Quote of the Moment

"It's never wrong to hope, Byx," said my mother. "Unless the truth says otherwise."
- from Endling #1: The Last, by Katherine Applegate

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

It Ain't Over Yet...


First off, the good part of the week. The above image was created for a local day camp. I used to go to HJ as a kid, mostly because my mother worked there every year as the craft lady (and, later, the site director who still kept close watch on the crafts.) Every year, she would design and silk-screen a logo for that camp and another local day camp. At some point, they decided to stop doing silk-screen logos at HJ.

This year, however, we got a call. And, since I'd taken over drawing the designs for the other camp, I wound up throwing this one together, as well. I ended up using public domain fonts, a few shapes from the Paint Shop Pro shape library, and pictures from various local zoo trips. (First three from Point Defiance, the last one from Cougar Mountain Zoo.)

They seemed to enjoy it, at any rate...

It was fun to visit the grounds again; I hadn't been there in nearly twenty years. Still the same meadow, still the same big tree at the entrance... the creek's been let revert to a natural state, though. I know it's for the good of the wildlife (what little wildlife remains, as the place is built up and development upstream wreaks havoc on the both the water levels and its quality), but creek-walking was always one of my fond memories of day camp; I can't help feel that today's campers are being deprived of interacting with the water as I did, looking for crayfish and watching water-skimmers and such.

Still, fun as it was, I didn't feel the sense of nostalgic loss I'd half-expected when I walked in. Day camp was fun, and I made some nice memories there... but it was long ago and far away.

Now, on to the less-fun part of the week.

All none of you who read this blog should remember the Saga of Orion, who took it into his head to develop stress-related litter box issues (translation: he started peeing on my bed.) The Prozac seemed to curb the behavior, but the supply ran out on Sunday/Monday. I probably should've called the vet for more, but I wanted to know if he was over his issues. If, indeed, it was a temporary issue, related to the probable-infection that drove him to misbehave in the first place.

Monday night, all was well and dry. I breathed a mental sigh of relief.

Until last night.  Or this morning, rather, at 3 AM, when I woke up to feed the cats and found a fresh wet spot on my blankets.

Damn, damn, damn...

So now I'm waiting for a call back from the vet. I know the Prozac appeared to work, but I'd like to get him in for another urinalysis, now that he's off all conflicting meds, to see if he still has an infection... or if the blood in his urine wasn't an infection, after all.

I honestly don't know what I'll do if it's still there; if it can't be cleared up through meds, I cannot afford a specialist - unless I get an absolute guarantee that a specialist will fix the problem. (Which isn't going to happen in medicine.)  But I feel like I should know, once and for all, if it's simply behavioral issues, or if the Prozak was just masking the real, ongoing physical problem.

Because if there is something else wrong, I can't help suspecting that painting over it with medicine is only a temporary fix, at best.

One way or another, the Saga of Orion isn't over yet...

LATER THAT DAY UPDATE: Just got off the phone with the vet. He wants to try Prozak again; I get to drive down in the jaws of rush hour to pick it up. Fingers crossed it does the job...

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