Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Luke helps Una clean her feet
after a walk in the snow

Yesterday morning I took our kitty, Luke, to the vet for his checkup, the first one he had while he's been under our care. We adopted him in November, but he had only been to the vet a few days before that to care for a sore he developed on his mouth due to allergies. When I contacted the vet, she said we should bring him in again on December 5, so that's what I did.

Back then, the sore was red and irritated, but it has completely healed. The vet agreed with that assessment, saying that he simply needs to stay on his prescription low allergen food, which fortunately he seems to like.

Instead of switching him to a new vet, I decided to keep him with the same one. I figured that he's already comfortable with them, and they are familiar with his health history. The veterinarian recognized him and greeted him cheerfully, and he was very good, consenting to all of her prodding and examining.

I did note, however, that when he wasn't being actively examined, he cuddled up close to me, looking for comfort. I guess even good kitties can get scared when they go to the vet, because they don't know what's going to happen.

Between taking Luke to the vet and getting groceries in the morning, most of my free time was eaten up. I did manage to work in two dog walks with Una, even though it was pretty cold yesterday.

Unfortunately, I had a bad day otherwise in that I got a migraine, probably because of having taken a nap after returning from my morning errands. I've found that I can't afford to sleep in for too long. Any disturbance in your sleep schedule can cause a migraine, whether it's not enough or too much.

The Gryphon was very sweet, tending to me, but he couldn't make the headache go away through the force of his will. I had to bear out another miserable evening, as I battled the pain and nausea while doing my regular evening assignments.

I couldn't keep any medicine down, so I had to wait until I woke up this morning to take some pain killers. They seemed to do the trick, and now I'm feeling pretty much recovered. I'm optimistic I'll have a better day.

Overnight, it snowed. We were expecting about 4-6 inches, and we got the lower end of that. I had moved my car to the front, because a neighbor told me the alleyway never gets plowed. But the street looks pretty good. I don't know if it's been plowed or if it simply melted as it fell. We're not expecting more snow until Friday.

The Gryphon very kindly did all the shoveling this morning before he left for work, which was a pleasant surprise. At my old place, the nights he stayed over, which were many, he only shoveled if I asked him to. But then again, he also knew that the upstairs neighbor frequently took care of that for me, which is one reason I left my snow shovel behind for him to keep.

Watching the snow report on a local channel, The Gryphon was in good spirits before heading out. The snow is unlikely to affect him, because he takes public transport. But sometimes there can be weather related delays.

Since there wasn't much snow to be seen, I took a few pictures of the season's first snow.

Una checks out some holiday decorations

The snow plow has little to do

Santa greets us from a snow-covered bench

Aliens leave us a Snow Circle

Una wonders if we're being followed

On the way home, Una, and I ran into a photographer for a local newspaper, who snapped some photos of her in her snow booties. I'll have to pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow and see if she made it in.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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