(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.