Pussycat Junction
Apollo's health seems to be taking a turn for the worse again. After living another year past when we thought he as a goner. The past several days he seems to have an eye infection. It is his left eye, which is the same side that he's had this growth or tumor on his nose that I took him to the vet about way back in 2016 I think. They said it could be serious or benign. As usual, doctors don't know much more than a person using Google.
So I dealt with his sinus/breathing issues (a lot of sneezing and mucus on that side) by giving him steam baths in the winter... closing him up in the bathroom and running the hot water. It definitely seemed to help. His nose/breathing issues always seemed to get worse in winter when it was drier. And my turning the humidity up on the furnace didn't seem to do much but cover all the window corners in moisture and ice.
His eye doesn't look as bad this morning, but we were going to see if the pet store has any basic eye drops for cats. Or we could ask Madison, as she is coming over Sunday to give our 5 new fosters their next round of vaccines. We can't say for sure he is in pain. He is eating more than I usually see him eat. He's still drinking lots of water, due to his kidney disease. He has even been coming to sleep on the bed, which he hadn't done for several weeks.
He did accidentally pee on me in bed yesterday. He was desperately trying to go to the litter box but his nails were getting snagged on the sheets and the poor guy just kind of gave up, fell over and pissed. It was really our fault for not trimming his nails. But he gets so worked up when we tried to before, we didn't want to give him a heart attack. We did go ahead and do a trim yesterday. Part of the issue is I think the Sparrow is afraid to be too firm when holding the cats, like he thinks he is going to hurt them. Which allows any of them in whatever the situation is to squirm and fight us when we try trimming nails or administer medicine or whatever. He did way better yesterday.
I cannot imagine Apollo will live much longer, but last year we thought for sure he'd be dead by last Christmas and he is still alive. I again say that I hope he dies at home. I do not want to put him through the trauma of going to the vet to be put down like poor Loki. I do not know what the right thing was to do with him, but perhaps it would have been better to just let him sit in his chair in the basement until he died. The owner of the cat cafe was telling me last time I was there to see the girls that a cat will die within three days without water. Would he have suffered? I don't know. What is the right, natural thing to do?
Had we raced to put Apollo to sleep a year ago, we would have never known he still had this much life left in him. That makes me feel a tad guilty considering it. He has had a decent quality of life since. He is very old, but we don't think he is in pain or suffering. He has still been himself much of the time. Seeking attention and affection. Perhaps if he gets like Loki where he can't walk and doesn't want to eat or drink we should just let nature take its course and let him quietly pass here. It just feels like a better thing to do than sticking him in a box and dragging him to the vet where his final moments involve strangers stabbing him with needles on a cold, steel table.
Plus, I do feel it is important for Neelix at the very least to see Apollo's dead body. He was very close with Apollo early on. And though I think we've made Neelix a little paranoid by always correcting him for trying to play with Apollo, because he doesn't understand that Apollo is just too weak to be wrestled with, I do think there is a bond there. Neelix seems like the most emotional cat I've ever had. It makes me nervous if we were to ever travel, because I genuinely think he will be distraught with my absence.
On an unrelated note, the CFO and the Meat Packer are going out of their way to find every nit-picky thing they can to email about the past two days knowing I am off. I need to order some monitors and a network switch, because they don't know how to use Amazon themselves unless it is for personal stuff. So I am billing two hours to place the order. Plus, someone is whining about getting the "new" email on their tablet. Odd it wasn't a concern when the migration happened THREE weeks ago and I was on site multiple times after, and there were endless emails going back and forth to people about it. Now, only when I am off, is it suddenly a problem this guy doesn't have it. And he isn't going to have it till my next visit there. Fuck it.
It is intentional. I know it is. I can spend literal days, even a whole week, sitting at my desk and not receive a single call or email. Just wasting days doing nothing. If I step out to lunch though, a call or email comes through. If I go to the bathroom, the instant my ass hits the toilet seat someone needs something. If I take a day off, the list of to-dos appear, of all these things they forgot to ask about for weeks upon weeks before. I am not a crazy person, this shit has been happening for decades. If it is not intentional by the people themselves, then it is the very universe motivating them to bother me. It's conspiracy fact.
