Hallie

I've done a fabulous job, yet again, at procrastinating something I didn't feel like doing. Our Sweet Hallie died Tuesday, December 22. It's still very emotional for me to talk/write about, so I've put off blogging. I'm still not over Baxter, or my friend Carrie's death, and to have to deal with Hallie so soon is just too much! Sunday's ultrasound revealed an enlarged liver. She had lymphoma. It wasn't really the cancer that was killing her, though, it was that she quit eating and drinking.


We tried to put her on an IV and syringe feed her a high calorie wet food. If she could get past the dehydration and put on a little weight, she would have had a decent quality of life for at least a few weeks, but she wasn't up for the fight. According to our team of vets, siamese cats are notorious for giving up and not fighting through health issues.


By Tuesday, she had almost 36 hours of liquid and nutritious calories pumped into her, but was completely checked out emotionally. She had rallied breifly on Monday night and very clearly said her goodbyes, but I needed to see if she would improve the next day and I also needed to bring Lila (her daughter) in to say her goodbyes.


Luce, Lila, and I went in on Tuesday to see Hallie off. As always, it was so, so, so painful. She rallied again to say her goodbyes to Lila. She very obviously, "checked back in" to her body, and gave her daughter an affectionate face rub. They had a few moments together, then Hallie checked out again, and Lila was ready to get down and explore. Luce called the vet in and told her we were ready. She already had the IV line in, so it was quick and easy. We rubbed her cheeks and chin the way she loved, and told her we loved her until she was completely gone.


I have absolutely no doubt that that was what she wanted. She knew she was loved and that we respected her wishes. I wish she had tried to fight a little harder, a little longer. I would gladly have taken her and cared for her as long as she was willing, but I loved her too much to be selfish about keeping her with us. She was such a sweet girl and a good mommy!


She and Baxter have left us with two huge, gaping, unfillable holes in our home.


So now that I've finished the blog entry I've been avoiding, I can cover our holidays in my next post, which will be in a day or two--not 10 this time!

Final instructions...

A message to my friends & family: If I die before you do, it is your sacred duty to make sure any funeral-ish type of event does NOT include ANY religious crap of any kind at all, not even a prayer! No sappy music either. If there is music, it should be Prince, SOAD, or Pink Floyd. The only sappy thing that should be allowed is the Christina Rossetti poem that I love: "Remember".

And further, I hold you, my friends, responsible for taking the opportunity of a captive audience and turning the whole thing into an animal rights event. Show "Meet Your Meat" or something of that nature. You hard-core AR freaks better completely co-opt the event or I will find a way to come back and make sure your toilets never flush again! ;P Please feel free to mock me, laugh at my supreme uncoordination, and/or pat yourselves on the back for being able to put up with me--I know it's not easy!

We got our tree up and partially decorated. M has been working at the light show for the majority of the weekend, so we haven't had much family time. M didn't work Saturday night, which was date night. We had to spend the date night wrapping presents. We didn't finish, because I'm not done shopping yet. I really, really wish I was.

L made this canvas to memorialize Baxter. This little book in the upper right corner actually opens up. It's a little description of Baxter.

Hallie decided to hang out in the kitchen sink tonight while L was taking her spelling test.

Another year down

Yesterday was our anniversary. Neither of our children remembered. Oh well--it really isn't a big deal, but I never forgot my parents', so it irks me just a bit that Dej forgot. We dropped Luciana & Hunter off at my parents', so we could go see "Taking Woodstock." I thought it was very good and enjoyed it. M wasn't thrilled with it. There were lots of naked breasts in the movie, which usually makes a movie good for him. Apparently the fact that there were also naked men (full frontal) cancels out the joy of the breasts, so it was a wash for him. One of these days I will figure out all of his strange man rules. I'm so very jealous of those who actually got to experience Woodstock. I was inspired by the movie. I may have missed Woodstock, but I can still find an opportunity to mud slide naked. Good god, that looked fun!

