Letters to you

Another weird dream about losing my cat Spooky. The first one was here.

This time for some reason I took her to "school" with me (it looked like maybe a university setting or something). The idea was that she would roam the classroom and I'd get her after class. I vaguely wondered about litter box logistics, but figured it was only for an hour so it would be ok. Then I forgot her there and when I looked, couldn't find her. Later I went to the animal shelter to see if she was there. At the desk, there was a young guy who didn't speak English very well. I tried to ask him if I could go and see the cats to check if Spooky was there, but he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. Another guy came up to us and explained that guy #1 had a disorder that made it impossible for him to answer questions. Then guy #2 proceeded to take guy #1 to comfort him from the trauma of me trying to ask him questions. Meanwhile, I still hadn't been able to go back to see the cats to see if Spooky was there. I started loudly trying to explain what I wanted to do, to the point where I actually said something in my sleep and promptly woke up. I was very glad it was just a dream.

Then later I dreamed I was perched on a little shelf on the side of a small cliff-like structure at the seashore. High tide was quickly coming in, so it was imperative that I get off the shelf and up on to the beach. I noticed there were a lot of ice floes stuck to the cliff, which for some reason provided excellent handholds in the dream (they weren't slippery or cold). So I was almost up on the beach, when a polar bear came up to me. I think I woke up at that point.

sunfell says it best.

Nothing to add...

I went to my bedroom to get something, and Gamaliel was sitting by the dresser, peering very intensely at a point between the dresser and the left speaker. This would not surprise me usually, because he peers intensely at everything. However, this time he persisted, and after a minute or so I heard rustling back there. I thought maybe he'd identified the location of a mouse. As quietly as possible, I removed some objects that were between me and the point from which the rustling was coming... I thought I could see a mouse poking its head out from behind the speaker, but it seemed too motionless. When I removed the clear plastic box that was partially blurring my view, I realized the 'mouse face' was just some discolorations on a stick that had fallen back there - it wasn't a mouse at all. So what was that rustling? I looked more carefully, and there, ready to go behind the furniture where I'd never see him again, was Zim. At first I thought that perhaps an egg I didn't know about had hatched somewhere in the house - weren't Zim and Zotz secure in their tank? As the reality that I could have lost him sank in, I scooped up Zim and inspected him for damage. Somehow, he avoided losing body parts to Gamaliel, and was entirely unscathed. I'm not sure how he avoided being hurt, since Gamaliel has always been very interested in the snake babies and has no qualms about pouncing on and playing with anything that moves. My next thought was, "if Zim escaped, maybe Zotz got out as well"... Fortunately, Zotz was happily asleep under his coconut shell. I checked to see why Zim had been able to escape - surely he couldn't lift 15 pounds of books. Then I realized that when I replaced the lid after giving them water and feeding Zotz yesterday, I hadn't completely closed the lid. There was a tiny opening about an 8th of an inch wide, which was all he needed... The weights on top of the tank didn't help, since the lid was on crooked to begin with.

Glad I found him. Glad they've become vertically adept - shows they're vigorous and healthy... Glad I'll be putting them in a bigger tank with real clamps from now on...

Interesting link for people who have cats

http://www.catfaeries.com/

You can get Feliway here. It's supposed to calm them down by mimicking cat facial pheromones. I'm not sure why facial pheromones that aren't their own would calm them, but it seems to work.

I just found out that my cat has an ebay account. Apparently he is an excellent seller with prompt delivery, a good customer who always pays as agreed, and has conducted 23 transactions.

Sassua went to the vet today for her dental cleaning and ingrown claw removal. After the surgery she has to wear a "pain patch" on her back for a day, which time-releases morphine into her system. Then she goes back Monday to get another pain patch for another two days, until the claw area is healed enough so she isn't in pain. They have to shave some of the fur on her back to apply the pain patch. If she keeps licking or biting at her paws, she'll have to wear an elizabethan collar as well. I've seen dogs wearing one, but I can't imagine a cat wearing one of those. Just flaming great - a cat on dope in an e-collar. I suppose that's better than a cat *not* on dope in an e-collar, but still. I think the whole procedure is for the best, though, because whenever we (or the vet) would trim that claw, she would screech and claw-slap, meaning it was probably sore even when it wasn't ingrown, because the rough clipped part impinged on the skin between her toes. I'm really glad I don't have a sharp toenail growing between my first and second toe, for example...

Edit - The doctor called at about 4 this afternoon after everything was done, and said she was doing well - just a little groggy from the painkillers, but otherwise fine. I'll be picking her up Saturday morning.

