By Circe -

I was all set to post something chipper today, about turning 42 in a month. Some chatter about plans, the requisite Hitchhiker's Guide jokes, speculation about whether I could swing getting myself some show tickets or Yet Another Pair Of Shoes.

But instead, I have to say goodbye to Cheese tomorrow.

He's had intermittent breathing issues for a while. So far he's always recovered to his normal self, albeit not before having a rotten couple of hours and panicking his Mommy a lot. And he came back the last time as well, but he seems just... tired. The ordinary Old Rat problems have started to creep in, unrelated to his lungs. His back feet aren't a lot of help anymore. He can boost himself straight up about three tries out of every four, but if he tries to reverse or change direction, his hips tip out from under him, and he rolls onto his side. He's stopped trying to groom his hind end, and has very limited tolerance for me coming at him with baby wipes. 

I can keep him pretty well decongested, but it involves a lot of Benadryl. He's stable for the moment, but eternally sleepy. It's all right for a few days, but not much of a life. He asks for a lot of ibuprofen. I think he's ready to rejoin his brother.

Right now we are on Day 2 of his going-away féria. So far Cheese has had two entire cocktail shrimp plus several of my leftover tails, macaroni and cheese with chunks of the nice canned tuna, some apple, some strawberries, some blueberries, countless Cheerios, and roughly his own body weight in fresh cantaloupe. His dinner last night was a chunk of melon the size of his own head, and I watched him sit there and gnaw it all the way down to the rind. Oh, and as much butterscotch pudding as his wee little heart desires, which as it turns out is a lot. And on top of all that, he's just flipped today's dinner bowl over to dig the frozen peas out of the bottom.

I have no idea where he's putting it. He's not that big a rat. 

When he's not sleeping or eating, Cheese is getting all the pets he'll tolerate. He's fond of being rubbed behind the ears so gently I'm only just tickling the longest guard hairs on his coat. I think this might be rat ASMR. We've gotten some good boggles in.

I never use Lyft for myself, but Cheese hates the T almost as passionately as he loves cantaloupe, so for once I'll be calling a car for the trip out. I can get back by myself on the train, where I don't have to talk to anyone.

I'm always torn up when I have to make the call myself, but at least I know that way I give them the best possible life, right up until the last moment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By Circe -
About a week ago, I crewed a show at the studio theater for a non-profit outfit up from New York. The guys who run it are friends of our executive artistic director, and they come up two or three times a year. I like them; I dealt with them a bunch when I was at the box office, because when you're the most experienced person they have around they hand you all of the EAD's friends, and I have an unofficial standing request to work their shows even when I'm not the only crew who is both in town and not drowning in finals. One of the guys, as it turns out, is laid up with an injury right now, so the other one had to fly solo, on top of performing in the show. I ran into him coming down the stairs as I was going up, and as soon as he saw me he just lit up like, oh, it's you!  How are you are you working are you going to be my box office again! I told him I'd swapped over to doing tech and he asked if I was disappointed that I didn't get to dress up anymore. I
Read more

The mystery of "Himmmm"

By Circe -
[Note: This entry has been edited from its original publication. See here for explanation.] The gossip blogs are alight today with the breaking news that some dude who leaves a lot of comments at a site called Crazy Days And Nights  under the screen name "Himmmm" is "really" Robert Downey, Jr. Nobody has any proof, of course, and there has been no comment from RDJ -- possibly because the story is too new, possibly because it's true and he'd rather not have to lie, possibly because it's not true and he thinks it's too funny for words. Normally, I just laugh at these things, because really, who the fuck cares beyond the entertainment value? But one of the more interesting things about "Himmmm" is that he seems to have made it a point to go after people who have done Really Bad Things. He's most famous for popping in and letting other commenters play 20 Questions about who's being talked about in the most recent blind item, and  c
Read more

WARNING! Sweeping generalizations inside!

By Circe -
Captain Awkward -- who is one of my new favorite people, by the by -- has apparently been getting a lot of flack from her post about creepiness and how not to engage in it . I say flack specifically because it's not necessarily all directed at her personally, but when you're in the middle of a field of anti-aircraft guns all firing in random directions, you're likely to get some shrapnel in your hide whether anyone is aiming at you or not. One of the running arguments down in the comments (in her blog, in other blogs, on reddit, on the astral plane, etc.) is about whether it makes a difference whether someone is painfully socially awkward, has Asperger's or an autism spectrum disorder, or is just a boundary-free creepy fucker, whether these things are comorbid a lot, and what to do about it. I think it's really damn easy to tell the difference between them, myself. I suspect it's because I do tact about like a Panzer tank does ballet. The people who seem to
Read more