Beyond Redemption

So I haven’t posted anything here in ages, but a few things happened. The first is that my cousin is on the road to recovery. He was seriously injured in an attack and had to have surgery. That happened last week, and while recovery will take over a year, he’s going to be okay and that’s what matters.

Two, 2 days ago my cat got really ill. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it was the worst night ever. I cried so much -I thought he was dying. I had never seen him like this before. His symptoms were:

1. No appetite -he stopped eating and drinking completely.

2. Lethargic and weak – simple jumps from the couch to the floor had him landing with a hard slam.

3. He was breathing every heavily and noisily. Almost like a ‘growl’ with each breath.

4. He wobbled whenever he stood and walked in such a shaky way I thought he’d fall each time he tried.

5. He kept hiding -something cats tend to do when they’re extremely sick and/or dying.

Like I said, it was a brutal, teary night for me. We went to the vet the next day and he had blood tests. He was negative for all the serious stuff, but tested positive for severe dehydration. So they gave him an IV and wanted to do another test that cost even more money (2 blood tests and an IV was $100), yet the vet kept telling me that she ‘didn’t know what was wrong’. I started feeling bullshitted, so I blew the test off.

We discussed food and I told her he was a tuna cat. It was dry food exclusively before, but he kept throwing it up (I have a story about that in a minute), so I turned to tuna. She said there were supplements in cat food that he could use and I should switch. She also said wet food was best for adult cats (he’s 6) because of the water content.

I ended up taking him home and he was acting a bit better since he’d gotten fluids in him. I bought several cans of Meow Mix (wet) and over the last 48 hours he slowly started eating again and acting more normal. He’s now walking right, making his jumps, and is pretty much back to his old self. Though, I’ll be monitoring him closely for a while. It turns out that the extra, very expensive, ‘maybe’ test wasn’t needed; I simply had to change his food.

Now, about that. I used to feed him only dry food, and he was fine, but lately he’d been throwing it up. I changed brands (at least I thought I had), but it was still happening. That’s when I abandoned dry food for tuna. Well, during my food research 2 days ago, I found a slew of complaints on the Consumer Affairs site about Purina pet foods.

Wanna guess what I’d been feeding my cat? >.>
And worse, I kept getting different foods, failing to notice that they were all made by the same people.

According to numerous complaints all over America, and even Canada, their food is infested with worms, larva, maggots, “nests”, and other insects. Some people complained about finding worms all over the cupboards where they keep the food. Some animals have had their organs shut down and had to be put to sleep. It’s absolutely disgusting and I’m amazed by the lack of coverage on this. It happens in both cat and dog food, but the latter seems to be reported more.

If you use Purina, do your pet a favor and check their food bags thoroughly, or play it completely safe by not buying anything made by them. That many people in so many different states can’t be wrong.

On the pulp-fiction front, I’m working on chapters, but I want to shout out the people who took a minute to review Pandora. I appreciate it, especially given the kind of story it is. Unlike those who come, read, and never say shit, you guys actually showed some love, so I’ll remember you when things around here change for good. <3 I’m out.

Last night my little cousin, my first cousin, who is like my little brother, was attacked and seriously injured. He needs surgery now and he’s been admitted. We’re beside ourselves with concern and fury. FML.

I just got 4 commissions back and they’re just AWESOME. 3 of them are chibis -one for Eternal Destiny, one for Absolution, and one for my Kau. I won’t be showing Abi’s or ED’s yet, but you can see Kau’s giftie at Decadence, my art gallery. The others will “debut” at some point, though ED’s wait may be a bit longer. But it’s so darn cute that it will be worth it. ^___^

My “Belle” finished the art for IG [dot] Net, so it’s just a matter of getting it on the domain (courtesy of the fantabulous Neo). But wait until you guys see the full art. HOLY SHIT. To say she nailed it nicely is a complete understatement. Every time she makes me something new I end up having a new favorite art! But wait until you see the goodies you haven’t seen yet. Yeah, visiting Absolution will become a LOT more fun. xD

And in stressful news, I have this plant. I’ve had this plant since my mother died. It was a little stem in a jar of water and she said she was going to plant it. That day never came, so in tribute of her, I planted it and for all these years it has grown until it’s almost like a palm tree. But in the last couple of years I’ve had trouble with it. Leaves dying, bad roots -so I replanted with premium soil, a much bigger pot, the works. Well, that made it worse. It was practically dying, then it got better, started to stand, then took several turns for the worse. So, Kau and I are trying to find ways to save it, but it’s stressful as hell.

