For the love of ...

On 2006-07-06, Winnie penned:

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2006-07-06, penned:

Does she pee on things left in the floor, or is this first-time
behavior? If it is, watch her. The *only* time my cats ever peed
inappropriately, there was a urinary problem; except for Yoda,
who just likes to pee on soft things.

First time ever. After I moved her regular litter box + regular
litter into the bedroom, she used that instead. I'll keep an eye
on her, though.

Rusty also peed inappropriately when he was upset. Many times he
peed, and even pooped in his carrier enroute to the vet. They had to
clean the carrier for me at the clinic. I am sure Oscar was upset
with all that happened to her, plus the 'new and strange' feel of
Yesterday's News.

Oscar absolutely hates peeing inappropriately. I've seen her do the
pee-pee dance before when she didn't feel she could find a good spot.
I have to assume that she really just didn't in any way see
Yesterday's News as being litter. When she can't find a litter box,
she has done a good job of trying to pee on things that can be picked
up and removed.

I just heard some rather unusual noises ... poor little Oscar has a
royal case of diarrhea. I'm guessing from the antibiotics, although I
suppose it could also be from the treats or tuna. I called the
emergency vet, and they said to keep an eye out, but if it doesn't
persist it's probably okay.

Soon I need to give her more antibiotics. And the steroid cream,
although she doesn't put up too much of a fight for that one.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-07-06, Winnie penned:

Now you get me thinking of taking baths again instead of showers.
Have you tried Kneipp herbal bath products? They were recommended to
me by a massage therapist. I just love them.

I find that after a bath, I need a quick shower. I sweat enough in
the bath that I don't necessarily feel cleaner, just better.

My current bubble bath is some generic brand Lavender thing. Before
that I think my last bubble bath brand was Mr. Bubbles when I was a
kid!


--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-07-06, penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

It's like saying "Why would it matter that your kid decided to
throw a tantrum right before you went to a fancy dinner?" Of
course you can still go to the dinner, but your mood has been
disrupted. It would be nice if I had been even-keeled enough to
not have my mood disrupted, but given that I was already
sleep-deprived and at the end of my tether, that wasn't terribly
likely.

Not to mention that the point of taking the bath was to *relax*!!

(I have to admit being confused by your initial post at first, too,
but I thought you were saying that you were *wearing* your shirt
into the bath, and she peed on it in the bath! And that didn't make
sense, so I was scratching my head about that... but decided I was
just addle-brained due to exhaustion.)

Sorry for the confusion. The shirt was on the floor because I had
been using it as an arm protector when medicating Oscar. Okay, that's
not really a "reason", but anyway it was on the floor.

I guess I forgot to wear a long sleeved shirt just now when I fed
Oscar her antibiotics. There was lots of growling, but no damage.
Then she tried to lick the steroid cream off her paw, so back to the e
collar. Sorry, girl, it's your own fault.

Now we can move on to using the cream once a day, not twice, and we're
almost out of antibiotics, too (can't wait!). Hrm. Supposedly there
were 15 mL and at twice a day ... how is it we're almost through the
supply she gave me Monday? Well, maybe it's not as close as I
thought.


--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Oscar absolutely hates peeing inappropriately. I've seen her do the
pee-pee dance before when she didn't feel she could find a good spot.
I have to assume that she really just didn't in any way see
Yesterday's News as being litter. When she can't find a litter box,
she has done a good job of trying to pee on things that can be picked
up and removed.

Such a good cat.


I just heard some rather unusual noises ... poor little Oscar has a
royal case of diarrhea. I'm guessing from the antibiotics, although I
suppose it could also be from the treats or tuna. I called the
emergency vet, and they said to keep an eye out, but if it doesn't
persist it's probably okay.

Rusty sometimes got diarrhea when he was on antibiotics. Give Oscar
some yogurt if she eats it. Rusty loves yogurt, though not so much
these days for some reasons. I give him
yogurt everyday as I read it is good for him. Or you can try
acidophilus from the health food stores. But is has to be mixed with
the food and Oscar is not eating much food now.
Purrs that she gets better soon and you can get some rest.

Winnie


Soon I need to give her more antibiotics. And the steroid cream,
although she doesn't put up too much of a fight for that one.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

badwilson wrote:

I'll bet Cardiac Bob loves those guys!

I don't think Cardiac knows how bad they are. That's not something that
Dennis would want Cardiac to find out, because then Bob might actually
go into cardiac arrest and then who would do the maintenance???

Yeah, sounds like he's better off not knowing.

it's fairly close to where we live, with only a 1.5 hour time change, so
he doesn't suffer from any jet lag.

I didn't realize that. So your move to Australia from Thailand wasn't
a huge amount of distance, then?

(Hey, wait a minute - a *1.5* hour time change? I thought all time zone
changes were in one-hour increments.)

Nigeria is the next best option but the camp there
regularly gets attacked by machete wielding rebels and their quarters
have been burned down a few times. Not to mention the hostages they
like to occasionally take...

Um, no. That doesn't sound like a good idea at all. Does Dennis have
any control over what posting he gets? I sure hope he never gets that
one!

Oh, and there's Bangladesh, where they have a 1.5 hour commute to and
from work and the town is so smoggy they have to wear gas masks all the
time. The guys who work there play games to see how many people they
can see going to the bathroom on the side of the road on each trip to
work in the van.

