The Rothnie Family Chronicles: June 2006

Frankie in Better Days Part II - Talking to the Birds

Frankie in Better Days, Part I - Playing with a Bottle Top

Rest in Peace, sweet Frank

My cat Frankie died this morning. (Read post below to know what happened to him.) Mark and I woke up with Frank at about 4 AM this morning and he was yowling, in severe pain, and wouldn't take any water or anything. His breathing was rough and I knew he just wasn't going to make it. The trauma of the past few days was just too much for him. I was going to take him to the vet this morning to be put down, but he was dead by the time we got back up (around 7).
I feel so bad for the little guy. He suffered so badly. I'm kind of mad at the vet for not suggesting that he be put down in the first place. Instead he suggested stitching him up, which at the time I knew sounded futile, but I guess I was hoping he would make it. But I think Frankie's injuries were just too severe. Those dogs had really ripped him up all over. He should have been put down right away, but instead we stitched him up and prolonged his suffering another 3 days.

Oh, and the Animal Control officer came to my house yesterday to take a report. He said that it's against the law in Cobb County to have a cat loose outside. He didn't issue me a citation, but said that if I had known whose dogs attacked Frankie, that not only their owners would've received a citation, but me too. I thought that was ridiculous. Frankie was on our property, and what kind of idiot makes it against the law to let your cat outside?
All my neighbors let their cats out too. I'm sure they don't know it's illegal.

Anyway, we're down to one cat now - Olly. I'm tempted to just find a good home for Olly and live cat-free from now on. In the past few years I've lost 4 cats and it's just too hard to deal with anymore. Either I'll find a home for him or when we move (at the end of the month), I'll just convert him to an indoor cat. Not that that would prevent anything from happening to him, really, but maybe it would help a little.

Frankie

Our cats, Frankie and Olly, like to go outside. They can be so annoying, crying at the door to go out, we just let them out whenever they want, which sometimes includes the middle of the night.

On Tuesday morning, around 4:00 AM, I woke up to what I thought was the baby making noise. I kept hearing a distant "eh, eh, eh" and thought it was her. After a minute of listening, though, I realized it wasn't her, but a dog. I thought, "Some neighbor's stupid dog won't stop barking." After another minute or so, I thought, "Gosh, that sounds really close" and got up to investigate. Once I got into our living room, I realized the sound was coming from right outside our front door. I flipped on the light, opened the door and started yelling. Three stray dogs had Frankie surrounded in the bushes by our front door. My yelling ran them off, and I could hear Frankie in the bushes, growling. I started calling to him to come in, and he slowly crept out from the bushes. He was limping pretty badly and trailing blood into our house. He went straight into Catri's bathroom and I put some old towels out for him to lie down on.

The dogs had ripped him open in several places, the worst of which was on his abdomen, down near his penis. I didn't think he would make it through what was left the night, but I knew I couldn't afford to take him to the 24 hour emergency vet. I really thought he would be dead by the time my vet opened at 8:30.

Luckily, he did survive, and the vet had to do surgery and sew him up in several places all over his body. He's recovering now, but I don't think he's out of the woods. He's not really moving much, except for his head and occasionally his front paws. The vet said his legs were not broken, but because of the location of the lacerations, it might be too painful for him to move his back legs much right now. He's not eating yet, and I'm using a syringe to force some water into him. I have to take him back to the vet today to see if they can get some nourishment in him.

Unfortunately there isn't much in the way of pain medicine that you can give a cat. Most pain medications are toxic to them. I'm giving him what the vet gave me for him, though, even though it may not make a big difference.

Poor little Frankie. He always kicked the crap out of any cats that came into our yard, but he didn't have a chance against three dogs.

Gwennan - Give it a coupla minutes to load.

