piper wednesday

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watercolor tuesday

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daylily monday

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another week

I've been waiting for a positive moment for a Moxie update, and I think I'd better take this one: breakfast this morning. With plenty of time, and quiet coaxing (she is a Cat, and none of your upbeat, dog-encouragement tactics are of any use here) plus a timely mid-meal addition of meat from a jar of baby food, Moxie ate more than half her pre-illness amount of breakfast. This is the most she has eaten at one time in more than two weeks, so huzzah for that! I've learned not to see this as a turning point, though, because this illness doesn't seem to work that way; there has been no clear progression of improvement. With the odd and fluctuating symptoms, I begin to wonder if it might be Lyme disease or some such ailment. I hope not. In fact, I've been afraid to even think it.

When I saw Della and Moxie napping together the other day, I hoped it meant we were getting back to normal. But Moxie soon went back to sleeping inside the carrier or on top of the tower, by herself.

Looking back at the past week (this began very suddenly, three long weeks ago), Moxie is doing better: to some extent, in some ways, most of the time.

I am grateful for that, and am trying to keep some perspective - things could be so much worse. But beneath the genuine gratitude and optimism, it is breaking my heart that a one-year-old kitty is feeling anything other than fit and fine and full of beans.

Thanks so much for all your comments, which are very much appreciated. And thanks to those of you who contacted me to ask how Moxie is doing. Sorry I've been out of touch, but I really was waiting for a positive moment to hang a blog-post on.

Not sure I've made this a very positive post though, have I?

Rats!

Would you like to have just photographs in the coming week?

I can do that!

Here's one to start:

The hyssop is humming with bees these days, any time it isn't raining.

It's so nice to have something normal happening in the waterlogged gardens of this rainy, rainy year!

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dealing

You know how sometimes - like on a Friday afternoon when you are waiting for a call from your vet who is consulting remotely with a radiologist and will get back to you within the hour - well, you know how in such times you may find yourself somehow trying to make a deal with fate?

The call just came. Moxie does not have to be rushed straight back to the vet's office where she spent a harrowing two hours this morning. Because Moxie does not have to have major surgery this afternoon.

Hallelujah!

She will be on a new, anti-inflammatory medication, right here at home, while I continue to try to keep her eating and hydrated and in good spirits. Monday, we will see how she is doing. We're still at sea as far as identifying the source of the problem, but - at least for today - the news is so much better than it might have been. For now, supportive care, not major surgery.

And I will be spending every possible hour this weekend cleaning the house. I can't overstate how happy and grateful I am for this opportunity. I have never approached housework with such genuine joy in my entire life.

Thank you so much for your good thoughts and prayers - this week has been difficult, hour by hour, day by day, and it helped me very much to know you were thinking of Moxie.

Please have a wonderful weekend, and tell me all about it!

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