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I felt a little like Ralph.
I had a meeting tonight, and during the whole thing I felt like my eyelashes were catching on each other. I was rubbing my eye fairly often and they all probably thought I was getting weepy.
At home, I looked in the mirror and one of my top eyelashes was pointed completely down! What the what! No amount of coaxing would make it stay up, and hairspray was out of the question.
I cut it off. *Jibblie* …scissors near my eyeball…. just like Ralph….
Ralph wanted to come, too.
I am taking a quick trip to see my parents in Colorado. I laid out most of the stuff I wanted to take. The clothes were an absolute triumph: a shirt, a skirt, some shorts and my pj’s. The other stuff, though, made the backpack pretty full.
Especially the cat.
Ralph wanted to go, but did not want Wally to come along.
Ralph had an oops.
The boy cats like to jump up to the space above the bathroom closet. (Emme is too chicken.) It’s quite a jump for Wally, but it’s especially impressive for Ralph because he is so tall. He has to clear the distance and not smack his head on the ceiling.
This morning Lloyd went in the guest bathroom to check his tie, and I heard a little ‘boom’. He said that Ralph missed the jump and landed on the floor. I went in to comfort him like a little baby check on him, and he was back up on the half wall, thinking about trying it again. You could tell he was shaken – he’d circle around, aim his body, pause, circle around, pause – then he finally jumped. He cleared it the best he’d ever done! All four paws on the top – no back feet on the wall! I praised him, then looked at…
a tiny drip…
on the wall…
and the sink had not been used.
There were also some little drops about the bathroom.
*gasp* No!
Yep. Ralph had peed himself a little during his fall.
Zoinks. I never thought I’d have to wipe a cat’s butt.
Ralphie and the scissors
I call him Ralphie a lot. I know it’s sickeningly sweet, but I can’t help it.
Ok, here’s the follow-up eye appointment story: I was supposed to bring Ralph back to the vet a week after his surgery so he could get his stitches out. Dr. Ron seemed to think that this procedure could be done without anesthetic….. maybe. So Thursday at 4 we walked in the door.
Dr. Ron and Dr. Dan took us to the examining room and once again praised Ralph for being a really good cat, which made me realize what horrible cats I have previously subjected these poor guys to. I told them that I could stay in the room for this or wait outside, and Dr. Dan said, “Actually, I think this is going to be a three-person operation: One to scruff him and hold his eye open, one to hold his paws, and one to remove the sutures.” Dr. Ron asked me, “Do you want to do the sutures?” I laughed but said I’d had too much coffee. I like funny vets.
We all gathered around the patient: Ralph was sitting up on the table; I was behind him holding his front legs immobile; Dr. Ron had him by the scruff of the neck and was holding his eyelid open, and Dr. Dan was coming at his eyeball with a tiny pair of nail scissors. Ralph flinched rather significantly and Dr. Dan paused.
I dropped his paws, backed up and said, “Nope. Nope. Let’s just knock him out.”
I did not want to be the one to goof us this procedure and watch him smack his eye into pointy scissors – the eye that we had worked so hard to save up until now. I am always warning preschoolers to be careful with scissors, so I felt I owed the same to my cat.
Dr. Dan and Dr. Ron agreed, so I left him there. It was late in the day so he had to stay there overnight. Poor kid, he was away from home for a sad, sad sleepover. He charmed the receptionist, though, who said he was having conversations with the cat a couple of kennels over the next morning. Great, not yet five months old and he’s already dating.
It turns out that it was good that they knocked him out – when they took out the stiches Dr. Ron found another little cluster of hair follicles that he removed from the sclera (no stiches needed). I’m not surprised – hair grows in cycles and there might be dormant follicles now that I’ll find later.
That poor, awesome, charming, giant cat.
Information dump
Part of the problem of not updating this website very often is that, like Brad, I have relied on it to be an Online Memory Archive. Not having it has proved to be troublesome, like when I got an insurance letter this week about a doctor visit back in March on a Sunday. Sunday? That’s crazy! I was ready to write back to them and say they had me mixed up with someone else, but then I remembered that I had pink eye and went to urgent care in Lincoln…. on a Sunday.
So, here are some things to record:
We went to the lake again. This time I was prepared with everything under the sun to keep Lloyd warm: the behind-the-chair foil reflectors, his sweatshirt and a giant down jacket and tongs to move coals under his chair…… and then we didn’t get there until well after the sun came up and it wasn’t very cold at all. In other news, I bought a collapsible kettle (on clearance) to use with my tiny stove, and I love it oh, so much.
Part of the reason that we were late is that when I was loading the car, the neighborhood orange cat who has been skittish of me was 100% not skittish that morning and would not leave me alone. So many scritches! No photo, but I’m writing it down so you’ll know him later. I’m calling him Little Ralph, but I’m pretty sure he lives a couple of houses down.
The construction in Seward is in full force. North of us they still have Park Avenue torn up and are laying GIGANTIC storm sewer pipes to mitigate any future flooding.
The Highway 15 project is also in full force. I asked for the community (via Facebook)to help my class see what was going on and lots of people sent in photos. I made a little video of them.
As if that weren’t enough, one of the water towers in town is getting replaced. On a walk to see the downtown construction, we saw what looked like a spaceship – and it was the new tower under construction.
There was some terrible weather this week – so many tornadoes and lots of destruction around Lincoln and Omaha. Thankfully, Seward was safe, but pray for those who are dealing with the aftermath.
Ok, I’m unlikely to update daily, but at least this will help me. May is going to be a big of a whirlwind with graduations and Anna’s upcoming wedding. See you later!