Monday, December 18, 2006

Dragons & Cats

Dragons and cats have been uppermost in our minds today. Well, one particular cat, our poor old Merlin. This is a picture I love of Merlin, with Emily, looking sleek and healthy, about a year ago or possibly 18 months ago.
Now though, Merlins's just skin and bones, you feel as if you're going to crush his ribs when you pick him up and as if you must surely be hurting him when you stroke him as all you can feel is bone :-(( Took him in to the vets this morning for his exploratory surgery. He knew what was coming having been starved last night for the third time in a couple of weeks and the poor thing was desperately trying to hide to avoid having to go in the carry basket :-(( He was not a happy chappy at all and I must admit to having shed a few tears as I handed him over to the vet nurse this morning.

We were on tenterhooks all day waiting to hear from the vets; when we finally did hear it was to tell us that they're keeping Merlin in over night so we can't go and fetch him until tomorrow. He recovered well from the anaesthetic but he has a drip in and they want him to have the whole lot of fluid before they let him go. Hate the thought of him being there overnight but there will be someone there with him and the vet said to Jon that they're all fond of him now, because of his sooo sweet nature.

The vet discovered that part of Merlin's intenstine has "hardened" - don't know what exactly that means, but that's what they said - and that his lymph nodes were enlarged too. They were either unable or unwilling to say what this was, exactly, but have taken three biopsy samples to send away, the results of which should be back at the end of this week but with it being Christmas, who knows, maybe not until the following week. At least it's not a tumour; they would have seen it if it was. It's all quite traumatic, but hopefully the results of these samples will clear up what exactly is going on. Whether it's something treatable or not remains to be seen, but at least we'll know. Merlin's sister Cassandra (Cassie-Cat) seems to be missing her brother already, and Romeo and Juliet have both been jumpy and skittish all day so I think all three remaining cats know something's up.

Anyway, on to the dragons part of the day - in order to take Emily's mind off Merlin having his operation, she and I went off the cinema this morning to see Eragon. It wasn't as magical as I'd hoped it would be, but it was reasonably engaging. Loved Robert Carlye's evil Durza and Edward Speleers was cute. In fact, he reminded me remarkably of someone - have been racking my brains to think who, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, I thought he was this other someone, a famous actor - I didn't realise this was his first film.

Emily enjoyed Eragon; I think she's getting quite an interest in dragons, and not only thanks to our friend Mr Potter either. This is just as well, given some of her Christmas presents!!

Once we'd heard from the vets this afternoon and could relax slightly, Emily went off downstairs to do yet more arty crafty Christmas stuff while Jon had a blazing row on the phone with one of our wholesalers. About time too, they've been treating us like dirt - which, considering we were well on course to spend 120k with them this year, and have now taken the vast majority of that business elsewhere, has been probably unwise of them.

After that, Jon and I had fun doing our traditional pressie sort out - pile everything on the bed and decide what's for Christmas and what's for birthday. In 14 day's time, we'll have an 8 year old!!

1 comment:

Elaine, Ellies Treasures said...

We are thinking of you all and Merlin. Keep us posted. Elle