Gummy Kitty: Cordelia Cat has a Rough Month

Cords had a rough couple weeks in October, which necessitated two trips to the vet, which, as far is she is concerned, is two trips too many.  Her least favorite thing to do is anything relating to her crate, which means that any vet trip is a nightmare for me too.  And last winter, after she tore up my entire left arm, and Mum's hand, trying to get her in the crate from my parents' for the trip back to Philly, I told her that she was never going anywhere ever again.

Unless it was to the vet.

It was a Saturday evening, and she started gross-drooling.  I don't want to get into details about this, let's just leave it at gross-drooling.  Leaving nasty, uncharacteristic slobbers all over the place, and not grooming as throughly as she usually does.  I do know her teeth are all messed up: she was in a hoard (well over 350 cat roomies) and has all sorts of issues now (very small, FIV, scared of everything real cats enjoy, bad teeth) plus I think she needs glasses and that she's a lefty.  So Monday morning I call the vet and we schedule a check up for the very next day.  

I shove her in the crate and we head out.  She complains the entire trip to the vet, and the entire time we sat in the waiting room.  Last time we went to the vet, Cords attempted to crawl up the wall of the exam room, and ended up suctioning herself to the floor.  The vet was reluctant to pry her up, so she just did the exam and vaccinations on the floor.  So this time the vet opens Cords file and says, "Has her temperament changed since last fall?  No?  Okay, we'd like to give her a tranquilizer so that we can do a proper thorough exam."  Certainly!  Dope that kitty up!

The verdict: Cordie has a number of foul teeth that need to be removed.  Her blood test comes back all well, so we're set to get the offending chompers extracted.  

Everyone at work kept asking, how many teeth?  I didn't ask.  And it didn't really matter.  Like I'd let her keep nasty teeth in her mouth, when they are clearly sore and she's mouth breathing foul stinky breath into my face at night and leaving gross-drool all over my apartment?  

A week after the initial appointment, I shoved a hungry kitty into the crate and dropped her off early at the vet.  I'd be able to pick up my dopey kitty at the end of the work day.  She was dopey, but not like the dogs would be, all knock-kneed and wobbly.  She kept wandering around the apartment wide-eyed like she'd never seen it before.  Like, "Omg!  Is that a red pillow?  A blue blanket?  Madness!"  

How many teeth had to come out?  Seven.  SEVEN!  And since she'd already been lacking teeth when she moved in, she only has one fang left (on the bottom left) and no teeth at all on the top!  Thankfully, this has not affected her eating habits at all.

Gummy

Everyone at work did a simultaneous awwww/lol when I explained how Cordie is now Gummy Kitty. She also inspired the chalk pumpkin up in the staff room.  No idea who the artist is...  there are a couple suspects.

(On a side note, we have such a big number of people sharing the same tiny staff room, purges are a regular event.) 

Jell-os

My friend and coworker Lauren was getting married in early October, so Our Mutual Workplace threw her a wedding shower!  Party Planner Stephanie declared that, due to Lauren's appreciation for and skillful appropriate of its fashions, the theme would be Mad Men.  Excellent - as I had long-ago (right after she got engaged) promised Lauren to make some epic jell-o molds for her wedding shower.

To aid in this endeavor, I had my trusty Jell-O cookbook, procured from the Jell-O Museum!

Even though it would have been period-accurate, I decided to avoid the more sinister savory, mysteriously opaque Jell-os.  I wanted to make things that people would willingly eat, without fear or the necessity of a Triple Dog Dare.

All these Jell-O Molds have fancy names, but I can't remember them.  It's December now, I made these suckers in early December, my head is full of other random things now.

Black cherry jell-o, maraschino cherries, pineapple.  

Interesting fact: you have to use canned pineapple in jell-o.  The fresh stuff has an enzyme or something present that prevents the gelatin from setting.

Orange jell-o, orange juice, melted vanilla ice cream.  

This one was declared the best by all present.  It tasted like a creamsicle.

Raspberry jell-o, raspberries, champagne, chambord liqueur.  

It's a Mad Men party, you've got to have at least one boozy jell-o...

In the foreground, raspberry jell-o, raspberries, canned peaches, Greek yogurt.

This is the same lovely jell-o that I made for Marion's going away party.

Not pictured is a huge boozy jell-o that was actually so boozy that it didn't properly retain it's shape.  In the photograph above, it's the sad orange-ish mound in the upper right.  Peach and champagne.

Interesting fact: three cups of champagne in a six cup jell-o mold means that your jell-o will not set properly, no matter how much you try to convince it to...