Max ... March 31, 2015

Hey all.  I know.  I am not making any more promises about posting.  Yeah...
Anyway, updates.  Well, I had to make that one-way trip to the vet a couple of weeks ago.

Max - Sept 1997 - March 19, 2015
He was 17 1/2 years old.
RIP my beloved cat.  He was my best buddy, loved him with all my heart. Had him since he was 6 weeks old - left at the vet without a mama, and I picked him out as he was busy beating up all the other tiny kittens.  He and Jellybean.  What a ride it's been.  He moved 8 times with us, I think.
Lots of memories there.  The day of the vet trip was very very hard for me.  But I made myself do it, because it was for the best.  The vet said it was the right thing to do.  As I mentioned earlier, he had stage 3 chronic kidney disease.  I cared for him for nearly 2 years with this disease.  It's a terrible disease, I wish they had a cure, but all one can do is try to slow it down. 

The house is lonely now without him.  Everything reminds me of him.  Opening the pantry door, which squeaks, always brought him running for a treat.  He was usually in whatever room I was in, preferring my lap.  He loved sunshine.  Grass.  Plastic bags.  Yeah, had to hide those because he'd eat them.  Not good.  The first few days were rough, because in my mind's eye, I could see him everywhere, because he'd been everywhere in this house.  Waiting for us when we came home.  Sitting in front of the electric fireplace in the family room.  Head-butting open the bathroom door.  Waiting outside the bathroom door while my DH showered, then following him downstairs so he could get his nightly treats.  So many memories in this house with him.  But I kept telling myself that they don't live as long as we do, that it's inevitable that they go first.  If I just didn't get so attached. But I've always loved animals pretty passionately.  Horses were my first love.  I was head over heels about them, so to speak.  I hope to have one again someday.  But kitties were more portable.  Now I just feed the birds and chippys. :0)
Ok. More big news.  My dear hubby had to have hip revision surgery in January.  His first replacement about 14 years ago seemed to go bad this past year or so, until he could hardly walk on that leg.  He went back to work 2 1/2 weeks after surgery because he 'felt so good', but now it's sore again, because he's walking too much on it at work.  So now we are trying to back pedal a bit and give it a better chance to heal.
More sad news.  The same day of surgery, his father died.  We knew he was going to, he had stage 4 lung cancer.  We went home at Christmas to see him, and he wasn't good then.  We got the call at 4:30 AM, just before we went to the hospital.  We were unable to go home because of the surgery, and it's a 9 hour drive to another country. We are going home for the burial service in May, since the ground was frozen and snow covered in January.
And, to top it all of, I had to get a root canal.  Yup. My very first cavity, in fact.  Which needed a root canal, and crown.  I was not excited.  I was actually in disbelief!  50 years old and never had a cavity until now.  Bummers.  I thought this was going to last forever, but no, no.  Sigh.
I survived it. Did quite well, actually.  I was quite terrified, but really, it didn't hurt.  Not after the needles.  I was really nervous about those needles.  I kept asking how much this root canal was going to hurt, and they kept saying 'oh, no worse than getting a filling.'  Oh Wait. You've never had a filling before.  Yeah. 
Did I mention I'm going through the midlife change?  Yeah. Icing on the cake.
Also, this was the coldest worse February on record for this area, I believe.  We had to fill the oil tank an extra time this year!  Awful glad oil prices are coming down!! 
Well, I think that's about it for now.  Onward and upward.