Monday, January 11, 2016

Monday morning:

A day of achievement.

-- A friend came and stayed with my husband until professional help came.

-- The consultant said I could decide for myself whether or not to go on taking blood-thinners. She was sightly in favour.

-- I took Perdita to the vet, where she remains, being anaesthetised and x-rayed.

-- I turned off all spell checking. After a while I'll try turning it on again. Meanwhile I can rely on Blogger's own system.

Sunday night:

If it's not one thing it's another – a sound general principle of life, which you have probably already discovered for yourself.

I sat down here just now (latish Sunday evening) feeling that things were pretty well in hand, for once. And noticed, very belatedly, that tomorrow's midday carer isn't scheduled to arrive until half an hour after I will have to leave for my DVT-and-embolism appt. The appt is for 10:45. Care has been coming so regularly at 10 lately that I didn't pay enough attention when the weekly schedule turned up. Tomorrow, she's not due until 11.

I'll phone them first thing in the morning, after an anxious night.

I'll try to phone the vet about the cat, as well. She continues well, except for the distress of being in heat. She's eating well, using the affected paw to play and to scrape her litter but still (after four days) not putting weight on it. It's not deformed or swollen.

As for being in heat, we'd very much like to let her have one litter before she is spayed. We believe that parenthood instils a responsible attitude in a cat. And with what people are paying for kittens these days, we could retire. But I don't see how it is to be done, since she never meets any boys.

There is no grass at all between our front door and the street. It wouldn't be safe to let her out. This – being in heat – happened briefly just before Christmas (I didn't tell you). I even Googled “cat breeders Edinburgh” that time, without success. Someone breeds rag dolls in Dalkeith but that is too far away and they would probably turn up their noses at Perdita anyway.

Even knitting is hard to think about, with all this going on. I did some more Dunfallandy border. I'll take the sock along to the appt. I might even reach the heel, if things are running slow.


Flipboard has put me on to a rather good 31-day plan for organizing stash, published a couple of years ago on the Webs blog. (How am I possibly expected to know whether “organi?e” is spelled with an “s” or a “z” if every word I type is marked as wrong? Open Office continues with that bizarre practice.) 

13 comments:

  1. Kittens are hard to find here, too! Our son in law has been kitten shopping at the local shelters and every time a few kittens pop up on the website they are adopted before one can drive to the shelter. Perdita and a ragdoll would make a fantastic litter of kittens.
    It sounds as if your doctor/nurse gave you good news! Will you continue with the blood thinners?
    Yeaterday I had a little too much "help" with my yarn winder (the granddaughters) and so I had to take the ball off and untangle and wind by hand. Perdita would have had a wonderful time with all the knots and moving yarn. Oh well, now the Cascade alpaca is safely wound.
    I can't wait to hear what the vet says about Perdita's paw.

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    1. Are kittens hard to find year 'round or just now? Cats tend to be seasonal breeders so kittens are most common in spring, if your son-in-law can wait.

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    2. Wow!! Our shelters are always overrun with cats and kittens! You must have good education around responsible pet ownership, and compliance with spay/neuter guidelines!!

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    3. Anonymous4:15 PM

      Same here - my friends who volunteer at the local shelter would love it if people were looking for cats. Always more than they are able to care for, and of course what a shelter is to do in that case is a matter of some controversy. Things are much more severe in the bigger cities.
      - Beth in Ontario

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  2. So happy with the morning news! Good for you that all of that is in hand. Looking forward to perdita's news!

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  3. Now that's a day well-sorted! if you go on taking the blood thinners can you indulge in a cider again?

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  4. When I heard that Perdita was in heat too(!), I was very glad my 2 summer kittens(inspired by your Perdita) are neutered. Since there is no lack of kittens in late spring around here, I get to completely avoid other's hormones. Except the goats.
    And I'm glad the day ended up well. Yeah for small victories!

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  5. How very sweet of you to tell us the solutions before you speak of the difficulties!
    Is organi?e spelled with an "s" or a "z" - I do believe the answer is yes.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:17 PM

      In Canada we take our pick to some extent - although in this case I think we usually go with the American "z" (unlike what we do with "colour"and "centre").
      - Beth in Ontario

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  6. Jean, regarding Open Office, check in case Perdita changed your input language. If it is like my version the language is at the bottom of the screen in the middle.
    Good luck with everything going on at the moment.
    Dawn

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  7. The Edinburgh shelters are awash with kittens come late spring through to late summer. I had a choice of sixteen on one visit with another dozen still in the maternity room with their mums. The rescues can't take adult cats in the summer because they're so awash with kittens. I got Max that time, the following year I got Archie who had been dumped with his five siblings in a box outside a pet shop. That was late summer and the "teenager" room had over thirty older kittens in it who were too far past the cute stage to be easily adoptable. Edinburgh is awash with unwanted cats and for every extra kitten you put into the system that's more pressure on the limited number of homes out there. Unless you have homes already waiting for Perdita to have kittens (and she's still far too young, wait till she's at least a year old) then really, don't add to the unwanted cat problem.

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  8. My honest first thought is "why add any stress or worry if not absolutely needed?" Unless Perdita's health would suffer as a result, I'd spay. This is obviously my personal option as someone who has never had a cat, only dogs, and has never dealt with animal reproduction (all our dogs were/are spayed for their health and because it is easier I'm told and in the current case she's a rescue breeding dog from a puppy mill and was spayed before we adopted).
    Is a more responsible Perdita worth all the fuss and/or stress and/or time of dealing with breeding her (and of course, then dealing with finding homes for the kittens and whatever comes with that)?
    I'm really not trying to sway you one way or the other, I just want to help you make whatever choice is best for you guys! And, I tend to go "ooh shiny" and only think about the good bits and not consider the not-so-good bits so this is me projecting myself on you and saying "self, kittens are great but what about the not so great?"

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  9. ARNE & CARLOS show you how to knit your own hat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQUnlpFeoYY some fun for you.

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