Fruitbat

How one winds up with cats

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:39:53 GMT

     Two weeks ago, I worked overnight at the emergency clinic. There was a hospitalized cat that had been hit by a car. Because it was a stray, we were told not to treat it. Given that the cat had a broken jaw, this seemed somewhat inhumane. I got permission to give her pain medication if I agreed to take her away with me. And so we acquired Daisy/Bianca. She seems to be a very nice, young, unspayed female cat. I managed to wire her jaw together and have been syringe feeding her cat food slurry; she prefers this over eating on her own, which has been frustrating. She is very nonchalant about the other cats and the dog, is litter box trained, and purrs 90% of the time. She also thinks that sleeping on our heads is perfectly acceptable. We will probably wind up rehoming her, but she'll be with us for the next few weeks while she heals from her trauma.
     I also got suckered into fostering a litter of two week old kittens.  I signed up to foster with the ARL after I lost Munchie, as the house seemed too quiet. Over the weekend, there was a call that a litter of kittens had come in; I did not want them, as I already have the aforementioned cat that I am having to syringe feed. However, no one else could really take them and the person that had them at home is also dealing with a mother with breast cancer...so I wound up bringing the three little guys home. At least they are eating really well and the ARL will take them back once they are weaned. Much better than vet school, where we had to keep the kittens until they were placed into their permanent homes.

     Please let me know if you need a cat.

Expect the unexpected...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:53:07 GMT

Around lunchtime, the clinic I was working at got a call from the local cops. They wanted to know if they could use one of the clinic scales...to weigh a load of marijuana that they had confiscated. We were a little confused, as it seemed like they must have a scale down at the station. About twenty minutes later, we watched a cop van pull into the parking lot. Two burly men got out and unloaded a very heavy tarp. filled with greenery. They carried it into the hospital...and found that they had located 75 pounds of marijuana. They then carted the tarp back out, loaded it into the van, and drove off. All in all, not something I expect in everyday life.

How I spent my birthday...

Fri, 15 May 2009 03:06:39 GMT

      On the way home from work on Friday, my power steering abruptly stopped working and a weird yellow light lit up on the dashboard. Luckily, this occurred as I was exiting from 95. I pulled over into Dunkin Donuts to read the manual. It informed me that the light meant there was a problem with the steering (no kidding), and that it might be fixed by turning the car off and then back on again. This did not fix it. However, the manual indicated that I could still drive the car...it would just be difficult. So I proceeded to the new house, where I'd been stripping wallpaper all week. After finishing up the wallpaper project, the steering started working again.
     Saturday (my birthday), my friend Anne and I had planned a yard sale. I got up really early, picked up coffee and muffins, and headed to her house with a last load of stuff. Anne called while I was en route, saying that she planned to cancel the sale, as it looked like rain. I had coffee and muffins with her and her father, and then headed over to the dealer, to make sure that the car was okay.
     After sitting with my book for an hour, the service center dude came over and told me that the mmpmmh pump was not working, and that this part was on backorder. Meaning that I would be without my car for, as an estimate, about a month. They could give me a loaner car at no charge to me (no kidding...my car is still under warranty), but he said that animals were not allowed in the car. I told him that I was moving, and that the dog is in my car 3-4 times weekly on average. He said that I would just have to clean the car really well. This is annoying, both for the animals, the fact that the interior of the car is beige, and the fact that I have a hatchback...and the loaner car is a sedan.
     I spent the rest of the day finishing up wallpaper and cleaning the walls with solution, finishing just in time to have a nice dinner with foldedfish .

Theatre

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:29:58 GMT

We are going to see "Aida" at the Arlington Friends of the Drama on Friday, April 24th, at 8 pm. If you'd like to join us, just let me or foldedfish know. Tickets are around $20, and casting is usually excellent.

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:34:52 GMT

Well, the cold has resolved. However, I still have the ear infection and can't hear out of my left ear. I started a new antibiotic on Friday, after my appetite had returned. Unfortunately, this one seems to cause itching and hives on the palms of my hands. The doctor decided that this one wasn't working, so now I'm on yet another antibiotic. This one seems okay, although my palms are still itchy. My ear is starting to feel like it wants to hear ( I can hear myself chewing now), so hopefully it's working. It is a very large, very bitter tasting tablet. But at least it doesn't seem to have side effects.

