The Resurrection of Harlee

A few months ago, Harlee was picking at her food and sleeping a lot. I took her to the vet. The vet found that she was in the early stages of kidney disease, and we tried some prescription food that gave Harlee diarrhea, and we finally decided to leave her on the limited-ingredient dry food that she had been eating.

Since then, as I said to my mom, she wasn't really sick but not really well either. She still picked at her food a lot, but did eat some. She slept most of the time. She stopped grooming herself. I've been really worried about her, but didn't think that she was sick enough to go to the vet.

Last month, I ran low on funds, and I was low on Harlee's dry food, so I gave her some limited-ingredient canned food that I had stashed away. She showed some almost immediate improvement. So this month, I bought a case of limited-ingredient canned food and have been feeding her half a can a day plus her dry food. She's awake more often and is more interactive. She's drinking more water and eating more dry food too. Last night, she started kneading her pillow, which she hasn't done for a quite a while, and I almost cried. She started grooming herself too. I just bought a case of another flavor of limited-ingredient canned food for her, which made me wince because I've spent over $100 in food this month for Harlee alone, but I'm willing to eat lots of eggs if that's what she needs.

I am so, so happy.

And the Resurrection of Me?

I've decided that I really need to lose some weight, or my back and knee problems are only going to get worse. I'm determined to walk in Florence and Venice someday. However, it's harder for me because I'm on a med on which people gain a lot of weight, and, in fact, I gained 50 pounds on that med.

The library has given me the perfect incentive. We created READ posters from photos of some of the administrators and the librarians reading books of their choice. And I hate, hate my picture. My boss asked me where to put my poster, and I said, "Somewhere where I don't have to see it," but maybe it should be somewhere where I'll see it a lot as added incentive. It probably would work.

I'd like to start out by having one vegetarian day a week (although I get most of my protein from eggs and turkey, not red meat). ravengirl, I'd love to hear some suggestions on good, cheap veggie meals. Or suggestions from anyone else too. I should look into stir-fry.

I'm kicking myself for not relearning how to ride a bike this summer, but it's been too humid and beastly. Maybe when the weather turns, I can bring it out and practice. My work is a perfect bike ride away, about two miles. I could ride to downtown too.