L & H were having a sleepover again last night, so we came straight back to pick the kids up from the parents and had a quiet, boring evening at home with the wild children.

L and I started making a pencil roll for all of her art supplies. She will be working with various types of drawing media, lots of different pencils, different types of charcoal, and ink. We finished it up this afternoon. Both kids spent some time working with the sewing machine, trying to get the hang of sewing a straight line. The pencil roll turned out okay. It's not perfect, which irritates me, but she's very happy with it, and it holds her drawing supplies nicely. L is a kamikaze sewer. She struggled with all the straight line sewing, because she refused to go slowly. She has one sewing speed--slam the pedal down all the way and go as fast as possible (like I drive, I guess). Every time I would tell her to ease the pedal down and go slowly so she could control the fabric and keep the line straight. Every time she floored it and ended up with a crazy, curvy line that had to be ripped out. We finally got it done, though.

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought 2 yards of (vegan) felt for this project. 1 yard would have been more than enough, and now I have tons of brown felt left. Hallie claimed the leftover felt as her very own. I was going to lay it out flat and photograph the completed pencil roll on it, but Hallie looked so snuggly and happy in there, I just worked around her. She and Lila have since been burrowing under the felt and pouncing each other and the other cats. At least the extra felt won't go to waste--it's a very cheap cat toy.

She couldn't quite wait to start working with her pens and india ink, so she busted them out tonight. She's never worked with it before, and I was busy trying to clean up the disaster area we created with our sewing project, so she saw her opportunity. Why wait several weeks until she actually learns how to use them, when she can use a bottle of expensive permanent ink with a complicated pen right this very minute! She had a pressing art project that absolutely required the use of those items immediately! Then she got the acrylic paint out. Once she got everything cleaned up, she brought in the creation that would not wait. I'm pleasantly surprised by the lack of permanent damage to the room.

We had a Petland protest today, and it felt totally like fall out there. Lots of honks and good responses, as usual. Chloe came out and joined us, and since there were no other dogs there today, she didn't feel the need to shout for attention. She was a pretty good girl, but her uncanny knack for tying people up with her leash and tripping them is a little challenging.

Life in a cat house

M & I stayed up way too late last night watching Milk (from Netlix). No doubt about it, Sean Penn can act! He did a fabulous job, and it was a fantastic movie. Some of the scenes were very powerful and gave me goosebumps. It was really sad, though, and we still have a long way to go. The homosexual=pedophile=deviant logic was exactly the same propaganda that Rev. BS and the other liars in my childhood church pushed. I actually remember the whole Anita Bryant campaign of hate and the way the xtians worshipped her at that time. What a bad flashback!

Work was insanely busy today! A two-hour meeting early this morning about upcoming changes to our racial/ethicity data (required by the Feds) started out with me trying really hard to stay awake. It became much easier when hostile angry dude, who happened to be sitting right in front of us, started getting loud and cursing. I don't like to see people behave unprofessionally at work--emotions should stay at home, but I have to say that I kind of appreciated the help staying awake. My caffeine wasn't doing anything, but hostile angry dude kept me quite alert right up to the end. He stormed off with a final insult--calling us geeks. Ouch. We're IT people. Of course we're fucking geeks. He meant it to be an insult. We giggled.

I have a ton to do tonight in order to get ready for our camping trip. We leave tomorrow. The kids (D & J) will be staying here to keep the critter company. My mom will be helping with the pet care, and Chloe will be staying at "Grandma & Grandpa's". She needs a lot of help with her collar and loves to go to grandma's house, so she will have a little vacation there. I still have to pack, check Luciana's packed bag for appropriateness, get all the food packaged up for the cooler, and prepare the animal care sheets. Love camping. Hate the prep. Since we won't have Internet in the tent, and M wouldn't let me bring a laptop along anyway, I won't be back online until this weekend sometime.