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:18:05 GMT

    I managed to catch a cold over the weekend, and also managed to get an infection in my left ear.  As per my usual illness, I have almost no voice left. The ear actually woke me up Monday morning with throbbing, so I figured that I had better be seen by someone. I went to a nurse practitioner, who prescribed amoxicillin. I explained that augmentin (amoxicillin/clavulinic acid) does very bad things to my GI tract, but she assured me that this would be fine.
     It was not. As a result, I haven't eaten much in about two days.
     They want to put me on another antibiotic for the ear, but I figure that I had probably better be eating before this happens. Hopefully it won't cause the same problem, as the nausea is much much worse than the ear pain. Having no voice is not helping things either. Sigh.

Learning to dive

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:14:31 GMT

     This weekend, I finally learned how to dive with goggles. I had entered a swim meet at Harvard, figuring that this would give me an incentive to learn how to dive. However, we went on vacation for the 10 days prior to the meet, limiting my opportunity. I practiced some on Friday, during warm-up, with variable success. By Sunday, however, I was able to dive off the starting block wearing goggles without them filling up with water.
     I used to compete in swimming when I was in high school (and grade school, for that matter), but I used to swim without goggles. At that point, my vision wasn't horrible, and I was comfortable in the water. Now, however, I really need to wear my contacts. I tried to enter a meet about 10 years ago. During that meet, I started in the water once. This put me way behind all of the other swimmers, and was less than satisfactory. So I tried to swim blind. This also failed, as I felt like I was blind and therefore went really slowly. That was my last attempt at swimming in a competition (well, other than open water swims, which are very different).
     You may wonder how I did. Well, I did okay. Not great, but I have never been the fastest one in my age group. I may have some hope if I keep swimming, although even the 60-64 age group is REALLY FAST. My two best finishes were 5th in the 200 breaststroke and 8th in the 200 backstroke. I may try competing again, though, as it wasn't totally awful.

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:50:53 GMT

When I got home yesterday afternoon, there was a smallish possum hanging around the front yard. When I got out of the car, he sort of lumbered off into the brush. It still seemed weird to me, as they tend to be nocturnal critters. We seem to have an awful lot of wildlife around the house lately...

The front door

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:18:04 GMT

     Our front door has been having issues recently. About two weeks ago, the key cut my finger and I made foldedfish start leaving the door unlocked; at least this way, I was able to get into the house without injury. The knob was still a little tight to turn, but it was possible. Thus started the saga of the doorknob. I figured that it would be easy enough to just change the knob myself, so we bought a new doorknob at Target a few weekends ago. It has been so bitterly cold that I've been waiting for a warm day, as fixing the knob means working with the front door open. I finally got around to it last Sunday.
     I successfully removed the old mechanism. Unfortunately, the original device appears to have been the type in which a large core of door has been hollowed out. This means that there were plates on either side of the door, as well as over the latch mechanism. The new latch would not go through the plate. At this point, I was (of course) unable to get the old doorknob back in place. So we started using the back door as our primary door and just left the front door alone.
     The next trip (on Monday) was to a hardware store in Arlington. They let me look at a number of doorknobs, and I found one that looked like it would fit through the plate. I got home and tested it. The latch did fit through the plate.  However, the knobs were just slightly too large for those plates. Still, I felt hopeful. After all, the plates seemed like a fairly standard type of product. I made a trip to the hardware store in town...no luck. Then I went to the one in Lexington...they could order me one, but did not have one in stock. I finally decided to go to Lowe's. After ten minutes of waiting, I managed to find someone to assist me. They sold me a security plate that they assured me would work. I got home, only to discover that the door was about 1/2 inch too wide for the device and that no, in fact, it would not work. Meaning that we still had no working front door.
     On Wednesday, I went to the lock store on the way home. They sold me a new doorknob that looked a lot like the one that I had removed. It was expensive. But they (again) assured me that this would work. Lo and behold, it did. So we now have a brand-new front door locking mechanism. What I learned, however, is that it would have saved me a lot of time and headaches to just have the lock store deal with it in the first place.

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:02:17 GMT

If anyone would like to go see "Rabbit Hole" with us, we are going to the 8 pm show in Arlington on February 13th.

The next show after that is "Aida", the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May.

Tickets for the shows are $18. They are in a small, renovated church near Arlington Center. The quality has been great overall, even for the plays that are new to us.

Email myself or foldedfish if you are interested.

