Sunday, November 13, 2016

In Which Thimble is Sleeping

After an hour of sleeping on my lap, this is the marshmellow Thimble turns into. I had to keep my hand in the photo as he's got a paw wrapped around it!

There is a Jacket, and Life is Good

It's getting cold, and I wanted a tighter jacket to go underneath the bigger jackets when I walked, so the cold air couldn't sneak up the bottom of the jacket stack and make me cold underneath. As finances are a little tight, I was quite pleased to find exactly what I was looking for at a big box store for $10. (Actually, they didn't have my size. So I ordered it off their website in my size and picked it up the next weekend! So very cool. I love technology.)

Now, whenever I bring home new clothes, unless they're really nice (which I don't usually buy), I put them on the floor so the cats can investigate to their collective heart's content. It makes them happy, and it makes me happy because then when I do wear the shirt or whatever, I don't have cats all over saying, "now hold on a sec, that smells funny. I said, stay put!"

This jacket was a bigger hit than most. When I put it on the floor, it was zipped up. And Thimble, my adorable, silly long-haired cat who loves to burrow into clothes, quilts, sheets, rugs, etc, thought this was awesome! A burrow place just his size.
He went in through the bottom of the jacket.

There was a pause to evaluate, during which Colby showed up and was puzzled.

Colby is still puzzled but, like most cats, pretending it doesn't bother him at the moment.
The Thimble tail is still sticking out of the jacket.

Then Thimble turned around inside the jacket so he could see out. This attracted Colby's attention again.

It also attracted Apricot's attention. He took the opportunity to lick Thimble's head without Thimble able to return the favor. Thimble wasn't all that pleased but he put up with it.

He's quite pleased with the jacket.

One more thing to try: he turned around again and came out the other end, the proper way for a head to be in a jacket.

The next day found Colby trying it out.

Colby doesn't burrow. He liked the jacket to sit on.
In the end, I have had to leave the jacket on the floor for the time being. When I want to wear it, I pick it up and put it on, much to everyone's fascination.

Luckily, the surface of the coat isn't fuzzy so it doesn't pick up cat hair. (The non-fuzzy was deliberate: the dry air of winter makes static electricity. Dry air mixed with a fuzzy jacket made me get shocked a lot. I was tired of it.)

And so far, Apricot hasn't really sat on it (or in it) at all. This seems to be strictly a Maine Coon jacket!

In Which I Am Stalked

Please may we have some?
I started giving them hairball treats, which they all adore, right after I put my evening pills together. I'm keeping the treat bag with the pills so I remember.

It didn't take the gang long to figure out the new pattern to the evening. One night, they were all very very quiet as they gathered behind me. I turned around, expecting to have to call somebody in, and there they all were. Quite close and rather unexpected.

I believe I may have squeaked in surprise.


Monday, November 7, 2016

In Which They Wait For Me


This is what I see most days when I get home. I park outside the kitchen window and they wait inside on either the cat trees or the dining room table. They're both on the table. The bar across Colby's chest is the top of one of the chairs.

It's hard to get a picture of them waiting, in part due to the reflection (since I get home in the afternoon and the sun is shining onto the window), and in part due to the fact that when they see me, Thimble immediately jumps down and goes over to the door to wait for me there. 

It's rare he's both there waiting and not on the floor yet by the time I get out of the car.


Saturday, November 5, 2016

I Didn't Even Know It Was Possible To Bruise Your Own Ribs

Two weeks ago on Monday, I observed that the mattress I'd rotated three days before had not been put back in place correctly enough. It stood too far away from the headboard and I was in danger of losing my small blankets down the crack. (This whole situation happens to me fairly frequently, given that I rotate the mattress once a week.)

So I put my hands on the side of the mattress, braced my feet, and prepared to give it a good shove to get it up closer to the headboard. About this time Apricot notices I'm about to move the mattress and jumps up on it, coming over to me to get headbumped and kissed beforehand. (A far cry from his feral origins where he'd never get close if I was moving the mattress; now he likes to be on it while I move it!)