L & H took over the big box that Tica's new cat tree came in and transformed it to a house for the cats. They cut windows and doors, made curtains, and decorated it for them. They started with a plan to color the whole thing white, but they quickly decided that was not fun and took too long. It even has a little front porch. The cats love it and have been hanging out in and on it since the kids set it up. Check out the cute little kitty paw prints they put on the front porch (barely peeking out from under Ivan). It even has a mailbox and address on the front by the door.

Ivan on the front porch

The top of it

Lila strolls along the roof

Oliver looks out the window

Hallie pays the boys a visit

Mundane.

A Wednesday night with no LOST. I miss it so much already!

These photos are some of what's blooming our the garden right now--a rose, clematis, and two peonies .

M. was home from work today with some intestinal issues. That never happens! He couldn't manage to stay way for the whole day, though, and despite feeling like shit, crawled into work this afternoon. I swear I never in a million years would have guessed that I could resent a PLACE with as much intensity as I would reserve for a particularly nasty person. That was before I married a workaholic.

He ran out to pick up a video to watch tonight, because there's nothing on TV, our girl's in bed, he doesn't have to draw tonight, and both of our Netflix movies are in transit (they'll be here tomorrow). I hate paying for a rental when we have two Netflix on the way, but oh well. He picked out something with the word 'Porno' in it. I don't remember the rest of the title, but that word managed to stick. It's not 'a porno'--just has the word in it. Seth Rogen is in it, and he's usually funny.

I was really hoping to get some gardening time in tonight. It's bad. I mean really bad. Worse than it's ever been, I think. I didn't get to it though. I can enjoy the beauty of the garden for brief seconds, until a giant weed catches my eye and distracts me.

While I made dinner and took care of household chores, M. cleaned out the Ford, as we will be officially turning that over to Dejanique this weekend. She successfully completed her first year of college, so the car is hers. It should get her through school at least.

L & H played outside until I dragged them in for dinner. They have been pestering me for a couple of weeks to get the new cat tree put together. It's been in a big box in the front entryway, and I told them I wasn't going to open it until it was time to assemble, and I wasn't going to assemble until Dej's cats and their cat tree were moved out. They're out now, and L & H have been chomping at the bit to get that cat tree up. The directions were worthless, so the biggest challenge turned out to be trying to keep the kids from trying to just randomly start building while I tried to figure out how to make the bits and pieces go together based on the small black & white line drawing of the completed tree.

The cats were on it before we got it slid into it's spot in Dej's old room (soon to be L's new room). Petey, Hallie, and Tica, in that order, were the first to try it out. After I took these pictures, I peeked in to see Tica lounging on one of the upper shelves. She's never been able to get up and down that high in a cat tree by herself before. It made me so happy to see her up on top like a little queen. It was worth the time, money, and assembly frustrations, just for that moment! Ollie, Baxter, Jasper and Lila checked it out a bit later, while Ivan and Carrie looked nervously at it from across the room, as if it could attack them at any moment.

I didn't make it to the farmer's market today, either. I met an AR friend, Kristin, for lunch at Maharajah (aloo cholee--YUM!). She recently moved from Madison to take a job running the shelter in Neenah. We had a very nice lunch, and since I had quite a lot to get done yet at work, I didn't have the time to spare for the market. I will have to try to get some bunny & gerbil greens from my cousin, who's has an organic CSA farm.

Trailer for sale or rent...

My head is a very scary place. And if you can identify that title, you're old, too.

Poor L. had a funky day today. I'm still not sure what was wrong, but she was definitely not herself. She crawled in bed with us at around 4 this morning, after having a bad dream. She went right back to sleep, but that's the first time in ages she has done that! I dropped her off at my mom's and went to work this morning, as usual, and she seemed okay--a little pale and rough looking though. My mom called a couple of hours later to ask if she was okay, as she went to sleep on the couch there. She NEVER does that. My child, since birth, has been able to go without sleep and doesn't crash or nap like normal people do when they are tired. She didn't look good and wasn't acting herself at all. I left work, came and picked her up, and then finished my work from home. She was just 'off' all day, so I'm hoping tomorrow will go better for her.


