shush now’s Neighborhood

57paradise

I know, I just thought this would be a cool place to decorate for the holiday!

Ballantines

Holidayfire

Newglasses

Newtree

Oldtaylor

to get going in a cold and (slightly) snowy day

goddess bless the DbT.

...because if I have google wave, everyone else in the world has google wave.

but if by any chance any of ya'll been living in a cave, I got eight (8) invites to gwave.  doesn't mean that I know much anything about it.
send me a message here or an email to  mariser(at)gmail(dot)com

later

So say I. 

The first cover is A Cool Christmas Vol. 3, but I actually have Vol. 2. Then there's TSO, Brian Setzer, some Celtic stuff, classical stuff, last year's Harry Connick, Jr album, one with Bing and Frank which sounds kind of bad on here, more Frank, and maybe something else I left out. 

Shake Hands With Santa Claus

Louis Prima

2:30 minutes of animated butterflies and dragonflies.  Well worth your two minutes.

AverageCats- Your cat is average.

http://averagecats.com/

she is not. get used to it, pal. cats don't sing, talk, drive, or have more than average interest in cheeseburgers. they don't celebrate holidays, recognize special days or use invisible- anything. grow up already.

more average cats doing average cat things

A busy Thanksgiving week of work led straight into yet another, and a good thing too.

Now in the wee hours of Saturday morning with just the hum of my little space heater for distraction, I've really only one thought in my head.

Lilu is gone.

I owner surrendered her to the Austin Humane Society on Thursday. She had to go alone. Leopold, who was supposed to go with her, was diagnosed with a heart murmur on Wednesday and so he was removed from the 'adoptable' category.

I've tried very hard not to think about this since yesterday. I have to be careful. I don't want to get stuck here. But I do rather keep remembering how she looked in her little cage...curled up in the bed I took for her. She looked right out through the bars and across the room at me. I wonder how she's doing tonight. I wonder how warm they keep that little room for the new surrenders.

See? I'll make myself sick with that line of thinking.

They say that cats don't remember their owners the way dogs do. That they don't remember much of anything because of how small their brains are...part of me hopes so. I don't want her to remember what I've done. I want her slate to be wiped clean so that she's can be her chirpy sweet self and attract some new person or family to take her home. I don't want her to be distrustful of the next hands who go to pet her.

Perhaps it's silly of me to anthropomorphize her that way. She was just so very sweet. I called her Piglet for the way she squeaked as a kitten. She was quite possibly my favorite. She and Leo certainly were a tie.

I was rereading the craigslist ad I posted for her and stopped at the line that said she'd curl up for a nap with you. When I used to lie down on the living room sofa she would quietly pad over and look up at me. I'd pull the little throw onto the cushion which was her cue to jump up. Then she'd let me adjust her in my arms and hold her while I slept. I loved how she'd purr.

I hope someone finds her to be just the perfect cat for them. I hope they love her at least as much as I did. And that they never let her go.

As for Leo, it's a waiting game for him. The vet thinks his murmur is pretty bad, just based off the sound of his non-heartbeat and the rigidity in his chest. He seemed mostly normal to me and not much changed from the day he walked into my old office out of the rain. That quite possibly means he's had the murmur the whole time and it's just been steadily worsening. An xray and ultrasound would tell us how bad things are, but treating him wouldn't be any different--it would just let me know a ballpark timeframe of when to look to euthanize him. The vet said it will be much better for us to determine that time than to let him die of massive heart failure. Actually, what he said was, 'There's nothing wrong with saying he's had a really good life with you, and letting him go peacefully to heaven...instead of the experience of drowning because his chest has filled with fluid.'

I'd say it's been a tough week for pets in my household.

The 3 remaining cats, Leo included, are all snoozing in their beds tonight. They cried and acted very strangely last night, but by today only Leo seemed out of sorts still. They must know--or they did know--that one of their number is gone. The dogs for the most part are unchanged. It's cold now, so I run the heater in the garage to keep the air above 60. Cold still, I know, but warmer than it would be otherwise. One of the girls--the oldest, Juney--is spending more time inside. I thought this was directly related to the cold, but after the Leo discovery I wonder if she's not manifesting some hidden illness. There's no way to really know.

I'll leave the finances out of this picture. It's enough to say they're dismal. Even as I think about Christmas presents I wish I could buy and trips I wish I could take, I need to remember that want and need are two different things. I wanted to be able to keep Lilu, but I needed to let her go. Of all the animals, she has the best shot at being adopted. I had to give her that chance.

(I didn't mean for this post to be such a downer. I guess I just really needed to vent. My apologies to all who made it through to the end, and thank you.)

What a crazy week.  Busy getting ready for two weeks of much needed vacation.  Since the work never goes away, it was long days all week at the office.  But I did make a little time for some fun stuff like...picking up chocolate and other Christmas goodies for when I visit my swell pal Cranky!  Hooray!

My sister just wrote a very sweet and lovely blog post that made me cry.  She's on her second crappy week in a row...show her a bit of love.  Love Sister.

Why does shrimp scampi hate me so?  I'm still bursting out in hives every time I eat it.  Last night was a very itchy night...until I took Benadryl...then it was a very tired night.  I'm not ready to give up on it yet...even though I do seem to be getting hives from shrimp nearly every single time.  Damn!  I hope it's limited to shrimp, I looove shellfish.

Anyway, gots a busy weekend ahead and then a drive down to Miss Cranky's on Tuesday!  I can't wait!