I haven’t written anything in the past few days because I have come down with a bit of a cold (not surprising, all things considered!) and, on Saturday and Sunday, I even had a slight temperature. Today my temp is back to normal (update: slight fever again this evening, oh drat, chebarbachenoia!), but I am still somewhat stuffed up, and, truth be told, my mind is a bit on the foggy side.

On Friday night, when I began having the first cold symptoms, my first thought was “uh oh!” Because of my teeny tiny immune system, even the slightest cold quickly develops into bronchitis, which means that I have to go on antibiotics for at least ten days (=this hasn’t happened in a long time…in fact, I can’t even remember the last time I had a cycle of antibiotics…). This time, though, my cold, at least thus far!, has remained in my head…no sign of a cough (fingers crossed, knock on wood, tocca ferro!).

Here is what I am doing, in addition to my regular intake of curcumin and fish oil:

1. I am using a Neti pot (see: http://tinyurl.com/5ks3p2) twice a day. Now that is a great invention. To be honest, I was skeptical that it would work…but, on a whim, last summer I bought two Neti pots. You won’t know if you don’t try, right? Stefano tried his first and noticed a big difference in his breathing (is he going to be terribly annoyed at me for mentioning publicly that he suffers from nasal polyps? Oh well …!). The Neti pot has really helped him clear out his sinuses and stay off cortisone…as long as he doesn’t get a cold, that is. I first tried my Neti pot in November or December, I forget exactly, when I felt a cold coming on. Wow. Amazing. I staved off the cold entirely. And, incidentally, the sinus cleansing process is not as gross as I thought it would be…!
2. I am also taking two teaspoons four times a day of Sambucol, the black elderberry extract that I have written about in a post or two. Good stuff!
3. And I am taking a couple of teaspoons of Manuka honey every day. Can’t hurt, could help.

Now I will explain the title of today’s post. My not-even-five-month-old kitten, Pinga the Terrible, is still in heat. Since last week, when this “heat” began, she has emitted sounds that could easily be used to scare folks out of their wits in a blood-chilling remake of “Poltergeist.” The strident siren will go off at different times during the night and day…the daytime hollering isn’t so bad, of course, but we are getting a tad weary of being awakened during the night…zzz…

As a result, I have nicknamed her “Polter(geist).” My tiny adorable cuddly amber-eyed Pinga, Pinga the Terrible Polter, who, by the way, is taking a cat nap between the keyboard and yours truly as I type this post. Luckily, she seems to be slowly coming out of “heat,” so, if all goes well, she will be spayed on Wednesday or Thursday. We have to act quickly, because cats go into heat again within a few days…and I seriously doubt we could survive another week of the alien shrieking…yikes!