23 posts tagged “tasha”

I had the day off because I get to work tomorrow. Whoopee! So took Tasha for routine innoculations. She hated the trip. After all, Tasha's visits to the vet have generally been when she needed immediate attention and lots of needles, etc. Can't really blame her for her aversion to seeing Dr. B. She got through the visit just fine though crying more than usual on the trip out and back.

I'd been considering purchase of a Canon "L" series lens --their best quality-- for a while but they're just so darned expensive! I've noticed some shortcomings in the Tamron lens we bought for the Canon and, with some tax "rebate" money burning a hole in my pocket, decided to take the plunge and buy Canon's most reasonably priced "L" zoom telephoto, the f/4 70 - 200mm. To help offset the expense, I'm offering the Tamron lens for sale through Amazon.com. I hope that works out 'cause there are several other things I'd like to sell and somehow I trust Amazon more than eBay.

Finally, I canceled my EarthLink account today. I'd been with them since November 1999 from dial-up to DSL and back again (as we phased them out). AT&T's U-Verse service was just too reasonably priced to pass up and has been too good to quit! I actually feel a little sorry about leaving EarthLink but I guess that's competition for you. Bye-bye!

The weather's looking stormy overnight and tomorrow, possibly clearing up a bit Sunday. Again, I work Saturday so the weather doesn't matter too much to me! We'll see if we wind up cycling Sunday.

Have a good weekend!

I spoke with Dr. B. this morning regarding Tasha's Delicate Condition. He said the lab results of the culture from kitty's urine sample indicated a staph infection bothered her bladder. The particular bug implicated was sensitive to a wide range of antibiotics including the Clavamox prescribed for Tasha. The cat is obviously feeling ("feline" -- hee! hee!) better so we'll finish off the course of medicine at the end of this week as per doctor's orders.

Things have been fairly routine around here. Well, routine can mean different things to different people. Mostly it was the weekend when things were happening....

Tasha developed disturbing symptoms that appeared to be cystitis. Frequent urination, straining at the litter box, inappropriate urination, and restlessness/meowing all presented themselves. The symptoms had come and gone about a week earlier, but reoccurred with a vengeance late last week. So I took off early Friday and delivered one unhappy kitty to the vet; her symptoms had calmed so it was the trip to the vet that displeased her. Tests showed no crystals in her urine but there were signs of a bladder infection so poor Tasha got a penicillin injection and is receiving a week-long course of twice-a-day oral antibiotics to try and knock out whatever bug was causing her discomfort. She's tolerating the dosing well in part because I've (finally) become somewhat adept at the eyedropper. Kitty seems to be back to normal. We'll hear from Dr. B concerning lab results today or tomorrow.

Saturday my car went to the "car vet" --dealer service-- for regular maintenance. They checked our record and found it's time for the timing belt to be replaced! Oh, joy: another big, unexpected expense! It's better than having the darned thing break which, we were told, does enough damage to the engine to cost on the order of $3,500 to fix. Still we didn't see this one coming.

Saturday night I had the observatory open from 9 to 11:00 PM at the behest of the student environmental group. This open night was to be a part of their Earth Day activities. A bat had moved back into the dome and/or shutter as had a bird or two. I chased the bat out of the dome and, before leaving, turned up the obnoxious "sonic repellent" that had been successful in keeping "Baxter" away. Unfortunately --or not, given sky conditions-- this was also the college Springfest and the poor old observatory was up against a pop music concert, an orientation day, and several other activities. With many alternatives and little promotion we had only two visitors --a student couple-- all night. Gave them a look at Saturn with moons Titan, Rhea, and Dione visible and told them about the observatory, telescope, etc. Sky conditions were clear but seeing was generally not very good with high-altitude water vapor preventing the sky from being very black. I couldn't find dim objects, not even M44 (The Beehive star cluster) but Saturn looked surprisingly good; the shadow of the ring system could be seen on the planetary body. Maybe a hint, now and again, at cloud banding on the planet. I took a look at Mars but between seeing preventing high-power views and with Mars receding and becoming quite small, it was less interesting than usual. That was about it for observing! I was happy to head home.

Sunday activity was chosen by She Who Must be Obeyed so we took our first bicycle ride of the season... the flat and easy rail-to-trail facility that runs through Oberlin. The weather was clear and cool with temperatures of about 65 degrees and light wind. The riding was easy and pleasant though we both wound up with sore-ish muscles from that short and easy 27-mile jaunt! Felt pitiable but it's been many months since we've been on two wheels. Lunch at Oberlin's Quizno's was very good and did not make us feel more guilt. One weird experience: when we parked our bikes at Quizno's my wireless bicycle computer, instead of registering zero miles-per-hour was reading upwards of 65 miles-per-hour whilst standing still! Apparently some radio source inside the building was causing the bizarre behavior. We didn't think about photographing the display until later and, when we returned to the sandwich shop to reproduce the experience, nothing happened! Cool photo gets away.

In all this weekend of cats, bats, and bikes was a good one.

