[Downtime Once Again.]

massvely multi-player online role playing game

 

I'm embarrassed I know that.. DH is a gamer

 

 

 

I feel your pain. I too am what is referred to as a "gamer widow."

 

Currently experiencing withdrawal tremors.

 

Must... have... GreyTalk....

[Color And Hypothyroidism]

I'd need two votes too:

 

One fawn

 

One black

[The World's Most Extraordinary Cat]

A year ago I lost my heart kitty. Sapphire was born under a trailer and my grandma saved the litter from being drowned by the mama cat’s owner, who didn’t want kittens but couldn’t be bothered to spay her. All the kittens were running around playing except for one tiny female, who cowered in the basket and was afraid to come out. I said, “I want that one!” That was when I was seven years old.

 

I called her Sapphire because she was born with amazingly blue eyes. Of course, the minute she started answering to it her eyes began to turn yellow, so she was just “Sapphy.” We grew up together. She followed me everywhere and yowled when she was locked out of my bedroom (my parents wouldn’t let her sleep with me because of the fleas). When I turned 18 and moved out on my own, she came with me. My roomie said she had never seen a cat and a human so attached to each other. She thought it was pretty weird. Advantage came out, fleas were banished, and for the first time Sapphy finally got to sleep in the bed. She purred nonstop, even in her sleep. When DH moved in, she peed on his pillow just to let him know who really “owned” me. Eventually, once she realized she wasn’t being replaced, she relented and decided she liked him after all.

 

We shared a symbiotic brain. I always understood what she was saying. She was part-Siamese and very vocal, and she had a vast repertoire of meows, chirps, squeaks, murps, purrs, howls and yowls. She might as well have been speaking English to me. I know she understood what I said to her. She would pat my arm when she wanted attention. She insisted on grooming my eyebrows. She would capture bugs, then hold them with her paw and cry for me to dispatch them for her because she never quite got the knack of hunting. She liked to share popcorn. Whenever I popped a bag, she sat patiently at my feet, waiting for her share. I called it Sapphy’s Popcorn Tax.

 

She was always vibrantly healthy and never got sick. At 19 years old, her fur was still sleek and glossy and she showed no signs of slowing down. When she was almost 21, she suddenly started having accidents everywhere and losing weight. She drank mass quantities of water. The vet diagnosed her with kidney failure. I went deeply into debt trying to make her better. Every week she went back to the vet for more tests to monitor her progress, and I learned how to give her subcutaneous fluids twice a day. She seemed to understand that I was doing it for her own good, and she never fought. She would stand still and let me put this huge 18-gauge needle into her without so much as a peep, if only I would pet her while the fluids went in.

 

Then one day I came home and there was vomit everywhere. I found Sapphy lying in a puddle of her own urine. She woke up and realized that she was covered in pee. She was mortified and made the most pitiful howl I ever heard. I bathed her, and she was skin and bones. There was nothing left of her. The next day I took her to the vet. It was the hardest thing in the world. I wasn’t sure I was making the right decision until all of a sudden I realized that she was purring and kneading my shoulder. She never, ever purred at the vet’s office. She knew what was going on, and was cool with it. Usually I had to pry her off me to get her on the exam table. Not this time. She jumped onto the table and sat down. She looked the vet right in the eye and waited, and he didn’t even have to restrain her to administer the shot. She purred right to the end.

 

I still feel like I’m missing part of myself. Still can’t make a bag of popcorn without instinctively dropping a few pieces, even though she’s not there to eat them up. Still feel her tucked under my chin at night. I love my greys and my Oriental kitties, but it’s not the same. We can’t read each other’s minds. My heart is still broken.

 

Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to do her justice.

 

[What Was The Stuff For Relaxation?]

Trauma Life, by Young Living. It's very expensive (like $46 a bottle!) but supposedly works like magic. You rub a couple drops between your hands, then massage their ears with it and rub the leftover oil off along their spine. I just ordered a bottle and it smells wonderful. Haven't had a chance to use it on Argus yet, so will have to post once we've had a t-storm.

 

Linky:

Young Living Essential Oils

[I Am Not Getting Shazam's Ashes Back]

...I wish the weather was nice because I want to plant a little flower bed and make a memorial garden for Shazam. When we had both Shazam and DH's dog Murphy, we got one of those stepping stones and put both of their paw prints in it. I want to put that stone as the center and plant lots of beautiful flowers around it. That will have to be my closure...that's all I can do.

 

So hurry up sunshine and warm this place up! I need to get my garden going.

 

Thanks again everyone for you thoughts and suggestions.

 

I think that is a lovely idea. A beautiful living garden that you can enjoy is a wonderful tribute. When my Sapphire kitty, whom I grew up with, died last August at the age of 20 I did have her cremated and got her ashes back in a little cedar box. But every time I look at the box I think of her last days, and her sickness, and how hard it was to make the decision to put her to sleep, which leads to wondering if I made the right decision.... I'll probably bury the box, or scatter the ashes, or put it away somewhere because it makes me sad. When we get to our new house, I think we'll plant a little garden for her much like yours, and maybe have her portrait done from a picture taken in happier days.

 

It might also help bring closure for you to have a little memorial service. Light some candles, set out a picture of Shazam and maybe a favorite toy or blanket, and tell her how much you love her and say goodbye to her. That will give you a chance to say to her now what you weren't able to then.

 

Your flower garden will be a great comfort for you and a place where you can celebrate and remember her life, not her death. Those ashes are not your Shazam. She is in your heart.

 

[How Much Do You Feed Your Greyhound?]

We feed both dogs 2 cups of Canidae per feeding, twice a day. Argus is 80 lbs and Raven is only 65, but we feed them the same amount because Raven loses weight so easily.

 

We add a teaspoon of parsley to morning and evening meals, and a dollop of plain nonfat yogurt and a little low-sodium vegetable juice to the evening meal. Both greys were a mess when they came to us, and their coats and general conditions have vastly improved since we put them on the Canidae. The yogurt helps reduce gaseous emissions, and the parsley seems to cut down on the grass eating/puking habit.

[How Often Does Your Grey BARK?]

Our greys very rarely bark--something has to really work them up. Argus will bark if a stranger comes up to the house and he doesn't like the look of them. Raven will sometimes bark when playing, but mostly she is silent... except for the occasional burp.