Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. It's been pretty tough to get used to not having him around. Like I mentioned before, Finnegan was very demanding of your attention and he let you know it if he didn't think he was getting enough. Sure it was annoying sometimes (like when we were trying to sleep - or when your arms and shoulders were too sore from carrying him around all day) but now that he's not here, everything is so quiet. Tilley is not a cuddly, affectionate cat and I miss getting those kitty snuggles and headbutts (he loved being kissed on the forehead). Finnegan was pretty much everything I wanted in a cat (minus the near constant meowing). I wanted a cat that would sit on my lap and want to be cuddled and snuggled when I wanted to and not just when they were feeling like it - it was a pretty rare day when Finnegan wasn't up for a good snuggle.
I'm having a bit of a hard time with just Tilley because she isn't cuddly and affectionate - she was the reason I got Finnegan in the first place...
Anyway... It's all about adjusting to how things are now and we're trying our best to look back at all the funny any annoying things Finnegan did and laugh (instead of cry which has been a pretty common occurrance lately). The one that got us laughing the hardest the other day (and my mum later when I told her) was the rivalry Finnegan had with Glen. Finnegan knew that he was here before Glen and took every chance he could to show how absolutely jealous he was anytime Glen and I were near eachother (ie: if we were sitting together on the couch or even worse if we were laying on the bed). Finnegan would physically get between us but the worst (and funniest) thing of all was that any time Finnegan had to jump up where we were or walk past Glen he ALWAYS (and I really mean always) stepped or jumped on Glen's crotch. Every.Single.Time. Any time Finnegan would go near Glen, Glen would be covering himself to avoid the inevitable.
I'm going in for a massage at 6 tonight and hopefully that will help me feel a bit better physically. Besides the stress at work (which, honestly has been pretty minimal - there's usually a once weekly occurrance of ridiculousness but it's usually been resolved in a few days) the Finnegan thing has really messed my body up (oh, I have a cold on top of it all too - great!). After my scope and getting my new stomach meds, things were going pretty good and now... Yikes... Things are worse than they were before the scope... I'm not getting too worried (though my doctor will probably freak the fuck out tomorrow if I tell him) because I'm pretty confident that it's the stress causing it and if I give it a few more weeks, things will be back to normal. Waiting out the symptoms is the toughest part.
We're getting our new hockey jersys tonight too. I'll try to post a picture soon wearing it. (I'm looking forward to hockey tonight - good stress reliever!).
Thanks again for all the comments.
Temperature: -25C
Sunrise: 11:34am
Sunset: 4:39pm
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Finnegan: 2005 - January 2009
I'm really sad to report that we put Finnegan down a few minutes ago. I woke up this morning and found out that he had another urinary blockage. He spent most of the day in the window seat or under the couch. By the end of the evening he was visibly more uncomfortable and we knew that we couldn't make him go through what he went through the last time.
We waited until I got home from work tonight and the vet came over to the house.
One of the last pictures I took of Finnegan (this morning).
He passed away peacefully just before midnight surrounded by me, Glen and Tilley. Tilley seems a bit more upset than I thought she would. We cleared a space on our small counter for the vet and put some towels down and that's where Tilley is laying right now. I'm going to miss him emensly. He was always by my side either on the computer or snuggling with me in bed. He loved playing fetch and just graduated from fetching recipts and candy wrappers to thick hair elastics. He also loved catching elastics and recipts in mid-air and doing flips.
He had such a personality and I'm going to miss his constant opinions about everything and him greeting me at the door every day when I came home.
Temperature: -24C (feels like -35C)
Sunrise: 11:53am
Sunset: 4:19pm
We waited until I got home from work tonight and the vet came over to the house.
One of the last pictures I took of Finnegan (this morning).
He passed away peacefully just before midnight surrounded by me, Glen and Tilley. Tilley seems a bit more upset than I thought she would. We cleared a space on our small counter for the vet and put some towels down and that's where Tilley is laying right now. I'm going to miss him emensly. He was always by my side either on the computer or snuggling with me in bed. He loved playing fetch and just graduated from fetching recipts and candy wrappers to thick hair elastics. He also loved catching elastics and recipts in mid-air and doing flips.
He had such a personality and I'm going to miss his constant opinions about everything and him greeting me at the door every day when I came home.
Temperature: -24C (feels like -35C)
Sunrise: 11:53am
Sunset: 4:19pm
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Behind the Scenes
I just spent the last hour or so going through all my posts and tagging them (too much spare time?). I thought it would be fun to put the temperature in the tags because it might be interesting to see how many days had the same temperature - or even to see which months had similar temperatures.. Anyway... I was basically sitting up waiting for my boss to email me (I wanted to make sure I got the email before I went to bed) so I had time to kill... bleh.
