Sir Robert Cotton 1586-1631 – Kevin Sharpe – 12 Jan 07
Sir Robert Cotton as Collector – CJ Wright, ed. – 13 Jan 07
The Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton – Colin G. C. Tite – 14 Jan 07
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen – Julie Powell – 21 January 2007
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen – Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry – 15 Feb 2007
Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook – Alice Waters – 23 February 2007
The Quiet American – Graham Greene – 24 March 2007
Tricks of the Trade – Howard Becker – 25 March 2007
Introduction to Action Research – Davydd J. Greenwood & Morten Levin – 3 May 2007
Participatory Community Research – Leonard A. Jason et al – 6 May 2007
Action Research for Inclusive Education – Felicity Armstrong & Michele Moore, eds. – 6 May 2007
The Sandman v8: Worlds’ End – Neil Gaiman – 12 May 2007
The Sandman v9: The Kindly Ones – Neil Gaiman – 16 May 2007
A Year in the World – Frances Mayes – 28 May 2007
Spook – Mary Roach – 29 May 2007
Curriculum Development in the Postmodern Era – Patrick Slattery – 1 July 2007
The Sandman v10: The Wake – Neil Gaiman – 18 July 2007
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling – 4 August 2007
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia – Elizabeth Gilbert – 7 August 2007
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players – Stefan Fatsis – 20 August 2007
The Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson – 21 August 2007
Galatea 2.2 – Richard Powers – 15 October 2007
Wild Ducks Flying Backwards – Tom Robbins – 22 October 2007
My Invented Country – Isabel Allende – 31 October 2007
Sidewalks of the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith – Eric Jacobsen – 4 November 2007
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web – Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville – 21 November 2007
The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place – Ian Baker – 25 November 2007
The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri – 25 November 2007
The Echo Maker – Richard Powers – 24 December 2007
Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje – 28 December 2007
Month: December 2007
Sid is gone
We took her to the animal shelter this morning because we couldn’t get in to see our vet until Thursday. She had basically stopped eating and drinking, and the color of her urine indicated that her kidneys were shutting down. She was falling when she tried to get onto or off of things, and was doing a scary panting thing whenever we picked her up.
Everyone at the shelter was very nice and gave us as much time as we needed before, during, and afterwards. They had to give her a tranquilizer because she fought them for the injection, but after that she could barely hold her head up. We pet her and comforted her until she was gone, and then held each other and just sobbed.
Sid, wherever you are, we love you very much and are so grateful that you shared our lives, even if it was just for a little while.
Merry Merry
I’m in Rockford for a few days, spending time with the family, eating too much, and getting too little sleep. I completed one of my resolutions last night – Finish the World Beer Tour – and can now proudly say that in the last seven years, I’ve tried approximately 110 different beers. Go me. Today’s the first day in a few without regimented activities, so I’m enjoying some quiet down time before lunch with my family, a beauty school haircut, and then activities To Be Determined this afternoon. It’s been wonderful to be here, but it will be great to be home tomorrow as well.
Happy Holidays from #505
Happy holidays from Shane and I and the kitties. We haven’t been up to much lately because Sid’s been really sick and we’ve been sticking close to home to keep an eye on her. We’re cautiously optimistic that she’s on the mend, but our travel plans have still been amended to keep us closer to home. Shane’s currently in Ohio, and when he returns tomorrow, I’ll be headed to Illinois. Take care and spread some love around for us, and we’ll talk to you soon!
Holidays, woo.
Let’s go over these plans once more. Previous options have included:
- Taking two weeks off and doing an extended road trip, visiting friends and family in Rockford, Chicago, Champaign, and Cleveland, while the cats are visited by a nice pet sitter OR
- Shane flies to Cleveland, I drive there to pick him up a couple of days later and continue on to Rockford, Chicago, and Champaign, ending up back home around the end, while the cats are visited by a nice pet sitter OR
- Shane flies to Cleveland, spends a couple of days, then continues on to Chicago. I fly into Chicago, and we both take the bus out to Rockford for 2-3 days. The cats are boarded so that Sid can get the attention she needs to get better.
