RIP Little Man

We got to the vet's office about 3 p.m. yesterday to check in on Little Man and talk with the vet. We were leaning toward going ahead with the surgery to remove the mass because that seemed his best chance at getting better.

As we talked with the vet it really became clear that the surgery was very risky and really wouldn't buy him much time, even if the mass wasn't cancer. We also decided that although we could take him home for a few days to spend more time with him, he just wasn't well enough, or strong enough, and it seemed selfish.

We decided to go ahead and have him put to sleep. Nerdstar took some time and said her goodbyes and then I stayed with him during the process.

What makes this more sad for us is that it was so unexpected. He's apparently been sick for a while, with the mass growing, but up until Thursday evening, there was no sign of it. And, we just lost our cat Silly six months ago, also rather unexpectedly.

Little Man was our big, special (short bus special) kitty. I was working at Whole Foods in Austin and a lady came through my cashier line holding him. I asked if it was a boy cat and she said, "yes, do you want him?" Of course I did! I had been wanting to get Nerdstar a cat for several months. She went out to the car and brought in a box with a little litter box, a blanket and a little teddy bear in it. I surprised Nerdstar with him when I got off of work.

He was a tiny little flea bag with huge paws. We took him home and washed him up and named him Little Man because we knew he was going to be huge! And he was.

He was also a simple minded cat. We've always joked that the people who had him as a kitten must have blown pot smoke into his face. It took him a year to learn his name. And he didn't become a snuggle kitty until Nerdstar was away in Iraq.

As simple as he was, he was a fantastic hunter. When we lived in Austin, he would catch geckos and every morning we'd have to dump them out of his food bowl. Everything he caught ended up in his food bowl, and if there weren't critters to hunt, he'd hunt down all the cotton balls and q-tips in the house.

He also hated when he could see the bottom of his food bowl.

When we lived in Kansas City, the food bowl was up on the counter so Ramen couldn't get to it. One morning I saw Little Man get up on the counter, look down the hallway to where Nerdstar was, wait a minute, then push the food bowl off of the counter in protest that it was empty.

I'm going to miss being sandwiched between him and Nerdstar this winter to stay warm.

When It Rains, It Pours

Thursday afternoon, we took Noah to a new dermatologist who was recommended by someone Nerdstar knows. I was hesitant because Noah's already seen five people for his eczema, would this new doc really have anything new to say. It seems he did. He talked more than we would have liked (we're different that way), but he had some new info on how eczema works and a new steroid cream to try for it, plus a couple of over the counter things. So far they seem to be working well.

We were in different cars, so Noah and I got home before Nerdstar. I happened to go into the bedroom before bringing Noah upstairs. I saw a small-ish pool of blood on the floor and assumed our cat Little Man had chewed up some small critter. I went to see if I could find said critter and found a much larger pool of blood in the laundry room (thankfully there's tile there and not carpet like the bedroom). I was still thinking it was a critter's blood and not Little Man's. (Peroxide does a decent job of getting blood out of carpets, fabrics.)

When Noah and I came upstairs, I found Little Man lying under the desk, awake, but it was still a weird place for him to be, and he didn't run away or anything.

Nerdstar came home a few minutes later and I showed the blood spots to her. She thought it was Little Man's blood. We really didn't know what to do at that point. Having gone though taking Silly to an emergency vet, knowing how expensive it is, and that it didn't really seem to help in the end, all made us hesitant to head to the emergency vet on a Thursday evening.

We decided to put Little Man in a crate and keep an eye on him, hoping we could at least wait until morning to take him to our regular vet. We later set him up with food and water in the bathroom. About 10:30, before going to bed, I went and checked on him and realized he really wasn't doing well. We'd just gotten Noah to sleep, so Nerdstar took Little Man to the emergency vet.

There were several times the vet and Nerdstar didn't think Little Man would make it. He definitely wouldn't have if we hadn't taken him to the vet. They got fluids in him, got him stabilized, he seemed to perk up some when Nerdstar went back to see him. His blood work was normal, but the loss of all that blood had his pulse and blood pressure weak.

She came home about 4 a.m. We were glad he made it through the night. But we still had no answers about what in the world was wrong with him and what to do next. It seems the vets always want to do everything under the sun and see what works. That would be fine if it wasn't all so damn expensive.

Yesterday he was stable and an ultrasound showed a mass in his abdomen. But, there was no way to know what kind of mass, or how much it was blocking. They recommended an endoscope to take a look and a biopsy. We really hoped that doing one would give us a better idea of what he needed.

I was really frustrated with the mounting bill and lack of answers. Nerdstar's much better at saying cost be damned, take care of the pets.

