Archives for July 2007

Hello, y’all.

Digit is great! So much better! Yelling for food ALL the time, and happy with his pain-patch which he’s still wearing. So, yay. It still hits me sometimes (okay, every day) that this is the guy I lost. The one I said goodbye to. The one I mourned. And he’s really here. It’s still the very most wonderful thing.

And while I would LOVE to show you pics of my newly completed lacy cotton cardie, but I can’t find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. Lala? Any ideas?

But I can show you this cuteness:

Now, Harriet only really tolerates the kittens anyway, so the fact that she rested her head on Willie, even for a few minutes, was mindblowingly cute.

(All pet-blog, all the time.)

I don’t even HAVE much other news. I am moving forward with the tonsillectomy (my second in five years, I always have to mention that). I am extremely displeased, and that is an understatement. Depressed and bummed is more like it. I know going into it how painful it will be and that makes me dread it more. No one can lie to me about ice cream and popsicles. I know better. But last week I had a throat infection flare up for no reason, and it lasted for a week, and I was pretty miserable and unhappy, so I know it’s the right thing to do.

But that so doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it. Bah.

It rained on my way to work this morning! Warm, weird rain, that made me happy and want to knit. I’m starting to design a sweater for Lala, and while I have two motifs chosen, I can’t seem to find a third that I like, and I’m struggling. Maybe I just need to knit socks some more.

Yes, that’s it. I’m at work, and so far it’s quiet (there’s a new supervisor on shift who doesn’t like the radio or TV on in the background — I thought I would like the silence but the HUM of it seems so loud). No one is really talking, and the phones are blessedly quiet, so I’m going to sit in this rather uncomfortable chair and knit, and look forward to my homemade mac’n’cheese with broccoli that I brought for lunch.

https://rachaelherron.com/hello-yall-digi/

Digit is doing so well! He’s only been home a day, but he’s eating! And this time I hope he’ll keep eating. He has a pain patch on his leg, which I think is really helping, although he’s such a little junkie with it on. Last night I went in to sit with him, and he kind of wobbled his over onto my lap and then gave me a nose kiss. The funny part of that is that DIGIT DOES NOT KISS. You can grab his mug and force his nose to touch yours, and he will growl. It was the equivalent of being at the bar with your curmudgeonly jerkface friend who never opens up about anything, ever, but then he gets drunks and puts his arms around you and slurs, "I lorve you, baybee, I never tell youse, I know, but yer the best thing EVAR and I LOVE you, you know that, man?"

So we like the pain patch.

And here, Lala took this for me (and you!) while I was at work yesterday.

For your daily WonderCat update: Digit’s surgery went great. He woke up very quickly after it, and ate all his dinner last night! They removed several very large bladder stones, and did a quick exploratory look around inside, and didn’t find anything else to worry about! Dude. I am SO relieved.

He ate half his breakfast this morning, and the tech says he’s resting comfortably. I get to take him home tomorrow (well, Lala will, since I’ll be at work, very sad).

I can’t wait to have that man HOME for GOOD. He hasn’t actually met the kittens yet, and I’m looking forward to him being strong enough to do so. Waylon did race into the recovery room once and came face to face with a grumpy looking being with a huge collar around his neck, and the wee cat didn’t know what to do. That was on one of Digit’s really bad days, so Digit did nothing, didn’t react at ALL. The kitten, however, backed up, his body language clearly saying, what the F*CK is THAT?

It will be amusing, to say the least.

Me, I’m okay. Haven’t kicked the throat thing yet, but I will, yo. I’m tough, like my cat-man.

Meanwhile, as Digit goes in for surgery (thumpety-thump goes my heart), I will catch you up on all the things I’ve MEANT to tell you about but haven’t, for one reason or another.

First, my girl Kira, manager of ArtFibers, has opened her own line. Go, check, it’s good stuff. She has true talent, and she can cook Indian food like no one else.

Second, if you’re still feeling altruistic, I encourage you to support Jen in her 3-Day Walk — she was having trouble reaching her goal, and I know it was hard for me when I did it five or six years ago, but it was one of the BEST things I’ve ever done. You can pledge for her HERE and you can read No-Blog Rachel’s description of her walk, just this last weekend, here and here, if you’re not sure what it’s like.

Third, proof that I knit.

It’s going to be a lace sweater. If it fits. Let’s hope. I’m making it up as I go along, and I’m not the best for that, really. Short sleeves, based on Babs Walker’s Horseshoe pattern, using gold old cotton (Peaches’n’Cream, I think).

