Wow, I’ve really been neglecting this blog. No posts other than memorial posts in almost two months. That is awful. There has been a lot happening which should be a reason to post not slack off. To touch some of the highlights — end of October, I had to put one of my cats down.

Raven, the younger of the two had renal failure (aka kidney failure). She was seven years old. Poor little thing was suffering. Had I had the money to pour into trying to save her, she would have been a very fragile kitty. The vet thought it was possible she had had this condition since birth which would have explained why she loved to eat yet hardly gained any weight.

Her older (12 years) buddy Cookie has really missed her. Since she’s half siamese she wasn’t exactly shy about letting me know her displeasure. I tried to take her into the vet for a checkup about two weeks later. She had never been to the vet. I picked her up and tried to put in into a box I had setup for her to travel in, she squirmed away from me and ran into the next room. I walked over and scooped her up, determined to have a firmer grip on her and that she was going. Well, so much for determination… she twisted and squirmed until she got free again and quickly disappeared some where in my room.

About 30 minutes after cancelling her appointment, I called out my capitulation to her that she was safe, I had called off the appointment. Turned in my chair to see her ambling out of my room with a rather smug look on her face. Little bitch!

The deal on dad’s house closed at the end of October as well. That was a really weird feeling walking through the empty house for the last time. I guess it really underlined the finality of him being gone. The house itself had no particular sentimental attachment as it wasn’t the house we were raised in. It was like an awareness that just a few weeks before this house and its contents had been dad’s home base and now neither it nor him remained. Just a deadly quiet emptiness remained.

I knew Remembrance Day was going to be difficult this year as it would be the first without dad. See, dad was always present with me on that day. Well, at least for the last 17 years. I tried not to dwell on it too much, after all, part of the day was about honouring people like dad’s service to Canada in the war.  A few days before I was called and asked to MC the cenotaph service, I agreed. The night before I got laid flat with muscles spasms in my stomach. I had them about 7 years ago and my doc told me they are the result of excessive stress, so I guess things were bothering me more than I thought.

So, for the first time in 29 years, I missed a Remembrance Day service. I also missed church the following day. For the first time though, I did get to see the service at the War Memorial in Ottawa. As much as I’m one who has had no illusions that we are at war in Afghanistan, I do have to admit to feeling a jolt when I noticed some young soldiers on crutches and in wheel chairs. For years we’ve got used to seeing the old men who had once been young soldiers in wheel chairs at those services. The presence of the young underlined the ongoing cost of war.

My sister was down from London for a visit for about a week. It was good to spend some quality time with her. The last time she was down was to do stuff up at dad’s which was also when our next elder brother put on such a disgusting display of bad behaviour which put a bit of a damper on her visit.  While she was down, we found a kitten to become Cookie’s new buddy. Well, eventually she will.

Dawn, the new kitten, is an 8 week old bundle of energy, kitty nails and teeth. Cookie is letting on that she’s somewhat disdainful of the kitten but I have caught her playing around with her a few times now so I think they will be buddies.