Well, Wow, It's Wednesday

So I've been absent for a few days, I'll just say the days were pretty rough through at least Sunday. They're getting better. It's been quite awhile since I've felt the gut-wrenching pain of loss, and maybe it's because I'm getting older, or maybe we just loved our kitty TOO much (is that possible?), but I'm sure a lot of it had to do with also having to see and hear my 13 year old baby go through his first real loss and it being his cat at that. We are better, but we still miss that little fur-ball something terrible.

It took me several days to get to the point of being able to clean up her litter area. I forgot to mention in Friday's post, that one of her troubles was bladder stones. We had them surgically removed Dec. 2009 & they re-formed by July '10 which caused the urinary problems. The ones removed in '09 were the size of my little finger nail, so not small and presumably painful. Needless to say, this problem along with the others made for quite a messy litter station because she'd step in whatever she did, it'd stick to her feet...you can guess the rest if you have animals. I was using those dog training pads but there were still areas where wet tracks were found. I also finally switched to a pellet type litter which helped...wish I'd thought of it a LOT sooner; kitty sand everywhere isn't fun.

I baked the clay paw print that the vet gave us on the day of her demise. The vet & staff are very compassionate.

We have also started looking for another kitten now to keep Raven company. We checked our local shelter yesterday, but alas, no kittens - only big cats and sorry, but I don't want to bring in an adult cat. Did you know that this isn't kitten season? March/April would be better. We even checked County-wide via their online site and not too many kittens. There were a couple posted and we'll drive up there today (about an hour away) after school, but there's no guarantee it'll still be there. Otherwise, we may be forced to hold off a couple months until babies are born/old enough to wean. I was also surprised at the cost of adopting from both the shelter and Petsmart. $90 and $120 respectively. But then, I guess that includes their first rounds of shots, etc. The shelter also microchips as a matter of course. I think looking is helping Nick as well. I told him he also needs to talk about Fanner to help work through his grief. So we have been able to do that at times...without blubbering!

Raven is quite the personable cat. She's grown a lot since the end of Nov. She has confidence in her running, jumping, leaping, pouncing and does them all too well, lol. She likes to jump onto my chair and then onto my shoulder where she'll drape herself or chew on my hair and try to re-pierce my ear. She's quite rambunctious and clearly looking like she may have Oriental Shorthair genetics. She's very affectionate too and purrs a lot. I need to try to capture on video, her fetching ability. I'll throw the pompom down the stairs while I sit at the top and she'll chase after it, pick it up, bring it back, set it down and lay down until I pick it up and throw it again...no, she really isn't a dog, but she does behave a bit like one including following me around constantly, except when she's getting her cat-naps.