then she appeared

I had reason yesterday to walk into my Mom's room and say "You'd better watch your back, old woman!" To which she naturally replied "And why would that be?"

I ticked them off on my fingers. "First me. Then Dad. And now GreyKitty! I am Diabetes Mary, spreading the fun all around. All that's left is you! I'm telling you, watch your back!"

This weekend GreyKitty got diagnosed with diabetes. She's 15 years old and starting to slow down a bit, but other than her scary zipper operation last spring to remove a cyst, was in decent health. The vet had noticed a slight kidney problem the last time we were there, but he said we'd just monitor it and see how it went. My first cat, Xing, had chronic renal failure that she died from, so I was pretty familiar with the progression of kidney failure over time. GreyKitty lately has had a lot of kidney-type symptoms — drinking a lot, peeing a lot, peeing in bad places (other than the box), etc. I figured it was about time to get her to the vet, so I scheduled an appointment for this coming week, while I'm on vacation. But Thursday night she looked really bad. Lethargic, listless, not interested in eating, dehydrated, all the bad kitty stuff.

I got her in to the vet the next morning, and he ran all the usual tests — bloodwork, urine, etc. He gave her subcutaneous fluids and sent us home, telling me he'd call me the next day with the results. The phone rang and I was so steeled to hear "renal failure" that I almost tap-danced when he said diabetes.

Because of course cats can live with diabetes (or "the beedies", as Rob calls it) for years and years. With renal failure they generally last six months (even with sub-q fluids). So that's very good.

What's minorly bad is that now I am tied to a 12-hour cycle. I have to get her on a food / insulin schedule that we can both live with, and closely watch her all the time for symptoms, and generally hover. I don't pay that close attention to my OWN diabetes, so maybe this will be good for both of us...?

There's a ton of info out there about feline diabetes. However, I'm interested if anyone has any first-hand experience with long-term pet diabetes and insulin and feeding? Do you do glucose monitoring at home? Do you allow food grazing, or stick to specific meals only? Any comments greatly appreciated!

I've already given her her first two insulin shots with no problem. Many more to go, I'm hoping!

GreyKitty in healthier times:



— And cicadabug, we were just really really really not meant to go to New Mexico this time. Sheesh!

Sam and GreyKitty, naptime.

Our landlord told us several months ago that we were going to get a new furnace this year, and that we'd get it in early November. It finally was installed today, with much banging, swearing, and singing (Christmas carols, if you're interested). When I finally got my sorry ass out of bed, this was outside my bedroom window:



I took several other pictures of the rusting holey mess here.

Rust is cool-looking, but scary. It seems unlikely that the air quality in my place could have been very good. Serious carbon monoxide, anyone? We have a detector, but I haven't checked the battery since I moved in (six months already!) so I'm gonna do that when I get home, you betcha! I guess the cats can act as furry detectors; they go feet up, maybe there's a problem. But I'd rather not get there.

Mostly I'm hoping this makes my apartment warmer and cheaper to heat!

GreyKitty is such a comfort junkie. I swear she remembers her humble beginnings as a homeless kitty. Now she spends her days wrapped in my new throw, and sprawled on my down comforter.

It's snowing a lot out. Earlier, it was sort of wimpy lame snow, with just a hint of wet annoying rain. Then it was just plain rain. Suddenly:



Other pictures here. Fun!

Thank god I can work from home on days like this. Back to it!

Sticking with my holiday theme...

I can't wait til Christmas decorating season hits. I'm getting the tripod out this year, for sure.

These people moved in a few years ago and started competing with everyone else in their neighborhood in the annual "Who is more insane and has more money for their electric bill" competition. They started winning pretty much right away. But Christmas is still up in the air. So far they lose at Christmas to the other freaks down the street, but who knows what will happen this year.

The scariest part of this display? PINK lights.

We have an entire colony of spiders right outside our windows at work. In fact, the windows are entirely covered with webs, and there are 25-30 spiders hanging around on them. Scary!

They are very very large spiders, too. It's like a zoo exhibit out there. And they're eating EACH OTHER.

I plan on bringing my good camera to work to capture get some better shots (maybe with more than one at a time). Autofocus on my smaller camera, combined with the thickness of the window glass, combined with the background noise all makes it a little tough for my wee Sony to handle.

New piano! And sized to fit in the apartment, which is very good. Her brother and sisters sent it to her as a surprise.

Mom is now a happy chick. She's not played much since she retired, since we've never owned a piano, so she's planning now on practicing a lot so she can go volunteer at the local nursing home. I told her she should teach lessons, too. She's thinking about it.

Reflecting on our current disaster has me remembering September of 2001. I realized recently that we were actually in New York a few weeks after 9/11 to see a friend's show, and I took a few pictures then. I remember refusing to take disaster-related pictures then, as it seemed too invasive--rude, almost. But I did take a few.

Here we were, riding in a NY cab for the first time. Again, cleverly, I am not actually in the picture...

I went to Provincetown for the day with Patrick, and we saw some stuff. There's a set of photos here.

Flickr is pretty fun if you use tags. I did a search on "Provincetown" and honestly, everyone takes the same five pictures... I almost needn't have bothered. Of course, then there are Patrick's pictures, where we really DID take all the same shots...