Corny cherries

My garden has a sense of humor. Two days ago, it cracked a joke.

The humor usually comes in the form of irony. I fill in an armadillo hole one place, she digs a hole somewhere else. I struggle to keep trees healthy and safe, and they drop seeds that sprout in the flowerbeds. I let one poke plant grow for the birds, and the next year I am covered up with poke seedlings. What I saw two days ago was more along the lines of a pun.

I was picking ripe cherry tomatoes off the two vines I planted, one Sun Gold and one Roma red cherry. There, balanced between a part of the Sun Gold vine and the tomato cage, was a ripe cherry from the laurel cherry tree nearby. How it fell and didn't bounce to the ground, I was not there to witness. It perched as if to say, hey, we're all cherries here.

In a few weeks I'll be pulling laurel cherry seedlings from under the cherry tomatoes. Another joke.

Mack helps with the chores

Mack likes to help change the bedsheets. It's playtime. Here he is after we played in the outgoing bedspread. We have a routine. He knows it's okay to hop on when the clean top sheet is going on. Then he helps with the bedspread, which means it goes on over him and we play paw through the bedspread. After a few minutes of that, he comes out on top and nestles on the clean bedspread, looking very pleased with his accomplishment.

He likes to help change the bath towels too. This mainly consists of hopping into the laundry basket and sometimes getting a ride downstairs. However, changing the kitchen linens is not very exciting. They're too small for much mischief.

Again this year the cherry tomatoes are loaded. I actually have enough to share with the deer, but I don't see any evidence that she has been coming around. She goes to the roses and if the rain has washed off the Liquid Fence, she has a nibble. Last year's picture framing wire around the tomato plants kept her off. I didn't bother with it this year. I have the plants growing up through two really large tomato cages, and then around that I have tall spiral stakes with a green plastic coating. The picture framing wire doesn't seem to be necessary. The green stakes are enough. Speaking of tomatoes, I hear thunder so I will pick today's catch. Last night I stewed a dozen in olive oil, salt, and pepper. They were super yummy with Mark Bittman's tiny pancakes and steamed asparagus.

Mack and mouse

I spent all day scoring papers yesterday. Mack came to investigate. The only thing moving was the mouse, se he went after it. This morning he is lying on the desk with his nose three inches from the mouse, purring. He's a very sweet cat. I am keeping the cats in because a storm is coming. We have been hearing thunder all morning. I let them out briefly and there, after months of absence, was the neighbor's cat. He used to come into our driveway and I would give him treats. Then when Bonnie got sick, he stopped coming. That was two months ago. Suddenly here he was again, and Nick got upset. So I brought them all in. Mack is taking it pretty well. He loves to be outside. 

At the beginning of March he disappeared. He got out in the morning and I didn't realize it. He didn't come back the next day. I hung blankets in the yard and called every morning and afternoon at the same time. I made signs and put them on the mailbox. We thought we would never see him again. I found out from a neighbor that he has been going through the woods behind our houses as far as three houses up the hill. How he survived two nights with the predators in the yard, we will never know. Finally on Saturday at lunch he came home through the cat door. 

A week or two later he disappeared in the evening. He came back finally with something wrong with his throat. Since then he has not wandered so far away. We know he is an escape artist because he was "lost" by someone during spring break two years ago. Always come home, Mack.  

Bonnie

If your cat is chewing cardboard and licking the walls inside the house, take her to the vet immediately. I didn't understand these warning signs until they had been going on for weeks. Then one Saturday, my husband said, "Bonnie is licking the concrete on the front porch." I did some research and saw two possible causes-- anemia or kidney problems. I took Bonnie to the doctor the next day. Her blood work came back with some alarming numbers. She was severely anemic and her immunoglobulins were high. The doctor laid out the possible scenarios, which were vague, and plans for further testing.

With all of the cats in our family, we have been very clear with the doctors that we are willing to go so far with testing and treatments. It's not just about money. It's about suffering. So first of all, with Jeff, the yeast tumor in his ear could be removed and he would just have hearing in one ear. His enlarged heart could be treated with medications. It was expensive but reasonable. With Lily, her heart failure could be ameliorated with medications. She had an inhaler for her lungs. With Rosie, we injected subcutaneous fluids and gave her medications. Frida had surgery for uveal ulcers. But when a milky fluid was collecting in her body that could not be explained, we just took X-rays and kept her comfortable. She was eighteen years old. She lived to nineteen.

For Bonnie, we followed the doctor's advice to take her to a specialty clinic for further testing. The most expensive test was first-- an ultrasound to look for tumors. No tumors. More blood work. I took a day off work for this. As always, I explained to the doctor at the outset that we would go so far but no further. No biopsy. No bone marrow scrapes. No chemotherapy. She was unsympathetic, even sarcastic at times. It was a bad day. We tried some medications as a last ditch effort. One more blood test.

The second doctor at the specialty clinic was much more understanding of our wish not to go all out even though Bonnie was only five years old. She said there were no good outcomes for her. "She is not suffering right now. Just weak." She implied (my husband caught this, I didn't) that she could euthanize her for us right away. I decided to take her home, spend the weekend with her, and have our doctor come to the house to put her to sleep on Monday.

Bonnie knew after the first trip to the specialty clinic. She refused to eat pill pockets, which she had always loved in the past. I shredded my fingers trying to get the pills in her. Then I stopped. It was exhausting and stressful for her. She was still enjoying her food, just unable to eat much because she was so weak.

So we spent the weekend snuggling with her. We kept all the cats in so she would not try to disappear to die. I went to work Monday knowing we would put her to sleep as soon as I got home.

Our doctor is gentle and takes her time. The tech had fostered Bonnie and her kittens three years before. We were all in tears. Bonnie was scrappy. Her veins were collapsing because of the anemia and the big needle hurt. They gave her a sedative and waited.

Only three years. The shortest time we have ever had with a cat in our family. She was so different. Bonnie was the only cat we have ever brought into our family who had been a mother. Bonnie's kittens were adopted before we met her. Not only did she get her own three kittens to safety at the clinic, but also, our doctor told us, Bonnie had nursed several kittens who were rescued one at a time. "She saved a lot of little lives, and then you saved hers," the doctor wrote to us later.

Bonnie ran everywhere and caught lizards easily. She had a funny gait, as if her hips were going to get ahead of her. We joked that she looked like a Boston terrier and ran like one too. When she would say "Ek!" to the other cats, it sounded more like a bark than a mew.

Every meal time with Daisy was circle and slap, circle and slap while I prepared the plates. In many ways, Bonnie was such a good girl. She knew not to raid the other cats' plates until I said it was okay. Every morning she greeted me from the bedside table by nuzzling my hand. But she would never stop slapping Daisy at meal time. Daisy wanted to be friends, but Bonnie wanted to be rivals. Daisy's not a door mat so she slapped Bonnie back.

Daisy had seen Frida put to sleep three years ago. She didn't come near until the doctor left. She jumped when she realized Frida was gone. This time, when she saw what was happening, she was very animated. She marked the medical kit and tail-wrapped the table, the doctor, and the tech. She was dancing on Bonnie's grave. No more slapping and being slapped.

In the days to follow, I could tell everyone missed Bonnie. She was playful with the boys. But no one missed the slapping. Daisy could let down her guard a bit. But I took it harder than I thought I would.