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:54:51 GMT

In other news, Mele got a snooker Q in USDAA agility today. He then proceeded to leap from the end of the dog walk during the gamble, otherwise we would have Q'd in that as well. At least we're making progress. He only knocked one jump bar, and that was my fault; there was a time not too long ago when half the course would go down. Now we just need to work on contacts...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:53:46 GMT

About two weeks ago, a client brought in a baby bird. It looked to be about a week old, a rather ugly thing with few feathers, a large beak, and tufty feathers on the head. Unfortunately, the wildlife centers won't take baby starlings, as they were introduced to the U.S. around 1900 by someone who decided that we should have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare. So I wound up with the little critter. I have been taking it to work with me, and it has gradually developed feathers. On Tuesday, Simone realized that she could fly. Of course, she mainly wanted to fly onto my shoulder or grab onto the front of my shirt and scream for food. So now I have this flighted creature that still won't eat on its own. Today, we spent the day at an agility trial (I had my own dog and bird show) and then came home. Where I learned that Simone has discovered water. She ducked her head and splashed around happily for quite a while before settling down to eat. I'm not sure why starlings do ths; my previous adult starling used to constantly rid his water bowl of water. Someone had suggested a chicken waterer, as this has a tube in the center with water around the edges and is not large enough to

In fish news

Sat, 31 May 2008 20:39:44 GMT

After a several month battle with a mass slowly growing on his right side, my betta passed away on Mother's Day. I got a new betta last week. He seemed a little quiet (not swimming, just hanging out at the bottom of the tank), but I figured that he was a new addition. When we got home last Sunday I noticed that one of the black tetras had multiple white spots on its body. After some exploration on the internet, this appeared to be ich or another similar fungal disease. I started treating the tank. The spots on the tetra are mostly gone and the betta is now acting much more active. However, I am annoyed that the pet store sold me a sick fish. It's not like you can evaluate the bettas in the store; they are in tiny jars and can barely turn around, let alone swim.

Sat, 31 May 2008 20:37:35 GMT

    On the way up from Middletown, just before Rt 84 merges with the Pike, there is an informational sign by the side of the road that advertises "Seraph", with no additional information. foldedfish and I have often wondered about this, in our minds turning it into something like the angel found by the Simpsons. When we couldn't find parking for the Obama speech last weekend, we decided to take the turn off to finally determine what the seraph was. Of course, neither of us paid attention to whether we were supposed to take the exit for 20E or 20W, and managed to get off the wrong one. After turning around, we found Sturbridge Village, but no additional signs. However, there was an informationl booth and, after several turns, we managed to get into the parking lot.
    In the booth, we perused brochures and finally asked the older woman at the counter about the seraph. She got very excited, and started talking about another project by the same woman. We were just glad that she seemed to know about the seraph; we were half afraid that she was going to ask us questions about it, to which we would only be able to respond "well, we saw a sign along 84...". She did not give us any information about what we were looking for, but did give us clear directions.
    We followed them, only to learn that "Seraph" is a store that sells old-fashioned furniture. We were disappointed, but at least now we won't wonder about the sign any more.

Super powers

Sat, 31 May 2008 20:30:12 GMT

Lacuna had radioactive iodine treatment on Tuesday and came home yesterday around noon. Several people have asked whether he would gain super powers as result of the irradiation, and I wasn't sure. However, we can now confirm that he does in fact have a superpower...he has a supersonic meow.
Because he is mildly radioactive, we have to limit our exposure to him for the next two weeks. His waste products also have to be disposed of "properly" (ironically, this consists of flushing them down the toilet). Lacuna is the cat that most wants to sit with people, and would spend 24 hours a day in our laps if we let him. Therefore, we refurbished Melcatraz for him (for the nonce, it is known as the Fortress of Solitude), figuring that this would allow him to stay near us while still keeping him isolated. He was not happy. However, he did settle down to sleep. Until around 5 am, when the sun came up and birds started chirping. He started in with a very plaintive meow that wouldn't stop. I wound up throwing Munchie into the cage with him, which allowed me to sleep until 8:30. In typical Munch fashion, he took it all in stride and hung out until I let him out for breakfast. Alternate plans for Lacuna may be in effect this evening. And I have a feeling that it's going to be a long two weeks...

Lacuna

Fri, 09 May 2008 16:54:44 GMT

     Lacuna is my oldest cat. He is a big baby and would sit on a lap all day long if one was available. In the two story house, he has taken to trying to lure us up to the bedroom so that he can sit with us; he stands near the stairs and mews plaintively. As we approach, he then moves towards the bedroom, continuing to meow. Once we're in the bed with him, he rolls around happily and purrs at the top of his lungs.
     Over the last week or two, he has started to pull kibble out of the dog food bowl while Mele is still eating. This is unusual behavior for him, as he is not generally a food motivated cat. Mele would try to stare him down, but Lacuna would avert his eyes and continue to fish the kibble out. (It wasn't until Munchie started grabbing food from the other side that Mele started going after the cats.) I drew blood on Sunday, and he does in fact have hyperthyroidism. I started him on oral medication, and he seems to have stopped pulling dog kibble out.
     Today I scheduled him for radioactive iodine treatment. He needs to have a few more tests done, but, assuming those are normal, he goes into the hospital on May 27th. Hopefully he'll be out sometime that weekend. He'll be mildly radioactive for about two weeks, but that should cure his hyperthyroidism. I will miss him while he's hospitalized, though. I tried to find somewhere with a webcam so that I could keep an eye on him, but that doesn't appear to be available in Massachusetts. Oh well.

