Ya’ll, it’s been a week….as my Southern relatives might say.

I would say it’s been a month but we are in May now so April was a month…of good and bad, but when it comes to cats it was bad!

Not only did our youngest cat get sprayed with a skunk and then get an eye infection, he was also acting like he was in pain and sick this past week. Shortly after I noticed his issues, our second-oldest cat came down with something too, got worse and acted way worse than the youngest cat, and ended up at the vet with 104 degree fever.

This was all happening while Little Miss had a sore throat for two days and on one of those days refused to eat and almost passed out on me.

Scout, the older cat, is slowly recovering but I am still very concerned. She was given an antibiotic shot and a fever reducer and spends most of her time sleeping and eats only if we take food and water to her in Little Miss’s room where she has taken up residence.

The Husband drove the cat to the vet, which I felt awful about, because I had planned to take her later in the day. He’s been working full-time and rehearsing for a play and has barely been home because the bridge to get to the town where he works has been out, adding another half an hour to his 25-minute drive. That means he’s been staying in town after work to wait for the rehearsal to start. Rehearsals have been lasting until 9 or 10 and then he’s home at 11, falls asleep, gets up and starts over again.

He called the vet in the morning, though, and he had an opening so he took it and drove 45 minutes up and back to have her seen.

The vet really didn’t have an answer to why she had a fever, other than it must be an infection somewhere. That didn’t seem very thorough to me but at least they did something, I guess.

Scout was still very weak yesterday, so The Husband called and they said if there was no change to call again on Monday.

She did eat some food and drink some water, but then she lays back down again and passed out. It’s awful. This is the kitty who comes up to me when I am sitting in places where I can’t really hold her — like the toilet — and stretches both paws up at me as if asking for me to pick her up.

Sometimes I do even when it is inconvenient.

Then she likes to come up at 4 a.m. and curl up against my shoulder and insists, with little taps on my arm, that I pet her. She also pats my arm when she wants me to give her some of my food. Always very polite. I’ve never had a cat who did anything like that or a cat as cuddly as she is…or can be when she’s in the mood.

I am trying to be optimistic, but I have to be honest that I’m very worried we could lose her.

I’ve had Scout since she was a kitten. I saw her photo on the site of a rescue shelter near us and said I had to have her. I can’t believe I did that as I am the one who always says we don’t need more pets. We got her, during COVID, and she used to lay on my chest to keep like I was her mom. She kept doing it until she was just too big. She’s a very long, polydactyl, Tuxedo cat. When she stretches her body full length, she can reach our doorknobs and rattle them to let us know she wants to go out.

She’s our cat that got stuck in a tall tree our front and our neighbor, who is on the borough council, called the fire company to use their truck ladder to bring her down.

What’s odd is that right before Scout got sick, my dad had to take his outdoor cat to the vet because she seemed sick and had a cold like illness (not distemper) and had been cuddling with Little Miss. So now we are trying to figure if we brought Dad’s cat’s illness home to our cats.

Regardless, they are being treated and hopefully will be on the mend soon.

This week was our possible last week of a weekly art class that Little Miss has been taking. I say possible because I signed Little Miss up for horse riding lessons on the same day as the art classes, but the opposite direction. I only did that because the art class was starting a medium she’s already done and it was a new four-week session and because I hate the road we have to drive on to get there. Also, Little Miss has been asking for horse-riding lessons for years.

But now Little Miss says she’s disappointed to miss out on the next pottery class. So I may have to somehow try to get her to both classes or just one. We will see how it goes. I’m grateful for the opportunities but I do wish they weren’t so far away from where we live. Oh well! Such is the life of a homeschooling family in a rural area.

So what have you been up to lately?

I hope having a good week last week and having a good week this week!