Ahhhhhh, this might be the first time EVER I'm excited that June is over (generally this is not the case because that means the start of another school year is looming closer and closer). But not this year. Yes, I JUST started my summer vacation this week (the last week of June) after 3 weeks of summer school. June was not a good month in the Shuck household.
It began in the middle of the month with Calypso. Dave took him in on a Tuesday for his yearly shots. Everything looked great and went great he said. No problems. Well, I came home Tuesday afternoon from summer school to see that Calypso is limping and not putting any pressure on his front right paw. Great. What happened now. Dave said there was no problems when he dropped Calypso off that morning but looked up online that some times cats will limp after they've had a shot in the shoulder because the area is tender. That made sense. Alright, we'll wait it out.
The following afternoon though Calypso was really struggling to get around the house and he was starting to show the tell-tale signs of not feeling well...he was being a sweetheart. Whenever he comes up randomly and rubs against your leg, sit in your lap, or allows you to pet him for more than 20 seconds, you know something is wrong. I did my best attempt to try and look at the paw but anytime I would try and touch it or spread the pads apart that sweetheart cat would turn into a vicious piranha. I called the vet and they said they would squeeze us in at the end of the day. After arriving and taking Calypso to the back to investigate the paw the vet came back and said it was an abscess pad and her and her assistant spread his little paw apart to show me the large, red, swollen pad. He didn't put up any kind of fight with 3 adults holding him down but when they did release him, he had "tears" rolling down his face. He was in such pain that his eyes were just watering and "tear" after "tear" was falling down on the table. Last, year we had noticed a little "mole" on the top of his head. They said last year it wasn't a big deal but that if it grew any to let them know. Well it had. She said that they could put him under really quick and open it up and clean it out and take a biopsy of the "mole"--all for a mere $300. Sure, whatever. What am I suppose to say to a "crying" cat? However, that $300 quickly escalated when they came back in the room and said "oops, we forgot to add a few things to the estimate" (after I had already given my okay to go forward with things with them). $300 quickly turned into $500.
(My favorite part of the whole experience though, had to be going home and giving him his pain meds. This local vet--not our normal vet who is 45 minutes away--gave us pain meds that we had to put "under the cats tongue so it can reach the glands". What?!?! Seriously? Do you not know how hard it is to squirt medicine into the back of a cats mouth? That is a big open space and it's nearly impossible. I have to hold Calypso in-between my legs on the ground, one hand on his chest pushing him down and the other hand scuffing him. Meanwhile Dave is prying his jaw open with on hand well the other holds the dropper ready to squirt at any opportunity the cat gives us. Now you want us to lift his tongue up too? That medicine got everywhere BUT his mouth. Luckily (ha, luckily), we still had his old pains meds from just 8 months prior when he had his BIG surgery on this achilles tendon. No tongue lift. Just good, old-fashioned cat gagging medicine.)
More unexpected $$$...
There was then some old medical bills that came seeping through in the mail. I hate hate hate how they say they are going to bill your insurance and you don't see anything for awhile and then--BAM--unexpected bill a month or two later in the mail. What a downer.
I finished the month off strong on this quest to spend money we don't have. I dropped my phone for the billionth time (just call me "Butterfingers"), but this time was a doozie. I completely shattered the screen, which is kind of a bad situation since the phone is a touch screen. I cried a little. Yes, it's just a phone, but what a frustrating month! I was overdue for phone for a looooooong time and I was waiting it out as long as I could. Last summer my phone started acting up and the entire screen would just freeze. It did this off and on the past year (after an immediate drop or with no drop--just out of the blue--and I complete take credit for the state that my phone was in--I'm a little tough on my phones and cameras). This past spring it also had a fun feature where only one little screen would not detect touch--the most important section--go figure. It was the strip going across that allowed me to make a phone call, check my email or internet and would allow the typing keyboard to come up. So, no phone calls, no texts, no emails, no FB, no communication at all. What was the point of the device then?? My contract went up in March and I could have renewed and got a new phone then, but I was holding out. Every summer since the introduction of the iphone a new iphone would come out. Surely I could hold out for 3 month until summer. Well, my plan didn't quite workout. The Cell Phone Gods spited me and Apple didn't release a phone this summer. Fall they said. Alright...surely I can hold out until September...I suppose this is what I get for trying to keep up with technology and having the newest, greatest device out there. I think what frustrated me the most was that I could have had a new phone awhile back and not gone through some of the "damaged phone" consequences these past months because Butterfingers would ultimately do something to mess up the plan.
(**in case your wondering I have a case on the new one now and currently researching ugly, ridiculously large protective case online...)
Well June is over, finally. I really (REALLY) hope we have some better luck in July.
Last night was one of the coolest weather elements I have ever seen in AZ. (If you know me, Kim, well enough, you know how much I love weather related stuff and adore The Weather Channel.) Dave was heating up dinner, and I was working out on the elliptical when I came into the kitchen to change out water bottles and just happened to look outside. All I saw was this dust cloud that looked something like what I would imagine a bomb or volcano going off near by. The cloud was literally "rolling" in. It was so surreal. I ran outside and took just a few pictures because of the speed of the storm. As I was snapping away a few different people were running by. I offered a ride to two of the ladies running, but they said they lived just around the corner. From the time I first saw it out the window to the time it hit our house was a matter of 2-3 minutes. When it hit...it went from instant daylight to darkness.