Instead Shane just spent $120 for a one way flight from Akron to DC, putting him in town the evening of the 24th. I fly out of DC on the 24th at around the same time Shane gets back, returning on the 27th for a low low price of $309ish, offset by $178 my travel voucher from the summer. No boarding or pet sitting is necessary because it’s not available, and because in the last 12 hours airfare got outrageously expensive.
So instead of a nice trip together, we get rushed and stressful trips apart. Instead of spending Christmas together with my family, we’ll be lucky to pass each other in the airport. I’m so tired and stressed out by all of this, and I just want the effing holidays to be over and life to go back to not-extremely-expensive.
On the bright side, Sid ate a bunch of treats and some wet food this morning, and showed some interest in her brother and the basket of toys. Fingers and toes crossed!
Sid update
So here’s what we know:
- Her weight and bloodwork are exactly the same as they were on Thursday.
- She has a low fever.
- In the x-rays, her lungs were “foggy”. This is unusual in a young cat but would be seen in an asthmatic cat.
- She ate about 15 treats at the vet.
The vet is concerned that it is FIP – but we basically don’t know anything beyond that. We don’t know if it is FIP, and we don’t know if she’s going to get better or worse. We don’t know when she’s going to get better or worse. All we really know is that she’s sick, and the best we can do by her is encourage her to eat, give her medicine, and cuddle her as much as possible. Thank you for your prayers – we’re not out of the woods yet.
This morning I thought things were looking up – she showed some interest in food, waiting and meowing like she normally does, but ate little. Every few hours we’ve been waking her up, putting her in front of a dish of bacon or salami or kibble or chicken broth, hoping that something will pique her interest enough for just a couple of bites. She seems more alert and marginally stronger – at least when she’s fighting us as we try to pill her.
We’ve already canceled our New Years plans and most of our holiday travel. SB will be visiting his family for a couple of days, and when he gets back, I’ll be going to Illinois solo unless we can work something out between airfare and pet sitting.
I’m a big mess of sad and scared and disappointed and resentful and worried and heartbroken and a bunch of other things I can’t really articulate. This has been such a hard year, and I don’t want it to end with losing my small cat. I hope that isn’t too much to ask.
Sickie baby
Shane and I spent three hours at the vet last night with Sid. Her appetite has been down dramatically in the last two weeks, and the last few days she’s been lethargic and stuffy and sneezy.
She’s lost more than 1lb since March, which is a lot when you only weigh 7 lbs to begin with. The vet did blood work, and she’s dangerously anemic – almost to the point of needing a transfusion. The test for feline HIV and feline leukemia came back negative, but the latter can be a false negative, and the only way to know for sure is from a bone marrow sample.
What we’re hoping is that she responds to antibiotics, in which case it’s bacterial, and we’ll do a couple more tests to allow the vet to target her meds. They sent us home with two aggressive antibiotics and an appetite stimulant, and we’re pushing food on her at regular intervals.
If she doesn’t show improvement in a few days, it’s probably feline infectious peritonitis. There’s no cure or treatment, and once a cat starts showing symptoms, the end will come quickly. If it’s FIP, a transfusion would only buy her days.
While we were waiting for more lab results and holding our tiny sickie cat, a 40-something guy came out of one of the exam rooms, just shaking all over after having his little dog put to sleep. We heard him sobbing – not even sobbing – I don’t even know how to describe the noises coming from the room other than a howl of sadness. He kept going back into the room and looking at his little dog, so sad and small and still on the table.
Sid slept next to me all night last night, her tiny little body curled into mine. I barely slept at all, though she appeared to sleep deeply. This morning she was interested in her food, though she didn’t eat much. I’m going home at 1 and working from home on Monday so that I can be with her to help with meds – and adjust to the idea that if things don’t improve quickly, we will have tough decisions to make.
It’s been a hard year, and having a funny little cat waiting for me at home has been one of the few things that consistently has kept me happy and smiling. Please keep her in your prayers, if you’re so inclined.
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latterdaybohemian 