A Mother’s Journal

What a week this has been!  My my, the week has flown and it has surely been a week of lessons from the SCHOOL OF LIFE.  Not so much book work this week, but a lot of real life learning has taken place. 

First of all, I woke up on Tuesday morning to a lovely day, a day off, and plans to get A LOT done.  However, after putting our heads together, Michaela and I came to the conclusion that we had not seen Oreo in at least a couple of days. 

Here’s little Oreo as a new kitten, so sweet, and she was the most loving and trusting kitten in the bunch.  She turned out to be the best hunter too, and she’s the one kitten in that litter that we adopted and kept. 

Anyhoo, now Oreo is about a year and a half old, Oreo is an outside cat and we have so many neighborhoood cats that hang around the yard, I do not do a head count every morning when I take food out.  I just see Oreo when I see her and give her hugs and she likes to be on her way.  Still, on Tuesday morning I was concerned that I had not actually laid eyes on Oreo for a couple of days, and then Michaela said it had been four days for her! 

So we started calling, and calling, and calling.  I had to come in and get some stuff done, but Michaela would not give up and stayed on the porch shaking the food container and calling.  It had probably been three or four hours in total that someone had been calling for Oreo — either Michaela on the front porch or me walking up and down our street, when Michaela came flying inside, breathless, and sobbing uncontrollably.  Oreo had dragged herself up onto the porch but it was a sight I’ll not soon forget.  She was badly injured, having been hit by a car. 

Let me stop here and say that Michaela has always wanted to be a vet, but the sight of Oreo made her say she didn’t think she could do it.  If ever we needed a lesson in what it really means to be a vet, we got one that day.  I began giving Michaela things to do to keep her busy:  go get the crate.  Get me the phone book.  Go get some clean cloths from the rag box.  Oreo appeared to be missing an eye, her jaw was dangling, obviously broken, and the skin underneath her jaw was dangling down even farther.  The top of her head was raw and black. 

I called the vet, that amazing man they call Dr. Mac, and he said to bring her in.  I just knew we’d have to put Oreo down, but he informed me that her eye was still there, there was just a ton of swelling, the place on her head would slough off and heal over with new skin, and the biggest thing of all, he felt he could pin her broken jaw back together. 

What?

Surgery is not cheap, but he quoted me a price that we could squeeze in, especially if he let me break it into about three payments.  He was so sweet.  He said, “If I have to choose between putting her down and three payments, I say we gotta try.”

On top of that, he said by the looks of the black wound on top of her head, her injuries were indeed about four days old.  That means that poor Oreo had been laying outside in the cold and some rain for four days with no food and maybe no water.   A cat with that kind of will deserves a chance!

Fast forward to today, Friday.  Oreo looks like a different kitty!  Dr. Mac repaired her jaw and she is healing!  She is eating a food called A/D which is very nutrient dense.  We have to water it down and she laps it up like water.  I am totally amazed at how strong a cat she has been to survive all of this.  She is of course on antibiotics and pain meds and has to rest a lot.  She is also inside, something that has Annie very puzzled and curious! 

I know not everyone wants to see how she looked, so I could not bring myself to take a picture of her before surgery.  You see, her surgery was not until Wednesday morning, so we kept her here Tuesday night in the horrible shape she was in.  It was so hard to hear her meowing and to see her in such discomfort.

If you want to see how she looks now, a picture is here.  It’s not so bad, but will show you some of the top of her head injuries.

And here’s one of her little face and how remarkably the vet brought her chin back together.  The red spot over her eye is where all the swelling was and where a small piece of dead skin had to be clipped off.  Her eyelid may not have hair in the future, but it should heal.  I think Oreo’s tongue is sticking out because of the swelling.

Dr. Mac was so kind to Michaela.  He explained every injury to her and explained what he would do to fix it.  He told her he thought she  might want to be a vet again once she sees how Oreo looks in a month.

We snapped this picture because Oreo was already trying to play last night.  Annie was wagging her tail because she’s so excited to have another pet in the house with her, and Oreo was pawing at Annie’s wagging tail. 

It’s also notable that Oreo’s eyes appear blue in the shot and Annie’s red!

One more thing.  I called this post “the week of doctors” because I went to the specialist yesterday that I’ve been wanting to see.  I saw PA Linda Salerno, and talk about seeing someone who knows EXACTLY what I’ve been through!!  You can read her story here.

Well, it’s a work day for me so I must run.  It’s been an exciting week for us here.  I’ll let you know how Oreo does.  And how I do.  I’m on a new regimen of supplements and I feel better already.  I was diagonsed with a classic, severe case of adrenal fatigue, in addition to hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s.  When I went in my BP was only 90/55 and my heart rate was around 60.   Have a wonderful Friday!

Obviously, dear readers, my header has changed this evening.  If you like flowered-y Victorianesque sorts of things, then you may like it.  If not, well, would you like a cup of tea? 

I’ve been a bit under the weather today, and it’s not a virus this day, but my thyroid.  Sigh.  I can feel my body playing tug of war – my poor thyroid trying to keep working and my poor immune system, confused and trying to destroy my would-be healthy thyroid.  They each are pulling against each other, causing everything from headaches to eczema to a racing heart.  It’s quite the exhausting thing.   But I digress…

My garden has been such a solace for me over the last year.  It has been a constant in my natural world when everything else (my health) has seemed crazy and out of whack.  Just thinking of my garden calms me down. 

What’s more, tucked into the little garden are two homemade bunny cages housing four bunnies that I have come to adore.  I am not sure if it’s their big brown eyes, or their soft fur, or the hunts I take around the yard each day, basket in hand, to find them their greens, but I am smitten.  The bunnies, or as Charlotte Mason would say, “something to love,” have been most therapeutic for me.  I can hardly picture myself without bunnies now. 

You are cordially invited to come with me to feed the bunnies.  Then we can find greens for them and then we can sit and have tea and talk about bunnies.   Well, we don’t have to talk about bunnies only, and I promise I haven’t lost my mind totally to bunnies.  I’m just trying to explain to you why my home has been christened, at least for internet purposes, Sage-Bunny Cottage. 

What is that you ask?  Sage?  Ah yes.  You’ve been on so many adventures with us here, from harvesting sage to gathering wild rosehips to painting with mulberries and plantain stems, you might know that an herb would be included in the name.  And sage is one of my favorites.  Not to mention Coco just looks so wise in the bright sunshine.  Don’t you think so?

It’s nearly bedtime here — time for snuggling and reading.  Poor Pa Ingalls!  He just lost his wheat crop to a million grasshoppers and has set out walking 100 miles in broken boots to look for work. We simply must see what happens next.