Category Archives: Cats

Catching Up: April 13, 2023 Edition

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It’s been real, y’all.

[+] Work. Most of my students dropped classes toward the end of the quarter, so I had a soft finish to Winter Quarter. I still slept through most of Spring Break, so the quarter definitely wore me out. I was online last week, so my students started up in earnest this week.

[+] Health. I went to Urgent Care for a UTI on Tuesday, but my UA was clear. I was definitely in pain and it was in the spot for diverticulosis, so my grand prize was lab work and a CT scan. (Just a head’s up to anyone local: the Comprehensive Imaging Center on Division Street is freaking *AWESOME* and got me worked in super fast.) I still feel like crap, and I slept for seven hours straight yesterday, which was very likely me sleeping off a fever because I was completely dead to the world during that time. I pre-emptively canceled out of choir practice tonight, and I’m going to start taking a fiber supplement to try and keep things from getting bad enough to send me to the ER.

[+] Cats. For those who have been reading this blog for long enough, you’ll know that I had a tabby patch monster named Freya while I was married. We had her from the time she was a teacup kitten, and she was a fuzzy little pitbull. Sadly, I couldn’t take her when I left my marriage in October 2015, so she stayed with my former in-laws. (They treat their cats like royalty, so this was a good arrangement.) My former mother-in-law kept me updated on her, and she sent me pictures to make sure I knew that Freya was in good hands. The little monster became my father-in-law’s guard kitty (because she loves men), and she even stared down some paramedics to keep them from taking him away. (My former mother-in-law had to close her off in another room and incurred Freya’s wrath. I had to talk to Jon about something that day, and I started the conversation with the words, “DO YOU *KNOW* WHAT YOUR CAT DID?!?!?”)

Anyway, I got a text from my former mother-in-law on Tuesday letting me know that Freya had headed to Valhalla (where all Viking warrior princesses go) and had died in her arms at the vet at the ripe old age of 19. Many tears were shed, but I know that Freya had a good life with lots of love.

Freya

7 Quick Takes: COVID Boosters and Fatigue Edition

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7 Quick Takes at MyDomesticChurch.Com

— 1 —

Daniel Shot #1. I realized around Christmas that I had completely forgotten to get Daniel his flu shot. I figured that I’d call and get him an ADHD appointment after Christmas and do it then… except that his pediatrician had no openings until around January 20th. So… I called in and was able to get a nurse appointment for yesterday. I was dreading it because we usually need extra help, and last time they put us in the baby room with a rocking chair. (Have you tried giving a shot to a kid in a rocking chair fighting back? The nurse got lucky and stuck him one of the time he rocked by.) Thankfully, we were in a regular exam room this time, so I was able to fold the top part of myself on him and hold his arm still.

— 2 —

Daniel Shot #2. They just lowered the age for COVID boosters to 12, so I had to make an appointment for Daniel to get his. The problem: almost nobody was scheduling for them, so I had to do some looking. Next obstacle: finding a time that worked with my work schedule. It ended up being this afternoon at my local Haggen, and we managed to do it with Daniel on my lap and me bear-hugging him.

— 3 —

Fatigue. After Daniel got his COVID booster and we got our grocery shopping done (because we had the 15-minute wait before leaving to make sure Daniel didn’t have any adverse symptoms and it was something to do during the wait), we got home and put groceries away. I then had to process the 70 lbs of Daniel supplies that had arrived in the past two days… which involves getting it UPSTAIRS to the guest room and Daniel’s closet. Next, I had to haul all the cardboard back downstairs and down to the area by the recyclers where we store it until the biweekly trash day when they take recycling. After I was done, came in, washed my hands, and headed back UPSTAIRS, I somehow had to muster up the energy to shower. I’ve since made/ate dinner, washed my prep and dinner dishes, and headed upstairs, and I’m in a dark room waiting for Daniel to go to sleep so I can feed him and then go to sleep myself. I’ve forgotten how exhausting it is to have to restrain my kid for shots, especially now that he is as tall as I am and my legs are almost too short to wrap around his!

— 4 —

Beautiful. Disturbed’s cover of “The Sound of Silence” came out 6 years ago, but it is still stunningly beautiful in my opinion, especially the video.

