Head over to Mikakyubi for details:

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11221497/

Head over to Mikakyubi's journal for the deets.

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11214614/

When he wasn't out there that morning before I went to bed, I kind of already knew. I no longer felt that connection with my buddy; didn't quite know the feeling was there until it was gone.

There was no blood, or body; no signs of any struggle. The way he had been misbehaving lately, I wonder if this was how he wanted to go out in the end. Though I may feel guilty, and I'm hurting, this might be the best outcome. He had become such a burden, we couldn't handle it anymore, and I adamantly refused to have him put down. This way there was nothing to clean up; no burial.

I still look out the window expecting to see him come back like a bad penny. Hate to admit it, but things are getting easier now that he's gone. Mom and I can get sleep, and my knees aren't going out after having to get up and down every few minutes. We were burning through four or more cans of cat food a day, and now we're down to like one. Before I was throwing out a third of the litter pan each morning (assuming he hadn't gone all over the floor instead), now we can barely tell that anyone's used it all day.

It sucks, and I'm unhappy. This isn't how I wanted him to go. Who knows how many months he could have had if I had kept him inside, but he was so adamant, he would have torn the whole place up, mess in every corner, and constantly claw at mom while she's trying to sleep. Maybe he did all that to frustrate me to the point where it would hurt less once he's gone. Well, it didn't work. But I am relieved that the wait is finally over, so I can finish grieving and move on.

I hate to be making another post about this, but now my ginger cat, who has been sickly, never came home last night. Normally he hangs out around the house and comes for breakfast, but this time I didn't see him by the time I went to bed. I dread this might be the inevitable that I had been fearing.

Check out Mikakyubi's journal post here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11189772/

o__o He's missing.

Ever since he came home from yesterday, he's been sleeping in his chair, and hasn't left. The moment we realize he had moved from his spot, he ninja'ed out of existence again. I know we didn't let him out, because he hasn't moved all day long. I can't find him in the house, and he isn't coming when I call him again.

HOW?

*UPDATE*

Okay, he's found again! He's now sleeping inside the box spring of the bed. I couldn't see him from my angle, but a few pokes from the metal pipe (actually, it used to be the chair leg from a school desk I found on the side of the road when I was a teenager) I keep under my bed discovered the squishy lil fur ball hiding in there.

He's gone missing. He rarely goes out, and I had assumed he was inside for the night, but I realized I hadn't seen him for quite some time today. It's dark out, and he's probably outside, but he's not coming when I call him. I pray he comes home safe and soon.

I've been worried that this would have happened to my sick ginger cat instead. He's been such a pest and constantly demands to go out late at night. I had caved in and let the ginger one out lately, because otherwise he just keeps waking up mom while she's trying to sleep, and if I try to keep him in here with me, he just pees on me and everything else.

The black cat on the other hand, I don't even know when the last time I saw him.

*UPDATE*

Wow, that worked fast. Many thanks! Shortly after I asked for prayers, he showed up at my door, covered in grass and dirt. <3 He's been gone all night long; thanks be to God for bringing him back home to me.

Okay, so I had sort of a... thing... happen. Wondering if anyone else has encountered this, or can shed some light on what happened.

I was idly browsing the Xbox store. Picked up a game for cheap and was letting it install for a while. I eventually backed out of the store and was about to head to bed, but I checked to see if The Sims 4 had an update available so I could get it started while I slept.

Um, there was a Sims update. There was a Forza update. City Skylines update. Skyrim update. Marvel Vs Capcom update. Everything showed an update. 100 of them to be exact. Every installed game, and every DLC, all at once out of the blue.

That didn't look right. I've been on Xbox since the 360, and I don't recall ever encountering this. So, normally if a game needs an update, if I try to launch it, it will boot me out to a popup asking me to update or be forced offline. I tested a few games to see if they would launch, and I was able to start them normally with no popups. Immediately after I tested a few games, all of the "updates" listed had vanished.

So, my question is... WTF? What the heck was that about?

Edit: I did a quick internet search for some answers and... the results came back all in Spanish for some reason. O__o
I... what? What in the flaming, crash-landing, blimp of a tarnation is going on this morning??

It's that time again. Not directly in my area, but very uncomfortably close to it, and slowly traveling our way. It's 2 acres right now, but they're saying it can be potentially up to 50 eventually. My phone has been pinging me with evac notices all afternoon. Helicopters, sirens, and fire planes have been buzzing by. Lots of smoke outside. It's a vehicle/vegetation fire.

I pray it is contained quickly.

*Update*

Great work! Forward progress has stopped at 7 acres, and I think it's contained now. <3

Mikakyubi is in a bind and can use some help and support. Link for the details:

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11152937/

At last, a message from somebody! Someone out there wants to tell me something, if I'll allow it!
I see them typing; what could it be? It's been an hour, and they haven't sent their message yet!
Oh! The anticipation and suspense is agonizing! Speak!
What is this mysterious communique you are attempting to send to me?!

