Some hugely drastic changes -- Part 3

As promised, here's Part 3 of 'Hugely Drastic Changes', which includes the tragic end of my most beloved cat, Violet, and the beginning of my new kitten, Rusty. Also, there'll soon be more where this came from!

I left you last in this story with October 19th's entry; "And then -- IT HAPPENED!" Finally I can tell you that 'it' was the time I passed through a major developmental stage, which is now serving as the platform for all my current mental developments.

'It' also had something to do with this cool drawing I made:

Conveniently, I've just explained the psychological implications on my art blog, and you can read about it here:

I can STILL draw -- and it helped change my life!

Really, it did. I don't know how important the drawing was, but it helped stimulate my brain to keep going. It also eventually got me into Spongebob Squarepants because it was The Best Day Ever, even though I was coming down with the flu!
` (Or El Mejor Dia -- and there are two separate Spanish translations of the Spongebob show, did you know that!?!? And so, a while back I made a blog post about translating it in Spanish class!)

So, that was a really great day for me, but fairly quickly, things started to go downhill. At least that didn't take away my brain skillz from me! It all started with coming down with the flu and missing a day of karate.
` Then, I started noticing that my cat Violet started coughing, not like she had a hairball, but like she had the flu as well. Karate student Alex noticed it as well, as she likes to sit up on the upended couch while we are doing karate:

Also, some things I remember overhearing at Karate:

"Sidekick stretch? I thought you've been saying psychic stretch all this time!"
"Now, face Whidbey Island..."
"Arm circles forward, now backward, now one arm forward and one arm backward..." (A real exercise, and one I'm good at!)
"Hit me harder! Smack me!"

Here's another picture, it's Troy frosting a friend's birthday cake. This friend likes Super Mario, and also says she needs to 'get a life'. Well, how about a 1-Up (life) mushroom?

Ha! Get a 'Life'! It went over well....


October 30, 2010:

Lucas played this freak show character at this kid "Skyy's" Halloween party, down at 'The Estate', as the staff called it, for 'The Family'. But who was the family? Lucas was not allowed to find out!

He met the mother, but she couldn't use her real name, and wasn't allowed to meet the father. Why? Because he must be really famous and thus recognizable to the public!
` The only thing we know about them is... their address! And there's no way to look them up in the Yellow Pages because they're unlisted!

Lucas said the mansion was cavernous and there were about twenty staff members with their own quarters living there. He and some of the staff members went around the humongous backyard and hid in the bushes to scare the kids!
` The kids, however, weren't so afraid of him, but rather, tagged around him and called him 'Elefante', and played around with him. When the party was over and he went to the office to be paid -- handsomely -- and took off his mask, the kids were like, "ohhh, he's a regular guy!"


October 31, 2010:

We don't have Trick-Or-Treaters in our area, although Lucas' mom (MathMom) does and she handed out candy while helping me with algebra.
` Roommate Andrew was saying that he wanted some candy, so I went to the store and got him Reeses' Peanut Butter cups, and also a glow stick that I found on the street at the top of the hill!

I don't have any pictures of that, but I have some pictures of the cats doing some cute things -- here's Violet jumping off the carport roof!

November 2, 2010:

After so much hairball treatment, Violet seems to be feeling better, so we went for a run in the woods! I almost took my video camera because the leaves were so nice, but figured that would be too much distraction for our fun and games.
` "Are you coming?"

Now she's following me...

By the bridge...

Here she is trying not to cough...

At least she seems to be feeling well enough to run around -- and she was running, although most of my pictures of that just showed a blur!

Meanwhile, Vada's been sleeping on Lucas' costume hat!

November 3, 2010:

I woke up from my nap to hear karate sounds -- why hadn't I been notified that class had started? I rushed out of my room and said, "Hey, what's going on here?"
` But, it was only Alex and Michael, and Lucas had been at a neighborhood meeting which, I didn't realize, was next door. They thought I had been with him!

He came back after they had gone home, at 7:30, and told how he had brought the whole neighborhood together. Basically, the problem is the cars Mike and Joel are working on are clogging up the cul-de-sac, and we really need to get all cars off the street!

Also, I'm really worried about Violet because she looked really sick today and hasn't come back home. The last I've seen her was just before I took some pictures of Vada defying gravity....

