Finn Gets High

Finn is doing well. So well that he decided in one of his cat fence escape jaunts, to hop right on to the neighbor's shed. Midge was on the ground crying piteously, seemingly jealous as hell. Thankfully the nice neighbors behind me were highly amused by Finn's antics. He has seemed a bit dejected lately. I'm pretty sure it's because he doesn't like his new nickname . . . "Possum Tail". Grrrrr thanks Mom. He is also out and about at night again, and he has a nasty sore on his head by his ear I'm watching. His first major ding. Well from another cat at least.

I think Midge is cursing the cat fence here. She can't get over it, whereas Finn goes over whenever he damn well pleases.

John made a wonderful meal for Father's Day last weekend, grilled steak, foil packets of multi-colored peppers, onions, a zucchini from his garden, mushrooms, grilled portabellas, a garden salad and homemade bread. It was delicious. And high time he assembled the grill the folks got him for his birthday last year. He saved a bit of the bread dough and tried a  grilled pizza topped with some of the grilled veggies. Wow! It was spectacular. Looking forward to having that again. I made Death by Chocolate, a layered trifle recipe a Word Racer friend shared with me a while back (thanks Sweetie Pie), and she was right. You do not want to make that and keep it in your fridge, you need to take it someplace and leave it off! At least you should if you are a chocolate fan of my caliber.

It's glamping weekend. Can't wait to spend some time with my old friends. I was thinking about how long I have known them, and gosh, we met in the early to mid 70s. LOL  They are pretty old. The glamping meeting the other night was a cover for a birthday party for me, and it was lovely. Lots of laughs, some delicious pulled pork, one of Mar's delicious strawberry whipped cream cakes (yummers!), and I was gifted with a beautifully hand decorated bottle of Malibu Rum for when I am in the mood for a frou frou drink instead of my usual beer. LOL  A good time was had by all, especially the birthday girl (old bat). Of course we did discuss glamping, mostly food lol. We are going to rent a pontoon boat and the weather looks very promising. We are going to have one night where a bonfire might really feel good, it's supposed to get down in the 50s.

Have a good weekend all.

The Glamper

TGIF

LOL Thanks for the pic Sue! It's much more amusing to me now that Finn is collar-free and stitchless. I wonder if he feels as good as I did when I became bagless!? LOL  I bet he does, probably even better. Losing tail is no fun man! He was a good boy at the vet, though he did turn around and glare at Dr. Dave when, after he worked that last stitch loose, he gave Finn a snug and said "Now Finn . . .  you stay away from that rocking chair!" Oh my, if looks could kill! I fear if Finn could talk he would have cursed. It was very funny.

Something or someone (I think the meter reader maybe), scared the heck out of Midgie yesterday. She scurried in, looking nervously behind her, when I was leaving for work, and was all fearful and skittish and ended up under my bed. And she was still there when I got back from the vet late yesterday afternoon! Holy cow. For a cat that likes to eat about every 20 minutes, that was kind of freaky. I enticed her out with some sample treats from the vet, and she seems OK today. Weird animal.

Pre-glamping meeting tonight. I gotta get some beer. Leaving a week from Sunday.

Off to John's for Father's Day dinner tomorrow. Can't do it Sunday because Dad has to go to church!

Have a good weekend all.

Kay :)

Quinquagenerian

I'm a quinquagenerian today. Thanks, Poet, for expanding my vocabulary. You can learn a lot in Yahoo Word Racer. Some of it I will not repeat here (censored).

There are lots of downy goslings about. I like that.

Finn is doing well. He can chillax with the best of them, even with his collar on. Just 3 days, almost to the hour, til the appointment to get his stitches out.

If your dad breaks into the Trail Mix dog treat sample that came in the mail, don't worry, he'll be fine. At least mine was. He said they were very tasty actually. No, he didn't notice they were shaped like little dog bones and smelled sort of meaty. No I don't have a dog, but I have some doggy friends who like my free samples. Canine friends I mean.

Had a lovely birthday lunch at Maggiano's, and partook of my favorite 4 cheese pasta purses with pesto cream sauce with a touch of marinara, a beautiful salad with my favorite dressing and sauteed prosciutto, blue cheese and red onion, warm bread and olive oil, and tiramisu for dessert. Ahhhh . . . I'm going to have to take a moment . . . excuse me . . .

I used my vacation whiskey (If you only know Jack you don't know Dickel!) to make some homemade Bailey's for glamping (glamorous camping) with my chums, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't call it Bailey's Irish Cream because I don't know if Mr. Dickel is Irish. Anyway, holy moley batman, danger Will Robinson! It's delicious but very strong. AFTER I mixed it up I read the comments under the recipe, and lots of peeps recommended cutting the amount of whiskey in half. LOL  Oh well. I'm sure the coffee will help. And the whipped cream. Glamping coffee, camping coffee, whatever you call it it is tasty stuff. I'm making homemade Kahlua too. After glamping maybe I'll have to go for The Cure, which is what my 92  year-old dad calls rehab.

That's all for now.

Oh, and big shocker here, I did NOT lose 100# by my 50th birthday. Oh shut up.