I spent the weekend working on the basement. I got the rest of the office carpet ripped out, the floor scraped and cleaned, and laid the new carpet tiles down. They look really good. except the three missing tiles. I went to Menards to get an additional two boxes, but they only had one in the right color (of course). I was three shy of being able to finish. The naked spots are well hidden for now, and I will have to troll Menards every week until they get more in. Once that was finished I started the grand task of getting the office area cleaned, organized, and put back together. As I always do when I start these projects, I felt compelled to continue on and clean, organize and rearrange the rest of the family room. I'm still working on that. Luciana's craft area/desk is a nightmare, so I'm trying to sort through that mess and try yet another means of organization in hopes that she will keep the area tidy. I do this about once a year. It never works, but I must be an optimist or incredibly slow, because I keep thinking, surely this time it will work. I hope to be finished and have perfect order downstairs by the end of the week. It will probably look great this weekend--but not for too much longer than that.


I really thought when I started my basement project that I would have it finished by Sunday night. I ALWAYS grossly underestimate our household projects, by days or weeks, not just hours! This amazes me, because in my career, I am pretty damn good at estimating. I have to estimate how long it will take to develop large, major software applications. I have no problem doing this and am almost always within my estimate. This skill clearly doesn't translate beyond software development. I'm not sure why.


M. is still MIA for the most part, due to the long hours of the plant sale. L. is missing him intensely and had a really rough weekend without having 'daddy time'. He will finally get a day off the weekend of the 20th, after working full-time plus for 19 days.


Since my naughty little baby girl can obviously read my mind, she intuited that I was hoping to re-do my dining room soon (soon, in terms of our household project schedule, means in 6-12 months). She decided to help me get an early start by stripping the wallpaper off for me. I'm sure it was done out of sheer kindness and a desire to contribute something to the household. Or it's possible that it's because she ran out of caulk to rip off, as we haven't yet replaced the windows and tub caulk she removed.


Here she is on her cat tree having fun playing with her mommy, Hallie.

YAY!!! It's cantaloupe season!

This week has been crazy and completely devoid of fun! My stressful, unpleasant project is almost done, and I will feel like a new woman once that is finished and signed off on. Home has been full of chores, trying to make a dent in our many half-finished projects inside and out. Half-finished is probably more wishful thinking than reality, though. My body is complaining that I spent today and tonight (when we weren't working on homeschooling) trying to fix our old computer and get it up and running and scraping the basement floor in the office area so we could put carpet tiles down. Our old carpeting was destroyed last time our pipe froze and exploded down there. We've been meaning to replace the carpet since we got the pipe fixed, but are just now getting around to it. I made a little progress, but my hands and lower back are punishing me for it now. It makes me feel old!

We had an appliance repair man come this morning to look at the refridgerator that died. This is the one we keep in the basement to store our buying-club food. We are able to save money in the buying club by getting our organic/vegan food through them, but we have to buy in bulk. We lost hundreds of dollars of food when the fridge died, and it will take a long time to replace that! Fortunately he was able to fix the fridge for $100, which was great since we couldn't afford to replace the thing right now. It's fairly old, so we were nervous that it wouldn't be fixable, but as it turned out, it wasn't a big deal.

L. had her friend Emily spend the night tonight. That's a huge treat for her. E. is such a sweetie, and we don't get to see them (her and her family) nearly often enough. Unfortunately, that left poor Hunter as the odd man out, since the girls wanted "girl time". He was very bored and lonely, so he was my shadow for the day. As soon as he got home from school, he came over and helped me scrape the floor, put some carpet tiles down, work on the computer, and make pizza for dinner. Since he helped make the pizzas, he asked if he could stay for dinner, so he joined us for dinner while the girls ate up in L's room.

