Musings on a Small Life

Before I post a few more pics from the Halifax Public Gardens, I'll give you a Derry update. I think he peed overnight (about 5cm round) and then he did make a smaller clump this AM. Nothing when I got home this aft, though he was in and out of the litter box before he finally went and made oh, about a 4 cm x 5 cm clump. Not big, but not super tiny, either. He really prefers quiet and privacy, and at the time he was in and out of the box in the living area just about every dog in the damned complex was barking its fool head off, making a huge ruckus. This has caused me to wonder if all the barking that one of the neighbour's dogs does every single day , off and on all day , is upsetting Derry too. I think I'll see if PetSmart has any Feliway in stock. Wouldn't you know it, I just threw away the diffuser I'd had for Annie and Nicki (which didn't work for them). But maybe it would work for Derry, at least a bit. I don't want to go with a calming collar becau...

I just spoke with the vet re: Derry, and the urine analysis showed tiny fragments of struvite crystals. Not actual crystals at this stage and not enough to worry about a blockage, apparently,  but certainly something that needs to be dealt with now. A diet change will be in order ASAP, as his pH is neutral at 7 and should be between 6 and 6.5 (more acidic, I believe). I bought a sample bag of the GO! chicken and veggie dry someone suggested, which they gobbled, but I'll have to do some research on the pH levels of food, both dry and canned, before committing to anything. Of course the vet wants me to feed their crap. With apologies to anyone who does feed it. I'm just not comfortable with all the corn/carbs that's in vet-prescribed foods. Anyway, the upshot is that I'm supposed to continue with the pain meds into next week, while waiting for the results of the culture and sensitivity test that was sent to a lab in the Toronto area. It takes several business days beca...

Regarding Derry's urinary tract issue, posted on the Fuzzy Tales blog : This is how it started with Annie nine months ago. Urinary tract infection, Clavamox, then diarrhea which turned out to be constipation, shot of Convenia, five days in the vet clinic, and dead three weeks later. Ask me if I'm calm about the whole cycle seeming to start over now with Derry. Go ahead, ask me. If the effin' Fates take Derry away from me too, I'm going to be really, really , really upset. Possibly in need of pharmaceuticals again. And don't ever expect me to adopt another cat. Just sayin'. Bring on the whiskey, because two shots hasn't been enough tonight. Who's doing to talk me down from the ledge?

I was plugging away at my spreadsheet at the office yesterday morning when lo and behold there appeared the former co-worker who had spoken so unkindly to me about the care I was giving Annie back in February, the day before I had to let her go. Which happens to be 32 weeks today. I had not seen her or spoken to her in the past almost-8 months and I think she only came up because she must have thought I was away--she was looking for another co-worker who happens to be on holiday this week. So I simply said no, he was gone all week and that was that. No greeting, no chit chat, no pleasantries on either side. And I found it all to be rather anti-climactic, in truth. Because for the past 32 weeks I've mentally cringed every single morning coming in to work, leery of running into her, not knowing if I would acknowledge her, and if so, what I'd say. But reality was utterly impersonal, perhaps even more impersonal that if it had been a complete stranger. And so that's that. ...

I get to work for 7AM as usual today. A building staff member is coming out the main doors as I'm going in, and I say hi, express surprise she's here so early. She's taking her 30-something, skinny, perky self off to the gym to work out, of course. And I'm there with my vanilla latté in one hand, lunch time groceries (which includes chocolate) in another. Let me tell you, the only thing worse than someone young, skinny, genuinely super-nice, ambitious, intelligent and capable is someone young, skinny, genuinely super-nice, ambitious, intelligent, capable and disgustingly perky . At 7-freaking AM. On a work day. I just had to get that out. Okay, Halifax Public Garden pics, part 2. Enjoy!  There's a large pond in the Gardens.... Nope, I'm not done yet with the Garden pics, sorry. More another time.  :-) Universal Blessings, Light and Mercy to All Beings.

Happy Monday, everyone. Maybe if I write "happy" Monday enough I'll feel happy about the start of the week. LOL. But it is a glorious sunny day, 22C, perfect weather to walk home later this afternoon and savour the warmth, while we still have it. Oh, before I post a few Public Gardens pics, I just have to note that around midnight I remembered reason #57 to NOT adopt another cat: hoarking up hairballs at 12AM. Used to be Annie, because of her long fur, but last night it was Nicki, just a wee one. He got brushed then, after I cleaned up the mess and before I went back to bed, and then again this morning before I left for work. It's so rare for him to have a hairball that I don't bother to brush him enough. My bad. Anyway, here you go, some of the many garden pics I snapped on the 14th. Here comes the mate...The enclosure is new-to-me and I was puzzled by it, as all the birds in the Gardens can fly away at will--or used to be able to do so. Lots more to come the...

Hard to believe it's only been a week since I was in Halifax. This work week has been so long, and I'm looking forward to two days of "down" time -- i.e. errands and housecleaning. Mom said she was going to indulge in some retail therapy today; perhaps I ought to make a Value Village run this weekend.  :-) Anyway. Here we go with some snapshots from last Wednesday morning. At least we had a sunny day! (The better pics were taken after lunch, in the Public Gardens, but I have a lot of those and they'll be for another post or three.) We went downtown to the piers for a little walk around. It's where the cruise ships dock now, but used to be where immigrants landed. This was one of three immense ships docked at the time. There is a museum at Pier 21 , but we didn't go in. Crafts people now have a permanent, indoor spot to sell their wares, conveniently located in the area where the tourists disembark. It's actually a massive indoor area, and there...