Eww. I guess total boredom leads to finding entertainment wherever you
can...

Joyce

badwilson wrote:


That's where I feel I'm lucky. I *know* I've got it better than Dennis
when he's away. He's stuck in a camp in Burma with no drinking. The
closest town is 20 min away on a dirt track, has no electricity,
therefore no refridgeration. He goes in once a week and has a couple of
warm beers, ugh.


I know I had it easier than Rob, even when he was in garrison. At Ft
Campbell he would be crewing night flights for a week, in the field for
a week, supporting another unit in the field for a week, and then
getting ready to do it all over again.

He spent five years in other countries without his family, missing some
of the kids' milestones, and wondering if we'd still be there for him
when he got back. He made flight facts five times for various
helicopter incidents (not actual crashes, but events that brought down
the copter for one reason or another) and dealt with some of the
strangest events a person could experience, all the while being bored
out of his skull. The libraries at remote military bases have very
little in the way of reading material, most of which we already had at
home, and Rob once read the same Robert Heinlein book over three times
because he couldn't find anything else entertaining to read. A letter
from me was a major gift. I think I instinctively understood this as an
eight page letter was a short note.

Meanwhile, I sat at home, not knowing how Rob was doing, and praying I'd
never see that Army sedan pull up to my front door and a soldier in
dress greens step out. The kids were fun, a delight to be with, but
they were still kids and sometimes I really needed to talk to an adult.
When I talked to the parents of my kids' friends, talk was always
about the kids and sometimes I wanted to talk about books, places that
would be fun to visit, hobbies, and more than just kids. I used to
fantasize what it would be like to go to a sophisticated party and not
hear anything about diapers, chicken pox, school teachers, pee wee soft
ball and so forth.

I'm getting silly now, but I really feel that each side wonders what it
would be like to belong to the other, and then is grateful for which
ever situation they are on. My kids are grown up now, and I don't have
to worry about the child stuff. I now worry about them being out too
late, and bringing home undesirable companions, the same stuff I worry
about with the cats. I can't stick the kids in an enclosure like I do
the cats, but moving them out of the house is very attractive.

Pam S.

wrote:


Wow, it just gets worse and worse, the further you read in this
description. What a horrible job! May I ask, why does he continue to
do it? Is he contracted for a certain length of time? Couldn't he
do some other kind of work? It sounds really miserable. Or is there
something about it that he likes enough to put up with nutty co-workers,
cockroaches, food poisoning, and total boredom? Not to mention being
separated from you for 4 weeks every few months. (Or is it the other
way around - gone for a few months, and home for 4 weeks?)


Someone asked me why Rob stuck with aviation, once. It has sucky hours,
low pay, poor bonuses and so forth. They're air happy. It would be
like taking a part of their souls away to take them out of the air.
Flying is not for just anyone. Rob once called it the world's greatest
roller coaster ride, and all that fun and you get paid too. Just as
there is a compulsion, or need for me to teach kids, there is a need for
those in aviation to be up there.

Not only that, but in the civilian world, the pay is pretty decent.
Before Rob was diagnosed with his brain cancer, he had a standing job
offer to inspect helicopters at a place in Kentucky, he'd receive
$3600/month, full medical and dental benefits, and so forth and he'd
still have received his retirement pay. All told we'd have received
over $6000 a month in pay and bennies, instead of the $2900 we get now
and we have to pay for our medical etc. out of it all.

Pam S.

Tanada wrote:

Someone asked me why Rob stuck with aviation, once. It has sucky hours,
low pay, poor bonuses and so forth. They're air happy. It would be
like taking a part of their souls away to take them out of the air.
Flying is not for just anyone. Rob once called it the world's greatest
roller coaster ride, and all that fun and you get paid too.

I was wondering if it was something like that. That's why I said that
Dennis must really like some things about that job to be willing to put
up with such unpleasant conditions in order to do it.

It's funny, I'm somewhat afraid of flying (used to be much worse, but
since I've done it so many times, I've gotten used to it) - but I can
still understand why someone would love being a pilot. Especially in a
small plane or helicopter, where you really feel the effects of being
in the air.

Joyce

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

But I don't understand why doing it less than 2 mins. before you
were going to step into the tub is more cruel than doing it some
other time. Or why it'd be more cruel before a bubble bath than
before a flat bath. Did you get preoccupied with mopping up the
urine and let the filling bathtub overflow?

Because I'd just sat down in the tub to relax,

Oh. You'd left out that most important detail, that it was 2 mins.
AFTER you'd sat down in the tub! Go back & read your original and
you'll see.

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

On 2006-07-06, Winnie penned:

Now you get me thinking of taking baths again instead of showers.
Have you tried Kneipp herbal bath products? They were recommended to
me by a massage therapist. I just love them.

I find that after a bath, I need a quick shower. I sweat enough in
the bath that I don't necessarily feel cleaner, just better.

My current bubble bath is some generic brand Lavender thing. Before
that I think my last bubble bath brand was Mr. Bubbles when I was a
kid!
--
There's mine: http://users.bestweb.net/~robgood/lather.html . That's
how I happened on this thread, searching for "bubble" and "bath".