M. is in the midst of his plant sale, and the only time he is not working for the next couple of weeks, he will be in IL attending a wedding for an old friend of his. We won't get to see him awake for the forseeable future, and that is really hard on L. especially. The whole thing irritates the piss out of me, but since expressing it is pointless, I will continue to channel it into working on house projects.

I'm still on a rampage about that worthless bitch, Palin. Good god, I can't believe how many American citizens are so stupid that they have jumped on board basically because she is attractive and made some funny jokes. Yeah, that makes for a great politician. I cannot believe that when it comes down to it, women are still evaluated and judged primarily as eye candy. She is setting women back by decades and isn't remotely in the same class as Hillary, despite claiming that she is. That seems to be the only criteria her "fabulous" speech was based on, as there was certainly no content and nothing that indicated she is remotely qualified to run the country. She doesn't even raise her own children. What kind of monster willingly leaves a three-day old baby to return to a job that requires much more than 40 hours a week?! When I was forced to return to work after my leave was up, I cried every single day. For months. I would NOT have gone back after two months if had ANY other alternative. When I did return, I only went back at 30 hrs a week rather than 40, though. It's even more sickening that it's a handicapped child she is abandoning! I am a feminist--even a chauvanist according to some. Women do have the right to choices, freedom, and equality, however, once we make the choice to become mothers, our children should come first. This thing, for all her 'soccer mom' pro-family BS does nothing but talk. She is selfish and unnatural and shouldn't even claim the title of mother. Perhaps a little more time spent with her children (along with the appropriate education) could have prevented her little girl from getting knocked up and breeding. It's really quite easy to try to force women to breed, removing all choice, when she never actually has to raise and spend time with her kids. She's really working the mileage about being so noble in choosing not to abort the DS baby. Really, how noble is it when she drops it and abandons it to return to her life of child-free, no, make that handicapped-child-free corrupt governing. Maybe the other women in her situation, who had to make less-noble choices and opt to terminate the pregnancy with handicapped children didn't have the luxury of squatting, dropping, and returning to life as normal without being impacted by the child. They had to make the realistic choice of say, quitting a job they couldn't afford to quit to stay home and care for the special needs child, for the rest of their life. Lifelong daycare for a special-needs child is something that most women in that situation cannot afford. How dare that piece of human filth imply that she is better than any other women in similar situation! There are just so many things profoundly wrong with this beast, I could write a book. I really could. But since I try to spend every non-working, waking moment with my children, I would never rob them of their mother for something so pointless.

Our vegan cat food arrived via UPS, and as soon as we brought it in, Hallie staked it out. We didn't even get the box opened. I originally ran to grab my camera, because she and Lila were both standing in identical positions on top of the box. Of course by the time I returned from grabbing my camera off the kitchen counter, nosy little Lila had jumped off to see where I had gone. Hallie, was not about to give up her prime spot on the yummy cat food.

Just another day

What a beautiful day! I was hoping to get our new plants in tonight, but I'm not sure I will be able to. L. is really adamant that I need to play 'My Little Ponies' with her as soon as I'm done blogging. I will have to try to lure her outside. She did very well at her baseball game last night. My oldest child continues to keep me on the brink of insanity!

I was hoping this week would be a little calmer than last week, but it seems the next two or three weeks are going to be really rough and busy. Even work is busy and high stress right now. Maybe after that we can catch a little break!

Well our pony play was interrupted by our dogs barking like crazy. I went to see what the dogs were freaking out about, and found the little puppy from the house down the street dancing up and down our driveway. She was absolutely adorable! I picked her up and carried her back and met the new neighbors. They seem very nice but will be moving soon again, unfortunately, as they seem like nice people and have done wonderful things with the house and yard.

