August Happiness Challenge – Days 27 and 28

My 2025 Happiness Icon

 

I have been overwhelmed with worry over Roy Hobbs, so it was hard for me to update this, But I believe it's important, so here we are:

 

Wednesday's happiness: OxyClean Laundry Stain Remover. I was in a hurry Wednesday morning and of course that's when I got a barely noticeable bloody nose in the shower. Truly, I didn't realize it until I dried my face and saw a little red on my (very) white and pink bath towel. I love this set of towels and figured when I got back from the vet I'd do a load of wash to save it. In the meantime I squirted it with OxyClean so it wouldn't set. Hours later, the blood was gone. Just from the pre-treat!

 

Thursday's happiness: Three reservations. The most stressful part of planning for the TCM Classic Film Festival is getting a good hotel reservation. I've stayed at three different hotels and an Airbnb and while they were all nice, one just made the festival going experience so much better: Loew's Hollywood. Of course, the convenience and safety it provides makes it crazy popular with fellow festgoers, and once the dates are announced, it sells out in snap. Karen from my movie group shared her hack for getting her favorite hotel every year: Expedia's fully refundable booking policy. I made three reservations, one for each of the likely weeks in April. Two with Expedia and one with Loew's itself. So now I can relax.

 

Happy August Happiness Challenge!

 

Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.

Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash

Greetings from Nightmare Alley

I'm not going to bury the lead here: I believe my cat, Roy Hobbs, is going to be OK. But I wish we weren't where we are, and it's causing me considerable stress.

He had dental work Wednesday morning. Two teeth were pulled. Because he is younger and stronger than my Connie Cat, and because she had nine (9!) teeth pulled a couple months ago, I thought his recovery would be easier than hers. I was wrong. Here it is, Thursday evening, and he's still not fine. No interest in food. His balance compromised.

I spoke to the vet tech this morning in a regularly-scheduled follow up call. She said that, since he's social and affectionate, he's probably just slower to recover from anesthesia and the trauma of being hospitalized. If he hasn't improved by tomorrow night, I'm bringing him in on Saturday as an emergency.

All I've done yesterday and today is look at him. I'm exhausted. I take naps but my sleep is fitful. I've been having nightmares, which is why, when I wake up, I don't feel refreshed. 

I don't remember much of the nightmares except that they aren't violent. Just frustrating. I recall bits and pieces of one where someone whose help I need claims not to know me. In another one, I'm squabbling with someone.

I know what's going on. I feel inadequate to provide Roy Hobbs with wise and deft care as he recovers. If I can't hide his meds in his food, I have to jam the pills down his gullet, which upsets him even more, but he won't heal without those prescriptions. I feel like someone else would have better judgement and a surer hand. I'm afraid I'm failing him.

I understand intellectually that I'm probably doing him no harm. If he was in severe pain or seriously struggling, he would hide from me and Connie. He's so happy to be home that he's been purring almost nonstop, enjoys me talking to/petting him, and lets Connie groom him. He's drinking, if not eating. All that is good and important.

But I'm impatient. I want him to be well. I want to do better by him.