How does this thing work again?
I am out of practice with this updating of the LJ thing. I was commenting to my friend sffan that I think about updating every day. I'll start writing the post in my head, and then when I think of typing it all up, I feel overcome with fatigue. Yes, it's been that bad at times. But today I slog onward! Slog, mays! Slog!
The latest cria count is twelve babies under four months old, and two more due any day now. Cinnamon Girl (our pregnant suri) gave us a fright over the weekend with constant moaning and continued rapid, labored breathing. We were out there checking on her every few hours, but the crisis seems to have passed as of yesterday. We're thinking that the cria was in the wrong position but has since righted itself. Octavia (Deb's pregnant huacaya) is at an astounding 390 days of gestation. (Alpacas run around an average of 345-355 days.) We're afraid that this is going to be a very difficult birth for her. The other girls who have gone over 360 days have all had to have human intervention to get their crias delivered. We just have to wait and hope.
I'm . . . unsettled. I hate what is happening back home with the rising anti-Muslim demonstrations across the US. I remember the Civil Rights movement, the violence and hatred that surrounded it. I've read about the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII; I know that my German-American family was investigated at that time, too. Scapegoats. Bigotry. They're always with us, but I never thought to see that virulence again in my lifetime. How naive was that, huh? There's a massive demonstration planned for 9/11 at Ground Zero. It's going to be terrible. It's as if this mosque that is not a mosque has become the crucible into which all the hateful elements have been been poured to seethe and finally erupt. I have no idea what to do; I feel so helpless.
See? This is why I don't update that often - and now I bet you're thankful :)
OK, let's talk cats. We have three (Rocky, Holmes, and Pixel); they were indoor/outdoor cats at our last place, but they're indoor only now. Bring on - - - The Orange Cat From Across The Street (screw proper capitalization)! Orange Cat has been traipsing around the property since the snow disappeared, but OC (unknown gender) stayed out in the fields or the empty paddocks, in sight of the alpacas (and causing them to alarm alarmingly) or lounged under the bushes in front. The past few days, though, OC has taken to coming up on the porch and peering in through the door, or - better yet - climbing the screen door. This apparently sets Pixel off into a frenzy of defensive cattishness with much hissing and poofing of her ginormous tail. I have no idea what OC is up to, but Dar is wondering if OC is a pregnant female looking for a place to have her litter. Like maybe on our back porch. Kitties! Oh dear God! I am helpless in the face of kitties, and we have our limit now. Please don't let it be kitties. I'll keep y'all informed.
On the health front, I'm still dealing with frequent, rolling bouts of massive fatigue. Very strange. More worrisome is that my eyesight is getting noticeably and speedily worse. I haven't been able to get in again to see the ophthalmologist to whom I was originally referred; I've called and I've stopped at the office in person - it's impossible to get his secretary to give me a freaking appointment. I'm going to see my PCP in two weeks and get her to refer me to a different ophthalmologist, one who I'd seen several years ago. I'm hoping to get in to see him pretty quickly, too. I don't ask for much, do I? Heh.
Dar is still getting chemo for her low iron. It's not as successful this round as it was initially, so she has to go back for a fourth session next week. The nurse said it could be because she was sick with a bad cold for over a week, and that could have suppressed her bone marrow production of red blood cells. Or it could be that the bleeding in her stomach has worsened. I'm at the point where I say we get in the car and drive to the States to get it seen to, because the doctors in this area have been dicking around for over two years now.
And again I'm back in the badness. Really, the main saving grace of these days is looking out my bedroom window and seeing the crias being crias. They play, they run, they bother their moms (and the other crias' moms), they snooze. If I had the right equipment, I'd set up a cria-cam so you all could share in the fun. And it's not just the crias, to be honest. Several times over the weekend I'd just wander out to the barn to hang out with the girls and the babies. I was telling Dar that I wish we could put a cot out there or a folding chair, but there's not enough room to stash something like that in the barn right now. We're rather overflowing with alpacas, and that's not a bad thing.
The latest cria count is twelve babies under four months old, and two more due any day now. Cinnamon Girl (our pregnant suri) gave us a fright over the weekend with constant moaning and continued rapid, labored breathing. We were out there checking on her every few hours, but the crisis seems to have passed as of yesterday. We're thinking that the cria was in the wrong position but has since righted itself. Octavia (Deb's pregnant huacaya) is at an astounding 390 days of gestation. (Alpacas run around an average of 345-355 days.) We're afraid that this is going to be a very difficult birth for her. The other girls who have gone over 360 days have all had to have human intervention to get their crias delivered. We just have to wait and hope.
I'm . . . unsettled. I hate what is happening back home with the rising anti-Muslim demonstrations across the US. I remember the Civil Rights movement, the violence and hatred that surrounded it. I've read about the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII; I know that my German-American family was investigated at that time, too. Scapegoats. Bigotry. They're always with us, but I never thought to see that virulence again in my lifetime. How naive was that, huh? There's a massive demonstration planned for 9/11 at Ground Zero. It's going to be terrible. It's as if this mosque that is not a mosque has become the crucible into which all the hateful elements have been been poured to seethe and finally erupt. I have no idea what to do; I feel so helpless.
See? This is why I don't update that often - and now I bet you're thankful :)
OK, let's talk cats. We have three (Rocky, Holmes, and Pixel); they were indoor/outdoor cats at our last place, but they're indoor only now. Bring on - - - The Orange Cat From Across The Street (screw proper capitalization)! Orange Cat has been traipsing around the property since the snow disappeared, but OC (unknown gender) stayed out in the fields or the empty paddocks, in sight of the alpacas (and causing them to alarm alarmingly) or lounged under the bushes in front. The past few days, though, OC has taken to coming up on the porch and peering in through the door, or - better yet - climbing the screen door. This apparently sets Pixel off into a frenzy of defensive cattishness with much hissing and poofing of her ginormous tail. I have no idea what OC is up to, but Dar is wondering if OC is a pregnant female looking for a place to have her litter. Like maybe on our back porch. Kitties! Oh dear God! I am helpless in the face of kitties, and we have our limit now. Please don't let it be kitties. I'll keep y'all informed.
On the health front, I'm still dealing with frequent, rolling bouts of massive fatigue. Very strange. More worrisome is that my eyesight is getting noticeably and speedily worse. I haven't been able to get in again to see the ophthalmologist to whom I was originally referred; I've called and I've stopped at the office in person - it's impossible to get his secretary to give me a freaking appointment. I'm going to see my PCP in two weeks and get her to refer me to a different ophthalmologist, one who I'd seen several years ago. I'm hoping to get in to see him pretty quickly, too. I don't ask for much, do I? Heh.
Dar is still getting chemo for her low iron. It's not as successful this round as it was initially, so she has to go back for a fourth session next week. The nurse said it could be because she was sick with a bad cold for over a week, and that could have suppressed her bone marrow production of red blood cells. Or it could be that the bleeding in her stomach has worsened. I'm at the point where I say we get in the car and drive to the States to get it seen to, because the doctors in this area have been dicking around for over two years now.
And again I'm back in the badness. Really, the main saving grace of these days is looking out my bedroom window and seeing the crias being crias. They play, they run, they bother their moms (and the other crias' moms), they snooze. If I had the right equipment, I'd set up a cria-cam so you all could share in the fun. And it's not just the crias, to be honest. Several times over the weekend I'd just wander out to the barn to hang out with the girls and the babies. I was telling Dar that I wish we could put a cot out there or a folding chair, but there's not enough room to stash something like that in the barn right now. We're rather overflowing with alpacas, and that's not a bad thing.