Feline Differential Diagnosis

[mallorys_camera]

Quite the lovely day, yesterday. I spent a good chunk of it in the garden, where I have a long list of projects that never quite get finished because the Numbah One priority is weeding and the weeds grow so fuckin' fast! Yesterday, though, I was able to stay four hours, so in addition to weeding & watering, I got the pink dahlias in and trained the pea plants to climb the fence.

One of my cucumber plants didn't make it, so I replanted. (I never have much luck with cucumbers.)

The bell pepper plants are already fruiting, which cannot be good.

Ditto one of the Roma tomatoes.

More wood chips came in, so when I go tomorrow, I'm gonna put cardboard down on the paths (to kill the weeds) and then strew wood chips on top of them. That will be a lot of work.



Other than that...

The Schlock luncheon turned out to be more fun than I imagined it would be. The Montgomery crew are actually a nice group of people. It was the Middletown office that drove me batty.

And then when I got home, there was an Incident with Mabel. A CATastrophe, you might say. (Yuk, yuk, yuk.)

Mabel somehow got stuck in a polyethelene shopping bag and took off racing up and down the stairs for five minutes straight (poor frightened little beast) before finally settling in the deepest darkest recess under the fainting couch. Very difficult to reach, but I had to because the only way I could figure she'd get stuck in a bag is if the bag's handles were around her neck—which meant she was at high risk for strangling herself.

Somehow I managed to reach in and cut the damn thing off her—my hands are covered with small scratches this morning.

Then for another three hours, I kept popping under to do neuro checks on her eyes while she hissed & batted at me. Were her pupils equal & reactive? I mean, cat's eyes are so different from human eyes. Would neuro checks even be a part of feline differential diagnosis?

But she's fine now, though it took her several hours to settle down.

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

You look like the coolest of the bunch!

Poor Mabel. She is a pretty girl but she has that cat look on her face. YOu know,like 'if you touch me I'll make you bleed...'

[mallorys_camera]

Mabel is really neurotic. 😀 She has a scar near one of her ears, which makes me think she may have been abused when she was a kitten. I don't know. And sometimes, she can be quite affectionate! But always on her own terms. She is not a cuddly cat.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Glad Mabel is OK. Our kitty was jussssst warming up to me again (after our 3 month absence) when I had to leave for surgery. I a stranger once again with a weird walker. Of course if I would let her sleep with me and crawl all over me, leg and all, we could probably be fast friends pretty quickly again.

And cardboard and wood chips sound very wise!

[asakiyume]

Whoa, poor Mabel! Glad you were able to rescue her. She looks no worse for wear.

[mallorys_camera]

Yah, cardboard & wood chips should provide a good weed deterrent.

But so much work!

[mallorys_camera]

Yeah. I'm always curious about how memory works in cats.

[wayfaringwordhack]

For me, the problem is not just the work but sourcing as much material as I would need. Cardboard is not so impossible, but all the wood chips...

[mallorys_camera]

Yeah. This is where the "collective" garden thing comes in handy. We source wood chips from the New Paltz dump, and there are lots of them, 'cause when a thunderstorm knocks down a tree, you grind it up.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Oh nice!