StrangeRanger

What a Week.

It's been a moderately terrifying and full-on crazy week.  If you want to know why, keep reading past the cat pics.  

I did promise birthday pictures of Maddie, who turned 14 last Monday.  We got her some deli-turkey and Laughing Cow (tm) Brand Spreadable cheese.  Both were big hits.  We also bought her some fresh Catnip and a couple of new toys!  Here she is getting acquainted.

Why, hello, toy!

Please pardon the terrrible-ness of the pic.  Turn on the flash and my glorified point-and-shoot camera drops what little awesome it has.

Maddie enjoyed the new, unscuffed toy.  She killed it for quite a while, playing under the ceiling fan.

Lots of floof on the birthday girl.

One nice thing about the camera:  it does sometimes capture what I call the "crazy face":

We're delighted she likes her present.

It'll do.  You may stay.

This was just about the last non-crazy, non-scarey part of the week.  Tuesday I get a call at work from LadyRanger.  Turns out MomRanger has had a heart attack.  A wee, tiny one it seems.  BroRanger2 (being studly) takes her to the Emergency Room (almost typed emergency vet there).  We spend Wednesday going from "a wee, tiny heart attack, we'll check you out and probably send you home with meds" to the doc saying "triple bypass" to the surgeon saying "I'd like to do four".  !!  Mom and Dad agree to go ahead and get it done!  Now!  LadyRanger, BroRanger1 and I (after zipping into school to leave lesson plans) spend the day in the cardiac surgery waiting room, getting updates and calling Dad (who's mostly house-bound)(mostly).  The surgeon finally comes in and says he did five (5!!) bypasses and that Mom is fine, there's no damage to the heart from the attack and that the prognosis is pretty darn good.

We visited her about an hour and a half after the surgery.  She was responsive and gave me a wink.  Bro1 and I visited again about 4 hours after that.  She was off her breathing tube and looked like warm mud.  She's been back to her normal self the couple of times I've visited after.  She's out of ICU and in the cardiac rehab wing.  I took DadRanger down to visit.  It's odd seeing my parents do things that would be considered "cute".  Lunch was served and Mom cut her chicken-salad sandwich in half and they shared it.  Greater love hath no man that to help his wife eat hospital food.

Mom's prognosis continues (last I heard) to be good.  It'll be a long rising road back to normal, but I'm optimistic.

Maddie's been given something to think about.

They take humans to the emergency vet, too?!?  How Awful!  Get Better Soon MomRanger!

Fourteen and Fine

Monday is Maddie's fourteenth birthday!

'Appy Boifday to ME!!

We've had her for thirteen of those years.  Good, good years.  

    Her ancestors Molly Brown and  and Chief Tyee would be proud of her.

Maddie is the Grandkitty of Grand Champions!

Maddie has had active times

and lazy times

and even some unhappy times

Crumbs!  I don't remember having even remotely enough fun to get put into JAIL!

She even had to put up with, and eventually miss, her much older little sister, Ivy.

Mad Ninja Skillz!  I has them!                <sigh>  I *know* she's there.  I'm just being nice...     

There really were times Maddie was nice to Ivy.

Maddie has always been good to us, if not to the vet.  And she has always given me a reason to get out the camera and exercise my meagre photographic talents.

Good God.  That thing again?!?

Sometimes I get lucky, but really, with such a model it's a crime if I don't get a decent shot.

Maddie approaches her fourteenth birthday feeling better than she was last week.  The NSAIDs the doc gave her seem to have done her a solid.  She is still a bit wobbly at times, but she is doing much better and is handling the ups and downs of life, literally getting up on and down from the furniture, without too much trouble.  We've set up her old inclined scratching pads as ramps to the couch and papasan and she's learning to appreciate them and use them.  We've got to refill the last of them for use by the bed, but we're smart enough to handle that.  Thanks to those who've invoked higher powers on her behalf and to those who've taken time from their daily life to think of her.

There should be some deli turkey (sorry Tabbies!  Maddie favorite indulgence is BIRD!) and perhaps some Laughing Cow Brand Spreadable Cheese for tomorrow's celebration.  There might even be a toy in it for her.  There should also be some new photos for you all next week, if I prove a worthy companion to such a wonderful cat!

Old Legs

Hi all.  It's been a difficult week for the resident feline.  Maddie jumped out of the papasan chaier the other day and bottomed out upon landing, like Ivy used to do.  We think she injured her leg, because she was quite wobbly after.  Maddie was tumbling and toppling a bit when she did the kitty-turning-in-a-tight-circle thing or taking corners at any pace faster than a slow walk. 

Why are you telling people this?

Because they care about you, Miss.  Anyways, the next day we zipped her off to the vet.  

This is my *private* business, y'know....

Yes Maddie.  But inquiring minds want to know.  She was seen by one of our favorite doctors.  He examined both back legs and found nothing obviously amiss, which was a relief.  He prescribed a new NSAID to reduce any inflammation that might be the result of a)her luxating patella or b)arthritis.  The idea is that the infammation subsides and natural healing occurs.  Maddie also got her rabies booster.  This was, of course, accompanied by violent and vigorous protests from the cat in question.  Yowling, hissing *and* spitting.  We're pretty sure that folks in the waiting room (down the hall and though a closed door) were..disconcerted by the commotion.  And (!) the ruckus was caused by a cat who was on a tranquilizer.  We give it to her an hour before we go and she is still a furry boxing glove packed with razors.  In any event, there was no blood shed.

Oh, go hang.  I'd have done for him if it hadn't been for that terrible woman with the towel.

Maddie has been resting and recovering.  She seems to be more stable and has no fear of climbing up on the furniture and jumping down again.  She does sometimes use the boxes we've put out for her as steps.  We'll have to get a way cool set of professional steps like our friend Shaggy has.  

Maybe there'll be some steps for her birthday (on the 22nd)(shhhhhh!).

Are you done sharing my business?  I tell you, the next time you do something that's not boring, I'll blab it about the internet too!  Now come give me pats to make amends.

Pardon.  I've been summoned.  Have a good week.

Action!

Okay...it's blurry action, but it's action!

Regular readers of this blog (Hi Mom!) know that Maddie is a senior cat now.  She will be 14 later this month, in fact.  She has over the past several years gotten a bit more sedentary.  Her jumps are a bit less spectacular than they were in kittenhood.  She does still love a good play with one of her toys, though.  The blue nip-a-rang is still a fave (Thanks Mom!) as is the yellow catnip snake.  

This morning saw Maddie being more demanding than usual.  I don't know what it was, but she was quite vocal about having her needs met.  There were treats, food, water, rejection of proffered water, brief brushes and pats, and water from the sink and then a bit of quiet time ont he living room floor.  There were more strident demands for *more* morning brushies.  After morning brushies (accompanied by the appropriate amount of blood extracted from the brusher) she stalked over to the catnip snake and vented her wrath upon it.

One of these days I'll get a shinier camera and you can see the violence in HD perfection...'til then you have to put up with blurry action!

She does love that toy.

I'm hoping that, having taken her yayas out on the toy, it'll be safe for flesh and blood (specifically *my* flesh and blood) to give her pats her later on.  I'll let you know....film at eleven.

One non-cat photo...the Rose of Sharon (I think) by our front door gave me a little something to appreciate the other day.

I like this pic.  I also like the companion pic:  Still Life with Flower and Tow Truck

Life in our little Home on the Highway.  Gotta love it.