Living Laughing Loving Life: January 2012

Well, Pumpkin the kitten is all boy and is proving he is going to give us a run for our money. He now has 7 lives left and we have only had him for under two months! First we rescued him and next ...well just read on...

Pumpkin was scheduled on Monday for a declaw and neuter so we took him in, dropped him off and heard back from the vet 4 hours later and seconds before they were ready to put him under. We got a call because Pumpkin threw up! "Ok, so is that a bad thing why you are calling me?" I asked (ha) "Yes, Mrs. Carter...Pumpkin threw up 3 ponytail holders and half of a silly band," the nurse replied. She said, "He might not have made it through surgery had we not known those were in his stomach."

I am speechless , feeling like a horrible mother, and wondering what they were going to say next!

I, of course, apologized for having things small enough for the cat to swallow SOMEWHERE in the house, which was probably found underneath... ummm.... my daughter's bed ...yeah...because we keep a pretty tidy house....

"Well, Mrs. Carter, we need to take a radiograph to see if there is anything else in his stomach before we perform the operation and we will call you back with the results." "Ok," I replied ...but thinking....pony tail holders!!! Good Lord! He's not big enough to swallow ponytail holders, how long did it take for him to do that and where did he find the darn things??? It had to have been under Lily's bed, I haven't seen them in plain view anywhere in the house...hence maybe because he has been swallowing them ....OMG

I tell the kids what Pumpkin swallowed and we got an empty toilet paper tube and did the whole..."If something is small enough to fit through this tube it is too small to be left anywhere in the house because apparently the cat is swallowing things he should not be swallowing!"

The next 3 days all start to become a blur! It goes somewhat like this...

"Mrs. Carter, we are going to give Pumpkin an enema because he has not had a bowel movement," the nurse said over the phone. ME:"Oh Dear God, I haven't paid any attention to the litterbox... we just got home from Christmas, had been gone for 2 days and now look what happened!!! As a matter of fact the house DID NOT have a horrible smell when we returned...OMG he hasn't gone poo in 3 days!!!" We are scrambeling to get to the litterbox.....thank goodness there was at least a little poo in there but not like normal.

The vet himself made the next call. "Mrs. Carter, the enema didn't work, we are going to give him an iv of fluids for 24 hours to flush him out, then we will take another radiograph ME: "Are you kidding me!!! REALLY...WHAT IS GOING ON....we went in for a declaw and a nueter and now the cat can't poo and he might have something else wrong with him!?" I call mom and she is laughing hystericlaly...she and I have a horrible defense mechanism to anyone or anything being hurt or sick and can't contain our laughter. We are almost in tears on the phone from laughing...a kitty enema...REALLY! Surely they won't charge for that...what is that...like a teaspoon of water or something? (ha) Kitty Enema! And an iv...for 24 hours! Good grief!

I get another call..."Mrs. Carter, Pumpkin has a blockage in his colon. We can't tell what it is, but we better pray that he does not have a hairband in his colon or I am going to have to perform surgery on this little cat!" ME AGAIN: "OH MY GOSH! I can't believe this is really happening. Ok, so IS he going to be ok? I rescued this kitten...he is a RESCUE kitten and by that I mean he was FREE and now he has had 3 radiographs, some barium, an enema, an iv for 24 hours and now we are looking at possible colon surgery! I want to see the x-ray! I was not prepared to spend $1000 on a rescue cat pre-declaw and pre-nueter. I love Pumpkin, my kids love Pumpkin... but we have had it for 4 weeks...what if he eats other stuff up! OMG I can not believe how much this is going to cost and we didn't even know he had done this! It was caught by accident!"

I also said, " I am going to need a breakdown of everything that has been done thus far!"

I call my brother to give him the scoop. He says, " Leave it to you to get the "stupid" cat! You should put the cat down and go get a smarter cat!" "Well, that doesn't help...I have kids that love the cat and I have a very big conscience," I remind him!

The Vet Dr. called back and said he was going to have to operate on Pumpkin. Nothing has moved out of his colon. He needs to know what I would like to do. Since he wanted to do surgery he needed my consent. I said, "I would call them back...I don't know what I am going to do yet." I am flipping out in my head. I just got out of a vlounteer meeting and I have approximately 3 hours to make my decision before I have little ones running around the house and I don't want to be flipping out in front of them. I call mom and tell her...she is laughing hysterically, has me on speaker phone, and her whole office is listening as I replay the events ... One of the nurses says that he could have been born with an obstructed bowel and they may have to re-route his bowel. OMG...All I see is another $1000 flash before my eyes and a stone with Pumpkin's name on it laying in our flower bed!! I am now considering giving the cat up!

I am now calling him "The Cat"...I have detached myself to try to make a decision (ha) Should I give the cat up... maybe he will do the surgery for free for one of the nurses and then one of them will take him home! Should I fork over the money? OMG it is sooo much money! Should I put him down? Will he eat more things and we'll be right back in the same predicament down the road. "Oh....there won't be a next time...the cat gets one chance from me," I say to myself! Yeah right! (ha) What do I tell the kids? I can't lie. I can't play GOD! I don't want to put a stone in the flower bed!

