reporting in, mostly OT

Sorry about not getting in touch before. Charleen sent me an I care card
and I was so bad I didn't respond to her. I'm sorry. I was off line from
Feb 17 or so until the first of March. I got my annual case of combined
flu, cold, allergies. I was one sick little kitty. We won't discuss the
worst of it, but I wouldn't wish this on anyone, including my idiot sister.

It's cottonwood season and I wish someone would shoot them, or do something
to make them go away. If I were ever to find some part of the USA that
didn't have cottonwood, I'd move there. We haven't found it yet.

Enough about me. Rob was doing really well, but scared us all on Sunday.
Mike's car, Emily (the '89 metallic blue Tempo) is giving up the ghost, so
we went to CarMax (I highly recommend them) and put the down payment on a
gold 2003 Buick Century. Rob was doing well, rode on the test drive with
the kids and seemed to be enjoying himself. In the middle of the paperwork,
he suddenly couldn't use his right arm and hand. He slumped to the right
and had to be propped up by Mike. I had to hold his hand so that he could
sign his name on the rest of the papers. Had we stopped, we'd have had to
come back and start the whole process again from the beginning. I still
feel like a ghoul for making him sit there while we signed the final four to
six papers. Afterwards, I drove him to the ER. He was already doing better
when I was getting him into the van. We were at the ER for 7.5 hours most
of which was spent waiting for the doctor to get past the various other
emergencies before she could get back to Rob. His blood pressure was in
the 140-170/100-118 range, in other words, through the roof. The CT scan
showed no change from the MRI done back in January, so they couldn't say for
sure what is going on. Today we saw his regular doctor who thinks he may
have had a stroke imitating action caused by his high blood pressure. He's
doubled the dose of Rob's blood pressure medicine and we're going to talk to
Rob's oncologist about aspirin therapy. I'm still pretty shook up, though.
Rob is more curious about what happened than worried about it.

Mandy Lynn's mom went into the hospital last week for hernia surgery. She
went to the doctor for a check back and was put back into the hospital in
Seattle. Something inside is apparently leaking. They may have to go back
in and operate again. Janet (Mandy Lynn's momma) has had a lot of medical
problems and never complained about them. We're all worried about her and
are asking all the owners to purr while we send healthy thoughts and prayers
for her.

Rob's mom is having a cancerous kidney removed today at noon Pacific
daylight time. We're worried for her as well. Medical seems to be a big
part of our lives. I know it is presumptuous, but could you ask the owners
to purr for them both? Prayers and healthy and/or healing thoughts and
wishes are also welcome.

The owners are adjusting to the new addition to their ranks pretty well.
Tanada decided that she could handle another year of bitty wrangling on "The
Mouser" after she taught Hermione not to play with Tanada's tail. Hermione
has decided that Tanada is a cranky old biddy that she doesn't want to deal
with. She walks on tip toe when around the Grouchy one. She sleeps with
Rob and I, and plays and hangs out with Mandy Lynn and Mike.

The rest of the owners are feeling Spring coming on. Trips into the kitty
gaol are more frequent and last longer. The ornamental pear, camellia,
miniature grape hyacinth, and purple lawn weeds are in bloom. The cats are
rolling on the grass as it recovers from the winter and laughing at Speedy,
the d-thing. Speedy was caught trying to pee on Pine Cone. Piney got out
of the way and let the d*g know that he can never out smart the Pine Cone,
or any other cat for that matter. Chaos is spring around here and chaos is
the order of the day.

I hope that I'll be better about posting for at least a while, but don't
count on it. I'm even more erratic than usual lately. I do want to send
purrs and well thoughts and wishes for all who want and/or need them. Even
though I haven't been on line, I have been thinking about you all. You are
my family as much as the physical family and I have been bad about keeping
you up on our news and in caring for you all.

Pam S.