Brixey Banter

Goodbye to Ida...

Hiya! It's me!

So today is the end of a mega-hard week. Ugh.

Monday started out okay. I called the vet because last week Ida was having problems breathing. She kept choking and gagging and sometimes would even fall over when she ran out of breath. So I took her to a vet in Brookside. After thoroughly giving her an an exam, we decided to gte an xray of her. In the xray, it appeared as though she had a collasped trachea about 4 inches long. Poor kitty wasn't getting any air. Dr. Jane said that it also looked as though she was highly asthmatic, which could lead to the collapsed traches. Although it was the first collapsed trachea she had ever seen in a cat. Very rare. The doctor gave her two cortison shots, one long-term and one short-term and I took her home. That was Friday. Over the weekend she was still having horrible breathing problems. So Monday I called Dr. Jane back and she recommended that I take poor Ida into the Mission Med Vet clinic. They have surgeons and specialists. She would probably need a scope done which would cost around $600-800.

So Tuesday around 10 am, I took Ida to Dr. Jane to pick up her xrays and stuff. On the way down Ward Parkway, I made a wrong turn and had to go back around again. Poor Ida was having an episode (not breathing and gagging and just sounding terrible) and I was already crying. I had this feeling that she wasn't doing too well. She had literally passed out that morning and ended up passing out right then. I looked over to see where I would need to turn, ran over the curb and got a huge blowout.

We had to wait over 1/2 hour for the tow truck to get there to help me change the tire. I couldn't get the tire out from under the back of the car. Urgh. All this time, Ida isn't breathing practically at all. We make it to the clinic an hour after her appointment and they put her in an oxygen tank. The doctor comes out to talk to me and goes back in to find the surgeon to talk to me but then hurries out and says that it looks like Ida isn't going to make it. I'm sobbing and agree that it's time to let her go...she's suffering so much.

The vet meets me in a room with Ida (she had to put a catheter in her, poor kitty had wet herself at some point). I pet Ida and tell her how much I love her and what a good kitty she has been and the doctor gives her the first "shot" which is a heavy sedative to put Ida to sleep. While she's giving it to her and I'm petting her, Ida starts to try to purr. So sweet. Then after the other shot, she's gone. She looked so tiny and alone. I had to hold onto her a little longer...

Ida was one of the sweetest little kitties I have ever had. She hated it at the house at first. Then she let Venus know who was boss (her of course) and all was good. She slept with me nearly every night and would curl up in the cutest little places: open drawers and the canvas box that held the throw blankets. She was a tiny cat with a lot of big fur. She was very soft and would never let me pet her on her belly. She was very vocal with her purrs and always let me know that she loved me. She loved to lay next to me to watch tv at night.

Tuna was her favorite snack.

Ida finally made the cut!

She's a star!

Hello. It's halfway through February. Are you still working on your New Year's goals?

Hi. Well, another week has gone by.

I actually went out last week.

I know! Crazy, right?

Plus, I met a tall, handsome red headed NJ boy who currently lives in Manhattan. And he's shy. I like shy boys. And you know how much I like red headed boys.

Other than that, nothing much has happened this week. It's raining today but yesterday it snowed all afternoon and then sleeted so that by the time I left at 6 pm, it was really gross and nasty outside.  It took me 1.5 hours to get home from work. It was terrible. And scary. And slippery! After I got home, I worked out then got inspiration from The Biggest Loser, like I now do each week. It makes me cry every time.

The weekend was okay. I got a bunch of things done on Saturday including more hanging of stuff and organizing of stuff, although the house is still a bit messy.

El Pregnato's bday is next week but I think her gift is going to get to her late because I decided to make something in addition to her gift at the last minute. Oh well. Better late than never, right?

I'm not sure what is in the cards for this weekend besides a bit of cleaning...we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh. I did make cupcakes on Monday night because yesterday was Andrea's birthday. She's so old at 24! Ha!

Just ate my lunch and am still starving. Awesome.

I think I'm going to make another attempt at dieting but we'll have to wait and see how that goes too.

Lots of waiting.

Here are some bad kitty pictures. (Ida watching paper come out of the printer, Venus scaling the loft wall and Ida with her kitty flip ear.

Ida likes magazines.

I woke up this morning to find a Venus on the end of my bed instead of an Ida. Very unusual as the bed is Ida's territory.

When I finally got ready, I went into the living room only to find Ida pouting on the loveseat. I swear that I did not pose her with the items below. They were left there from last night while I was watching tv and reading an article in Blueprint magazine (thanks to Christie) on gift wrapping ideas for Christmas. The picture just cracks me up.

7 Weird and Random Facts about Ida by Ida

Ida decided that she didn't want Venus to have all the fun because she's way cooler than Venus, so she put up her facts too...

One: That woman adopted me from my former home where I lived like a Queen in my very own room. I had tons of fabric to sleep on and every time my former mommy turned around, I would get to drink Diet Coke and Iced Tea from her cups. It was nice. I like Diet Coke.

Two: That woman claims that I snore in my sleep. I don't believe anything she says.

