This is the Mother's Day ecard that my son sent my way yesterday.  I'm sure psychiatrists would love to get their hands on him...and me for enjoying it.  =D

When I make an appointment, I write it into my pocket calendar that I keep in my purse. When I made Lily's appointment, I wrote it in as 10 AM. While at the vet with Thomas, I tried to confirm it as 10 AM but was told it was actually 10:30 AM. I don't usually make these sorts of mistakes. On Saturday, I got a reminder call about Lily's 10:15 AM appointment. Then Sunday I saw the email reminder for Lily's 10:30 AM appointment. Today, Monday, they just called and asked if I could change my 10:15 AM appointment to 10 AM. Yeah, I'll get right on that.

Well, the vet took out the drain from Thomas' chin but wants the cone to stay on until Monday.  At least Thomas is past the groggy part and can hold his head and the cone up instead of dragging it on the ground.  But Thomas needs extra space with his cone so that means Lily and I will still be sleeping in the guest bedroom for a few more days.

We were finally able to pick up Thomas from the vet around 8 PM last night. The problem caught us all by surprise. Thomas has wonderful teeth...no plaque build-up at all. For some unknown reason, he had a cavity (I'm not sure but it could possibly be this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_odontoclastic_resorptive_lesion) that caused an abscess. He had the tooth removed and has a drain in his jaw at the moment and a "cone of shame" to keep him from removing it, plus a maxi pad attached to the cone to absorb the drainage. The cone and drain are to be removed Thursday night.

In the meantime, Vincent is having hissy fits about the cone on Thomas so we are trying to keep them apart. Steve and Thomas slept in the master bedroom. Lily and I slept in the guest bedroom. Vincent was on his own. I think he spent the night on the sofa or in the bow window. I don't think any of us got much sleep last night, with the possible exception of Vincent.

Thomas is being kept in the master bedroom to minimize interaction with the other fur balls. I'll know he's on the mend when he starts to object to his forced separation.

Final note: Thomas is about 20 lbs of strong and determined feline. He gave the vet crew hell. The vet was sporting some decent scratches on his hands and told us that they clipped Thomas' nails and had to wrap his paws to keep them safe.

Seriously, even talking about snakes upsets me.  I get agitated and tend to wring my hands.  Seeing a snake makes me want to hurl.  Whenever the weather is nice, and I take my dog, Lily, into the back yard, I have seen a snake or two.  So far, I think the two kinds of snakes I have seen have both been of the harmless variety.  That doesn't lessen the panic-y feeling for me or keep me from hauling Lily back inside.  I am still frightened out of my wits when I see one.  Since I had an exterminator out to handle a termite infestation in our garage, I also asked him if there was anything he could do about the snake problem.  He used a product called Snake-A-Way. 

I think the reason I have snakes is that my one neighbor has his back yard abutting mine and he has a rather large garden.  Snakes don't want to live in his yard because he uses a rototiller.  So my yard is a handy place to live while they go eat the vermin that his garden attracts.  I had Steve buy some of that Snake-A-Way so we can keep treating the yard ourselves.

My daughter and grandson are visiting for a week or three.  They are in the midst of moving to NJ from VA.  Until their house is set up, Stephanie and Logan are with us.  Babies cry...a lot.  Babies sleep...a lot.  I am so far behind on my regular household chores, I don't expect to catch up until April.  Either I'm helping calm Logan down, watching him  while Stephanie does basic maintenance (eating, getting a bit more sleep, showering, brushing her teeth), or else we are all doing things that are quiet so as not to disturb Logan's sleep.  But every once in a while we have great weather and Stephanie takes him for a walk.  That is my chance to get some work done.  Yesterday was rainy but today is so spring-like, I can hardly believe it.

Since Steve and I don't need more clutter in the house, we've been giving each other alternative gifts.  For Valentine's Day, I found this and sent it to him...

OK. Who in their right mind thinks that a white carpet is appropriate for a LIVING ROOM?!? Especially where the back yard is chock full of RED CLAY!?! I will eventually get around to replacing this carpet, but in the meantime I will need a carpet cleaner. I wish the people who had the place before us had more sense. =(