Cauchy

We said goodbye to miss Cauchy on Monday, September 14th.

She stopped eating regularly back in June, and we got her some medicine to help. She improved her eating habits only slightly, and it had to be canned food.

Then she got super picky on what canned food, it had to have gravy. But then she wouldn't eat the "meat" she would only eat the gravy part.

I found cat bisque, which is pretty much a soup. She ate that fairly regularly. I found some food that I felt had more nutrient, and I started to puree it and add more water.

Cauchy was very dehydrated, and nothing I could do would get her to drink water more than once every few weeks. Figured if I added it too her food, at least it was something.

She would have good and bad days. Good days she would eat a ton, then she would go 1-2 days without eating anything.

Blood work came back puzzling as her kidneys, despite not drinking anything, were normal. The only thing that came back out of wack was one, just one of her liver enzymes. The vet was puzzled by that because it was alone.  She did feel a hard mass in her stomach, and we scheduled to have an ultrasound done. But ultimately we cancelled it. We decided that whatever was found, though it might be fixable, Jason and I weren't sure if she would survive a surgery with not having eaten in so long.

She had about a month between the vet and when she left us. She was cuddling more with me, and would have good and bad days eating wise. She did tons of sleeping.

We went to Tri-Cities for my brother and sister-in-laws baby shower. I put Cauchy downstairs so she would be able to move around without being bothered by Casper as she still despised him.

We got home Sunday and before I even got in the house ( I move a little slower right now) Jason had disappeared. I heard some noise downstairs so I headed that way, when Jason opened the door to the basement with her in his hand, saying she had been laying in the litter box.

He gave her a bath, and then asked me for the blow dryer. He sat in there drying her with that. I never went in, which while I think back it was probably a good thing. Jason knew before I did her true condition that night and he was protecting my heart.

She hung out in the bathroom for several hours, with him going in and drying her some more.  He finally brought her out and put her in a box and I got her a warm towel out of the dryer.  She just kind of sunk in the box, like she didn't have the energy to sit up.  I knew then it was bad. She had crawled into the litter box to die.

I kept her warm and was able to hold and cuddle her. This was very special to me, as she was a stray who just walked in one day and was never big on cuddling or being held or anything. But she put her head on my shoulder and under my chin, and just let me hold her.

I told her she could leave, it would be okay.

I put her back in the box and made sure she was wrapped up warm. I heard her meow 3 times early Monday morning, and I just knew she was gone,

I got up Monday morning, and though I knew when I went to bed Sunday night it was her last night, it was still hard finding her gone Monday morning.

We had her cremated like her sister Bluebell and Fergus and she is back home sitting on the piano next to them. Our home is emptier, but she isn't suffering anymore.

Below are just a few pictures taken of her during 13 years we had the honor of sharing with her.

Taken Summer of 2015

Both were thirsty

Resting in the carrier with her mouse

January 2015

September 2, 2015 She was laying on me, which had never happened before.
12 days before she died

Sunning the belly

Blocking the heat for the rest of us

Best Buddies-Abner and Cauchy

I found a comfy spot!

I will lay anywhere.

Love you Cauchy!

Baby Flynn- 20 Weeks

I am just a little behind posting. Sorry.

We had our 20 week ultrasound on September 4th. Luckily Jason made it back from his work trip.
That was quite the ordeal.

He got to Seattle just fine, but just after he let me know this, he got an alert saying that his flight to Pullman was cancelled. He goes to the ticket counter and they know nothing about the flight being cancelled-so Google knew about it before the airlines did.

The ticketing desk finally gets confirmation that the flight to Pullman is cancelled due to weather. The weather in Pullman/Moscow was gorgeous, so it wasn't on our end.

Needless to say I was starting to panic that Jason wouldn't be back in time for our ultrasound at 8am. He was on his way to talk to the ticketing agent to get a rental car voucher, so he could drive the 6 hours home, when they were notified that they were being flown into Lewiston.

GREAT!!! Yes it is a further drive for me, but I was just excited that he would be home. So I headed down to Lewstion to pick up him at midnight (mind you, I am usually in bed by 11 at the latest).

Fast forward to the morning, and we head to the hospital for our ultrasound.  It was so cold that morning!

We get started early, amazing I know! I got covered in warm blankets, gotta love those.  Little stinker wasn't holding still for all the measurements she needed to take. And then when we wanted to verify gender, baby wouldn't move for a good picture.

Finally after some prodding baby moved and we got visual verification that we are having a little BOY!!!  We have known since 14 weeks, since that is what the NIPS test told us we were having, but nice to see the little "turtle" as the ultrasound tech called it.

We had decided on a name already; Colm. His name means dove or peace. Middle names, yes names are still being decided. They will either be Jack Albert or Marcus Albert, we just aren't sure which set yet.

We are excited, now just need to start working on his room, after we, (I mean Jason) finishes other projects (current one is installing an Iron Clear filtration system and an on demand water heater).

**Update: 24 weeks
I haven't been able to feel much of anything because of an anterior placenta. This means Colm has much more to push through for me to feel things.

However, I have noticed more flutters or bubbles on 9/27 & 9/28 while I am just sitting. I am excited to be able to fell him, though I am sure my thoughts will change in a few months and I want to sleep. :)  However right now I will take it.

In the bottom picture above he has his nose in the placenta.

We were also told that one of his kidneys was measuring 2 mm bigger than normal. Doctor said not to worry since the normal only covers 95% of people. I had to tell myself that I am not surprised, since I have been an outlier on many things myself.  We will do another ultrasound some time in October.  So we will get to see him 4 times instead of the normal 2! They just want to see if it has gotten bigger or stayed where it was. They can't do anything until he is born if the kidney is bigger, but we will have a plan of action in place if it comes it it. In the mean time, I can't do anything about it, so I am not stressing and it would do neither of us any good.