Facebook has been reminding me of my epic, life threatening, cat bite.
This is what I was doing hours before Pyret bit me.
I got cold, put on my Aby hoodie, and goofed off with Logan.
Well, to be fair, he fit really well in the pocket.
Logan was such a little sweetheart. I know, Izaak is almost as good…but I still miss Logan everyday.
Today would have been Pyret’s 22nd birthday.
She only saw 18 birthdays, but no matter how long they’re gone, you always remember their birthdays.
Pyret was an only cat for many years…until she had a couple of Abyssinians thrust upon her.
She adapted well, though.
And then…she met Logan.
Right from the start, they had a sort of bond, those two.
Of course, when there’s a Singapura involved, bonding is not exactly an option.
When Pyret started dying, Logan watched over her closely.
Even after Pyret died, Logan spent time with her body. It was especially poignant in hindsight, as Logan died a month later…almost as if he knew.
So, happy 22nd birthday, Pyret.
Facebook reminded me yesterday of Logan and Alfred, my brothers from another mother.
I had kind of forgotten what scamps they were! They used to get into everything when they were kittens.
Like Logan “helping” me in the laundry room.
And he put himself in that drawer-basket himself.
I’m not sure who the instigator of this little foray to the top of the bookshelf.
It was probably Freddy, although Logan was no slouch when it came to getting up and down from high places. Much better than Izaak ever was.
Then one day, I went into the bathroom and found…Freddy in one of our storage baskets.
Still not sure how he managed to get up there without knocking off any of my Catzillas!
He definitely looks very proud of himself.
This is part of the backlog of photos I have; these were taken 27 June 2017. This was before we had fixed up the balcony; Alfred had been with us three weeks and Logan had been with us just over two weeks. Already the “brothers from another mother” were fast friends.
Freddy grew up with a bigger version of the IKEA tube with his littermates, so this was especially fun for him.
Logan loved it, too.
He pretty much loved anything Freddy did.
That tube was a lot of fun, but they eventually outgrew it. Maybe when we get more kittens, it’ll come out again.
I also took a little movie of them playing. It’s so cute.
The best thing to come out of the Presidential Inauguration on Wednesday (apart from the obvious, of course), was this image of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in full-on New England winter gear, including mittens made from recycled materials by one of his constituents. The minute the cameras turned on Bernie, Twitter and the internet went berserk (in a good way).
When I saw Bernie, the first thing I thought of was Logan in his coat. I thought maybe Bernie just needed some company at the Inauguration.
But then I realised that the real meme is more about putting Bernie in places, including practically any place on Earth. So…Here’s Bernie sitting in my front yard, watching Jacoby and Olaf.
Bernie loves him some Social Democracy, but maybe Sweden’s a little too far away for him to commute from his day job. Better keep him in New England. He seems like he’d enjoy Rolling Bridge Park. And if you were wondering what Bernie’s reaction is to all this, Seth Myers asked him about that, and here’s what he had to say.
This morning, Facebook reminded me of Christmas three years ago. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was our last Jul with Logan, and it was also our last Christmas at Björn’s mother’s house.
We took the train to Jönköping Julafton morning. It was fairly chilly, so he wore Jacoby’s old snowflake hoody.
Jake had a snazzy new sweater of his own.
Jake had been to Björn’s mom’s house once before, but this was Logan’s first time.
As I’ve said before, Björn&’s mom always made the perfect traditional Swedish Julbord, and it was marvellous. We had the cold courses (hard-boiled eggs with caviar, pickled herring, and smoked salmon)…
…mustard-crusted ham, Jul cheese and red beet salad…
…prinskorv and meatballs (before cooking, here)…
…and sausage, cabbage rolls and Janssons frestelse, which is basically scalloped potatoes that are julienned instead, with anchovies added. It’s delicious, I promise.
Anyway, I had found this special Jul apple at the grocery store, and brought it to Björn’s mom because I thought she’d like it.
Christmas morning, Logan was sitting on a kitchen table chair, and he looked so cute I had to pose him with the apple. The rest is (Facebook) history.
The other day I learned that Jana Baldwin Katzalano Singapuras passed away. She was such a force in the Singa world…Katzalano is in so many Singapura pedigrees.
Although Izaak has no Katzalano cats in his pedigree, Logan did, and our friends Stellan and Hans Owe have some Katzalano cats. Although I only knew her through Facebook, she will be missed.
