All Cats Go To Heaven

Some sooner than others. Jazz died last night.
It all happened very suddenly. The previous night he had been walking around, sitting on the couch and eating and drinking as usual. Monday morning I saw him sitting in his basket and apart from patting him on the head, I didn't disturb him. When I came back to the apartment after college he was sitting in the hall. I picked him up and when I put him down again he went straight to a sitting position without putting his back feet on the floor. I didn't think too much of it at the time, guessing he was just being lazy.
Cass took me out for a birthday dinner last night and it wasn't til we got back around 9pm and found him lying down in the bathroom that we figured something was wrong. We tried to stand him up several times but he wouldn't move his back legs at all. The legs didn't appear broken or damaged but he was clearly paralysed in his hindquarters. He had been dragging himself from room to room. 10 minutes on Google suggested that he might have a condition called HCM aka Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. It's a heart disorder in which the left wall of the heart grows and thickens. A serious symptom of this condition is paralysis in the lower back and rear limbs. The reason for this being a blood clot lodged in the lower part of the back. Paralysis can be a sign of a clinical emergency and is usually extremely painful.
The prognosis for this advanced condition was not promising. Cats were predicted to live for less than 6 months. Truly alarmed at this point, we put him in a carrier, jumped in a taxi and headed across town to a 24-hour Animal Emergency Hospital. They took him for examination and 40 minutes later came to tell us what we'd been dreading. It was pretty much exactly what we'd gleaned from the Internet. They clipped the nails on his hind legs right down to the blood vessels, but nothing bled. No blood had been getting to his lower back. Apparently the condition is hereditary and there is no way the shelter could have known. It was a case of just really bad luck. The doctor said that it was unusual for such a young cat to have gotten it but not unheard of. HCM can be treated to an extent if detected very early on with blood thinners but it is unlikely to be detected unless the vet is specifically looking for heart irregularities. Once a clot forms there is little one can do. Her advise was to put him down as the surgery involved had a very low success rate, was very painful and even if the clot could be removed, the condition would persist for the rest of his life. Jazz had started mewing also which he never did before so it seemed as though he was in a lot of pain.
She gave us a few minutes to think about it, but there really was no choice at all. We were able to say goodbye before they took him away. It was really hard to let him go when he still seemed so full of life. His eyes were as bright as ever and he was able to move his front legs. It was hard to believe he could be dying. If he had been older or had we had him for longer it wouldn't have seemed so unfair.

The whole thing has been very upsetting. We only had him for six weeks, but had already grown very fond of him. He was the perfect cat for us in every regard and I don't really feel like getting another one for sometime. It's definitely been the low-light of our time here so far.
Poor Jazz. We will miss him.

New and improved

I used to wonder, if something's new, how can it be improved? But I think it may be that the product is new and an improvement over some old product.

In any event, Leslie and I each have a new product, and both are vast improvements over the old products. A few days ago, Leslie's computer died. His hard drive spontaneously stopped working. Really quickly - we were in the middle of watching a show and it died, and then said it had no hard drive. He took it in to be looked at, and the guy said the drive was completely shot. So today we went into the city and shopped for a new one. His new computer is a Toshiba Satellite. Its vital stats: 200 gig hard drive, 2 gigs of RAM, Bluetooth-enabled, 17" screen and a 3-something card. I'm not sure what it is, but apparently it will make Photoshop run quickly. It also has a fingerprint scanner, which we both think is pretty cool. It's very Jack Bauer. It's probably not strictly necessary, but I think it's not such a bad thing to feel like a secret agent now and then. Leslie says the new computer is built for him. It was disappointing to lose the old one, and particularly all the files on the old one. But the new one is much, much better, and he's happy with it.

As for me, my bike died. I'd worn out the back wheel to the point where it needed to be replaced, and the brakes needed new pads. The guy at the bike shop said it would cost almost as much to fix it as I paid for the bike in the first place. So I bought a new one. Bikes don't really have vital stats, but it's blue. And sooo much easier to ride. It's much more fun to ride, much more comfortable, and takes a lot less effort. I feel like I'm not getting as much exercise out of it when I ride it, though, as it's much more efficient and I don't arrive out-of-breath anymore.

I've started taking dancing lessons. I'm learning funk lessons and hip-hop lessons, but I don't know if I'll keep the hip-hop. I think I might just be too square for hip-hop. I have no aptitude for it, and the class is huge, so when I fell behind I couldn't get back. I felt frustrated and lost, so I don't think I'll go back. But the funk class was tons of fun. It was a very energetic style, and the class was a manageable size, so I was able to keep up.

The cat was sick last week, and was off his food for a few days. But he's much better now, and seems bright and happy and hungry as usual.

Sorry there's no pictures this time either, but we'll try to do better.

3... 2... 1... Contract!

I've been offered a yearlong contract at work. I'm filling in for a woman who is on maternity leave. They gave me the contract on Thursday, and I'll be a full-time employee until next July (after that, who knows?).

I'm thrilled that I have a contract now. I really like what I do, really like my office, really like my co-workers. I've been a casual there since April, but I now feel like I belong there. It's a great place to work. It also has a fabulous view of the city and is within cycling distance of home. It's kind of funny, because they gave me an interview because they wanted me to work in the suburban office but they've now given me a position in the city. I have to say, I'm pleased with that, too - the commute to the suburbs really does take a lot out of you, especially since their days are 11 or 12 hours. So now I know what I'll be doing for the next year.

That in itself is weird. I feel strange to have a grown-up job, with grown-up things like sick days and paid vacation and a retirement account. But it's exciting, too.

In other news, there's a film festival on. We've been taking advantage of it, as we bought passes that allowed us to see 11 films in two weeks. We saw Michael Moore's Sicko over the weekend, and if you haven't seen it, you should. If you live in America, you'll wish you didn't, and if you don't, you'll be glad you don't. It is biased and one-sided and unfair and kind of obnoxious, as you would expect from Michael Moore. But it raises some very good points and is funny and touching, as you'd also expect from him. He suggests marrying a Canadian for their free health care, which our Canadian friends bristled at.

The best film we've seen so far, though, is a documentary called Deep Water (and no, it's not the one about sharks, that's Open Water). It's about a round-the-world boat race in 1968. It focused on one guy, Donald Crowhurst, who didn't really know much about sailing and had a leaking boat. It was an incredible story and very well told. He faced a heartbreaking choice - he signed a contract that if he dropped out of the race he would have to buy back his boat, and thus he would have to go bankrupt and his family would lose their home. But he knew that the boat wasn't ready, and he knew that he couldn't make it around the world. He pretty much lost his mind during the 200+ days he was at sea. Any of you who are English - do you remember this race? What was it like to be hearing about it in the papers?

I'm sorry we don't have any pictures to go with this post. We'll try and get some up next time.