Tag: dogs

A Tight Five

Correction from previous post: I am still writing. About 10k words so far. I don’t think anyone will ever read it, but I’m having fun and that’s the important thing.

So every night before I go to bed I put the dog in her crate and then I do a little monologue about the day we had and how good she was and what the plan for the next day will be. It always ends with me telling her goodnight and that I love her. It’s always ridiculous and sometimes I feel a little self-conscious summarizing the day out loud to a dog (and two cats, who are usually in the kitchen having snacks about this time of day), but over the past five years it’s been about the only daily habit I have (I cannot be depended on to remember to take my meds, brush my teeth, or eat).

I think it really started because after esso died, with the lockdown and weirdness and working from home it was hard to keep track of what day of the week it was, so telling her what happened during the day an what was on track for the next was useful for me.

I still have about a dozen reminders that pop up on my phone and remind me when it’s time to take out the trash or the recycling, or pay bills, or other important things.

Cat in a Cone

Boycat had all of his teeth extracted on Wednesday and is wandering the house in a cone. He’s miserable and angry and pissed off at me, but he’s managing to eat and drink and use the litterbox. I haven’t given him any painkillers since I can’t tell if he’s still doing ok from the post-surgery ones or not. He’s really angry with me, which means I can pet him and hold him but he refuses to make eye contact or purr (except a little, grudging purr). He’s “hiding” but he’s not HIDING. I know he’s not comfortable, but he keeps trying to do his normal things and I’m taking that as a positive.

Girlcat still hisses and growls when she sees him, but that’s not even that unusual. The dog keeps trying to get close to him for a snuggle and that’s a little overwhelming for him, which sends him back into “hiding”.

Right now “hiding” is “under the dining room table” and “behind the bathtub” which is good because both are secure (the dining room table is in a corner so two sides are blocked by walls and the tub is a cast-iron clawfoot so it sits away from the wall but gives him a nice alley to hide in. He can go in and out from either end and turn around in the tight space.). I was worried about this yesterday, but then I watched him hop the gate between the dining room and the kitchen and now I know he’s taking things at his own speed and is doing ok. Boycat has trouble clearing the gate on his best days, so if he’s clearing it with no problem now, he’s going to be OK.

I’m tired of doing everything on hard mode though. My surgery was only about three weeks ago and things still hurt unexpectedly. I went back to work too soon, started driving too soon, been carrying heavy things too soon. Dog had to go to the vet days after I got home from my hospital stay, then I had to get boycat’s teeth taken care of because that couldn’t delay.

The neat thing about cats is his face bones look spongy right now because of the infections and tooth resorption but now that the teeth are gone and the infection is being treated, apparently the bones will repair themselves. I know bones heal, but you never think about spongy ones fixing back up.

The alarm has gone off and that means I have to go to work now. I like working from home. The commute is nice and the coffee is always good.