Another interesting note is that this is my 80th post... I know I said I was going to have a contest for my blogiversary (which never happened - woo, go me!) but I think I've decided to have one for my 100th - only 20 posts left!! That should give me enough time to think of something awesome.
I thought I'd post a funny - but washed out - picture of me with the cat.. Notice him on my shoulders... This is where he spends most of his time now-a-days...
Basically, he is still super high needs (attention wise) and will wander around the house meowing if he's not on your lap or of you're not carrying him around with you. He didn't like the sling I improvised for him (hah!) and so this was the next best solution.
So because I titled this post "Behind the Scenes" I figured it was appropriate because he's usually sitting on my shoulders while I write my posts (he's not at the moment because he's running around the house being a menace!). And yeah, I can assure you that I'm not that pale in real life... In my defence it was 2:30am and I haven't been feeling well/getting enough sleep.
Temperature: -31C
Sunrise: 11:57am
Sunset: 4:14pm
Another interesting note is that this is my 80th post... I know I said I was going to have a contest for my blogiversary (which never happened - woo, go me!) but I think I've decided to have one for my 100th - only 20 posts left!! That should give me enough time to think of something awesome.
I thought I'd post a funny - but washed out - picture of me with the cat.. Notice him on my shoulders... This is where he spends most of his time now-a-days...
Basically, he is still super high needs (attention wise) and will wander around the house meowing if he's not on your lap or of you're not carrying him around with you. He didn't like the sling I improvised for him (hah!) and so this was the next best solution.
So because I titled this post "Behind the Scenes" I figured it was appropriate because he's usually sitting on my shoulders while I write my posts (he's not at the moment because he's running around the house being a menace!). And yeah, I can assure you that I'm not that pale in real life... In my defence it was 2:30am and I haven't been feeling well/getting enough sleep.
Temperature: -31C
Sunrise: 11:57am
Sunset: 4:14pm
Thursday, January 1, 2009
You Don't Want to Know How Cold it is Out There...
Here's a picture of Tilley I took the other day:
And here's a picture of the card I made for my boss (sorry for the crappy dark photo):
Other than that... We didn't do anything for New Years... I worked until 11pm and had an incredible headache. We watched the Edmonton fireworks on TV (compared to the Sydney fireworks we watched 5 minutes beforehand they were pretty disappointing... There isn't a lot of competition when Sydney spends $5M AUS compared to Edmonton's $200,000 - or there abouts) and then watched some Lost and went to bed. As you can see, we live a pretty exciting life :-p
Temperature: -42C (yikes...)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a
And here's a picture of the card I made for my boss (sorry for the crappy dark photo):
Other than that... We didn't do anything for New Years... I worked until 11pm and had an incredible headache. We watched the Edmonton fireworks on TV (compared to the Sydney fireworks we watched 5 minutes beforehand they were pretty disappointing... There isn't a lot of competition when Sydney spends $5M AUS compared to Edmonton's $200,000 - or there abouts) and then watched some Lost and went to bed. As you can see, we live a pretty exciting life :-p
Temperature: -42C (yikes...)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a
Monday, September 8, 2008
Whoops!
I didn't realise it had been so long since I updated!
Well, since the last time I wrote, Finnegan has come home from the vet (two and a half weeks home and still not blocked!) and is still recovering. I'd say he's about 90% back to how he was before. My brother has made the quickest cross country drive ever (it took them just over a week to get from here to southern Ontario and that's with 4 days visiting family) AND got engaged! And I've finished two pairs of socks and started on a pair of thrummed mittens!
My brother, Cristine and her dad driving away
Afterthought heel socks in Knit Picks Felici - Coney Island and OnLine Tropic.
On Friday I'm going on a road trip with some friends to Whitehorse (we'll get back on Tuesday). We want to stock up on some supplies before winter sets in and prices go up like crazy and I also need to pick up some special cat food for Finnegan (one of the friends has a cat that had the same problems as Finnegan and she needs cat food too). I'm thinking of joining the women's hockey team in town (Tuesday nights - one of my days off!) so I'm going to pick up some gear when I'm down. I'm really excited about this trip since I've never been to Whitehorse before and the furthest I've been down the road is the Arctic Circle sign. The Dempster is supposed to be really nice in fall too so I'll have my camera for lots of pictures.
