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thejunipertreeI've been so behind on so many things; it's really not even funny anymore. Work has been kicking my ass, keeping up with school has been kicking my ass. This time of the year is really kicking my ass. I rarely have the gumption to do anything I need to do other than study my fool head off and occasionally change the litter boxes.
On top of all this, I have a house full of sick animals. One of the cats, Tinker, came down with a cold. Trip to the vet visit and $150 later, I've got a prescription for orange antibiotic liquid that I have to shoot directly down his throat. He doesn't like this very much and I usually wind up with more of it on me and the floor than actually in the cat. Any attempts to mask the medication in some form of food has been snubbed. Further, he appears to have given his cold to Baby. Hooray.
Misty, the cat with the hyperthyroid condition, gets worse by the day. His medication just doesn't appear to be doing anything for him anymore and there isn't anything else that can be done for him, other than prohibitively expensive radiation therapy. On top of that, he's 17 years old. He's gotten even more clingy, if that can be believed, and seems to have set his affections on the Engineer. Who is not exactly pleased to have a cat climbing up and trying to stand on his head every five minutes. Thankfully, he has at least stopped the tap dance recitals on my face in the middle of the night. He still wants to be close to me, but is content to just wrap his body around the top of my head. We give him as much attention as possible, to the point of excluding the other cats (much to Tinker's disgruntlement), but he still can't stop trying to constantly get into your face. I don't know what he wants, I don't think he even knows what he wants. It's distressing because there isn't anything else I can do for him. It's all a matter of just waiting until his poor body can't deal with the thyroid issue any longer and begins to shut down. He's currently not in any pain, which is good. It's just a waiting game, at this point. And not the kind of game I look forward to.
Howard, the ferret, decided he was going to stop eating and no amount of coaxing would change his mind. That got him a trip to the vet and got me a very large bill for various medications. I've got an antibiotic and some sort of stomach medication. I've been force-feeding him baby food and Pedialyte in an effort to get some nutrition and hydration into him. He seems to be feeling a bit better and after a few days of force-feeding, has started to eat some solid food on his own.
I've come to the decision that if I can get him through this bleak period alive, I'm going to find him a new home. I just can't do it anymore. It's not that he's any trouble, he's not a difficult animal. Very sweet, not bitey, loves to play. But, I'm so freaking allergic to him that I can't properly take of him. And that's just not fair to the creature. At all. It's rather upsetting because I do love him tremendously, but I can't do it anymore. At the vet's office, there was a posting on a bulletin board for a woman who takes in ferrets. I asked the ladies at the desk if they of her and one of them did. The woman is apparently great, her animals are all well-cared for and much loved. I'm going to give her a call if I can some weight back on Howard and get him back up to healthy. Hell, I'll even give her the cage too.
The rats are both getting old. Simon is quite elderly now and is really starting to show it. His fur is thinning, his gait is uneven, and he doesn't do much other than sleep. Renfield doesn't seem to be that much better and he's only about a year old! Once the two of them are gone, I may hold off on getting more rats for a little while. Like maybe until after I've finished college. It would remove a financial responsibility, not to mention give me one less thing to constantly worry about.
Despite the ass-kicking, school is going rather well. I'm in the top of my algebra class, much to my astonishment. English composition is going great. Business is also quite peachy (except for being monumentally boring). The only class I have issue with is Psychology. I'm not flunking it, not by a long stretch, but I really detest the online course set-up that this particular professor does. No structure, no assignments. Just read the chapters and take the tests. I can't handle that little input. I need structure. I need discipline. I need homework, goddamnit. Otherwise, I do not learn. Due to this, I've been fucking off and not taking the exams (there's no deadline for any of them, other than 'just take them all by the end of the semester'). The semester will be over in a few weeks. As of two weeks ago, I hadn't taken any of the exams. Hooray for me! So, I have six weeks to take six exams. I've done two so far (one was a high B, the other was a high C-grr). I blow through the chapters during the week, take the test on Friday or Saturday. The most frustrating thing about it is that I only have fifty minutes to take the test and there are usually sixty questions. Not enough time, I think. I always wind up coming very close to the limit and if you go over the time limit, you get an automatic zero for your troubles. Balls.
I also need to look into next semester's registration and what's going on with my financial aid. I've got loans, but I'm unclear if they cover next semester in addition to the classes I'm taking now. I need to get on that as soon as I can.
And now, I go to my English class and get back my last two essays. I'm a bit worried about these ones. I had a hard time writing them both (one is a compare/contrast essay on Maya Deren and Wade Davis, the other is a division/classification essay on the different stages of my relationship with my mother and how it effected me). blergh.
Remind me to write about the classmate I drove home two weeks ago? That's a good story for the campfire. I've just remembered about it and I've no time to get into it now.
On top of all this, I have a house full of sick animals. One of the cats, Tinker, came down with a cold. Trip to the vet visit and $150 later, I've got a prescription for orange antibiotic liquid that I have to shoot directly down his throat. He doesn't like this very much and I usually wind up with more of it on me and the floor than actually in the cat. Any attempts to mask the medication in some form of food has been snubbed. Further, he appears to have given his cold to Baby. Hooray.
