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My wife has confirmed it, another cat we were really concerned about, Kish, has jaundiced skin. Based on past experience with our others has meant she has few short days before the end. :,-(

In 2006 two of our cats, Valyn and Pixel, died from liver failure six months apart from each other. We hoped upon hope that just those two had gotten into something or that it was just coincidence that they both died of the same thing; thankfully at the time none of the others were showing any symptoms.

Well, our fears started to come real last week when Riamhaire (aka Reevara) came down with the same thing - she lost about 1/3rd of her weight very quickly, and all of a sudden became reclusive, lethargic and jaundiced. When we discovered her Liam (our 16-mo) had found her lying on the ground between two chairs where she was too tired to move from his rather forceful pets (aka thumps). It was very immediately clear she was in a very bad way and we ended up taking her to the vet and had her put down, so she didn’t suffer any more than she already was. We thanked her for the seven years she’d shared with us, told her that we loved her, and petted her while she took her last breaths and died.

Yesterday our fears grew as we realized we couldn’t deny it any longer, that it wasn’t just that he didn’t like the new food - another of our cats was coming down with the same disease. Apollo, who has only been with us just over two years, has been the most wonderful of cats. He showed up at our house and pretty much requested entry; amusingly I tried to chase him away with a broom against my wife’s wishes, but we took him in and he has been the absolutely adorable - friendly, gentle, very loving and very fond of people. Right now he’s at the vet’s where they’re trying to see if they can boost his system some, but honestly his days are very few at this point.

Furthermore at least one more of the cats has also been showing the symptoms too - Kish, who at this point is one of the only two cats still with us from New Hampshire, is also one of our favorites. She’s terribly shy so it has always been a treat when she’d come up to say hi. We’re going to take her in probably tonight though maybe tomorrow morning, but in the past week she has shown much of the same weight loss and lethargy.

So then we have three more - Keemah, who hasn’t shown any signs yet but who has had some other problems of his own, Meesha who is Kish’s sister and has definitely lost a lot of weight in the past year, and Alara aka Little Fuzzy but she’s such a puff-ball it’s difficult to tell if she’s lost weight or not. We’re going to have to take them all in to see, but I honestly don’t think we’re going to have many of them left by the end of the year. And its ripping us up.

Fuck.

I’ve never seen our 4yo so eager to tidy up than today when he, on his own, started tidying up because his cousin was coming to visit. We’ll keep that one in mind for the future!

Just a quick word to say that no, I’m not selling tickets for Menopause: The Musical, that if you get that service when you call my number to email me instead, I’ll respond with my current contact information. Thank you :-)

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A huge round of congratulations are due to my brother who just yesterday asked his girlfriend to stick around for a little while, permanently in fact.

Congrats PJ & Fiona!

A year today! What an amazing year. What a busy year. Where has it gone? Congrats on reaching the big 1.0, Liam, may you have an even better 2.0!

Just over a week ago we were searching around the garage sales near home and we found some gems - a two drawer filing cabinet for $5, a bike extension for $7 (it brackets to an adult’s bike turning it into a tandem), and a midi keyboard for $2. Well, the keyboard didn’t com with a power cord and the battery cover was missing so when we got it home I just left it aside to be dealt with another day. A few short hours later our four-year-old picked it up, placed it on the computer desk, unplugged the computer’s speakers, then plugged in the keyboard, turned it on and started jamming away, all on his own. So we’re a) going to learn the piano/keyboard together, b) give him an electronics book for his 5th birthday.

Meanwhile, our almost-1-year-old decided to start walking last weekend during his (almost impromptu) early birthday party, so lots of family members got to see him finally put it all together. While he had taken a few steps before, by the end of the night he was just walking all over the place.

It’s never dull in our house.