Friday, November 4, 2010:

After school, Violet was not waiting for me on the carport wall, so I went through the backyard and into the alley and called -- she came out to greet me. I was so relieved!
` She seems to be feeling a little better. I carried her home and gave her the new hairball remedy -- this has soy lecithin in it, and she seemed to perk up even more after this.
` Finally, I have a bit of peace of mind! Also, here's a bad picture of karate class:

Saturday, November 5, 2010:

Violet really looks terrible. She's stopped coughing and we think she's swallowed the hairball, so I've been massaging her intestines. However, something's not right, since her abdomen seems to be much smaller than her chest.
` I've been trying to tell Lucas about this all day, waking him up from his nap and all, but he said she looked better than she had yesterday and told me to stop hovering over her, that she would be fine. She looks like she's having trouble breathing, which I noticed when putting her on the couch and sitting with her for about a half hour while Lucas napped on the other couch.

After Lucas was up, I tried to tell him again, and, knowing that this might be the end of Violet, I took a picture of her in this state at about three this afternoon:

He just told me not to worry and to stop freaking out, that Violet would be fine.


Sunday, November 6, 2010:

Violet's dead.

My eyelids are so swollen from crying I can scarcely open them.

At about seven thirty at night last night, I was trying to do my math homework, but was so distracted by Violet having trouble breathing that I felt horrible because it seemed that I was just ignoring her and Lucas kept telling me not to take her to the vet's.
` Then, she crawled over to me and snuggled up, as if to say 'Help me!' and I freaked out. To collect myself, I took a quick shower, and when I got out, Violet was waiting for me, crouched in the middle of the hallway. Finally, I got up the courage to go try to tell Lucas again, as I had been, repeatedly.
` He was watching a movie, and I got him to come upstairs and take a look. Finally, he actually saw her and started crying. He said he knew from the look on Violet's face that she was 'saying goodbye'.

We eventually got her to the emergency vet's and the vet said she had a lot of phlegm in her lungs -- it wasn't a hairball after all. We thought if that was just an infection, she wouldn't need surgery that we couldn't afford. We left her at the vet's and they called us back.
` Apparently, we would need three thousand dollars to start treatment. We were $1,500 short. I called my mom for help, but she said she didn't have the money. I said, "Well, thanks anyway," and then... I had to make the tough decision to have Violet put out of her misery.
` Lucas and I went back to see her -- she was in an oxygen cage and the vet showed us an enormous tube of pink pus he had removed from her chest cavity. She had a collapsed lung, even.
` We said our goodbyes. Unlike with my last cat, this vet let us watch her fall into a lifeless heap.

Early the next morning, or more like night, my mom called, saying, "I have the money! You can save Violet's life now!" I told her, "It's too late," and she said, "No, it's okay, I have the money!"
` Why it was too late was a tough thing to tell my mom. She asked, "Are you sure?" She just couldn't believe my favorite cat, my smart cat, was dead. So she called Lucas and asked if he was sure.

Cattain Niyu, we barely knew ye! Yet we're not surprised she died of an infection because she was always a sickly little furball -- here's a photo of 'the cattain' the first time she got sick:

Kitteh Phone Home!

How tiny she was compared to Lucas' hand! She only lived about three and a half years, and she's never made it off this planet of Hideous Hairless Giants. I remember that blog post -- most of the pictures of my wobbly kittens are still there. I need to fix all that stuff when I re-do my photo website.

I'd say this is the Worst Day Ever. Or was it yesterday? I'm not sure. She actually died during that extra hour of Daylight Saving Time -- well, it's the worst weekend ever!


Monday, November 8, 2010:

After I got home from school, I had something special to do, but Lucas, who was driving off, pulled up next to me in the garage and Andrew just happened to be coming home, pulled in behind him.
` Lucas told me to back out of the driveway so we could use my car, and I exchanged a bit of paint with Troy's car while just barely clearing Andrew's car. It was terribly confusing and I forgot all about what I was going to do!

Then, we went around town, and then to the Animal Shelter to look for a new Fuzzball, and I found one right away! Well, they needed a signature from the landlady, whose office we had just come from, so we went back to her office and returned with the signature just in time -- some girls had just come in and were saying, "Look at the kittens!" right as we were leaving with ours -- and he's the most outgoing one!
` I used my mom's credit card -- at least she could contribute something towards my cat-happiness.