Misty, the cat with the hyperthyroid condition, gets worse by the day. His medication just doesn't appear to be doing anything for him anymore and there isn't anything else that can be done for him, other than prohibitively expensive radiation therapy. On top of that, he's 17 years old. He's gotten even more clingy, if that can be believed, and seems to have set his affections on the Engineer. Who is not exactly pleased to have a cat climbing up and trying to stand on his head every five minutes. Thankfully, he has at least stopped the tap dance recitals on my face in the middle of the night. He still wants to be close to me, but is content to just wrap his body around the top of my head. We give him as much attention as possible, to the point of excluding the other cats (much to Tinker's disgruntlement), but he still can't stop trying to constantly get into your face. I don't know what he wants, I don't think he even knows what he wants. It's distressing because there isn't anything else I can do for him. It's all a matter of just waiting until his poor body can't deal with the thyroid issue any longer and begins to shut down. He's currently not in any pain, which is good. It's just a waiting game, at this point. And not the kind of game I look forward to.
Howard, the ferret, decided he was going to stop eating and no amount of coaxing would change his mind. That got him a trip to the vet and got me a very large bill for various medications. I've got an antibiotic and some sort of stomach medication. I've been force-feeding him baby food and Pedialyte in an effort to get some nutrition and hydration into him. He seems to be feeling a bit better and after a few days of force-feeding, has started to eat some solid food on his own.
I've come to the decision that if I can get him through this bleak period alive, I'm going to find him a new home. I just can't do it anymore. It's not that he's any trouble, he's not a difficult animal. Very sweet, not bitey, loves to play. But, I'm so freaking allergic to him that I can't properly take of him. And that's just not fair to the creature. At all. It's rather upsetting because I do love him tremendously, but I can't do it anymore. At the vet's office, there was a posting on a bulletin board for a woman who takes in ferrets. I asked the ladies at the desk if they of her and one of them did. The woman is apparently great, her animals are all well-cared for and much loved. I'm going to give her a call if I can some weight back on Howard and get him back up to healthy. Hell, I'll even give her the cage too.
The rats are both getting old. Simon is quite elderly now and is really starting to show it. His fur is thinning, his gait is uneven, and he doesn't do much other than sleep. Renfield doesn't seem to be that much better and he's only about a year old! Once the two of them are gone, I may hold off on getting more rats for a little while. Like maybe until after I've finished college. It would remove a financial responsibility, not to mention give me one less thing to constantly worry about.
Despite the ass-kicking, school is going rather well. I'm in the top of my algebra class, much to my astonishment. English composition is going great. Business is also quite peachy (except for being monumentally boring). The only class I have issue with is Psychology. I'm not flunking it, not by a long stretch, but I really detest the online course set-up that this particular professor does. No structure, no assignments. Just read the chapters and take the tests. I can't handle that little input. I need structure. I need discipline. I need homework, goddamnit. Otherwise, I do not learn. Due to this, I've been fucking off and not taking the exams (there's no deadline for any of them, other than 'just take them all by the end of the semester'). The semester will be over in a few weeks. As of two weeks ago, I hadn't taken any of the exams. Hooray for me! So, I have six weeks to take six exams. I've done two so far (one was a high B, the other was a high C-grr). I blow through the chapters during the week, take the test on Friday or Saturday. The most frustrating thing about it is that I only have fifty minutes to take the test and there are usually sixty questions. Not enough time, I think. I always wind up coming very close to the limit and if you go over the time limit, you get an automatic zero for your troubles. Balls.
I also need to look into next semester's registration and what's going on with my financial aid. I've got loans, but I'm unclear if they cover next semester in addition to the classes I'm taking now. I need to get on that as soon as I can.
And now, I go to my English class and get back my last two essays. I'm a bit worried about these ones. I had a hard time writing them both (one is a compare/contrast essay on Maya Deren and Wade Davis, the other is a division/classification essay on the different stages of my relationship with my mother and how it effected me). blergh.
Remind me to write about the classmate I drove home two weeks ago? That's a good story for the campfire. I've just remembered about it and I've no time to get into it now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-15 04:59 am (UTC)that is really fucked up. in a real classroom, at least you'd get credit for whatever you have done at the end. grrr. >:o
also, i hope your menagerie feels better soon.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 06:03 pm (UTC)Oh right... I have a point.
My point is that I would love a chance to read your Maya Deren/Wade Davis paper.
I spent a good year or two of my spare time studying Voudon ( from an academic perspective, mostly.)
I'm still fascinated by it, but painfully aware of my outsider status.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 07:07 pm (UTC)Sure thing! I can email it to you, if you like.
It's not the best paper in the world; I wrote it about two hours before I had to be in class, so it could totally be much better. I just messed about and thusly didn't have time to really hammer something good out.
Let me know where you'd like me to email it to. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 07:30 pm (UTC)I find your journal very interesting. Do you mind if I friend you?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 08:22 pm (UTC)Thanks! And go right ahead. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 09:29 pm (UTC)I went ahead and friended you.
Nice little paper. A good introduction to them both for the uninitiated.
Have you seen the film "Divine Horsemen"?
It's still pretty much the most affecting filming of the rituals on tape.
Something about the black and white film,I think.