Three: That woman covered my favorite scratching post with some annoying sticky substance so I had to start using an uglier scratching post. Now I'm just gotten used to it and use it all the time.

Four: I sleep with that woman every night. It's not that I like her, it's so that other cat, the fat ass black one, won't sleep there. I am the Queen of the bed.

Five: I like to pretend that I have forgotten to pull my claws in when I go to smack that woman. I do it on purpose though.

Six: My eyes are kind of funny and sometimes, when I play, I see double. That woman claims it's because my eyes look out in opposite directions. I, of course, don't believe her.

Seven: That woman thinks that I have a problem with my stomach because I vomit all the time. The truth is that I just like to torture her and like to keep my weight down. I guess that's called bulimia, but how can it be bulimia if I eat everything? People food is so much better than that crap that woman gives us in our bowl. That fat ass black cat is too dumb to realize that people food is heaven.

7 Weird and Random Facts about Venus by Venus

Venus read StarMonkeyBrass' cat, Ziggy's, post and felt she needed to put her weird and random facts up...

One: My mommy adopted me from the Humane Society. I was a black cat found on Halloween and I was a super scaredy cat. My tail looked really sad too...now it's all fat and fluffy again, just like my belly (that she always says feels just like I have a cantaloupe hiding in there).

Two: I don't like people food at all but have to beg when Mom is eating. I do like licking saltine crackers though. Yum!

Three: I'm really like other kitties and want to play all the time. When my Mom used to take me to Grandma's house, I always tried to play with Aunt Stinky and Aunt Snoopy but they always tried to hurt me. My Mom decided to adopt Ida so I could have a friend. She was really mean to me when she first moved in but now we're bestest friends.

Four: I learned a lot of things from Ida when she moved in like kneading my Mom's soft belly, jumping up on the dining room table and sharpening my front claws on the carpet right in front of the cat scratcher. Mom always laughs at me and says "Are you sharpening your paws?" because she thinks it's funny because I don't have front claws. My paws just itch, that's all.

Five: My favorite thing to do is to go into the middle of the living room floor and lay on my back with my belly facing the ceiling. It's so comfie.

Six: When I stay at Grandma's house, I get up really early and like to run under her feet and tell her all about my kitty dreams from the last year or so. She gets up early like I like to.

Seven: Sometimes I get lost in different rooms in the house and have to raise my voice until my Mom calls me into the room where she is at.

A weekend of nasty sickliness.

Hey y'all. I'm still around. I've been really busy at work trying to get this ginormous model done so I can move onto other things. I'm in my third week of work here and I am still working on this thing! It's huge and complicated!

Life has been pretty slow otherwise. Last week consisted of a whole lot of cleaning and putting things up. Friday night some of us here at work went out for drinks and I had a $10 martini (raspberry vodka, champagne and Chambord with a sugared rim). It was worth every penny. Then, because I was absolutely exhausted, I just went home and watched tv and went to bed early.

Saturday was a fairly busy day. Julie joined me on a trip to the mall where I bought a new queen mattress set which will be delivered on Thursday. No more loveseat cushions! Woo hoo! After that, we had lunch at a really yummy place with fantastic samiches and not great service. It sure was yummy though. Then we joined MZ and made the ugliest pinata in all the land for a Cinco de Mayo party we attended that evening on the other side of Philly. It took forever to get there! I dropped a full glass of sangria down a little girl's legs and then we ended up playing "Duck, duck, goose" with the kiddos later on. It was a super nice day out.

Yesterday around 2:30 am, I awoke with all kinds of nastiness in my head area. It could be either allergies or just a really nasty cold. Who knows? I managed to get some unpacking done in the office/craft area before I had to lay down again...I ended up sleeping most of the day even after taking some Advil Cold & Sinus crap. I feel so much better today...minus that little Wendy's visit I just went on for lunch.

Here's some pics of Venus enjoying the fact that I left all the dresser drawers open this weekend while cleaning.

The Pictures from the Night Before the Move

The girls the night before moving...blissfully unaware of their future fate which was located over 1000 miles and 20 hours in a humanly unoccupied car ride away. I think they were bonding. I also added a picture of Ida in her perch...she decided that it didn't matter that her favorite sleeping place was no longer located in the dresser.

Venus Tuesday AM

Where I found Venus this morning when I went into the living room...this position doesn't really look very comfortable, but I guess she thought otherwise.

Catapult!

Har har.

So Tuesday night I was chatting it up with my Ma on the telephone after getting home from errands. Every night when I get home the kitty cats go wild! They are so excited to see me! They run all through the house chasing each other, jumping over furniture, each other and anything else that is in the way, including me.

While on the phone with Ma, the cats were doing their nightly terrorization of the house when I decided for some off-the-wall reason to lay down on the floor while talking. Big mistake. After a few minutes, a flying ball of fur appears out of nowhere and uses my chest as a springboard into the dining room. 8 pounds of pure kitty cat collided with my chest!

I couldn't stop laughing! It was so funny! Yeah, it hurt, but it was hilarious! She aimed for my chest! She meant to jump on me...and yes, it was Ida of course.