Tag: patches

Good/Bad Pets

Daily writing prompt
What animals make the best/worst pets?
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I don’t think any pet is a bad pet if you love it. Some would be more… challenging than others, but in the interest of discussion let’s start with the good pet while I think of an answer for a bad pet.

You don’t have to scroll far into the history of this blog to figure out my answer. Cats. Cats are the best because they take work. There’s none of that unconditional love shit with cats. You have to earn their love and respect. You have to convince them that you’re their humans. It’s possible that they might think that we are their pets rather than the other way around, but that’s okay with me.

Okay… what animals make bad pets… besides none, of course. I was going to say something prone to serious violence like an alligator with anger management issues, or a rabid tiger. Instead I am going to borrow my answer from an early South Park episode.

An elephant would suck as a pet. As Kyle said on South Park, its poop would be bigger than your couch. If it tried to cuddle up against you it would squash you to jelly. That doesn’t sound like a terribly pleasant pet/human interaction at all! Yeah, an elephant as a pet would kind of suck.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today (later tonight, actually) we lost our kitty, Miss Patches. After the work day ended, Jen noticed she was walking funny. Sort of in a sideways manner. I took her to a vet and we learned she was riddled with cancer and there was nothing we could do for her.

It was the first time in my adult life that I lost a pet, and probably the first time since I was a toddler. It was a sad night. The kids and Jen and I all met at the vet and said our goodbyes. Poor little kitty.

Here are a few pics taken from her last week with us. Rest in peace, you little puke machine of a fur ball.

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Happy Patches Day

On this date in the year 2010 our family adopted a cat for the first time. Her name before she was picked up by the MSPCA shelter was Panic but they changed it to Panache. We changed it to Patches and she was the best neurotic cat who was afraid of everything and who would vomit almost daily you could ever dream of adopting. She was an amazing cat and we all loved her like crazy. She passed away on December 27, 2022 and we were very sad. Speaking for myself, I still am. I miss my little nutjob of a kitty.

Dogs or Cats

Daily writing prompt
Dogs or cats?
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If you’ve visited this page before, you know the answer to this question already.

Before I was born my parents moved from Dorchester to Tewksbury. From the city to the suburbs, which from their point of view was sort of like the most rural place in the known universe. They were both under the impression that living in the country meant you had to have pets. They were wrong, but it took time to figure it out. They got a dog. It might have been two dogs. The experiments ended badly. I don’t know the details, but they got rid of them after a relatively short period of time.

At some point after I came into the picture with my curly red hair that magically straightened itself by the time I was old enough to go to school but seems to be coming back now that I am an old fart my mother’s little sister’s cat, Heidi, had kittens. One of those kittens came to live with us. Her name was Fluffy. Fluffy Puffy to be precise. Our house was on a busy state highway and it wasn’t long before our indoor cat got out and bought it while trying to cross the road. That was it as far as pets were concerned. Well, apart from some fish and a short lived hamster. I don’t have any memories of dogs but I do have some vague impressions of the cat. Just a weird image of me chasing it down the hallway.

From then on I have been a cat person, but it wasn’t until we bought our house in 2010 that I stopped being the guy who loved other people’s cats and started being someone who lived with cats.

Patches came first. We adopted her shortly after we moved into the new house.

Scale and Observation
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My first pic with an iPhone 6 plus.

Patches was literally, objectively, the best cat ever. We lost her to cancer a couple of days after Christmas last year.

Earlier this year we adopted Robin and Lily. We went to the MSPCA looking for two cats that were bonded together already. Lily is Robin’s kitten and in order to adopt one we had to adopt both. That was perfect, just like they are.

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Rest in Peace, Miss Patches

Rest in Peace, Miss Patches

I took that picture tonight just after work. We had ordered some dinner and I was sitting on the chair in the living room messing around with my camera. She came into the room for a second, I snapped a pic, she walked out.

A few minutes later Jen said she seemed to be having trouble breathing. She was wheezing a little and her sides were extended, almost swollen. She was purring, but it had a weird high pitched sound. Jen said she was walking a little sideways too. Clearly something was wrong.

We put her into the cat carrier and she didn’t fight us at all. That’s a clear sign that she wasn’t right. I took her to a veterinary hospital in Lawrence, at the spot on route 114 where the Showcase Cinema used to be. They took her right in while I stayed in the lobby filling out the paperwork, and then I just sat there waiting. Eventually they brought me into a room and I continued to wait until the doctor came in.

She told me Patches was having a bad time. Her chest was full of fluid and it was putting pressure on her heart and lungs which made it difficult to breath. She said they could try to do a few things that would ease the pressure, but there really wasn’t anything they could do to fix her. They could keep her alive but they couldn’t make her well, and that wouldn’t be much of a life for her.

I called Jen and we agreed that it would be better to let her go. I went home while Jen called the kids. They came to the house too and then we all went back to the hospital to say goodbye. They brought us to a cozy little room and then brought a very sedated Patches in with us. We spent a few minutes showering her with love and affection and then the doctor came in and gave her an injection. She fell asleep almost immediately and then was gone shortly after.

She will be cremated tomorrow. They will send us the ashes. I’m not sure what will happen after that. I am sure that I am going to miss that tiny little baby kitty, even more than I ever would have expected.

Rest in peace, Miss Patches. Panic Panache Patches. Lady Penelope Clearwater. Lady Pachelot of the Rhode Island Pachelots. What else did we call her… Oh yeah, Alexander Pachelton.

Is Patches Sick?

I am in the waiting room at a veterinary hospital in Lawrence. Patches was breathing funny and making a weird noise as she prrred. She was also sort of hitching her back with each breath and she seemed to be walking a little funny.

Jen called a vet hospital and told them we were coming. I drove over with Patches in the cat carrier sitting on the front seat. It’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. I wonder how long it’s been since Miss Kitty has felt cold like that.

I’m worried about her but I’m also pretty sure I’m overreacting. Not that I know what I’m talking about. She’s also 15 years old so she’s pretty elderly. I’m still convinced she’s going to live five more years at least, but I hate to see her struggling.

The staff took her away from me as soon as we came in the door. I’m sitting in a waiting room, hoping she’s being a good kitty for the docs.

De-Holiday

Remember that scene in The Grinch when there’s nothing left in the house except for some crumbs that are too small for a mouse?

We took down all of the christmas decorations tonight so they wouldn’t be hanging over our heads as we prep for the trip to Disney.

This is all that’s left:

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Patches is confused.