Well, many things have happened in the past month or so, except for finding the time…well, okay, to be honest, except for finding the desire to write a post (yes, I’m, still at a bit of a standstill there, unfortunately…not sure why…oh well).
But everything else is, well, stable, or as stable as it can be, which is positive.
Peekaboo, however, gave us a BIG scare about two weeks ago. I really thought she was on her way…out. Actually, in retrospect, it’s kind of a funny story (?), so here goes…
One morning I noticed that Peekaboo wasn’t responsive. She hadn’t come down to have breakfast with the other cats, as she always does. She was upstairs, fast asleep on the guest room bed. She didn’t even lift her head when I came into the room, which was also very unusual. She’s a big talker, you see, and she likes to meow (complain) at me whenever I’m within a few feet of her.
I didn’t want to wake her up…didn’t know what to do, really…but I felt that something was wrong. I called the vet clinic and spoke with a vet who agreed that she should be seen as soon as possible. An emergency appointment. The vet’s voice was not very encouraging. You may remember that Peekaboo has an inoperable, malignant sarcoma near her nose…
As soon as I put the phone down, I burst into tears. I thought this was the end. Memories flooded my mind, upsetting me even more. I went to get the cat carrier, which we keep in the room where Peekaboo was sleeping.
And then, as I pulled out the carrier, I heard a familiar “meow, meow, MEOW?!!!” behind me. Loud and clear. I turned around, and there she was, that little rascal, sitting up in bed with both eyes wide open (her left eye is usually half closed now, see photo), giving me a piece of her mind about the cat carrier, I presumed. 
She proceeded to get up and jump off the bed with the grace of a ballerina, no kidding, and went downstairs to eat. Ahhhh, cats! I canceled the appointment at the vet clinic. I did take her to the vet the following week for a just-in-case check-up. A good thing I did that, too: the inside of her mouth was red and inflamed. The vet gave her two shots of cortisone and antibiotics. She’s going to have to have these shots every two weeks, perhaps for the rest of her life. Incidentally, she’s doing well, all things considered.
Anyway, that’s just one thing…keeping a close eye on Peekaboo…
Another is that we also finally (almost) finished our kitchen renovation. What a headache that has been. Now that it’s (almost) over, I can say it was worth it, but a few weeks ago I’d had enough and wished we’d just kept our old kitchen, which we’d had for 20 years. But okay, in the end it was worth it: we now have a beautiful kitchen with a big island (our dark old kitchen only had very narrow, impractical countertops). We love it. So do the kitties. The photo shows Potter on the island…
And of course I’ve been following what is happening with the Covid-19 pandemic, the vaccine issues, etc. Unfortunately, Tuscany isn’t doing that well right now. We’re still in a red zone, and the hospitals are full. I’ve been in self-isolation now for ages, it seems. I leave the house, double-masked, only for emergencies…like taking a cat to the vet. Otherwise, I’m at home all the time, which is fine, since I have plenty to do here.
Anyway, enough blabbering for today. Stay safe, everyone, and wear your  masks!!! Take care! Ciao!
P.S. As I re-read my post, I almost erased the part about the kitchen renovation. In a difficult moment like this one, it seemed like such a silly, Â boring piece of fluff. But then I thought that sometimes we all need a bit of…fluff. So I left it in…
This morning we took Peekaboo, our 14-year-old kitty with an inoperable sarcoma, to the vet clinic for the last time.
Well, about two weeks ago we received the sad but expected news that Peekaboo has an inoperable and malignant nasal tumor located on the left side of her face, the side that has become deformed. The vets refer to it as a sarcoma.