Month: July 2006

July book bag closing


recommended T. Jefferson Parker’s Little Saigon. excellent thriller, I will be hunting for more of his work.

reading Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas, which is one of those marvelous history books  that pauses along the main route and provides mini histories – for example, I found out that the Elks were first formed in NYC mainly by actors who needed a club to drink on Sundays when new blue laws were introduced….the main route is the trial of men accused of conspiracy in the murder of former Idaho Governor Francis Steunenberg in 1905. It describes the battles between miners, mine owners, unions, the Pinkertons and other detective agencies (mainly spies for big business in this time period) and who shows up but Clarence Darrow, Ethel Barrymore, Eugene Debs, and baseball pitcher, Walter Johnston. It is a big book and a big story and a wonderful read.

ep. 3 – sub Q – mini lion takes a stroll


we have settled down in our sub Q fluid therapy – that time of day where I get to stick it to the cat, that is the needle attached to the fluid line attached to the fluids bag for the gravity feed…..he even lay down and relaxed for the session last night.

Afterwards, I let him out and followed along as he went out to bite at some tall grass, which helped him throw up some foamy phlegm (clear not brownish). My hope was that a little grass chewing might help his stomach if upset and clear the way for more eating. We spent a half an hour strolling around on the front lawn. I tossed him a twig and he tracked it with his eyes and went over and gave it a bash with his paw. A lot of the time he just sat on his haunches looking around and taking in the smells coming to him on the breeze. For many years he has been a mini lion with about a 85 yard range. A lot of his outdoor time was curled up in the sun sleeping.

I was happy to see him out getting a little extra stimulation. I just wish his appetite would resurface more strongly. I may go rent an antelope costume and bound around in the living room trying to get his lion king self to bite.

tremendous tangent – I watched Madagascar for the laughs and there were lots. My favourite scene was a toss up between the little old lady whacking the lion with her purse and the moment where the lion wakes up from the first darting and asks for some help and everyone screams and a shower of tranquilizer darts land all around him and he turns his paw around and sees a dart has stuck in his paw….lights go out and then his drug induced hallucogenic psychedelic dream sequence flashes for a few moments. Hi-larious.

ep. 2 – sub Q – it ain’t easy but he’s my pussycat


administering subcutaneous fluid therapy to my 17 year old cat who has chronic renal failure … well, it ain’t as easy as it seemed at first, my sister and I work as a team to help him with this treatment:

  1. very hard to read the scale markings on the fluid bag and we may have given him a little too much
  2. managed to stick myself with the needle, which means taking off old needle and using a fresh needle
  3. at which point I got confused and instead of just doing that I first opened the fluid wheel lock thinking I was closing it (not a smarter than average bear moment) and fluid streaming out
  4. on another occasion, while checking the bag scale, mr. cat turned and the needle pulled out
  5. he isnt eating and we are very worried
  6. on the plus side he looks sharper today, more alert and walking around more

also, I try to keep in mind that we have only been doing this for three days

also, on the plus side I have had a switch close in my head and have realized that Television is a complete soul-killing waster of time and have stopped watching everything but the weather channel

sub-cutaneous fluid therapy for cat with chronic renal failure – episode 1


Took mr. cat to the vet for a check after he had been back home about two days. Got the demo of how to do the subcutaneous fluid injection. Did my first sub q under the vet’s supervision and took him home. Tonight did the first sub q at home and all went well. It is not as difficult as I had thought it might be. It helps that he has always been a very laid back cat.

I must confess seeing the fluid bag back in the fridge is a little odd.

I suppose my concern is that we are prolonging his life and making sure that this  judgement is from seeing exactly how he is today and not from falsely seeing him today  with the added filters of 17 years of fun and love.
We are to bring him back to the vet in 10 – 14 days and assess how things are going at that point. Meanwhile more sub q treatments and charting his behaviour.

It also has brought about an interesting re-awareness of the banal nature of most of the avalanche of distractions and media that take all our time away “normally”, whatever “normal” is. Right now, hanging a fluid bag from a hook on the kitchen cupboard door, sticking a needle in the skin “tent” on his back, and gravity feeding fluids into him seems normal and present and direct and now.

I may take an ax to my TV before the end of the week. No, I mean really.

mr. cat is home


he is sitting on my computer desk as i type this with one finger…my left hand under his chin or resting on  his back…purring monster cat has one paw poised over the numeric keypad ready to add a few characters.

we go back to the vet tomorrow to assess whether sub cutaneous fluid therapy is going to help him.

sure is nice to have him home

some people can manage their cat’s condition for months or years with medications and sub Q therapy

my pal the cat is not well


12 hours ago I took the Sundance Kid (born in March 1989) to the vets for rehydration treatment, he appears to be suffering from Chronic Renal Disease, which is a tough one for cats, especially older ones, and he is senior and distinguished, and my long time personal spiritual adviser.  I will be going in to see him in about 7 hours. He did eat some food while at the vets. I had been forcing a little baby pablum in his mouth the day before yesterday. He is the last of four cats.  His partner, Butch Cassidy, died in his sleep four years ago. Very affectionate boys. So we may be doing the sub-cutaneous fluid therapy treatment at home. We hope to get him back on Wednesday. I have been reading up on this online and it helps some cats live for several months, or longer, in some cases. This is new ground, none of the other cats have had this disease, so we are feeling our way along.

Grant and the colt


US Grant in his memoirs does not write at great length about his childhood. He briefly mentions buying a horse while he was a boy. At the age of four, the horse went blind and was sold. Ten years later he recognized the horse on a tread wheel on a river boat. He does not mention his reaction.

I tried to imagine the life of that horse, the change from being a boy’s horse to being blind and then working as a tread wheel horse on a river boat. Then I thought of all the horses killed in the Civil War. And then the men blinded in that war, the men killed.

Then once again I was back with that young man looking at that blind horse.

Little Lake Park – Midland, Ontario, Canada



Little Lake Park – Midland, Ontario, Canada

Originally uploaded by canuckshutterer.

right in the middle of Midland, beautiful old park, also has the local YMCA, Huronia Museum, double arena North Simcoe District Recreation Centre, skateboard park, softball diamond…..and an native burial ground….who could ask for anything more.

one problem, too many geese and therefore geese droppings