I have been trying so hard to keep this blog going, and make sure to post everyday. An I will still do my best. But Friday, I noticed my 2015 MacBook Pro was…broken.
Like, really broken. I suspect that it is a battery issue, but my machine isn’t eligible for replacement. I think it’s probably because it was already replaced, in March 2016.
I have been staying off it as much as possible since I noticed it, but I think it’s worse. This is how it looks today.
Pretty bad, right? I have been keeping it turned off – and unplugged – unless I absolutely need to be on it.
I have already ordered a replacement, I wasn’t really ready to get a new laptop right now…but it was five years old, and it was going to happen sooner rather than later, so…yeah. It is what it is. I will need to find a workaround so I can still use Photoshop, because the updated iOS (Catalina) doesn’t support it. But there are ways to make it work.
…but in the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep posting on my phone and iPad until the new one arrives. Which I hope is soon.
A memory of Logan came up in my Facebook feed today.
Logan was a lot more agile than Izaak is. This is Logan on a tiny ledge on the top of the door to the cabinet above our refrigerator.
Not to say he was 100% confident up there, but the fact that he got up there at all is huge.
I cannot imagine Izaak even thinking of trying to go up there, let alone actually doing it.
He even started to groom himself up there!
As similar as Singapuras seem to each other…they are definitely individuals!
Facebook has been reminding me a lot about Alfred and Logan lately. This one came up today.
Look at little Logan, sleeping peacefully on the IKEA cat bed.
Suddenly, a wild Freddy appears!
Freddy uses licking.
It’s super effective!
Although, to his credit, Logan did get a pretty good chomp in on Freddy’s ear.
I also made a little video of the encounter; click on the image to watch it on Flickr.
This week Facebook has been inundating me with memories of Logan. The above screenshot is from 10 September 2017, Logan’s six month birthday. Except it isn’t; Logan’s birthday was 9 March. I am not sure why I posted that on the 10th (which is Björn’s birthday).
This, though…this was 8 September 2017. Logan wanted to sleep where Jacoby was…and in typical Singapura fashion, he got what he wanted.
Then, three years ago today, Jake wanted to sleep where Logan was, so this happened. I miss them.
Three years ago today, my life changed: I was bitten through the finger while giving Pyret a pill.
Being new to the Swedish medical system, I stupidly went to the local clinic (Vårdcentralen), even though I was well aware of how serious a cat bite is, especially on the hand. I just thought that’s what you were “supposed” to do. The doctor I saw was Spanish, and spoke little English. I tried to tell her it was serious, but she waved me off with just a prescription for penicillin.
I didn’t know that I could go straight to the hospital. I thought, then, that you had to be referred by Vårdcentralen (although, to be honest, that worthless “doctor” should have known to send me there straightaway). Now I know I can go to the Akuten (emergency department) if I need to. Twenty-four hours later, I woke up screaming in pain so badly Björn almost called an ambulance.
They bundled me into a room, pumped me full of antibiotics and morphine, and got me into surgery as quickly as they could.
This is me just after the first surgery. Within a week, I would have two more operations to flush the bacteria out of my tendon sheath.
I also had a lot of morphine. The pain involved with repeated hand surgeries is insane.
The brightest part of my week in the hospital was the two evenings Björn smuggled Logan into my hospital room.
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One time when a nurse came in, we hid him under my blanket.
He was good and held still; the nurse never knew he was there.
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After a week in hospital, I was released, but still had several wound checks and dressing changes. When I first got home, my hand was in a plaster cast. I was also still on penicillin and painkillers. It seemed to be healing nicely, but on my last wound check, 20 September (the same day Alfred was neutered), the nurse noticed my finger seemed red and hot. She sent me back to the hospital, and they determined that, despite still being on antibiotics, the infection had managed to return. They wanted me to have surgery immediately, but I had to go to pick up Freddy, who was literally at the other end of the bus line.
It took a really long time to get him (I ended up taking a taxi for part of the return trip), gathered my things and got back to the hospital just before 17:00. Apparently, I took too long to get back and they weren’t able to do the surgery until the next morning.
This last, fourth surgery was the most painful. They put more stitches on my palm than on the previous surgeries, and the skin seemed to have been stretched more than the other three.
It also bled a lot more than the other three operations.