Okay, Apricot head-bumps and kisses over, I reset everything and shoved as hard as I could. My elbows were bent at almost a 90 degree angle and I was pushing with my entire strength down my arms and against the mattress.

I have done this many times without a single problem.

This time, my right arm buckled, the elbow swinging inward. At the same time, like a game of tug of war, I drove my entire body weight onto the point of that elbow. Which, due to an apparently genetic quirk making my elbow level with my ribs, means my elbow stabbed into my ribs.

This hurt.

Since my lungs are behind my ribs, this also drove the air out of just one lung, not the other. I've had the breath knocked out of me before but never just on one side. This feels very strange and even more "wrong" than both sides, oddly enough.

So, being in a great deal of pain and not being able to breath on one side, I naturally collapsed against the bed. I felt rather positive that if I continued the downward trend I wouldn't be able to get off the floor for a while so I just sort of pinned myself against the mattresses, holding on with my arms too,  while I struggled to get things sorted.

Remember Apricot? He's still there.

My head is now level with his. He came closer to me and gave me an exploratory, concerned sniff. "Are you okay? You're acting all kinds of weird."

I reassured him I was okay, just in pain again. He left, looking back over his shoulder as if to say, "well, you don't look okay but I'll take your word for it."

The reputable medical websites all say bruised ribs take 3-4 weeks to heal. I think they're right.

Also, did you know you can sprain a rib? I thought sprains only happened to joints. You can also crack or break a rib, but I have a feeling I would have been in a lot more pain and not been able to "do stuff" while it heals.

I didn't go to a doctor. I really can't afford it, plus, the only thing they can do is xray you, tell you if you bruised, sprained, or cracked the rib(s), and give you sympathy. You're not supposed to bind even broken ribs now, as it causes shallow breathing which can give you pneumonia. You're supposed to take anti-inflammatory drugs to make the pain less so you also breathe less shallowly, but after two days of taking an OTC anti-inflammatory during work, I realized that, yeah, I was getting reaction headaches.

So no pain medication for me. I actually did try to see the doctor at the end of the first week to try to get some prescription anti-inflammatory drugs that might not have the same reaction headache issue, (we're talking migraines here, not something I'd rather have than my ribs hurting) but they didn't have anything appointments open.

It's only been in the last few days that I can lift Colby without having to hastily put him back down again because it hurts too bad; I still can't lift Thimble. Part of it is that Colby weighs less (by about a pound) but part of it is also that Colby relaxes into my shoulder and conforms to my body, making his weight more evenly distributed, while Thimble would stand on my hands and shoulder if I'd let him.

They haven't really understood why I'm not doing as much picking up cats as usual, nor why I'm doing less getting down on the floor with them. (Try it. Notice how much core muscle work is required to get back up? Yeah, those muscles. The ones right across the ribs I bruised. Ow.)

When I told my parents about this whole incident, I expressed the exasperation I had with it. I mean, I knew you could bruise/crack your ribs by coughing, but I didn't know you could bruise/crack your own ribs with your own elbow! It sounds ridiculous!

Daddy told me he'd done it. Twice. Both times when he was driving his truck and having to do something to it. But (lucky me for being a wimpy girl) with his extra guy upper-body-strength, he didn't just bruise his ribs. He cracked them. And then still had to drive home. OW.

It also occurred to me about a week after doing it that I was very lucky my right arm had buckled. Remember the trouble I had making my lung start breathing again? I don't think a sharp, sudden blow directly over my heart (left side) would have been good for me!

And a coworker (who had also bruised his ribs when he was 18 and playing football for high school) showed me a better arm placement so the next time this happens, if my arm does buckle, the elbow will go wide and miss my body and all I'll do is end up with my chest against the mattress. Sounds much better.

Now if only I can remember to do that ....