Cass - correction - I sent you a FaceBook IM.

Timelies all!

I'm sorry, Katerina Bee.

Hey Sheryl. How is your day going?

Gabapentin in capsules is the way to go... open the capsule into wet food, stir it in, no flavor. That is how Harvey gets his twice daily, since the last time I pilled him my medical bills were higher than his trip to the emergency vet because cat bites Are Bad.

Some of the PetMate plastic carriers are easy to simply take apart around the cat. I have done that a time or two. This style [link] with latches holding the top half to the bottom half instead of screws. Also, your mom may want to consider leaving the carrier out all the time, throwing treats into it, so it is part of kitty's daily life and is less alarming when it comes out for trips to the vet.

Right now I leave mine out all the time and Petunia gets in it sometimes just to sleep. But I had her from a kitten. Miss Bobo was more like this cat, they sort of undersold her drawbacks. And I learned to live with them which I would not recommend as it lead to having my whole apartment cleaned by professional body removers eventually. So I am sure there is a good middle ground.

Also, when Petunia was spayed, they had a gabapentun liquid you could shoot with an eye dropper, which was preferable to pilling.

If you don't or can't have room for carrier to be out all the time, it's still worth it to get it out a couple days before the vet visit, so that they lose their suspicion through it being inert.

I really enjoyed the Zoom visit. I kept thinking that I really wanted Ed to see my Buffista shirt, and then kept sighing to myself.

The most exciting my Thanksgiving plans may get is that I could drive over for Legal Sea Foods take-away. I've not been big on Great Big Family Event T-Day ever since as a child that meant a horrible boring car ride to distant boring (and opinionated) relatives who had no kids and nothing in their house to play with. I swear, my personal best-ever Thanksgiving was going to England for a week, where it was just another goddamn Thursday.

I'm sorry I missed the zoom yesterday, I was actually zooming with my best friend, whom I haven't talked to since March.

I feel like I've fallen down on actively trying to maintain some friendships, so I am making an effort to reach out to more people right now, especially since the stress of the election is (sort of) over.

Katie B, I'm so sorry about your cat, that's so sad. But I'm glad you were with her.

Just did a big grocery run and bought things I probably didn't need, like fancy cheese and ginger beer. But I also suspect I won't be going to the store as much in the next eight weeks, so it was good to stock up. Got my sister the very last bag of white whole wheat, too.

timelies all, i'm super bummed about missing the memorial zoom yesterday, but that's my punishment for being absolutely terrible about checking in on the regular. I picked up two traps from the local Feral Cat Coalition yesterday, and next weekend's project will be try to wrangle two of the junkyard kitty momma across the street into said traps in order to be fixed next weekend. Been chatting with a couple of the neighbors and we have a solid plan. There are still a lot of fertile tomcats in the 'hood, but I'll be happy if we can get the two ladies out of kitten-production-mode.

I was very impressed with the safety measures in place for trap pickup, which will be the same for kitty dropoff and pickups as well. Remain in car, call or text that you are there, they called and let me know when to get out of my car and meet out front across a table. Nice to know that there are plenty of business figuring out ways to continue to do what they do in a safer way.

Governor instituted a two week "freeze" in response to the spike in Covid cases, and she made a point of saying that it would "be enforced" which sent state police higher ups into a tizzy about what that's gonna mean. I immediately remembered the first week of the statewide mask mandate when city police had to respond to a coffee shop because some state troopers were refusing to wear masks inside the coffee shop, as mandated, and also refusing to leave without being served. *headdesk* So I'm not expecting any actual real-time enforcement, but maybe it'll make some people realize the very real and imminent danger? Maybe? We can all hope. Complaints about non-mask-compliance in workplaces are being routed to state OSHA.

I'm honestly a little relieved about having zero in-person obligations this holiday season. I do wonder how Zoom is gonna hold up on Thursday when presumably most american households will have a few going. Should be a good preview for December. Thankful i have no responsibility for that admin support!

Katie B, I’m so sorry. She was lucky to have her as her people.

My fractious (that’s the word they used in her medical report) cat definitely did better with pre-appointment drugging and a top entry. I’d leave the carrier out for a few days ahead of time - she never did hang out in it, but it kept her from freaking out at the sight of it. I’d have a towel in there already for traction and drop her in the top before she knew it.

Her outside rules were daylight, nice weather. She was much calmer and happier inside when she had some outside time.