Nadia

Nadia, aka Nadia the Obese, and more lovingly, Nadie-boo, passed away sometime last Sunday (June 28) afternoon/evening/night. I left the house at about three, and she was gone when I got back at eleven.

She had developed some large masses under the skin around her hip and base of her tail. She also developed a runny nose and eyes, The final insult was congested lungs, and patches of skin peeling off. The latter was not ordinary dermatitis, but peeling of skin a couple of layers thick.

I was feeding her and watering her using a syringe. She took the water and chicken broth, and her kidneys seemed to be working fine.

Nadie was a Tortoise shell cat (as if you couldn't tell from her picture). Torties are known for being moody, if not psychotic. She was also a 'hidey' cat, meaning that she would dive for the nearest safe space if something scared her.

On the other hand, she did get the Shibas under enough control to suit her.

Above is a picture of the very first time Nadia deigned to be on the bed with Suzu. (Like me, Baxter is staring in disbelief.) She eventually tolerated Dakota as well. There were a couple of discussions about territory, though. The fierst time, I was awakened by loud cat vocalizations. I was awakened the second time by a heavy paw in the middle of my back as Dakota made his departure from the bed.

There was some blood spatter on the bedspread the first time, and some bloody paw-prints after the second. Both time I checked noses and faces and paws of all involved, but found no sign of damage.

When it was my bedtime, I would have to encourage her to move over with a shove. I figured out that it was easier to use the bed covers to roll her over to the other side. Once I got in and got comfy, she would come back to my side foe some attention. Her method of notifying me was to put her paw on my arm, and flex her claws. which resulted in a whole bunch of skin punctures.

Out of curiosity, a year or so ago, I did the 'weight me, then weigh me holding her' thing to get her weight.  Guesses. anyone? (Answer below the fold.)

I got Nadia as a companion for Baxter, after Shin-wa got run over (and killed. By me. Worst Saturday ever.) She was a normal size cat when I met her. She and Baxter lived in the garage, because the Mistress of Pain was highly allergic to cats. When I went out to the garage, I would see her peeking out from behind some shelves. After a couple of months of that I decided to pull her out and see how she was.

She was obese. And she stayed that way up until the last couple of months.

During the winter here in Pa, it was not unusual for me to see her burrowed under the covers during the day, so she could keep warm. I'd get home and go upstairs to find a large lump in the bed, with her face just peeking out.

I hope she's with all of her friends who preceeded her, and that she's content.

Dakota (Updated)

Tuesday, Dakota took a pretty good tumble down a full flight of stairs, spine first.  Nothing was broken, but I noticed yesterday that he seemed to have lost balance and strength on his left side.

Last night, he went into full-body convulsions for a minute or so.

We are off to the vet at 3:30.  Koda is resting on the air mattress down here on the first floor.

I don't like how this day is shaping up.

Update:  Back from the vet. We are treating "symptomatically", as the diagnostics for Koda would cost more than mine!  He now has industrial-strength steroids (Dexamethasone) to take over the next two weeks.  If his symptoms are caused by swelling resulting from the fall, this should clear them up. 

I'm cautiously optimistic, which is a big improvement.

Elevating Thought

(I decided that I should cross-post this here, as well as at leelu's place.)

 It's been a month since the election, and I'm still trying to re-group.  What upset me the most (after the outcome)  was the encroaching lack of civility and clear, useful journalism on the Right as well as the Left.  I find that disheartening, since one of the Big Deals we made about the Left was and is their lack of civility, and the mendacity of the MSM.

One writer who comes to mind is John Nolte, at Breitbart.  Here is his opener on the Zimmerman/NBC suit:

"Though it might feel like a hundred years ago, it was only last April when the media joined Barack Obama's cynical crusade to gin up his base in Florida through the artificial inflaming of racial tensions. And there was no question NBC News was the worst of these co-conspirators after the network was busted editing a 9-1-1 call to make Trayvon Martin's suspected shooter, George Zimmerman, look like a racist. Today, Zimmerman filed suit against the Peacock Network."

Now, I gather that his basic assertion about NBC editing the sound track of the 911 call is factual.  But I don't think anyone would deny that the inflammatory nature of the paragraph.  I'm not suggesting that Mr. Nolte do anything differently - he has his "bully pulpit", the editors must like the way he's writing, and the First Amendment applies.  You go, John.