Temperature: +3C
Sunrise: 7:46am
Sunset: 9:53pm
Well, since the last time I wrote, Finnegan has come home from the vet (two and a half weeks home and still not blocked!) and is still recovering. I'd say he's about 90% back to how he was before. My brother has made the quickest cross country drive ever (it took them just over a week to get from here to southern Ontario and that's with 4 days visiting family) AND got engaged! And I've finished two pairs of socks and started on a pair of thrummed mittens!
My brother, Cristine and her dad driving away
Finnegan (the fur is taking a while to grow back).
Afterthought heel socks in Knit Picks Felici - Coney Island and OnLine Tropic.
On Friday I'm going on a road trip with some friends to Whitehorse (we'll get back on Tuesday). We want to stock up on some supplies before winter sets in and prices go up like crazy and I also need to pick up some special cat food for Finnegan (one of the friends has a cat that had the same problems as Finnegan and she needs cat food too). I'm thinking of joining the women's hockey team in town (Tuesday nights - one of my days off!) so I'm going to pick up some gear when I'm down. I'm really excited about this trip since I've never been to Whitehorse before and the furthest I've been down the road is the Arctic Circle sign. The Dempster is supposed to be really nice in fall too so I'll have my camera for lots of pictures.
Temperature: +3C
Sunrise: 7:46am
Sunset: 9:53pm
Thursday, August 21, 2008
In Knitting News...
Well since I don't have good news to share with you (I don't really even have terrible news either) I figured I'd better post about that bear I mentioned a while a go. He's very small - maybe 4 or 5" sitting. I thread jointed his arms and legs so he can sort of stand but I think he looks better sitting.
Pattern: Oliver from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: 3.25mm
I'm in the process of doing another one with the knit side out but that might be put aside because I have a sudden urge to make myself some mittens (debating fingerless mittens or full on gloves... Haven't really decided yet).
In kitty news, Finnegan is still at the vet... He's very slowly getting better - we're basically waiting for the pH of his urine to be more acidic to dissolve the last of the crystal chunks. The amount of large crystals has decreased but it only takes one to block him back up. We're hoping a special food will be in for him in the next day or two because that should really get things going. He'll be home very soon if the food is in and I'm not really 100% sure what will happen if the food isn't here by tomorrow. It's been rough waiting and thinking about those tough decisions.
Temperature: +7C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 11:12pm
Pattern: Oliver from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: 3.25mm
I'm in the process of doing another one with the knit side out but that might be put aside because I have a sudden urge to make myself some mittens (debating fingerless mittens or full on gloves... Haven't really decided yet).
In kitty news, Finnegan is still at the vet... He's very slowly getting better - we're basically waiting for the pH of his urine to be more acidic to dissolve the last of the crystal chunks. The amount of large crystals has decreased but it only takes one to block him back up. We're hoping a special food will be in for him in the next day or two because that should really get things going. He'll be home very soon if the food is in and I'm not really 100% sure what will happen if the food isn't here by tomorrow. It's been rough waiting and thinking about those tough decisions.
Temperature: +7C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 11:12pm
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Update...
Just an update to let everyone know, Finnegan is back at the vet's.
He reblocked on Thursday and I took him back in early Friday morning. The vet had troubles with the catheter but finally got it inserted this morning (Saturday). Finnegan is doing well (considering) and is on IV fluids & antibiotics and still has the catheter in place.
The vet wants to keep him hooked up to everything for another 72 hours at least - he said the crystals in Finnegan's urine are so bad that when he put the sample on the slide for the microscope then put the cover slip on it, it actually "crunched" *sigh*
Finnegan will likely have a few more shaved spots when he comes home too because the vet had to extract urine with a needle through his abdomen when the catheter wouldn't go in.
Cross your fingers that things continue to get better the other alternative is a very drastic (and not 100% successful) surgery.
He reblocked on Thursday and I took him back in early Friday morning. The vet had troubles with the catheter but finally got it inserted this morning (Saturday). Finnegan is doing well (considering) and is on IV fluids & antibiotics and still has the catheter in place.
The vet wants to keep him hooked up to everything for another 72 hours at least - he said the crystals in Finnegan's urine are so bad that when he put the sample on the slide for the microscope then put the cover slip on it, it actually "crunched" *sigh*
Finnegan will likely have a few more shaved spots when he comes home too because the vet had to extract urine with a needle through his abdomen when the catheter wouldn't go in.
