The holiday leftovers have all been eaten, the cards taken down, and I think there’s maybe half a glass of eggnog left in the fridge. The cats have scattered their Christmas toys under various large pieces of furniture and Gwen’s are already quite well-chewed. Winter Solstice brought us the promise of the days beginning [...]]]>

The holiday leftovers have all been eaten, the cards taken down, and I think there’s maybe half a glass of eggnog left in the fridge. The cats have scattered their Christmas toys under various large pieces of furniture and Gwen’s are already quite well-chewed. Winter Solstice brought us the promise of the days beginning to lengthen again, with Christmas came time spent with reconnecting with friends and family (some in person, others maybe only by phone or online) and then 2011 wound itself down to an end.  And now here we are, in a brand new year again.

Last night we got a half inch of snow followed by a day of bitter cold, but I can’t complain as we’d been hammered with three heavy snows by this time last year and it’s been very mild. Perhaps winter will go easy on us this year. On New Year’s Day we had breakfast of homemade breakfast ‘sausage’ Joy made and eggnog pancakes I contributed, then relaxed for a few hours reading in front of the fire with all seven critters sprawled out around us. Then we went hiking with Gwen in the DuPont State Forest – it was brilliantly sunny and very warm for this time of year, a beautiful day for a hike. After we returned, we had another nice home cooked meal and a movie from Netflix. It was a relaxing and restorative holiday weekend and I hope it sets a good precedent for 2012.

Last year saw a lot of change and turmoil in the world around us, and it seems likely that pattern will continue… especially when you add in this being an election year here in the US (and the coming onslaught of nonsense that is going to bring), the ongoing recession, and all the Mayan calendar silliness. If there is actually some sort of ‘change of consciousness’ happening, maybe it’s that people are beginning to wake up on a mass scale, and really see what is going on around them. It needs to happen, the world is facing so many challenges and I’m hoping that all the protests and unrest are the first stage of people learning to work together and solve some of these problems.

On a more personal level, in 2011 we had a few changes around here. We added an unexpected family member… everyone has been too tactful to point out the ‘foster fail’, but guess we need to come clean, especially since our foster kitten, Ishi, is over a year old now! Equally unexpectedly, but with much regret, we also lost one this year. What happened with Paddy is still a sore spot… we never saw that coming and it still hurts.

Cricket made it through another year, for which we are grateful, though both she and Olive have gotten so old and frail… I’m not sure either of them has another Christmas in them, all we can do is make them as comfortable and happy as we can, and enjoy the time we have left with them. Time seems to flow faster with each passing year… I look at Simon, who is ten, and wonder where that black kitten disappeared to? Winter is six now and even Calvin is already all grown up, though still prone to flying through the air like superman. Gwen and Ishi, at 15 months, are still the ‘babies’ of the family, but not really babies anymore. I look in the mirror and see the inevitable passage of time etched in lines on my face , and glistening in the ‘few white hairs’ that are becoming a white streak…and as I stare at my reflection, I ask myself the important question, “is there ‘enough’ grey mixed in with the dark brown yet?” You know, so that I can dye my hair some outlandish shade of purple and actually be able to see the purple? Almost, I think. Maybe next year.

I thought that the above picture of Ishi that I’d been playing with in Photoshop, seeming to look out the window pensively (actually she was watching our new neighbor working in his garage) was a good image to start the year with. From this angle, you can’t even see that she singed off half her eyebrows last night sniffing a candle. Come to think of it, maybe that’s an even better metaphor to live by for 2012 – having the initiative to explore new experiences in the coming year, face them head on.

Even if you lose a few eyebrows in the process.

Some of them are pretty excited:

Others are maybe a bit more laid back about it:

It’s a good time to put on a costume, if you’re so inclined:

Or your fancy party clothes:

It’s that time of year again… we took the pictures a day early because it might be dark by the time I get home from work tomorrow. The full album is here.

Turtle high five!

Cricket, Gwen, Simon, and Calvin

The usual disclaimer applies: no animals were physically harmed [...]]]>

Fairy Princesses in the sun

It’s that time of year again… we took the pictures a day early because it might be dark by the time I get home from work tomorrow. The full album is here.

Turtle high five!

Cricket, Gwen, Simon, and Calvin

The usual disclaimer applies: no animals were physically harmed in the making of this photo album, but we can’t make any guarantees as to psychological effects. It’s payback for every lost night of sleep, and everything chewed, clawed or smashed throughout the rest of the year.

Last Thursday, we noticed that Simon appeared to have an ear infection. We cleaned it out [...]]]>

We didn’t want to post about this until we had the pathology results back; and now that they are we can not only tell the story, but let out a big sigh of relief as we do so.

Last Thursday, we noticed that Simon appeared to have an ear infection. We cleaned it out as best as we could (it was really painful so we didn’t want to dig around in there too much) and used some Otomax we had left over from Calvin’s ear trouble a few months back. By the weekend, however, the ear was getting worse instead of better so off to the vet we went. Joy was working that weekend, so we had to drop him off on our way to go take care of the shelter animals on Sunday. We knew they were going to have to sedate him to get a good look, so it was just as well.

