Now Back to My Regularly Scheduled(sort of) Life...

I know this sounds really bad-weird but in a way I am relieved that Soshie finally left us. She was very sick for a quarter of a year, that's a very long time for a cat. Before that she was fine and maybe she would have lived to be an old, old cat had she not swallowed that streamer. Or maybe not. Maybe she already had heart disease and the accident just gave it a leg up? Or maybe she never would have recovered from this and would have continued to have painful bowel issues the rest of her life. Who knows. I do know that since the late summer of 2006 I have been constantly nursing sickly animals, starting with Chester's kidney failure. I had to (force)feed him with a spoon for many days when he developed fatty liver and almost died. After that I had to feed him canned cat food twice a day up until he died(this past fall, just over a year after onset). He wanted held all the time which meant that other cats/piggies/dogs/kids/spouses got neglected. Soshie was much the same way. Just six weeks after Chester died is when she got sick. I had to feed her with an eye dropper for many days, on several occasions, just to keep her going. She was always cold and wanted to be in my lap whenever I sat down. I also had to feed her special meals and monitor her water intake and her bowel function.

In early April, we had two guinea pigs give birth within a week of each other. The day after the second one delivered, the first one died from uterine complications. This left two precious babies needing fed every 2-3 hours, round the clock(yes indeed) for three weeks. In mid-September we lost another piggie to neurological and dental problems. It has been a hard year for our pets. We also took on two other piggers and another dog(Buddy, the brother to our black lab, Buttercup). I'm feeling like we live on a farm!! Feeding, watering and general care of the other animals is time consuming but its much different to provide the basics to healthy animals(they get tons of not-so-basic attention too, don't worry!) than to care for injured or ill furbabies. So, while Soshie's death leaves me feeling guilty, heartbroken and very sad, I am not unhappy to be out from under the (above and beyond) call of nursing duty.

Yesterday was weird. What is supposed to be a the time of year with short days and long nights was backward for me yesterday. I felt like the day would NEVER end! I tried sorting and putting up the last of my Chistmas decorations. I did some laundry, I cooked, I played online, I ate and ate, I took Puppy-girl outside many times(she isn't sick, just elderly and has to go out front to pee a dozen times a day)... at 8:30 I was more than ready to turn in but didn't. It seemed like the day lasted forfreakingever.

So, I was excited to wake up this morning with a list of stuff to get done. I had big plans for my bedroom being that its a disaster right now. One of the main things I want to accomplish is to "adultify" our bed, make it a cozy spot for rest and relaxation and not a place to fold clothes or for the kids to watch tv. When I was 10 years old my parents bought me a REALLY nice bedroom suite, chest of drawers, dresser with nice mirror, night stand and bed(headboard and footboard). It has served me well for 30 years. We love the storage pieces but the bed has seen better days. It wobbles a bit and the headboard leans in when the rails and mattress are put on. Right now we're sleeping with the box springs on the floor and no headboard because we don't have a frame. The room feels "undone" and kind of temporary. Hard to describe but I don't feel comfortable with the bed like that. Its almost like we're guests in our own home. I set out to do something about it this morning only to be shot down. I dragged out the head and footboards only to find that we'd used the slats for a window project in the backyard. Earlier this fall Buttercup developed the bad habit of scratching on the window to our living room(108 inches across). She broke the glass THREE times! So, we had to put a sheet of plywood across the bottom to keep her off of it. The bed slats were used to attach the wood to the top of the window frame. So, Mark has promised this weekend that we'll get some new slats but I may go to Goodwill and see what they have in the way of bedframes. But I want to do it now. Sheesh.

I did manage to get the featherbed washed and it is drying now(takes 3 or 4 dryer cycles). Soshie's loss of bladder and bowels wasn't a good thing for my bedding. There are sheets and a quilt that still need washed and the floor needs decluttered and vacuumed. I also had to stop what I was doing to heat up lunch for Mark and to take Ryan across town to a friend's house. Sigh.

I also managed to take some pictures of the pretty holly bushes and my favorite moss patches... Enjoy!