Life at the Confusion Factory

[rolanni]

When last we saw our Intrepid Heroine, she was cleaning out her fridge in the aftermath of last week's pre-holiday ice storm.

Since then, Steve and I have. . .cautiously. . . replenished the fridge; and I have purchased a new U(ninterrupted) P(ower) S(upply), replacing the one that either (1) died of old age at a quasi-inconvenient moment (which is, after all, Time Honored) or! (2) took a hit during the fluctuating power surges which were a Feature of last week's Weather Event, thereby saving the life of Jack the Giant Killer, aka, my desktop computer.

Steve and I also rose to the challenge of taking Mozart to the vet in the teeth of a mildish little snowstorm on Monday afternoon.  Frequent readers of this blog will recall that Mozart celebrated his 15th birthday in March.  The average lifespan for Maine Coon cats is about 12.5 years.  The vet confirmed what we already knew, that Mozart is an Old Cat, and verified what we hoped was true -- that he's in pretty good shape, all things considered.

Despite this, Mozart had stopped eating -- crunchies, gooshie food; not even baby food, the Food of Last Resort, tempted him -- which was the reason why we had braved the snow to visit the vet.

The vet's theory was that, given Mozart's kidney function numbers are "high normal," he might be feeling a little sour in the stomach, and thereby not interested in eating.  So, after a little hydration, Mozart got a dose of appetite-increaser, and some special food to take home, in case he'll eat it; and we got instructions to feed him whatever he'll eat, and as much of it as he feels like eating.

Which, at the moment, is baby food.  The special vet-food is OK, but baby food is much to be preferred.  So, it looks like we're on the right path, there.

Last night, we knocked off early to view "The Secret of Roan Inish," a favorite in the Lee-Miller household.  That was nice, though it appears that neither Trooper nor Sprite appreciate seals as much as  they ought.

For those who are. . .concerned about the fate of the next Liaden book -- yes, I am writing.  Really.  But this is a shy one -- particularly so, after the exuberances of George and the Carousel books -- and the only way to deal with a shy book is to pretend you aren't really working on it. In these parts, that mostly means a dearth of snippets, but I'm sure we can all agree that having the whole book, written and turned in on time and in good order, is worth sacrificing a few snippets.

P'rhaps the next book will be more outgoing.

This morning, in between loads of laundry, I've been updating some of the pages at sharonleewriter.com and at korval.com.  Take a look around, if you have a chance.

As I write this, we're looking down the barrel of another Winter Storm Warning; we're apparently going to enjoy the arrival of 6-10 inches of snow between 4 pm today and 6 am on Monday.  That'll give me a chance to shovel the steps and free the car and still make Sprite's afternoon vet appointment (for annual shots).

And I think that catches us up -- no, I'm wrong.

You have only until midnight Central Time on Tuesday December 31, 2013 to order a signed-and-personalized copy of Carousel Sun!  Here's the link.

You may order signed (but not personalized) copies until Uncle Hugo's runs out, but do you really want to run the risk of not getting your copy?  Here's that link again.

There!  Now, we're caught up.

Comments

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

As I am the resident nurse for a seventeen-year-old cat with multiple conflicting health issues, you have my sympathy for your Old Cat.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

It seems chicken baby food is a cat's idea of ambrosia. Some of my friends had cats who would steal it from the baby whenever they could.

Mozart

[ednaemode.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if Mozart likes tuna but some pussies will drink the tuna-water from the can when they won't eat anything. I once saved an elderly Siamese (one of my favorite types of cat) from a nasty flu with that...wouldn't eat, but couldn't resist the tuna-water.

Thinking good thoughts for Mozart as the snow comes down in Belgrade.

[thewol.livejournal.com]

One hopes the venerable Mozart will rally and return to his normal mozartous self soon.

That said, I would add that although they love it, I would think twice about feeding cats tuna. Tuna being apex predators accumulate the mercury in the food chain. Since humans have a larger body mass proportionate to the amount of tuna they eat our bodies can handle the mercury OK, although the USFDA advises we should not eat more than 6 oz per week. Pregnant women are advised not to eat tuna for the duration of their pregnancies, and I wouldn't feed it to a baby or young child. Cats being such a small animal in comparison to the amount of tuna consumed, makes the amount of mercury per ounce of animal consuming it significantly higher. Mercury is toxic to the kidneys and cats are already prone to kidney failure just by being cats.