A few hours later, we went back for a slightly stoned cat and a troubling diagnosis;  it wasn’t really an ear infection, at least not in the usual sense. Simon had some sort of badly necrotized patch in his ear, not deep down in the ear canal but rather in the flap, and the vet wound up having to cut away a big circle of necrotic inner ear skin and cartilage. If the area had been any larger, in fact, the ear might no longer have stood since the only thing left once she was done was the outer skin. She sealed the raw area with a patch of wound glue and sent him home with a clown collar and a few days worth of pain meds.

What made us all nervous is that the area wasn’t so much infected looking as just… rotted. We discussed the possibility of a venomous spider bite… and the big C. Under the circumstances, she wanted to send the tissue off for a biopsy and we were happy to agree.

One good thing was that we had told her to go ahead and take an X-ray of his back end while he was out, since he’s pretty painful back there. We’d talked about doing this before, but it wasn’t something we wanted to put him under for; we’d always said if he had to get anesthesia for some other reason we’d have it checked, and here was our chance. His hips where he had the two femoral head ostectomies (in simpler terms, he’s had the ball part of the hip joint removed on both sides because he had a rare disorder that caused them to crumble away) looked great. It’s his spine that’s causing him trouble, he has arthritis. It was good to find out what’s causing his pain, and we’re going to start him on some glucosamine to see if it gives him some relief.

The biopsy results came back “necrosis secondary to infection” so we can stop worrying about some sort of nasty cancer, and he got started on some heavy duty antibiotics. Our best guess is that he was wresting with Calvin, and got kicked in the ear with a claw that had something foul on it.  He seems to be on the mend, and we’re very relieved.

not a creature was stirring,

not even a mouse.

OK, actually it was the morning before Christmas, and the house was alive with the cacophony of dogs playing, cats milling, and two humans trying to police the situation and make a vegetable cobbler at the same time. But I couldn’t [...]]]> …and all through the house,

not a creature was stirring,

not even a mouse.

OK, actually it was the morning before Christmas, and the house was alive with the cacophony of dogs playing, cats milling, and two humans trying to police the situation and make a vegetable cobbler at the same time. But I couldn’t make that rhyme.

The animals have already spoken to Santa about their wishes…

Though, if Cricket’s wish was “make Paddy and Gwen go away,” she’s going to be a bit disappointed.

Simon is ready for the big day, all decked out with his personalized collar tag Auntie Caroline at Wag! gave him.

and the stockings are hung by the fireplace, ready for tomorrow. Even though Paddy actually has been playing with his Christmas gift for weeks already… it’s not like we could have kept THAT in a stocking.

Calvin (who has been with us a whole year as of this week!) is keeping a watch for Santa.

We’d like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season, with peace and happiness for the coming new year!

-Chris, Joy, Olive, Simon, Cricket, Winter, Calvin, Paddy & Gwen

Right up until I picked [...]]]> Today, I found myself without any actual dispatch events to work on, so I was doing remote stuff from home.  After careening around the house up until Joy left for work, the animals had all crashed… the house was silent except for Calvin snoring on the bed in the office.

Right up until I picked up my cell to call a client.

As I dialed the first numbers, out of the corner of my eye I saw Cricket’s head pop up in the living room. She’d been asleep on the couch. She stretched, hopped down off the couch, and came trotting into the office like she was on a mission.  Paddy, seeing her moving with such apparent purpose, jumped off his chair and followed her. They both came into the office, woke the puppy up, and all three began milling about at my feet making all sorts of commotion. I had to hang up mid-dial and regroup.

I took Gwen out to potty, locked her in her crate with a snack, and leaned the office door closed so that the person on the other end wouldn’t hear a puppy whining in a crate, and dialed again.  Paddy began trying to bump the door open with his nose.  I could hear Cricket dancing in hallway in front of the door. Simon came out of the bedroom yelling at the top of his lungs, having suddenly become aware of this alarming change in the house.

Translation of Simon: “OMG, did you know this door was closed? Why is it closed? It wasn’t closed earlier. What if I wanted to go in there? I think I need to get in there RIGHT NOW.”

Could someone explain again why we didn’t just get a turtle or a goldfish?

Human head vs. mutant tomato

Mutant tomato menacing Paddy

The one on the left is actually smarter.

Simon meets Bertha

Bertha and one of her siblings

Bertha and [...]]]> The day has finally come… big Bertha was ready to pick. Not sure what to do with her, but we had some fun doing comparative size studies…

Human head vs. mutant tomato

Mutant tomato menacing Paddy

The one on the left is actually smarter.

Simon meets Bertha

Bertha and one of her siblings

Bertha and one of the pink tomato cubes. I’ll bet it’s afraid for its life.

…as you can see.

A lot of moisture issues in front of the fireplace. We aren’t sure if it is all due to Lindsy [...]]]>

Yeah, we said we were going to leave the carpet that was over the plywood till we figured out what our plans were but that was also the nastiest part…

…as you can see.

A lot of moisture issues in front of the fireplace. We aren’t sure if it is all due to Lindsy sleeping there, or if there’s been a leakage issue (other than leaking dog).

Finally the cooties have been purged, and the area repeatedly treated. Of course, now we have a plywood living room… for now.