Olive was on top of the world, and my closet, a few days ago.
She threw up Friday and once on Saturday. Saturday she hid out under a bed. She walked from room to room to find another bed to hide under.
Olive was not interested in food or water, which according to my daughter is not a good sign.
I was grocery shopping Saturday afternoon. I decided to take Olive to the vet if she was still hiding when I got home.
But, no. She zipped by me and was walking around the house. So I decided not to.
Sunday morning she looked awful. She was lethargic and not moving.
I drove her to a 24/7 emergency vet as soon as I got dressed. They said she was very sick and couldn’t measure her blood pressure. They filled her with fluids and her blood pressure went up to 70. They wanted it in the 100s, but said it was a massive improvement. However, her blood work came back with liver and kidney failure. This must be why she was having ups and downs the past few months. A year and half ago her blood work was fine.
Did I mention how I don’t like Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving week? I wrote about it HERE.
Olive is feeling better. I keep finding her up on top of things.
I had a few stress-filled weeks when we came home from vacation. Olive the cat was not her usual perky self. I wrote about it HERE.
For about two weeks, I monitored Olive. She’d have a good day followed by several bad ones. On her bad days, I wouldn’t see her. If I did see her for a few brief moments, she looked really scruffy and miserable.
One of my neighbors asked me how old she was, When I said 11, the neighbor suggested maybe it was time. You know what? I pushed back on that. I took Olive to the vet. I waited, watched and eventually Olive no longer hid under the bed all day. She started eating like a champ. Her other bodily functions became normal. Definitely it was NOT “time.”
Our last cat, Sherman, was 17 years old when he was attacked by a neighbor’s dog. No, he didn’t make it. Olive is an indoor cat and I expect her to have a long life.
Now, she’s leaping to the top of the closet. The shelf she’s on is six feet high! Yesterday she was up on the closet space a few feet higher than that!
I walked into the casita to see this! She’s never been a counter shopper before.
FYI, the photos on this post are taken with my iphone, not my DSLR camera.
I’m getting ready for guests this coming weekend. The Wickham Casita has been a popular place this past month. Our last guest is a world champion spear fisherman. He’s entering a competition at Lake Pleasant, which is about 30 minutes from us. He’s planning on scouting the lake several times before the event. He brought us black cod, salmon, rock fish and lobster during his last visit. I wrote about Black Cod also known as Sablefish HERE.
We enjoyed lobster over the weekend. Our houseguest free dives off the coast in Southern California for lobster.
What a treat! I had to share the lobster photos.
Lobster poached in lemon butter with steamed broccoli. Yum! Yes, our last guest is welcome to our casita anytime.
What is your most favorite food and why?
If you’ve had dogs or cats, do you get stressed if they aren’t feeling well?
Santa Barbara Harbor is where our friends keep their sailboat and I get the best fish tacos in the world. At least I haven’t found any that are better.
“Let the clean air blow the cobwebs from your body. Air is medicine.”
Sunday was my first morning waking up in my own bed. After a long drive home, it felt good to get home and see Olive. My cat sitter texted me Tuesday, Thursday and called on Friday. Olive was done with our vacation. She had quit eating and was constipated. I told the cat sitter where Olive’s RX laxative was stored. I was anxious to get home to Olive.
We got home Saturday afternoon and Olive gave me a long plaintive cry. She was obviously uncomfortable and unhappy. We gave her another dose of laxative and by Saturday night, Olive was feeling better. I have to hold Olive while my better half forces the laxative into her mouth and down her throat. I have no idea how the cat sitter managed it alone.
So what about cobwebs, you ask?
Waking up in my own bed with a dramatic sunrise, I noticed lots of cobwebs outside. After I finished my morning routine, I went outside and knocked them down. Then I thought about what else I wanted to do outside before it got hot. I kicked in the pool and enjoyed drying off in the sun and breeze on the zero gravity recliner. I felt so much better being outside and getting fresh air after packing, driving, and unpacking.
I’ve decided to add a few things to my daily routine to get rid of the cobwebs in my body. I can poke around the yard after our morning walk and see what little things I need to attend to like cobwebs and weeds. Then I can jump in the pool. No, it’s not the Pacific Ocean, but I should take advantage of it every day before the cold weather hits.
While it’s still hot, I’m going to take my second walk of the day on the YMCA’s elliptical machine. At the beach, we were walking in the morning and evening. Eventually, I’ll add lap swimming at the Y.
On The Alley (OTA) is a more casual, sister-venue to Brophy Bros., Santa Barbara’s wildly popular seafood restaurant. Serving fresh fish tacos, burgers and salads, On The Alley dishes up quick, quality lunch fare within the beautiful harbor. Included on the menu are a handful of Brophy Bros. classics like New England Clam Chowder and Fish & Chips. Breakfast is also offered, including Smoothies and customizable Breakfast Bowls. Enjoy the generous portions and wallet-friendly prices. Order online for fast and easy pick-up. Savor it outside at our tables or take your food with you wherever you go! https://www.onthealley.com/
This sign is advertising Stand Up and Paddle under moonlight. I saw the joke when I took this photo. I wish I had read the full sign — I might have signed up for moonlight paddling.
Olive the cat before grooming. Look at all that fur!
Poor Olive! First we left her for four days while we visited friends in Salt Lake City. (We did have a cat sitter check up on her.) Then Monday morning, our first morning home, a mobile cat groomer arrived.
