Highs and Lows

[maystone]

And you get to figure out which is which. Although I think they'll be pretty self-evident.

We did get all dressed up for our grand night on the town. darlong looked fabulous wearing black pants, black blouse, black blazer, and a deep red chokerish necklace with a bright red flower. It suited her and her coloring. I wish I could wear black without looking like a member of the undead.

Some of the people at Realtor Sue's shindig were also dressed up, but at the radio affair it was, I guess drab would be the word. Although they did serve crab dip, coconut shrimp, and spring rolls. Which was great for me and horrible for Dar since she doesn't eat anything that swims or crawls through water. Mark wasn't too thrilled with the selection, either, but he did like the spring rolls. As you may have read in Dar's LJ, we didn't win anything anywhere. We did go to Starbucks later and then to one of the largest liquor stores in the province. It was nice and all, but it couldn't hold a candle to the big warehouse liquor stores in the States. Crazy Bruce's in Bristol, CT! It's like a Wal-Mart filled with booze! I loved going there to stock up for the holidays.

While I didn't go to Crazy Bruce's while I was in the States, I did bring a little something extra home with me. Dar thinks that I came in contact with Whooping Cough while I was there; I was sick for a couple of days last week, but thanks to Dar's nursing skill it didn't progress any farther. It kicked off some bad asthma, though. I was barking like a harbor seal there for a few days. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around the fact that I have asthma, which fact makes Dar slightly nuts. But really, who thinks that they'll develop asthma? I'd always considered it something that you get in childhood, not something that blows up in middle age. Although after talking it out with Dar, it could be that I've had it for years and just didn't realize it. Thought it was smoker's cough or a cold or something.

We had a major "D'oh!" moment yesterday here on the farm. We looked outside and saw that where once there was a pond, we now had a contender for one of the Great Lakes; I mean we were beginning to worry about how we were going to make it out to the barn. We'd seen the pond overflow a couple of times already when we got heavy rain, but we figured that when Father of Tyler the Post Guy replaced the drainage tiles around the pond he screwed something up. Turns out to be entirely our own fault. Well, mostly our fault. Turns out that you're supposed to weed out all the drainage ditches around your property. It makes sense now, but honestly we didn't think anything of it until we saw that not only was our property flooding - the drainage ditch that the pond drains into was also flooded. Hence the water from the pond had nowhere to go. I took a look around the neighborhood and realized that we are the only ones who haven't cleared out their drainage areas. It's not all that obvious to us because what we can actually see from our place is the field next door (which shares our drainage ditch) and the big field across the street. To complicate things, the reason our ditch on the side is so hugely overgrown is because our neighbors seeded it with hay while they were seeding the field that adjoins our property. And then, of course, didn't harvest any of the hay from the ditch. So long story short (too late!), we have to get out there and start doing some harvesting of our own.

As promised, the temperature dropped long and hard last night; we woke up to ice and snow, although not a great deal of either. The wind was brutal, so much so that even the alpacas weren't venturing out. They don't mind the cold, but the really don't like the wind. Neither do I, for that matter. They're all snuggly warm in the barn, though, even with one of the doors open. You look out there from the house, and you'll always see one alpaca or another kushed in the doorway, getting some fresh air and checking out the neighborhood.

When I was out there this afternoon doing the dinner feed/pasture clean routine, Hannibal followed me out to the poop pile to a) satisfy his curiosity and b) leave a little something for me to add to my poop bucket. (Delilah is usually the main culprit. Nine times out of ten, as I'm cleaning up, she's standing right next to me peeing and pooping to beat the band; and I swear that she's grinning.) Anyway, Hannibal became fascinated with a pool of water that had iced over; he kept poking it with his nose, trying to lick at it, sliding his hoof over it. I love how goofy he is.

