Eagles Over the Kennebec

So, back from the micro-mini book tour!

It was lovely to see so many happy faces, to have a chance to chat, to read, and, of course, to sign books.

We want to thank Maria Perry, Patty Cryan, and Brian for hosting us.  You guys rock!

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Frequent auditors of this journal will recall that I have long had a love affair with socks.

When packing for the overnight in Wocester, I forgot to pack socks, which I've never done before (my default being to pack too many socks); I briefly panicked; and Steve offered to lend his spare pair to the cause.  Fortunately, there was a strip mall right across the street from our hotel, where we paused to eat a very pleasant lunch at Jasmine, then proceeded to the end of the mall and the TJ Maxx.

Where I found socks!  Even, dare I say it, socks that coincided with my Sock Ethic.  One pair was black with white splotches; the other pair had block prints of purple, yellow, and blue-and-white stripe on the foot part, and skinny yellow, pink, red, blue, green strips running up the calf.  I purchased these with glee; the cashier agreed that they were very spiffy socks and!

When I got back to the hotel and actually looked at my receipt, I find that the socks were "men's furnishings".  Really?  The label says they are Happy Socks, created in Finland, so if anyone reading here is suffering from Sock Ennui, you might want to check them out.

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Thanks to everyone who replied to the Buy My Book post in the various venues, and in email.  Many notes were supportive;  a few folks, naturally enough, want to argue, which is kind of too bad, and I wish them a long life.

Which brings up another topic.

You will perhaps recall that, back in March, Belle and I had a bet about eArc sales for Alliance of Equals.  I said we could sell more than 500; Belle took leave to doubt it.  On the other paw, Sprite was of the opinion that we could earn out our advance on eArc sales.

I am pleased to announce that I won both of those bets.  We hear that we sold more than three times that 500 copies Belle thought we couldn't manage, but!  we didn't earn out the advance.

It's always gratifying to win a bet, of course, but both Belle and Sprite pay in kibble.

To those who bought eArcs -- thank you so much!

Which brings up another idea -- possibly half-baked.

I'm told that benefit accrues to titles on Amazon that gain certain numbers of reader reviews.  At the moment, the various levels escape me (maybe someone who has Google-fu and a couple minutes can find that information...).  The last couple Liaden books received 106, 88, and 163 reader reviews, respectively.  It would be Very Cool if Alliance could hit 200 reader reviews.  Note: These are honest reviews, not just one-liner, filler reviews, like "I really like this book."

Do you think we can do it?  We beat Belle, after all, and she's Pretty Shrewd.

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For those who missed the news, Steve and I did an interview on the Baen Free Radio Hour.  It aired Friday.  Here's your link.

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Today, now that we're home, I have accounts to do, and laundry to wash.  Steve and I need to go over the story notes I made before we headed off into the world.  And so on.

What did y'all do while we were away?

Many thanks to William Kilmer for the photograph from our signing at Annie's Book Stop, Friday, July 9, 2016.

Several kind people have written (tweeted, facebooked, and LJed) to find if all of Socks' medical expenses have been paid, or if "more money is needed."

I'm truly grateful for the care and thoughtfulness behind the queries, and the generosity of caring people that made it possible for us to give Socks a little more time.

But here's the thing. . .

When the ship lifts, all debts are paid.

So,  thank you -- all of you -- no more money is needed.

If you still feel that you'd like to do honor Socks' memory, please consider a donation to your local animal shelter.  If you don't have a local shelter, we found that the Animal Emergency Clinic in Lewiston, where the vets were so wonderful for Socks and for Hexapuma, has a Good Samaritan Fund, to assist people who can't afford emergency, life-saving care for their pets.  Here's the website

At a slight tangent, I did bring home Socks' ashes today.  The ground is still a little hard for me to dig through, but as soon as the permafrost retreats for the few short weeks of our arctic summer, Socks will be interred in the Cat Garden in the front yard.  The Cat Garden is a wildflower garden, and it draws bees, and butterflies, and hummingbirds.  The front windows where Mozart and Socks shared the sun together overlooks the Cat Garden.

. . . Thank you all again, for your support, your kindness and your understanding.

This is a little later than I had intended to update; you'll see the reason soon enough.  But I want to preface this with a story about another cat who lived with us, back when we were still in Maryland.  This cat's name was Buzz-z; he was a grey plush who weighed in right about coon cat size.  He'd been allowed to roam by his then-owner, and one night he and a raccoon met each other out on the town, the raccoon said something, Buzz-z said something in return and, well. . .they kinda broke up the bar.

Buzz-z came home sporting multiple scrapes, scratches and bites, and over the course of a couple days, during which his owner refused to take him to the vet, because "cats heal," he became sick, and progressively sicker. We remonstrated with the owner, the owner was adamant that it was "no sense" taking a cat to the vet, whereupon I suggested that what the owner really wanted to do, instead of talking to an animal control officer, was to give me the cat.

Steve and I then took our new cat to our vet, who checked him over, did blood work, and an x-ray, which found what appeared to be a raccoon tooth buried in Buzz-z's  right foreleg, and said, "I'm not sure I can save this one, guys."