Cross your fingers that things continue to get better the other alternative is a very drastic (and not 100% successful) surgery.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
War Wounds
Well, we've gone through quite the ordeal & emotional roller coaster the last few days.
My (youngest) cat Finnegan got sick on Friday and because of our lack of high-tech vet equipment up here it was a bit of a long process figuring out what was wrong with him. First we thought he might've swallowed something, then we thought it might be a kitty disease and then on Monday the vet felt a mass in Finnegan's stomach. We made the heart wrenching decision of deciding on exploratory surgery (it was that or send him out of town and at that point we thought they'd end up doing surgery anyway) and made what could've been the "good-bye visit" at the vet's. Thankfully before the surgery part came, the vet discovered that Finnegan was experiencing urinary issues (yay for catheters!). Finnegan is back home recuperating, on antibiotics and will be on a special diet for the rest of his life.
Finnegan sporting a shaved leg from his IV (he chewed it out the first night, little bugger!!)
I hope I never have to make any of those heart wrenching decisions again. And I wish that pet care didn't have to come down to "how much are you willing to spend to save your pet's life?". I'm thankful the vet is a family friend and extremely compassionate but also very frank about what problems and risks we were potentially facing.
I ended up having to take two days off of work because I was so upset and because I wanted to watch Finnegan to see if he was getting sicker (he started getting sick on Friday and I ended up taking him in for fluids on Sunday night because he wasn't eating or drinking and kept throwing up - he was still peeing a tiny bit though which was probably the only thing that kept him going for so long).
Like children you're not really supposed to have a favourite and I hate to admit it but he's my favourite. I love my other cat Tilley (she's 5, Finnegan is 3) but she wants nothing to do with me. It's a female thing - she LOVES Glen. Finnegan is THE MOST affectionate cat ever and will cuddle and snuggle and purr all day long if you'd let him. He runs to greet me at the door and follows me around the house. He also spends a lot of time laying across my shoulders (where he is right now) - it's either that or carry him around in my arms all day. He reminds me a lot of one of our first cats. We called him Boogity (Boogie for short - his mum's name was Squirrel - lol) he slept on my bed with me, under the covers with his head on my pillow.
Unfortunately Boogie got into the neighbour's antifreeze and passed away at a very young age (probably not long after that picture was taken). I'll never forget the day my mum met me half-way on my way home from school to tell me the news.
I don't really want to end on such a sad note so I'll say that I finished knitting a small bear. I'll post about it another day though. He's quite cute and I've already started another.
Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 11:44pm
My (youngest) cat Finnegan got sick on Friday and because of our lack of high-tech vet equipment up here it was a bit of a long process figuring out what was wrong with him. First we thought he might've swallowed something, then we thought it might be a kitty disease and then on Monday the vet felt a mass in Finnegan's stomach. We made the heart wrenching decision of deciding on exploratory surgery (it was that or send him out of town and at that point we thought they'd end up doing surgery anyway) and made what could've been the "good-bye visit" at the vet's. Thankfully before the surgery part came, the vet discovered that Finnegan was experiencing urinary issues (yay for catheters!). Finnegan is back home recuperating, on antibiotics and will be on a special diet for the rest of his life.
Finnegan sporting a shaved leg from his IV (he chewed it out the first night, little bugger!!)
I ended up having to take two days off of work because I was so upset and because I wanted to watch Finnegan to see if he was getting sicker (he started getting sick on Friday and I ended up taking him in for fluids on Sunday night because he wasn't eating or drinking and kept throwing up - he was still peeing a tiny bit though which was probably the only thing that kept him going for so long).
Like children you're not really supposed to have a favourite and I hate to admit it but he's my favourite. I love my other cat Tilley (she's 5, Finnegan is 3) but she wants nothing to do with me. It's a female thing - she LOVES Glen. Finnegan is THE MOST affectionate cat ever and will cuddle and snuggle and purr all day long if you'd let him. He runs to greet me at the door and follows me around the house. He also spends a lot of time laying across my shoulders (where he is right now) - it's either that or carry him around in my arms all day. He reminds me a lot of one of our first cats. We called him Boogity (Boogie for short - his mum's name was Squirrel - lol) he slept on my bed with me, under the covers with his head on my pillow.
Me with my buddy Boogie.
Unfortunately Boogie got into the neighbour's antifreeze and passed away at a very young age (probably not long after that picture was taken). I'll never forget the day my mum met me half-way on my way home from school to tell me the news.
I don't really want to end on such a sad note so I'll say that I finished knitting a small bear. I'll post about it another day though. He's quite cute and I've already started another.
Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 11:44pm
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