Had to work yesterday. Had to work today. That's weekend rotation for you. Still, I sometimes don't mind it much... the pace of the day is different from the weekdays and I can often pursue projects that I can't during the week. This weekend I spent a lot of my time working out the last kinks in our new public computer print management system. We were supposed to be able to offer printing services to visitors who bring their own notebook computers with them. As we finished up the system installation we hit a snag... the visiting notebook module wouldn't print through our system. After a lot of troubleshooting we determined it was some component apparently missing from our server. I spent several hours Saturday working on the problem. Today I discovered the problem and how to resolve it. Years ago, when I originally set up the server for work in the Internet, I had made a number of changes for security's sake. Unfortunately, I hadn't documented them! Today I rediscovered what I had done {geek alert} I had set the hidden device NetBIOS to Disabled which, in turn, shut off Windows File and Printer Sharing -- the service critical to success of the notebook project. Yeah... the HIDDEN device! So, after closing and a server reboot, success at last! Visitors will now, with great ease, bring their notebook computers to our facility and, with a lightweight and temporary software download, print to our networked printers! Just a couple of tweaks remain to the network setup so that wired as well as wireless users can access the system and we're all set. Are you still awake?

Newsy Bits: I think my efforts (above) were aided by finally getting a full and restful night's sleep -- the first I've had in about a week! She and I braved temperatures in the teens, strong winds, and blowing snow to go out to breakfast and grocery shopping this morning before I had to go to work. She is recovering after a week-long fight with a cold virus. Very nasty. Tonight She's feeling much better and, so far, I'm showing no signs of infection. Tasha has been throwing up which had me worried. I'm hoping the fix is as simple as this: she really dislikes some new litter box filler we've tried to switch to and I suspect she's not been using it. I think she's been holding back (if cats can do that) and it's been making her regurgitate. We'll see. I cooked dinner (pesto pasta and corn) and baked cookies (chocolate chip) tonight. Temperature has fallen to the low single-digits (+3.6 degrees F right now). Good thing the sky is cloudy: keeps it from getting even colder and saves me the guilty feelings of not going out under a clear sky and freezing my stuff off. And it's approaching 11 PM and time, soon, for bed. Still reading this? Hmmm. Are you still awake?

Tasha's Tent

Ah, yes! Fresh laundry and cats... a natural combination. I'd taken the sheets from the dryer and found one wasn't quite dry. Draping the sheet from a bedpost to a chair back to air dry formed a sort of tent in the bedroom. It wasn't long before Tasha saw a perfect little house and took up residence.

Missy paid a routine visit to Dr. B. today. We only arrived back home a few minutes ago after a visit to check her blood glucose level. Missy's been doing fine though still doesn't groom herself much, if at all. She does have a good appetite, is awake and alert for a decent amount of time, and can move around just fine (though there's a hint of stiffness in her hips). In-clinic testing indicates blood glucose seems to be under control though a little higher right now than we would like (it's 387). Her weight is up just a bit at 8.9 pounds; she feels "solid." Following the blood collecting and exam we cooled our paws in the waiting room for a few minutes and Miss sampled some Hill's "dental treats."  {Actually, I seem to recall this is Hill's "Oral Care Adult" formula but the vet likes to use them more as treats than staple food.} She crunched happily on five of those things in the safety of her carry case. They're high fat and all but I suppose the fat just makes them all the tastier and suitble as comfort food following a stressful experience. Office staff kindly gave us two small sample bags to take home. Tasha got a couple crunchies that way too and loves 'em. Dr. B. says to continue the once-a-day insulin at the same dosage while we await a "new" blood test for fructosamine (glycated serum protein) which is a good indicator of long-term blood sugar levels and control. If the fructosamine test is "out of range" then the insulin dosage can be adjusted. All-in-all a good report for an old cat. For Tasha the advice is to keep her on her cortisone indefinitely at half a tablet once every third day; hardly any medication at all but hopefully enough to keep her bowel inflammation at bay.

Addendum: The test results came back and Missy's fructosamine level was 584. Normal level for that substance in a cat is 370 - 400. That means that over the previous week Missy's blood glucose level was too high, too. Dr. B. increased her insulin dose from 6 to 7 units per day. We're to recheck fructosamine again in two weeks.

Leaf and Shadow

After a late night last night, Sweetie had mercy on me and did not insist that we go on a long bicycle ride. It was a perfect morning under a cloudless sky and mild fall temperatures and nearly impossible to consider staying at home and indoors. (Turns out she didn't feel much like cycling today for some reason, but that's beside the point!) Anyway, since I was still recovering from last week's cold and got to bed late due to the Observatory event, it was nice to sleep in and have a slow morning. Breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels, a quick trip to Target for miscellany, and it was home for a quiet few hours and lunch. At least it was quiet for me ... She was doing some light gardening. Beans and franks (veggie) and we took off to the Wolf Creek Environmental Education Center -- a long name for a farm that was donated to Medina County's park system and made into a nature preserve. We took a slow-paced hike on some of their lovely trails and shot lots of nature photos. After that, it was on to Fairlawn to check on some items at a store or two and stock up on tempeh. Then back home. Gotta say, even though we took it fairly easy I'm feeling bushed. I hope I didn't overdo as I really, really don't want a relapse! So I'll rest up all evening, laugh at the Simpsons, and hopefully get a good night's sleep. It was a beautiful Sunday.

