Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

...but these probably say far more than I can right now...

Basement Kitteh

Socks, former White House cat, euthanized - The CNN Wire - CNN.com Blogs:

Socks, the cat who won international fame during his years in the Clinton White House, was euthanized Friday after months of treatment for cancer.

Socks, who was born in 1989, was put to sleep about 10 a.m. at Three Notch Veterinary Clinic in Hollywood, Maryland, said veterinary assistant Rae Dera.

The cat had been losing weight since November and had been treated at the clinic, Dera said. He had been suffering from a cancer in his mouth and jaw.

moar funny pictures

and lessons learned:

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

It's been a year...

Viv and I have been commiserating over Prokofiev's Symphonies and a bottle of Spaten Oktoberfest on the comfy chair.

Both were in the neighborhood.

One has been recovered fine and is back inside safe.

The other is still in panic mode and skittish, but hovers around the area.  She won't come close to people, but she's been at least approaching the food they're leaving out for her.

When officemate's a little more relaxed about it, I'll ask about disease concerns.  They're young enough that they should be up to date on feline leukemia vaccines.

A treatment for melanoma in dogs is proving to be astoundingly successful (helping 40% of them and completely removing the tumor in 12.5%, as of January when this story first broke).  The Today show this morning said that it's being approved for more wide-scale use on dogs, and maybe the researchers could then try to find something similar for our cats who also suffer from the same malignancy...

...oh, and humans, too. ;-)

She was never supposed to be mine, but I became hers anyways.

( Maxandra is gone... )

A quick request for those that'll see me @ faire this weekend: please keep things short and sweet. Quick hugs for "no reason" are prefered. Seriously, between the hellos for everybody who's first weekend @ mdrf is this last one, the goodbyes for those I won't see again 'til August (give or take the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival), and the amount of work I still have to do during the day, particularly with the Danse Macabre parade on Sunday, I won't have much time for long conversations on much of anything. You think I bounce off the (festival) walls now?

...except the reason it hurts is 'cause i fell asleep on the couch with my baby sleeping on my lap (and she stayed there for a whole hour!).

gotta cherish those moments when you know they may not happen all too soon...

on the bright side, my foot doesn't hurt as much anymore...

...is, sadly, the only option I have.  They can't do the surgery as its crossed the mid-line of the jaw and the whole jaw would have to be removed.  This would 1) create a very low quality of life as she would have to be fed by tube for the rest of her life, and 2) is unlikely to extend that life past the current 6 month diagnosis in the first place.  Nothing is likely to.  The options of Radio and Chemo are still there to keep the tumor from getting any worse and keeping the pain down, but it won't really stop the eventual spread to the lungs.  In one sense I'm relieved in that if they had done the surgery, feeding would become a chore during the recovery and I'd have had to house her at the vet over the weekends for them to do it since I'm not home for the next 9...

I'm going to go with the chemo, as its the one least likely to have side effects in the expected dosages.  I'll schedule the first session for ibuprofen tuesday as I usually ask to take that day off in the first place.

But for now, as long as she's eating and drinking and sleeping and acting happy, I'm as content as I'll be.

*sigh*