Goodbye, Sweet Sara

The Rainbow Bridge just got a little more crowded today. Mom and Dad's cat, sweet little Sara, joined the countless other faithful kitties who have crossed over to a land of no pain, no fear, and endless birds to watch.
Rest easy, sweet girl.

You're not supposed to bite the hand that feeds you...

...but I guess Sara thought it was ok to bite the hand that was trying to make her swallow medicine. Who would have thought that this sweet little girl would bite?

Not only did she bite, but she also passed along some nasty germs. Mom and dad were giving Sara her medicine on Wednesday, when Sara decided she would rather not take the nasty stuff, thank-you-very-much. By Thursday morning, mom's finger was red and swollen and very painful, and her arm was red and hot up to the shoulder, and her lymph nodes were swollen and sore. Time for a visit to the Emergency Room. After that, they called the Orthopedic Surgeon who replaced mom's knees, and he wanted to see her right away. You certainly don't want an infection to spread to the knee joints. That's bad news! Mom is now on an antibiotic and she goes back to the Ortho on Monday. If the finger isn't much, much better, they will have to open it up. Ugh. It makes me weak in the knees just thinking about it.

Good News All Around!

Thank you everyone for the good vibes that were sent our way. My nephew (a.k.a. Pitchfork Boy) is home from the hospital and doing really well. Also home is mom and dad's sweet cat Sara. The results of her bloodwork show that she has Graves Disease. This is the better of the two things our wonder-vet was suspecting, so we are all thrilled with this diagnosis.

As soon as Emma, Tara and Cooper heard that their cousin Sara was home from her overnight stay at the Vee-Eee-Tee, they sent us to the grocery store to buy all of Sara's favorite things. Here is Sara supervising the unpacking of her "goodies":

Yum! Salmon, Tuna, and Shrimp!!! Sara is saying "Hurry up Mommy - I haven't felt like eating in days and days, but I'm so excited about my shrimp!!!"

Yum, yum, yum. Gotta love shrimp!
You might notice that Sara (all four pounds of her!) is sitting on the kitchen counter eating her shrimp. Sara is never allowed on the counter. Never! Counters and tables are strictly off limits. If dad sees Sara on the counter, he'll look at her and say "CAT....get down" and Sara jumps right down. Hey - no one questions my dad! Well, guess who lifted her up and put her on the counter? Dad! That just shows how close they were to losing this sweet girl.

Nobody likes being in the hospital!

Two dear sweet souls with close ties to BritKnitterville are hospitalized, and it's safe to say that neither one is enjoying their experience.

This sweet girl is Sara. She is my mom and dad's cat - a Japanese Bobtail. She is 15 years old (or maybe 16? I'm not sure) and has had "digestive issues" all her life. Poor thing was very lethargic over the weekend, not eating, etc. and when mom and dad took her to the vet this morning, she weighed in at only 4 pounds. That's almost half her normal weight. The vet kept her to do bloodwork and give her an appetite stimulant. Sara has had bad spells like this before, and our wonder-vet has always managed to pull her through. We'll have the results of the bloodwork tomorrow. I don't know how many of Sara's nine lives she has left, but I'm just hoping and praying there's at least one more for her.

This sweet boy is my 6-year-old nephew, hugging his baby sister and his mommy.
He put a pitchfork through his foot last week. Ouch! Needless to say he was rushed to the local Emergency Room, and after much too long a wait, and sub-standard (in my opinion) care, he was sent home again. The next morning, his foot was red and swollen and painful, so off he went to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. After days of spiking fevers and bouts of vomiting, he is thankfully doing much better now. He just might be discharged tonight, but if not, he will probably come home tomorrow. I can't say enough good things about this hospital. One of my nieces spent quite a bit of time there when she was young, and it's a wonderful facility full of caring professionals. In this case, though, I think some of the credit for healing his poor little foot should go to the Nintendo DS that his aunts bought him and took to the hospital yesterday. He told one of the nurses that his foot doesn't hurt so much while he is playing with the Nintendo.

How's that for proof of the healing power of video games?