When I found out on Thursday night that Pennsylvania was out of the question for this weekend and I’d have to forfeit Helma’s home cooking, I shamelessly played the orphan card and got myself invited to dinner today to enjoy the company of others over food. Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays simply because it does not involve gifts, only people and food, two of the best things in life. It seemed rather sad to be only working and eating in the company of my cat this weekend. No offense, Xena, but we don’t eat the same food!
Xena, looking angelic
Now it’s midnight and I’m in a food coma from all of us completely overeating (we went overboard with the desserts!), but I feel much better about having to work through the rest of the weekend with the thought that at least I had one home-cooked dinner and it wasn’t alone. Most of time being alone doesn’t bother me, but for some reason Thanksgiving is one of those weekends when it does.
Over the past four weeks, the House of Fielding has been transitioning from a one cat-staff, one-cat household to a two cat-staff, two-cat household. Xena hasn’t been happy about it and neither has her nemesis, Professor. She’s hissed so much at him I think the only thing stopping her from hissing even more is that her (mostly toothless) mouth goes dry.
Professor, aka Mr. Kitty
It probably doesn’t help that Professor is twice Xena’s size while half her age.
so not impressed
Despite all the highly vocal protesting from both cats, they’re curious about each other (natch, they’re cats after all) and day-by-day I observe a little less feigned hostility and more curiosity. Maybe one day I’ll come home to find them snuggled together as if they were friends for life, but until then they’re more like The Odd Couple.
I followed you into the bathroom, because you're not listening to me!!!
I’ve been working a lot lately out of the house, inciting cries of protest from the other official house member, who is not used to being alone (RIP Beano). Notice her teeth are bared — the only ones she has left (two on the bottom, three on the side). Xena’s pretty toothy for a nearly-toothless cat. I think she’s trying to tell me something.
As I was compiling a list of my annual pilgrimages south to fly for David’s birthday on May 30, it struck me how fortunate I’ve been over the years at getting myself up in the air six years in a row. Since scattering David’s ashes on May 30, 2006 (a major feat* in itself after all that happened on that trip), there’s been all sorts of weather challenges — from stormy skies to major haze to high winds. But every year I still manage to do it, and I’ll keep doing it until I face some real inclement weather. So far I’ve been lucky it hasn’t been bad enough to call off a trip yet.
The video above was from my flight with Alan two years ago, when the winds picked up so fiercely we braced ourselves for a bumpy landing. Here’s what I wrote in Flickr in the description:
Sunday, May 31, 2009
It wasn’t windy when we left Cherry Ridge Airport, but after returning from a stop at Mount Pocono Municipal Airport the winds picked up tremendously and we were landing in a crosswind. (Look at the windsock with 11 seconds to go.)
Our first attempt at landing turned into a touch-and-go and this was the second attempt. If this was a couple of years ago, Alan wouldn’t have attempted it, but he’s come a long way as a pilot and I had every confidence in him that we’d land safely. David would’ve been so pleased! (They flew a lot together in Civil Air Patrol.)
When we taxied by the airport, there was a line of pilots cheering — it was pretty funny. Rick said the people in the airport gave Alan a standing ovation.
I have yet to upload the rest of the flying photos from a week ago with Tyler as PIC (pilot in command), but it’ll have to wait until I get back. For now I’ll leave you with a video I shot three years ago on David’s birthday of his Snoopy the Aviator music box from his baby days. Aww, Beano’s in this one, too (and Xena’s in the back).
* the car broke down less than half an hour outside of Toronto, then I had to tow it, get a rental car, continue to Allentown to pick up the ashes, back to Scranton, and got a call at 7am from the museum when they found a pilot to fly from Connecticut, round up everyone and drive the 2.5 hours to Rhinebeck, NY in stifling humidity.
… just like the Nelly song. It was 24 (C) degrees at 9 o’clock this morning when I was running the vacuum and already way too hot to be cleaning the house.
