Cats was interesting. I had no idea that the performers would do sooooooooooooooooooo much dancing while singing! It involved a lot of balletic/contemporary dancing. I was much more interested in the dancing than the singing, oddly enough. I just didn’t find the songs very melodic and the lyrics seemed sort of simple or goofy at times. They are taken from poems by T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” The playbill says that they have not been altered, except for minor revisions of tense or pronoun. “Memory” is a bit of a mash-up of a few poems. I suppose that says more about me and poetry than anything else!

The storyline is basically going through each of these different kinds of cats who each have their own little song and section of the show to describe their characteristics. I, of course, loved the big fat 25 lb black (with small bits of white) cat Bustopher Jones. Girle-girl was 20+ lbs, so I felt particularly heart warmed by this big fat cat.

Here she is, in all of her chubby glory. I had woken her up taking her photo, so this is her irritable look.

None of them were masked cats, which I thought was a bit odd, since it is such a common feature of a lot of house cats. But of course, I’m biased.

I love that last one, because it really shows off her use of her claws of her back feet when she played. That and she loooooooooooved to rip into tissue paper.

… I suppose this is why I don’t have much tissue paper stored up for packing…

Anyway, back to the show. Mr. Mistoffelees had his big number with the recognizable song, so that was fun.
And Grizabella singing Memory was terrific on the reprise. I wasn’t too sure about her singing during the first act, but she really nailed it when she sang the more complete version at the end.

All in all, it was entertaining, and if I hadn’t seen it, I always would have wondered what I was missing. Now, the only show that is left on my I-really-want-to-see-this-someday is Les Miserables. At least, for now.

As for packing and moving details. I finally managed to deal with some stuff and get my utilities set up. And I packed two massive boxes of all of the decorative stuff that was hanging or setting out in the entire house. The framed pieces took up a huge box all of their own. And that doesn’t include the breakables that I’m having them pack.
Once again, I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped; I suspect that this trend will continue, unfortunately. But I suppose it is good to set my goals high, because it keeps me motivated to keep moving. The weather this week is supposed to be in the 70s and 80s and mostly sunny, so doing the garage won’t be as miserable as I was starting to think it might be (when it was raining all week).

Also, since I sent some friends my new name and address, I’ve received a few emails of friends with whom I haven’t spoken in a while. It is nice to get to read those during my breaks and respond over breakfast or lunch. Speaking of, I should email another one of my friends whom I know from the U.

A couple more pics are on Flickr if you have access.

It was a little later in the day than she really liked, but the light was good for photos. So, it was a compromise.

How do I ever write a synopsis of 13 years of life? Years and years of love… ….just the thought makes me cry.

She was so incredibly important to us, to me. She was always there for me. When HB would be out of town, she was always at home to greet me and was waiting at the top of the stairs.

She loved to be petted. We had this wonderful routine of sitting on the couch after supper. I’d get settled in with the blanket and I’d pat the couch next to me and say “come on” (a little bit high-pitched). She’d jump up and would get into the petting position. I’d usually pet her for 30-45 min. It either ended when my arm wore out, or when she decided she’d had enough for the night.

In addition to being petted, she loved to sleep.

And we loved to watch her sleep. She would tuck into these adorable positions with her body all curled up and the top of her head smushed against the floor, chair, or couch.

Going through the photos I have of her, it was surprising how many of them were of her sleeping or playing with tissue paper. That was really her favorite toy. She could really rip into it. I imagine she liked the satisfaction of getting her claws into it and shredding it. I know that she liked the crackle of it.

We always had to watch out for her claws and teeth. She was quick to use them when we were playing.

And she loved to investigate and be located wherever we were located. Anytime I did a flower photo-shoot, she was right there with me.

Those are some of my favorites. It, of course, shows the flowers, but it also shows my girlie, so curious, so involved.

My very favorites of her are ones with us. But because they show our faces, you’ll have to log in to Flickr to see them. But they are located here. I’ve winnowed my favorite photos of her down to 35 photos. Since I started with 294, it was hard to restrict them to a manageable number, but I did it. Today, HB has scanned some of our prints from her earlier years. We still have a few to go, but I wanted to get this done today.

You might be wondering what happened to her. Well, she stopped defecating, and we thought maybe she’d stopped eating, but we weren’t really sure. We took her to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center. They admitted her last Saturday in the late afternoon into the ICU. They suspected a kidney infection and gave her antibiotics and iv fluids. She was in the ICU until Tuesday night when we brought her home. They thought that she would do better at home, since she gets so stressed in medical facilities. And, the doctors thought she was ready to switch to oral antibiotics and not iv.  The U of M Vet Med Center was really wonderful with us.  They spent a lot of time talking to us and going over her care with us.  I’m really glad we took her there.

She seemed much happier at home. I know that we, at least, were happy to have her home. The main concern, though, was that she was not eating much, and was drinking minimal amounts of water.

Wednesday night, I must have petted and brushed her for 45 min before supper. And then a half hour here and a half hour there over the course of the evening. We all went to bed, and she was in bed with us, in her usual spot between HB’s legs, when she meowed and woke us up.   We had just enough time to turn the light on, pet her, and try to see what was wrong when she took her last breaths.

