We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Blog

We being Apu, Woody, and Oliver. The Three Black Cats of the Apocalypse!!!

We feel that not only has Sweet Pea hijacked this blog with his "supposed" health issues, he has also hijacked our mom's heart and attention for well over a month now. Even worse, Sweet Pea pre-empted our Halloween by posting a scary cat skeleton xray of himself yesterday!

This....Must....Stop!!!

Apu: Dear Mother, have you even noticed that I'm losing my beautiful black furs again because I'm getting all nervous with Sweet Pea sneak attacking me and you don't say anything!! Now, Apu you know that's not true. I do say something when I see it. I can't police you cats every minute that I'm home you know. I keep telling you if you wouldn't act so scared and run away, he would stop chasing you.

Woody: Dear Mommy, every morning when you sits on the couch listening to your classical music to wake up, Sweet Pea jumps in your lap and kneads and sucks on your fluffy robe. You pet him and I hear you talk sweet things to him. I can't count how many times (really, I don't know how to count) when I try to do the same thing, you push me off and say "not now Woody". So, I just lie down next to you hoping you will notice me and give me a pat or two. Oh Woody, I know. I feel bad, but Sweet Pea really has taken up so much of my time worrying that I have neglected you. I promise to do better and to have some private lap time just with you!

Oliver: Dear Lady who feeds me, I really just want to say...keep feeding me. Oh, and....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

I know, I know, this is last year's photo. I've never been able to get another photo of all the three halloween cats together since then. Have a spooktacular Halloween everyone!!!

No Answers

After paying the over $300.00 vet bill yesterday, my vet came out to discuss what he found--basically nothing abnormal. He sent the xrays to a radiologist to look over but from his point of view there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. He even xrayed Sweet Pea's lungs, but everything was clear. The next step will be to get an endoscopic sonogram from another animal hospital as my vet is not equipped to do that.

As soon as I got Sweet Pea home he dashed to the litter box. Poor thing, I've never seen him pee as much as he did then, which made me mad wondering if they left him in a recovery cage with no litter box all day? After that he ate and drank and leapt up to all the open windows for some fresh air. Later last night, he jumped in my lap and we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" together. Knock on wood, no bleeding since Tuesday morning.

Thought you'd like to really "see" Sweet Pea...

My vet sent me home with his xrays on a CD. Look at those cute little "hands"!

Weekend Update

The weekend flew by in a blur. Never did accomplish much. I did do some cleaning and yesterday I made my chocolate chili for the first time this season. Watched some good movies--The Night of the Hunter on Friday night and yesterday while I was making chili, I watched Inherit the Wind with Spencer Tracy. A great old movie about the Scopes monkey trial in 1925 and the illegal (at the time) offense of teaching evolution in the schools. Then, last night I watched the original The Blob with Steve McQueen--what a hoot!

Mostly I fretted over Sweet Pea. He is still bleeding from his mouth but if weren't for that, you would never know anything was wrong. He still runs around with tail in the air, is eating and drinking well. So I called my vet and made the dreaded appointment. I will bring him in on Wednesday morning to be sedated and have an xray taken of his head and throat. The vet will also be able to get a good look down his throat while he is sedated, as well as a much more thorough look at his mouth. If all goes well, I'll be able to pick him up by 6:00 Wednesday evening.

Please keep those purrayers coming. I have so many worries. Worried they will find something seriously wrong, worried they won't find anything wrong, worried about the procedure itself...you name it, I'm worried about it.

One of My Favorite Things...

Just a quick post to give a shout out to one of my favorite things---the cable station, Turner Class*c Movies (TCM). I am a big, big old movie fan and TCM is a lifesaver for me in a world of reality television (yuck!) I know some of my blogger friends are not in the US, and am wondering, do you get TCM, or another station that plays all old movies with no commercials?


Every Friday night in October, is Thriller Night on TCM. They have played some great Hitchcock and other thrillers that I had not heard of before. Tonight (October 23) at 8:00 pm Eastern, they are playing The Night of the Hunter starring that classic bad boy Robert Mitchum



This is the only film directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. The film was shot in 1955 in black and white and I must say that some of his scenes are truly artistic (I'm thinking of the scene with the children trying to hide in the barn while through the barn door you see a silhouette of Mitchum riding his horse.) I highly recommend this film if you like to be spooked!
I know what I'll be doing tonight, hopefully with a few cats on my lap to keep me company.

What about you? Do you like old movies? What are your favorites? Enquiring Possumlady wants to know.

NOOO!!!

It looks like Sweet Pea was a little optimistic last week. While I was posting last night, I looked and saw that he was bleeding again from his mouth. Boy did my heart sink. I'm so frustrated by this. I called and my vet is out this morning but the vet tech said to get him back on antibiotics and she'll let the vet know when he gets in this afternoon.

So, it looks like more puurayers are needed.

Finishing up that Spring Planting

No, that's not a mistake. Yes, I'm finally finishing up planting the perennials that I bought over Memorial Day weekend. If you could see the land that I have to work with you'd understand. Not only is it hard packed clay, it is filled with stones, big and small. My sister brought over a Nandina bush from her yard that I also planted. In order to dig a hole big enough for the Nandina, I had to sit on the ground with a hand held pick ax and pick away. (A while back I bought a shovel that has teeth. It is supposed to be able to dig through the toughest soil. It is NO match for my rocky ground.) With the pick ax, it took me two hours total, in half hour intervals, to dig the hole for that one plant. Here are some of the rocks I dug out. I even dug out a broken piece of brick that was buried about 5 inches down.




Here's the nandina with beautiful black organic soil conditioner helping it survive in the rocky dirt,


The dirt (rocks) that I dug out.


Some of the larger rocks.


Sorry this is dark. It is a different coral bell plant with white blooms in the summer and a purple underleaf.

Got most of it planted before we had a real touch of fall. I know, I know, so many of you are crying "bring back the warm sunny days", but not me! I loved it. It didn't get out of the 40s for three days! I love being in my cosy little house, wearing my warm slippers and baking up pumpkin spice bread during days like this. This truly is my favorite time of the year. I think the cats agree as they have been extra lively these past few days. Oh, and the bestest part of it all, after weeks and weeks of waking up catless, they have starting coming back! Friday night I woke up with one cat in bed, Saturday night--two cats, and last night--three cats keeping me warm!!

I'm Feeling Much Better, Thank You

Sweet Pea here again. Mom told me that lots and lots of you nice people were sending purrayers and good thoughts my way. They WORKED!! I'm feeling in tip top shape. I still have to take the very yucky antibiotics, but this evening will be the last time I have to get that yucky liquid stuff squeezed into my mouth--Yay!!

I don't know why mom laughed when she took this photo. She said she is just happy to see that I've gained back the weight I lost being sick. As you can see, my flooffy fur is still patchy around my neck but mom says she can see it starting to grow back.

Not everyone is happy that I'm feeling better. Mom said she couldn't get over how frisky and friendly Apu was when I was not feeling well. He was running around, meowing and playing like a kitten. Well, I put a stop to THAT! Now that I'm feeling better, I'm back to whapping and stalking him, just enough to make him nervous and jumpy again--hee, hee, hee. When I started back to my usual stalker ways over the weekend, mom was laughing and stating how much better I must be feeling. Now, she gets this stern look when I do it and tells me to stop teasing Apu!! I wish she would make up her mind! I keep telling her, I'm a cat, and a brat, and I just can't help myself.

Oooo, I think I just heard Apu going into the litterbox...gotta go!