Today (or tomorrow, we can't remember) marks our one year anniversary of living in Ottawa. I can't believe it's been that long. I still don't feel completely settled here, nor do I feel like this is home. Perhaps our stay here will always be a bit of a transition period for the Raines family. We certainly have made a few good friends, and experienced a lot of firsts along the way. Our first "Beaver Tail", our first time skating on the canal, first Ontario fall, with all its wonderful colours, first Ottawa Senators home game, our first Winterlude, my (Heather's) realizing why they make winter clothes for animals, first shwarma, our first Canada Day in the nations capital, our first time paddling on the same team...there are so many more, but I can't think of them at the moment.
This has been quite a week for us. Monday marked Chris's first day as Foundation Co-ordinator for the Ottawa Dragonboat Foundation. If you want to know what that is, you might have to ask him all the details. Wednesday was a stressful day for us. Our kitten (who is not so little anymore) had been somewhat lethargic and disinterested in anything around him. He is usually such an active cat. Active to the point of terrorizing us with his antics. We were justifiably concerned, and so we took him into the vet on Wednesday morning. With baited breath (and tears on my part) we waited for some concrete diagnosis from the vet. At one point during the day, there was the possibility of kidney problems. One of my friends just had to put down her cat because of renal failure, and although we never acknowledged it, the idea of having to put Techno down was weighing heavily for us. When we could wait no longer for the vet to call us and tell us the results of the kidney tests, we went to the clinic and waited there. They brought out Techno, all wrapped in a blanket, high as a kite from painkillers. It was such a relief to see him. When all was said and done, the vets didn't have a diagnosis for us, but they had been able to rukle out some pretty major issues. He did not have kidney problems, there was no obstruction in his stomach or intestines. In all probability, he had sustained some sort of back trauma, the pain of which was affecting his energy, activity level and appetite. He has been doing much better, although he is still on a mild painkiller. He is eating a bit, and when he does move, his movement isn't stilted. He is still operating with a low energy level, but the vet seems to think that it is a result of some residual back pain. I can't say how much I appreciated our vets. Two individual vets called me yesterday to check on his progress, and both told me that they had spent significant time thinking about Techno's symptoms, and the only conclusion they had was back pain. And so, we continue to monitor his input and output, activities and movement. Here's to hoping that he improves over the weekend, and is back to waking us up at 6:30 with his morning 'demons'.
