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Hug yo pets.

KD is still here, but she’s had what seemed to be a prolapse for a few months. We took her in back in November and they basically said try a topical and see if it gets better.

Went back today for a follow up, and after a more thorough exam it sounds like it’s not actually a prolapse but a mass in her colon that gets pushed out.

Surgery is risky on that area, and it’s not causing her any QoL issues, so we are considering just leaving it for now, but we did get a referral to a surgeon to discuss options. Idk. Shit sucks, and I’m feeling lousy right now.

11 year old Aussie.

https://i.imgur.com/MTw4IwT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EKOcVXa.jpg

Fostering kittens has been fun over the last few years. They often come with illnesses or ringworm or some other minor challenge but overall it's super rewarding watching them get healthy, grow up, become adorable, and eventually go off to their forever homes.

This current litter has been pretty rough. We got them when they were a day or two old: someone had found them and their mom and turned them into a shelter, who then sent out a blast to see if anyone could take them. They didn't even have names; just tags to identify them because they all look very similar. Everything seemed fine at first since they were just little milk-eating robots, but it became apparent after a week that two were struggling and not meeting development milestones. I'll spare the details but apparently this is called Fading Kitten Syndrome, which is just a generalized term for not developing right due to many reasons and usually succumbing to it. We lost Sisu last week and Pengu just last night.

This is mostly the not-wife's show and she blames herself a little but we both know that she did everything she could to get them on track. It's our first experience with this situation and subsequent loss and it stings, but I take solace in knowing that they're not suffering anymore and the other two in the litter seem to be model kittens and are going to be super adorable (they already are). I will also say that if there is a god and I ever meet him I'm going to punch him in the dick, whatever stage of grief that is.

Recent pic of Prani, Pengu, and Amba (left to right): https://imgur.com/a/LT4U6eB

well god dammit.

Cody, our new Shiba Inu that I posted a week and a half ago about - he's super skittish and antsy but once you get him in a spot and he sort of realizes that there's no escape he settles in and immediately cozies up to whatever body is available - including me, which is really weird to me since I'm the cat guy in the house, but it works since he's about the size of our biggest cat Moose..

well anyhow - we gave him a bath tonight, took off his collar. then took him to the downstairs in our house which was new territory. After that adventure was over he was doing his 'checking' thing... where he'd walk back and forth from his origin point and outwards to new areas. my daughter happened to be at our front door which was open except for the storm door and was trying to coax him upstairs and he bolted back down. then he squeezed between her and the storm door and managed to pop it open and he saw his opportunity and screwed outside and made a beeline for the neighbor's yard and just kept going

that was 11PM last night. the rest of the evening up til now has been lots of searching in cars, on foot, on foot with the other dog, back in the cars again, sitting in the yard calling him, left food out for him.. nothing. We did see him twice during the car searches and got out to try to corner him, but he was too fast and evaded us.

then about an hour ago I decided I'd go out for a final look at about 1AM and now it's starting to rain from a thunderstorm system we're about to get tomorrow morning.. and as I was going to the car I misjudged a step, caught the edging fence we have around this stupid little strip between the driveway and the walkway and fell flat on my fat face.. landed hands-first, then square on my sternum and the bopped my forehead off the ground lightly. Then I got up, dusted myself off and did my final search with no luck. little bastard is nowhere to be found.

now it's two hours later and holy hell my chest is killing me every time I breathe deep.. my toe that caught the fence is throbbing and I can't sleep.

my poor daughter is just beside herself.. completely blames herself for the whole thing, but it 100% could've happened to any of us - Cody is just that slippery and good god he's fast.. and just wasn't used to this being his new home yet.

=(

https://www.petlink.net/lost-pet-gallery/256433-cody/

I have important pet news: It’s Ruby’s 9th birthday!

https://i.imgur.com/pZVADUX.jpg

My grandma passed yesterday. She just turned 95 a few days ago. I think she kind of was ready to go.

She fell a few months ago, got a compression fracture or something like that. Was healing up, but had a fever recently (negative tests).

Just saw her this weekend.

https://i.imgur.com/nCPvy3I.jpg

Family awesome

My son is in the navy stationed in Japan. We haven’t seen him in person in 2.5 years. He surprised us with a visit late last week. My daughter is at university. I’m at the airport picking her up on a last minute flight. My other son lives with us. Entire family reunited at home for first time since June 2019.

Just had to share since it’s freaking amazing for my wife and me.

Puppers first snow https://i.imgur.com/NrDbThx.mp4

Send strength, it's looking like this is the endgame for my dad. His oxygen levels and blood pressure crashed this morning, he's weak, and the rigidity from ALS has left his joints for the first time in years. I don't wanna lose my dad, but it's time for him to be able to rest. We're all here with him, and he's at home, and that's what he always said he wanted. I'm scared, shack. :(

I reached out to my brothers ex wife today to thank her for getting my niece and nephew vaccinated as my brother is an anti covid vax nut case. I guess she did it without his permission which caused a serious fight between them and I just wanted her to know how much I appreciated her doing it, considering how hard it's been for her since.

And she told me my brother took my 14 year old nephew with him when he went out to sell fake vaccination cards.

I'm at a fucking loss for words here. He's so far gone it's scary. She also informed me that she's taking him to court to get full custody and I hope she gets it. I told her that. I'm fucking crying because I've been pretty much cut out of their lives because my brother doesn't talk to me. But now that I'm talking to his ex, I'm finding out my niece does dance competitions and my nephew runs track and I'll be able to go and see them do these things.

Why do people have to be so God damn fucking crazy? Like shit has been hard enough the last year and a half, this anti vaccine shit is just so fucked up.

Sorry just needed to vent.

Shack favor request!

Backstory: I have a YouTube channel where I post videos of hand-feeding birds at the park. A couple of weeks ago I ran into a kid (~9-10 years old) and his mom on the nature trails, and they were asking if I was Jocelyn. I learned that this kid, Henry, was a big fan of my channel and since you can only see my hand in the videos, he had been asking everyone they came across if they were a Jocelyn. I learned from his mom that because of the videos on my channel, Henry has really gotten into birding and walking the nature trails with his mom since Nov. of last year.

He recently made this video that reacts my hand-feeding of birds (with a little added drama): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOnDARRvSfc

Favor bit: If anyone could give the video a thumbs up, that would be awesome. He was just so excited about birds and nature, and I think likes on his video would make his day.