How to tell that it's a sunny day...

Mon, 05 May 2008 18:31:25 GMT

...when you get home, the dog barks from the top of the stairs but does not come down to greet you. Because there are RAINBOWS. And these trump people in terms of importance.

Agility

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:30:25 GMT

Mele and I spent yesterday at a dog trial. It was with NADAC, a group that we don't usually run with. However, the trial was close, and there is a class called tunnelers that seemed right up Mele's alley. We got up super-early to drive down to Wrentham. This actually turned out to be annoying, as we did not need to be measured and in fact did not have our first run until about 10 am (we got to the field at 7:15). As usual, Mele was crazy and crashed through several jumps on the first run. We were also doing 20" jumps, where he usually jumps 16". Tunnelers was in fact the best run of the day. We completed the course in 25 seconds, netting us 1st place and a qualifying score towards the next level. They estimated that Mele was running at 6 yards per second (or 12 mph). I was not going this fast, as I spent part of the course standing still and just calling out directions. He was amazing. Now if he could just keep the jump bars up...

Jury duty

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:20:59 GMT

    I managed to get selected for jury duty last fall and put it off until yesterday. There were about 25 people held captive in a room through the morning. We got to listen to the judge for a bit, and then watched a video (that appeared to be made in the 80's, given the hair) describing the jury process. Many, many times we were told not to take it personally if we were excused from a jury. All I could think was that I would acutally like to be excused, as then I would have the rest of the afternoon free. Of course, I managed to be the last person chosen for the jury.
    We proceeded to hear the stupid case yesterday. It was a criminal case, meaning that all six of the jurors had to agree on the verdict. There were actually two charges: 1) assault and battery; 2) assault and battery with a lethal weapon, a shod foot. (Yes, the lethal weapon in this case was, in fact, a white shoe). The lawyers were very different. Several of us were confused by the baby ADA referring to the defense attorney as her sister; this appears to be some type of legal speak and not an indication that they were actually sisters. The defense attorney was tough and had a lot of attitude. She was wearing a short red suit yesterday that showed a little too much leg for our comfort. The baby ADA, by contrast, was wearing a beige, ill-fitting suit. The left pant leg had a thread hanging down, and the hem appeared to be ripped. One of the hooks on the waist of the pants was also undone. She was very tentative, using a lot of "umms" and "just a minute, judge". She actually messed up her closing argument, asking the jury to find the defendant "not guilty...I mean, guilty".
    This was basically a case of she said/she said, in which the victim and the defendant each presented their stories. I didn't really like either one, although clearly the defendant had been much better prepped by her attorney. The defense attorney really badgered the victim during her testimony, and the baby ADA didn't object until about the 15th time she was interrupted. There was a lot of extraneous information presented, and at several points during the trial the judge even looked bored.
    I managed to get randomly selected as the foreperson. We went to deliberate around 3:45. I thought it was pretty open and shut, given that the defendant basically admitted to the assault but there was no evidence of the lethal weapon aside from testimony from the victim (who didn't even seek medical attention). Well, it turned out that two jurors felt that the assault was in self-defense. Sigh. They wanted to declare a hung jury after about 10 minutes, which I kept explaining wouldn't work. So we sat there for 40 minutes and then got to come back again today. Oh goodie. (We did have two items that were considered evidence: a pair of white shoes and thirteen hair braids. We did not touch these, despite the fact that the judge opened the bags for us. I was put in charge of making sure that all thirteen braids made it back into the bag. Great.)
    Overnight, I researched the definition of self-defense last night and brought that with me. Another member of the jury drove by the house where the incident occurred and took photos. One juror arrived about 25 minutes late, just as the police were about to go to her house. She had made a comment to another juror yesterday that she wouldn't be in today due to child care for her son; this did turn out to be a joke. We managed to determine that the defendant was guilty of assault after about half and hour and then got to go home. And, of course, the two people that initially argued against it were both unemployed and therefore getting paid more to be a jury than they would to sit at home. Sigh. At least I have three years before I can get called again.

Dead car walking..