But I think this kind of writing only helps to maybe put an up-tick in the pitch fork, torch, tar, feather, and rail markets.  Which I don't think is really helpful at all, even in the short term.

My metaphysics training has taught me to stand guard at the doorway of thought.  In a nutshell, this warning is based upon the idea that we see and become what we think and believe.  If we don't pay attention to what we are admitting into our thoughts, we can start to slide downhill.  A practical example - repeat a lie often enough, and it (seems to) become true.

My distress is in no small part to my own slippage.  Looking back over my pre-election and near-post election posts, I'm struck by how they could have been less, well, vulgar, and more informative and thoughtful.  Fortunately, Gerard turned on a light for me, and gave me a glimpse of what I've been seeking.  It has apparently been wending its way thru the web.  One full copy of it is at The Thinking Housewife.  I'm excerpting the first section here:

A Plan for Traditionalists

AT The Orthosphere, Kristor offers a reasonable guide to survival and affecting the culture. In the immediate future, he recommends:

1. Resolve to pay no more PC jizya (beautifully spelled out in the Solzhenitsyn essay that has been discussed a lot lately in the wider orthosphere). Tell the truth, and call a spade a spade: calmly, politely, and without being obstreperous about it, but nevertheless firmly. Without making a big deal about it or calling attention to yourself, fail to appear for the public rites of Moloch. If you must thus appear, quietly fail to meet the requirements of the rite.
2. Write, read, blog, talk: join a book club, an apologetics roundtable, a bible study group. Learn the arguments for reaction, for Christianity, for theism; learn the arguments against them, and how they may be defeated. Speak up: fearlessly, scandalously, but always humbly and politely.
3. Live a virtuous, upright life, at home and in business. Speak the truth, and do the right thing. Whatever it happens to be, don’t let it be about yourself; let it be about the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
4. Beware; and be prepared to move, quickly. Get rid of stuff that you don’t need or that is not positively beautiful to you in some way – especially debt and belly fat, which are likely going to cost you as the financial and medical sectors of the economy devolve over the next ten years.
5. Maintain tradition in small things: e.g., dress more formally than is customary these days, practice old-fashioned manners, refrain from swearing; read old books, and then discuss them around the family dinner table; join together in regular and serious family prayer, if only to bless each meal; remember your family holiday traditions, and observe them gravely and with joy.
6. Pray without ceasing. Pray whenever your attention is not wholly consumed with the task at hand. Work toward praying even when it is. Nothing is so convincing as sanctity, or so attractive, or so authoritative. Without it, personal rectitude can seem like Pharisaical arrogance (and risks becoming just that). You can’t push sanctity. But you can work at allowing it to happen.

 (Debt isn't the huge problem it was five years ago.  The belly fat, though continues to be tough.)

There's more, all worth read, pondering, and incorporating into our lives.  Go!

Pray and Act

The Manhattan Declaration and the 40 day fast for America.

I found this while reading through reader comments at Brietbart about  the AFP commercial I linked to in the post below.  The responder did not include any links, so, since Google is my friend, I found a bunch of posts about the 40 day fast for America.

I followed the link to the "Pray and A.C.T." page at the Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) website.  It describes the why and how of the fast.  It also directs you to the Pray and A.C.T. website.  as of today, the link fails, returning a "Server Not Found" error.  I'll poke into that when I'm done here...

The "ACT" part of the page asks that you go to the Manhattan Declaration webite, and read and sign it.  That link goes to the web page.  Here is a link to the declaration as a .PDF.

The declaration is about 4,700 words long, so get comfortable.  It is a clear and concise defense of life, marriage, and religious liberty from a Christian moral perspective.  Two thinks I liked the most about it:  first, it strongly and clearly emphasizes human free will, and the fundamental right and freedom to follow one's own conscience.  (I inferred that one might add "well informed" as a state of said conscience.  Or that could just be the Ghosts of Jesuits Past.)  Second, was the mini-lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s from the Birmingham jail: "...citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring."


Read the whole thing.  Sign it if you feel so moved.  Fast if you feel so moved.  And act, if you feel so moved.

Pax Vobiscum.

(Originally posted at Leelu's Place)