Return
I haven't been around for a while, have I? Yeah, I could claim that having to effectively share a computer with Nick has made it difficult to get onto lj much, but really, it's not that hard to get to the computer when he's asleep, so... Anyway, I'm making an effort to be back again now.
The bad news that's happened while I was MIA is that Jelli died in March. It was pretty sudden, although Nick says that for the few days before she went she wasn't eating much. I didn't see this because I was away visiting friends in Ireland. Anyway, the day after I came back, I was working when I noticed Jelli limping around the room with one paw completely limp. We managed to get her sitting on the sofa to check her out, and while at first she didn't seem to be in any discomfort from this, while I was digging out the emergency vet number (as it was nearly midnight) she started to wheeze. The vet immediately told us to get her down to them ASAP, and so it was down to Nick to beg the local taxi firm to drive us down there on credit, as we weren't going to have the money until the bank opened in the morning. Thankfully they did, and we got her down there.
Sadly, once we got there and the vets checked her over, they found that she could barely breathe even after being put in an oxygen tent, and they could barely hear her heart sounds. The vet was honest with us, and said that he didn't even know if she'd make it through the night, and if she did she'd be in a lot of pain and it would be a long and painful process to work out what was wrong with her. (He also mentioned that the cost of all this would likely run into the thousands, but frankly we didn't give a crap about that at that point.) So we had to make the decision, sadly, to have her put to sleep to save her any further suffering.
As it turns out, Jelli was probably older than we had thought she was. We had thought she was no older than six or seven, but the vet said she could have been anywhere from eight to twelve years old. He also suggested that she had probably had a stroke, possibly brought on from complication from FIV or similar.
So after that, it was a pretty horrible time for us. I personally fell into a depressive episode I've still not come out of, but I'm getting better slowly. Part of the reason that I'm now starting to get over my latest depression is that last week we adopted two new cats from the local Cats' Protection Agency.
We started looking at getting a new kitty in April, and it was a difficult task as there were so many cats that needed a new home. At first we saw two cats that each only had one eye that we considered taking in, but they both got adopted before we "got" to them. But in the end, one cat kept catching our attention whenever we looked at the website. His name was Sandy, he was seven years old, and he'd been with the CPA for several months because he was a FIV positive cat and no-one else had been willing to adopt him. At first Nick was a little leery about adopting a cat who might get ill and break our hearts again, but Sandy had a look that just pleaded "Love me?" and in the end we just couldn't resist him any more.
When we contacted the CPA to start the adoption process, before we even mentioned that we'd seen Sandy the woman we spoke to suggested him to us (because we were willing to adopt a special needs cat), which was another vote in his favour. Then it turned out that there was another cat who needed a home who came with Sandy. Suki was an older cat, 13 or 14, and she suffered from hyperthyroidism. She was also able to actually live with Sandy because their original owner - who had sadly died - had adopted Sandy from the street and the two cats knew each other and didn't fight (although Suki tended to bully Sandy, who was a very timid cat). Well, we couldn't separate them when they'd lived together for several years, and so we agreed to adopt both of them.
As it turned out, Sandy is actually a very healthy cat, and other than Suki's hyperthyroidism (which makes her hungry a lot, but thin apart from a distended belly and some wobbly back legs) so is she. Furthermore, because we were willing to adopt two special needs cats, the CPA are going to pay for any medical costs to do with their pre-existing conditions, which will be a great help (and not least because most pet insurance companies won't insure Suki because of her age).
We've had the two of them a little over a week now, and they've settled into the house as if it was always theirs. Suki settled in the easiest; she wandered around the house for an hour or so before claiming a slot on my giant stuffed tiger which she rarely moves from now. Sandy took longer to get used to his new surroundings, and spent the first couple of days hiding behind the sofa until we tempted him out with some tuna in springwater. He's such a timid cat that he's still scared of sudden movements and loud noises, and even the squeaking noises that Nick's shoes make, but he's also such a loving cat and loves to just sit next to you, either at your feet or on the computer desk, and purr while you pet him. And having them around to fuss over has been making me feel better, because the two of them just love to be petted and given a fuss and are so loving to us.
