Mom called me yesterday in the middle of the day to tell me that Spats was "not doing well" and she had taken him to the vet. Well not only was he not doing well, they thought he was in the advanced stages of renal failure, was suffering greatly and we should put him down as he would only last days to weeks, but most of it pain-filled. He apparently had lost 3 pounds (about a quarter of his body weight) since his last annual checkup, was dehydrated, lethargic, and had been puking all over the house for the better part of a week. The vet gave him subcutaneous fluids and took a blood sample, and mom took him home to see how he did and wait for the blood test to come back. The vet said if it wasn't renal failure it may be a tumor, but other than that she had no idea. Regardless, Spats was not doing well. (Not to mention, I started worrying about Jack, how he was handling having a sick buddy and how he would deal with being an only cat if we had to put spats down...)

So I was sniffling all through trying to finish up some of my work and sat antsily through my class, decided to skip my evening class, and went home to spend the evening with Spats in the event we would have to put him down Saturday. Anyway I pretty much teared up constantly all evening yesterday and I'm just completely exhausted today, but that's beside the point.

When I went home Spats was still rather lethargic and I let him out on the porch. He wasn't moving very quickly and was only barely nudging his face up on a box he usually would have jumped up on. So I put him up on it and he sat there for a bit, then moved over onto the bench where it was sunnier, and eventually as the sun kept moving he moved back to the box. Finally once the sun was completely gone from the porch he came and sat on my lap, and I couldn't help but notice how light he was and how surprisingly bony he felt. I don't know how long he's been sick or how rapid any of his weight loss or dehydration was, but this seems rather sudden. And we can't really tell how long he has been under-eating because there's a really good chance that Jack has been making up for that.

At any rate. I cuddled with him as much as he would allow but it was very sad. When he would go to clean himself or shake his head or anything, he would get about a half second into it and then stop. It is very odd to see a cat that hasn't cleaned themselves well, you can tell something is wrong. Finally when I was struggling to keep my eyes open but was sitting on the stairs petting him, he walked upstairs all the way to my room and hopped up on my bed. I should mention that it's not uncommon when I go home for him to sleep on my feet. So I followed him upstairs and went to bed and made sure to snuggle up with him, although he wanted to sleep on my feet and eventually made his way down there.

So. Yesterday was a rough day. Although by the end of it he seemed mildly perkier than he was when I first came home, which I think was a result of getting some fluids in him. He wasn't eating much at all though.

But! This morning I woke up to a call from mom that the vet had called and it wasn't renal failure. So. We don't know what it is or if it will be treatable, but I am hopeful and I think if we can clear out whatever the system problem is and get food and fluids back in him... Whew. I drove him to the vet this morning and when we were close he crawled out of his carrier to sit on my lap and look out the window. It was rather adorable (and unexpected--when I first moved the cats to the house they would not stop crying) and I told him if he gets himself well at the vet I will start taking him for drives, if he would like that. Like he can talk, right? Anyway.

He is at the vet and I am still rather worried, while I'm not breaking into tears like I was yesterday, I'm still finding it hard to focus. I hope he's not too lonely in there :C And I hope whatever it is, it's treatable. He's only 6, so... yeah. Anyway.

Yeah so I go from no posting to overload! Woo. I'm gonna pass out now.

(On the other side of things, have you ever seen the Idiot Box episode of Spongebob? It is the episode where Squidward gets a new tv and gives Spongebob and Patrick the box... I realized that the look they give him when he opens the box on them is the same look you get from Jack most of the time when you find him crunched up into a box. I got new tap shoes and that is of course immediately what he did.)

On the just-plain-odd side of things, I found out that when things get depressing I apparently switch straight to Robert Frost quoting.

I don't know when to say to expect a "real" post from me. I have a lot to post and... not lots of time. This is a crazy semester =/

[EDIT] Update as of (later) this morning: Mom called, the vet's got Spats on lots of fluids, and he's up and purring and seemingly back to normal. So she thinks it's nothing fatal. C=

So, yes, I just realized and now finally appreciate the irony of posting about "vajazzling" with glitter text. Yeah.


The era of boundless imagination in dinosaur colors is dead. But seriously, this is kind of awesome. I will, however, miss all the neon colored dinosaurs and the dreams that they could be legitimate! Although, one could argue that those dreams are still possible for those dinosaurs which did not have proto-feathers from which we can extract color clues. Here, have some mo' peekchures.


I feel like this week has been full of political/social fail. It's incredibly depressing. Things like this only do so much.

...Just let it sink in that these people actually believe this and exist. Yeah, that's what I thought.


THIS POEM IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS. And either 1) I'm pronouncing some words wrong, 2) It was written by someone with a distinctly different accent than mine, or 3) they pronounce some words wrong. IDK. I can say "Worchester" in the proper Brit way, though, tyvm.

This is a sad ending to my week. =/

However, THIS SHIP IS FUCKING AWESOME.



Also, the video seems to be down, but they're starting a play/movie/webseries of the Prop 8 trial. If you haven't been following it... Holy shit, is it ever a farce.


[EDITED FOR FUCKERY] WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT

SERIOUSLY

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. PUT ON YOUR GROWN-UP PANTIES AND REALIZE THAT AT SOME POINT YOUR CHILD HAS TO EARN THEIRS AS WELL.




I don't think I can facepalm any more this week.

