Perhaps February will be a better month! I’m happy to shut the door on January.
Chloe has a new wound. She spent all day at the vet for testing and then came home and we saw a new wound. That meant she spent more time back at the vet (for free, thankfully) getting stiches. Now she has less fur than ever, but seems to be glad to be home and stitched up. She has a rare condition that seems to be known as fragile skin syndrome, and what the cause of it is is partly why she spent the day at the vet for testing. (Also for her diabetes). We’re going to try having her wear a shirt, I think.
She’s a cutie and a sweet cat. It took me a little while to warm up to her when I first met her, because she likes to cuddle on your chest with her claws out, and she used to “knead” with her claws out too, and I didn’t care for that. But we’ve come to an understanding, and we are enjoying our time together.
She sat on my lap last night. She usually smells like urine and obviously can’t groom herself, but she’s sweet. We don’t have the relationship I had with the Fatness, obviously, but I’m fond of her, and I’m sorry she’s having such a hard time. She’s still enjoying cuddling and eating and doing stuff, so we are forging ahead.
I’m sorry if some of those pictures might be gross—I’ve gotten used to seeing her. You get used to weird stuff I guess!
Mackenzie is trying a special diet. She is not a huge fan, simply because it means no more table scraps, which she loved. But hopefully she will stop being so itchy and maybe even regrow her hair…she has a friend visiting this weekend (litter mate!) and they are having a pretty good time. (edited to add: she seems to like the new food, it’s just being limited to ONLY that food that makes her sad. Or it makes ME sad, when she looks at me with those eyes!)
In non-pet-related news…(is there anything else going on really?) the weather over the weekend was amazing.
Friday night we had dinner at Sapporo 2 in Midtown. It was quite good! Louie and I shared this chirashi bowl and a swordfish dish.
Louie and I went to Forest Park on Saturday to walk around with the dogs. (darn it, mentioned the pets again!)
The previous week this was ice and geese covered!
I had a quartet rehearsal after that, and then we went to a surprise party for April’s boyfriend Charlie. I couldn’t make the surprise bit, so we got the party after he already knew it was happening, but it was still fun 
And then Sunday my quartet had a concert in Edwardsville. We had nice audience and played pretty well. It was our third performance of the Beethoven Quartet and the first of the Smetana Quartet. I talked about the Smetana and thought the audience responded well, especially when I read some of Smetana’s words about the piece, so I’ll have to do the same for our repeat performance at the end of February.
Afterwards we all went out to dinner in Edwardsville to celebrate. Stephanie (our cellist) had a bunch of family at the concert and it was fun to chat with them and enjoy some good food (we went to Social Gastropub and I would recommend it) and relax!
So here we are, February 1. Here’s hoping the month is less stressful and worrisome than January. There are quite a few things going on, and the remaining pets are still sick, so I’m not super hopeful, but losing the Fatness definitely ruined January…
It’s not just pets to worry about, there are also various family members going through things…I hate to think that this is what getting old is like, but I think it is. You just deal with what’s right ahead of you, treasure the time you have with loved ones, and hold tight to happy times and memories?