Baby steps

One day at a time. Last night was ok; we got him home, got him to eat and interact in spite of the cath strapped to his leg, and he even drank from his bowl like a normal animal later in the night. Lately if he drank at all, it'd be to dip his paw in and lick the water off it. Cute, but doesn't exactly get the job done.

One cool thing is the vet's folks eased up on the diet, because he's so damn thin. The assistant suggested some canned chicken or something, anything to get him eating; so after he got home and acclimated last night, Les tried some of our Oscar Meyer sliced turkey and Jordan snatched it up happily. He ate in small portions all night of a couple of different foods, we got his night and morning meds into him, and he's back at the vet for a 2nd day of hydration therapy.

The good news is his blood work indicated he was only one point above normal in the renal failure field, so everything's still reversible. The bad news is we paid for x-rays that only reassured us of half his health. His heart, lungs, and chest cavity all look fine, but because he's running on like, zero body fat at present, the x-rays wouldn't contrast worth a crap in his abdominal area. (They wouldn't let me pay 1/2 price for them as a result, go figure!) But they did also identify a 2nd infection in his mouth, which certainly explains why his appetite and enjoyment of drinking went to the wayside, so they prescribed a 2nd antibiotic. So that means we could have dental work or an abdominal ultrasound down the road for him, but most important right now is getting him gaining weight and looking and feeling healthy again. I'm still worrying, but definitely feeling a bit more in control of the situation.

Otherwise, worked a couple rows of the kerchief (and stuck with the pattern without screw-ups...gotta give myself more credit), watched Kyle XY and most of 24 (love any scene with Ricky Schroder, but the Vice-President reminds me of our Current Occupant - thanks to Garrison Keillor for the term - so I tend to surf during Powers Boothe's scenes. It's either that or curse at the screen.)

My heart goes out to everyone in the Virginia Tech vicinity. My beliefs tend to veer from agnostic to atheistic when something as random and senseless as that tragedy occurs. There's just no point in trying to wrap your mind around it and make sense of it, so you have to push past it and go right to the healing. I have a real problem with a God who allows people to become misguided enough to strap bombs to their chests and go blow up cafes in the Middle East or to become despondent enough to take up weapons and let out his frustration on a classroom of his peers. This disbelief ventures into much tamer ground though too, with the same God who says that because I have decided to worship the earth as well as a higher being, that this belief condemns me to eternal damnation, but don't feel bad because you'll be in good company with the Buddhists and the Muslims, and the Shintos and the Sikhs, oh and even the Jews, because they don't believe in me in the proper way either. My TV surfing this past weekend took me to EWTN, where they were showing a movie on Saint Faustina. Not a bad flick, though I'm a sucker for subtitles. Point is I alternated between being jealous of the blind faith of the nuns and mystified by how such a deeply loving and venerated calling could also be so narrow minded. How can you base your faith on the teachings found in just one book, when there are so many other books out there offering so many other interesting theories? I want that level of faith, but I'll do it with my eyes wide open, thank you. It just feels like the Christian God was resting on the 7th day, decided to give us free will, and then woke up on the 8th day thinking, oh crap, do over!