Final destination

We got Five's ashes back yesterday and found a surprising thing in there as well. They took a clay footprint of him before the cremation. It was sweet and something I will hold onto for a long time.

Final Journey

Well today when I came home after a long day out of the house I found that Five had about every symptom to look for when deciding when to put him down. His eye had so much goop in it there were bubbles forming. His back end wasn't walking the same path that the front end was walking. He hadn't cleaned his paws or his body since walking in the rain hours before hand. All of that made both my wife and I decide that now would be the best time to put him down.

I found an animal hospital that was open that could do the job so I packed Five up for the last time and took him away. The process was quick and painless from what I could see and I held his head until well after the fact. Now he is taking a journey that has no return and I hope he finds his paradise along that path.

For now I'll be thinking about him while trying to juggle a new born baby. Oh what conflicted times.

Sick definied

To say that I'm sad about this seems unfair to Five as he doesn't know what is happening.

As I noted we went to a vet yesterday to see why Five was loosing so much weight so suddenly. Initially it was though that he had more room to run around in and that he wasn't eating as much so a little weight loss was expected. After a little time the weight loss didn't stop and became an issue.

The vet felt around and noticed something odd about his kidneys which needed a specialist to look into. An appointment was made today for 12:00 which I arrived at 11:45 for.

Initial view from the specialist's assistant was that the kidneys were definitely enlarged and needed to have a closer look. The specialist came in and commented that the best go would be an ultrasound to see what was wrong and a quick "thin needle biopsy" to see what was going on. Luckily the all the resources were available and they could get it all done in 20 minutes.

When they came back they said that Five's kidneys were between two and three times the size they should be, should be 3.2cm were 9.0cm. This was being caused by cancer that had developed. They weren't sure how serious it is but a new specialist would be showing up on Saturday to take a look at the results and get a better idea of what can be done for Five.

Right now the given options were a) steroids which would delay the inevitable or b) chemotherapy which would delay the inevitable or even possible remission. They didn't say it but the chance that Five will see Baby E's first birthday is close to zero.

So right now I'm sad that I'll be loosing a friend but also sad because that friend will never know why this is happening.

Sick cat

Well Five has taken ill but we aren't too sure how ill. We went off to the vet today to see if we could find out. The result was that Five's kidneys are "wrong" and need more help than what a simple vet can provide. We will be off to see a specialist tomorrow to see what they can see.

I'm not looking forward to the long drive into the City.

Day of sadness

I would just like to inform everyone that today reaches a bit of sadness that I have been expecting for a while now. My very first e-mail account has been closed. This account has been with me since I was in grade 8, for those mathematically challenged that makes it about 15 years. The service from the provider eventually forced me away to find greener pastures.

Because of this change please be aware that all my domain related accounts will be inactive for a week as domain ownership moves from my previous hosting service to my new one. At one point I can actually say I was a proud member of the internet community through the host but as they grew bigger they also grew less feeling to the community around them. I liked the idea of getting messages from the president every Christmas season wishing everyone a happy _______, the greeting was in about 20 different celebrations. I liked the idea that they would work on firming up the local infrastructure by connecting directly with other ISPs to create a bigger web then relying on the local major providers. But alas all that has passed and with it I sign my first e-mail account to the eternal ether and hope that things get better from here.

That which I thought would never pass....

You know how you are young and you always think that your parents will be around forever? You grow up and you realize that this isn't true but somehow some of your innocence is then lost. Well our family has had a cottage for as long as I can remember. I always thought that it would be part of the family. Even when there was fighting between the family members I always thought that it would be around. Sadly this isn't the case.

It was decided about a week and a half ago that the cottage will be sold. It has been on the auction block for a while and it was finally purchased. The owner takes possession of it next week if I have my timing right. So the previous weekend we went up and took what we thought we needed. Everyone is having their turn to clear out the cottage. Anything left will go to the new owner.

Anyway here are a few pictures of the old cottage. It was nice while we had it and I didn't visit it as often as I should but now it will really be missed. Here are a few photos that we took with the Alpha.

Picture 1

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