— 5 —

An interesting Tuesday. I got almost no sleep on Monday night, so I thought Tuesday was going to be… interesting. I walked into the drop-in room to find the tables rearranged and my friend Kim (who is the closest friend I have in Washington) doing something Calculus-looking on the board for a bunch of young male students. (They turned out to be engineering students.) There are times when you sit down, shut up, and listen, and this was one of those occasions, especially as Kim explained that she had done all the table Tetris things during the first hour of her shift. I was pretty speechless anyway, so I just busied myself with putting the sign-up sheet for my church’s Lenten devotional book writers together as well as polishing the ask letter.

— 6 —

Last weekend. There were no Quick Takes last weekend due to my parents celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. I posted a few of the pictures from their wedding album on Facebook, and a few people couldn’t believe that they weren’t pictures of me, especially as my hair is currently as long as Mom’s was when she got married. I had to send over a few pictures from MY wedding to prove that it wasn’t me in my parents’ wedding pictures!

Anyway, they didn’t want a big party (not just due to COVID but because it’s not what they’re into), so my evil twin’s family came up overnight for dinner and a nice breakfast. I had fun chasing my 3 1/2 year old nephew Braden around the house. 🙂

— 7 —

Betty White. I wanted to remind everyone that Monday is the Betty White challenge where people are encouraged to donate to their favorite animal shelter or rescue in her name. If you need a place to donate to, I highly recommend the Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota. I sponsor two of their hybrids Love and Riku, and they’re rescuing a serval named Bruno in Massachusetts who just had to have one of his hind legs amputated.

This is Love being a chatterbox:

For more Quick Takes, go visit our host Elena of My Domestic Church.

Catching Up…

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I haven’t posted since Kelly’s last Quick Takes because I’ve been busy. What have I been doing, pray tell? Well…

[+] I put my church’s Advent devotional book together. It was called “Savior of the Nations, Come” and I asked people in the parish what had been saving them since March 2020. Their answers make up the devotional book. I even made a playlist of songs that had been saving me since March 2020, and I’m sharing it below if you need some tunes.

[+] I’ve been working intermittently. Two problem students got taken off of my tutoring roster, so I was down to just a handful of students and much less than the 19 hours I had on paper. A few of them just needed me to correct papers for them, so that further cut my hours down. I’ve been having sinus and asthma crud, so being able to go back to bed after getting Daniel off to school for a nap is not a bad thing.

[+] I’ve been trying to socialize my spooky paws. Doc finally moved out of the guest room two weekends ago and set up housekeeping under my parents’ king-sized bed. This was fine until it came time for Mr. Sissy Stripes to go to the vet. It took a herculean effort on the part of Mom and me to get him out, and we only ended up getting him into his cage because he fled to the bathroom which is a more confined space. (We figured out that getting in his cage is a sign that he is going to a new shelter, so no wonder he hates it!)

Here’s my striped prince at the vet. Doesn’t he have beautiful stripes? Aren’t his eyes a lovely green color?

My beautiful boy.

At the vet, he eventually stopped fighting us and let me hold him. (The room had a ton of Feliway in it.) His tech and vet wrapped him in that towel (which was sprayed down with Feliway) to take him elsewhere for shots and bloodwork. They returned him with him looking like the happiest cat in the world. He had four women loving on him and telling him how gorgeous he was for 40 minutes, so his little kitty ego got scratched. The good news is that he’s in amazing health, but the bad news is that he tested strongly positive for FIV on the antigen test. Mom is paying for the PCR test, but it’s probably going to be a definite FIV diagnosis. It means that we need to keep eyes on him and make sure he isn’t getting any viruses or infections. Minion will be tested for it the next time he is at the vet, but we’re not super worried because it’s usually spread by saliva and bite wounds. (We’re sad, but FIV isn’t a death sentence.)

When we got home, it was like Doc realized he was home and not in a new shelter. He let us hold and cuddle him… and then disappeared under my parents’ bed. I found him under my bed later that day and did get pets, but I made the mistake of trying to take him out so he could have my window… and I’m in deep trouble for that still.

[+] I’m working on Christmas presents… from last Christmas. I’ve been working on Mom’s socks from last year and I had to restart sock #1 on Friday during therapy. Thankfully, this iteration (#4 or #5) has been going OK.

