Month: May 2019

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Ya Gotta Have Hearth

For thirty years we’ve known our fireplace in Evergreen needed work. The chain curtains got stuck easily. There was no glass door on to keep the cats out when there was no fire. There was a chasm between the firebox and the stone hearth that kept collecting whatever the cats dropped or chased into it. So after thirty years the work was completed in under three hours. Of course, given our experience with every other project in this place we did discover that the decorative river stone had obviously been applied with no particular reference to the open facing of the firebox so the installers had to dig out two stones to get the door in and then remortar them in place. Nonetheless, it is done and last night (after the mortar had dried) we had our first fire. It was some compensation for have the sixth bout of Spring Winter on May 22.

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Springtime in the Rockies

The primary thing I miss from life back in Kentucky is springtime. We don’t have springtime in Evergreen. At least for no more than 2 or 3 days at a time. Instead, we have this:

The Elk Meadow from above and a bit south of our house.

Not to be deterred by our high altitude meteorological shenanigans, we decided to take a walk in our Colorado springtime attire.

High fashion for Evergreen in May.

The elk apparently had good enough sense to find shelter, but we eventually made our soggy way back to the welcoming house – where we decided to enter by the garage so as to shed our dripping outer garments before warming up inside.

Home at last
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Farewell to Sianna

Yesterday we bid a reluctant farewell to Sianna, our 10 year old Maine Coon mix. She had been her normal alternating affectionate/tetchy self as of last Saturday night. Sunday morning she didn’t show up for breakfast — a very unusual occurrence. Dorie Ann finally found her hunkered down in the lower compartment of a 2 story cat condo I’d made over 20 years ago. Sunday night Dorie Ann put her food in the compartment beside her as she didn’t want to come out. Monday morning she had moved location to the back of Dorie Ann’s closet, having nibbled only a bit of the food. We took her to the vet Monday afternoon and her blood tests show that her kidneys were severely compromised. We left Sianna with the vet overnight while they gave her fluids via an IV. On Tuesday her levels were even worse. After visiting her we decided to try one last thing, a diuretic that takes about 12 hours in kick in, hoping that would restart the kidneys. A little after 7a Wednesday morning the Vet called to tell us the deterioration continued and recommended euthanasia. We had really wanted to take her home and do a sort of feline palliative care, but without the IV the symptoms of her kidney failure would become more painful and traumatic. To complicate matters, Wednesday was one of our volunteer sessions at the Wild Animal Sanctuary and we leave town about 10:30a to get there, check in and get our assignments.

Wednesday morning at 9:45a we drove to the vet’s and said our farewells. By 10:20a she was gone.

Sianna, not approving of my camera work

Sianna, just before the end

Farewell, Sianna, and thanks for the love.