Week 4 - Connie and Jay

Monday started with clearing and cleaning. I must have made a dozen trips up and down the stairs between putting stuff away (throwing stuff in the basement, really) and doing load after load of laundry. Then the actual cleaning started – dusting, floors, etc. I even put down the new rugs that I'd bought for the front room and hallway. By the time I went to knitting, the spare room was spotless and the door was shut to keep the cats out. Mission accomplished!

There was more winter weather on the way so I got up early on Tuesday and was drinking coffee when I got an email that UNL was closed. Knock me over with a feather! That was amazing news because I’d spent all weekend working and was exhausted. I happily sat in my chair, drinking coffee and watching the snow fall. We only got an inch of snow so I didn’t even bother to shovel. Apparently Lincoln got more, which is why everything in Lincoln was closed. I drove over the snow and headed to work Wednesday, happy that I’d had the extra day off. And who doesn’t love a 3 day week?

And the days flew by. I went to Notes @ Noon on Wednesday, which is usually music but this time was dance. Interesting. I swam after work that night and then finished the last cleaning (bathroom and a few pots & pans) on Thursday after work. Connie would get to Lincoln Friday morning but would be hanging with Rachele and then would come to swimming, which felt like old times. Connie and I started swimming together 12 years ago right before she left UNL and moved to Peru State. After water aerobics, we met Rachele at Toast for dinner and then Connie and I headed home. We’d be back in Lincoln on Saturday morning for more shopping and eating.

When I got home, I found a message that Jay, one of my Love cats, had been picked up by Animal Control earlier in the week and was at the Humane Society ready for pick up. This explained why I hadn’t seen Jay all week, which was unusual. I shoveled out the entrance to the storm drain on Wednesday morning and then dug a bigger hole on Thursday but still hadn’t seen him. Apparently he’d gotten lost in the storm drains and come up blocks from where he lives. Anyway, the Humane Society was open from noon to 4:00 on Saturday so that worked to pick him up.

Connie and I had yogurt for breakfast and chatted over coffee, which was wonderful. We headed to meet Rachele at Trader Joe’s in Lincoln and from there went to Bed, Bath and Beyond before hitting Noodles for lunch. We split up from there – Rachele to her house to drop off groceries and Connie and I to get the cat then head home. Rachele would meet us in Wahoo to hang out and have something easy for dinner. That was the plan anyway.

First stop was to pick up Jay and drop him back on campus but when we got to the Humane Society, they said that he wasn’t healthy like when he’d arrived and now had a blazing upper respiratory infection. I called Belinda, who told me which vet would be open and made a 2:30 appointment to get him a shot before dropping him back on campus. But that didn’t quite work out.

When I got to the vet, the tech immediately recognized Jay as a Love Library cat because he goes to UNL. When the vet came in, he helped convince him that Jay was more than a normal feral and wasn’t a health risk. This was crucial because when they took him out of the cage and flipped him over, the snot nose took a back seat. Jay had a ruptured abscess on his stomach and had licked all the fur off of his stomach, which explained why he had mats all over his sides and back for the first time in his life. He’d spent all his grooming time on his stomach. The vet took one look and said Jay needed surgery. OMG! I told him to go ahead with the surgery and left him there. Being a 7 day/week vet, I would be picking him up Sunday afternoon.

Connie and I headed home, calling Rachele to say we were on our way. We watched Solo (the Star Wars movie) and had cheese and crackers for dinner rather than cook. When the movie was over, we just sat and talked for hours. It’s always wonderful when Connie visits. She would be leaving early on Sunday because she had to pick up her co-worker in Sioux Falls and then drive all the way home from there. We went to bed relatively early so she’d be well rested for her drive.

After a quick cup of coffee, Connie was off by 8:00. I had been looking forward to a day at home but now had to drive to Lincoln to pick up Jay and borrow a big cage for him to recuperate in. I did get to enjoy the morning and then headed south right after lunch, stopping at Belinda’s to borrow the cage and at the market for kitty litter and wet food for Jay. When I picked him up, he had a cone on! The vet said it had gone well and I had 4 days of an anti-inflammatory to give him but could mix it into his food. He was a dream in the car, not making a peep. I set up the cage and got Jay set up. 

I did a single load of laundry to get me though the next week and spent the evening incessantly checking on Jay. The cone was in the way of his eating so I had to put his food into 50’s insulated plastic sundae cups so the cone could go around it. I figured it out and he ate some. He was totally freaked out but he still wasn’t making any noise so I was able to sleep well Sunday night. I had hopes that he’d be back on campus in a week.