Note to self: Tasha's medication drops to one-half tablet every three days.

Just a little update on how it's going. If you're a casual reader understand that, in some instances, I'm using this blog to keep track of things. For example, our first note:

• I reduced Tasha's medication to one-half tablet once per day. Part of the prescribed regimen. That will continue for one week until Monday, Sept. 17 when we'll cut back to a half-tablet every-other day.

Otherwise briefly noted:

Walk like an Egyptian

• Looks like we'll have a star party for the astronomy class students. That ought to be fun and it will give me an opportunity to get my own telescope out at a good site! Date: TBA, probably in October.
• As I was composing this, Radio Paradise played Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles. What a kick! Had to crank it up... I dunno, it's just, well, just.... I really like it, alright?
• Tonight I install a big wad of updates on our Solaris servers. This makes me nervous but it must be done. So I get the morning and half the afternoon off... and get to stay on the job til at least 11 PM. {sigh} All part of the job; that's IT for you!
• I will resist the urge to use this blog to make political comments. I will try really, really hard to do that. Every time we hear the death toll in Iraq (Iraqi and American), however, and learn of another local kid declared to be a hero as he is buried we should be reminded: politics isn't a game. It's our lives. There are very real winners. Very real losers. And often more losers than winners.
  

The weekend weather forecast looks unpleasant for our usual outdoor activities. Too cloudy for astronomy and too much rain chance for cycling. What we will be up to is, at this point, unknown. Tasha is feeling much better after a few days of dosing her with Prednisolone. Dr. B. said I did the right thing in resuming the medication he prescribed as therapy for possible inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Tasha's feline body seems to agree. {See: Cornell Feline Health Center for more info.} Where she was vomiting frequently and a little too quiet, she now keeps all meals and water down and romps around the house -- her old self again. Doc would like us to begin reducing the dose and try and find some low maintenance dose that will keep the symptoms at bay. Very tricky: she went for more than a month without any medication and had no noticeable symptoms -- how to find that elusive minimum dose. Dinner out at the Wild Ginger China Bistro tonight! What's pending for the weekend is a mystery!

The Labor Day weekend was pretty good for us. On balance, we'd have to say it was stellar!

I had to work Saturday so that made this a not-long weekend for me. Sunday, however, we were able to bring mother-in-law home from the nursing facility. She was delighted to be home and is now in much better condition than before her brief hospital stay for surgery. She said of her last physical therapy session, "The therapist told me she I was going so fast with my walker she couldn't keep up with me! I told her, I have to, I don't have much time left!" That's my 88-year-old mom-in-law for you!  After making sure she was settled in at home, sweetie and I set off looking for lunch and new sneakers for me. We had a nice lunch at Chipotle and found great shoe bargains for both of us --she finally got some good sneakers for herself instead of those really cheap ones-- at Shoe Carnival. Then home.

Starry starry night

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The forecast called for excellent sky conditions Sunday and I had missed out Saturday night because of lack of sleep Friday. It's all related. So I felt I really had to go out to the observatory this night so that I wouldn't regret not going. As it turned out, I had a great time and was, in fact, very glad I went. I practiced locating the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with the big scope. Not easy but I was able to find it repeatedly. I also got a gander at the beautiful globular star cluster M22, in Sagittarius. Tried photographing both of those objects through the telescope but it's still not tracking well enough. The sky was so clear that I decided to try some observatory portraits and got some very nice shots. I'll do that again another night since I've learned a few things on this first try. Among those things, I need to bring my good tripod, not the old broken one. Also, the ISO setting of 1600 introduced a lot of noise among the stars. Still, I love this photo and several others from the night. Left the observatory at midnight and got to bed before 1:30 AM Monday, Labor Day.

Today we rose a little late and got on the road a little late for a --seemingly-- very hot ride from Oberlin. It was supposed to be a loop through the town of Wakeman and back to Oberlin but, well, I missed a turn and we rode too far south. We corrected that, got to Wakeman and a Subway sandwich lunch on their town green, and made it back to Oberlin. Not much of a loop but a challenging 33.9 miles on a beautiful day through splendid countryside of rolling fields and farms -- and almost no motor traffic! Taking a shower, however, may have been the most rewarding part of the activities -- we were so sweaty and sticky.

I lost sleep Friday night because Tasha has started vomiting again. Poor little kitty. It didn't seem so bad as the first time this happened and we took her in a panic to the emergency clinic. She had been off the medication since late July, however, and I'd hoped we wouldn't have to resume. With her problem continuing, though not severe, over the weekend, I felt I had to start her back on Prednisolone. I'll call the vet tomorrow and find out what course of treatment he recommends.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and back to work.... {sigh!}