Goodbye Mystic

Tonight was pretty tough at the Green household.  Sixteen months ago, Bubsy died of extreme kidney failure.  He spent 3 days suffering on an IV that didn't help his condition at all.  About a month later, we took Mystic in for a check up because they were both 17 - which is just plain old for a cat.  She had the same kidney disease, just not as far advanced.  The vet guessed that she would have another 6-12 months with us.

Fourteen months later, we could tell that Mystic was getting worse.  She had to be confined to the bathroom when we weren't home because she would throw up on the carpet and couldn't make it to the litter box in time.  She was still happy as could be, but we saw her slowly running out of energy.  Early on, we sort of "knew" that we would be able to tell when it was Mystic's time because we knew she would stop purring.  You see, Mystic spent all day, every day, purring.  It's like her voice box was broken and she just purred as she breathed.

Tonight, Mystic was having trouble walking and breathing.  Eric and I talked about taking her in to the vet on Saturday morning to end it before she had the chance to suffer like Bubsy had to.  Within an hour of that conversation, it started to look like she wouldn't make it through the night.  So we called the Eudora Vet emergency number and set up an appointment for 11:30pm.  

Before we got in the car, I let Mystic lay in the grass where she so loves to roll around.  When we got across the bridge to the vet's office, Mystic was trying to stand up and was meowing loudly.  I started worrying that we were making the wrong decision, and then Eric pointed out that she was still struggling to breathe and she wasn't purring anymore.  So as sad as the night was, we knew it was the right decision and that Mystic and Bubsy were finally together again.

Our last family picture of four.

Mystic and Bubsy cuddling together.

This brother-sister duo was inseparable.

Mystic and Bubsy in their fatty days, haha.  

Mystic and Addy cuddling together - they had their moments when they would tolerate one another.

The three of our babes.

Day 356: A Day at the Zoo

I have got family passes to the zoo, so Jack and I went for the first time of the summer today.  The pass allows up to 4 people, so I called to see if Alison and Zach wanted to join us.  Zach was going to spend the day with his dad, but Alison was happy to come along!  We had great timing today - showing up for the zookeeper chats, and seeing all of the animals very active!

Nikita is a 4 year old male who weighs in at over 900lbs!  He spends a lot of time in his pool!

This year the zoo has 2 baby girl sea lions, joining their adult male.

This boa reminds me of Harry Potter!

Llama, llama!

Alison was hogging the birds!

I had to hold Jack's right hand so he wouldn't pull away, and his left hand because he tried to grab the bird (pretty successfully, haha!)

This rhino had a well worn figure 8 path.

Jack and an alligator. 


We went on a walk tonight, and I brought Mystic in the baby sling, haha!  She actually liked it.

Day 310: Eric & The Cats

Another boring evening in the Green house!  I happened to be wielding the camera while Eric was bothering the cats.  The result?  A few cute pictures :) enjoy!

Mystic seemed to enjoy the exercise ball! 

Addy's fountain of tail!

Day 304: Catching Up

Eric and I both had some school work to take care of today.  I have been putting off my independent studies midterm for months, and he's just a little behind on his classwork.  When I got out of school this afternoon I went over to take a two hour test - 50 multiple choice and 4 essay questions.  Eric had a bit of boring text book reading and some online assignments.  Oh, the never ending life of college.  Now enjoy some pictures of the cats!  It seems that we may not take interesting photos of ourselves every day, but we are always taking pictures of the cats!

Her eyes match the pillow case!

Mystic likes to sleep in the dark on the kitchen chairs, zzzzzzz...

Day 298: Grilling Out!

We've been torn on whether to open the grill that we got for the wedding for awhile now.  We know that grills aren't allowed, but 4/5 porches in our apartment complex have one out in plain sight.  We finally came to the conclusion that we would use ours, but keep it stored in the storage closet when not in use.

Tonight we grilled dry rubbed buffalo chicken legs and veggie kabobs.  The kabobs had red baby potatoes, red peppers, garlic, onion, and zucchini.  The garlic ended up being too strong for me to eat straight, but it added a lot of flavor to its neighboring veggies.  Eric was a man about it and ate all of his garlic cloves.  We also watched Predators which was better than I imagined it would be.  Eric's favorite part was when the predator pulled out the inmate's spine - yuck yuck yuck!  I liked the twist with the doctor being a bad guy.

I also got my flip video camera, case, and tripod from Best Buy today, funded from some awesome people at DonorsChoose.org.  I'm really excited about using it!

The sun is in our eyes, but everything else was great!

Eric making the fire - burn, baby, burn!

Mystic escaped more than a dozen times while we were going in and out of the house.

So good!!!

Day 284: Mystic the Easter Kitty!

Nothing interesting happened today, but Mystic is super cute!  She has been pretty active and happy lately - snuggling up with us, licking Eric's arm, chasing Addy off the bed, etc.  This picture is pretty funny because her ears look so giant! 

Mystic the Easter Kitty!

