Blogging Challenge Day 9: A Moment In Your Day

I'm a day late with this one cos I went to meet a friend yesterday and ended up staying out all evening drinking and laughing my arse off. Of course I feel like utter shite today but I'm now 'on holiday' so I don't really mind too much.

My best mate will be arriving in about an hour. She's coming to stay for the week and we plan on going out every day and treating it like a holiday for both of us even though I live here. I'm not going to use the word 'staycation' in a serious sense because only pricks use bastardised words like that - but I've mentioned the word here in case any of you say it in the comments and I end up hating you. 

So this photo is actually a moment from yesterday. My downstairs neighbour is moving out and I had put a shout out on Twitter saying the flat was available. The person who replied saying him and his girlfriend were interested decided to take the flat so my landlady came round with a gorgeous bunch of flowers for me (such a lovely surprise, I was really chuffed) and this was little Lola checking them out.

3 Broken Hearts

When I took on my 2 new kitties I knew that little Lola had a grade 6 heart murmur. This means that she in unlikely to have a long life as having a grade 6 (the highest there is) at such a young age is not good. Unfortunately it now turns out that her sister Treacle also has one.

I only found this out the other day when I took them to be registered at my own vets. Treacle (the dark brown one) had been given a clean bill of health but my vet told me it sounds like she has a grade 2 murmur. She said it was quite hard to detect which is why the Cat Shelter's vet might not have picked up on it, but that it is there.

At first I was a little stoical about it; I'd read a lot about heart murmurs and know that a grade 2 isn't so bad and certainly not as bad as a grade 6 anyway. She'll probably be fine and have a long life - but there is also a chance she might not. A few hours later I have to say I was feeling pretty rotten about it. I knew before I got her that Lola would probably have a short life, but I thought that Treacle was the one I'd end up with. And to find out that they both might die suddenly was actually quite horrible.

I know you just have to go with the flow and it's all about quality of life - they'll have an amazing life here with me - but every day with them is like Christmas morning and I hate to think of that being cut short sooner that it has to be.

There's not even anything you can really do. A heart scan is £300 a pop and even then there's not a lot that you can do with the results. An operation could be pointless as it wouldn't necessarily fix the problem (it's probably congenital) they might die under the anaesthetic  and it would cost around £1000. You can't insure cats with known heart defects and I just don't have that kind of money for a non-guaranteed procedure.

All I can do I guess is just hope for the best and enjoy them while I can.

I Can Has Kittens

Meet Lola and Treacle, my new kitties. Lola is the black and white one and she has a grade 6 heart murmur which is why she is an indoor cat. She could have months or years to live so could live until she's 20 or she could have a very short life - they just don't know. You can feel her little heart buzzing through her chest when you hold her but otherwise she is completely healthy.

They're both around six months old, arrived from the cat shelter on Monday, and have now now completely made themselves at home. Obviously they're spoiled rotten and have copious amounts of toys and accessories including a 5 foot climbing tower, a pop-up orange cube with holes to bound through, numerous balls and catnip mice, and a soft and cosy radiator bed which they both squeeze on to. They are brilliant.

Incredibly they both sleep all night and crash out when I do. I occasionally hear them moving about but they don't run around after each other until I get up. So I get to sleep through the night which is really rare for a kitten owner. They aren't related but indoor cats should be in pairs apparently and these 2 were the right age to come together. Treacle could possibly go out one day but Lola has to stay in.

Although they've only been here a few days I absolutely adore them. Treacle is a little more adventurous and is obsessed with the laser pen (the lazy girls entertainment facilitator) and Lola is happy to stay one step behind. Treacle licks her head sometimes and they play together really well. 

I really hope that Lola lives a long time but my thoughts are that if she's not going to then it's better that she lives a happy life here with me and Treacle in a warm and cosy flat being stroked and loved. She is such a darling that she deserves nothing less.