Have you seen those ads for the Haunting in Connecticut movie? They really bother me. Why, you ask? Because that poem is COMEDIC. It's supposed to be weird. And it rather bothers me when horror movie writers butcher something like that just to scare people. =/ Here's the whole thing in case you were curious:

One bright day in the middle of the night,
two dead boys went out to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot eachother.
Two deaf policemen heard the noise
and went to kill the two dead boys.
If you don't believe this lie is true,
go ask the blind man, he saw it too.

I learned this from my friend Jon in like eighth grade. I think eighth because I'm pretty sure I remember learning it in Mrs. Moeggenberg's classroom.




I remember some really random shit sometimes.

puddlewonderful.


It is what life should be. Not "what life should be" but rather "what a life should be". If that makes sense.






What is that, e. e. cummings?








...waitaminit, there's an ultraportable joke in here somewhere.

tabs tabs tabs. Know what that means? LINKSPAAAAAAAAM

Google cut a deal with Life or something, and now there are tons of cool old photos searchable on Google. So cool.

Know how I mentioned diamonds are like a big red "RANT BUTTON" for me? Here's a really good primer, 10 Facts You Should Know About Diamonds.

So there's this thing called the Moscow Millionaire Fair. Basically, if you're filthy rich, you go to buy expensive shit and get ripped off by businesses. From the BBC's coverage, I love this quote: "A gold baby's dummy is on offer. Fashion writer Alexander Vassiliev says taste among the new rich is unsophisticated. "I don't think there is any elegance," he says." So basically... They're spending to show they're rich, with no discretion. Aren't we a great world, folks? It's like million-dollar trailer-trash. However, it did result in the wickedst supervillain chair of all time. I mean, seriously, folks, that is how you dominate a room. Oh no you don't, you're not getting anywhere within a ten-foot radius of me, fuckers

Ten Incredibly Dangerous Doctors. Creeeeeeepyyyyyyyy.

EMILY STRANGE RIPPED OFF NATE THE GREAT. DAMN, people. DAMN. Fucking unoriginal douchebags. I love those cats... And now I hate them, no matter how coercively adorable they may be.

Cat Haiku. I particularly love these:

oh, I scratched the couch
does that upset you? you mad?
you had me neutered

(That sounds like it came from Family Guy.)

yes, I have nine lives
and I’m spending one with you
thank me with tuna

from high on my perch
I rule over all below
also, I’m stuck

when I sneeze, it’s cute
when I barf up grass, you’re mad
make up your damn mind

Dude, some guy's Creative Commons picture got put in Iron Man. SAH-WEET

ALSO THEY'RE BRINGING BACK TDK FOR JANUARY

FUCK YEAH, IMAX

Hah, so, the title of my last entry was "philosophetical" because I thought the entry was faintly philosophic and I like to make up words like that. (Lewis-Carroll-Jabberwockyish.) I googled it to see if it was a real word, and not only is it not, my journal entry is the first thing that comes up on google. Kind of scary! =D (Especially since my journal does not turn up very high at all on the list when you search for "mercat." It helps that it actually means something in Spanish and possibly Italian and Latin. Yeah.)

Also, I might (in fact, probably will) be friendslocking this in the next few days (what a hassle) because I'm going to set up blogs for my family so I can post to a community for them and stay in touch better in Hawaii.

For a going-away present Aunt Dawn and Uncle Steve and Kyle and Max got me an Off the Beaten Path: Hawaii book, which looks AWESOME. And then gramps said he wanted to come out to Hawaii and that we should go to New York over the summer. =^n.n^= I like talking to him when Grandma isn't there because then she isn't harping on him; not that it's bad, it just makes him appear older, I think, because it seems as though he's completely forgotten anything to say. Which he hasn't, he's just gotten slower, and I don't mind that. So I don't think I can go to New York to the IndyGear summit (omg, don't ask...), but I might be able to make it to the museum show. We shall see! =D <3

Well, today was a pretty great day. In band, we played 2 songs, one we played yesterday and part two (with 80 measures of rest until we play). Music theory, OH BOY, we learned how to make a scale and the first five sharps. World religions we are watching Baraka, which is a very cool movie. Spanish was pretty cool; we're learning about spanish artists, which really brought me back to all the stuff we say in Spain... it was awesome. Calc, no homework! Us Politics and government, I found out that even though I hate that class it is way too easy and I am the smartest kid in the class (I got the top score on the pretest... yay). Unfortunately, I am surrounded by folks who don't care... Anyway, the highlight of my day: Mr. Hemmert liked what I said about e. e. cummings' emphasis of poetic "energy" he wrote it in his notes... that makes me really proud, because Mr. Hemmert is awesome and all his top students that I have known are awesome people, too.
So, Gold Award review went well, we're basically approved to begin! I got back with only a few minutes left to practice, so it wasn't worth it to get my instrument out or anything. Laura and I went to Penn Station for dinner; I really don't like hot subs that much, of any kind. I listened to Newsies three times through today and I want to watch the movie tonight... I'm working on memorizing the words.

For some reason I was just reminded of the ska band that Chris and Domer want to start... Haha! Yeah... I love writing parodies... I have no idea where those last two thoughts came from, they just struck me. e. e. cummings is awesome! He is a genius, and I understand his poetry pretty well. =^n.n^= Lara and I traded backpacks today, haha, we're such nerds... I love the hallway crew!