We then ran into my parents, who were out for a walk tonight and chatted with them. Since my dad will be having hernia surgery tomorrow morning, he won't be out walking for a while. In the short time we were outside talking, my dad and I were both victimized by hundreds of mosquitoes. I forget how bad they are this year until I spend about five minutes outside. Then I quickly remember.

Hmmm. I've spent the majority of my blog time staring blankly at the screen. I guess my brain isn't working with me tonight. Maybe tomorrow...

I'll just end with some random pics taken tonight during pony play time. Ivan of course, had his little pony that he had to cuddle and guard from anyone who might think about looking at it. Tica had to come check out the ponies. She is out full time, as of yesterday and is doing great! She doesn't shake at all when she comes down to the first floor, which she does on her own now! Oliver hangs out next to me, parading through the ponytown every few minutes to get some chin scratches. Hallie likes to sit on her little red chair where she can watch us and see outside (through the front door) at the same time.

The last photo of the group, obviously doesn't belong. It's another fun shot from our little mini vacation last week. I don't know that I've ever seen a girl and her dad truly enjoy each other's company as much as these two do!

The cat crew

Still working on L's room, but we are so very close to being done. We got the last of the painting finished today, so as soon as the bookshelf we painted has had enough time to set, we will be able to transfer all her books into it. Just a few final touches after that, and we will be done! She's really loving it already, so that has made all the work worth it.

Mark worked most of the weekend, and we had quite a few obligations, so this weekend has been way too fast and lacking in fun!

Dej is at a concert in Milwaukee tonight with her boyfriend and a big group of friends. We made it very clear to her that if she went to this, she is still going to go to school and be productive for the entire day Monday. I'll be interested to see, in reality, how she manages to get up and get to school in the morning.

I started the cats on a special feline lysine supplement this weekend. It is supposed to help alleviate the symptoms of their kitty herpes. The symptoms are just uncomfortable/irritating for the cats, who are all healthy otherwise. Lila almost always has problems, but then she does have a weak system and other issues as well. Right now though, Oliver, Jasper, and Ivan are sneezing and Baxter has a slightly runny eye. I'm anxious to see if it clears it up right away for them now that they are taking lysine. They all seem to really like it and either licked it from my finger or from their own paw.
I am posting a recent picture of each of the cats, as it's been a while.


Baxter


















Oliver














Petey











Ivan













Jasper






















Lila & Hallie

The more the merrier!

M. returned home tonight with his new tattoo. It's beautiful!!! He sat for almost five hours. I am impressed that he made it through the whole thing in one sitting. I'll wait until I have a good picture to describe and explain it. It's kind of gross looking right now yet.

I have a horrible headache and lots more to do yet tonight, so this will be unusually brief for me. M. snapped these pictures this morning. This is how I wake up every morning. L. did sleep in her own bed, but she likes to come in for snuggles in the morning. In these photos, we have six of the seven cats in bed in their typical sleeping positions. Petey was probably downstairs cuddling the dogs. He likes to spend some time in all the beds but seems to prefer Luciana's, now that she uses it. I love these cats so much!