Kay :)

The Patient, The Garden, and the Potato

Finn is doing very well. He has learned to relax, play . . .

and even help with the laundry! He has shown me he can make it to the top of the fence pretty easily, and I'm pretty sure the little chit will get out whenever he damn well feels like it, despite my Finn-ifying of the cat fence. He is so good-natured, love him to death. He doesn't even squawk when I have to put his collar back on after giving him a break from it, though he did look somewhat alarmed last night when I put it back on him . . . BACKWARD!  LOL  LOL. It was really hard to get off! He was sweet about it though. He knows what a ditz I am by now.

Gotta love square foot gardening, there are 16 tomato plants in this 4 x 4 bed, plus I must have missed some taters last year, there are some coming up in this bed, and John gave me a Jerusalem artichoke and a horseradish bulb(?) thing that I stuck in here (and forgot about) and both of those are coming too, along with tons of morning glories. I think of this bed, with its hodgepodge of tomato cages and things, as a feline obstacle course for Midge. She loves it! LOL

The perennials John planted just last month have bloomed already.

Midge's zinnia bed is a sunflower bed this year. I put a bazillion zinnia seeds in there and I think only 2 of them are coming along. She let me put some onions in there too.

Midge was industriously digging in garden bed, and when I went to water, look what I found!  At first I thought it was a wayward radish, but no . . . a tater!

I fried it up for breakfast, and had it with eggs scrambled with red pepper (yummers), and sprinkled it with Vulcan Fire Salt from the Spice House in Chicago. With toast and ketchup, wow it was tasty. Thanks Midget Widget Bidget Fidget!

Over and out!

Kay :)

Recuperation in Action (but not Kay this time!)

Gosh I have a strange feeling of deja vu doing this post . . . where is the red robe? Doesn't everybody wear a red robe when recuperating?

Anyway, Finn was very nervous about going outside with his collar on. I tried to carry him for walks around yard but he'd get nervous at the least little sound and bust loose and run back in. I should say that I fortified (Finn-ified?) the cat fence-in system, at least I have my fingers crossed. I want him in the yard. Preferably forever, but at least til his stitches are out! Today he settled down enough to sit on the patio in a rocking chair (not THE rocking chair!). He seemed to enjoy it. Then when it was time to come in, I decided to take him out in yard for one more walk round. Well, he got down and laid in grass for a while, and was chilling, until he saw Murphy, the neighbor's dog. then the hair that was left on his poor shortened tail stood straight up, and he attacked Murphy through the fence, just like he always does. Murphy seems highly amused when this happens, Finn is deadly serious. I was afraid he was overdoing it, and went to shoo him in, and I should know better than that by now, and lordy did I get a nice scratch.  They must have trimmed his nails when he was under, because I remember his claws being a lot longer. LOL  He's doing very well, a sweet boy. I took collar off him for a bit tonight because he had an area that needed some attention and he didn't want me messing with it, though he enjoyed me washing his face and eyes lol. He got tidied up and ate and drank and purred a lot. He didn't fuss at all when I put the collar back on, which surprised me. A week from tomorrow he gets his stitches out.

My Achilles is feeling better from the support the foot doctor made me to put in my shoe. Wanted to start walking again this week, but I've been busy fussing over the patient.

Bedtime!

Kay :)

Home from the hospital!

It feels funny to type those words when it is not me coming home!

The amputee is home. Poor kitty. Ten days of collar and indoors til stitches come out.

Major major guilt trip. Sad sad sad. He wants the collar off and he wants outside! And it has only been 10 minutes. :(

Rotten Rotten Day

Well I was in rocking chair on patio last night. My buddy Finn was hanging around, wanting a pat, taking a little bath, when all of a sudden I hear him yelp. A rare rocking chair/cat incident. I am so careful! ARGHHH I get up to go to him, and he is running away from me. I'm not surprised. He and Midge are both highly sensitive and highly affronted at any foolishness and both have good memories. But this was a big yelp for Finn and I am worried. He takes another look behind him as he goes over the fence. He  finally comes home later last night, and his tail looks a little funny, so it was clearly a rocking chair meets tail incident. He is anxious and I calm him down, but he doesn't want me to mess with his tail. I decide he can stay in last night, instead of letting him go as he pleases. Around 5:00 I get up to use the facilities and he really wants out, so does Midge, probably because he doesn't use the litter box in the house, except in extreme emergencies, and I let him out, he looks pretty good, figuring I'll check him out later. Well this morning I freak out when I see a bit of Finn's tail on the patio under the rocking hair and no Finn! I'm pacing around, calling him, boo-hooing. Neighbors might think I am totally bonkers. ARGHHHHHHHH  He finally comes home again and I get a look at his tail and I don't like it. While I'm dithering about deciding what to do he shoots out back door and over the fence again. I tell myself that he can't be in too bad a shape if he can get over the fence that fast, but I know better. Cats are tough. You gotta be careful because sometimes they are too tough and things are worse than you think. I call my vet, who is closed on weekends, but has a number for an emergency pet hospital. I get things lined up and wait and finally spot him out the window. After some coaxing he comes in, and off we go to the hospital, and I had to leave him there for surgery on his tail. Poor sweet boy. He's going to lose more tail up to the next vertebra. Vet said they'll do it today and I can probably pick him up this afternoon close to closing time. I hope so!

I don't know how many friends I have told "Don't take guilt trips! Take road trips!" Well hell. That advice sucks and is impossible to follow. I'm waiting to hear from hospital now, hoping my buddy is OK and using a lot of kleenex. Hopefully I can combine my guilt/road trip and pick my buddy up later today.