Mom, my job, sick kitty and sick daughter (NOT in any particular order of importance, mind you)

1. Mom. OK, she's high on the list in importance, but the rest are not in order. Mom got to go home Monday night. They did electrical cardioversion right before sending her home and it worked! She awoke feeling noticeably better, something that has not happened before with these, and her heart was in sinus. It still is. Papa said today that he has been checking her pulse and he's never heard it so strong. Thank the Lord.

2. My job. Yesterday I went from hourly training pay to production pay. I'm slow, but I still am beating the training pay rate, so that's good. I have lots of room for improvement. I am really loving this job so far.

3. Sick kitty. It's Briggs. I gave him a feline leukemia vaccine booster and then forgot about it, and a few hours later when he got very lethargic and grumpy, I failed to make the connection. He's normally a very passive cat. No matter what you do to him, his reaction is usually, "OK, whatever. Hey, I think I'll purr." So when he complained at Lil Miss A's hugs and kisses, when he did not stir from his chair and blankie for about 4 hours, when he actually hissed at the dog, I knew something was wrong. I put him on the feather mattress on the daybed for the night and he hadn't budged when we woke up this morning. Barry took him to the vet and was there when they opened their doors. Normal vaccine reaction, as it happens; they gave him a shot of pain relief and sent him home, where he's asleep again.

I feel sorry for these cats because I know so little about cats. I just don't know how to take good care of them. So I make a lot of mistakes. Good thing they are so forgiving.

4. Sick daughter. The little one. Yet another cold. That's the thing about kindergarten: They have diseases nobody has ever seen before. Forget the jungles of Central Africa: I think the next pandemic will come from some kindergarten classroom in the Midwest. Anyway, Lil Miss A missed school yesterday - which most certainly did NOT please her - and coughed. She's better now and I sent her back. I hope that wasn't a mistake.