Boat Captain

Well... two weeks again since my last update. Time flies around here I guess.

Well Aiden has been doing pretty well. Going to sleep around 9pm and waking up about 7am. Of course 7am is too early for Daddy, but I'm getting used to it.

We've had some warm weather in middle Tennessee, so I have had the opportunity to take Aiden to the park a few times over the last week or so. He really enjoys the park, and I enjoy the nap we usually take afterwards.

At 19 months Aiden is so super busy. He's always up to something, and keeping daddy on his toes. The last couple of days he has actually managed to escape the house. We have a dog door for our golden retriever, which is of course ample size for a 19 month old to get through. He has gone through it once before, but that was months ago and he really wasn't steady on his feet at that point, so he went right over and banged his head on the deck outside, so we didn't try that again very soon. Well on Tuesday the dog started barking emphatically and I went to see what it was she was barking at. As I walk into the kitchen I see through the sliding glass door, my son, wandering around the deck. The same scenario played out again on Wednesday, but instead of the dog barking the house went REALLY quiet. I usually have a pretty good idea what Aiden is up to just by hearing what activity he is doing. When I don't hear anything I have to check on him in a hurry. And sure enough, wandering around on the deck. Brilliant.

So now we're going to have to either keep the dog door closed, or find some other alternative to keep the child in the house where he belongs.

Got a couple of pictures for you tonight. Last week mommy had to go in to work on her day off for just a few minutes, so I took Aiden on the boat ride. It was a slow day, so we got Aiden up in the captain's chair and taught him a few moves. Enjoy!

First Haircut

Yeah, we finally went and got Aiden's hair cut. Sort of.



We took Aiden in for a trim, and were lucky to get that much hair off his head. At first when we put him down in the seat, he seemed curious more than anything else, so we thought we were in okay shape. But as soon as the stylist started spritzing water on his hair, the tears and bawls started streaming. Aiden Bawling at the top of his lungs while other folks are in the salon trying to relax during a hair cut or pedicure or whatever. It was not very pleasant. Eventually, we moved back into the back hallway, and mommy and daddy took turns holding Aiden while the stylist trimmed a little more hair off.



Aiden's curls are still intact. She might have taken a half an inch of hair off, and even that she didn't manage everywhere. Since he has about 6 inches of hair and it is all in big old curls, it is hard to notice any difference. But picture #1 is the before, and the last picture is the after.



I guess the videos will have to come later, as blogspot has been sitting on "processing" on my video for close to 30 minutes, with no response, so I will try those again tomorrow.

Reactions

I want to take a moment and thank everyone who has offered their kind words and sympathies this week as I said good bye to my dear pet.

One of the things a lot of people have asked about is Aiden's reactions, if any, to Skywise not being with us anymore, so I thought that would be a blog worthy topic.

In truth, Aiden has probably not noticed the change in the count of animals in our house at all. Aiden's "pet existence" is dominated by our 90 pound Golden Retriever. She follows us from room to room, and when the dog enters a room, the cats make for the exits, or the underside of a bed. Which means except for the rare occasion that a cat would brave the downstairs while the dog was outside, or we would come upstairs and find a cat on one of the beds, Aiden rarely sees or interacts with the cats.

Aiden did pet Skywise a few times, and she tolerated it with dignity. But in hindsight, I can't recall a single instance in which Aiden has seen both cats in one place at the same time. So in his little mind, he might not even realize there were two different cats. So he still catches glimpses of Chessie, so there is still a cat in the house and all is well.

When the dog goes, that will likely be a different matter entirely, as he has bonded with the dog. Fortunately, she is only 5 years old so with any luck she will be around for many years to come.

The dog does seem to be missing Skywise on the other hand. There are all sorts of theories on animal grieving, and Leetah has been with Skywise for all of her life. When we got Leetah as a puppy, Skywise outweighed her, that VERY quickly changed, but it seems as though the dog does sense the loss and is a bit sadder than her usual self this week.

In other news, we have had WONDERFUL weather here in middle Tennessee over the last few days, and yesterday Aiden and I went out to the park and spent an hour running out some of that pent up energy from being cooped up inside during the cold days. It is bound to get chilly again soon, it is only February after all, but in the meantime we are going to try to get the most out of this wonderful weather that we can.

