R.I.P.

The little kitty passed on today with the help of a few injections by the home vet. It turned out that she had lymphoma, same as my family's previous cat. We did let her enjoy a few more days of sunshine and play. Even when I visited last night and this morning she still wanted to play chase the stick. She couldn't eat, though, or barely drink and started hiding in odd places - probably in a lot of pain. OK, so I do believe euthanasia is a reasonable way to let your pets go when you know they're out of quality time. Still, it's just the hardest thing to have to do. You love your pet so much, and then you have to be the one to kill them. Sheesh, life is rough sometimes.

Gives me a Twitch

I have officially had a twitch of my eyelid for over three weeks, now. It started the day that my cousin was hospitalized for admitting to a therapist to violent and suicidal thoughts. Perhaps this twitch could have a teensy bit to do with the stress this has caused. I was beginning to wonder if I had some kind of neurological problem, but then I ran into a friend of mine at a recent airport layover in SLC, happened to mention the eye twitch, and she told me that she just recently had an eye twitch that lasted for months. It's always in the left eye, feels like a little wiggle, starts mid-morning and occurs several times throughout the day while teaching, practicing, playing, eating, reading, etc...

It is really not that big of a deal, just odd.

My cousin being hospitalized is a bigger deal. Poor little feller. I hope that the regimen of therapy with wacky shrinks and medication miraculously helps him at least somewhat. I feel quite strongly they didn't get to the bottom of whatever is going on in his young life, but I'm also no expert and feel quite helpless in the matter. We all do. His father is a lame-ass paranoid socially dysfunctional crazed man who owes my aunt tens of thousands of dollars in child support. But because my aunt likes her wine and this bothers the kid quite a bit, the therapists suggested he should spend even more time with the father than he had been, so the parents now each have him half time. Argh.

In other news, it looks like my parents are going to lose their sweet little one-eyed cat due to extreme kidney failure, even though she's only 10 years old. I found the cat for them at an animal shelter 9 1/2 years ago while home on a break from music school. She sure brightened up the home which had lost its two pets that year. This kitty packed quite a bit into her 10 years, though, she's always been feisty and even just today was dashing around the yard playing in the leaves. She did nearly fall over when I patted her, though, as she's grown quite frail. I have some mixed feelings about the whole euthanasia issue - it's been completely commonplace to just put pets down as soon as you know they're terminal. I don't know why they shouldn't be allowed to deteriorate just a little bit, like humans do. I don't believe we're going to a better place when we pass on. It's such a beautiful week here with this warm Fall weather and beautiful colors everywhere. May as well let the kitty stretch out on the deck for a few more days.