my cat has what??

did i mention i'm tired?

yeah. i did. well, i'm still tired.

but at least the rest of the family got naps today. even rob...which is why he was in charge of dinner. well, in charge of the preparation. i made sure we had everything and even ran to the store for italian bread, and got the pans out and got the bread ready for the oven. so i guess i did 1/2 the work and rob got the easy part. hell, i even cleaned up. how did that happen?!?!?

i took the cat to the vet this afternoon. when i told the girl this morning about his raw spots on his feet, she suggested a 3:15 appt. rob got home at 2:45 and i was able to make it without too big of a rush (and the ipod works in the car! yay!). the vet says my cat has allergies! he's 5 years old and apparently allergies show themselves btwn the ages of 4-6. spikey has been scratching/licking/chewing on his back legs b/c they itch so badly. i felt so horrible. i just thought he was scraping his legs on something around the house as he was jumping around. i didn't know cats had allergies. :/ so now i have to get shots for my cat every 4-12 weeks.

oh, and he has a heart murmur too :( as the vet is telling me all this, i almost started crying. i never realized how attached i am to this cat...or how attached this family is to this cat. cade uses him for a pillow and gets so excited whenever he sees him.

$110 later, i'm armed with antibiotics (2x a day i have to squirt 1mL of amoxicillian into his mouth--i think i'd rather give him a bath!), what to look for if his allergy shot reacts badly with his heart murmur, what to look for when his allergy shot wears off, and a huge feeling of guilt for not having rushed him to the doc 2 weeks ago when we first noticed his leg was so raw.

hopefully he reacts well to all meds. any well wishes for spike would be appreciated :) i suppose i should go give him a dose of amox stuff. i can't believe he needs a whole mL of it...i can only compare it to cade needing .16 mL of tylenol. cade is twice the weight of the cat. different drugs, i know.

the good news today...i finally figured out how to make SOFT chocolate chip cookies. the recipe on the back of the chips always says bake at 375. well, i baked at 350 today and even though it took a bit longer, they turned out just beautifully. i think that at 375 the brown sugar starts to melt & get too hot so the cookies turn crispy when they cool. at 350 they stay soft. can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. i recall in 8th grade (1989?) having to do a presentation on how to do something. i picked 'how to make chocolate chip cookies', complete with samples for the class afterward. freebies for the masses always make you popular. :)