Monday: Hili dialogue

March 30, 2015 • 4:44 am

The week has begun (actually, it began yesterday), and on Wednesday I fly to Boston (actually, Cambridge) for eight days: a bit of work, a bit of R&R, and, of course, a lot of noms. Posting may be light, but, like Maru, I do my best, and there will be the usual travel photos. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Furry Princess of Poland is once again being a diva:

Cyrus: Do you remember how afraid you were of me?
Hili: I wasn’t afraid at all, I just pretended so you would be domesticated sooner.

P1020446

In Polish:
Cyrus: Pamiętasz jak się mnie bałaś?
Hili: Wcale się nie bałam, udawałam tylko, żebyś się szybciej oswoił.

27 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

    1. food

      Jerry posts pictures of food he consumes on trips – usually from restaurants.

      Etiology:

      Some animals make “non’ nom’ nom” noises when they eat — such as hedgehogs eating pumpkins (– look it up on youtube)

      2. But hedgehogs & pumpkins – different continents! Hedgehogs are insectivores – I had no idea they would eage vegetable matter…

      3. amusingly adorable. I never knew they made any sounds! My d*g, however, was a bit confused and disturbed by the porcupine nom-noises.

    2. The onomatopoeic sound nom-nom-nom or num-num-num that babies (& adults!) make when there is some tasty food coming, hence tasty food.

  2. I will be off to the North Sea coast for 10 days… surely grey days with a cold wind off the sea!

    Hili just thinks everyone in Dobrzyn is her personal hot water bottle!

      1. I should have gotten it as I thought of you when I saw it but I figured you’d already have it. It was in Toronto so I’m not there now. 🙁

  5. Going to briefly hijack today’s Hili Dialogue to give a shout-out to our cat Thomasina, who was put down at the ER vet yesterday. She had a saddle thrombus, likely secondary to undiagnosed heart disease.

    Posting about this here, because if we share with most people we know IRL, we will hear the usual religious/new age platitudes. After losing yet another cat in a sudden and horrible way, I’m really not up to hearing that.

    Also, because this a community with many cat lovers, to warn you if your cat ever presents with sudden hind limb paralysis, saddle thrombus is the most likely diagnosis. A blood clot blocks all or most circulation to the rear legs, and the cat is in excruciating pain. Getting it to a vet ASAP is essential. The prognosis is generally grim. Managing the cat’s pain, doing a workup to determine the cause(s), dissolving the clot – not always successfully – ongoing lifetime treatment. Initial costs probably $2,000 minimum. Even cats who survive often throw another clot. We confirmed all of this with the vet who saw our cat, knew we had few if any options, so we had her peacefully put down.

    Thomasina came to us with a kindle of stray kittens and their mom eight years ago, back when we were doing rescue work. She was scrawny, sick with URI, and about the most unattractive kitten I’d ever seen. But she responded to meds and love, and blossomed into a beauty a few months later. All the other cats found homes, and when Thomasina was still with us months later, we decided to keep her. She looked very much like the cat in “Pussycat’s Christmas”.

    She was the only one of our cats who didn’t have any behavioral or medical issues. If anyone had told me that we’d lose a cat this week, Thomasina would have been the last cat I’d have guessed. She’s lying under a handknit cat blanket with some sprigs of rosemary over her gentle loving heart until I make the call to arrange her cremation.

    Give all your moggies an extra snuggle today.

    1. Oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear that. If you send a photo I’ll give her an RIP tomorrow. Eight years is not long enough.

      My condolences for Thomasina, and thanks for posting this–and for alerting other cat owners to the symptoms.

      1. Thank you so much, Jerry. I especially appreciate your acknowledgement that we lost Thomasina so early. So rare to hear that – usually it’s “at least you had her for XX years.”

        As someone who reads WEIT more often than posts here, I’m not sure where to send Thomasina’s picture. I looked over the site and didn’t see contact info. If you, or someone reading this comment, can point me to that, I’d be happy to send a photo.

        Jeannine aka pghwelshgirl

        1. I’m so sorry to hear about Thomasina. If you look under ‘Research interests’ you can find an e-mail address for Jerry.

    2. Awww so sorry to hear about your loss of your kitty. People don’t always acknowledge how painful it is to lose a pet, but we all understand here.

        1. The downside about having a cat companion is that we outlive them – over and over, and goodbye is part of the relationship. Someone sat with me decades ago when I was grieving ‘Panache’,and we traced the life we had had with him (moved house, got married, changed jobs – 1984). I’ve passed that on over the decades as people mourn their pets. I wrote a eulogy to Samantha who died in 1995, and I encourage you to write one. I’ll post it if you like. We are all feline fanatics here, as well as happy atheists who love science.

    3. I’m so sorry. We buried our Pia, and later a kitten taken from a shelter who was very ill and neither vet’s nor our efforts helped. Both are now buried under a group of hollyhocks in our garden. Sometimes I still call Hili with Pia’s name. Hili is sitting just now on my lap and I think about your Thomasina and about the empty space those furry creatures leave behind them.

      1. Malgorzata, thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your experiences. I read about your Pia in the archives here when I was finding my way around the site. I just now called another cat “Thomasina”, the first time I did that since her death. I cringed a bit, then realized I’ll probably be doing that for awhile. I love reading Hili’s daily observations, and it’s profoundly comforting to know that Hili was on your lap as you sent your condolences. Warm thoughts to all of you in Dobrzyń.

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