Fourth, I think that’s all. I hope you have a lovely day. Yep.

We went to see him yesterday afternoon — oh, what a difference an IV makes. He looked SOOOO different from just hours before. Plus, he was getting good pain meds, so he felt well enough to yell at us (hooray!) but his voice sounded funny. Like if a stoner gets mad at you, "Heyyy!…Huh? What?" He was hydrated again, and he had been eating, and they took his e-collar off and removed his stitches, so he was grooming himself.

I think that’s a great sign, meself. I’ll visit him later today and tell him you all are still rooting for him…..

*Just heard from the doc — Digit’s doing even better now, still eating, and they’re going to do the big surgery tomorrow. Yay! Scary, but yay!

Today I’m not feeling so well myself, sore throat is back, called in sick for a training day, and I think I’m just going to sit on the couch and drink tea. One of the first symptoms of the tonsillitis (which I’m going to beat, btw — I’m supposed to have my tonsils out again in two weeks, but I’m really trying to fix myself holistically so I can avoid it) is exhaustion, which is weird, since it’s just my throat. But I will heed this and go lie down some more. Me and Digit, beating the crud. Yep.

And kittens help.

To those of you who care about the writing or care about the knitting, I apologize. Apparently this is a cat blog for now, and that’s just the way it is. So there.

I love that stupid cat. Had you noticed?

Took him to the vet this morning — and they kept him there for a few days. I HATE that, but I also know that he’s in the best place. They’re putting him back on the IV for fluids and pain medicine — hopefully if he’s hydrated and in less pain he’ll quit straining on the box and start eating again (he’s lost another whole pound, down to 7.1 — good god, that cat got up to 19 pounds once, a long, long time ago when he was depressed and trapped inside). And if he starts eating again, he can have his surgery on Thursday.

    Anorexic Digit, looking for his cell so he can call his agent

But for now his hospital room at home (the front porch) is sadly empty and I miss him and I feel awful for leaving him there again.

You know what is a very, very, very nice part? The fact that I drove away crying a little bit, but ONLY over Digit, and I have no worries, none at all, about financing this. I am taking the advice of many people — holding on to the money (in a kind of paypal escrow) until Digit is all good and better, and only THEN donating the rest. But you’ll be the first to know when I’m donating, and how much. I can’t WAIT for that day. Because if I’m donating whatever overage there might be from your lovely generosity, then Digit is sound and healthy and in good spirits.

Or dead. That does cross my mind, that he might not make it, after all this, after his epic trek home. (Did I tell you about his claws? His massive, always curled under no matter how much I clipped them, claws? And how now they’re tiny little straight spikes from being worn down from walking for four months?) And honestly, I can’t bear to think about it, so I’m putting it out of my mind once again. That cat HAS to make it. Forget my brief forays into Buddhist study, THIS GUY IS GONNA LIVE FOREVER. And me saying it, yeah, that’ll make it so. Right?

Right?

Cat blog. See? And I’m not apologizing.Oh, wait, I already did. Well, all right.

For those of you who prefer people and dogs and knitting and all things that aren’t cats, I will briefly tell you about Bolinas. On Saturday, the Whoreshoes had a gig at Smileys. Oh, Smileys Saloon on the beach. Red Silvia came with her posse and my friend Nate took plenty of pictures with her camera. It strikes me now that she was a trooper for lending it to him.

I celebrated my birthday there, because I like to spin out my birthday as long as people will let me, and I even made a guest appearance! I sang "Once Again ‘Round That Dance Floor" by kd lang, and people seemed to enjoy it. Of course, there was bourbon involved (not me, them), so who knows?

And I FORGOT THE FIRST LINE. I hadn’t been practicing because my throat had been hurting all week and I assumed we weren’t going to do it. But on Saturday, I suddenly felt better, and we decided to move ahead. I sang the song over and over to myself in my head. I was only having trouble with remembering the second verse and moving into the break. The first line, WHICH IS THE TITLE, no, it never crossed my mind that it COULD be forgotten.

I sang a little phonetic "do wee deee oh flow yeah" thing that sounded like the right song dubbed in the wrong language, and then I got it back and didn’t have another problem. The cute part was that Lala was standing right next to me, and sang the rest of the song softly so that had I forgotten again, she would have cued me. It was very sweet.

And there were cupcakes. Hooray!