We’ve been dealing with Olive shedding hair all over the house, Olive spitting up hair balls, and looking uncared for.
Maureen the cat groomer arrived with a folding table topped with a rubber mat and a backpack full of various tools. I had confined Olive to a bathroom so I could easily find her. As soon as I opened the door, Olive shot out the door down the hall. I spent the next 10 minutes searching for her. Once I spotted Olive, I had to dive on top of her.
With Olive on the table, Maureen spent the next hour and a half with various cat brushes and combs, pulling out matted knots and Olive’s heavy undercoat. I stood at the table holding onto Olive, while telling her what a good girl she was.
This was the first time in Olive’s 11-year life that she’s been groomed. I try to brush her and she puts up with it for about 30 seconds before taking off.
I asked Maureen about shaving the cat, if that would be better than trying to brush and comb her out. Hubby wanted Olive shaved.
“That’s up to you,” Maureen answered. From her tone, I gathered shaving a cat was not something she was keen on.
“Since this is her first time being groomed, lets keep going with combing,” I said. “I think an electric razor would freak her out.”
In case you didn’t know, Olive is a scaredy cat. I had a friend’s daughter take care of her for three or four years whenever we left town. She said, “I don’t believe you have a cat.” My friend’s daughter never saw her. Except for the food being eaten and the litter box being used, there was no evidence that Olive existed.
The sheers did come out for Olive’s underside. The hair was thick, long and matted. Maureen said she’s never groomed a dog or cat that liked their hair being pulled out of their armpits or tummy.
When a large black trash bag was filled with cat hair and Olive’s polydactyl claws had been trimmed, we were done. Olive immediately leaped off the table and ran down the hall never to be seen again that day.
Olive wearing her lighter summer do.
If you have a dog or cat, do they like being groomed?
Olive the cat gives me the look that it’s time to eat.
Thank you to all my fellow bloggers who I follow as well as friends who follow me. Every day, I get joy from reading your posts. I love interacting with you through comments. I realize that is part of what I look forward to every morning.
It’s a bit of sanity in an ever changing, crazy world.
Most of the blogs I read are positive and you share recipes, birds, deer, pets, and relationships with your loved ones. Each of you has a unique personality. You add to the structure and fabric of my days.
Thank you!
Here’s a bit of joy in a video of Olive watching quail through the window:
We were supposed to go to a friend’s house to watch the debate, but a fire broke out. This is the view from my backyard. This fire was closer than the previous fire.
I called and cancelled, but I don’t think our friends were happy. They said we could keep an eye out for the fire from their house. They have a rooftop deck where they said we could hang out.
I did my usual prep in case of evacuation. I have my “go” bag, money, my mom’s flute and my great grandmother’s cookbooks in the laundry room, right next to the garage. I locked kitty in a room with her carrier, so I wouldn’t have to search the house for her. I didn’t want to leave our house and our cat to go to our friends’ house. It turns out people one mile away from us were evacuated. The fire went from six acres to 600 acres in less than an hour. Now it’s at more than 3,000 and not contained.
I looked back on what I was doing one year ago. Much of the same. Watching and learning about a fire nearby.
How do you prepare for an emergency?
Would you be comfortable leaving your house with a fire close by?
A page from my parents wedding album given to me by my aunt who visited last week. Mom and Dad were 23!
A strange thing happened during my aunt’s visit. I glanced over at the sofa and Olive the cat was sitting next to my aunt licking her fingers! Now this is a first. Olive has never let a guest touch her or vice versa. Olive does sleep with my daughter, but that doesn’t count because she was my daughter’s cat until college took my daughter away.
My aunt and I did most of the things on my list and we found ourselves very compatible. We both got hungry at the same time, wanted quiet time in the afternoons to ourselves and went to bed early to read. Having a house guest doesn’t get much better than that!
It cooled down considerably, we lit the outdoor fireplace and cooked s’mores. We hiked in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. We went to the farmer’s market in Carefree and explored consignment stores in Cave Creek. We had some delicious lunches and dinners out, plus I cooked. We visited the Musical Instrument Museum and to my delight, they changed up a few exhibits so there were new things for me to enjoy.
You might wonder what would be exciting about visiting a museum of musical instruments.
From the MIM, here’s the Artists’s Gallery experience:
ARTIST GALLERY
Celebrate music’s most influential artists.
In every time and place, there are musicians whose art deeply touches the lives of many. MIM’s Artist Gallery highlights these personalities with ever-changing exhibits that span sound, style, and era. Through generous partnerships, MIM features historic instruments owned, played, and loved by the musicians who have created a shared soundtrack to our lives for generations.
Nearly 40 displays showcase instruments and artifacts from some of the greatest musicians in the world. See and hear instruments played by icons such as Elvis Presley®, Tito Puente, the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, Roberta Flack, Glen Campbell, Joan Baez, Maroon 5, and many others.
The exhibits not only have the artists’s grammy awards, gold records, costumes and instruments, they have a large screen that plays selections of their songs on the headsets you wear. I think my favorite was “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. On display is his hand written lyrics on a yellow legal pad. So not only do you get to sing along with Roy, you get to see how he wrote it, along with a photo of him and his pretty woman. There are many other galleries from all over the world. I haven’t touched the whole of MIM yet.
Here are a few photos from my aunt’s visit:
What is your idea of a perfect house guest? What do you like to do when entertaining company?
