The semester ended at work, and although there are a few things to do to wrap that up, I’m now done for the most part and trying to rest. I have a few things to catch you up on:

First, there are now SIX litter-boxes in our house. You see, this cat has been staying with us. She is the cat of Steve’s friend Kate Choi, and her name is whatever the Korean word is for “Shadow.” We mostly call her “Little Cat” or “Cat Choi,” although sometimes I also call her “Spook,” because she spent her first week with us living mostly in the ceiling. We were worried about her, but then she lost her fear of the other cats and entered the realm of the rest of the house, and, well, there have been some changes. First, there is a lot more hissing. Second, Mia quickly became the Omega Cat and is now terrified to leave the safety of a corner in our bedroom … even to eat or, say, POOP. Sigh. Thus the added litter box. There are now litter boxes on all three floors, just to make sure there’s always one handy in case one of these felines gets the urge. Anyway, Little Cat is very cute. She is a year old and is quite playful. She does a lot of cute stretching and has a cute pink tongue. We like her and will miss her when she goes, but we also look forward to returning to the balance of just two cats who hate each other.

Speaking of cats who are NOT so little, Mia continues to do well, as long as she gets her medication. Linus, meanwhile, is in the middle of some health adjustments. He’s been losing weight—not a bad thing necessarily, but six pounds in two months is a lot for a cat. He’s also become uncharacteristically aggressive; his and Mia’s fights rarely came to blows before (mostly just a lot of hissing and growling, with the occasional swat), but he now stalks her like prey and is out for blood. Many times, I’ve had to physically remove him from a fight scene, because he didn’t respond to shouting. There are cuts and bites on them both. He has several times waited until she was in the litter box to try and murder her—so you can see why she doesn’t want to go there. Anyway, turns out Linus has diabetes, with a very high blood sugar count. This is not surprising—it’s been suggested for years that he might have it, based on his largeness, but he’s always tested negative. In any case, we are glad to have a diagnosis and a plan of attack for getting him back on track and feeling better. And hey, what’s two shots a day for one cat when you’re already giving the other pills all day? No. 6 is now officially a cat nursing home, and we now officially spend more per year on our cats’ medical care than on our own.

In other news, my mom came out for a visit last week. She brought the gifts from the baby shower she and my sister hosted in Penna. last month, which I attended via Web-cam, and she worked her butt off helping me with things I have been too wiped out to do myself. Most important was her work in getting the baby’s room organized and decorated. What a relief it is to not look in there several times a day and think, “How am I going to do that? I’m SO TIRED and barfy.” Anyway, here are some pics of that:

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