I haven't called Chris yet to break the news so, I call my friend Kourtney. Kourtney is no help. She has no attachment to any animals and never wants to have a pet. She is laughing hysterically and apologizing at the same time. I am frantic and running out of quiet time to make my mind up. Kourtney and I discuss whether or not animals have souls and how I would be looked at in the eyes of the Lord if I choose to put him down even though he's not super super sick. We decide I should be fine. GOD WILL understand, but I think to myself "WILL I be able to live with myself?"

I guess he IS sick.

But it's his own fault!...

NO, it's OUR falult for leaving small things around...DARN IT!

OK, I am going to go home and break the news to Chris!

Chris in his ever so calmness looks at me and says, "Honey, it's your choice!"

Well, that's just great!!! That is almost worse than him saying to just put the cat down! Now it's on ME if I waste our money on the cat!

I pick up the phone and call my best friend Karen. I'm sure Chris was just waiting to see how many people I would call before I made my decision to save Pumpkin's life.(ha) I leave to go sit in carpool line at school. I am now down to 30 minutes. I am giving myself 30 minutes and then I am going to call the vet back with my decision! Karen doesn't answer, so I text her what has happened. She responds back with "WOW! It only cost me $15 to have my dog's butt squeezed!" ME: "REALLY...That was too much information! And what is with the dog having to have his butt squeezed? That's so gross! What!"

I am now laugh crying....I am laugh crying... sitting alone in the carpool line at school! Laugh crying uncontrolably... but I feel much better because I am not so tense anymore and realize that laughing was exactly what I needed! Karen finally calls and after we compose ourselves and compare vet stories I decide I am going to go ahead and pay for Pumpkin's surgery. I told Karen not to send me the Kelly's Kids catalog this season, I would be paying for cat surgery instead of clothes and we might have to delay plans for a family picture!

I feel good about my decision!

My cell phone rings and it is the vet....I am not ready to tell him what I have decided so I let it go to voicemail. I have a good 10 minutes to continue to breathe in and out and relax and be in my happy place alone before I tell them what they want to hear.

I finally listen to the message... "Mrs. Carter...We wanted to let you know that Pumpkin just went poo!" His colon is clear. It was not a hairband or a silly band that was blocking his colon. He was stopped up! Dr. so and so gave Pumpkin a laxative as a last attempt before you made your decision and it worked. You can come pick Pumpkin up and we will do his declaw and nueter another day!"

ME: "OMG! Poo! Yeah for Poo!! Pumpkin is fine! Thank You, Lord...You just wanted me to do the right thing and when I made my decision you worked your miracles. I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!"

Lily hopped into the car, we drove by the house and got Chris and Cade and went up to the vet's to pick Pumpkin up!

That was the longest 3 hours of my life! I was completely drained considering the previous events and the decision process which I am no good at! I told Chris I was not cooking dinner and I wanted comfort food! Kourtney and her family met us up at our little fav place for dinner. We laughed as we re-lived our conversations while our husbands rolled their eyes and joked about "arial burials." I had a big juicy hamburger, some fried okra with homemade ranch and a big ole tall glass of root beer. It was the best dinner I've ever had!

UPDATE: Pumpkin is doing great. We have had no more trouble..as far as we know and he is scheduled in a few weeks for his de-claw and nueter. I have requested that no more x-rays be taken in the future. :) Oh, and I'd think twice before you call me in an emergency...I'm not sure that I'd be able to do make a decision in time for the problem to be solved in a sane manner :)

We were soooo busy during the month of december! It was lots of fun and extremely exhausting. So glad for a two week break with the kids out of school! Lots of memories made this season!

A visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus at Jack's Christmas Party!

Cade sang in his music program at preschool!

Mrs. Kelly's class painted footprint christmas tree shirts for their class christmas party!

Lily's class party had stations: snowball toss, making marshmellow snowmen, and a picture frame.

We had Christmas Eve at Rick and Kristel's. Mass follwed by a wonderful dinner, caroling and lots of presents!

Our lovely hosts: Rick and Kristel

We sang christmas carols as Kristel and Greta played the piano together!

Cade opening his presents...lots of "boy stuff" and "Dis de best dift EVER!"

Lily got lots of girly crafty things that kept her busy all vacation!

Carter Cousin Picture

Family picture

Christmas Morning at Brian and Jessica's. Dad drove GiGi up from Waco early early christmas morning so she could be with all of us and mom for the day. Jessica's parents, siblings and aunt and uncle came over as well... bright and early to watch as the kids woke up, ran downstairs screaming, and running over each other to see what Santa brought them! It was so fun! Lily didn't turn around from her Santa Stash to see who was really there until 30 minutes later and then she ran over and gave GiGi a hug and screamed her name out loud! (ha) Brian and Jessica cooked up a yummy breakfast for all of us in our pj's and then served a gourmet meal for dinner! We stayed two nights and I think we were in our pj's for two whole days. It was wonderful!!!