July 24, 2008

Well the last 2 days have been extremely stressful. Where we got the idea that we could have another pet is beyond me. I guess we just want to give our son and family every regular household has but in reality we couldn’t deal with the added stress of another animal in the house; I guess I’m enough! 2 days ago at 6 in the morning I am woken up by the horrible stench of feces and as soon as I opened my eyes I saw the culprit; our little baby cat David. There was feces all over the pillow next to my head and it was stuck between the poor little guys paws. Under regular circumstances I can deal with this type of stuff but when you sleep as little as I do and have no free time as I do I just couldn’t handle the fact that we have something else we have to care for. Some families have many more children and several animals but I can’t deal with it as I want to spend any extra time I have with my son and my music etc. Needless to say I had to wash the poor little guys paws under the faucet and we all know how much cats like that. After cleaning the kitty litter boxes I went to throw the dirty litter bag onto the front stoop to be taken out later by Maxine when all of a sudden the cats slipped out between my legs and I was so tired I didn’t see it. As I walked back up my front steps inside the house I noticed how quite it was and realized I had let the cats out. I looked out front and couldn’t find them and as I walked around the side I saw David but not Lila. I wasn’t worried about Lila being a full grown cat. As I walked towards David of course he started to run from me so I ran and dove on him which didn’t impress him. I haven’t had to make a full on tackle for a while but lucky for me I had lots of weeds around the side of the house that the cat got caught up in as he saw me flying through the air towards him. I caught him safely and brought him into the house only to notice that he had even more feces stuck between his back toes and dried all over his fir so we had to do the bath again. I finally got him all cleaned up but I realized this is not fun and the stench in the house was out of control. Under regular circumstances I can deal with this but you have to realize that Shira lies on the floor all over the house and we have to suction her therefore we have to keep a decent level of cleanliness within our home. What is suction? We stick a suction catheter to the back of Shira’s mouth and suck out the secretions just like at the dentist but further back. So, we no longer have the cat. If the kitten was our only cat we would have kept him but since Sam already has a cat (he chose from the SPCA)Sam understood; and he still has a cat. Live and learn is the name of the game but we are often reminded of Shira’s disability or our limitations due to dealing with Shira’s disability. Its hard not to consume, consume, consume in our society and we have been living very low for a few years now. We are in uncharted territory here living and caring for Shira so our main course has stayed true with keeping life as regular as possible for Sam and delivering Shira the highest level and best care. On another note. Maxine's mother Ruth was here for the last 2 weeks. Both Sam and Shira had the best time with Ruth, reading, singing, going to Playland in Vancouver, playing at the park and the days Ruth spent with Sam at Camp Gan Israel. I know they will miss their Bubby very much as well as Maxine and I. Thank you for the joy you bring to the kids Ruth!