End-of-year craziness

I have to say 2008 HAS been a pretty good year, overall (20 more days of the Bush Administration!). A few events have taken place recently to put a damper on things. Yesterday my mom broke her leg and was taken to the hospital. At first they thought it was her hip. She simply slipped off the edge of a curb and fell. Luckily, she had just left church and some ladies were nearby to help her; they called the ambulance. Today she has to get surgery to put a pin in. I'm happy it wasn't her hip, but it is her femur and sounds fairly serious. Because she's older and has diabetes, I worry what this means for her future health. She's a very active lady and I hope she can stay that way. We will see her tomorrow morning, probably.

Secondly, both of my cats' health seems to be failing. I took Fat Orange Kitty to the vet last Friday because of what looked like a small tumor on his tail. He also has bad teeth. They did blood work because he was due for it, and found kidney issues. We had to take him back for an ultrasound and other tests on Monday. It's not as bad as they thought, but he probably has a bladder infection (I'm shoving an antibiotic pill into his mouth twice a day now -- those of you who have cats know how it is administering pills).

My other cat, Skinny Black Kitty, seems to be getting skinnier, plus he acts crazy a lot (kitty dementia?) and can't jump that well anymore. He goes to the vet next week for a checkup. We spent a lot of money on Fat Orange Kitty over these two vet visits, and I don't think we can now afford the removal of the small tumor (doc says it's benign) and the dental work. Skinny Black Kitty's visit will set us back another hundred or two, I'm sure. Rad is helping me out with these costs but it's getting crazy.

However, before anyone asks why I'm spending so much on my cats, please know that these have been my "kids" for the last 15 or 16 years. They have been with me through numerous relationships and painful breakups, when I had no one to come home to, and through some very dark times (cats seem to have a way of knowing when you need comforting). They are a pain in the ass, yes. They shed a lot and often leave disgusting messes for us to clean up. But they provide us with hours of affection and amusement (Rad and I like to make up dialogue for them -- strange how they are as cynical as we are). One of my favorite things is to sit on the couch, reading or watching TV, with Fat Orange next to me and Skinny Black on my lap.

I'm sure they will be with us for a while longer, but not too long. I honestly don't know how much we can afford to spend on their health care, in the long run. We'll make each decision as it comes.

I have some New Year's resolutions brewing in my head, which I may blog about later, or tomorrow. I weighed myself today and I lost another 2.4 pounds, so I have just over 5 lbs to go to reach my goal weight. That's not really a resolution, since I've been working on it since October. Tonight we are getting together with a small group of friends to ring in 2009.