Monkey
No killage!
I’m babysitting Tessa tonight, and when I let her inside after my parents dropped her off, the cat had no time to run and hide. So I let him be, and let Tessa in the living room. And from then on they both have been on their best behavior.
Tessa has been neglecting Monkey to such a degree I really have wondered whether she even saw him.
Monkey on the other hand definitely saw Tessa. He growled the first time Tessa walked past, but kept quiet after that. He’s now starting to relax and sleep,while Tessa sleeps beside or behind the sofa.
Weekly Four: week 36
I’m grateful that Monkey’s leg is okay, it could have gone totally the other way.
I’m happy Nienke’s back to Warcraft 😀
I was annoyed at the rainy and cold weather this week. It’s not autumn yet, give me more sunshine!
I learned oil spatter can burn your arm in a nice spot pattern.
The Saga of the Spot, part Three
Took Monkey to the vet again last Wednesday for another check-up. The spots had halved in size again. The vet was very satisfied, it had been only two weeks since we started treatment and she was very worried about the leg then. And now the spots were almost completely gone. I don’t have to come back, and while it’s okay to finish of the tube of salve, it’s not required anymore. I am still doing it though. After all, I have the stuff, and if it helps get the spots all the way gone a day or so faster than they would without, it’s worth the hassle of cat-wrestling.
The Saga of the Spot, part two
Took Monkey back to the vet for the check up. Everything was looking much better. The spots had shrunk significantly since last week. Then they were about 3, 2 and 1 cm in diameter, and now the bottom ones were about half a cm while the top one was about 1,5 cm. The colouring has improved much as well, turned into a healthy pink. The vet was very pleased with how it looks and said to continue the salve and finish the anti-itch pills until they’re gone. She also wants to see Monkey again next week, he’s not being truly released as a patient until the spots are completely gone.
So I get to wrestle him on a daily basis some more as I keep applying salve to his leg 😀
I do feel more comfortable letting him out some more now. I’ve mostly been keeping him inside last week to make sure he didn’t get things stuck against the spots. He’s not letting me near enough to apply the salve precisely, so it tends to be a bit more than necessary, and it could be sticky-ish.
With smaller spots, I have less salve to apply, so it should go better. And I think Monkey approves, the sooner it’s better, the sooner he doesn’t have to go back to the vet. This time he growled as soon as the vet tried to pick him up to look at the spots. He was very much not amused. He even nicked my fingers with his claw when he got sick of me peeking into the cat carrier 😀
Weekly Four: week 34
I’m grateful that my cat is mostly okay, despite how gross his leg looks.
I’m happy he’s whining to be let out so much, it shows he is okay.
I’m annoyed he’s whining to be let out so much, I need my sleep.
I learned cats are impossible, can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em 😀
Just Me and my Monkey
The cat seems to be doing better already. Not that I noticed much difference with the spot on his leg yet, however his fur seems softer and shinier already. That’s probably the antibiotics kicking in. He also seems to mess with the spot less (licking it and stuff) so I guess the anti-itch pills are working. We have to come back for a checkup next Wednesday so we’ll see what the vet says. I’m guessing we’ll have to continue the salve treatment for a while longer because the spot is not becoming smaller very quickly.
I’ve been messing with voice recognition software since last night, so far it’s okay. Dictating is a bit troublesome, mostly because I’m not quite sure what I want to write as I dictate. For example as I write this, there’s a lot of pauses in my dictating and that doesn’t help the software very much. But as I learn, the software will learn, so we’ll get along, eventually 😀
It does make a fair amount of errors still, but as I dictate more and it gets used to my voice and my pronunciation (it transcribed that as Comanche nation…) then the errors should lessen. Of course my current setup doesn’t really help very much with the dictating since I’m not wearing a headset but am using the built-in microphone that laptop has. So it’s not always ideally positioned in regards to my mouth.
I’m hoping that as we move along, I can use this to do actual writing with. Fiction writing I mean. Mostly because when I get dialogue in my head, it feels stilted to type that up sentence by sentence. My head runs ahead of the writing then, and it gets impatient. So I’m hoping the more natural feel of just being able to say the dialogue and having it transcribed automatically will make writing easier.
Plans for today include teaching Nienke the basics of using Paint Phop Pro and probably scrapping some more myself.
The Saga of the Spot, part one
Took Monkey to the vet today. He’s been having a, rather large, weird spot on the inside of his left hind leg which wouldn’t get better. I first noticed it about a month ago, and thought he’d been fighting. I figured I keep an eye on it and let it be for the moment. Monkey doesn’t like when I try anything even remotely related to his lower belly, so he’s not very keen on letting me look at the spot and check up on it. What I saw of it occasionally looked okay-ish, but it didn’t change much over time. So last week I decided to take him in for a check-up.
