Two movie reviews

 cats, science fiction  No Responses »
Jun 032020
 

Recently had two Amazon Prime movies on the tube:

1: “The Vast Of Night:” a low budget indie sci-fi flick. Late ’50’s small town New Mexico; after sundown while most of the small town is watching a high school basketball game, people start calling in to the local radio station about hearing sounds coming from the sky. Honestly it’s mostly people talking… and it’s quite effectively creepy. I suspect that the film-maker here will start getting much bigger budgets, and deservedly so. Well written, well acted and with remarkable cinematography. Worth watching.

2: “Movies for Cats – Forest Songbirds:” OK, yeah, the plot, dialog and character development left a bit to be desired for me… but then, I’m not the target audience. Much to my surprise, Buttons – who IS the target audience – was utterly fascinated. If you have a cat, or if you are easily amused, this is recommended.

Buttons watching “Forest Songbirds.”

 

 

 Posted by at 4:00 pm

Buttons

 cats, photography  No Responses »
May 302020
 

He seems *almost* back to normal. I think the only major thing left is that he’s perpetually hungry, a result of him concluding that he doesn’t like his new food. Given that he needs to lose some weight anyway, I guess this is a problem with a silver lining.

Buttons and Speedbump plotting world domination.

 Posted by at 4:20 pm

Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnd… we’re back, baby!

 awesomeness, cats, history, news, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 302020
 

SpaceX has successfully not only launched Americans into orbit from American soil with an American rocket topped with an American capsule, they have also successfully recovered the first stage booster. Woo!

Now if they could lob those rioters to the Moon, that would be great.

Also: they included a zero-g indicator in the capsule:

That’s cool and all, but something more active would seem to be called for. And now that capsules are spacious and need not be nightmarishly cramped, it might be time to consider launching a kitten:

This could be the crowning achievement in the history of human spaceflight, or it could be a blood-soaked disaster. Either’s good, so long as it’s adequately live streamed. But I expect that a cat will be able to accept freefall… maybe not instantly, but eventually. Cover the inside of the capsule with something like burlap and the cat will be able to hang on and move around. I’ve designed, over the years, a couple different “zero g litterboxes” that cats  would *hopefully* be able to accept and use. Thing is, we won’t know any of this for certain until someone actually tries. Now that Dragon is up and running, the cost of spaceflight just might drop enough that we can finally, at overly long last, try this necessary step on the road to conquering space.

 

 

 Posted by at 2:22 pm

Buttons again

 blather, cats, news  No Responses »
May 282020
 

In short: he’s home, he *seems* fine. His personality is back. He’s long since stopped wailing and barfing. But he’s on a new restricted diet… and he ain’t havin’ it. Absolutely nothing he’s *supposed* to eat, will he eat. I procured for him a number of options, from cheap to insanely expensive… and none if it is up to his standards. Actual chicken -probably the best thing for him – is not up to his standards. So, I suppose I’ll stick with the blandtacular dry food that was recommended, and if he gets hungry enough, I suppose he’ll eat it.

He seems to had made it through this crisis, though he has a few weeks of antibiotics (which, hilariously, are supposed to be taken with food) ahead of him. Many thanks to all who hit that “donate” button; it’ll help a lot. The vet clinics here are not exactly cheap.

 Posted by at 10:30 pm

Another Buttons update

 blather, cats  No Responses »
May 272020
 

Buttons came home from the vet about three hours ago. He was reported to have been doing reasonably well at the vet, but he had refused to eat and was apparently freaked out (unsurprising). So the plan was to send him home where he could relax and eat some. In the mean time he has to wear the cone of shame because he still has a catheter jammed into his right front leg, wrapped in tape; if everything goes well tomorrow AM he’ll go back and get the catheter removed; if it doesn’t go well he’ll go back for further hospitalization.

He has so far refused to eat. He keeps wandering around flopping down in random places and whining slightly;  how much is the needle still stuck in his arm, how much is the fact that his innards are a mess… dunno. It is nevertheless a vast improvement over the night before last when he was calling out of help and barfing nonstop. Shudder.

 

 Posted by at 8:52 pm

Buttons Update

 AARRRGH, cats, news  No Responses »
May 262020
 

Buttons was taken to my regular vet this AM after a night of misery. I do not exaggerate when I call Buttons one of the most friendly and joyous cats I’ve ever known, so hearing him howling in misery and pain and terror was especially unnerving. So about an hour before they opened I was there in the parking lot. The situation was explained, Buttons was taken in for a quick exam, and someone came out with a printout of the expected charges and they asked if I wanted to go ahead. Ha.

Anyway, Buttons was given intravenous fluids and later in the evening the vet called with an update: he’s doing well. An Xray showed nothing worrisome and he has spent the day *not* barfing. He will stay at the vet through Wednesday, hopefully coming home Thursday. According to the vet, everything backs up the “pancreatitis” explanation.

 Posted by at 11:24 pm

Buttons goes to the emergency vet UPDATED

 AARRRGH, blather, cats, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 252020
 

Today gained “one of those days” status quite early. At O’Dark Thirty, Buttons started upchucking. This is not especially unusual or concerning cat behavior, but before long he was making the most anguishing wail. I don’t know whether it meant “Ow, I hurt,” or “please help me,” but it was heartbreaking. So at the crack of the opening hour I took him to the nearest vet. Huzzah! It’s a holiday and they’re closed. They directed me to the emergency clinic some distance away. Long story short, they diagnosed Buttons with pancreatitis. This is not the first time he’s had it, but it’s the first time he’s been in this much misery over it. After getting his meds and returning home, he has steadfastly refused to either eat or drink, but every few hours he begins to wail in misery again, followed by throwing up food from who knows how long ago. This whole day has been heartbreaking, watching this normally chipper-beyond-reason cat cry out that he thinks he’s dying. Coupled with Fingers’ recent passing… yeah, it’s been a day.

Given that the progression of the illness remains “sleep followed by horrific wails,” I expect I’ll be taking him to the regular vet first thing tomorrow. The fantastic thing is that the emergency vet knows well the concept of “supply and demand,” and as a consequence my bank account is substantially lightened. There was some aerospace literature I was thinking of buying off ebay, but that’s kaput for now. So if you’ve been hankering to buy some of my stuff, or subscribe for the monthly aerospace goodies… now would be a *fantastic* time.

Gah. Just as I’m finishing up this post, Buttons is starting to cry again.

EDIT: This phase of unhappiness lasted at least half an hour. Finally threw up what he needed to, and now he can rest again… for a bit.


Feline Tip Jar


TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: Buttons has been hospitalized. For at least a day or probably two, he will be given fluids intravenously and his digestive system will be let sit to hopefully calm down. As expensive as yesterday was, this is worse. The night was a nightmare for the both of us… every hour or so he’d get up and loudly cry in pain, then hurl. I gave him water a few CC’s at a time with a syringe, but it wasn’t doing the job and of course he chucked it back up.

Sigh.

 Posted by at 7:36 pm
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