Dead cat, open house, and sharing the news

That was my day. Well, there were some other things thrown in there too, but this is the part I choose to share.

We're taking care of a neighbors cats, and this morning husband returned to say he thought one of the cats was dead. Poor kitty. Sure enough, "Yoda" was curled up in a tiny box under the sink in the laundry room, and was stiff as a board. He was still warm, but definitely not with us anymore. I've never had to wrap a cat in a garbage bag and stick them in a freezer before. The owners will return tomorrow to a sympathy card taped to their door. Don't want to surprise them when they open their freezer to find a frozen kitty...

Just after finding the cat, and just before placing kitty in the freezer, we jumped in the car to go look at a house. It is the first house we've actually gone to see...and turns out it is owned by someone we work with. House needs work, but is livable and has EXCELLENT potential. Location is great too. But if we buy it and want to make some upgrades, it would be more than we can afford.

A few hours later, my folks arrived for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. They haven't been here in a year, haven't seen daughter in a year, and haven't seen son in 9 months. It is really great to have them around. And...I got to actually tell them in person that we are expecting another baby. This is the first time I've gotten to tell them in person, though I think they kinda suspected since we mentioned we were looking at bigger houses. Still, it was great to see their faces as the comprehension sunk in. I had one of those digital pregnancy tests that just says "Pregnant" and I asked daughter to carry it in and hand it to grandma. It was pretty sweet.

Now tomorrow I get all dressed up and receive my PhD. It feels a bit surreal.

By the way, I was in Vermont for most of the week at a conference. Nearly saw a tornado while there, and I've got pics. Hope to get those up soon.

Kitty update

Well, our vet FINALLY called with the results of my cat's urine and blood analysis. She's pretty much perfect. So the peeing on Ava's bed must be some sort of attitude thing. Greeeeat. How do you correct cat attitude?

The vet also gave us some pressure about scheduling that dental and lumpectomy (the other $1000 of the proposed bill). I told her that when it was free, we'd schedule it. Until then, we needed to save for a while.

Vet bills

We have two cats, in addition to the dozen or so fish that I have blogged about before. My cat, Terri, is 16 years old. Keith's cat, Milo, is 5 years old. They were long overdue for a vet appointment when Terri just randomly started peeing on Ava's bed every day (ewww!). So we juggled childcare again so I could take both cats to the vet. Milo looks great, though he's a bit pudgy (just under 14 lbs) and needs his teeth cleaned. Terri looks great for a geriatric kitty, but she needs her teeth cleaned badly, has one that probably needs removed, and she's got two suspicious lumps growing on her side. And there is the peeing problem. So blood and urine samples were taken, neither of which I've heard any results on. The lumps could be needle biopsied, or we could just take them out. Then we could choose to test them, or just toss them. Um, she's 16 years old. I ain't doing any crazy cancer treatments on a 16-year old cat. So the plan is to take them out and toss them when she has her teeth cleaned. But here is my problem. The grand total for all these procedures and tests? $1300. And this is with the budget vet in town! I love our cats and all, but $1300 is not in our budget or wildest imagination right now. We're saving for a bigger carseat for Alder, which he'll need by winter I think. But knowing my kitty is probably in some discomfort (that tooth looks heinous), can I pass up her health needs? And when the blood and urine tests come back, what if she has some kidney issue that is causing the peeing problem? At 16 years old, how much should you spend on a cat...a cat that has followed you across the country and been your best companion since early high school?

Fish Funeral

He doesn't look too good, does he? While nursing Alder in the middle of the night, I caught a glimpse of this flailing, silver flash of light in our fish tank. By morning, he was gone. It is a sad day in our home. You see, we've had fish for a long time. We've had THIS fish for a long time. He lived in our 72 gallon tank with lots of his buddies, who unfortunately have been biting the dust one-by-one over the last month or so. But this was the first BIG fish to go. And I do mean BIG.

That is him measuring a cool 10 inches and weighing 9 ounces. That doesn't sound very big, but I promise you, put it in a fish tank in your home, and that is HUGE! This was a tinfoil barb, and we do have one more in the tank still who is a tiny bit smaller. Unfortunately he is showing the same disease this one succumbed to, and though I've dosed the tank with an anti-bacterial, I don't have much hope for him. It looks ugly. With the two largest fish in our tank gone, we are now contemplating moving the remaining fish to a smaller tank and placing it in a more central location in our home. Right now, the 72 gallon tank is in a corner, behind an exercise machine, behind baby gates. 72 gallon tanks don't get moved much (ever), so it is just sitting where we put it when I moved in the house 4 years ago. It would be nice to have the fish out where they could be seen and enjoyed more.

So I'll be watching the tank to see when the other tinfoil barb bites the dust. And for those sports fans wondering, fish of this size don't fit down the toilet.