Oh The Woes of a Cat

For Ashes, I'm sure, the past 3 weeks have been the worst adventure she's ever or will ever be on! It all started with what typically happens to a 6-7mth old female, she was sent to be spayed and declawed along with her sister Cinders. They spent a few days there and when I got them home, they were relieved. I watched them like a hawk the first couple of days, checking their incisions, and watching their paws. After a week, they were back to themselves, racing around the house with each other, battling it out at night. Until that is, that Friday where I had just finished talking to my neighbour about how perfectly they had healed up. I went to check on their incisions one last time, to make sure all is well, when I spotted something red on Ashes' leg. A hole was gaping on her inside hind leg. Quickly I searched the entire house, looking for signs of where she caught it on. I couldn't find anything. Trying to recall a moment where I may have heard her cry out in pain. I put her down for her to walk, and she did without favouring her leg which then made me suspicious. I called Christa (my wonderful babysitter, who is also a vet tech.) and asked if she would mind stopping in to look at her leg. She came with in 15 mins. She first thought the same I did, that Ashes impaled herself on something, but then we both looked really closely and noticed a small little hole that seemed to run deep. Christa immediately knew that this is probably where they injected Ashes with a needle to put her to sleep for her surgery. She told me to call the vet and have them look at it and fix it up. Christa also warned me that if they didn't agree that this is where the needle was, then I would be looking to pay $140 or more on this type of visit. After Christa left, I let the tears fall. It was the worst timing ever. We were to be leaving on our vacation the next day. We did not have that kind of money to be dropped at that time. I called the vet and they saw her that night. The vet did confirm what Christa had thought and so thankfully they cleaned her up, gave her an antibiotic injection and put a cone collar on her and sent me home with a cream that needed to be applied 2-3 times a day.

This meant our 11 yr. old neighbour couldn't watch the cats for us. So my sister said she would take them for the week. We loaded up for our holidays and packed the cats as well and dropped them off at my sister's house.

After the week had gone by we picked the cats up and got them home. But this is what her leg looked like after a week.

Not much healing took place, not that I could tell really. It looked clean and I was happy with it, but Christa came on Monday to look at her and was shocked when she saw it. She thought it was much too deep and sure it would heal on it's own, but would take months! She told me to take her back to the vet and let them make the call, since it was their fault. So I did. I still feared the cost of these visits, but again, thankfully they owned up to their error and have not charged me a thing. When the vet saw how deep it was, right away she told me that she would like to surgically correct it and could I bring back the next day. Tuesday morning, I carted Ashes off to the clinic again, I picked her up that afternoon and this is what her leg then looked like:
She was to continue to wear her cone collar and go back next Saturday to have the stitches removed. All was well until Wednesday afternoon when I caught her licking her butt with the cone collar still in place. Turns out the collar was too small, and the darn cat chewed one of her stitches out! I called the vet and they again took her right away. They didn't want to put the stitches back in because that would require them to put her under, so they stapled it (sounds awful) and put a bigger collar on. It was so big she could hardly lift her head. I again called Christa and she happened to be going into her work and she had lighter cones for cats. So we have that corrected and now she can actually move around. But yes, lets see if there is anything else in store for this poor kitty cat.

The cone of shame (taken from the movie Up)

Fighting to See The Bright Side

I've been having a rough week or so. It started last Friday, the day before we left for our holiday at the cottage. It was so easy to spell disaster that day. Everything I didn't think was possible was, and managed to drain out my tears. I don't want to dwell on the events that unfolded, but in a quick review, kids were needy while there was an urgency to pack, cat had a hole in her leg, cat visited the vet but needed extra care for a good week, other cat peed in and on our cloth grocery bags and bins, only discovered that truth at the store where a poor girl packed my items in them while wet (ya, I feel like I can't show my face again!), got to cottage to find no water, in attempt to get water going broke the pump, had to wait for a plumber, Dave suffered a bad back, Joel got a very runny nose, Dave got a terrible cold to put him out for 2 days and when I thought it was all said and done, today my babysitter looked at Ashes' leg only to tell me it looks worse and now we're back to the vet's tomorrow.

Yes, I struggled to find joy, and when I got a glimpse of it, it was quickly taken from me. I feel like falling further into a hole. But I do have footholds that keep me going. Happy times were present and remembered:
*fresh baked donuts and indulging without a care
*the little boy who randomly asks questions about who God is
*my girl who doesn't let me out of her sight, even if I just have to pee
*squeals of joy when Chippy shows up
*the excitment of frogs and how many he counted
*how cool I became when I caught one, but then quickly uncool at my reaction of a snake
*her picking out books and pretending to read them "A Woman of Independent Means"
*the baby and his cuddles
*watching my man be the best daddy ever when it comes to building sand things
*exploring a town I've never been to before
*driving countryside roads to beaches and beautiful views
*the power in a booming thunder
*finding the joy in reading
*watching a movie with my hubby with no interuptions

Coming up with that list makes all the things that weren't right seem so little and small and worthless. I need to put all this silly stuff that seems to ruin a day and toss it away, but hold tight to those things that do bring me joy.

Some wonderful memories caught on camera....

Drink in these Moments......Savour Them

Last night, the kids were all asleep, Dave was out playing baseball, I was alone with the t.v. dull in the background. I dug out photo albums from years ago. As I was peeking into my past, memories flooded back, while certain moments I couldn't remember. Looking at my first trip to Australia, there were certain sweaters I remember and then there were shirts I don't ever recall owning, and yet the evidence was clear in the picture. I browsed through pictures with Lesya, and the many wacky adventures we were on. I brought out the album of when Dave and I started our life together. These weren't so terribly long ago, but long enough. It's funny how a picture comes with a long, amusing story, while others only capture an emotion in a face in that second the shutter closed.

While going through these pictures, I had happy feelings about all of them because my past is a happy one. But I also quickly realized how fast our time slips by. You turn around and you've entered a completely different moment, not realizing you've let go of the last one. I heard this song on the way home from our trip to Superior and it came to mind last night again. Here are the lyrics:

Why don't we dance anymore?
I'm not o.k. with that
Why don't we laugh anymore?
I'm not o.k. with that

The years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know, we only know when it's gone

Why don't we smile anymore?
I'm not o.k. with that
Why don't we dance slowly?
I'm not o.k. with that

'Cause the years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know, we only know when it's gone

The Years go by like the water in our lovers eyes.

(Needtobreathe - Stones Under Rushing Water)

Have a listen, loving this song....


Take the moments in. They are gifts given to us, why pass them by? Enjoy, delight, savour, absorb each moment if you can, the grand scheme of things, are life is a sliver of existence.