They did the endoscope around 3 yesterday. He made it through that fine. Unfortunately, we don't know much more than we did before. And the biopsy results will take 3 - 5 days.

Last night, we were hoping to bring him home today and take care of him while waiting to find out the biopsy results. If it's cancer then there's not much to be done and we'll skip the surgery. If it's not cancer, and surgery will remove this mass and he'll be fine - then we'll probably do the surgery in spite of the cost.

As of this morning, he's still stable, but not eating. The vet really doesn't know the best thing to do. We don't either. We're gonna go meet with her later this afternoon.

On top of all this mess, financially, this is the month we have to pay for the plane tickets home for Christmas I purchased last month, I just had to have all new tires and front brakes on my car, and yesterday we found out Nerdstar had to have new tires - hers were in worse condition than mine.

Thank God we've had a rainy day fund for several years - but boy is it raining.

The Frustrations

Noah's skin problems have improved greatly, but they still remain. The most frustrating part of this is that he will scratch parts of his skin until it bleeds - usually his hand or foot, but also the crook of his arms and knees. He sometimes does this in his car seat when we can't see/stop him. But, he does it other random times as well. Now, colder weather will help because more of his skin will be covered, but, it seems harder than it should be to keep long, snug socks on his feet. Today, I even tried putting his shoes on as well, then one of them fell off and I gave up. I don't really want shoes on him because he's not walking yet and it's better if he's not in shoes. I hate that he scratches. Nerdstar hates that he scratches. We try to keep his nails really short, but he's not a big fan of nail trimming either.

Monday, Noah woke up with a totally stopped up nose. No fever, he's not sick, really, just lots of snot in his nose. This is a problem because apparently it keeps him from swallowing any drool at all - it ALL leaks out. The top half of his shirt is soaked by the afternoon. This is in spite of me keeping the little fleece wash clothes nearby to wipe his face as much as possible. Because that's lots of fun, too.

Thankfully, none of this affects his moods. Just mine it seems.

Mini Vacation

We kept trying to think of a weekend getaway, but nothing really seemed good for the boy. But either the drive was too long, or there just wasn't anything to do appropriate for his age and abilities.

So, we decided to just spend a night at a pretty nice hotel close to home. It had an indoor pool and hot tub, and the malls and restaurants nearby were good.

We took Noah to this big play area at the mall we'd taken him to before. There are always tons of kids running around and it's fun to watch what looks like chaos, but amazingly the kids rarely run into each other.

Apparently, this area isn't big enough for Noah. He repeatedly crawls right for the exit and out into the wide open mall area. We have no idea why. He can't walk on his own yet, but he loves holding our hands and walking, so we did a lot of that. I guess he finally got over his wanderlust and decided to play in the play area.

That evening we took him down to the pool.


There weren't any steps or a really shallow part for him to sit and splash around, but he really liked us holding him in the water and moving him around. Unfortunately, the water was a little cold and after about fifteen minutes we had to get him out and warm him up!

After dinner we just hung out in the room. He was so tired and it took him a while to fall asleep.

Sunday morning, Nerdstar got up early and went to do the Navy 5 mile run with some friends. She finished in 1 hour 8 minutes - pretty darn good for someone who works out some but didn't really train for it.

Then we had a good breakfast and took Noah back to the play area at the mall. He headed for the exit again, but not as many times as the day before.

A little shopping and then it was time for home. Funny how even one night away is both good for getting out of the house, and yet enough to make you glad to be home.

Playing Fetch

Ramen has never played fetch. But, for at least six months, Noah's favorite thing to do is throw balls and go get them. He's also always been really good at playing catch if you position yourself right.

A short note from Nerdstar

Noah Maxx is getting so very close to walking, that I am thinking that it'll happen anytime now. He is already standing up on his own from time to time, and had even taken "baby steps", but as soon as he realized that he was standing on his own, he'd quickly sit back down.

We had also shaved his head for the 4th. time in his short life. If you don't look at him from his right side and the backside, his haircut actually looks pretty good!

I included a pic of him before his shave.

His skin is still an issue, but we're doing to best we can to try to not let it get worse.

Overall, he's just growing in every way and we're still so happy to have him in our lives!

So Sweet

Yesterday morning, Noah and I were hanging out in his room, I was in the rocking chair. He came up and pretty much threw me out so he could sit in it and rock. That cracked me up.

This morning, I was in the chair again. This time, he crawled up in my lap and laid there and fell asleep. As if that wasn't sweet enough, he did the same thing this afternoon. We just sat and rocked in silence. Most content moments of my life - or darn near close to it.