The kitten's name was Phil, but since that name has too many associations, I changed it to Rusty Waters, after the drag queen -- pictures are still here on this post with her, too! Why not? It's a splendid name!

With all this excitement, I forgot what I was going to do that was so special... here's a photo of the heap of love -- me and Rusty on Lucas' back!

Unfortunately, Vada isn't yet feeling this sentiment, so we have to keep him shut in our room most of the time....

This is Rusty, Day 2:

Rusty, Day 3:

Rusty, Day 4:

Here's me getting a break from Rusty:

Tuesday, November 16

It has been SO BUSY!! Homework, karate and playing with Rusty are my whole life now! He loves climbing up the green mattress and has such prodigious cornering ability, although he's getting slower and clumsier because of how fast he's growing!

It's also been quite an eventful day!

Andrew, who is apparently on a new medication, came in our room last night, thinking it was the bathroom or something and Lucas told him to turn on the light. He did, to find me, Lucas and Rusty all staring at him. It was so funny! He said, "Oh, sorry," and went across the hall.
` This morning before school, I found that the bathroom door was open, the shower was pouring freezing water, as though it had been left on, and no one was there! I'm a bit concerned about that boy. Maybe he shouldn't drink as much when he's on that stuff....

In Spanish class, 'Juan' brought us all these really great tamales, and then later was this international fashion show! Oh yeah, that's why I had wanted to bring my camera, but forgot, DUH!
` My Spanish teacher was wearing a traditional Spanish dress, Heidi Weiss-Green (most awesome and sexiest math teacher in the school) looked like the Saint Pauli Girl, Denny, my first Spanish teacher, was all enthusiastic in his Ecuadorian poncho, and Derrick Dieter, the educational studies guy who's really white and blond, was wearing this African jumpsuit-thing, I forget what it was called.

I'd thought that, with all the photos and videos being taken that I could find someone else's online, but this video of the Japan segment was all I could find.

Then, Troy singlehandedly made a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with the smoked turkey his boss had given him, and he did it today because he has work on Thanksgiving! Of course! (I cleared all the dirty dishes out of the kitchen first, though.)
` Waldorf salad, anyone?

I have to say, although Troy may be too distracted by video games to look over and notice that the fire has died down in the woodburning stove, he is actually capable of great things when he has some goal to work toward!

Meanwhile...

Dinner's done!

Oh yeah! Good times! Good food! Good job, Troy! You RAWK!


Sunday, November 19, 2010:

It snowed! Rusty says: "That's what you call this stuff?"

Last night, I got a call to pick up Roommate/Mechanic Mike's collies from the cops because he got arrested for a hit-and-run. Whoa. And do those dogs stink! Sylvia kept trying to lay down on my gear shift at first, but finally I got her to lie down in the back seat.
` Then, we got back home and I let them out in the snow to run around and made sure they had food and water. Poor dogs!

Also, Lucas got us a vacuum cleaner, so now the carpet's clean -- I had to empty it five times! Ha!


Monday, November 20, 2010:

Joel got back from Hawaii! Lucas was skeptical that he had even gone to Hawaii, but I saw photographic evidence, so I knew it must be true. Unless... it's FAKED! Which I doubt.
` He actually bailed out Mike from jail, which was $1,500, so thank goodness he still had cash! But then... he spent a couple of hours having fun sliding his friend's car around in the snow, resulting in $1,500 worth of damage, so now Mike has to fix this guy's car for free!

Because, yes, it's snowed some more -- speaking of which, here's another use for Violet's harness; Rusty the YukonExplorerCat!

P.S. Andrew is listening to Enya? You know, Phil used to listen to Enya... never mind.


Tuesday, November 21, 2010:

School is closed from the snow, and we have the rest of the week off! That's okay because Lucas took my car to work. He also salted the street and cleaned the driveway -- and he apparently has pink eye, which is greatly annoying!

Later on, he tried to build a snowman, but it fell down....

In Cat News:

Vada is fast-becoming tolerant of Rusty... as long as she doesn't realize he's sneaking up on her...

Or, if she's too busy eating to care...