I had an appointment for end of the afternoon today so Dad, the driver, and I went on our way. Monkey doesn’t mind the carrier, but as soon as the door’s closed he knows he going somewhere and he starts scratching at the openings and yowling. It’s hilarious to hear a tough cat as he is whining like a little baby 😀
Once at the vet he was, as usual, so terrified he barely moved, making it easy for her to lift him up and look at the spot. She came to the conclusion he probably did it himself as a response to itching. He scratched, and when it would keep itching he probably kept going at it with tongue and teeth until this. She said he was probably allergic to fleas. I’d figured as much, since even though I treat him regularly, and he doesn’t have fleas as such, cats with an allergy can break out from even a single bite. And he does get bumps and little welts on the back end of his back on occasion that (as I’d already looked up before) fit the symptoms of flea allergy.
So the vet asked about the treatment I was using and when I told her I always use Frontline, she said that they’ve been noticing for a few years now that its effectiveness is going down. They sell a different brand there so I bought that to use now.
Back to the spot, it got a bit infected over time, so Monkey got a shot of antibiotics for that right there. In addition to that, I got pills to give him once a day to alleviate the itch and a salve to treat the spot with, also once a day. I have to come back next Wednesday to check up on how it’s going.
Dad drove me home then, and I took advantage of his presence for applying the salve. I first gave Monkey the first pill. Luckily he’s usually pretty easy about pills. The anti-flea treatment he runs from as if it is gonna eat him, but stuff pills in wet food and he gobbles them up. Then we tried the salve. First with Dad holding him, but that didn’t work 😀 Monkey was too wild and flexible, and Dad unsure how to hold him, and not holding tight enough. So we switched places. I grabbed the cat, and Dad applied the salve. This worked a bit, but not enough. So I grabbed a towel, wrapped the top end of the cat in it, and thus we managed to get enough salve on there. When I let go, the cat flew into the hallway to sit on his box. Aftermath for us? Me and Dad covered in fur, the floor covered in fur and a couple nice scratches on my hands.
I’m already dreading the other days until the next appointment…
Tonight, before bed, I’ll also give him the new flea treatment, since it’s about time for it again.
Poor kitty 🙂
Weekly Four: week 32
I’m grateful it didn’t rain yesterday. My parents had a great time at the Agricultural Day at Verhildersum Museum Estate, and Nienke’s Birthday BBQ approved of the dry weather as well 😀
I’m happy Monkey is so close lately. I think he missed me when I was away last weekend. He’s letting me pet and hold him much more, and is seeking my company (and lap) of his own accord more as well. He’s on my lap as I type this <3
I’m angry with my WordPress. After returning to this site, and updating WP to the newest version, updating pages stopped functioning. And later posting pages stopped working, and now I’m even having trouble posting blog posts. Didn’t find a lot of info on the net, but what there is, is pointing to security issues and .htaccess file edits. So I first had to scour through my hosting provider’s FAQ to figure out 1) if I already had one somewhere (I couldn’t find it in the directory structure) and/or 2) how to edit and where to put it (since hosting provider is not using the standard public_html folder for the site but has named it differently. I think I got it now, we’ll see if this posts, then I probably got it 😀
I learned that draping a string of fake ivy across the top of my window looks neat.
Water
Went swimming yesterday morning with Mom. She has this group lesson every week where they do excercises and stuff in the water. That’s not really my thing, but since the rest of the pool is virtually empty then, it’s ideal for doing laps. Got my 40 laps done and spent the last 15 minutes or so just floating about. I LOVE that, I could do that all day.
After we went shopping. Grocery shopping was planned, but we took a trip into town as well ’cause I was looking for flipflops. Unfortunately I didn’t find any of them, but I did find a shoe rack on sale at the drug store, only 3 euros! I put it together last night and will place it today after I clean/clear out the back entrance area.
After we lunched at a bakery. Since I can’t really eat bread products (carbs, carbs, carbs!) I hopped to the next door butcher and bought metworst. We browsed the nearby clothing stores for a bit but nothing came of it (yay, says my wallet). Did buy a few discount dvd’s (seriously, 5 for 5 euros… how can you pass on that 😀 )
We then finally decided it was about time to hit the supermarkets. I didn’t need a lot myself, just refill the meat supply and get some more cheese. I also bought this huge plastic tub/bucket thing. It will store a shitload of crap, and has other useful uses 😀
Ma Pool! 😀
It took about 5 buckets or so to fill 😀
And of course, after a while, Monkey had to come and see too 😀