"I'm open for commissions and I can work within your budget."

( ≖_≖) . . . Hello dear, we haven't met. In the future, do not randomly DM people and make them wait all night just to make a sales pitch. Additionally, please use proper spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and coherent sentence structure when advertising your services and speaking with potential clients.

With that said, I shall return to my reclusive hermit hole.

How curious... Just beyond the midnight hour, there came a tapping, a gentle rapping, just outside my bedroom door...

Strange. Like a miniature woodpecker headbanging against the drain pipe on the patio. It had gone quiet after I went out to investigate two times, but it started up again shortly after I went back inside.

Oh, Great Knockers of the Drainpipe, what is your wisdom?

I haven't been given any of the details yet, but got the call when I woke up.

He had survived against all the odds for so long, but he's ready to give up now. Tomorrow they're going to stop his meds, and only keep him comfortable as much as they can (they've been strapping him down to the bed since they brought him in). He's now got covid, so we can't go in to see him.

He wasn't a great man. Not even a good man. He had burned bridges with everyone. I pray my friendship with him helped. I'll likely be one of the only ones mourning him when he goes. May he find forgiveness with God before he goes.

Okay, here we go.

Got three calls at 1 in the morning. First two were total silence; I thought it was a robo call testing the line, so I blocked it. It called back a second time; again silence. I block it again. Immediately it rings a third time, and my aunt is on the line, saying my uncle was just taken away by ambulance. He was struggling to breathe, and said he was dying.

That's all the info I have right now. I asked my aunt if she had just called twice, but she says no. She had trouble with her new cell phone and couldn't get through. Curious, but doesn't help the situation.

My aunt hasn't been doing very well herself. I've lost count how many times she's fallen now, and at times she has this vacant stare when I'm trying to talk with her, and it takes several minutes for her to snap out of it. I'm wondering if she's unconsciously giving up because she's terrified of my mom going before her, and she can't handle the thought of being here alone. She hasn't been eating well, and she's starting chest pains that mom has dealt with for many years. The other day she was sickly grey, and while sitting in the chair, she didn't even realize my mom had come over to visit.

Meanwhile, mom is causing me a lot of anxiety and lack of sleep by sneaking off to and from my aunt's house, along the hill that previously nearly killed her, and she doesn't wake me up to say she's going over, and refuses to call me to pick her up, because she wants the exercise. I suppose that's partly my fault for praying for God to restore her independence and mobility more than before the fall... I certainly got what I prayed for in that regard. I'm happy for her, but I'm certainly finding some new grey hairs since...

Prayers are welcome and encouraged. Thank you all for your support. This has been one doozy of a year so far. One positive note is that I got my glass door replaced and a new screen installed. Bad news is that I have broken glass inside and outside of my bedroom, and all of it spilled out into the driveway in the gravel... So that kind of evens it out. But the window is so ridiculously clean, I keep thinking the door is wide open.

That's all for tonight. Hopefully I won't have any major updates for a while—at least not bad ones, I hope.

My boy has been sick for a while. Tonight he hasn't been eating or drinking, and barely used the litterbox. He went out for a bit this morning, but he's been laying around on the floor the rest of the day. He's lifting his head up a little, and purrs a little when I pet him. I don't think he has much longer.

I haven't had much sleep lately, especially with mom sneaking off to my aunt's house without telling me, and refusing to call me to drive her. My aunt and uncle aren't in good shape either. It's a miracle my uncle has lasted this long, and my aunt is deteriorating more and more by the day. I told her that her daughter was on the phone and wanted to talk with her, but she gives me this slack jawed thousand yard stare. I hand her the phone, and she just looks at it, and then to me. I tell her to put the phone to her ear and talk, and she just stares at me. It took three of us a couple minutes until she snapped out of it, and started talking with her daughter. My uncle may have dementia, but I've had more lucid conversations with him than my aunt (minus the one time he mistook me for an older family member, and tried to reminisce on a time in New York back in the 50's, and I had to remind him that it's a number of decades before my time, and I've never been to New York.)

With my cat, my aunt, my uncle, and my mom risking her neck on the same hill that nearly killed her several months ago, I'm not getting enough sleep.

I got a rude awakening this afternoon. I had only gotten about five hours of sleep when the phone kept ringing and no one was answering (my aunt doesn't know how to properly handle her cellphone...), and when I sat up in bed I found mom's note. That mother of mine had sneaked out of the house to visit the neighbor! She is going to get a stern talking-to from her children!

I called her and told her that she needs to call me and I will come and pick her up. She had already broken her butt trying to go down that hill, and none of us want a repeat of that happening again.

Mom's excuse was that she was bored. =__= *Sighs.* What am I going to do with this parent?

