Lucy Health Update

This past Friday, Blair and I met friends for dinner and then as a group we went to the preview of Charlie Engle's movie, Running The Sahara, narrated by Matt Damon. Charlie is a running celebrity and the movie was inspiring, as three men ran up 2 marathons a day in their 111-day treck across the Sahara.

What awaited us at home was not quite as pleasant. Piggy-girl, aka Lucy, had thrown up in 4 different locations around the house. She also threw up twice more during the night, making us anxious to get her into the vet first thing Saturday morning.

We took her in, they did bloodwork, Lucy peed on the vet, pretty much a status quo visit. Although the fact that Lucy was down to 11.5 lbs from her prior 14 lbs. concerned us.

The vet called yesterday to say that Lucy has hyperthyroidism, a disease common in older cats. Lucy is eight and only 5% of cats are diagnosed with hyperthyroidism under the age of 10. For the moment, this means we'll be giving her medication to control the disease two times a day for the rest of her life. Surgery or radioactive iodine treatment are options, but we need to give her medicine for a couple of weeks, retest her blood work and see where we stand. 

She looks and acts fine. The weight loss and excess vomiting were what clued us in to a problem. Other than that, she's bright-eyed, shiny coat, and full of energy. The vet said he thought he may have detected a heart murmur but it was hard to tell as Lucy growled at him during the entire exam. But he probably did - elevated heart rates and/or heart murmurs are common in cats with hyperthyroidsim.

We're fine for now. Just kind of holding out to see where we go from here. I'm of course going to dive in and do some reading on the disease. Our vet says they don't know for sure what causes it, but a recent theory is that an upswing in the disease may be related to all the chemicals and plastic liners found in homes. I also read that pull-top cans of cat food are thought to add risk. Who knows?

Google, here I come.

F-F-Freaking Out

Who exactly do I need to see about stopping time? OMG, so much work to be done. Did I really spend my night watching The Next Food Network Star Challenge? Am I really that lame? Or is it just a bad dream...?

The good news: I have a literary agency interested in seeing a book proposal and sample chapters from me on a new cat book. (Not Kiss My Kitty Butt. Different book.)  The really good news is that the agency responded in a short time frame to my query letter sent out on the book. They are taking on new clients in September, so I need to get this proposal and chapters out to them no later than mid-August--and that's pushing it.

The challenge: When I sent the query, I did so with the expectation of having to wait the traditional 2-4 months to hear anything. I had just started writing my proposal when I heard from the agent. As for the book--a couple of sample snippets are written but there are miles (miles, people) to go.

The hope: I have busted my (kitty) butt this week pulling together what I think is a stellar proposal. Or what is shaping up to be one. A friend of mine who ghostwrites proposals for a living is critiquing my work and she's on me to dig, dig, dig and make it better, better, better. Stats, specifics, humor, details... this thing has to be spot on. I just got her latest feedback. I thought I was 90% done but ha--shows what I know. After reading her suggestons, I'm sweating bullets at the work still to be done. I'd estimate I just dropped back to 70% done.

The freaking out part: I'm out of town at the end of this week and need to devote some long hours to articles that are already on tap. But it's crucial I get drafts of the chapters down on paper. Humor on demand is hard work and I need time to let the work sit in order to go back and hone it. I see a lot of late nights in my future. (Or realistically, early mornings. NOT a night person.)

The awesome part: I am LOVING this. Love the pressure, love the work, am having loads and loads of fun cranking this out. I am creating a career out of writing about cats. 

That makes me a happy, happy camper.

Nothing Is Ever Simple

Here's a perfect, recent example of how I back up to work and get bogged down in the process.

Kiss My Kitty Butt - More Life With Cats will most likely be published in Spring of 2009. I decided I need a temporary logo for the book, just something to put on Facebook, e-mails, etc. to start generating some excitement for the book. I asked a friend to illustrate a bored, disparaging looking cat for the logo, and I love what she came up with. I then e-mailed the logo today to my website designer, Melody Watson, and asked her to pull together a logo for me.

In thinking about the logo, I decided I wanted the web address included - wwww.kissmykittybutt.com. Might as well get the advertising in early. I own the domain, but haven't but up a page yet. Problem. I don't want to send people to a blank page.

So I decided to ask Melody if she could redirect the kissmykittybutt.com domain so my www.lessonsinstalking.com web page shows up.

But that only has the old book on it. I need something on there announcing the Spring 2009 arrival of KMKB. So I asked Melody to create some sort of banner or button announcing the new book.

If I get people to go as far as the page, I don't want to lose them. So I need to include an e-mail address where they can either pre-order the book or be put on a list to be alerted when the book is available. I'm debating if I want to use kissmykittybutt@triad.rr.com, or KMKB@triad.rr.com, or spotlightpublishing@triad.rr.com.

You see the mess? I went from one quick e-mail asking for a logo to suddenly needing a domain name redirect, banner announcement, new e-mail address, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

When I sat down, I thought it would be to shoot off a two second e-mail to Melody. It turned into a page of text that ended with, "You know what? Just call me and let's discuss."

For obvious reasons, I make sure to stay on her good side...

Lucy's Favorite Game

When I came home yesterday from my run in Greensboro, I asked Blair what he'd done with his morning.

"Oh, little of this, little of that," he said. "I straightened the house, got on the computer, read the paper and--oh yeah--played with Lucy."

This was news. Lucy is not really a playful cat. She's more of a "feed me now" type critter.

"What did you play?" I asked.

"We played her favorite game of "Just try to pet me, you rat bastard," said Blair.

I cracked up. That in fact is Lucy's favorite game. She meows and meows at us to pet her, but when we sit on the floor with the brush, she inches just out of our reach, so we end up chasing her around the room an inch at a time, trying to comb her.

Lucy wandered into the room. "Did you play with Daddy?" I asked her. "Did you win?"

She threw me a bored look. I always win, it said. Now how about a little mid-morning snack?

That's our girl.