Good Bye Kitten

I hope everyone reading will pardon me for taking one post out from talking about Aiden to say a few words about my cat Skywise who passed today.

I adopted Skywise from a shelter on July 24th 1993. I filled out the adoption papers and agreed to have her fixed while during the same operation having her front claws removed. I was able to pick her up 3 days later, on my birthday. Since I never had any idea when he actual birthday was, I just always celebrated her birthday right along with mine, since that was the day I got her.

I was just going into my Sophomore year in college, and Sky was my first big responsibility for something other than myself. I nearly lost her in the first week, as the tolls of two massive surgeries on her little kitten body made her susceptible, and she got a pretty bad urinary tract infection. While in my mind I know that during that first week with her I spent a lot of time prying her mouth open to try to force medicine down her throat, my keenest memory of her as a kitten is the very first night I brought her home, I woke up in the middle of the night with a little ball of fur curled up on the bed right in the space under my neck created by the incline of my head being on the pillow. She had curled herself up so tight against me, it was a tremendous bond with this tiny little creature.

She gave me a kitten's share of difficulties, one time knocking an entire glass of orange juice over onto my computer keyboard, desk, and phone. But she was always there for me, always loving to lay in the sun, and my constant companion through all of my misadventures.

A World traveller, Sky made homes in Kentucky, Virginia, Florida and finally Tennessee. From day one she was a great traveller, No car crate for this one, she preferred to explore the car as we went, finally picking a spot on the floormat and calling that home, even for the 12 hour trip from Florida to Kentucky. At the same time, it was Skywise who stopped my travels after graduating college. I had decided that I wanted to move out to Las Vegas to pursue my career in live entertainment, so I packed up my bags and my father and I started driving to Las Vegas. Since this was to be Skywise's first major trip the vet recommended giving her a light sedation, which made her lethargic, but didn't put her out. We had her in a crate for the trip and she was not pleased with that idea at all. Already nervous and doubting about the trip in the first place, my heart broke with my poor kitten crying and not even able to stand up because of the sedative. We made it five hours out of Lexington before I broke down and we went back home. Who knows where my life would have gone if my kitten hadn't been there to test my resolve. Two weeks later I had a job offer from Carnival Cruise Line, an offer I no doubt would not have been in a position to accept if I had gone through with the move to Vegas.

For a time while I worked on the cruise ships Sky had to spend her time with various other family members, my mother and brother to be precise, and had various feline roommates. She wasn't thrilled with sharing her space with other cats, but she eventually came to an arrangement with them to leave each other be. Finally coming to even be willing to share space on our guest bed with Chessie as the sun soaked through the windows and both girls settled in for an afternoon nap.

3 days ago Sky started to act very lethargic and weak, prior to that she was as active a cat as you could hope for being 15 years old. She had lost a lot of weight, but I read over and over that this was common in senior cats and unless accompanied by other symptoms was no cause for alarm. So, with her attitude and behavior being intact, we let her enjoy a little less weight to carry around. I am not sure what exactly it was on Friday that clued me in to how events were unfolding, but she was not acting herself, and I woke up Saturday fully prepared to find that she had gone to sleep Friday night never to wake up. But she was still with us Saturday, and Sunday, but Monday morning found her behavior even worse than it had been the previous days. This afternoon we decided to take her in to see the vet and our concerns were confirmed, in the vet's opinion she had renal failure which is what eventually takes most cats at this late stage in life. As inert and unresponsive as she was and with the dr's concerns that if we brought her home to "die in the peace of her own surroundings" that she may progress to siezures, vommiting, and overall a suffering end, we decided that the best thing to do was to let her go.

As the doctor gave us a few minutes to discuss our options and I sat there with my kitten, she gave one huge sigh, as if to say "I'm done fighting daddy" and we knew. There was no fight left in her. She had had her run, and was ready to cross the rainbow bridge and nap in the sun constantly. The doctor graciously agreed to administer the shot out on the deck where Sky could be in the sun one last time, and a few moments later she was gone. Gone but never to be forgotten.

Unfortunately, the only digital images I can find this evening are the two attached. I have more in photo albums, but I don't know if I am ready to go through those yet.

She was a sweet kitten, and I loved her dearly.

Good-bye Skywise, and Rest well!