) the tigress. I've posted it before but it's so darn cute I'm linking it again.

Remember how my cat Bailey was sick and I finally took him to the vet and got drugs and stuff and thought everything would be okay? He's lost a whole pound since then. He weighs 7.5 pounds. A year ago he was 13 pounds.

He looks awful. He eats well, but he's still throwing up his food violently several times a week. He's whiny, but he's always been whiny so I can't really tell anything from that. I'm taking him in this evening - hopefully to do some kind of invasive procedure that is NOT surgery. Say a little prayer for my kitty, please.

I'm still sick too but I'll survive. The worst is over. I still look and sound like crap and I keep hoping my boss will tell me to go home but I won't ask her. Several people have told me I should go home. I have so much PTO that I cash out a bunch of it every year. It's not like I'd be losing money to go home.

I usually feel better as the day goes on, though. Which is backwards from my normal state - I'm a morning person, dangit!

P.S. This time, Anakin's getting locked in the bathroom the second he starts acting up. Crazy cat.

Shall I blame the cat for this one?

I was at the bathroom counter putting my contact lenses in this morning. Anakin jumped up there to head-butt me while I did so. He paced a bit on the counter as I put my right eye in. I reached for the left one - not there. I looked on the lid, cuz sometimes they stick to the top for whatever reason. Nope, not there. Looked again. Looked all over the counter and on the floor. My jammies. The sink. Thoroughly looked on the cat, especially his paws. Nothing! After wasting much time combing the area with a flashlight (Anakin liked that too; he thought I was playing with him) I gave up, took my one contact out, and opted for glasses. I used to go one-eyed often, but now it gives me a headache.

Did he eat it? Did I fail to make sure it actually made it into the case last night? *sigh* Well, I need new lenses anyway, and I really did plan to do that some time in 2006, as I am paying for vision insurance this year. My contacts are gas permeables, not disposables, so losing one is a big deal. They're hundreds of dollars. I got my last new pair in 1998 so I guess I was due to lose one. I've heard that optical technology is advanced enough now that I COULD wear soft lenses now if I wanted to. I've never had that choice before, due to how fucked up my eyes are (I forget what number they are on the 1-10 scale the docs use now, but they're over 20/2000 on the 20/whatever measuring system - off the charts, according to my last doc - wooo, I'm blind! But that's not why I couldn't wear soft ones. I have an astigmatism, which wiki defines better than I can.)

And now I just tried to upload the pics from my camera, but can't get my camera software to work. Got an error message telling me to uninstall and re-install. I tried to uninstall, it said I couldn't. I tried to install, it said I "didn't need to." Rebooting didn't magically fix this either. WTF? GAAAAAAH I hate computers.

I'm gonna go use my iTunes gift card now. That should cheer me up. Mmmmmm, free music! ETA: Any Roy Orbison fans out there who want to be kind and AIM me a song? I want ONE SONG, not the whole album for $19.99. I don't know why you can't buy the song by itself. Grrr.

Hopefully LJ is all done being evil with pictures now. It might just be userpics. I tried to upload some new pics for RP and it threw in just totally random pics, nothing like what I had uploaded? Such weirdness. I hope they fix it soon, I need to play with my icons!

'k, so I joined omg_lightsaber. Now I really WILL be on the computer during all my spare time, heh. I've been reading threads there for a few days and it's just such fun stuff... even the slash. Actually I am fully embracing the slash now. I believe I'm capable of separating this from the actual movies (I was kinda worried it would corrupt the purity of the real films when I watch them). My character is OOC!Palpatine, his journal is notfromajedi, and he's already interacting with OOC!Anakin *evil grin*

And FINALLY, here are some kitty pics! If you don't see kitty pics here please let me know cuz they work fine on my computer. Evil LJ...

( Huge pictures with tiny captions )

And the winner is....

[insert drumroll]

Gryffin!!!!

That's my new kitty's name (unless he turns out to be a girl after all, then we'll be doing all this again). Interesting that it won the poll too. MUST be a good name. But... Jar Jar came in second??? Damn.

