A Spendy Kind of Week

This week will go down in history as Winter Blues Week. Firstly, the weather looks like this:

Then...Kazi and her boyfriend had a misunderstanding ( a euphemism  for tiff), since resolved.

Then, worst of all....my sweet Lily became ill. Last Saturday I "rushed" her to the emergency

vet clinic. As I had to drive through a blizzard it was more of a slow motion kind of rush. I almost missed the clinic altogether as the wind had blown the snow into large drifts and I couldn't see where to enter. 

Her symptoms were lethargy, constant napping and not eating a lot along with some weakness in her hind legs preventing her from being able to jump up onto her castle or napping chairs.

This is how she lets me know that she doesn't want me to go out.

(Not sick in these photos)

Such a pitiful expression.

 So we finally made it to the emergency clinic and they did an examination. To make a long story short the vet "expressed" her two anal glands as they were overly full (the stinky goop in the anal glands gives her her unique smell which is why cats and probably dogs, sniff each other's butt - interesting...no?) The consensus is that modern cat food doesn't make firm enough stools so the goop doesn't get pressed out when they poop. Gee, I hope you aren't eating while you read this!!!

Overly full glands causes discomfort and may have been the cause of her not being able to jump. If she didn't improve then the next step would be x-rays.

 So.....the vet manually expressed (emptied) the glands, gave us a few pain pills and charged me $375 for the pleasure. Oh, she also did blood work to rule out a bunch of stuff. Today, Lily, one week later, jumped up into her castle for the first time! And she ate enough today for 3 cats! Considering she weighs a petite 3.7 lbs I don't mind how much she eats.

 

While I have my morning coffee and read the daily paper
the kitties sit on my lap and legs.

Her BIG sister, Luna, (though she doesn't look that much bigger in these photos as Lily is in the foreground), weighs more than twice what Lily weighs. I weighed myself holding Luna and then without her and estimate Luna weighs about 12 lbs!! So, I have separated their eating areas giving Lily more and Luna less than their usual amounts.

 Since I felt I hadn't spent quite enough money yet I also went to Hakim's and ordered two new pairs of eyeglasses - YIKES!! Hakim's has a very good strategy - charge less per pair IF you buy two pairs. So instead of paying $500 for one pair I paid $700 for two pairs theoretically saving me $300. No tax charged saving me another $91. I am ok with this because my last pair bought 5 years ago from my optometrist's office cost me $550. (I recently broke those) My glasses have all kinds of special needs, prisms and progressives and so on so I'll never be able to buy more inexpensive glasses. Another "good" thing is I found a jeweller who does cold soldering and fixed the glasses that I broke. So now I have 2 new pairs (one sturdier than the other to wear for volleyball) and a backup pair. I hope I'll be good for another 10 years, maybe longer.

So that was my super spendy week. I decided to use my snowflake box towards these expenses and am glad I decided not to take an extra trip this year. I'm going over my needs to see what else, if anything, I should buy since being in such a generous mood :(  New winter boots are on the list along with new hiking boots. I'll wait til I do my taxes to see how much I owe before making any more expenditures. Blech...

Now...back to the Olympics!

Simply Sublime....

....the weather, that is. The last few days have been absolute torture around these parts - so HOT, so HUMID! How hot and humid was it?

I had to take my sweet little Lily to the vet on Friday. I noticed, after getting up early for an appointment, that she hadn't followed me downstairs as per usual. So I went on the hunt and found her in my bedroom asleep on a fur blanket. She was lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink. I loaded her into a pet carrier and carried it out to the truck, thinking man, why is she so heavy? I put the carrier into the truck and went around to the driver's side to get in. Then I took LUNA back into the house as she had climbed into the pet carrier when I wasn't looking! Nice try Luna!

I had to take this blanket away too. Luna likes to just lie on the floor but Lily likes to be very cozy - she doesn't have as thick of a fat layer as Luna does.

Sorry Luna, you can't go :(

Looking out the patio door on Saturday - starting to take an interest again.

The vet injected Lily with water subcutaneously as he felt she was dehydrated and she had a slight fever. He gave us a little pill cut into 4 pieces to stimulate her appetite. Back at home I put the fur blanket in my closet along with several other items that she likes to curl up on but are way too hot. She ate some of the special wet food that the vet gave us but then she threw up. Then I had the idea to tempt her with the water from cans of tuna - well she gobbled that up and it stayed down. Fortunately we eat a lot of tuna and I had half a dozen cans in the cupboard. I stayed up with her all night Friday getting water into her every hour plus I wiped her down with a wet washcloth as it cools her skin while it evaporates.

Watching the neighbours move.

 On Saturday she started to eat more and drink more but continued just to sleep. I had cranked the A/C and we didn't go outside. Yesterday was extremely brutal with the humidex reaching close to 40c. Today relief has arrived - it's only 17c with a nice cool breeze and we have all the doors and windows open. We went outside on the patio for about 15 minutes and Lily is spending time at each door and window in the house to see what she's missed. She still isn't her usual self, she doesn't want to play but she is moving around albeit at a sedate pace. She is back to her crunchy food with tuna juice on the side. Her temperature went down yesterday into the normal range and down more today - yes I have a thermometer and I know how to use it :)

In another day or two I think she'll be back to her normal activity levels. Zoom zoom zoom! Her sister Luna has been by her side constantly - she is so loving and sympathetic. Every once in a while Luna checks Lily and gives her a good licking :)

On Wed. I'll be flying out of Toronto on the red-eye to Heathrow then Dublin and Annie and I will meet up on Friday!! Very exciting. So I am going to take a blogging break and catch up with you all when I get back, around mid September.

See you....in September....everybody sing along!