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| This is Nugget, our latest Foster... |
That is my fault, and I must apologize. There are a number of reasons this has happened, but it has all been around personal issues. Among other things, I have had quite a time trying to get back into my Blogger account--none of my passwords wanted to work, and neither did the password reset link function. I was going nuts! (Short trip!)
I was delighted and dismayed all at once to discover, when I finally did get back in, that there were NINE wonderful comments on my last post, which was nearly a year ago! Several months, at any rate! I loved the comments, appreciated them (the delight), but I was dismayed to think that I had not seen them in a timely fashion, and offered a proper thank you and reply.
My husband's health has been a huge factor. He's got multiple problems, and we've spent a year back and forth to doctor appointments, tests of one sort and another, all trying to find out when and if they can start fixing things for him. The biggest problem was that in August of 2011, he had a heart attack, and had to have a stent placed. That, in and of itself, was a simple procedure, and he came through just fine. He's getting good at it--that was "only" his 13th heart attack, and his 4th or 5th stent placement. He already had a coronary bypass back in 2001.
However, that bypass surgery caused a small hernia to form. It was not a big problem either, at the time. Fast forward to January of this year (2012), and he caught a bad cold. He coughed so hard and so much that the hernia tore, and now reaches all the way down his belly, making it hard for him to get a deep breath.
Naturally, he wants it fixed. Complication: after the stent placement, the doctors want you on Plavix for a full year. That is a blood thinner, so, no surgeries until that year is over.
However, the tear of the hernia followed a fall in November of 2011, at which time he tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. It has been causing him excruciating pain ever since, so now, he is virtually housebound, there not being much he can do without pain or breathing difficulties.
Come June, he started a round of appointments to evaluate the outlook for surgery, and darned if they didn't find a blood clot in his heart! So, they put him on a course of Coumadin. (For those who don't know what it is, it is a very severe blood thinner, generically known as Warfarin--a.k.a. rat poison!!) Between that, the Plavix, and the baby aspirin they had him on, ALL surgery was a no-go!
Meanwhile, we were spending the last year jumping through hoops and filling out all manner of duplicated paperwork and stressing out to the max to get a mortgage modification so as not to lose our house! To become homeless would be a death sentence for him, with all his problems (and rents in the area are higher than what we were paying for our mortgage--which was about to triple, due to the deferred interest capping out...)
Finally, the modification came through, and we were able to let go of that particular stressor.
During this time, I was just too stressed out to juggle very many things online, and ALL of my blogs, not just this one, fell by the wayside, as I was concentrating on building up my work on Hub Pages, where I am finally actually earning some green stuff....not a lot, but it is slowly building up month by month.
Now, hubby's latest problem was some severe pain that made him think he was having yet another heart attack, so off to the ER...but no...just very severe gas bubbles from the hernia issue. WHEW!! That was a relief, because this was at the end of August--the 'magic' date for getting off the Plavix, and the 6 months on the Coumadin...so they can okay him for his surgeries. (If it had been the heart, we'd have been back to square one at 'no-go.' ) So, he now has an appointment with the surgeon to assess how they are going to repair the hernia. At last. Progress. Once that is fixed, they can do the shoulder, then hopefully, he can have his life back!
Once he's fixed, I'm hoping I can get my bum knee seen to, and repaired..and then I can have MY life back, too, and we can both get back to riding our bikes, and me to my rollerblading!
So, at this point, it is my hope that the kitties can return to blogging. The "little monskers" from the last post the cats made, are now a year old and still just as cute as little buttons...neither of the girls are a very big kitty.
Meantime, we fostered a new batch of kittens starting at the end of April...3 more siblings (a little Tortie and two orange tabbies, one of whom had long fluffy fur). The tortie and the fluffball were adopted quickly in June at the "Maddie's Fund" event. However, the last little boy, "Nugget," is now 6 months old, and is being passed over at every single weekend adoption that we hold. (The group I'm with is called "H.A.L.O.," for "Homeless Animals' Lifeline Organization.)
I think it's looking like we may have another Foster Failure with him. He is so used to playing with all the other cats, and is sooooooooooo attached to us (ok, we like him, too!), that he would surely feel betrayed at this point to be suddenly taken from all he's known for all of his life he can remember, and given to someone else....he now runs and hides when the carrier comes out to go to the adoption events every weekend....and when he gets home, he hides and sleeps...and acts depressed.
But, that will be the end. No more kittens will be allowed to steal our hearts to that extent. That will put us at 7, and 2 over the 'legal limit,' for our city. (Although, I don't think they can afford to have staff knocking on everyone's door to count cats....) But, it's also a budget issue.
With surgeries for both of us on the horizon, though, we'll be taking a hiatus from fostering probably until "kitten season" 2013.
So, I think that about brings us current, and I hope I won't have to deprive the kitties of their blog for such a long time ever again!
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