Day 266: Breakfast in Bed & The OC

I used the leftover breakfast food from Tuesday to serve us up a huge breakfast in bed, and then we had a mostly lazy morning around the house.  Eric had work and I spent most of the day reading - I've read 17 books since January and I've got 2 that I'm close to finishing!  Eric worked a 10:30am-7pm shift today, and we were invited to join his family at Old Chicago after he got out of work. 

We drove out to Olathe and met Paul, Deb, Brian, Jen, Shannon, and Taylor.  I wish I had taken note of the topics of conversations - mostly laughable and completely entertaining. 

Yum! 

Mystic loved eating my sausage, haha! 

As she was licking her lips I kept taking pictures and caught this gem! 

Very sexy, Mystic! 

The crew at OC. 

"OMG you're talking to Chosen?!"

Remaining Comments

Day 247: Mystical Magical

Mystic definitely knows where her place is...right between our pillows.

Just making sure the pillows don't go anywhere...

Day 236: How Relaxing

After a long day at work, Eric is soothed by melting into some video games...while Mystic falls into a relaxing sleep just by being near us.  This is a pretty typical view around 11pm in the Green household...

Eric prefers to sit close enough to the TV that he actually has to turn his head to scan the screen...

Day 230: The Beast feeds...

I wasn't terribly hungry when I got home from work tonight, so Jess and I decided to just do something easy. We started making sandwiches which always gets Mystic's attention. She'll watch you making the sandwich and remind you if you forgot to give her a piece of lunchmeat. So Jess held one up for her (sometimes she'll do a hind-leg dance like a bear) and Mystic attacked it voraciously. I was fumbling with the multi-exposure settings on her camera, but managed to snap this National Geographic cover:

"Give it to me NOW!!!"

"NOM"

Day 201: Lazy Days of Winter

Eric was planning on writing this post, but he didn't get to it fast enough!  Look for a post by him next week :)

These pictures totally summarize what the past week has been like for us - hunkering down and doing as little as possible!  Eric is enjoying his new PS3 controller that Ashley got him for Christmas, Mystic is enjoying the warm (and still) lap to sit on, and I am enjoying reading some new books with my KU Snuggie!

I should also point out that I am reading some interesting new books!  Dave Ramsey has said that the average millionaire reads 1 nonfiction book each month, and I am breaking the ice into that scary new territory with a "stunt memoir".  I'm starting with "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace, who decided to say "yes!" to EVERYTHING for a solid six months, and how it changed his life.  It's an interesting read, and I'm interested to watch the movie again after reading the book.

Must. Remain. Focused. 

Look!  I can read and be covered by a blanket with no hassle!

Day 180: We Love Our Babies!

I'm working on making sure we've got plenty of pictures of Mystic.  She is still the happiest cat you've ever met, I think her purr'r is broken, because she never stops!  She's obviously getting more sick, but it's not hurting her yet.  For anyone who hasn't been following all along - we lost her brother, Bubsy, just after the wedding to kidney failure.  At Mystic's most recent vet appointment, she was showing the same signs of starting down the same path.  Over the last year or two she has lost a lot of weight and is barely holding on the 6-7 pounds, and now she's drinking water like it's going out of style.  The vet said we have a few months to a year left with her, but we're making sure it's all happy times!

 I was so surprised, neither cat objected to this!  Usually they both cry when I hold them together.  Also, this shows just how fluffy Addy is!  She is twice as big as Mystic, haha.

Day 165: The Balance of Work and Play

Tonight was torture!  I got home from work and had a big project for school that I have put off for a few weeks.  Well...it's due tomorrow and I hadn't even started.  But I truly produce my best work under that kind of pressure.  Of the 8 hours between getting home from school and going to bed, I spent at least 5 of them working on the project.  Probably 2 of those hours were spent playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii :)

It was a good night for Eric too because we weren't able to do anything together, so he was free to game all night long!

Now that Andrew has grown out of his car seat, Mystic is free to be the baby again.

Eric brought home some really good Sweet Tomato and Basil Ragu sauce, and we had a delicious dinner!

Day 150: A Night of Hysterics

Tonight I was eating some Nerds candy, and Eric asks "Are they from the floor?!"  This dear husband of mine felt the need to check if I was eating fresh Nerds, or if they spilled on the floor!  For the record, they were NOT from the floor!

Later, Eric and I were eating our delicious off brand Oreo's.  He was quite impressed with himself because he managed to remove the frosting from both cookies, leaving a frosting patty behind.  Mystic took an immediate interest in this accomplishment and tried to steal the frosting from him.

She was jumping for the frosting.

Then when Eric let her taste it, she kept eating at it.

He thought it would be funny to throw the frosting at me...Mystic kept eating!
  No, we didn't let her eat the whole thing!

Day 146: Bit of a Breather

Today was kind of nice. Nothing particularly exciting happened, and sometimes that's for the best. Jess had conferences over the last couple days at school and didn't have school today so we slept in. We finally got up around 11ish and hung out about the house for a bit. We did some cleaning, dishes and laundry, etc. It was a weird day for me too, as I was scheduled to work at 2:30 instead of noon as usual. It didn't change the course of the day much, just altered the feel of it a bit. After I got off work, we hung out watching tv for a little while, and cuddling with the cats. That's all, folks.

 Mystic lounging on me lounging on couch.