Saturday, November 25, 2010:

I found my Spoony spoon, which had been missing since the day before Joel left for Hawai'i! Apparently, though Andrew had gotten some spoons from his room, he found this one in a place so secret even he didn't know about it! YAY! I HAVE MAH SPOON BACK!!!

Also, it's THANKSGIVING! The real Thanksgiving, too! Our neighbors Sarah and Barb gave us a nearly-complete Thanksgiving meal because they had to make other plans at someone else's house!
` The turkey was pre-cooked, but you'd never know by the way Lucas prepared it! Then me, Mike, Joel and the friend whose car Joel banged up, ate it!

Here's Rusty on the couch with Mike:

Lucas also whipped some cream for the pies we had -- cherry, razzleberry, chocolate and pumpkin -- here's Joel sampling it!

Hey, ring, ring, who's that on the DVD player?

It's called 'After Dinner Cat-Ertainment!'

In other Photo-News:

A birdeh flew through a rainbow!

Rusty improves his fetching skills:

Pretty hummingbird!

Wednesday, November 29, 2010:

Vada vomited a mouse in the hallway this morning, with blood coming out of it! Eeeeewwww!
` This was in our preparations to leave for the day; Lucas' eye is now bothering him so much that he had to go to the doctor. Since he has passenger anxiety, he had to drive me to school, wearing a paper eye patch, which I made from a piece of paper in the glovebox.
` I called him after school at eleven in the morning and he said he was at the eye clinic and that Landlord Steve was coming over to pick me up. Awfully nice of him! Lucas had called Troy first, but Troy said he was 'too tired'.

The eye doctor told Lucas he should have come in earlier -- he has delayed-onset iris inflammation, simply called iritis, which can cause blindness. We drove all the way from Everett to Mukilteo to pick up his medication and waited there for half an hour in a lobby with automatic doors being tripped every few seconds -- it was freezing in there!
` By the end of that, Lucas was writhing in pain because the eye painkiller had worn off, and they told him that they didn't have his medication!

Lucas was pissed, to put it mildly. So, I drove 15 minutes all the way back to where Lucas' eye clinic was, up to the driveway of the nearby pharmacy, when Lucas told me to turn around and drive to the other side of the next block and park in the parking garage. I asked him why, and he said it was so that we could see where the pharmacy was.
` I pointed to the procession of cars by the building and told him it was the line for the drive-through pharmacy, but I guess he couldn't see it and impatiently told me to go on to the parking garage. Since he was so angry and in pain, I did what he said.
` When we got out of the car and looked back at where we had driven from, Lucas finally saw the pharmacy and said, "Why didn't you tell me the pharmacy was right there?" So, we got back in the car and drove back over, waited in line at the drive-up window... and they wouldn't give us the medication because they didn't have the insurance information!
` So, I parked the car and we got out -- only Lucas, who was now unable to uncover both of his eyes because they were both so light-sensitive, was going in the wrong direction toward the door! Once I led him inside, he was on the phone for quite some time, and then after that, they still wouldn't give us the medication because the LNI claim hadn't gone through yet!
` What? But it had paid for the doctor's visit! Ah, but the pharmacy posts its bills online, which means they must be paid instantly. Which meant we had to pay $120, except we only had $40 in our bank account, and if Lucas didn't get this medication ASAP, he would start going blind!

Luckily, we had some money to pull out of our asses. However, the one medication, which was supposed to prevent the eye damage from getting worse, wasn't approved or something, so they had to switch to another generic brand, and he also had to persuade the doctor to prescribe him pain medication because by now he was writhing in even more pain.
` By then, it was already two in the afternoon -- three hours had gone by! This is what Lucas' eye had looked like by then:

With that, Lucas can't work for at least a few days, and instead of going into his 'big overtime break', he's getting partial payment for normal hours!
` At least it's not as bad for me, as his truck is broken and if he'd have to drive to work, he'd need to take my car, so I'd have to ride the bus to school -- not a fun extra three hours added to my day!


Well, that's it for November -- my next entry will be for December! But before I go, here's one last photo for this post -- it's Vada tolerating Rusty!

There are plenty of more, even better photos, but instead of bogging down your internet browser, I keep them here on Flickr -- here's my October photos and my November photos!