Missing connections

I often find myself shocked and dumbstruck by the number of really intelligent, caring people who just don't make the final connection. I frequently encounter people who fight tirelessly for the environment, feminism (or the rights of another oppressed group), animal rescue, etc. I don't understand how they can care so deeply for these issues, particularly those involving animal protection and rescue, but are never able to make the next logical jump. These people are tremendously distressed by the suffering of a feral cat, or an injured squirrel, or a dumpster dog, yet seem unable to grasp the fact that their lunch or dinner suffered an infinitely worse life and ultimately a cruel and painful death. Those who have worked closely with animals know beyond any doubt that all species greatly value and will struggle and fight bitterly to preserve their lives. They know without a doubt that these creatures experience pain and fear. Yet somehow they are able to short circuit their logic facilities to extend the same care and consideration to those animals as they are to those for whom they have dedicated their lives to protect and care for. WTH?? I was really hit with this again yesterday when talking to my veterinarian. I have been with this vet for over 12 years. He's a wonderful man, and I trust him with the lives of my babies on a regular basis. There is no question that he cares for his animals, and my animals all know this. Trust me when I say, they can tell! We were chatting about his upcoming trip to see his twin brother in CA and he told me they always go fishing when he visits. Huh?! This man knows first hand how animals suffer and experience fear and pain. I have seen him cry over these animals. Yet he is able, unthinkingly, to spear and rip open the most nerve intense, pain sensitive portion of a fish--the roof of the mouth. He is able to throw them into the boat and watch them struggle and suffer unspeakably as they slowly suffocate (a very painful death), while thrashing around trying desperately to find the life-saving water. Again, WTH?? I left there feeling very sad and very puzzled. Is this only in the U.S., where we are trained by TV, schools, and churches not to think? Not to question the way it is, was, and always shall be? Or is it just that humans are so good at selectively tuning out that which makes us uncomfortable? I have no answers, but I should would like some. This world would be so amazingly improved if only 10% could just make the connection!

Speaking of my vet, Jasper has what appears to be a fairly 'routine' bladder inflammation and needs to take pills to reduce the inflamation. He should be fine. I asked him if the ratio of 3 out of my 5 male cats having bladder problems is unusual. He said it's a bit on the high side. I am doing everything right as far as food, water, etc.--all the physical measures that can be taken to reduce the problems are already being done. The only additional thing I could do would be to switch them all to a totally wet-food diet. Eewwww!! It would cost $7/day to feed them that way, and I simply can't do it. Also, that may not help at all. He did have some VERY helpful advice though. He said his guess would be that my boys' problems are probably triggered by stress, as that is often the culprit in these cases. With the ever-changing population of critters in my house, that has to cause them some stress. So, I need to really stick with not bringing anyone else in for a while. We have to get some stress-free time under our belts here to give everyone a chance to be totally healthy and strong. He also reminded me of Feliway, which I used to use as needed but somehow forgot about. They now have diffusers (like Plug-ins) that can be refilled, and each fill up lasts for about a month. He felt that would be extremely helpful and said that it should be a staple in all multi-cat households. I got online and read a lot of good reviews about it, so I ordered a three-pack of diffusers.

I also talked to him about Lila's ongoing respiratory problems. He felt it very likely that she has suffered permanent respiratory damage/scarring from being so intensely ill so young. She will probably always have these problems--if not constantly, than quite frequently. It may never turn into anything more than an annoyance, but I will need to always watch her closely as she's at high risk for developing bigger respiratory ailments. He said I could use a baby bulb to suck out her snot (perhaps the grossest sentence I've ever typed), but it would probably upset her tremendously. He has had great results with putting in one drop of a saline solution that's made for human noses/sinuses (not Afrin or anything like that--just saline solution) in her nostrils as often as she will let me. It works well for people, so I'll see if that helps her out any.
I got an update on Haiku (Lila's brother) from his new mommy, and he is doing really well. Haiku and Lynx (the cat she had already) have made friends and play together quite a bit. He's been neutered. He's still very playful and very loving and is completely healthy. He doesn't have any of the respiratory problems that Lila has. She said he is the hit of her ladies' book club meetings, and goes from lap to lap enjoying the love. How cute is that?!

I'm in love with these pictures of Hallie and Lila (mommy and baby)! I don't like that the pics of them in the window sill look a little nasty. I wash that sill all the time, but it is a favorite cat spot, and they always manage to leave little kitty-litter footprints on the cream-colored paint. Lila still comfort suckles her mommy almost every day, and they spend a lot of time cuddling, grooming and napping afterward. They also play together a lot. They are so precious to watch together! Lila also really enjoys playing with Oliver and Petey. She pounces on the tails of Ivan, Jasper, and Baxter sometimes, and plays with them occasionally, but they aren't quite as playful as Ollie & Petey, who still play like kittens.