Quiet Day

 First things first. Houdi did come out of hiding last night after I went to bed. I was laying in bed, unable to sleep. I felt pretty badly. I mean, if he was suffering, I had no way of knowing and the thought of that was hard to take. 

After trying not to toss and turn and keep Tim up, I finally got the bright idea to come out and check the patient portal to see if the results of Tim's blood test were in, so I slipped out of bed and headed to the office. I turned on the light to get his medical information out of the filing cabinet and got the shock of my life. Houdi was curled up against the wall under a chair that I use to hold a large plant. 

I dropped to the floor and reached under to pet him, and encouragingly, he began to purr. I picked him up and he did not resist, so I came out to the couch and curled up with him. He slept on my lap all night and I watched trash television and dozed. It was such a relief to know that he was not in horrible pain tucked away in some hidden place. 

This morning he went down to use his litter box. He's still unsteady, but he asked for and got breakfast and I was so relieved that he got the whole can of catfood. He ate and returned to his bowl throughout the day. I'd like to be able to say that we are out of the woods on this, but we aren't. 

If this is antifreeze poisoning, this is the way it goes. They are sick on day one, improve on day two, and go into kidney failure on the third day.

 I realized that he was sick at bedtime Tuesday, and then he disappeared for nearly all of Wednesday. I couldn't find him to take him to the vet, but realistically, it would have been too late anyway. By the time that they are showing symptoms, there is a just small chance of saving them. 

He came out sometime after we went to bed Wednesday. He's not well now, but he's much improved. That also fits in with the antifreeze poisoning. They improve, and there is that false sense of relief.  

A predictable path. 

The best case scenario is that this is not antifreeze. That he got into something and is getting better. We will know by tomorrow. I can promise you though that if this is the worst thing, we'll take him to the vet to be euthanized if we see that he is suffering, and it makes me cry to type it. 

If it sounds like I consider myself an expert on this, well, actually, I do. We dealt with this when we lived in Baltimore Maryland 35 years ago. His name was Homer and he was a huge, old scarred street cat. We adopted him, and he was a lovey, but like most strays, he was not content to spend 100% of his day inside.  Our vet was kind, but he gave it to us straight. 

So, today was a quiet day for me. I spent the day inside loving on a cat. He can't get on the couch by himself, but he is walking around the house. He is going up and downstairs. He is eating and drinking and using his litterbox. 

Inspired by Ms. Moon, I spent some time in the kitchen and put together a chicken pot pie for supper. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple hours in the morning, chopping up the onion, celery, and carrots and the chicken, sauteeing it, seasoning it just right and then simmering it to make a good broth. It cooled while I did the dough. 

Tim is thrilled to death that I've set my new cookbook aside. All the new flavors and new dishes. He's rarely a fan. He tries to be, I'll give him credit. 

This week, he's been treated to regular  porkchops browned in butter and rosemary and then baked in the oven at a low temp. Venison chops with peppers and onions and simmered on the stove top until they are tender in a wonderful gravy. Barbecued chicken. Every meal with his favorite side dish in all the world: mashed potatoes. 

He was filled with praise for that pot pie tonight. He's a plain man with plain tastes and this is what makes him happy: the food he already knows. 

He hunted today, and did not see hide nor hair of his 10 point. Whe he got home tonight, he got the sad report from my brother-in-law. He was walking with his grandson and found it dead. It looked to have been hit by a car and managed to get itself down into the swamp and died. 

The circle of life. 

I've checked a couple times today and his blood tests results are not posted yet. That means we'll probably won't know the results until Monday at the earliest Just realized it is Thursday, not Friday! Maybe tomorrow!

We talked quietly and kindly to each other and to our sick cat, and wait to see what happens next. 

We went to William's winter concert tonight. He was very excited about it and one of the pieces they were doing. 

I can see why. 

It made for a nice evening out, barbarians and all.