Tidbits

We made lunch plans with our friends Luis and Audra, and I mentioned that we'd be busy the rest of the day with Cora's science project. Hearing that, she asked if Violet might like to hang out with them when they went to Placerita Canyon.

That was a no-brainer!

Such a nice offer, and I appreciate the photos, as well.

We are so blessed to have a creek in the canyon again - thank you, God, for the rain we've been praying for! Maybe this year will be the end to our five-year drought.

 One night this week, I checked in on the girls as I made my way to bed. Both of them had a warm, furry, living animal to cuddle with - who needs a teddy bear?

Violet comes out most nights looking for Spencer to carry back to her bed. She has trouble falling asleep without him!

When we lost Somer when Cora was four, I was so sad for the girls to lose that wonderful friend. But we are so thankful God blessed us with Spencer and Sebastian - they each have their own cat for bedtime!

We've also been busy getting ready for Nan and Pop's return! They come in soon for Cora's 10th birthday.

We've been cleaning and rearranging things in the playroom, to form a proper guest room for them. We purchased a foldup queen mattress and folding bed frame, so they can sleep in comfort on a bed we can later store in the garage.

And with the curtains (which we'll take down later), they'll also have privacy.

Recovering and Remembering

I've been going through old photos to scan in and create a photobook of Somer.

Here are some classics...

I think she is just gorgeous in the top one - look at those eyes!

And, in that process, I've rediscovered some great videos that I put on the blog, and that I obviously can't put in a photobook:

Cora at 14 months, playing with Somer with flowers; (I remember this so clearly - I hadn't shown Cora how to do this, or encouraged her to do it - I just heard it happening and grabbed the camera)

Cora at 20 months, piling rubber floor tiles onto Somer; (Somer loved these tiles and for some reason thought they were toys to eat. Most of them have her tooth marks. She also liked to chew my nail files. Weird.)

Cora at 13 months, playing with her diapers with her best friend by her side (This one is more of Cora than Somer, but it does show how much Somie liked hanging out right next to the baby.)

Somer allowing almost-two-year-old Cora to play with her food. (This one cracks me up.)

Cora seems to be handling it well. She comforts us by saying that we don't need to be sad, because Somer is feeling better in heaven, and we'll see her again and play with her when we go to heaven.

I think that because Cora's so young, she just doesn't have the clear memories of how close she and Somer were for her first two-plus years, and that's why she's taking it so well. Somer had been very sick since August, and really, wasn't herself for months before that.

Stace and I, meanwhile, need a bit more time to get used to this unwelcome change. I still look for her on the couch and open the front door cautiously, waiting for her to try to escape. Today is the first day I haven't cried, so that is a step in the right direction.

We will get another cat, maybe even two, but will wait a few months. For one thing, there is no replacing Somer, so it would be stupid to try. For another, we are starting a kitchen project, which will be engrossing, for sure, and will mean lots of open doors. And finally, we will be in England in May, and away from the house and any potential pets for two weeks.

The End

Somer now lives only in our hearts and memories.

She hadn't eaten in about a week, and was now walking slowly and unable to jump onto the bathroom counters to get a drink. When we would help her up, she'd look at the running water, take a lick or two, and then leave it.
Somer spent her last several days staying up on the back of the couch, not responding much to our attention, and not joining Cora at naptime or Violet at playtime.

I spoke to her vet on Friday, and she thought it sounded like it was time to say goodbye. I made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon, as that time worked around other things we had planned, and this particular vet's schedule.

But the later it got Friday, and especially as I tried to go to sleep, it felt like we needed to take her in Saturday. In the middle of the night, Stace and I talked it over and agreed. Her complete lack of eating must have meant she was in pain.

Saturday morning when Stace got up early for work, Somer still joined him in the bathroom for a (small) drink of water, and followed him out to the kitchen, as she has done daily for seven years. I know Stace's mornings will be so lonely and quiet without his early-rising friend.

I could go on, but I won't. Anyone reading this who has lost a pet who was more family member than animal knows what we're going through.

In the end, Stace and I both were with her, wishing her well and thanking our dear Somer for sharing life with us and our girls.

Rest in Peace, Somerset
2003 to Jan. 22, 2011

Somer update

We've reached the final weeks or days of our life with Somer.

Somie, as Cora calls her, spent about two weeks boarded at the vets' office, and five days before we returned home they gave her another steroid shot because she had stopped eating again. She then improved a lot, as we've seen in the past. We picked her up last Wednesday, and seeing our girls so happy to pick her up was quite a sight. Violet waved her arms around and made her "ooh ooh ooh" monkey noise she makes when she's excited.

Somer did fine Thursday and Friday, and went way downhill over the weekend. She hardly moved off our bed Saturday and Sunday, ate nothing, and barely drank. She looked miserable and was nearly unresponsive when we would pet her, even though she was awake. So, we decided Sunday evening we would take her in Monday for the trip we're dreading.

