Its Starting out to be a Long Weekend...
Well, lets see, when we last left our soap opera things were going about as could be expected. They still are, except that now that both Bears are in the house, they are getting on remarkably well. Biggest problem is the two year old "Cub" aka Cubby, has decided she is afraid of the big doggies. Never mind that at Yule she was happily on the floor, petting their tummys and hugging them. Now they are an object to be feared, something we must scream at when we see it. Which means, of course, the dog thinks we are playing and happily jumps up and barks. Uh...not really great going guys...I know you are trying but...
Eventually Daddy Bear solves problems by putting Cubby on his shoulders where the big bad wolves can't lick her to death. Meanwhile, nine month old baby sister (Other Cubby), thinks doggies are really cool. In fact she keeps saying...d...d...do...d...and pointing.
Dinner was a rushed together affair, because just about the time we found out our land rover was fixed (it broke down two days in a row, in exactly the same spot, at the same time of day and the road service thought the second time it was a computer error...) we had to rush a cat to the vet. Now at the moment, I have one already sick cat, except the poor old guy doesn't really know he's sick. From the same catagory as Hagen (cat in "Cat Nipped" and Meusings beside the Rainbow Bridge") he is two years older and wasn't expected to see his sixth birthday. Now twelve, his nine lives have caught up with him and he's slowly fading away from several incurable ailments. But, being tanked up on small doses of kitty morphine, most of the time he doesn't seem to notice much. Though he does spend a lot of time sitting in the window staring out at Hagen's grave mound. ...
But today, he was not the problem, he was cheerfully purring around my legs when I noticed that Thor (cat from "Elizabethan Collar the Cat is Not Amused fame) wasn't any where around. When I found him, he had gone straight up onto a high wardrobe and did not look at all happy. Further inspection showed a runny nose, red eyes, sneezing and signs of er...a...what we delicately call in this house "cat failure." Cat failure is what happens when kitty doesn't quite make it to the litter box and needs a bit of help with his sanitary condition. Oh, that explains it, and here I'd been thinking that it was the other cat who had been missing the box the last couple of days. Uh oh, this means kitty may have been sick for over 48 hours already and I hadn't noticed because I was paying so much attention to his friend.
Quick call to vet and of course, he's only in for a short time today, about 1/2 hour after we pick up the land rover and at exactly the time I'm supposed to put dinner together. I'm feeding nine people tonight and, though two of them are very small, it is very important that there be enough for everyone to eat. Which usually means one of three Kilmurry Weekend specialties: stew, chillies or pasta. Tonight was supposed to be beef and venison stew. Well, it was, it was also the fastest beef and venison stew I have ever put together. About 15 minutes from chopping board, through browning to vegetables dumped in. In helped that I remember the left over frozen cooked carrots and potatoes left in the freezer from the last SCA event. The one where Merlin cooked a might meal, so mighty in fact that we had two giant boxes of baked potatoes left over and another one of somewhat over roasted carrots. Some of this stuff went to chickens and horses, but I tried to freeze as much as I could. This turned out to be a very good thing as I don't think I could have had dinner ready otherwise.
About the time we got back from the vet, with yowling and unhappy cat in toe, I just had time to stir the stuff before running upstairs to set up my work room for Cat Nipped part two. This is because Thor isn't supposed to have any food for 48 hours. The Great Pumpkin (aka Folkhari) on the other hand, is supposed to eat as much as he can in order to try to maintain what strength he has left. With a house full of house guests, one of whom is allergic to cats, this calls for drastic action. Which means moving The Great Pumpkin into my work room at least part of the time. He's already discovered my suitcase (the nice carpeted one that really belongs to my mother, the one that makes such a nice scratching post). Suitcase is now slightly worse for wear and has been removed from the room. Thor is sulking in the bedroom under the bed. Once in a while he looks for his food dish, sighs and goes back under the bed. By tomorrow I expect much worse protests, I wonder if I will wind up sleeping on a mattress in the drawing room by Sunday?
For the moment, The Pumpkin is back in the bedroom visiting his sick friend. Since he's already exposed, there's no more or less danger of his health being affected. And he keeps racing out the work room door, every time I open it. Which is going to make allergic house-guest (aka Daddy Bear) crazy, since he's convinced that cats may contaminate his Cubbies too. Not that there have been any signs that Cubby's share Daddy's allergies, but all Daddy's are protective. And Daddy BEARS are even more so. I figure I will put kitty in my work room several times a day to encourage him to eat, and hope for the best.
Meanwhile, I've pick up my knitting and put it away. There's a photo somewhere of a much younger pumpkin "helping" mommy knit when we lived in Sweden....I'm not sure the baby sweater I'm working on really needs this sort of help. Especially not when the baby's mommy is also allergic to cats. Though she has one of her own that lives outdoors. So I'm not too worried about it.
Oh, I hear the pitter patter of little voices downstairs so I guess I should go be social...
More later
Disaster Cat