7 Quick Takes: Feeling Blah Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Worst case scenario. I saw this on Facebook and decided it needed to be shared as I’m a member of the “Almost Died in Childbirth” club.

Pregnancy worst case scenario.

— 2 —

Doc take #1. We’re done medicating Doc, but he is still averse to us putting hands on him. Mom gets away with it by giving him kibble or greenies by hand. The smell of both of those makes me feel nauseated, so I’m having to rely on my natural charm. He is not impressed.

— 3 —

Doc take #2. I’ve discovered that Mr. Sissy Stripes goes absolutely crazy with the laser pointer, so the two of us now play with it every night. He is comfortable enough with me to be silly and to emerge from under the bed to eat, so that’s progress. I actually had him playing in the open tonight, and he would bound across the floor, see me, and go hide behind an afghan on the floor. Repeat that a bunch of times, and you get a tired tiger kitty looking at you upside down. He is so funny. 🙂

— 4 —

Doc take #3. Doc has very squeaky little mew. He gives it to me when I come see him in the morning before his breakfast, and he will sometimes meow me while we play.

Mr. Sleepy Stripes

— 5 —

Nooooooooooooo! Buster Posey, catcher for the Giants, is retiring. He has been a fixture with the team for 12 seasons, including three World Series victories.

— 6 —

/rolls eyes To the people who are saying “let’s go, Brandon”:

You don’t sound witty or cool. You sound cowardly because you can’t just say what is on your mind. When I hear that phrase, I automatically subtract 50-75 IQ points. This applies to politicians as well, some of whom don’t have the IQ points to lose!

Snuggles,
me

— 7 —

Wow. I just saw Kelly’s post that this is the last week of Quick Takes. Hm.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Spooky Cat Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Introductions. This is Doc. He is the new cat in town.

My spooky kitty cat

— 2 —

How he came to Casa Meditatio. Mom needed a buddy after losing Jethro, so I started looking on rescue sites to try and find an appropriate cat for her. I was at the vet last Friday picking up the bag with Jethro’s box in it (along with a paw print, some fur in a ziploc bag, a sympathy card, and certificate of cremation), and there was a beautiful and sociable tabby cat with mittens in the adoption enclosure. I excitedly called Mom to say that I might have a cat for her… only to find out that this ridiculously social cat hates other cats, meaning that she was a no-go. I fought back tears the entire way home because I had fallen in love with her the second I met her.

When I got home (and had a good cry), I looked online at various rescues and saw this beautiful tabby cat with soulful eyes on the website of the NOAH Center, a local rescue that does low-cost spays/neuters and also helps to adopt out shelter cats that are having a hard time getting adopted. I called them and asked some questions about him. They told me that he seemed to be OK with other cats, that he liked to burrow under blankets, and was just a lovebug. I fell in love with him at that point, and Mom did too when she went to the NOAH Center on Monday. He rubbed her hands and purred for her when she reached into his enclosure, and she brought him home.

— 3 —

Spooky boy. When I called the NOAH Center to make sure he was still adoptable on Monday, they told me to have a sanctuary room prepped for him because he would need to decompress for 72 hours or so, especially as the shelter experience had been hard on him. We set up the guest room for him, and he has been enjoying its amenities, most notably the underside of the bed. He got a bit hissy when we got him home, and he is definitely a bit spooky right now.

— 4 —

Socializing Mr. Spooky. My mom has spent time in the guest room having her breakfast and watching a lecture on Beethoven with him in there. I’ve spent a couple of hours every evening since Monday lying on a fleece blanket on the floor working on my laptop to help him get used to my presence. I started reading to him last night, and he seems to be chill for that. He will actually go to sleep while I’m reading and he is at the point where he’ll come out from under the bed to eat or use his litter box with me in the room.

He also likes to burrow and Mom has found him under one of the fleece blankets with his little face poking out, and he burrowed into one of the comforters on the bed on Thursday morning. I walked in to check on him and found Mom stroking a lump in the bed. 🙂

— 5 —

A wrench in the plan. The NOAH Center called us on Tuesday morning to let us know that Doc was on antibiotics for a cold and that they had forgotten to send them home with him. Mom and Dad went and got them, and we had to extract Doc from under the bed to medicate him. We really hate doing it because it makes Doc more scared, but we’ve done it daily since Tuesday, and today (Friday) is thankfully the last day.

