Still Missing...

and very much missed. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement. This has been a rough week.

We're Sad.

Dexter hasn't come home since Monday morning. Charles is very upset. He normally comes in several times a day. He's not at the local animal shelter, he's not road kill nearby, so we're not sure what's going on. Very sad.

Dexter's Impersonation of a Poodle

Yep, a poodle. Charles says I'm insulting HIS cat. Dexter came in Friday morning and complained when I rubbed his tail -- further inspection found a swollen spot about 1/2 way up it. Off to the vet he went, to discover something had bitten him and his tail had started to abscess. So we are now doing antibiotics. In order to drain the abscess, they had to shave most of his tail. I told him this is what happens when you "zig" when you should "zag". We think from the bite marks it was a rodent -- he normally leaves "presents" fairly intact, but there was a shredded rodent on the front porch that morning. It was either that or the garden snake he killed the day before, except the bites were too far apart to be that snake.

Ah well, he's feeling much better and did his best fe-lion impression in the backyard yesterday while tormenting a chipmunk.

Thursday Thoughts

WooHOO -- Dexter is using the litter box again!!! He's also now sporting a pretty royal blue collar. So far when we let him out to roam he's coming back in an hour or so when called. We're skeptical about having an indoor/outdoor cat, but he's being pretty stubborn about it. I had to laugh this morning though... we are getting a "wintery mix", mostly snow at the moment. Of course, he was adamant about his outdoor time... until he got out there. He licked the snow... sniffed it... walked around the tree, then hid under the molded slide thing, only peeking his head out to see if he was still getting wet. I think his outside time lasted maybe 5 minutes today? LOL!

Charles is doing well, thank you to those who have asked. HIs finger still has some redness and one hard spot, but otherwise he is very much back to normal. Hopefully that is our last medical emergency for quite a while. I'm afraid Connor might be getting sick though. He's been really irritable and teary lately, and that's normally a sign he doesn't feel well. Only time will tell.

We have a busy weekend coming up -- Duncan's cub scout pack is holding their Pinewood Derby on Saturday morning. Duncan's car this year is done to resemble (as best we can) the transformer Crumblezone. He's getting help from the Uncle of his best scout buddy on it, so hopefully we'll have much better results this year. With 105 boys in the pack, and every car running at least four times, it's going to be a LONG morning.

Sorry I haven't put any new pictures up on the photo blog, but January is just not my best month for feeling well and energy. I promise to try and do better!

Friday Catchup

Let's see... where did I leave off? My dental appointment went surprisingly well -- I was really scared when they have to numb you to clean, but it was a non-event. One quadrant down, two more to go (I don't have to do the fourth one). Dexter sailed through his neutering with flying colors, and has already seemed to chill out a little from our hyper little furrball. He's got a microchip now, and I think he's done on his shots until April. We'll find out at his follow-up visit on 10/17. Scouts went well Tuesday night -- they worked on their citizen pin. This upcoming Saturday they have a community service event, but I'm sending Charles to that with Duncan. Wednesday brought soccer for Connor -- he had alot more hustle (still not really fast but improving), and was a little more attentive.

I feel like I've bled money on the kids this week -- lunch money, book fair $$, field trip $$, scout dues & camping fee... sheesh. At the end of the month are school pictures so it feels like a never ending thing.

Duncan is about 1/3 of the way to his popcorn goal so far. We still have many houses in the neighborhood to hit so hopefully we'll make alot of progress this weekend. He got to go on a field trip to the local fair this week -- his artwork took a second place ribbon this year. I am very proud of my little artist.

Hopefully this finds all my readers well. Have a great weekend!