MiloGuido -- The Christmas Cat

Milo strayed in a few days before Christmas 1997. He was cold and hungry, but very friendly and absolutely loved attention. He was a large orange/yellow cat with a prominent nose (almost a roman nose) and huge yellow eyes. He was a huge hit at Christmas that year.

My mum named him Milo after a character in a mystery series (by Jonathan Kellerman), but it soon became apparent (to me anyway) that he needed another name for his kind of punky ("evil") alter ego, so I tagged him with Guido. So he was Milo when he was good and Guido when he was bad. Soon I just began referring to him as MiloGuido. I even signed up for a couple of online message boards as miloguidosmom because he would "help" me when I was on the computer.

He loved to sleep with...well, more accurately, on me. When I would get ready for bed he would practically be dancing on the bed demanding that I hurry up and get in bed and settled so he could jump up on me, lay down on my chest with his face just inches away from mine and purr. Loudly. He purred like a diesel engine. And if I used a certain hand cream he would lick the backs of my hands. You try sleeping with an almost 20 lb cat laying on your chest, purring loudly, and licking your hands. It was kind of a pain in the ass, but it was also funny and sweet.

During that ten years I never knew MiloGuido to be sick. He was always exuberant, energetic, a very hearty eater (how else does a cat get to be nearly 20 lbs?), and just the picture of excellent health. Last weekend I noticed he was off his food a bit and just seemed a bit off overall. I thought he might have some infected teeth and took him to the vet on Thursday. His teeth looked pretty good although his gums were pale. He also had a distinct heart murmur (never noted before) and he was breathing fast. The vet took blood and urine samples for various tests and sent them off for testing.

MiloGuido and I came home. As usual he slept on me, but he barely licked my hands and his purr was much more muted. He also didn't dance around on the bed waiting for me to get in, but just sat and waited. As I lay there patting him I couldn't help but think "I don't think this is going to end well." It wasn't that he seemed so terribly ill, because I've had other cats that seemed much more acutely sick that I didn't that feeling from, but he just had "the look." That look that says "it's time."

I had an appointment at the vet with Little Black Cat (LBC) for his second set of shots on Friday and when I went into the examination room the vet told me to put LBC and his carrier on the table and she pulled out a stool and told me to sit there. I said "Oh. That means bad news." She said yeah and proceeded to tell me MiloGuido had feline leukemia. For those who don't know feline leukemia is one of those diseases with no good outcome. A cat can have the virus for quite a while without showing any symptoms, but once sick they generally only get worse. And it's contagious (even when a cat has no symptoms).

After having one last night with MG sleeping on me and getting lots of attention and patting, I took him to the vet today and had him put to sleep. He got lots of patting and got to look out the window at the birds outside as we waited for a shot of tranquliser and pain killer to take effect. Then when he was very comfortable and relaxed he was given the shot that put him to sleep. I'll miss him so much, but it was right for MiloGuido.

He came into my life just before Christmas and ten years later he left just after Christmas.

Here are a few pics:


This morning. He still looks good, but he was so weak and tired. He just sat there which was so unlike the normal MG.


In the clothes basket hamper. Sometimes he would jump in and the lid would flip over, but stay on so when I would go to drop clothes in there would be MG looking up at me -- just as he is in this photo.


I always loved this photo. MG would sit on top of the toaster oven and look out the center of a beveled glass piece in one of the sidelights we had. There was lots of bird and squirrel activity out there!

what a little bitch

A weird little bitch at that. My car that is. Yes the ratty little gerbil car saga continues. It died again -- and yes it was AGAIN in Yellow Springs! At least this time it started with a jump and I was able to drive it home. It was a pretty stressful 62 miles though -- I didn't run anything but the lights and a little heat and I knew if it stalled I wouldn't be able to get the damned thing started again without another jump. I can't remember the last time the car stalled, but I figured it would be just my luck it would do it on this trip. And the tow truck got there super fast -- only a few minutes after I called AAA (which I love btw) -- so that was excellent. The guy said it seemed to be charging once it was running and the battery tested fine when I got home, but when we tried to start it again after I got home it did exactly the same thing it did in YS. When I first turn the key it's clear it's engaging for a split second but then it's as if a fuse blows (or like a lightbulb burning out) -- there's just nothing, nothing at all works, no lights. Nothing. We had the hood up when we tried to start it here and I saw a spark so we (the "we" being my brother, not me 'cause I'm clueless) do know where to look. It just seems so weird that it's completely dead one moment (won't even crank) and fine as soon as it gets a jump. Something is shorting out somewhere. Because it seems to run fine once it gets started I'm thinking (and hoping) it's fairly minor and will be an easy fix. It's just a case of figuring out what.

Sometimes I hate cars. >:(


**update** well it was something simple (and cheap! Yippie!!) -- one of the battery terminal connections was loose. My brother flattened a small piece of lead to fill the space and the car started right up as pretty as you please. :)

a little tip for drivers

When you are driving on the city's (and one of the state's) most congested, high crash interstates (actually a section where two interstates merge for a couple of miles) DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING ROAD because you just realised you missed your exit.

You are in a city -- there are lots of exits. If you miss your exit there will be several more just up the road that you can take and then get back on the interstate going the opposite direction and then take the exit you wanted in the first place. Sure it will take a little extra time to get where you wanted to go, but you will get there faster than if you get splattered all over the road because someone plowed into you. Try to think when you are driving, ok?

And if you do ignore my advice and stop in the middle of a busy interstate -- don't do it right in front of ME!

The Crazy Cat Lady Strikes Again

Yep. I have a new cat. Well he's not exactly new, he's just newly official. LBC (Little Black Cat -- who isn't all that little anymore) was meowing on the back deck Monday morning and when I patted him all I could think is "if I don't get him soon he could very well go the same route as Bruiser in a year or two" and I didn't want that. So I grabbed him, brought him in the house and called my vet as soon as they were open. I got an appointment for a check up and to start shots (if he got negative feline leukemia and FIV test results which he did) and then we would set up an appointment for neutering a bit later.

Well that quick appointment turned into "we have time today, would you like to get him neutered now?" to which I said "Yes!" I figured the sooner we got that done the better. I was supposed to go to a meeting later that evening and if everything ran according to schedule it would have been fine, but by the time I got out of the vet with him it was an hour later than expected and more than a half hour after I was supposed to have left for my meeting (which was 61 miles away). I still had to get the cat settled in and was suddenly very tired and feeling kind of sick (nothing real major, just a cold). So I didn't get to the meeting.

Anyway the cat is great. He's very sweet but he really really wants to go outside. When I go in and out of the house and when I go to bed I put him in a cage with a litter box, a bed, and food and water. It's large enough that he can move around well and it prevents him from getting out accidentally (my brother is re-doing his bathroom and right now it is all ripped out so he comes over here to use the bathroom and shower). When I'm here and the more agressive/pushy cats are in another room I let him out to roam around the house. He knows were the doors to the outside are and he seems fairly comfortable wandering around in here. He's found Diane's bed and likes to snooze on the pillow. Smart little devil.

I'm having a hell of a time coming up with a name for him though. I've called him Little Black Cat for several months now and although I don't really want to keep that name nothing else is really grabbing me at the moment. I suppose as I deal with him more an appropriate name will come to me.