2003-08-05 – Bitchypoo

here.

* * * I think we’re going to change Miz Poo’s name to Miz Money Pit. When I got back on Sunday, I noticed that her eyes seemed to be bothering her. She was squinting, and also leaking tears pretty regularly. So yesterday I called and made an appointment for Fred to take her to the vet. Fred has to take her to the vet, because when they suggest anything and give me the look like I’d be a horrible person if I didn’t opt for the optional whatever, I cave. Fred does not, and thus we spend less money when Fred takes the cats to the vet, so it’s his job. And as a bonus, they mentally link The Daddy to those horrible trips to the vet and not The Mommy! Anyway, I made a 4:00 appointment for Miz Poo. Fred got home, stuffed her in the carrier box (she makes the saddest little whimper as she’s going into the box), and left. Fifteen minutes later, Fred walked back into the house with a tube of medicine. Miz Poo hopped out of the carrier box and ran around howling loudly, telling us of her woes. When I asked Fred what the vet had said, he told me that the vet was on vacation, so a vet tech checked Miz Poo. This irks me a great deal, because if I’d known that the vet wasn’t there, I would have made an appointment with the backup vet. Miz Poo didn’t need her eyes just glanced at – she needed to have a fluorescein stain done (they put drops in her eyes, turn out the lights, and shine a black light in her eyes to check for corneal abrasions), and the medicine that the vet tech had put in her eyes just seemed to make it worse. Miz Poo had a hard time keeping her eyes open, the insides of her eyelids (do cats have eyelids? Well, you know what I mean, anyway) were swollen and pink, and she just really wasn’t acting like herself. At one point, she sat at the bottom of the stairs and meowed in a way I’ve never heard her meow before. She wouldn’t be held and soothed, and finally she went outside and napped under the bird feeders. She was pretty subdued last night, sitting on Fred’s lap for a while and then mine, then back to his. When we were done watching The Sopranos , I slid the pillow she was sitting on from my lap to the couch, and she turned around and settled back down. She eventually came upstairs, and when I turned out the light she settled on her pillow next to me, rested her paw on my face, and slept for a while. I was just about asleep when she started grooming herself. How, I ask you, is it that such a small cat can shake the entire bed when licking her paw? How? I tried my best to ignore it and go to sleep, but it was too distracting and annoying, so I ended up picking her up and putting her on the floor. I know. Mean. This morning she was still squinty, so I made an appointment with her old vet to drop her off for the day. Just before I went upstairs to take a shower, Fred – who was just leaving for work – took her to the window to show that there was an interloper in the yard.

She ran out after the squirrel (we both noticed that she wasn’t running at him as fast as usual), and I went upstairs to shower. When I was out of the shower and ready to go, I looked out the window and saw that she was still sitting and looking up into the tree where the squirrel had run. I brought the carrier box downstairs, opened it and set it by the back door, and then walked out onto the patio. When I called her name, Miz Poo, came running toward me, chirruping happily. I picked her up and she settled on my shoulder, happily purring, chirping, and rubbing her head against my hair. We stayed like that for a few minutes, and then I stepped back inside. Miz Poo continued to purr until she was almost in the box, and then she let out a sad whimper. I am so going to hell. I dropped her off at the vet, gave them the tube of what the vet tech at the other office had put in her eyes (and the lady at the front desk said “Well, this is hydrocortisone based. If she’s got corneal abrasions, this will just irritate her eyes, and she’ll need a different medicine.”), and came home. About an hour later, Fred surprised me with a call telling me to go pick her up, that they were done with her. She did, in fact, have corneal abrasions on both eyes, and they vet showed them to me under the black light. I swear that cat is going to be blind before she’s 10. Since we got home, she has been fairly clingy and talkative, wanting to be picked up and loved and wanting to never be put down. Which made it difficult to haul 88 boxes of books (38 in each box!) into the library without running her over. We managed, though – because how much would it suck if I just spent $150 to fix her this morning, and then she died in a freakish book avalanche? * * * This is the part of the entry we call “Pictures of what Robyn Bought in Maine!”:

I bought some stuff at Bath and Body Works, because there’s a store everywhere you turn. I’m limiting myself to sample sizes, because if I buy a full-sized bottle, I get tired of the scent before I’m halfway through it. Except for the bottle of honey-almond shower gel, which was 50% off, so I couldn’t resist. A girl can only be so strong, y’know.

At the Big Dogs store in Freeport, I discovered this insulated mug. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it’s HUGE – it holds 44 oz, so I don’t have to fill it up as often. I had to go out and buy tall straws, though, because the regular ones were getting lost in it.

There’s a Hallmark store in Brunswick (Cook’s Corner to be exact) that is just the best Hallmark store I’ve ever been in. They have the coolest stuff, and I actually dragged the kids back to the store the day after we’d already been all over it because I decided I’d wanted these chilis. They crack me up, with their goofy expressions. There are vegetables other than the chilis, but the chilis really spoke to me.

When I was in Filene’s with my mother, I happened upon a display of a collection of different breeds of The Dog: Artist Collection. (There’s a collector’s page here) I got one of the big ones for Mireya for her birthday, and grabbed this small one for me. It cracks me up with it’s huge head and tiny little body!

A magnet from the cool Hallmark store. I don’t know why the magnet pictures insisted on coming out so crappy.

“Life is too important to be taken seriously”, in case you can’t read that. I think that should be my tagline, actually. “Bitchypoo. Because life is too important to be taken seriously.” Has a ring to it, no?

I love this one, ’cause it’s SO true in our house!

A Maine hat. I know I bought one last year, but it doesn’t fit that well, and this one was on sale for $5. Whee!

Love this cute little planter! Another buy from the cool Hallmark store. Now I just need to find a plant to put in it. And since all of my plants are too big, I either need to root some cuttings, or buy another plant.

This sticker cracks me up. It was designed and distributed by Jeff Pert of Entertain Ya Mania. I love his stuff, and in fact own many stickers and postcards of his. On my bulletin board over my desk, I have this sticker and this one, and I know I have more somewhere.

I got this t-shirt from Cool as a Moose in Freeport, and it’s an EYM design as well. Plus, yellow. How could you go wrong? There’s also a Dances with Woofs design (I bought the magnet for my parents’ fridge).