I wish all of our animal news was that cheery. Mokie has been going downhill; she's eating and drinking a lot, but she's vomiting it up and losing weight. We took her to the vet today - traumatic for all concerned - and it's not looking good. She has very elevated white cell counts, and the vet is pointing us toward it being leukemia or diabetes. It came on very rapidly, too; she compared the blood work taken today with the blood work done a few months ago when Mokie had that awful mouth abcess and the change is truly shocking. The vet (Piera, a wonderful vet, truly) wanted to send some blood out to a pathologist just to lock down a diagnosis; we should get the results Monday or Tuesday. We're not optimistic, and we're facing the fact that Mokie is going to have to be put to sleep. Euthanized. Put down. Choose your term. Poor girl has had such a rough life, and still she's so sweet and affectionate. (Unless you're another cat, of course. Then it's Mokiesaurus Rex time.) It's all very sad, and I can't help but think of cajoje and thewalnut and their experiences. When it's time, Piera will come here; at least Mokie won't have to make that scary ride back to the vet's again. At least there's that.

Comments

[gatezilla.livejournal.com]

Aw, Mays. I'm so sorry Mokie's not doing well. That sucks.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Gatechen. It does suck. She's had such a tough life that I was hoping that she would at least have an easy end, you know. Die gently in her sleep. I hate that she's this sick.

[gatezilla.livejournal.com]

I wish we could all go like that. She's had it tough, but she's also had you. I bet that's made up for a lot. :)

[wicked-goddess.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I am so sorry to hear about Mokie.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Thank you, honey.

[cajoje.livejournal.com]

Thaty so blows about Mokie. Casey loves her.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

It does blow! I keep thinking about you and your cat (Axe? Fat Boy?) and how you discovered that he was hanging on for you. And what it was like for you when you had to let him go.

Awww, Mokie's pretty fond of Casey, too.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

*hugs you and Mokie*

*coughs in synch with you* I assumed mine was just allergies for years. Then I realized that yes, allergies, but also asthma. Unless I've got the slowest lung cancer ever.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Do you use any inhalers? How are you keeping it under control? And yes, I'm checking up on you :)

Thanks, bud.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I pointedly ignore it until I have insurance. It's not too bad, otherwise I would have figured it our sooner.

[hawkmoth.livejournal.com]

Aww, Mays. sorry to hear about Mokie...it does sound like feleuk, which took our Sisko away 5 years ago.

My brother developed asthma in his 50s. Though in his case it might have been a result of the various sprays he was exposed to years earlier when he was a tree doctor. (And whooping cough has been popping up around the States, I read...)

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Your brother was a tree doctor? Cool. Except for the part where he damaged his lungs with all those sprays.

Dar figured I had whooping cough because she tracks all the epidemics and it was prevalent in NE while I was there. Nothing gets by her :)

Mokie might have feleuk, might have diabetes. Definitely has something major happening. Don't pets know that they're supposed to live forever?

And I'm relieved to hear that Tom has stabilized. Still sending the good wishes for a quick diagnosis and a speedy recovery. It'd be great if he was all up and well for the holidays, eh.

[caerwynx.livejournal.com]

*squish*

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Squishing is always helpful; thank you, my friend.

[malterre.livejournal.com]

You are quite the posty creature today!!!

I am sorry about Mokie but happy that you had extra time with her (remembering last year) I too, had adult onset asthma, and it can stress your body enough to make it do wackly things.

So sorry about the itchy skin!!!

Hannibal is a sweety. :)

Hope you feel better this weekend, it sounds like it all happened in spades.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

I was quite the postmeister, wasn't I? It isn't often that I have both the time to post and a good connection to the internet. As it was, by that last post it was taking about ten minutes just to connect.

I forgot that you had asthma on top of all your allergies. Yupper, it sets the body spinning, doesn't it.

Hannibal is a sweety-pie; Mokie is a sweet thing, too. We've been very lucky with our critters, I believe.

I'm not planning on doing much today. But then as the saying goes, "The best laid plans . . . " Heh.

[sffan.livejournal.com]

*hugs*