cats

Don’t read if you get teary easily. I’m talking to you, Brad.

Ok, I’ll tell you the Shadowlands troubles. Aside from the crazy long days at work, on Wednesday we had 4 inches of rain come down in a couple of hours. It flooded one of the window wells at school and the basement carpet got wet. That was dealt with (it involved bailing with a bucket), but I was beat before the school day actually began.

Later, I had a meeting at church that night but forgot my folder of notes. After the long meeting, I came home to look for the notebook and found it on one of the guest beds, and noticed a horrible stench. Someone had peed on the bed. So, after this very long day in a series of long days – now I had to rip all the bedding off and go to Wal-Mart to get stench remover. Unfortunately, we hastily moved all the stuff off the bed and didn’t do a thorough check of everything.

I went to work the next day with the folder so I could make some phone calls, and found out that there was old dried pee on the folder and papers. So, ruined notebook and ruined bag. As it turns out, she had been peeing all over that bed and the other one. (I thought it smelled weird in here, but again – I’ve been beat when I get home, and didn’t bother to investigate. I chalked it up to ‘old house smell’.)

Which brings us to the looming doom of the rest of the week. We had the cats put to sleep on Saturday. Dr. Wallman was very kind and understanding, and I am so grateful. Pfennig went quick and quietly, like a balloon letting out its air all at once, but Cricket was awful to the bitter end. She scratched Dr. Wallman and bit Lloyd through the muzzle. She needed a sedative to get the final injection, and that made her barfy and woozy.

It was sad, and I’m still sad, but honestly, since I’ve been mourning their imminent deaths since Cricket had that terrible diarrhea, it’s a bit of a relief to finally be at an end. We’ve ripped up a lot of carpet and thrown out a lot of ruined things.

I loved them very much, though, and will miss them terribly.

Which brings me to how I deal with grief. You guys are awesome, but if you’re local, please don’t call or come to commiserate. I absolutely hate to cry, so I need a heap of alone time, please. Please don’t be offended, it’s just the way it is.

By the way, I just want to say that Lloyd is an awesome husband. In all this awfulness, he has been nothing short of stellar. Perfect score, Lloyd. Perfect score.