Finally Friday

A week to furget, definitely, but we've reached the end. May we all have an excellent weekend.

Tonight, something happened that Mom haaaates: power outage. 

Storm came through, high winds, and oops there it went. 

So once again we felines leapt into action to help mom.

Above you see Leia keeping guard on the outside perimeter.

After awhile we moved the base of operations into the bedroom.

Here, you see ME keeping watch over mom.

And THEN - 

Oh, glorious day in the night - the power came back after about 1.5 hours.

Now, mom does also have a LOOOOVE list.

And this is extremely high on it :

O2 Cool Fan, battery operated, 10 inches. 

We have three of these guys now, one with an AC adapter. 

Trust us, everyone NEEDS these. It helps with coolness, obviously, but also with moving air around if you have breathing issues, and it's just frankly disconcerting to be without electricity, emotionally. 

And also, mom really appreciates the soothing white noise it makes, 

helps to provide a buffer around her.

It does require six of the biggest batteries, but these are green papers well spent. They can be bought from Amazon, Walmart, and a lot of other places, but the 10 inches are hard to find in stores.

*** This is a spontaneous love note to O2 Cool, no compensation here.

Goodbye, Penny

I'm sorry to share that Penny didn't survive her surgery today. 

The mass was bigger than the vets thought, and she was unable to be resuscitated.

She was about a year and a half old; when she was around eight weeks I got to spend a couple of hours with her. She played at the park - putting everything in her mouth that she could! - and I held her on the car ride home afterwards. She slept, so warm and sweet and peaceful. 

It never crossed my mind that this precious life I was holding

wouldn't survive long into her barely-adulthood.

To all things there is a purpose, and a season; and one of the hardest things in life is accepting that.

To the vets responsible for her today, I have one question for you:

Will you sleep well tonight? 

Mancat Monday

Ok, so really we don't have much to say. We're exhausted from taking care of mom - not only is it her birthday; she says she is mumble mumblity 7, she stayed home from work because she has a cold. 

And we all know how much work that makes for us felines.
And probably for the woofies out there too.

While we resume our nap,

she wants to rant about something. Take it away, Grumpy Mom!

Grumpy Mom:

Vet bills and broken promises.... !! I posted about my niece's dog, Penny, last week.

Since then she's seen multiple vets, including the ER only vet, one CT scan for $1,200 that was sworn to be definitive - it wasn't, only disproved one theory - and I have no idea what all else in terms of labwork, exams, etc.

The vet capable of doing the surgery - at this point they are doing exploratory because they have no idea now - required a $2,000 deposit before they would do the CT. I guess I understand that, it's just... so. very. expensive! They don't think it's cancer now, unless it's some form of really rare cancer, and the scan disproved their twisted lung lobe theory, and hey, it might just be bacterial...

And for the record, I have a serious dislike of ER-only vets. I don't trust them at all. Their care is not comprehensive, since they have no facilities for round the clock care; they often charge exorbitant prices; and frequently those employed are the bottom tier vets. 

The vet I take my cats to is a 24 hr hospital - the doctor working through any
given night  is also often the one who will do regular business hours work.

And I have had two ER visits, but the only extra charge was a higher exam fee.

So, please, vet taking care of Penny, for the love of all that is furry will you PLEASE figure this out before a. Penny dies, and/or b. my niece has to sell one of her own body parts to pay for this.

Finally Friday - What's In a Name??

Happy Friday, furriends! 

This is a picture from a couple of years ago,
before we trekked south to Florida from NC.

So, What's In a Name, you ask?? It can be good or it can be fraught with...
fraught with... eerrrrrr...

stuff you really don't want in there!

Fraught - y Example:
Mom actually called me Sugarplum the other day.
Can you imagine that?

MOUSES! That woman is obsessed with her nicknames, you have no idea.
 I hope she forgets this one real fast.

Good Example, No Fraughtiness:

My real name is Tobias, not Toby. Yep, that's my official,
right on my rabies certificate, at the Stabby Place, for all formal events, name.

Toby, or Tobers, to furriends & fam. 

I even have a title too - Lord Marshal. Given to me when I was a ball of orange fluff,
but it was too big for me at the time, so no one ever used it. 

Still don't, but it is, indeed-y, my title. (this one doesn't appear on my rabies cert though).

Wednesday Review

And it's time for.... the Chewy Review!!

Happy Wednesday, furriends.

So this month we got a variety pack of Tiki Cat pouch foodables to try.

And oh my Ceiling Cat, yep, these were mega tasty. Truly.