If you’ve been on a commercial flight, this will sound very familiar. But if you’re a cat, which would you choose?
I put these in front of Xena so I could find out, and she gobbled both up so fast I have no idea if she had a preference at all. Which is a good thing, because now that I know she likes the samples, I can ask the vet to compound either (or maybe even both flavours) with her heart medication so she doesn’t run the risk of dying of a heart attack from me ambushing her in full sleep while trying to medicate her the hard way — with a syringe full of (apparently) vile substances which she hates with the fire of a thousand suns.
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All the tolerance Xena has shown towards the heart medication has eroded completely, leaving me with a cat that tries to run away merely at the sight of me walking towards her. My plan for Easter weekend is to leave her with friends, which meant I had to deal with this meds issue before it got worse. These days I wait for her to fall asleep, begin snoring, fill the syringe to the 0.5ml line, then tiptoe across the hardwood floor. If you know cats, they could be snoring with one ear cocked, listening, at the same time. That would be Xena.
But now that the heart meds are ordered to taste like salmon and chicken, she will hopefully be drooling for her daily dose. We shall see…
Poor Xena. She must’ve known what she was in for today because it took me about 20 minutes to catch her this morning. I’m still surrounded by furniture, which leaves Xena plenty of hiding places to escape from me and my arsenal of horrible medical stuff (heart meds and antibiotics) that must taste awful to a cat.
The vet pulled one rotten tooth out last Wednesday, and another SIX today, which leaves her with a grand total of FIVE teeth left: the two bottom canines, and three on one side at the bottom.
Needless to say, Xena was VERY HAPPY to be on her way home in the evening. I requested her new antibiotics in capsule form rather than liquid because I think she hates the liquid too much. Twice a day, too, it was torture — for her and for me. All I had to do was look Xena’s way and she’d take off, running away from the meds.
I tried to take a photo with her mouth open but she was far too hyper, as always. The closest I got to an open-mouth photo is the photo you see above.
Anyhow, this should be the last trip to the vet for a long while (we hope!).
Hard to say. This is how things looked as of Thursday:
This is how things look currently:
They didn’t come by today (Monday), we’ll see if there’s any work being done Tuesday. Xena’s due back at the vet in the early morning, so there will be two grumpy creatures here.
I picked up Beano’s ashes yesterday morning at the vet after taking Xena in for her follow-up heart check. It was probably the worst day to do it — spring turned to winter all of a sudden. The vet congratulated me on making it in! But snow wasn’t the only delay, Xena found hard-to-reach furniture to hide under when she saw the carrier. She absolutely HATES the oral heart medication, the poor thing now gets skittish whenever I reach for her. I’m still working out the best technique for giving it to Xena because she shakes her head when I try and squirt it in her mouth, even when I have a firm grip on the scruff of her neck.
The purpose of this vet visit was to check her heart since I’ve been giving her heart meds, before they do dental work. The doc took Xena into another room and unexpectedly returned with a tooth (I should’ve taken a picture of it) that was ready to fall out and prescribed antibiotics for it. Her next trip back is Tuesday — the other vet wants to check her heart again after some time on the antibiotics. Since she already hates the heart meds, I didn’t need to wonder how she’d handle the liquid antibiotics…
Needless to say, when all was done Xena was making a beeline for the carrier!
I got a surprise when I returned from the vet and discovered that Beano’s urn is screwed together at the bottom. At least with Hugh’s ashes, some of which I had scattered over Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome to join David, I was able to open the top and put some in another bag. But to take out some of Beano’s ashes I’ll have to get a screwdriver. I’m in no rush, though. I might scatter Beano’s ashes in the summer, or maybe Arliin’s birthday in October.
Just booked a floatplane joyride tomorrow morning (10:00), departing Billy Bishop Airport. You still have time to get in on the flight! #fb10 hours ago
Calling all #aviation buffs! Booking scenic ride in floatplane tomorrow am out of YTZ, takes up to 3 pax & need 2. DM me if interested! #fb13 hours ago
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