The vets had noticed a heart murmur (which is a valve defect) when they had examined her. They warned us that she could end up dying of cardiac failure. That was probably what happened to her, but we’ll never really know.

The main thing is that she was with us, and not at the hospital when she died. And we’d spent so much time with her, focused on her, and petting her that night. I’ll always be grateful that we had that time together with her at the end.

It has been an emotional week. Today, I spent the day going through albums and my digital archives, trying to find every picture that I have of her and collecting them into a set on Flickr. I have put them all into a huge set.  It was really comforting to remember so many happy moments. That is part of why I have posted them here. It helps to think of all of the good times we had together.

But it was hard to get to the last photos that I took of her this Christmas and then the ones in January in front of the fireplace and realize I’d reached the end.

HB bought some yellow tulips in memory of her. If I’m up to it tomorrow or so, I’ll take some photos of them.

For now, I’m adjusting to the loss of her not being here. At work, I get busy with work, am distracted, and it is less noticeable. But at home, every time I turn around, I expect her to be there. She was such a creature of routine. She tended to lay in certain spots at certain times of the day. So, I walk past those spots and still expect to see her there. I still detour around areas where I always had to be careful of stepping on her. I catch myself doing it, and it makes me sad all over again.

I really miss her.

I have to believe that her spirit has moved onto heaven, and that I’ll see her again someday.

But for now, I just      wish      she      were      here.

She was so adorable, all tucked in, that I took a few non-flash shots of her with my tripod.

Doesn’t it make you feel warm and cozy?

I caption this:

“Im on yur vent.  Soken up yur heat.” – in the style of Icanhascheezburger

It has been cold here this week.  -11F on Monday when I drove by the dealership that has one of those signs that tells you the temperature.

So, I gave my final yesterday.  I got it all graded today and have posted the final grades for class.  I only had 2 people fail (out of 68).  I had 11 A’s in one section and 7 in the other.  Average grade was a BC (like a B-/C+).  Usually, average grades are in the mid-70s and are C’s.  My averages were 80 and 81.  I don’t think this means that I’m an easy grader/softie but that the students learned what they were supposed to learn.

In other news, my department chair told me that some student wrote her a letter about what a great professor I am!  She wouldn’t tell me who it was, of course, because I hadn’t submitted grades at that point.  But it was really  uplifting to hear that.

Now I have time to prep for next semester *big sigh*.  There is a lot to be done.

This is what I saw out the kitchen window that inspired me to cut some branches off and put them in a vase so that we could enjoy them inside.

and in large

and of course, the girlie had to help out.

Yes, she is large. But her face is so pretty to us. And the fur on her chest looks so soft; it just makes you want to pet it….

…. but of course, the white areas are the venus fly-trap areas.

And one last thing, did anyone else realize tomorrow is 6/7/08 – 6, 7, 8

I thought I would post this photo of my picture-taking set-up for those photos.

As you can see, I had the black sheet draped with some textbooks underneath. The flower in the vase was sitting on top of the black sheet-covered textbooks. And I was using my light to cast full spectrum light on the flower. The only thing that isn’t in that picture is my tripod that I use for close-ups.

At one point, the sheet started moving and I couldn’t figure out why and that was when I noticed her underneath it. That is, she was underneath it with her CLAWS clawing the sheet and making the whole thing unstable! It was too funny to pass up, so I, of course, snapped a picture of it, in between lenses.

The girlie-girl evidently decided that it was the purrfect hidey-spot.

She is a goof. (picture in large where you can see her better)

And over the course of the few days where I left it set-up, I kept finding her under there. I guess it was good protection from the (make-believe) hawks that fly around our rooms and are ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

You know those hawks, very unpredictable. Gotta watch out for them.

1st, she was just hanging out with the washcloth, using it as a mini bed. (very mini, compared to the rest of her)

Then, for no reason apparent to us lowly humans, she decided to attack.

Note the action of the back feet.

Note the dilated pupils in the attack eyes.

Finally, it was enough to hold it down so that it didn’t get away.

Oddly enough, they weren’t even warm from the dryer. So, I really have no idea what the appeal was.

Happy Fuzzy Friend Friday!

The Girlie-girl just loves the tree skirt. The funny thing was that she was nowhere near the tree when I was decorating it. Then about 1 minute after I got the tree skirt down – bam! – she laid down on it. At first, she had this hunched look like she was sure I was going to scold her about it. But once she realized I didn’t care, she relaxed and got into her favorite sleeping pose with her front feet all tucked in. And then, of course, I got the camera and the nap that she had planned had to be post-poned. Hence the grumpy look, I’m sure.

I hope each of you finds somewhere to snuggle up and be cozy this Christmas season. Maybe on the couch with a fuzzy blanket. Oh, well, that is my favorite place, at least. Isn’t it everyone’s?

I hope to take some poinsettia pics to post on Christmas Eve, so if you are around, see you then! If not, Merry Christmas!

This is the Girlie-girl’s Halloween costume that HB picked out. I think it might be Pippi Longstocking. Any other ideas?

Oh yeah. And that is a white stuffed animal behind her. I know it looks a little odd.

Here is the “I’ve had enough, photo.”

Hope you all have lots of fun today and eat lots of chocolate!