Pickle, The Fat

We have two cats at our house, and wow, is the spectrum of cat personalities well represented in our household! Cookie is small, angry, aggressive, and snooty in such a way that we have to verbally warn visitors to our house to inhibit their natural tendencies to want to pet the animal. On the other hand, Pickle is shy, sweet, and wide. People who've been to our house, even many times, have questioned the existence of this second cat. She plants herself firmly under the bed if someone even thinks about ringing the doorbell.

Anyway, it's this reclusive one that I'll write about today. Recently, we were told by the vet that she had a pretty severe mouth infection. You would've thought that I'd put two and two together here because her breath was knock-you-over bad, but I didn't. Poor thing. Upon examining her mouth, the vet revealed that even her top two canines were wiggly, and they needed to be pulled.

So, we did take her in for the dental work. Having worked in a vet's office during college, I already realized what an ordeal she would be going through. Fully anesthetized, tubed for breathing, and lots and lots of elbow grease to get those filthy teeth in order again. Now, she's come back home, a little less toothy and smelling so much better too. Now, she can sit five feet away and bathe herself in peace... meaning I don't have to throw my sock at her because of the wafting mouth odor that comes my way. She's feeling better.

Here is a bird's eye view of her impressive girth... This because you'll never see her otherwise. She'll be under the bed.

The Frisco Highline Run

Last Saturday, Jim ran in his first 5K of the season. It was a beautiful day, and Jim's parents were able to come and cheer with us. Jack enjoyed the real train whistle that signaled the start of the running. And he very reliably said, "I have to poop" right when Jim was estimated to run across the finish line. We made it out of the bathroom (false alarm) and were back just in time to see Jim come in. He was very pleased with his time of 20 minutes and change. Next, he says his goal will be 10K's for next year. (We'll see... the shin splints plague him.) Nevertheless, "Go Daddy, Go!"

Community Helpers Day

Today was Community Helpers Day at Jack's preschool. Each child dressed as their favorite community helper. Jack's great grandparents gave him their spare stethoscope long ago. I guess when you age you accumulate "spare" equipment around the house appropriate for the checking of vital signs.

Anyway, he has since been obsessed with this contraption and, thus, the action of listening to people's hearts, deep breaths, knees, elbows, foreheads and other places that a "patient" may agree to having be examined.

Community Helpers Day was first mentioned about two weeks ago, and it was no surprise that Jack would not only recognize, but also seize the opportunity to take his stethoscope to school. (Also, this was a perfect opportunity to show up Mom. I'd said no to this request dozens of times already.)

If I do say so myself, he looked quite cute as a doctor.

"Do you have any pictures of Jack with you?"

People are always wanting to see pictures of Jack. And if I don't carry any around, does that make me a bad mother? Hmmm... I just never was fond of those plastic wallet picture flippers that always seem to tear and look ratty. These days, it's just so much easier to zip them off via email. With the purchase of a digital camera, I find a problem. I have scads of digital pictures stored on my computer but strangely enough, few for people to actually touch and hold in their hands. I think many of us have fallen into such habits. A combination of laziness and the ease of push button publishing (ahem... the blog at which you're staring) makes the trip to Wal-Mart even less appealing than it was to start with. Was it ever appealing? Debatable.

On a side note, Jim always teases me about the aforementioned digital camera. There is something instantly gratifying about snapping a picture and then viewing THAT instant. Why wait? The options to save or delete are just so great! Nose looks too big? Trash it, baby. Thumb in the shot? It's gone! Of course, this takes some of the "Christmas morning" sensation away from the film developing process, if you do even bother with that these days. I used to love that feeling of the thick picture package from a One-Hour Photo, hot off the presses. And now, I don't experience that so much. That's kind of sad. Then again, it seems inevitable that out of a handful of pictures, you get about five good ones. And that's plain aggravating. CD song lists are the same way, but that's another day's entry.