Hee... I just looked up the root word of our Siamese cat's name. The name is Ossana, so the root word would be Os (pl=Ossa), or bone/s. However, although she's a thin little Wedgie, she's not skeletal, so I looked further. Turns out there exists a mountain of approximately 6490 feet (1967 meters) in Thessaly, Greece called Mt. Ossa. Ossana translates from Greek as a female native of Mt. Ossa, Thessaly, Greece. So now the question becomes, is Ossana really Neil Gaiman's Thessalonian in disguise? All she needs are the right glasses...

Rialian is back home after having a wonderful time at some friends' wedding! Congratulations go to amberite, heron61, and their significant other. He finally got to meet metaphorge and xanadumalion, both of whom he has wanted to meet for a long time. He also got to meet the designer of the game Nobilis, an RPG based in a skillfully crafted world with superb artwork.

But while he was gone, a bunch of weird stuff happened.

The first thing that happened was that my mom landed in the hospital. She has been having intermittent partial blackouts that she thought were strokes. I didn't even know this until Saturday when she told me. Usually they pass in a few seconds, but this weekend my brother called and said she'd had a partial blackout that seemed somewhat worse than the others. She didn't lose consciousness, and was able to function normally during the entire episode, but had no recollection of what happened during the episode. He said she was having trouble getting re-oriented afterward, and it took about a half an hour for her to be able to think clearly again. We took her to the emergency room where they conducted a CAT, MRI, and other tests - all negative so far. No sign of a stroke, no sign of alzheimer's or any of that. No brain damage, no sign of neurological problems of any kind. They did a cardiac test this morning and we're waiting for the results of that. I'm thinking it could be blood sugar. I hope they find out what it is and that it's something treatable.

Also while he was out, I did a really dumb thing and let Matilda (my ball python) see my hand which was holding the feeding tongs (the tongs were holding her dinner). She got distracted away from the dinner and toward my hand (oops). Already in "feeding" mode, she calculated a precise trajectory through the chink between the lid and tank where the feeding tongs were entering the tank, and struck. Next thing I knew, she had grabbed my middle finger with her needle-sharp teeth and proceeded to wrap my hand and attempt to swallow my finger (my finger tip looks like vampire victim). Hopefully she decided I tasted awful. I used suction on the finger and dowsed it in alcohol and antibiotics. It wasn't at all infected by this morning, so I think it'll be fine. However, it's very bad to allow something like that to happen - snakes aren't the sharpest pencils in the pack, and once they associate something with "food" it's difficult to convince them otherwise.

The next thing that happened (much less serious) was that our Siamese cat went into heat and was waiting to yell at rialian when he got back. We unfortunately can never have her fixed, because we determined that she's very allergic to innoculations which are required for neutering. We're also afraid to risk anasthetic because we're not sure which other chemicals she might be deadly allergic to. She was done with the preliminary presenting and well into "shriek week" by the time he came home. I usually make a special effort to remind him that, well, you know, his cat? She's in heat. (In case he missed it). His usual response to that is "Thank you, thank you very much. That's really ... helpful."

Anyway, I'm glad he's back...

Spooky - Sister Deadly Talons of Purring Affection
Sithreal - Brother Falling Boulder of Honeypuss Love
Gamaliel - Sibling Psychotic Episode of the Honorable Path
Magnolia - Sister Slashing Dustmop of Mewing Cuddles

And rialian's cats:

Ossana - Sister Sonic Disruptor Beam of Dependable Friendship
Sageti - Brother Semi-Automatic Weapon of Studious Contemplation
Sassua - Sister Immovable Object of Zen Enlightenment

Just now when I was getting ready to go to sleep, my snake Matilda (a ball python) started meowing. Very softly - nothing dramatic. But... meowing???

At first I dismissed the sound as digestive problems (and definitely not meowing, since it seemed to be coming from a snake). I looked more closely at Matilda, and there was no sign of distress -- she was just as inert as usual. But still I heard this meowing and scraping coming from her direction. Then it dawned on me. Matilda is in a tank on top of my dresser. Dressers have drawers. I opened the drawer, and out popped Spooky, purring furiously.

She hadn't been crying or anything. Just extremely soft meows that were so unobtrusive that it could have been a snake's stomach rumbling (do snake's stomachs rumble?) This is the same cat who got me to take her home from the pound by using the Voice on me, so I'm not sure why she didn't emit a full-fledged, unmistakable spooky-meow to get out.

I'm really glad I found her before she became distressed. Poor baby.