Dinky update

Baby Dinky has been growing and gaining weight, crawling faster, making eye contact, moving his ears toward sounds, and being a little playful now that he is approaching the 4-week mark.

Yesterday we had a big scare with him after I was just thinking he was in the clear.  He seemed more tired and lethargic, weaker than usual.  I watched him all day but around 4 I freaked out and packed him up and ran him to the emergency vet on Summer.  His breathing was labored and he was difficult to rouse.  I cried in the waiting room and prayed that he wouldn't leave us--I've grown so attached to this kitten and love him so!  The nurses took him to triage while I sniffled in the waiting room and was comforted by a 3 sweet ladies, one with a sick pomeranian and another with a cute little wire-haired terrier with one ear covered in long hair and the other ear with short, chopped off fur.  She looked lopsided in her little carrier with her head popped out of the top.  The owner was a kind elderly lady, probably in her 70's.  I asked her what her dog's name was, to which she replied, "Shannon."  So funny when pets have names that are too human.  Devon's dad's dog's name is Josh.  I laugh about that.  I mean, names like Madison and Alli seem like good dog names, but when people name their dogs Jason or Heather it gets kind of weird for me.

Anyway, Shannon the pup was getting a haircut this week when her mom accidentally cut her ear with the grooming scissors and she had to be rushed to the vet.  The owner didn't keep Shannon's cone on properly, so Shannon managed to scratch out the sutures and remove the gauze.  She was at the emergency vet to get re-stitched and re-gauzed.  When the nurse brought her back out, Shannon had a cone around her neck and the old lady moaned in her chair, "Ohhhh Shannon!  Oh goodness Shannon!  She is NOT going to like that cone!  No ma'm.  Can I take this off?"

So Shannon was probably going to have to go back to the vet this week for more stitches and gauze since the owner couldn't bare to have her wear the cone.

Somebody else brought in a pitbull wrapped in a blankie.  I wondered if he had been in a fight or something, but when the receptionist asked the owner what was wrong, he declared, "He drank too much!  Had too much food!"

Meanwhile, Dinks was having blood drawn, x-rays, and other tests ran.  The vet said that Dinky was a baby girl, though my regular vet told me it was a he??  So now we don't really know because certain things, um, take a while to develop down there, I guess?

Turns out Dinky has a bad bacteria infection ins his gut.  His little belly is really swollen with fluids :(
He's on antibiotics and getting lots of TLC and rest.  I was relieved that he hadn't aspirated but I'm still worried about his little belly.

Thanks everyone for your sweet text messages in my moments of distress.  I hope I never have to go back to that emergency vet place.  It was so sad hearing the animals groaning and the place was creepy and cold.  I just wanted to take Dinks and run from there.  I wished everyone in the waiting room good luck and high-tailed it outta there.

Meet Baby Dinky!

I took the new baby to the vet yesteray and HE (it's a baby boy!) got an amazing check-up--healthy, active, and meeting all milestones as expected despite his condition when I first got him. 

Today was Dinks' first day at work and he sleeps on the job!  Heh.  Dr. Clay said I have to take him with me pretty much everywhere to feed him every 2 hours or so, so I packed up Gizzie's travel carrier and put Dinky in there to go to the office.  I had to turn the overhead light off and turn my lamp on to soften the mood some.  I turned on some music to get him in the mood to sleep but he mostly fussed and demanded to be coddled and stroked.  What a tough life, kitteh!

I'm headed home.  He shit on my shirt about 5 minutes ago.

baby kitty

I'm exhausted! 

I've found myself the mommy of a newborn kitten that was found in the neighborhood 2 days ago, abandoned at a construction site :(

I was shocked at how small it was--it can't be more than 5-7 days old because its eyes are opened but it still cannot see that well and its ears are still folded down.  It is smaller than the palm of my hand and super cute but so fragile and vulnerable right now.

At this point, I am just trying to see if it will survive.  I brought it home with me yesterday and have been feeding it from a medicine dropper with baby kitten formula about every 1-2 hours around the clock.  I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl?  It hasn't really formed itself down there yet.

The kitty is super sweet and just wants to be held and fed constantly.  I got little to no sleep last night...I hope it makes it to Monday when I can take it to my vet's office for a check-up. 

I love you already, baby kitty!  Please live!

Please?

planes, trains, and the weirdos that sit next to you

Usually when I fly, I try to sit on the side of the plane with 2 seats:  one for me, by the window, and one for Dave, by the aisle.  I don't really mind sitting next to a stranger but it's always nice to be able to read a book or listen to music without having to feel like the person next to you is on top of you.

When I visited Cheryl in NC last summer, I sat next to this guy who was a marine and lived in Fort Lejeune and he cracked me up with stories about his crazy ex-wife.  Funny how people are willing to open up to you in a short amount of time.  Like, within an hour this dude had told me about fighting his best friend who slept with his wife and his messy divorce.  Whoa.  Entertaining and he was really nice but I felt weird waving goodbye to the poor guy as we went our separate ways toward baggage claim.

On the way back from Marco Island, I got stuck in the middle of Dave and a short guy with blonde hair who looked kind of like my cousin Darrell.  I mean, exactly alike.  I think I stared for a minute but that was just because I was intrigued by the similarity.  I wanted to stare at him more when he sat down next to me but knew he would've seen me looking directly at his face so I resisted.  I could tell he didn't want to talk during the flight, which was fine with me.  Instead, he pulled out this tiny notebook the size of a credit card and started scribbling furiously in it.  I looked down to see what he was writing but I didn't have my glasses with me so it was a blur but it really made me wonder what he was writing.

He wrote about 2 tiny pages which was probably the equivalent of what could be written on one Post-It note.  It wasn't too much but just enough to suggest that he really had an idea about something.  I wondered about it for at least 15 minutes and kept trying to see what it said but then he snapped his little thought book shut and then I was stuck just imagining things he had written. 

Maybe he was writing a conversation he was going to have with someone, like a girlfriend?
It wasn't a grocery list, for sure because I specifically saw sentences, and people don't write grocery lists in sentences.
Sometimes when I write stuff down it's about films I want to remind myself to see, recipes I want to make, a person I need to return a call to, or a quote that I read earlier that day and want to remember. 

Then he pulled out his Kindle to start reading a book.  The text on the screen was also too small for me to read but I was able to make out the title.  Oh, the fucking disappointing title.  Something like, Get Rich and Make Money Fast.  Really?  Ugh.

His scribblings were probably something like,

Buy the book Investments for Beginners

or

Maximize my mutual funds and stocks

or

"I bore myself and those who sit around me."

Yawn.