It's not just the whole Gryffindor/lion thing either - it's a tribute to Griffin on Party of 5, a show I still dearly miss.

Oh yeah - I said I would be posting pics? Well not yet. I'm not really in a pic-posting kinda mood right now. I've been "under the weather" for a couple days. I didn't even get online last night *gasp!!!* Was too busy sleeping. I'm really happy that this germy virusy thing in me does not appear to be taking hold and crippling me. I'm just taking it easy, trying to eat better than I usually do, and get enough sleep.

Someone else is playing that character now that I was rambling about before. I waited too long to inquire about him. 'Tis okay, I'm working on my own character. At least I won't be disappointing anyone if I totally suck at roleplaying.

I am really jonesing for Star Wars now. Major withdrawal symptoms. I can FINALLY watch my RotS dvd tomorrow, uninterrupted (will ignore the phone). And next Friday the 11th is Watch-Star-Wars-All-Day day! (for me, at least!) I'll get up at my usual time and read the paper/have my morning coffee, then it's on to Episode I, allllll the way through VI. You all are invited, just show up at my house no later than 8am, 'k? 'k. Preferably with munchies.

And I'm also excited for Harry Potter Goblet of Fire!!! I want to re-read all the books but want to start with Book 1 and my friend still has it, I'm seeing her tonight so maybe she'll be done with it...

( Cut for Harry Potter RP rambling )

The kitty still doesn't have a name. His ex-mommy called, and I was scared shitless she'd ask for the kitty back, but NO it was about something else, whew!!!! tigersalamander says I HAVE to name him Crookshanks because he is orange. (that's Hermione's cat in Harry Potter) But that's not a very appealing name to me. Oh well, something will come to me!

Okay, I am spending too much time online. Most people in the world don't know anything about Star Wars, it seems. HOW CAN SOMEONE WHO HAS SEEN REVENGE OF THE SITH THINK THAT I AM PRINCESS LEIA???? That was my biggest pet peeve of the day. If you're not into Star Wars, fine, but if you saw the movie... how can you forget which character was pregnant??? Obviously the movie did not make as much of an impression on him as it did on me.

And it's funny, the people who did know a little about Star Wars sometimes eventually got around to guessing "Amidala" or "the Queen" (to which I had to point out she was a Senator at the time she wore this outfit) - no one ever seems to remember the name "Padme."

tzietalmalfoy outdid herself on my dress, it really is extraordinarily lovely. It pains me that it will just sit in my closet for a year. Maybe someone can throw a Star Wars party and invite me? Yeah.

( Hugeness alert, and I don't just mean my belly! )

I have new respect for pregnant people. Especially pregnant people who wear long flowy dresses and have to pick up their train to walk outside or to the bathroom. I have successfully dehydrated myself so that I only needed to pee twice as of now, woohoo! Sitting down and getting up was an event each time today.

I got lots of attention since only a few other people even bothered to dress up - which is typical. I just love Halloween, I can't help myself, I always dress up! My "bellymaker" even dressed as a doctor, in case I went into early labor. Ha!!!! And I filled out a leave request form to request 12 weeks of maternity leave, to be signed by Mr. Bellymaker Doctor. Hehehehehehe. I wonder if HR will buy it and give me 12 weeks off with pay! (I have enough time off to cover almost all of it)

I'm still wearing my outfit for the benefit of trick-or-treaters, though I've had just a few so far - I guess Monday Halloweens are not popular for trick-or-treating? I dunno. Last year I got like 50 kids and nearly ran out of candy. Oh well, I can bring the leftovers to work and they will get eaten within the week.

And lastly - I am done with my CD-Alpha-order thingie. So I actually have to put some thought into what CD I play in my car now. *gasp* First time in just over a year! I thought I started it in November '04 but looking back I see that really it was October '04, not sure of the exact date. Anyway - should I feel free? Cuz I feel a little... lost. [Hey, that's a good header for this entry] I'm pretty lacking in decision-making skillzzzz, even with things as frivolous as what CD to play.

Revenge of the Sith tomorrow!!!!!

Too bad I won't have time to watch it 'til the weekend *loud noisy sigh*