Then, Monday morning, as if she read our minds, Somer got up and started eating. She ate half a can of tuna and a 3 ounce can of cat food over the course of the morning. She also seemed much more lively. So, we didn't take her in to the vet's. We just love her too much to take her in until we absolutely must, and when she's out and about and eating, we can't bring ourselves to do it.

The vet called Tuesday to check on her, which was very nice, and she was glad we've had some good days with her since coming home from our trip. She agreed with our assessment that we won't give her any more steroid shots, and will just take it day by day.

Today, Wednesday, she hasn't eaten very much, though she has seemed very alert and out with us in the house. She also woke me up at 1:30 a.m. for petting and purring, which was lovely.

A new friend

It's funny how life and blogging are - I can have a week where it's so normal there seems to be little to mention here. And then there is a week with so much going on, I hardly have a moment to sit at the computer.

Anyway, at top we have photos from our fabulous evening Monday with Juliana, Maya, Daryl and brand-new-baby Natalia Marie!

They moved about a half-hour out of SClarita a month ago, and Juliana gave birth to Natalia last week. We were lucky enough to meet her on her fifth day of life! She is gorgeous and so tiny, making Violet look gigantic.

Cora and Maya had a great time together, and their new home is beautiful.

On our way home, Cora asked what freeway we had taken. She is very interested these days on where we are going and how we are getting there - she wants the names of roads, and pretty much exact directions.

I told her we took the freeway, and that people call it the 210 freeway - the "two-ten." I went further, for some reason, and said that it could be called the "two-hundred-ten freeway" but that people say "two-ten."
Cora then wanted to know what Daddy called it. "The two-ten," I said. She asked what Juliana called it, and I said "the two-ten."
Then, she declared. "I call it the fifty-eight."
Typical!

Other recent Coraisms: She was excited to put up a scarecrow in her window as an autumn decoration. She then said, "Can we decorate my room? With stickers? All over everything?!?!"
And, when she and Violet were together in the playroom, Violet started crying. I asked what was wrong, and Cora said, "I just hit her head with my bus. But I said 'Sorry.' "

And a last bit of Cora news - she is now wearing big-girl panties to bed! More than a year after being potty-trained during the day, our big girl is truly done with diapers. She has been dry most nights for a couple of months, and a few weeks ago we started giving her stickers in the morning for waking up dry. That seemed to spur her on to making sure she got up in the night when she needed the toilet.

In other news, we took Somer in last week for another steroid shot. The vet said that if the steroids work, they typically wear off after four weeks, so we were right on schedule with her needing another shot.

She is such a good kitty - Violet was wanting to pet her the other day, and obviously that means grabbing handfuls of skin and fur, and Somer stays put.

Tidbits

Somer has been doing so much better since we gave her a steroid shot the day we got her cancer diagnosis. She is eating a can of the special food a day, and that means she has put weight back on. She has been more active with the girls, and Violet is definitely taking notice of her. She stares at her now, and sometimes tries to pet/grab Somer if she comes close.

Cora got to take Skippy, the Skipper Club mascot, home for the week. He and Nemo both shared Cora's bed. Stace was laughing about having to tuck in a plastic fish.

Our pretty girl. I bought some little bows for Violet but they all require a lot more hair than Violet has. With a few spare dollars on an Amazon gift card, I treated Violet to a bow made just for her.
Grandma has been off this week from her school job, so I put her to work in Cora's classroom. Cora's preschool requires us parents to volunteer without bringing siblings of the students, so I timed two of our volunteer dates for my mom's week off.

Saturday fun

Cora learned about scoring goals in her football training Saturday morning. She scored three, and was quite pleased with herself. She also was happy about her new shin pads and knee highs.

When she and Stace arrived at the park, she said, "I'm a right footballer!"

After soccer, we drove down to Anaheim for a fun afternoon at an amusement park.

No, not that amusement park - we'll let Grandma and Grandpa do most of the Disneyland duty. Rather, we met up with them and Cora's godparents and family to have fun and celebrate Grandma's birthday at Adventure City.

It's a cute old-fashioned amusement park, with rides, a petting zoo and arcade. I imagine it to be the kind of place you'd love to go to in parts of the country that aren't near the major theme parks we have on our doorstep.

John and Linda's younger daughter, Mikayla, was excited to show Cora the rides, and Cora had a lot of fun with her and her older sister, Noelle. Hard to believe these beautiful young ladies were our flower girls seven years ago!

I am amazed at Cora's lack of fear on these rides! She loved the roller coasters and the ride that took you straight up and straight back down again. My stomach was upside down, but Cora took it in stride, laughing the whole time and saying, "That's crazy!"

On the way home, there was a lot of traffic on the 5 (to the surprise of NO ONE) so we stopped for dinner. Nothing like In-N-Out to top off a great family day!

On a side note, we are grateful for all the warm thoughts we've received for Somer. She is doing a bit better, surprisingly, over the past few days.

This special food she is eating seems to be helping a lot. She is eating a can a day, up from the few bites a day she had been eating. That means she is no longer wasting away, and seems to be more energetic and lively. We'll take it!

