I didn’t take a single photo this week with my new camera! But I will get lots of photo-worthy opps at John C. Campbell Folk School the last week of October. I haven’t been there in the fall before, so add another reason I am thrilled to be going there again. Some of my best photos have been taken at JCCFS.
In fact, I don’t have a lot to report about my week about me. I went to the dentist and had my tiny cavity filled, and I still have the same pain so that told me that my teeth grinding has got to have a lot to do with it. The over-the-counter mouth guard I bought is quite uncomfortable and I can’t afford a custom-made one.
Because I’m going to be spending a buttload of money on Guido’s teeth, I’m afraid. I took him to the vet for the first time in years yesterday. I dread taking Guido to the vet because he gets so freaked out even when you pick him up. He cried so loud on the way there you would have been convinced that he was being tortured to death. He actually hurt my ears. At least he didn’t pee all over the cat carrier, and he was pretty well-behaved once we got there.
I already knew that there would probably be dental issues, but the main reason I took him was fleas and a rabies shot. He throws up a lot, but this is nothing new. I had him checked out before for throwing up and they couldn’t find anything wrong then. Sandy and I figured that it was that he gulped his food down too fast. This time I was able to get a good look at his teeth, something I hadn’t been able to accomplish at home.
Whew. Poor baby. He has a mouth full of rotten teeth, and one abcessed one. So I have to give him antibiotics for a couple of weeks, and then Dr. Hunt will probably pull a bunch of them. Guido is difficult to medicate, to say the least. I won’t be here during the second week, and Sandy will have to manage it by himself. I haven’t mentioned this to him yet.
I knew when we adopted all these cats around the same age that the vet bills would begin to be significant around now. Miss Jazz has already been through it, but she does fine with the few teeth she has left and I’m sure that she feels much better.
Guido weighs 13 pounds. Lucy is much bigger than he is. She is the other one that hasn’t seen a vet in four years, when Sandy first found her as a kitten in a parking lot. I don’t know why Lucy is so huge. She doesn’t eat more than the others. If Guido weighs 13 lbs, then I’ll bet that Lucy weighs 17-18 lbs.
Here’s some other bad cat news – Miss Peanut hasn’t shown up for the past five meals. I may have seen her out of the corner of my eye yesterday, but Guido was distracting me with his yowling and it could have been another neighborhood cat or a squirrel. It’s possible that someone else on the street is feeding her, because she hasn’t been very interested in eating lately. Or the other possibility is that she is holed up sick somewhere, possibly dead. I might run by the animal shelter later today, but I doubt that she would go into a trap. She would get euthanized very quickly since she is feral and old and one-eyed. It might be the best thing, I don’t know.
As far as the weekend goes, I’m looking forward to doing some more garden clean-up. A cold front came through last night and although we still won’t get a frost, it might be chilly enough to keep the skeeters at bay. With West Nile virus close by, I definitely don’t want to get sick at all, especially before my trip. I can’t believe that the only diagnosed case in the whole state was someone I knew living about a mile from my house.
Tomorrow will be fun. Susanne is going to help me cook the dried artichoke stalks and flowers that I’ve gathered and she is going to beat the pulp in a very expensive Hollander beater, which is a tool I won’t be able to afford unless I win the lottery! She is a master papermaker, though, and does large commissions. Right now she is working on a large order that includes buffalo hair and sage for a Lakota customer. I’ve been separating the seeds from the fluff in the heads, so I will have lots of violetto artichoke seeds to give away. They’re large, beautiful plants and attract bees like crazy. Leave me a comment and I’ll email you for your address if you’re interested.
Then Sandy and I will go to the pottery festival at the curb market, most likely, but it’s hard to go to these things when you don’t have any money to spend! I love it, though, and maybe I’ll limit myself to buying one tumbler. I love the ones that I have, and I never got to the point that I could throw a tall form on the wheel. I did several tall slab forms, but they were too slim to wash easily and were really vases or art objects.
Okay, I have to go back to the vet and get the second bottle of antibiotics I left behind yesterday. I’m such a ditz. First I have to give Guido his medicine. Pray for me.
slowly she turned 