When I extracted him on Wednesday, I was holding him to me and petting him while telling him that he is loved, he is safe, he has beautiful stripes, and his yellow eyes are soulful. Each day has gotten a little easier, but we still hate doing it. (The antibiotic is also stinky and the smell stays on my hands all day, so I’ll be happy to be done today.)

— 6 —

Progress. Today, I went into the guest room to switch out books this afternoon, and I decided to check on him. He was next to the lamp table (12 inches from me), so I lay down on the floor next to him and put out my fingers. He sniffed them, and I decided to see if he would let me pet his tail. He allowed it as well as letting me pet his little feet. He finally touched his nose to my fingers, and I feel so incredibly special.

— 7 —

Minion’s reaction. The prince of darkness knows something is up, has been sniffing at the door and puffing up, and is perturbed that there is food in HIS guest room that he is not being allowed to have. (I should point out that he has several food stations in the house, but he is of the opinion that stolen food is best.) I’ve been trying to give my incorrigible monster extra attention, but we’re expecting fireworks when he eventually meets Doc. Please pray that their eventual meeting is mostly positive.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Bye Bye Nick Rolovich Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Update on the Nick Rolovich debacle. There has been debate in the local media on whether Nick Rolovich (the head coach of the WSU football team) was going to be granted a religious exemption from being vaccinated because he claims to be Catholic.

Well…

Seattle Times: WSU football coach Nick Rolovich fired for refusing COVID vaccine; defensive coordinator is acting head coach

Adding to Rolovich’s pain is the fact that because he was fired “for cause”, he is not entitled to have his contract bought out. His anti-vaccination stance cost him upwards of $3.6 million. Rolovich can appeal his termination to the president of the university, but I doubt that’s going to be successful because the president likely approved the athletic director’s decision to terminate him.

He is suing for “unlawful and unjust” termination because they wouldn’t grant him a religious exemption. (The process, by the way, is completely blind. They don’t look at the name of the person asking for the exemption–just the argument.) The various employment lawyers on the news have said that his case is weak because he would have to prove that the COVID vaccine is against Catholic teaching… and the Pope has encouraged people to get vaccinated. (The first statement on the subject was issued back in December 2020.) The Diocese of Spokane has even had priests who have appeared in videos encouraging Washingtonians to get vaccinated.

I’m having a massive bout of schadenfreude over this because my parents are UW alums and this shows that not even the highest-paid state employee (Rolovich) is immune from the consequences of not being in compliance with Governor Inslee’s mandate. If I have to be vaccinated for work, so does he!

— 2 —

Regarding religious exemptions… Some of my clergy friends have had strangers contact them to sign religious exemption forms for them because they don’t want the COVID vaccine for their jobs. (All of my friends have said a pretty emphatic “NO!” to those requests.) They’re pretty stunned at the chutzpah of these strangers because they can’t be bothered to join a church but think nothing of using a random clergy person to get out of facing the consequences for not doing someting required for their jobs.

Seriously… get vaccinated or don’t get vaccinated, but own the consequences of your decision. It’s cowardly to try to use someone else to get out of facing consequences.

— 3 —

Who else got fired? There have been people like state patrol troopers, ferry workers, and others who tried to challenge the mandate on the grounds that “it violates their Constitutional rights” (spoiler alert: IT DOESN’T), but they lost on Monday. Inslee is a lawyer, y’all. Do people really think he isn’t familiar with both the Constitution and the Supreme Court rulings on the subject, including Jacobson v. Massachusetts and Prince v. Massachusetts?

I'm totes not a fan girl of Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Nooooooo...

Also, fact check: the Supreme Court has NOT ruled against COVID vaccines. (There are some anti-vaccination people out there claiming this.)

— 4 —

Empathy. This quote from Kelly resonates with me in a huge way.

I’m also sharing it because I hear almost daily “I don’t know how you do all you do!” Surprise folks – I don’t know either! All I know is whatever system I’m currently using is making me tired, irritable, and leaves lots of dog hair everywhere that isn’t getting cleaned up on a regular basis. I would not recommend my current system to anyone even if it makes me look “productive”.

This is totally me… except that it’s cat fur instead of dog hair.

— 5 —

Words with Friends. If any of you play Words with Friends, feel free to challenge me. I’m “skagitcatherder”.

