I do not exist

I talked to the vet some more about Scooter Thursday; she says that he probably died quickly after getting hit, just making it back to his shed before the shock hit him. So, while there was really nothing I could have done to save him if I had found him right away, at least now I know he didn't suffer.

asia_sky  captured this video, which is probably the last pictures taken of him alive. Hear him demand to be let outside, then grump at the snow, and finally he trots off to his outdoor home, underneath the shed where I found him Tuesday.

You were a good kitty. We had a good eight months together.




Scooter
? ~ 4/2009

When I got home from work this morning, Scooter was waiting for me, wanting back in the house. It was cold enough (well below freezing- just slightly above 0F) that I don't know why he was outside in the first place, but both the cats are weird that way. He goes in the house with me, starts eating some fudz, and Jinx immediately had to have a hissy fit. I took Ike outside, and they were still at it when I came back in. I just shook my head and went to bed; not much else I could do. Neither of them wanted to go back outside, so they could either get along, or not- I was too tired to care.

As it turned out, I didn't get a lot of sleep anyway. About two hours after I'd been to bed, Ike wanted back out; so I nudged him down the ramp, left the door cracked, and stumbled off to the bathroom to do my own tinkly business. When I came back out, the door was ajar the correct width for a dog to slip back through, but no sign of Ike anywhere. Not in my room waiting for me, not under my desk, not in Andy's room, and I couldn't find him outside either. Mel's door was closed, too.

He just doesn't get around well enough to be able to dissappear like that. While trying to get my foggy brain to think up a plan of action, I faintly heard what sounded like his collar jingling behind Mel's door; seems he somehow got in there and then shut the door behind himself. Made sense to me at the time, so I stumbled back to bed.

About an hour after that (it's roughly 10 am now) I hear the phone ring, the machine pick up, and no message left. Ike's snoozing beside me, so he some how got back out of Mel's room. The phone rings again, a message is left- it's the newspaper; one of the color ads is missing. I log in remotely to my office, PDF the file, email it off, call the press, and go back to bed, all without really ever waking up. I think I managed to sleep another 20 minutes before the press called back- the file wouldn't separate properly for them. I managed to explain what it is suposed to look like, they decide to just block out the text that's showing up on all the plates instead of just the black plate (probably because I was only vaguely coherent,) and I went back to bed. I slept pretty good for the next few hours, getting up at 2 p.m.


The cats have settled down. Jinx was sleeping on his window throne, enjoying the catnip dregs around him.



Scooter was sleeping on the couch; I think he had just fallen out of his bed. Again.





And Ike wanted to go back outside again. This time, he just wanted to lay in the snow and stare at the neighborhood like the old man he is.



Speaking of Ike...



He's had two treatments of adequan so far. There's been no noticeable improvement yet, but something is going on. The night after he had his first injection, his stomach made the strangest gurgling sounds, but nothing ever came of that. When the vet came to give him his second injection, he was happy to see her as usual (she brings him cheese), but as soon as he heard the cap pop off the syringe, he sat down and didn't want to get up; he knew what was coming. The injections are deep into the muscle of his hindquarters, and I can tell from my own experience, it's painful.


But he got through it like a trooper, was rewarded with more cheese, and then just sort of gloomily stared at us for awhile.


That was Thursday evening. Friday and Saturday, he was restless, up and down a lot, not able to find a comfortable position, wanting to go outside, changing his mind and coming right back inside, etc. So something's going on. But this evening, he had an accident in the hallway. That's not something that's happened since he had pancreatitis a year ago. This was solid lumps, however, and easy to clean up. Hopefully, it does not indicate that he's losing bowel control. I'll mention it to his vet Monday, when he gets his next shot, and much more cheese.

Scooter's decided that the furnace vent in the kitchen is his new BFF. ( Scooter luv )

It started snowing Friday. It finally stopped today. There's between 1-2 feet on the ground in places.

The storm was almost completely windless. Most of the trees still have all their leaves as well. Those things combined to cause massive snow and ice build-up on trees, resulting in many downed trees and branches.

Here's what I saw when I got home this morning:
( Too much snow! )

Ike decided he had been cooped up enough, and it was playtime, bad joints be damned!
( But the pets seem to be enjoying themselves. )

He seems to actually like the snow! Silly cat. I spent 30 minutes shoveling, shaking snow off of branches (and all over me, of course) and trimming back branches as well. At least now we can get out without crawling. There's going to be a lot of clean up as the snow melts throughout the week, and my emergency quick-and-dirty weatherization of the house really needs to be properly finished.  By Friday, this snow should all be gone.

Just in time for the next storm to probably come along.

He won't sleep on my bed, but he likes Andy's.

Buddy has been officially renamed Scooter. Not only does it fit better, but as it turns out I have a habit of calling Ike "my buddy" and "buddy" often enough that it was causing confusion to both he and I.