A month after the first anniversary of my bite, we were at a cat show in Västra Feölunda and ran into Göran, the recovery nurse after my first surgery. His sambo breeds Cornish Rex, and we (used to) see them at shows frequently. He asked to take a look at my hand, and I made a comment about being lucky I still had a finger.
“You could have lost more than that,” Gören said. “I could have lost my hand?” I asked.
“You could have lost even more than that,” he responded. And that was how, a year later, I learned that I could have died from this bite! Even with as much as I know about cat bites, I never thought it could have been fatal.
This is how it looks today. It’s still very stiff and it sometimes aches and feels crampy. I’ll never have a normal hand again.
So, again, the moral of the story is: If you are EVER bitten by a cat on your hand – and especially your finger – GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM as soon as you can!
This morning, Facebook reminded me of the creation of the Frankentree that we keep on the balcony.
Angel loves sunning herself on there.
But then, she liked it before it was upgraded.
Alfred and Jacoby were also ond of the Frankentree…
…although it was a bit awkward when Freddy tried to nap in the cubby.
Logan loved the Frankentree.
But Angel and Lorelai continue to be the biggest fans of the Frankentree.
Although Angel doesn’t seem to enjoy sharing it with anyone.
Not only is today Jacoby’s birthday, but it’s also the day Alfred and I went to Jönköping to say goodbye to Logan.
It was two years ago, and Izaak is a wonderful Singapura and friend to everycat…but I think Freddy still misses his brother from another mother, Logan.
Yesterday, I posted about the Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade being cancelled. That’s not the only thing cancelled. The Scandinavian Winners Show, which was to be 25-26 April, was declared cancelled on Wednesday.
When I went to the Winners Show in 2018 with Logan, I didn’t fully appreciate what a truly big deal it was. I mean, I knew it was special, and you had to qualify to enter, but I didn’t really get how important it is. Cats who win BIS in the Winners Show get to add the letters SW to their titles. It matters. CFA has nothing like that, where you can earn a title in a single show.
It started to sink in on the second day. There was no judging, just awarding. People dresssed up in their national colours and it felt like a party.
But one of the best things was that our friend Stellan’s Singapura, Chi, won! Now he is SW S*Kustens Chi Sarà Con Te.
He’s also a little doll.
The timing wasn’t right to go to the Winners Show last year when it was held in Turku, but we were excited to go to this year’s show in Norway. Timing was good, the location was good…and it would have been my first time travelling to Norway! But there is a teeny-tiny silver lining…Next year’s Winners Show will be in ÖREBRO! Our favourite showhall and everything! Hopefully this virus will be managed by then.
That’s not all. CFA’s President has announced that, after the Crab and Mallet show in Baltimore this weekend, the CFA show season is over. It usually ends on April 30th.
You may recall I got to visit this show once as a spectator; it’s a wonderful show in a great location. And I got to meet the Mooners! This year, however, spectators are not allowed. Only exhibitors and judges will be allowed in the show hall.
Today would have been Logan’s third birthday had he not gotten FIP.
We only got to light one candle for him.
He only got one birthday present.
I know we have great cats, and I love Izaak, and Dash and Lorelai…but sometimes I miss Logan.
Now that we finally have snow, I was thinking about the first times all the cats saw their first snows. The most recent, of course was the first time Izaak and Lorelai saw snow.
Rory, of course, loved it.
She loves any chance to go outside…and she honestly seems completely immune to the cold.
Zak, however…
…was less than impressed. I never bothered to put coats on Rory and Zak when we went outside, because of what Alfred did the first time he went out in snow
I tried to put a coat on him. Oh, how I tried.
Fred would have none of it.
He preferred to experience the snow au naturel.
Like Jacoby, Logan appreciated having a coat in the snow.
He probably would have enjoyed wearing boots, too.
Jake never went out in the snow without a coat.
That was such a fun thing about Jake. He did love his coats.
Angel’s very first snow did not involve going outside.
But she eventually went out and experienced snow first paw.
She was less than enthused. Well, she was born in California.
But she did seem to have fun out in the snow with Jake. I’ll give her that.
Izaak’s escape at the show last weekend reminded me of the time Logan figured out how to open his cage at one of his first shows.
They look so similar, Logan and Zak, but they are so very different.
As much as I love my little Zakky…I do miss Logan’s grumpy old man meow.
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 