— 6 —

How I’m coping with life at the moment. YouTube has a bunch of “Live PD” videos, and I’m watching those while working on various things and to fall asleep at night. I have no idea why car chases and police officers tasing people is relaxing for me. It just is.

— 7 —

Breakfast. I need to get up, throw real clothes on, and go to the vet to pick up Jethro’s box. This means that I need to eat breakfast, and I hate most breakfast foods. If I’m being honest, I want an eggless Egg McMuffin (yes, McDonald’s will make it for me if I’m willing to pay extra) and hash browns, but that’s not doable for financial reasons so… it will probably be chicken and cheese taquitos from the freezer section of the local grocery store. (They’re not even artisan or organically made–they’re the cheapie kind that are full of preservatives.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: A Harder Week Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Update on the sinus infection. I’m on Day 7 of my first round of Azithromycin. I’m not feeling amazing, but I’m not coughing to the point of choking. I’m still a bit stuffy, and I’m unfortunately almost out of Sudafed. (This is a problem because the regular Sudafed that you get from behind the pharmacy counter is the only thing that works to help me sleep… and my local pharmacy is out of it.)

— 2 —

Update on Jethro. Mom took Jethro back to the vet on Tuesday, and his bloodwork was trashed to the point where he could have had a blood clot if he kept going. The vet told her the prognosis, and she asked if they would be able to put him to sleep that day. When they said “yes” and told her she could have as long as she needed with Jet, she called Dad to come and sit with her. Jethro seemed to sense that it was his time because he relaxed and curled up in both Mom’s lap and Dad’s lap before they sedated him to give him the final shot. (Meanwhile, I had come out of my room after finishing with a student, and I figured out what was going on when I found Dad gone.) He went peacefully. We know that he is with his brother Homer again, and that is comforting since Homer’s death three years ago was really hard on all of us. (We adopted Minion the day after Homer passed away. He helped us heal.)

Minion has had a tiring schedule of guarding Mom and cuddling her (because Jet is gone and Jet was Mom’s lap kitty) in addition to his normal Mama cuddles with me. I’ve got feelers out on Petfinder for a Maine Coon cat or at least another one that might be a good buddy for Minion, who is definitely feeling Jet’s absence even if Jet was a cranky old man.

— 3 —

Why I like living in a blue state. My governor gets crap from the Republicans in the eastern part of Washington about the mask mandate and the various vaccine mandates, but we’re not in the mess that Idaho is currently in.

Why do I believe that Idaho is that bad off? Well… it might have something to do with Idaho sending a bunch of their worst patients to Washington to take up our hospital beds. (The stupider people in eastern Washington have been going to Sandpoint and Coeur d’ Alene to shop because Idaho doesn’t have a mask mandate, so I have no sympathy for hospitals in those Washington counties because they’re doing it to themselves.) The Republicans in Idaho have been bickering over COVID precautions to the point where the lieutenant governor took the opportunity to issue an executive order banning mask mandates while the governor was out of state. (The governor canceled the executive order when he returned.)

Do I love having to mask up all the time? No. However, Governor Inslee issued the mandates two months ago because he gives a crap about the health of the people in the state. The members of Idaho’s state government seem to be only thinking of themselves.

— 4 —

Q & A with a nurse. A member of r/nursing on Reddit did a Q & A in order to dispel a bunch of myths about COVID, the vaccines, etc. Other than a few pieces of bad language, it’s a good read and explains about why the COVID vaccines were developed so quickly.

— 5 —

Worth watching. I had to watch this TED Talk in order to proofread a paper, and I really recommend it.

— 6 —

How have I been dealing with all of this? I am crocheting while I work with students or watch YouTube. I’m watching a lot of “Live PD” on YouTube because it relaxes me for some strange reason.

— 7 —

Some positivity this week. I was doing my weekly grocery shopping on Tuesday when a woman stopped me. She told me that she had seen me with Daniel the previous week and that I was doing a really good job with him. She then patted me on the shoulder and told me I was a good mother.

I honestly almost cried in the middle of Haggen when she said that to me. (I’m tearing up now thinking about it.) I don’t know if she knew how much I needed to hear all of that. It’s honestly getting me through the harder parts of the week, and it also is giving me patience with Daniel because someone out there thinks I’m doing things right.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.