Nary a squint

Frida's eye looks better than it has looked in months. I left town for a few days just after she was released from medication, and my husband told me she wasn't even squinting a little. The eye drops themselves had caused discomfort to her eye and irritation to the skin around the eye. Within a couple of days, her eye and skin had revived with their own normal moisture.

She is perky and happy. She sticks up for herself at mealtime when the other three pace around with her, waiting for the food to be set down. She enjoys sleeping on the daybed on the porch, even in the afternoon sun. When dark falls, she watches for us to sit down to watch tv. Sometimes she will move to the den before we get there, or a few minutes after, and on Monday nights when we leave the house for a few hours, she is waiting there for us when we get home. If we take her up to bed with us, she stays all night. If we don't, she sleeps in her favorite downstairs places. For an eighteen year old cat with herpes and a bum eyeball, she's doing pretty well.

The timing of her recovery was perfect. I had a window of summer where I could devote all my time to her care. Then I left for a family reunion, and it was a relief to know she was out of danger.

No more collar, no more meds.

The new doctor delivered the good news with a pleasing repetition and a soothing rhythm. No more collar, no more meds. I went for Frida's recheck fully expecting a continued tapering off of eyedrops and ointment. That was the treatment plan I had been led to expect at the last recheck. Because she is being treated at a teaching hospital, Frida has had three teams of residents and students, but with the same teaching faculty monitoring her progress from behind the scenes, like the Great Oz.

A new note was entered in her discharge papers... "Frida is a great patient. Thank you for being committed to her care." They know the medication regimen I followed to achieve this, but they have only glimpsed how sweet Frida was in complying. No scratching, no biting, very little flinching and shrugging... a "merp" here and there and a grumpy look. The kitten we found by the fish cleaning station across the street knows a good deal when she sees one.

Zombie Lexus

My husband drives I-75 for 30 miles each day that he works, twice. He has been talking about the crazy driving since last weekend. I figured it is due to the holiday tomorrow, and also due to the thunderstorms that have been moving through all day every day for over a week. Until today, I attributed it to people being in a hurry to beat the rain, or get errands done before that cookout on July 4. Then today I met the Zombie Lexus and realized things are far worse than I had thought.

I was on my way to an appointment. Things were going well. The stove top is replaced. The kitchen faucet is fixed. The upstairs air handler blower motor is replaced. The motorcycle emergency is past. The kitchen sink disposal can wait; I don't put scraps down the sink anyway. The plumbing leak in the downstairs ceiling can wait; we don't have to use that bathtub. The cat's eyeball is healing and saved from enoculation for now. It's the middle of the summer. I have a family reunion coming up in a couple of weeks. My head was in a good place. Suddenly a dark blue Lexus sedan was in my lane, trying to merge with my front fender. I slammed on the brakes, hoping not to get rear ended. She had changed lanes without looking to avoid braking for a car turning left. She just kept coming. I sounded my horn. She kept coming. I held the horn. Finally, when she had completed her lane change, she heard me, saw me, and raised a genteel hand, like a queen wave, to acknowledge me. I was jangled out of my good mood.

I backed way off and changed into the other lane, the one she had come from. I would be turning left soon myself. Then, to my amazement, the Zombie Lexus deployed her left turn signal and pulled into the lane in front of me again. Some may call her a distracted driver, but there was no texting or talking on the phone happening in the Zombie Lexus. She was wrapped in something that held her to the center of her universe. She drove serenely to a trendy shopping center and parked. I felt I had witnessed something beyond the reach of law or meditation.