In Memorial.

For my mother on Mother's Day. A tribute to her and my grandfather's recently departed cat.

Gratuitous siamese kitten shots

Olive in deep thought

Olive and Louie are pretty much inseparable

Here you can see Olive's kinky tail end

Lest you think she usually sits still, this is what most of the photos looked like

(more photos here)

welcome home!

We are very excited to add Olive to our family! She's currently adjusting to her new surroundings and has a little sanctuary built in my studio. There's been a little bit of hissing from our other siamese, Louie but our rescue cat, Stan Lee is non-plussed. It's a lot to get used to for the little one, especially with a big, goofy dog in your face who makes a ruckus with her feet clicking around on the floors!

ella.

there really never are words for this, are there?
we are heartbroken. today we made the decision to say goodbye to our beautiful, gregarious cat, ella.
she honored us with sixteen years, which sounds like a lot but i selfishly would have taken more.
ella had struggled with a myriad of health issues in the last three years, some of which made us fear it was the end. somehow, each of those times, she endured and kept her same tenacious and entitled personality. she continued to open the kitchen cabinets and sleep on the bags of rice. she always looked you in the eye and held the stare, often speaking pointedly as though you understood what she was saying. she would still sleep in the bed at night, preferably under the blankets. she would find any available lap in the house, regardless of whether it belonged to a "cat person", always preferring your left side (which will remain one of life's great mysteries).
then three days ago she stopped eating. she was lethargic. she would not sleep in the bed and did not follow her pattern of clockwork daily habits. we chocked it up to the heat and humidity. then we realized that we were ignoring what was really going on, took a hard swallow and chose to give ella dignity.
what an exquisitely painful decision to end the life of a creature, a companion, that spent their entire life with you and what a great blessing these creatures choose to share their lives with us.

sixteen!

happy sixteenth birthday, ella (a.k.a. oldie, mo-mo, mink, bones, stinky, shmoe, ellie, mini mo, ol' lady)!!!

and then there's this one.

our beloved, geriatric, siamese cat, ella has been giving us a few extra grey hairs lately.
she has also been keeping the veterinary business running smoothly.
her normally meticulous nature has been broken by unlady-like "accidents" in the bed (i.e. our bed...with fancy comforters) and by excessive time in the litter box. the poor lady has been poked, prodded and examined by multiple doctors and we have forced many a half-dissolved pill down her stubborn throat. yet there still is no resolution.
blood work shows the need for an ultrasound and the need for a "clean" urine sample. the latter which apparently necessitates a needle into the bladder (ouch!).
we are hoping it turns out to be something resolvable but appreciate any extra positive energy you can send our way!

do not underestimate the power of baking soda.

i can't help but think this photo was somehow foreshadowing to the next mornings events.

this post comes to you bleary-eyed and possibly just short of delirious. i promise you nothing but rambling information and updates coming forth like a tsunami.
we survived yesterdays st. patrick's day pub crawl, which began promptly and appropriately at 3:17 PM. i'm certain that you, dear reader, do not have the time nor interest for me to recount the exploits of the night. i bowed out by 10:30 PM, mainly to extract adam from what was quickly becoming an outing ending in a night by the toilet. i had also tired of the non-stop parade of cringe-worthy human behavior that is witnessed when you spend too much time in bars as a half-sober person.
we left our friend tara at the bar, arranging that she would find her way back to the hotel with the assistance of some trusted folks. we of course could not drag her away, she being a professional irish drinker, especially considering that she still had three assorted shot concoctions lined up at the bar. i gave her my best wishes for "success" and steered my tipsy husband back to the awaiting hotel room. i said to adam, although he didn't likely understand or retain, that i felt it very likely that i would venture back out into the morass of drunkenness to find tara later in the night.
after coercing adam to at least brush his teeth before falling face down on the bed, i sent a text to tara to check if she was still with her chaperones and hadn't absconded as wily intoxicated folks have a habit of doing. asking her if she was still at the bar where we left her, she replied, simply, "city". immediately recognizing the foolishness of trying to get a drunk person to not only locate themselves, but be able to accurately spell and text it, i considered what she might mean. saratoga springs is a city, could she mean that she was still in the city? that's a bit vague. i consulted my drunk husband and oddly he was able to report back that there was a tavern across the street from where we left tara with 'city' in it's name. feeling satisfied, i cleaned up and waited for our little team to be regathered.
tara did return safely to the hotel room a few hours later, sent out a facebook update (i told you-she is a professional), quickly passed out and began loudly snoring. there was several rounds of someone or another getting up to turn off the air conditioner, then someone else getting up to turn on the air conditioner. despite this, the snoring and the frequent bathroom visits, we all seemed to get some functional sleep.
our circus of smart phones began signaling to us shortly before 8:00 AM. there appeared to be a crisis of sorts, one that required not only facebook posts but also text messages and voicemail. we had left our dog, crosbi and three cats in the competent over night care of adam's father, russ. responding to the calls to action, adam called his father learning that during an early morning walk with crosbi through the local field they encountered a skunk. crosbi was sprayed squarely in the face and the collateral spray came back to hit russ. both began vomiting, russ trying to wipe the spray out of crosbi's eyes. he led her back to our house about a block away, both retching and reeking. he bathed the dog in our bathroom tub, closed her in the bathroom to contain the damage then called us to report the event.

she doesn't like baths. fizzy, science-experiment type baths are no different.

we bid an early farewell to tara who decided to sleep in until checkout at noon. i did some quick google searches on the drive and we stopped for supplies before getting home. baking soda and hydrogen peroxide in hand, we could smell our house before we got out of the car.
i cannot appropriately describe the true smell of what met us when we opened our bathroom door and faced our poor mutt for the first time. i can tell you that direct skunk spray is much different and more potent than the scent you encounter when driving over road kill. the scent in our bathroom, and unfortunately soon through our entire small house, is much more peppery and toxic. it's overwhelming and suffocating.
it also bears noting that skunk musk is not at all conducive to nursing a hang over.
crosbi went outside for a bath and we proceeded to open every window and turn on every fan. we have lit incense and candles. we have "febreezed". we have wiped, bleached and mopped. there are little dishes of vinegar about, supposedly to absorb the scent. we have even baked cinnamon per the recommendation of "the internet". it seems to be working.
i suppose this is the type of adventure you get when you thumb your nose at fate as i did with my post yesterday. anytime i think that a night out could not possibly top previous experiences, i am sent a message by the universe. my message for this day is heard loud and clear, "always be ready for an adventure. life requires a sense of humor, fortitude, a strong stomach, true friends and family."
as always, the people you love make it worth all the trouble.
i expect this will be an adventure story that will be retold many times.

15 years.

happy 15th birthday ella!
there's been times in the last few years we didn't think you would make it to this day. you have certainly kept the veterinarian's salaries paid at adirondack animal hospital. most times you're juiced up on 'roids but still turn up your nose at food. it's always fun to play hunt-for-the-puke on your bad days. it's much more fun to see you pretend to be a kitten on your good days.
we have never met another cat like you and we are thankful for every day that you choose to stick around.

ivy.

remember that commission i was knee deep in?
well, i can finally reveal it to you!
meet ivy. she was a black german shepherd with loving parents and a family who had to make the hard decision to say goodbye after ivy's struggles with illness and injury.
i couldn't show you until now because the portrait was given a surprise christmas gift.
it's an honor to be able to memorialize such a loyal companion.