So I dealt with his sinus/breathing issues (a lot of sneezing and mucus on that side) by giving him steam baths in the winter... closing him up in the bathroom and running the hot water. It definitely seemed to help. His nose/breathing issues always seemed to get worse in winter when it was drier. And my turning the humidity up on the furnace didn't seem to do much but cover all the window corners in moisture and ice.
His eye doesn't look as bad this morning, but we were going to see if the pet store has any basic eye drops for cats. Or we could ask Madison, as she is coming over Sunday to give our 5 new fosters their next round of vaccines. We can't say for sure he is in pain. He is eating more than I usually see him eat. He's still drinking lots of water, due to his kidney disease. He has even been coming to sleep on the bed, which he hadn't done for several weeks.
He did accidentally pee on me in bed yesterday. He was desperately trying to go to the litter box but his nails were getting snagged on the sheets and the poor guy just kind of gave up, fell over and pissed. It was really our fault for not trimming his nails. But he gets so worked up when we tried to before, we didn't want to give him a heart attack. We did go ahead and do a trim yesterday. Part of the issue is I think the Sparrow is afraid to be too firm when holding the cats, like he thinks he is going to hurt them. Which allows any of them in whatever the situation is to squirm and fight us when we try trimming nails or administer medicine or whatever. He did way better yesterday.
I cannot imagine Apollo will live much longer, but last year we thought for sure he'd be dead by last Christmas and he is still alive. I again say that I hope he dies at home. I do not want to put him through the trauma of going to the vet to be put down like poor Loki. I do not know what the right thing was to do with him, but perhaps it would have been better to just let him sit in his chair in the basement until he died. The owner of the cat cafe was telling me last time I was there to see the girls that a cat will die within three days without water. Would he have suffered? I don't know. What is the right, natural thing to do?
Had we raced to put Apollo to sleep a year ago, we would have never known he still had this much life left in him. That makes me feel a tad guilty considering it. He has had a decent quality of life since. He is very old, but we don't think he is in pain or suffering. He has still been himself much of the time. Seeking attention and affection. Perhaps if he gets like Loki where he can't walk and doesn't want to eat or drink we should just let nature take its course and let him quietly pass here. It just feels like a better thing to do than sticking him in a box and dragging him to the vet where his final moments involve strangers stabbing him with needles on a cold, steel table.
Plus, I do feel it is important for Neelix at the very least to see Apollo's dead body. He was very close with Apollo early on. And though I think we've made Neelix a little paranoid by always correcting him for trying to play with Apollo, because he doesn't understand that Apollo is just too weak to be wrestled with, I do think there is a bond there. Neelix seems like the most emotional cat I've ever had. It makes me nervous if we were to ever travel, because I genuinely think he will be distraught with my absence.
On an unrelated note, the CFO and the Meat Packer are going out of their way to find every nit-picky thing they can to email about the past two days knowing I am off. I need to order some monitors and a network switch, because they don't know how to use Amazon themselves unless it is for personal stuff. So I am billing two hours to place the order. Plus, someone is whining about getting the "new" email on their tablet. Odd it wasn't a concern when the migration happened THREE weeks ago and I was on site multiple times after, and there were endless emails going back and forth to people about it. Now, only when I am off, is it suddenly a problem this guy doesn't have it. And he isn't going to have it till my next visit there. Fuck it.
It is intentional. I know it is. I can spend literal days, even a whole week, sitting at my desk and not receive a single call or email. Just wasting days doing nothing. If I step out to lunch though, a call or email comes through. If I go to the bathroom, the instant my ass hits the toilet seat someone needs something. If I take a day off, the list of to-dos appear, of all these things they forgot to ask about for weeks upon weeks before. I am not a crazy person, this shit has been happening for decades. If it is not intentional by the people themselves, then it is the very universe motivating them to bother me. It's conspiracy fact.