I’ve had this plant for many years, so seeing it die will really break me up. It’s part of my mom, you know? So, I’m stressed, upset, a lotta shit. It’s part of why I haven’t really dug into writing lately. It’s not the sole reason, I haven’t felt like picking up my pen since, well… I have almost no inspiration to write these days and I hate that. I really do because it used to be a form of release. Now, it’s not, and when I felt the bug to write again and I was excited about it, the enthusiasm died a bad death. Sigh.

Point is, I’ll do my best to get this show on the road post haste, but no guarantees that it will be any good.

EDIT: We found out the name/species of the plant (It was a mystery), and got sound advice on how to nurse it. Keep your fingers crossed that I can make it feel better, and thus, make myself feel better…

This has been a terrible weekend. To start, my cousin was burned alive in a fire on Friday night. I say it that gruesomely because it was that gruesome. Her body was so charred that dental records will be needed to identify her. What makes it more awful is that it could have been avoided. I won’t go into details, but I’m severely pissed off by the entire incident.

If that wasn’t enough, my little cousin’s first stalker (yes, because there has been more than one), is not only back, but that asshole showed up at my place trying to plead his case -even though that case was closed at least 8 months ago, thus alerting us to the fact that he hasn’t moved on from his obsessive crush. That’s just fucking great. Now we get to worry every time she leaves the house because he’s obviously got serious issues.

Then I had a slight issue with someone on Saturday evening. It eventually straightened itself out, but I was seriously mad for at least 30 minutes and it caused me to show a slice of my bitchy side, which I don’t like doing. But again, all’s well that ends well and I was satisfied with the final result. Plus, it was not long after I learned about my cousin, so I was feeling especially raw and time-bomb-y.

The new skin for Halloween at Eternal Destiny is finished thanks to the talents of Neo and a dA artist named Rootslove. So here’s to hoping you guys like it. I should be getting my “Neighbor” art from Maria-nee-chan soon, too, and then a new skin for Absolution will go up. So, things are looking good on that front.

As for the fics, I’ve pretty much marked off what I don’t plan to continue. If anyone is upset by the choices, what can I say? Some, I just refuse to finish. Others, I can’t finish because I just can’t find the words or don’t have the time/interest to devote. There are a few stragglers that I haven’t labeled yet, but only because I’m undecided. If all of this causes people to stop reading my work, ah well. Can’t give you what I no longer have.

Truth be told, this is the first time I’ve ever seriously killed off fics, so I don’t think I’m that far away from ending this altogether. Therefore, since I’m in a cutting mood, when I do update, I advise you guys to review the chapter, because if I don’t see reviews, I’m going to kill the story off. And this is not a “hostage” situation. This is a “lighten my load” situation. I don’t want to waste time writing stories that you guys aren’t interested in reading anymore when I can devote my time to other things. And the only way I’ll know this is if you review and say so. If you don’t review, I’ll just kill the story. It’s pretty simple for me now that I’ve done it a few times.

Gift fics will still get written and mailed to their recipients (I’ve done that in the past), but I won’t put new chapters on Absolution if I killed the story there. I’ll just format it in an ‘easy to read’ way and then send it to your inboxes. 😀 So don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging if I can help it.

I probably sound fucked up, but that’s where my attitude is. I’m going to concentrate my efforts on works that see appreciation and my gifts stories (whether y’all see the latter or not will be up in the air, though).

And that’s it for the “update”.