As many of you know, Milky, my very first kitty ever, has been very ill for the last few months. He's been going downhill pretty quickly, and when I talked to my mother (he lives with her now) earlier today, she said that he was only getting worse. She wanted to know if I wanted to come down to see him again, and I decided that I did.

Well, Eric got a phone call while we were at Game Night - as soon as he said that it was Mom, I knew. I'm still not entirely sure what happened - she was crying really hard when she told me, so I *think* she said that she got home from work and he was worse, seizing, maybe?, and she took him to the vet and he was gone. I think. Right now, I'm not going to ask her. All I know is that he's gone.

( The story of the Milky-cat )

His last few months were rough, and in a way, I'm glad he went the way he did - it means that my mother was spared the pain of making that decision, which I know she would second-guess forever. Still, this is going to be hard.

I'm on the couch, cats nearby, dancing on television.
No matter how many tears have fallen, more lurk, waiting.
My mother's tears still ring in my memory.
Only one thought runs through my mind:
I want to go home.

But I don't know where that is.

The Milky-cat appears to have the first signs of kidney failure, and possibly high blood pressure. He'll be going in for more tests on Saturday. It's a matter of maintenance, not treatment. I was doing all right until I asked my mother how she was doing, and she started to cry. Work was frustrating, and every day I don't have a permanent job lined up, I panic more. I start thinking that I made a huge mistake leaving my old job - sure, I hated it, but it paid the bills and meant I could take care of my family. I never should have left.

It's not a great time to be a Stephie right now.

Could y'all do me a favor and think healthy kitty thoughts for my kitty, Milky? He's my very first cat ever, and apparently he's not doing so well. He's about 12, almost 13 now, and he's lost quite a bit of weight and is "acting weird" according to my mother - meowing much louder and more constantly than normal, randomly hiding, things like that. He still seems to be eating (less, and eating more of Baron's wet food than his own crunchy stuff) and using the litter box just fine, but... We're taking him to the vet on Saturday to get the elderly cat check-up and blood work and all that.

Don't tell Ramses, but he's my favorite cat ever, and I'm not really ready to let him go yet.

( Pictures of the Milky-cat )

So, last night Eric and I kept hearing a cat crying outside. Every once in awhile we would hear what sounded like a cat's paw on a door, but we couldn't tell whose door was being pawed. (We live in an apartment complex, and our door and our neighbor's door are very close to each other.) We used to have a neighbor who would let his cats out during the day, and not always hear them when they wanted to come back in at night, so we thought that perhaps this was the case again. We couldn't bear to hear the kitty sound so upset, so we thought we'd try to find him or her and let the owner know to let the cat in (like we had with the old neighbor).

Imagine our surprise when we open our door and in streaked the cat! She was gray and silver, and my first thought was actually that it was a possum, not a cat. She came running in and immediately made it quite clear that she DID NOT like other cats. Feina hid, as she's a big wimp. Ramses, on the other hand, was merely curious, and kept trying to sniff out the interloper. She was having none of that, and started hissing and growling at him, which confused the heck out of him. He didn't so much hide as make a strategic retreat.

We realized that we couldn't really keep this cat in our apartment, but we weren't really sure what to do - it was about 10:30 at night, and I wasn't really all that keen on calling Animal Control or anything like that, since she was obviously someone's pet (long-haired cat, well groomed, but no collar - grr!). We tried some of the neighbors, but they said they didn't have a cat, and she wasn't theirs. We finally convinced her to leave the apartment and get down off our stoop, but it took some convincing.

This morning, we opened the door very cautiously and there she was again! We managed to keep her from coming back in, but she didn't look like she was planning to leave anytime soon. I feel so bad about making her stay outside like that, but we really can't take her in. I'm just hoping that she finds her way home soon.

But first, kitty pictures! Eric got some new toys for the camera. :)

( Cut because they're kinda big )

In other news...New Year's went the way it normally does - dinner at Black Angus (SO glad we made a reservation this year, 'cause DANG), followed by Game (All) Night at Phoenix. I played all of one game the whole night (Mah-Jongg, so it was a long game). I ended up going home around 5:30, and had just dozed off when Eric called to be picked up. Figures. :) New Year's Day was mellow and sleepy, and then work on Friday was SLOW. I was all alone again, and honestly, with it being as slow as it was, I'm concerned that it may be decided that they don't need two of us in here, and won't hire me on when my contract is up. I've applied for my position (it's up in the internal site), so we'll see what comes of that. Either way, I still have at least until the end of the month (or the end of March - it's a 4-6 month contract). We shall see.

Not much else going on in the Life of Stephie. Really hoping we won't have to deal with Snowpocalypse 2: Revenge of the Snowpocalypse anytime soon, because I would really like to have a couple of normal work weeks. Woo, excitement. :)

I woke up this morning with a bad case of the woozies, so I stayed home from work and spent most of the day in bed sewing and watching NCIS on DVD. The kitties decided that the best place to be was snuggled up with me.

Feina at my feet


Ramses against my side


The woozies appear to be a side effect of the Amazonian death cold (my boss has been fighting it for awhile). I'm doing better now, and will hopefully be able to make it into work tomorrow. This is, of course, provided Snowpocalypse 2008 doesn't shut us down. We've seen some ice, but it'll depend on how much comes down tonight. I keep forgetting that western Washington doesn't deal well with anything other than the Washington Drool when it comes to weather.

There's not much else going on right now - just trying to get a Christmas present for my mother-in-law finished before Saturday, as we're doing the gift exchange with that family then. We may be having Christmas dinner on Christmas with them, but that's still up in the air (I think). Sadly, because of the woozies, Date Night will be very boring this week. Le sigh.

I talked to my mother last night, and it looks like Baron made it through his surgery with flying colors. They ran a bunch of blood tests before they put him under, and he's a perfectly healthy kitty who had a big cyst on his neck. Fortunately, they were able to get everything in one go, so he has stitches, but he should be just fine. He has one of the soft satellite dishes right now, which apparently is driving him up a tree. Mom said that he keeps catching sight of the edge of it out of the corner of his eye, and he keeps trying to pounce it. I told her she needs to take pictures. :)

Thank you all for your well wishes. Here are a few (better) pictures of Baron. :)

( pictures! )

My mom brought her kitty Baron (in the icon) into the vet's today - he had a lump on his chin that started oozing a bit. It turns out to be a cyst or a tumor, and they'll be taking it out today. He'll need to be put under, so of course we're concerned. Any positive thoughts you have to spare, send to him, please?

And, to make it legal...


Baron, hiding behind the bed and blinking at the bright flashy thing.

So, I suddenly heard a smoke detector go off nearby, and then stop. i'm here by myself, so I really didn't want to have to crate the cats and get them outside. I walked over to the door and smelt smoke, and a fair amount of it. I slipped on my shoes and went outside - I couldnt see the smoke, but I sure could smell it. It smelled of burnt rubber and hair - not a pleasant combination. I walked downstairs and saw our downstairs neighbor outside, with the door open. Apparently the vacuum cleaner burned out (which explains the burnt-rubber-and-hair smell), and he had taken it outside to air it out. Whew!

Thus ends the excitement of the night. The cats were kinda concerned-ish about the noise of the smoke detector, but were much more excited by the fact that I opened one of the windows to help air out the place. Silly furballs.

There, a window into the life of the Stephie. Thrill-a-minute, don'tchaknow.