Well, a Muskrat is eating Twitter,
and back I come to see if I can remember how to organize thoughts in paragraphs longer than 280 characters. (That shouldn’t be hard. Editing tweets down to the character limit is usually hard. But somehow a journal-style post seems to demand more energy and thought — or at least forethought, not off-the-cuff quips.) Even in 2005, in the LJ era, I was always an erratic journaler. I suspect I shall be even more erratic here. But look how long-winded I’ve already let myself become!

(I’m typing this on a phone, so real dedication at work.)

( Let’s see. What’s happened recently? )

I mentioned on Twitter that I've been looking for The Untamed icons that fit my ~vibe~ but still haven't found anything I like as much as this photo of Yu Ziyuan bloody and exhausted on the steps of Sword Hall, for which SOMEDAY I'll write an AU where Yu Ziyuan lives and leads the Sunshot Campaign. A couple people did volunteer to try their hand at iconing the image after I promised the first three paragraphs of the AU. And, well.

300 words is pretty much the same as three paragraphs, right?

( ride the winds westward )

Ending it there for now, before I get too carried away with myself; I've got Chapter 8 of cast your bitterness into the sea still awaiting completion soon, and it's entirely too nice a day to spend entirely inside!

(The title, btw, is altered from Yilin Wang’s translation of Qiu Jin’s poem, which begins ‘don’t speak of how women can’t become heroes')

( and here's the photo itself for your inspirational needs )

A couple of weeks ago, while petting Lynx, I noticed a small hard lump on the inside of her right forearm. It didn't feel like a scab or a cyst. We took her into the vet, and he agreed. After a week of observation resulted in no changes, we scheduled her for a minor surgery to remove the lump.

The morning of fasting pre-surgery was hard on all of us. Lynx was certain we'd simply forgotten to feed her because we didn't love her anymore, and she used all her wiles to remind us that she is the most sweet & lovable cat in existence. When I stood in the kitchen making coffee, she lay down on the floor against the backs of my ankles; when I was working at the computer, she pinned my typing arm down with her full weight and purred her little heart out in hopes I would take pity on her. She also tried to eat 3 receipts, 1 paper towel, the tablecloth, my breakfast, and my wife's breakfast (she's usually never interested in cereal!)

Alas, all hopes were thwarted, and we took her still starving to the vet. Then spent an afternoon in anxiety ourselves, before picking her up that evening.

She'd only been lightly sedated & had a local anesthetic for the surgery, but she was still SO drugged. She couldn't walk without tipping over, didn't seem to recognize me, didn't recognize her surroundings -- she kept pacing, falling over, bumping her poor cone-shielded head into everything, and getting stuck because she couldn't realize that the cone was holding her back. Her only solace was, eventually, finding a moment's rest on her beloved pig quilt (I will never be able to repay my debt to forestofglory for making it!)

By the time we went to bed about 11 pm, she still hadn't eaten, drunk, or relaxed enough to come back to my lap. But she was beginning to regain some awareness. She knew that when we went to bed, she did too--and she jumped up onto the bed with us after only one failed attempt! She rambled around a lot under the covers too, as if she couldn't remember how snuggling worked, but eventually spent most of the night between my wife's legs. Finally, around 4:30 am, she remembered that Her Place is spooned against my chest with my arm bracing her belly. We all slept a little better for the last few hours of the morning.

This morning has still been pretty rough. She's spent a lot of time on her blanket, although she did briefly remember that she sits on my lap while I drink my coffee on the couch; and eventually she made it to the chair beside my computer desk, where she snoozed for most of the morning. I felt okay about leaving her briefly to stretch my legs & eat lunch outside. But when I came back in about 1:20, she was throwing up. She still hasn't eaten or drunk, so all she could manage was a little yellow bile, but combined with the constriction of the cone around her throat it was still pretty awful.

I took the cone off her & called the vet. He's not concerned yet, and agreed we could keep the cone off if she's not bothering the wound (he used invisible sutures so there's nothing to chew, but if she licks the wound it could still get infected -- especially since she's not eating yet and I can't get the antibiotic into her). If she doesn't eat or drink by 5 pm I'll drop by the vet's office for some special food to see if we can tempt her appetite back. If THAT doesn't work by tomorrow morning...

Well, we're keeping our fingers crossed. Fortunately the vet office is just 5 minutes away, and he'll be in tomorrow if she needs anything more.



EDIT JUST TO HAVE THIS IN ONE PLACE: As of 4:30 pm she still hasn’t eaten, but she’s started purring again, she asked for belly rubs, and she’s just now used the litter box! Both urine and feces, YAY—at least her digestive system is working again, so her appetite may return.

EDIT 6:30 pm: We got some of the ID appetite-stimulating food from the vet, and she’s both eaten (maybe half a teaspoon?) and drunk a little. RELIEF!!!

EDIT 7:45 pm: She started licking her wound site so we put the cone back on for an hour or so, but removed about 7:30 to give her a chance to eat a bit more (some dry food) and play. She’s happy to chase the string as usual, whereas with the cone she’d be bumping into everything. We’ll put it back on later this evening, though, as we do need to keep her from licking and possibly infecting the wound.

We also managed to get maybe half of the painkiller dose in—the rest squirted out and was lost. Still better than the last time we tried to dose her with a syringe though, when she started foaming at the mouth and even the vet gave up!

FINAL EDIT, 9:24 pm: Lynx finally finished off her serving of the special vet food, along with the powered antibiotic we’d mixed in—yay! Both doses of meds for the first time. She even got to eat a few mouthfuls of dry food as a treat. We’re putting the cone back on for the the night though as she keeps trying to lick the wound.

Massive relief over all: she’s eating and drinking, her digestive system is working, and now we just need to wait for the biopsy results!