Merrylog

Between having a “hospice care” cat in the house for several days, the upset of losing Mookie and the changes that wrought in the household, and a very rainy day outside… the pug and I are both feeling rather snoozy. I envy her that bed, and the time to lay in it. I’m crunching serious hours over the next two days to get our newest Pampered Puppy issue to bed, and am *very much* looking forward to Sunday when I can chill out a little and relax and process everything.

Thanks to all for the kind words and sympathies. It has meant a lot to me. I miss that silly cat.

The princess pug can beg so sweetly for her treats.

It’s been sad around our house the past two days, which is why you all haven’t seen any new Merrylogs from me. Mookie, our 19 year old cat, degenerated quickly this week and we had to take her in Wednesday morning to be put to sleep. There are lots of photos in her Flickr set, for those of you following the story, including the post I made just after we got back from the vet’s and the photos we took with us on her last morning.

And yet another reason why we love our vets: they kindly sent along flowers the same day to send their condolences. When so many people in your life don’t really understand the pet-human bond and how much this kind of loss can hurt, having really great vets, and a wonderful group of readers like you, can make all the difference. Thank you, all of you, for your kind words this week.

It wasn’t until halfway through processing today’s photo for the Merrylog that I realized the subtext contained within – that Merry, too, will one day “go towards the light”. Ugh. Death is a crappy topic, isn’t it? I don’t pretend to deal with it well or gracefully. My instinct when faced with it is to either run screaming into the street or eat chocolate – and since my neighbors are sensitive about that sort of thing, I whipped up a batch of chocolate malted milk (with crushed malted milk balls) ice cream last night instead.

Enough about death. Let’s talk about fabulous light (oh, I loved the sunlight this morning) and fabulous clothing – namely, these boots and this outfit. My baby looks smashing in red.

Thanks to everyone for their support about Mookie. I’m continuing to process images of her – I have a ton that have been sitting on the back burner for ages – so if you keep an eye on her Flickr set over the next week or so, you’ll see more photos of a very cute, very difficult-to-photograph black cat. :)

Not the greatest shot, today, but one of only a few shots in existence showing Merry and Mookie, our kitty, in the same shot (they tend to avoid each other).

We learned this weekend that Mookie, (age 19) is very sick and will likely only be with us for another short while – days, likely. Her illness is being managed palliatively right now, with mild painkillers and antibiotics to kill some of the infection, but they are a short-term measure and it will not be long until we need to put her down.

I’ve grown close to this noisy, cranky old lady in the past two years – she was my fiance’s cat but since he was wanting to spend so much time at my place the last few months before we moved in together, we moved her into my condo, and then she came with us to the house. She’s been with me every day since, yowling and asking for head scratches or good long cuddles during the day while I work. I was terrified of cats when I met her, but I’ve grown to love her and cats in general thanks to her influence. See more & better photos of Mookie on Flickr.

I’ve never lost a pet before, so this will be a tough week or two. Bear with me, folks.

Loved the soft sunlight coming in from the left. Isn’t she cute? Don’t you just want to hug her?

Have a super weekend, all. I think I’m going to go hug a pug.

Merry was a very unhappy pug yesterday when she realized that it was snowing for the first time in weeks. (I wasn’t thrilled about it either – spring can’t come early enough this year for me!)

Keep your eyes peeled on DoggyDesktops next week – the photo above will be the weekly wallpaper! Fabulous fur dog coat by DogChewz NYC – read the review.

The princess pug and I played a little this morning – just short distances, just to let her get out some of her energy, since she’s been having to take it so easy with the leg. I feel bad for her – I know she’s bored – but we’re trying to keep her in “take it easy mode” until the stitches come out on Thursday.

As well, we did hear from the doctor last week and I completely forgot to tell all of you – mea culpa, relief does this to a person :) – the biopsy on the removed mast cell tumor came back and everything is good. The surgery was a complete excision and there was no migration of cells; the tumor was confirmed as a grade 1 (stage 1? sorry I don’t remember – but it’s the lowest, safest kind). Which means the princess is all taken care of and, to my knowledge, we don’t need to do anything more for her! YAY!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of her leg as it heals for the medically-inclined among you; rest assured it seems to be doing well. It was getting very crusty there for a few days but yesterday a lot of that crust seems to have fallen off and there’s a pink healthy line underneath, which I’m told is a good thing. I’ll know more tomorrow after she gets the stitches out.

Oh Merry, you’re cute as a button, but why do you sniff your foot after you’ve scratched your ears? Oh, she makes us laugh.

I had originally planned all kinds of Valentine-y photos for this week, but the princess is in no shape for full-on modelling nor did I want to have to figure out how to hide her leg gash. ;) So, this is what you get – still lovely, of course, as the princess always is.

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate it, and for those who don’t – for the love of goodness, indulge in some good dark chocolate anyway. I recommend my dark chocolate ice cream recipe, personally.

Since the princess can’t entertain you all with play shots right now, I thought I’d share one from last week’s session in the snow wearing the fabulous Liberace-like purple coat. So cute.

I can’t wait to get her playing fetch again. Didn’t realize *I* would miss it too. :)