Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I will rave, and I will ramble


I'll do everything but make you stay...

I have loved this song from the first moment I heard it. It is ethereal, it is a thing of transcendent beauty. Enjoy

The Waterboys

Friday, August 20, 2010

Goodnight sweetheart


The tough assed kitty breathed her last on Wednesday. As reported last week, Maggie was a terminal case, but she'd bounced back so many times. This time it was just a little too much to ask her to come back again, and it was time to let her go with a little dignity.
You really knew it was over when we got to the vets office and opened her crate (which like any good cat, she hated), and she didn't even bother coming out of it. The fight was well and truly gone from her. She did have a couple of strolls around the vets office, but no happy leaps from surface to surface, just unsettled anxiety from being somewhere she really didn't want to be.
When the time came, she made a couple of her trademark meows as the injection was given, and then she was gone. As she laid there, I was struck by just how lovely she really was. Her fur was so soft, and just beautiful. I feel horrible for Debbie, who has had to say goodbye to several of her furry friends so close together.
Maggie was a talkative sort, whose varied utterings actually sounded like she was discussing things with you sometimes. I know I had more than one conversation with her.

It is going to be a lot quieter in Ms.B's office, without her feline visitor there to give an opinion, or take a short stroll across the keyboard at a crucial moment, ensuring that the e-mail says "%Um)gaLIHWBySu" instead of, "I'd like to paint the shutters green"

Goodnight peanut. Love ya.

Through a glass, darkly


Scattered thoughts on the general condition, through the lens of being awake at 3:30 in the morning. It ain't pretty, folks.

Beautiful loser: Heard this song the other day, and it got me to thinking- Is it ok for someone to think of themselves as one, or is that a trifle narcissistic? Is it a label that can only be assigned by a second or thrid party. And if that's the case, isn't it a little nasty to refer to someone you know well enough to call a friend as a "loser"? Perhaps it's mutually exclusive, and you lose the "beautiful" part, by being aware of the "loser" part? Or maybe you're not such a loser, if you realize the grace and dignity involved in the "beautiful" part? This is what laying in bed being overly analytical will get you, by the way.

Letting go: Why is it so hard? Rationally, I think 99.3% (a scientifically made up number, I actually pulled directly from my ass to this webpage) of people know when it is time to let go of things, or perhaps maybe they know when it is futile not to, yet it never really seems to make it easier, does it? I suppose that's what mourning and feelings of regret and loss are all about-an inability, or unwillingness to let go. Boy that was deep. Watch out Freud, I'm gunning for you.

Satisfaction: The time honored question remains. Why can't I get no? If someone had told me at 16 that the refrain from what in my mind is the greatest R'n'R single of them all would ring true to me at 48, I'd probably have answered "well what's the fucking use then?" Oh well, I try, and I try...and I can't get no

Friday, August 13, 2010

Tough ass kitty


Sometimes, like me you think you've had a bad day. Then you find out yours isn't so awful.
Hang in their Mags-It IS Friday!

Made a trip last night, ostensibly to send this fine piece of feline creation to her final resting place. Only she didn't want to go just yet. Maggie has a few tumors, and has had surgery to remove it once, but ultimately what ails her is fatal. Last night, after shopping at Target, her owner and I returned to be greeted by blood all over the place. Vessels in her nose had erupted from the pressure of the tumor, leading her to spray blood every time she sneezed...which was often, because her nose kept filling up with blood.

After some deliberation, it was decided to take that long last car ride, to say the final goodbye. But Mags is a bit tougher than that. By the time we'd arrived at the clinic, she was full of vim and vigor, playing with the vet, jumping from the counter to the floor and vice versa...soooo-she was given some nasal spray to get the bleeding to stop, the vet said it was likely down to a week or two before she would start to actually suffer, but right now, she was probably good to go.

Maggie rocks, and truly does have nine lives. The thought that it was all a con in order to get an extra can of salmon and some Fro-yo hasn't escaped me.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Old dogs, new friends


OK, so on Saturday Miss Butts and I loaded off to the Columbia area to pick up the rescue's latest and greatest. And I do have to say she is something else.
Karli is what is known as a "whitely"-namely, her fur forgot to turn red, or black, or fawn, and just stayed white. So, you have a snow coloured corgi, which takes a few minutes to get used to if you're familiar with the breed, though she certainly draws comments about how pretty she is and so on.

Anyway, Karli has a whole heapin' helpin' of health problems as it turns out. She has mammary tumors, bad hips, she was loaded with ticks (thank you Ms.Moore for disposing of those) and she also has the single worse case of death breath I've ever encountered. The dog's teeth are absolutely rotting in her head, and as a result, her breath can melt glass from forty paces. My boy Vinnie has a bit of a pooh eating problem, and frankly in comparison to hers, his breath is that of a fresh spring breeze. Oh, and she has a urinary tract infection too...

Enough of what is WRONG with her. It has to be said, she is gorgeous. She is gentle, she's house trained, and she likes to stick close to people. Her first night here she stayed in her crate, but after seeing how well she seemed to be housetrained, I figured a little gamble with letting her sleep in my room wouldn't be too bad. And it wasn't, though she gave me a scare this morning, as I couldn't find her. Turned out she'd nosed her way into my closet, and sacked out in the back on the old shoes.

Oh one other thing-she isn't going to be bullied. Vinnie tried her on, and she bared all six teeth, and let him know that she'd gum his butt if he pushed his luck!

And on a mildly related side note. If you're ever in Columbia Missouri, and you're looking for a place to grab lunch and have a beer, you could do a lot worse than the Flat Branch micro-brewery. Though you should also note that they do expect you to put money in the parking meters, even on a Saturday, damn it!

Oh, and not that I'm begging (or even, not that I'm not begging. I ate my pride quite some time ago, on a toasted wheat roll, with just a dab of peanut butter), but Pet's Second Chance does accept donations. She's going to cost a small fortune to fix up. Everything from a dollar up is appreciated. :-)

http://www.petssecondchance.org/donate.html

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Bitterness Rising


Unfit to live in - just about fit to burst
Like the banks of a swollen river
As bitterness does its worst
Working on your feelings - eating you all up
But you have to shake that shit to move on
And let love carry you on up

It's just bitterness rising - taking you off
Bitterness rising - you gotta shake those feelings off


My once stated goal to be the world's most bitter man may yet still be attainable...

Oh well, a nice wallow in the unfairness of life, the universe and everything is pretty much a normal occurrence in everyone's life, and it's my turn.

I think I'm gonna go eat some worms :-)