(no subject)

[felicula]

Leo is home from the vet as of about 10:30 this morning. He does have some intestinal inflammation, no blockage, no pancreatitis, but he does have almost three times the normal amount of a particular liver enzyme. The vet's working hypothesis is something called cholangio-hepatitis, an inflammatory disease of the liver. What this means for us is that we give him prescription bland food, antibiotics, and an anti-nausea liquid as necessary. We switch back to his regular (well, urinary prescription) food in a few days, give them a call on Monday to let them know how he's doing, and go back in a month for another blood test to check if that enzyme has gone down. Thankfully, he didn't even need an IV this time. He did stay overnight and get fluids injected, but no shaved paws to grow back in. Also, no catheters and no surgery. Granted this still clocks in at about $278, but it could have been much, much worse.

Beyond all that, he seems so much more himself today. He's been playing and being friendly, not hiding underneath anyplace he can find. He even came in the room for a 5-cat go-round with the cat dancer. Who would've thought some spring steel wire and brown paper would make such an awesome cat toy? Don't answer that... I realize they're sitting on quite a profit off the deal about now.

Here I sit in Rochester two-feet-of-snow-November-to-May New York. It is January 4. The online weather thingy says it's 58 degrees Farenheit here. From my hearty walk earlier, I would swear it pulled above 60. I'm wearing a t-shirt. On my walk, I added a light jacket. Three-quarters of the way through my walk, I was hot enough that I could have walked in my t-shirt alone. ***does the "Thank You Global Warming" dance***

No snow has stuck much past 24 hours. Buffalo got that freak storm in October that damaged all the trees, but it's been green there since. It's great for taking walks, saving my back from shoveling, and not slipping on the ice, but nature is very, very confused.

There's new growth on many branches: buds and even a few sprouting spring leaves. The little plants in the lawn are perking up and looking especially green. The myrtle is sending out fresh runners. I saw one periwinkle blossom and one shocking yellow dandelion. There are rose bushes with young leaves on them. Fresh chives are sprouting in abundance. Some green shoots are coming up from bulbs in the back yard.

This is January! The Great Lakes are the highest temperature they've ever been this late in the year. They aren't likely to freeze at all. If real winter air starts blowing across them, we're going to deal with a hell of a lot of lake-effect winter storms which will freeze up all the tender green things around.

Anyone who tries to tell me there's no such thing as global warming can smooch my cellulite and shovel the lake effect snow from my driveway in April.

Comments

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

YAY for Leo being home, and nothing /serious/ being wrong, at this point. *hops on the kitty-antibiotic bandwagon, as I just stopped to pick up Sage's pre-dental-exam pills, today* He goes in on Monday night for a Tuesday exam.

Re: weather, this is apparently an El Nino year, which means a mild winter. That's not to say we /aren't/ having global warming; obviously I believe we are - I've written entire articles about it. :P But yeah. I didn't get to walk to work today, as I was just too tired and decided I should listen to what my body needs. (O's been sick this week, so I might be fighting that off.) I walked the last two days, though. And after having skipped it for a week or two, I definitely felt the walk! I still did my yoga today, but I just didn't feel up to the 2 1/2 miles of walking.

*hugs for you, gentle skritches for Leo, and more skritches for all the other kitties... and more hugs, to share with John and Aidan*

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

I think the El Nino stuff just means we'll have even less snow than last year. I did the "Thank You Global Warming" dance last year too...

Good luck to Sage!

Exercise in general is a good thing, even though your body wasn't up to the walk to work.

***hugs back and loves***

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

I wish we didn't live on opposite sides of town, or we could do morning walks together. Speaking of together... it'd be nice if we could have another everyone-gathering soon (maybe this weekend?). I've missed everybody. Sure, we saw Beth on Friday (at the dinner party thing in Buffalo), and you and John on Sunday... but there was other stuff going on, so I couldn't just focus my attention on anyone.

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a gathering. I need to work on getting this place into shape. If I can, perhaps things can happen here.

[marared.livejournal.com]

Chives. heeheehee. Whenever I think of upstate NY, chives are one of the first things to come to mind.

And yeah, it's disturbingly warm even up there. I was perfectly comfortable (okay, slightly chilled) in a light leather jacket. Only three or four years ago, a foot of snow fell on Christmas Day.

Glad the puddytat is doing better!

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

My mom always had chives. At first I thought these were the tall shoots of daffodils. Then I got closer, saw how thin they were, and smelled the drifting onion scent.

I think Denver is getting New England's snow this year.

Re: kitty, thanks! :) It's good to have him back home.