Sassy wasn't okay.

I have avoided writing this for awhile.  I took Sassy in for her annual check up in late January, and Dr. Parton found a lump in her tummy.  We did exploratory surgery and there was an ugly mass coming from her pancreas and traveling up the the blood flow outside of her intestine.  It was about 6 inches long and alien looking.  He called me while she was still on the table. At the time he said he was 90% sure that it was cancer and if I wanted, he would euthanize her on the table.  We talked, and he said the only thing that had him puzzled was the fact that she had gained weight in the last few months.  We decided to go ahead and send it off and give her a chance.  Of course, it was cancer and the week before the results came back was miserable for both of us.  She wouldn't eat, and had to be syringe fed.  She wouldn't drink.  She didn't want to be cuddled.  In hindsight, I wish she hadn't had to live through the last week. 

Below, pictures of Sassy and Shadow, and Sassy and Mica.

Sassy back to normal, Mica has an accident.

Sassy has done her course of prednisdone and is back to a healthy weight and behaving normally, for her!  I took all three cats to my Mom's for two weeks at Thanksgiving, and again at Christmas.  At Thanksgiving Mica and Jean-Claude were all over the place and adapted well.  Sassy never left the bedroom.  We lost Mica a few times because it turns out that she is an investigator.  Open a door and she has to check it out.  I found her several times locked up in the linen closet.  No one remembered when they opened the door last, but she just slept and never made a sound, even when I called for her repeatedly.  Brat.  We also had to pull the dryer out once because she ended up behind it somehow.  At Christmas Sassy would come out when it was just Mom and I at home.  She even jumped up on Mom's lap a couple of times.

Mica was up to her old tricks, ducking into closets.  Mom and I were getting ready to go look at some open houses, and she opened the hall closet to get her coat.  As she was closing the door I saw Mica dart in.  She opened it back up and Mica came charging out.  I looked down and saw some fur on the floor and asked Mom what it was.  She said she didn't know, and I said I though it looked like part of Mica's tail.  She said "No." and bent down to pick it up.  Then she screamed "It is!" and I went after Mica.  She never cried, and there was no blood, but she hid under the bed and I had to fish her out.   The skin had retracted and left the bone hanging out, so off we went to the Emergency Vet.  It had missed the bone, but because of the exposure they went ahead and took off several inches of her tail.  Stitches came out yesterday and she seems fine, just looking a little funny.  We will all get used to it soon.

Sassypants

Sassy lost 2/10 of a pound in the last two weeks.  She didn't like the canned food the vet sent home with us and she didn't like the taste of the stuff in the syringe that I was supposed to give her every day for five days.  She threw it up both times I tried.  They ran a pretty complete bloodwork on her and everything came back "boring" my Vet said, which means within normal ranges.  Through the process of elimination he has decided she has an irritable bowel and we are starting on a course of Prednisolone.  Half a pill twice a day for a week, and then I am supposed to let him know how things are going.  It's a good thing she is easy to pill.  Not like the youngsters.  They hate it!  He sent home a sample of dry food that is the same as the canned and glory be, she likes it!

Slow and lazy week and Mica

I decided to give my back a break and have been doing some cooking (Lasagna) and reading this week.  I did have to take some boxes to the post office, but I haven't been moving them all over the place here at home.  I do plan on spending some time in the shed tomorrow, figuring out a better layout for the shelves so that I can get to stuff even when the lawnmower is tucked away. 

I haven't talked about Mica much, but she is a gorgeous tortoiseshell with some strange personality quirks.  She has a crackly Meow and has had since she was a baby.  She loves a cell phone and will come whenever I pull it out to talk or text.  She will get right up in my face.  She also loves the plastic caps off of my Mt. Dew and will suddenly appear when I open one up.  I try to hide them from her but she will fish them out of wherever I put them.  She  loves to play volleyball with little wads of paper that I trim off of my shipping labels.  She and Jean-Claude will bat them all over the place, but she will leap to bat them in air before they hit the ground.  She has a fluffy coat with an undercoat that her brother doesn't have.  Unfortunately, more hair means hairballs.  She does love to be brushed, but sometimes I think that just causes more shedding.

Yard sale and freecycle

Didn't get rid of enough in the yardsale yesterday so I put in two offers on Freecycle, one for the books and one for some kitchen appliances.  They should be gone by 1:00 today.  I did take two boxes of books to the Herrin Library last night and I have two bags of clothes to take to the Pantry on Tuesday.
Karen and Sherri came over Friday night and helped me get set up, thank goodness!  I am going to take some fall and winter suits to the Consignment shop, and some of the other clothes will get packed up for my store. 

Sassy still hasn't bounced back the way I wanted, so I am calling the Vet in the morning and will be taking her in for some blood work.  She won't be happy about that!
She's the middle one, licking her chops while waiting for snacks!

Interesting week so far. Murphy visits.

My refrigerator stopped cooling over the weekend and I took items I wished to save to Karen's.  Sassy was sick and I had an appointment for her Monday morning, ( she is still in isolation in my bathroom.)  Then I packed up the freezer items and took them to Karen's so I could defrost mine and see if that solved the problem before I called out a mechanic.  I then went to Faner and visited some people, dropped a book off for a friend and picked up some farm eggs from Terri.  Had my massage and adjustment, then back to Karen's for DWTS.  Tuesday I get home and check on Sassy, then try to go on line and my modem is bad.  I call Verizon/Frontier and they get a new one in the mail.  Meanwhile I still need to print out packing slips and postage for Ebay auctions, so back to Karens I go.  Sassy is still alone, and getting medicine twice a day.  The refrigerator gets plugged in and seems to be cooling.  I try to go into log some of the recent receipts into my budget program, but my computer won't turn on.  Sigh.
I take my computer tower to Happy Toms in Energy and they replace the power button.  I pick it up Wed. afternoon after taking the remaining two cats in for their yearly check-up.and go to Karens to watch the rescue of the miners and pickup some of my food. 
Thursday morning the modem is delivered, I hook up my computer and still can't turn it on.  Back to Happy Toms we go.  I need a new power supply.  He replaces it while I wait and it only costs $31.  Yippee!  I get it home and it works!  Now I have to get going on all these boxes of books that I was supposed to be working on this week, so I can put the culls out in the yardsale on Saturday. 
But first I am going back for another Massage and adjustment.  Long week already.

Sassy is sick.

Just got back from the vet.  Sassy weighs just 5.48 pounds, down a pound from last year and down 2 pounds from 2 years ago.  She has been having loose stools and not using the litter box.  We put her on a special food and two different medications and if she does not get better in a couple of days we will be doing some bloodwork on her.  Even if she does get better we will be going in for a weight check up in a few weeks.  I got the carrier out this morning and opened the door before I went to get her from the bathroom, where I am keeping her isolated.  When I came back out to put her in, Jean-Claude was already in it.  Trying to get her in and him out at the same time.  Priceless.  I knew if I let go of her I would never catch her again in time for the appointment.  Everything has to be about Jean-Claude.  He is a primadonna.  I did make the kids appointment for Wednesday for their yearly check-up.  They are just over 3 years old now.