So that's the big news that's happened to us over the past few months.
The bad news that's happened while I was MIA is that Jelli died in March. It was pretty sudden, although Nick says that for the few days before she went she wasn't eating much. I didn't see this because I was away visiting friends in Ireland. Anyway, the day after I came back, I was working when I noticed Jelli limping around the room with one paw completely limp. We managed to get her sitting on the sofa to check her out, and while at first she didn't seem to be in any discomfort from this, while I was digging out the emergency vet number (as it was nearly midnight) she started to wheeze. The vet immediately told us to get her down to them ASAP, and so it was down to Nick to beg the local taxi firm to drive us down there on credit, as we weren't going to have the money until the bank opened in the morning. Thankfully they did, and we got her down there.
Sadly, once we got there and the vets checked her over, they found that she could barely breathe even after being put in an oxygen tent, and they could barely hear her heart sounds. The vet was honest with us, and said that he didn't even know if she'd make it through the night, and if she did she'd be in a lot of pain and it would be a long and painful process to work out what was wrong with her. (He also mentioned that the cost of all this would likely run into the thousands, but frankly we didn't give a crap about that at that point.) So we had to make the decision, sadly, to have her put to sleep to save her any further suffering.
As it turns out, Jelli was probably older than we had thought she was. We had thought she was no older than six or seven, but the vet said she could have been anywhere from eight to twelve years old. He also suggested that she had probably had a stroke, possibly brought on from complication from FIV or similar.
So after that, it was a pretty horrible time for us. I personally fell into a depressive episode I've still not come out of, but I'm getting better slowly. Part of the reason that I'm now starting to get over my latest depression is that last week we adopted two new cats from the local Cats' Protection Agency.
We started looking at getting a new kitty in April, and it was a difficult task as there were so many cats that needed a new home. At first we saw two cats that each only had one eye that we considered taking in, but they both got adopted before we "got" to them. But in the end, one cat kept catching our attention whenever we looked at the website. His name was Sandy, he was seven years old, and he'd been with the CPA for several months because he was a FIV positive cat and no-one else had been willing to adopt him. At first Nick was a little leery about adopting a cat who might get ill and break our hearts again, but Sandy had a look that just pleaded "Love me?" and in the end we just couldn't resist him any more.
When we contacted the CPA to start the adoption process, before we even mentioned that we'd seen Sandy the woman we spoke to suggested him to us (because we were willing to adopt a special needs cat), which was another vote in his favour. Then it turned out that there was another cat who needed a home who came with Sandy. Suki was an older cat, 13 or 14, and she suffered from hyperthyroidism. She was also able to actually live with Sandy because their original owner - who had sadly died - had adopted Sandy from the street and the two cats knew each other and didn't fight (although Suki tended to bully Sandy, who was a very timid cat). Well, we couldn't separate them when they'd lived together for several years, and so we agreed to adopt both of them.
As it turned out, Sandy is actually a very healthy cat, and other than Suki's hyperthyroidism (which makes her hungry a lot, but thin apart from a distended belly and some wobbly back legs) so is she. Furthermore, because we were willing to adopt two special needs cats, the CPA are going to pay for any medical costs to do with their pre-existing conditions, which will be a great help (and not least because most pet insurance companies won't insure Suki because of her age).
We've had the two of them a little over a week now, and they've settled into the house as if it was always theirs. Suki settled in the easiest; she wandered around the house for an hour or so before claiming a slot on my giant stuffed tiger which she rarely moves from now. Sandy took longer to get used to his new surroundings, and spent the first couple of days hiding behind the sofa until we tempted him out with some tuna in springwater. He's such a timid cat that he's still scared of sudden movements and loud noises, and even the squeaking noises that Nick's shoes make, but he's also such a loving cat and loves to just sit next to you, either at your feet or on the computer desk, and purr while you pet him. And having them around to fuss over has been making me feel better, because the two of them just love to be petted and given a fuss and are so loving to us.
So that's the big news that's happened to us over the past few months.