Niki in the Gardens

So the Atlanta Botanical Gardens has a new exhibit going on called Niki in the Garden, featuring the art of Niki de Saint Phalle. When I looked at the photos online, I thought the sculptures looked a little weird and that I wouldn't like them, but they are actually really beautiful and so full of JOY. We went a few weeks ago when Mark's mom and stepdad were in town. I highly recommend a trip to the ABG to see the exhibit. It's the largest exhibition of the artist's work ever, and pretty much all the sculptures are intended to be touched and climbed on, so kids love it.
Here are some photos:

Catri on one of two climbable lions:

An artsy shot:

This is Louis Armstrong:

I loved this one. I don't know what it was called, but I call it "Lactating Women" and I can totally relate:

A detail of one of the chair sculptures:

A kitty cat:

This was the most beautiful flower in the garden that day:

Catri under one of the sculptures:

Here we are under the same sculpture:

Mom and Don about to be eaten by a giant flower:

I never write down the names of the flowers, so I have no idea what this is called:

Another no-name flower. I liked how geometrical it was:

Mark flossing the teeth of the skull sculpture with Catri's arms:

The inside of the skull sculpture:

Lady riding a dolpin and holding a red ball:

Deep Breath ...

Well, Gwennan is two months old now (10 weeks and 4 days, to be exact) and amazingly she's still alive. It's weird how scared you are the first 4 weeks or so that the baby is just going to die. That she's not going to eat enough, that she's just going to stop breathing, that something is going to happen. Add post partum depression and sleep deprivation to the mix and it's just a really high anxiety time.

Both baby and mother are doing a ton better now though. Gwennan pretty much sleeps through the night, and I've been sleeping like a log at night. I don't feel that tired when I go to bed, but I sleep pretty solidly through the night - much more so than before or during the pregnancy.

Gwennan is so cute now. She has started cooing and gooing and she smiles and gives us a little laugh every now and then. When I learn how to post videos on here, I'll share some with you all.

At her two month check-up last week these were her stats:
weight: 12 lbs 9 oz (90th percentile)
height: 24 1/4 inches (97th percentile)
She's a BIG baby!

Catri is such a good sister to Gwennan. She babysat her for about 3 hours last week while I went to look at houses, and she did a great job! She even got her to nap without a problem! It does my heart so much good to see how Catri is with Gwennan. She plays with her, talks to her, holds her, changes her. It's so cool. She's an awesome big sister.

Anyway, we are in process of finding a new house. We're putting an offer in on one today. I'll let you know how it goes later in the week!

House News

In case you haven't heard, our house is now under contract. We close on July 28th and are searching for a new home now. And no, Zellyn, Bevin, Ash, Carrie, Ben, and Jen - we're not interested in moving to East Point!! ;o)

It's pretty cool how the whole thing happened. We had planned on putting the house on the market at the end of June, and I was seriously dreading trying to keep it "show-ready" (read: CLEAN) and having people come through while taking care of an infant at the same time.
Well, while Mark's parents were visiting we got a call from our agent, Julie, saying that another agent had called her with a client interested in looking at the house. The client had seen another home with the same floorplan in our neighborhood that she liked, but it was on a sloped lot and she didn't like that. We have a much nicer lot. The agent did his homework and saw that our house had been on the market but that we had pulled it off and called to see if we were still interested in selling. Long story short - the client came to see the house, liked it, and made an offer. We are now under contract and we don't even have to go through the listing/showing process! Yippee!

Now we just have to find a new home. We've already been out looking at some houses, and this weekend we're going to see a few more plus re-look at a few we've already seen. Hopefully we'll come to a decision this weekend, because we only have a little over a month. If we can't move into a new place by July 28th, we'll be rooming with the Spoelstras!!

Mark's mom and stepfather, Kathy and Don, visited with us two weeks ago. We had such a wonderful visit with them. We went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (photos from that to come soon), the Georgia Aquarium, and Fernbank Museum. But mostly we just enjoyed having them in our home, where they spoiled us by making meals and doing the dishes all week.
They also got to know their new granddaughter, who was also spoiled by all the attention all week. But that's what grandparents do, I guess! :o)
Photos below ...

SHS

You may have heard of Shaken Baby Syndrome, or SBS. It occurs when a mother, out of frustration with a baby's incessant crying, shakes him/her to the point that he/she has whiplash or even brain damage.

What you may not have heard of is the lesser known SHS, or Shaken Husband Syndrome. It occurs when a frustrated and sleep-deprived wife shakes her husband because he JUST WON'T STOP SNORING. It's a serious problem and one I've nearly succumbed to more than once.

I don't seem to have much time nowadays for blogging, so a few photos will have to do for now ...

Catri "graduated" from middle school and is now on her way to 9th grade! Below is a photo of her with her friend Kristen, all decked out for the 8th grade formal dance.