However... we hate that there has to be a however...

it's full of pumpkin. So for me, Toby, this caused a bit of difficulty
when it came time for litterbox activity, so mom uses it now more as a topper than a meal.

Oh, and we also got a bag of  Vetri Science Joint Support chews, but 

this one will take some time to prove how well it works, so that review won't be for awhile.

Disclaimer:

Chewy sends us stuff to review for them - which is really fun - but the opinions are our very own.
Like anyone could tell a kitteh what to think anyway!

In other news...

Mom's niece has a beautiful golden lab, Penny, about a year and a half old.
Very sweet dog.

She has a mass about 8-10 inches long in her lungs.
The vet thinks it's cancer, and wants to do surgery soon.

Any purrayers for Penny would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mancat Monday

Happy Monday, furriends.

Just a minute, please, while I finish this grooming. I have something REALLY impawtant to meow about today.

Ok, I'm ready!

No! You go away! It's my day.

MOUSES!

Now I can't remember what it was.

Finally Friday - Squeals & Interactive Toys

Back in the day, and my 'thritis wasn't a thing, when I wanted something
 from mom I'd just stretch up and tap her with my paw. Easy mousies.

These days, I just sit here and paw at her foot. But wow, you would not believe the way she SQUEALED tonight. Like she's fragile or something. 

She complains that I have a strong paw and it hurts.

Meh. 

Lots of rain here today. We're told there are lots of tiny, tiny frogs a-hoppin' all over because of it.

Just the right size for a paw to whap. But do WE get to play with them? 

NO! I mean, yeah, sure, that would require getting out in the rain. And getting wet and dirty paws. 

Ok, so don't you think she oughta bring some tiny frogs INSIDE then? 

Aren't hoomins always looking for a good toy for us?

Well, here you go.

(We Can't Do) Wordless Wednesday

What, mom? It's time for Toby's evening meds?

Nope, no idea where he is.

Must be in that super secret hiding place he has.

I'll let him know you're looking for him, mm'kay?

Happy Caturday

Happy Caturday, furriends!

The other day I was making biscuits with mom. I'm very good at it, you know.

So there I was, kneading away on the back of the couch, when she says.. she says...

"Can you make me some cookies, too?"

Seriously?! Do you think this is a bakery? I do strictly biscuits, lady.

Hmpf.

In Toby news...

Mom was up at 5 am today putting fresh sheets and pillowcases on the bed.

And not because Toby yakked, either. And there was a rumor that she applied a

warm washcloth to someone's bum, but that's unconfirmed.

He's not saying. 

We will leave you with this scene from early morning here, on a local road.

Leia on Thursday: Will She or Won't She?

So, I have this thing I do in the :whispers: facilities area.

Mom has been tracking all of our output for the last few years,
especially since we became.. umm... richer in years. Weirdo.

And in that time, she has seen that I have this adorable**** habit when I'm about to go.

I hop in the box. I wait. Maybe I hop right back out. 

Sometimes I stand there and my tail goes up - the flag of Pee Intentions - 

but then comes the BIG question -

will I pee or not? 

If mom is sitting nearby, she holds very, very still and is very, very quiet so as not to distract me. 

I admit that as a Princess, I am quite dainty and delicate and the slightest thing can derail this.

If I don't go, then I usually circle back two or three times until I'm finally ready. Maybe I put it off for another hour or so. Maybe it's done in ten minutes. That's kind of fun because Mom really loves the suspense, and the wait to see if I'm just being delicate, or signaling that I have a problem.

***** ok, Mom doesn't think this is so adorable, but I do!

Mom:

It's been like this for years and probably always was. 

I HATE it. The watch, the wait, but this is how she does things.

Leia Hosts Very Easy Sunday

So not much happening here right now... including fried chick-hen.

Would you believe it's been TWO whole days since we've had any?

Every time mom brings out her noms, we assemble for our share

but it's not the good stuff, so we don't get anything.

So we just stare in utter disbelief. It's so disappointing.

Also, I want to give a meow-out to my boy Brody over at 15 and Meowing.

He's so dreamy!

There is one thing... Mom is still furious over the owner of our rental who decided to come in when she was not here and was unaware he was coming, to work on the dryer vent issue. She was, as always, very clear that she has to be here, just call her when you need to get in.
She does not allow hoomins to be here if she's not. In all our years with her, and being renters, this has never been an issue before now. She says we go through property managers, and don't directly interact with the owner. Which is probably a good thing because she does NOT have a high opinion of him for several reasons. But the doofus decided to handle this himself, and apparently has no respect for boundaries. Even worse, we still have a plumbing issue to deal with.

We hope everyone has a happy week. And calm people. Because it's a lot of work soothing them.