We left him there, and waited for the call that would tell us that we'd waited  too long.

Well...the phone did ring, about five hours later, and it was the vet.  And the vet said something like, Can you guys come down here and pick up Buzz-z?  He won't stay in a cage, and he's running all around the office, flirting with the girls, and nobody's getting any work done.

So, raise a glass of whatever it is you're having to Buzz-z, who taught us that, You never can tell with cats.

Had we not had this lesson, we might well have told the emergency vet to let Socks go.  Had we, frankly, been as broke as we have sometimes been in the past (and indeed, as we were when we intervened on Buzz-z's behalf), we might have told her to let Socks go.  Knowing that we had the funds to buy time, to see what would happen with treatment, because you never can tell with cats -- I don't think I can begin to tell you what a relief that was. Thank you all, again.

So, for today. . .We got up before breakfast, picked Socks up at the Lewiston Emergency Clinic, wearing a cone of shame and sporting some serious gearage in his right foreleg, and drove him up to our vet in Waterville to continue the IV hydration project.

The second we took him out of his cat carrier in the examining room, he perked up (he hates to be in the cat carrier and in addition this morning there was the whole cone of shame issue), he demanded skritches, he ran up to his vet and head-butted her, he made happy feet. . .

We left him, expecting that he would stay on 'til Wednesday, when the emergency vet's 72 hours of hydration was complete.  Around 3:15 (after we had a nap, and lunch, and dealt with some business correspondence), we got a call from the vet, saying that we should come and get him, the new panel of blood work had shown much lower BUN/CREA numbers (though they are still elevated); the blood sugar values were down to normal.  There was, yes, still the heart murmur, and the  cancer issue which another of the vets in the practice had also scoped out, so there's three vets saying the same thing, but what we have in hand at the moment is a joyful, comfortable, mischevious cat-person, who is extremely happy to be home.

So, that's what we're going with.  Steve and I now both know how to give subcutaneous liquids; we have needles and eleven sessions worth of lactated ringer solution, and Socks is right now sitting on the co-pilot's chair beside me, having just finished giving himself a very thorough bath.

I spoke to the day-vet.  He says that Socks is doing "OK, all things considered."  To the list of "all things" we now add a heart murmur and what this vet, as a result of performing his own examination, explains as a "lumpy, bumpy kidney," which he finds "very suspicious," and tentatively diagnoses as lymphoma.

On the positive side of the ledger, Socks is snacking a little, is taking a lively interest in his surroundings, and has started in to building the core for a Lewiston branch of the Socks Fan Club.

The plan remains for continued IV liquids and close observation at the Emergency Clinic, then a before-sunrise-pick-up tomorrow morning (the Emergency Clinic is 24 hours on weekends; all patients must be picked up before 7:30 a.m. on Monday), and transport to our local vet in Waterville for continued treatment.

Many kind people have written to. . .ask that they be allowed to contribute to the Socks Defense Fund, even though the goal has changed (read about it here, and here).  Some other folks have taken matters into their own hands and have donated towards Socks’ vet bills via the Splinter Universe site.

You guys are determined to help, is what I’m saying here.

Far be it from Steve and me to stand in the way of determined people; in fact, we are grateful for help.  Thank you.

So!

Here's your link to the Socks Defense Fund.

Socks is home; hydrated, and a-glow with the received adoration of his fan club at the vet's office.  What we're waiting for are the results of blood work and ultrasound, which will help us decide what will need to happen, going forward.

Hopefully, we'll have all the results in one place tomorrow, and will know exactly what we're looking at.

Thank you all for your care.

Since yesterday, several people have reached out -- publicly and in private mail -- to say that, were there a fundraiser set up to cover Socks' medical bills, they would contribute; that, if there was any way that they could help keep Socks with Steve and me, they'd be willing to make that effort.

Truly, Socks has the best fans in the world.  Steve and I are humbled and grateful.  Socks would be. . .well, not humbled, exactly, but pleased that so many people want to skritch his ears -- but at the moment he's napping on his special quilted piece, in Steve's office.  Must keep to the schedule, you know.

So, here's the thing:  Socks' vet did offer us the option of megacolon surgery.  This is a procedure that shortens overlarge colons (apparently not an uncommon problem in cats), and which is the solution for the constant  bouts of constipation/need to rush to the vets/emergency vets at all hours for emergency enemas.

Our vet made no secret of the fact that this is an expensive surgery, involving, as it does, Specialists in  Portland.  We are simply not up for an "expensive" surgery.  I'll be frank -- the money tree doesn't have that  many leaves on it.

However, we've started to think that we can do this thing, thanks to the people who have offered to help.

So! We've begun research into this procedure, and talking to people whose cats have undergone the  operation.  Socks has a follow-up appointment first thing Monday morning with his primary vet and we will delve  into such things as costs, success rates, and convalescence care.

After we have all of these ducks in a row, I will lay it all out here, and we'll see if this is possible/desirable.

I want to thank everyone for their caring, and their sharing, and their willingness to help.  You guys are awesome!