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:21:18 GMT

Yesterday, en route to agility class in Nashua, the "check" light on the dashboard started blinking. I didn't have time to deal with it, as I had to drive there, drive home, then head out to work an overnight shift and head to Alewife to T in to a day shift today. I did manage to read the book before I caught the train, and it very helpfully said that this was the "malfunction indicator light", and that I should contact someone for service. I called the Acura dealer this morning. They recommended not turning the car on, as this could make the problem worse and having it towed in. Of course, I was parked at the Alewife parking structure. I decided that I had to turn the car on to get it out of the structure, so driving it 3 miles to the dealer couldn't make it worse (I had already logged about 150 miles since the light came on). I drove it to the dealer today. After an hour of looking at it, they concluded that the third cylinder had died. (I know that the car has 4 cylinders; that's about the extent of my knowledge. The nice man did try to tell me something about the extent of the injury, but I basically took away that the cylinder was dead.) They could look at it, but best case scenario was $1000-1500 in repairs. It could require replacing the whole engine. Since I'd been thinking about getting a new car soon anyway, I guess it is now time; I hesitate to put thousands of dollars into a 10-year-old car that has driven over 120,000 miles. But it's still surprisingly sad to think about getting rid of the car. This is my first actual car (well, I drove a Civic for 4 years, but that was a gift; this is the first one that I picked out). So I guess I have a new project for the week...

Worst drug name ever

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:00:30 GMT

I heard a commercial for a drug while I was watching TV in Vegas. The drug is called "AciPhex". I was packing my suitcase in preparation for departure, and did a double take when I heard this, as I couldn't figure out what they were marketing. It turns out to be a drug to help control stomach acid, which I guess is where the name came from...but someone clearly didn't speak it aloud, as it sounds like "Ass Effects".

Dog Agility

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:31:11 GMT

The week before last, Mele was entered in an agility trial at Riverside Canine Center. This was CPE agility, which kid_cthulhu compares to the Unitarian church--very welcoming. Mele was entered into all eight classes. Luckily, he was measured previously, which means that we get to sleep in an extra 1/2 hour. However, we still had to be at the arena in Nashua by 8 am on both Saturday and Sunday. CPE limits the number of dogs that are allowed to enter. Which means that Mele, competing in Level 1 at the 16" jump height, was generally running against one other dog. Which means that, as long as we finished the course, he was guaranteed at least second place. Of the eight classes, he wound up getting six firsts and one second. (I'm not sure about the eighth class, as I had to leave before results were posted to make it to work). He also managed to qualify for Level 2 in 5 of the classes. We had a few beautiful runs (especially Snooker and Full House on Sunday), but I'm not sure that we really deserved all of the ribbons. However, it's nice to actually do well in classes; USDAA agility is much more competitve, with more dogs running and more challenging courses, and we rarely do well. We continue to train with the goal of eventually competing more succesfully in this venue, however it's nice to know that we have somewhere to compete that makes us feel good. Also, the trial was close enough that foldedfish came up for a few hours to watch us.

An update on the fish

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:24:27 GMT

So I'm pretty sure that the female betta has been terrorizing everyone in the tank. The male's tale keeps getting shorter and shorter, and one of the neon tetras is now missing an eye. So I dug out my old tank (which has a divider) and moved the bettas next door, with one on each side of the divider. The male needs to regrow his tail, as he's starting to have some issues swimming. And the female just appears to be evil, given that she is the largest fish in the tank and the only one that seems big enough to be attacking everyone.
Bettas can supposedly live in just water, with no filter or heat. However, they are much more lively in a 78 degree tank. So of course I had to head to the pet store yesterday to pick up a small heater for the small tank; the bettas seem much happier. This whole process has been a little annoying, however, as the goal was to have a single community tank with fishes that don't want to kill each other.

An open invitation...

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:16:15 GMT

    foldedfish and I have had season tickets to the Arlington Friends of the Drama for the last two years. This is a small community theatre, but the plays have been outstanding. We would love for anyone interested to join us, so I'm posting dates for the next two productions. If you'd like to come along, we could meet up for dinner and then the show; let us know!
    February 22nd, 8 pm --> How I Learned to Drive
    April 18th, 8 pm --> The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:47:58 GMT

I was playing in the backyard with Mele the other evening. He was wearing Mutt-luks on his front feet, to protect them from the ice. Because it was dusk, we were playing with the ball that flashes lights. It's amusing to watch him come running back across the yard, as you mainly notice the flashing and not the actual dog. As we played, I couldn't help thinking that he is a yuppy dog. I can't imagine the dogs we had growing up wearing boots or playing with light-up toys; they made do with found tennis balls and my parents would never have spent money on dog boots.