Our poor Somer

This post comes from a very heavy heart.

Stace and I learned Tuesday that our Somer has cancer in her intestine, and it's spread to nearby areas and her lymph nodes.

This explains her lack of appetite; her weight had dropped another pound, to seven pounds, from her prior vet appointment 12 days earlier.

At the last appointment, we had hoped that her various symptoms were from a urinary tract infection. When we later learned that the culture was negative, Stace and I did fear it was far more serious. Over the weekend her appetite dropped even further, so I moved up her re-check appointment from Wednesday to Monday.

At that appointment, the doctor could now feel the tumor, and Somer stayed overnight for an ultrasound Tuesday morning, which showed the cancer.

The vet suggested, and we agreed, to give Somer a steroid shot that might make her feel a bit better and slow the tumor's growth, to give us a bit more time with her to prepare ourselves and Cora. We also are giving her a "low residue" food that digests easier and produces less waste, to make her more comfortable.

The shot worked, in that Tuesday night I was wakened at midnight by Somer coming into bed with us so I could pet her. She purred.

I realized I haven't heard her purr for weeks, and maybe months, if I think about it hard. And continuing that train of thought, Somer has been much less social for months.

I feel bad that I didn't pick up on that fact earlier. I guess we were busy with the new baby, and figured she was getting older. But she is only 7, and she has always been a very social cat, following us room-to-room to be nearby and talk to us. In particular, she always followed Cora around, and allowed Cora to roughhouse with her. But in recent months, Somer has mainly sat on a kitchen chair, or on the padded toybox.

These photos were taken the past couple of days, while the steroid was working. In the second photo, Cora is "drawing a picture for Somie."
Somer even played with a leaf Thursday morning. But today, Friday, she seems to be slowing down again. I'm dreading taking her in for the final time, and have been pretty much a mess a lot of the week.

We've been telling Cora that Somer is very, very sick, and she can only stroke her very gently. On Thursday, I asked her if she would like to get a new cat "someday," when we didn't have Somer, and she got excited about that idea.
Today, I told her that there is a bad thing in Somer's body, and it hurts. She asked if God could make her better, and I said, "Yes, and she will be better, when she has died. Because then she won't hurt anymore."
Cora brightly said, "But she'll in heaven, and when we go to heaven, we can play with her again!"

From the mouth of babes! I tell you, the tears flowed then, and still do as I write this.

Doctors - well and not-so-well

Violet had her four-month well-check Thursday, and she is very well.

As you can see, Violet is 14 pounds (55th percentile), so she's on the same growth curve as she was two months ago at her last well-check. She is 25 inches (75th percentile), and the doctor said she is doing great!

Violet got two shots and an oral vaccine, and we'll go back next month for another shot.

I had Cora with me this time, and thankfully my sister got off work (just down the street) and could join us and entertain Cora for much of the appointment. Normally they are pretty quick, but they were short a doctor and things took longer than usual.

Somer also has been to the doctor this week.

We noticed over the last few weeks (months?) that her appetite has decreased, her coat was dull with tufts of fur sticking out, and she always wanted to drink water out of the tap. Then, a week after we got home from England, she started peeing on the playroom carpet. Uggggh. Somer had never peed outside her box in the six-plus years we'd had her.

Somer spent the night at the vet's so they could do some testing, and it appears that she has a urinary tract infection that has gone into her kidneys. Poor girl! She's home now. The results from her urine culture will be back early next week so we'll know for sure then, but she's on antibiotics in case that is the problem.

We also found out that she is just eight pounds. The doctor said she's not too thin, but that was an amazing revelation since she was 12 pounds the last time we took her in (four years ago, shame on us, but she does live indoors).

The last photo is of Cora getting ready to go to Disneyland! She was very excited, as you can guess, and even consented to pigtails. Stace and I will either have a quiet night at home with Violet, or maybe go out to dinner? He's been very, very busy at work lately so we'll see.

Eat food, Somer

Somer again proving herself "best cat on earth."
These two are so sweet together. Cora is always loving on her, body hugging her, talking to her, showing her toys. Somer loves the attention, and always seems to be where Cora is.
Last night, they were playing in Cora's room (as opposed to the playroom, where they normally play) and Cora was diapering her dolly and putting her to sleep, and also putting the cat to sleep (draping the blanket over her). We'd periodically check in on them, and they were happy together for at least a half hour.
Though we miss our sweet little infant, I'm definitely appreciating Cora's growing ability to entertain herself!
She also is speaking so much more. She is regularly putting four words together, and is happy to be speaking and understood. She also likes to sing, and it is surprising to find her suddenly singing the words to a song we've sung often to her. Last night she was very excited, running around the kitchen singing and dancing, and I could make out that she was singing about kicking a ball. She's a songwriter already!

(I think this is pretty intelligible, but I am her mom so it's hard for me to say if you, dear reader, can understand her! So - what she says includes the following - "Here you go. Eat food. (kiss) That food? Don't eat it. Uh oh, it fall down. Here you go.")