—aaand I can't play it until about the end of the week. Still at 45% installed. Going to take a couple more days to finish at least. ;__; In the meantime, playing other games, or using the internet only slows it down further, and watching Oblivion on YouTube in 144p does not do it justice.

One more day... One more day... If it doesn't shadow drop by the end of the announcement video, I'm gonna be so frustrated. 11 AM Eastern time... Just one more day...

I think the glass door has finished cracking. Good news is, upon seeing the damage in the daylight, it appears only the outer glass is shattered. The bad news is, the guy was to come today to replace it at some point today, has yet to arrive and the sun is going down...

Didn't sleep much last night, but I should sleep more soundly knowing that the inner glass is still intact. Don't know if it's going to eventually explode or not at some point, but so far so good I guess.

Well... shit. I had a feeling this was going to happen tonight. 9 at night, my brother in law is visiting and weedwhacking for us (why this late at night, I don't know.) I had an inkling feeling, but I had ignored it. Then BAM!!! A rock shattered my bedroom glass door (which by the way, does not have an intact screen door to block any snakes, bugaboos, or critters from waltzing into my room in the middle of the night!)

So. The door is still intact, though I can hear it constantly cracking. No doubt going to scare the daylights out of me when it finally goes. I had all the cats in my room because the dog is here visiting. Had to relocate them all to the spare room instead. Though on the bright side, I won't have to worry about them peeing all over my bed this time, though I have to worry about everything else potentially getting into my room tonight.

In the morning, my sister is going to try and get someone to come and replace it. With any luck, I might get a replacement screen door to go with it, but I'll settle for just having a proper glass door first. If I'm REALLY lucky, the glass will stay put until tomorrow when they replace it.

Well... here I am.
How are you?

Mom's been home for a few weeks now. More doctor's appointments are still on the horizon, and visits from the various therapists. Still a little short on sleep, and high on anxiety. Mom is stubbornly independent, and in spite of three broken bones, she still tries to insist on doing chores like the dishes and whatnot. My anxiety dictates I hover over her constantly, but just as she did in rehab, the moment I leave the room she's scurrying about doing this and that. I'm happy and grateful she's up and about this much after such an injury, even if it frays my nerves to no end, haha.

... Yeeaaahhh, Apria has failed to deliver the wheelchair and the walker we need by tomorrow morning... We did get the wheelchair cushion though! They didn't bother sealing the box or anything. I called them and specifically noted that it is an emergency order to get here by today. 9:30 at night, still no show. I call again, and they say there's two conflicting notes. One was my sister who ordered them for the 13th, and then my note today to have them deliver it before tomorrow. So obviously that means... don't deliver the rest of it today, emergency order be damned...

So, they're going to send them out again tonight. Got another call from the driver: "yeahhh, could I just drop it off tomorrow?"
Excuse me? When I say urgent rush tonight, I didn't mean tomorrow! Ugh. So, he'll be here to drop it off sometime around midnight in the pouring rain. Could have avoided all of that if they had just delivered it this afternoon, like we asked. =__=

All that aside, we're excited to bring mom home. We're all also a little paranoid, because mom likes to cheat, and she will try and get up and do stuff on her own without telling us. We didn't go through all this just to have her fall a second time. She's already been sneaking off to the bathroom on her own without telling the nurses, and they had to take her walker away so she doesn't do that.

Aye, have mercy. My other sister wants to come by and stay for a while, because she's paranoid too, and I don't blame her. Hopefully things will ease back into the new normal soon, and we can relax.

Thanks again for all the prayers. By God's grace, things turned around. I dare say mom's standing up and walking around better than she did before the fall. When I went in for the ortho/PT training, I've never seen mom stand up so effortlessly. This after she supposedly lost about four pounds of muscle mass. She was practically standing up straight. I can't remember the last time I've seen her do that. The nurses kept having to tell her to slow down and walk slower, but she said she's "just showing off" because she knew they were there. Two pelvic breaks and a tailbone, she's doing better than I expected.

I'll be glad to get some downtime, or at least a full night's uninterrupted sleep.

*Update*
11:16 PM, chair and walker have arrived. Thank goodness. Glad that's settled now.

I just got the word. One more trip down to BFE for some home care training, and a few days later mom is coming home this week!

I was starting to get into my own head; last night I asked myself if I was really okay, but I wasn't sure. Mom's finally coming home... It's still sinking in right now. Been so tired, I'm a little slow at the moment.

Last night she started getting dizzy, and got sick. We don't know if it's the stomach bug that has been going around the facility recently, or if it's from pain and lack of sleep. EDIT: Now she's feeling hot and cold.

My middle sister has been pushing things a bit, trying to get mom out of there ASAP, and now she scheduled me to go down early in the afternoon to the city, in the hail, to get some training. I'm so exhausted, I don't know how I'm going to get up that early. I haven't been feeling all that great myself, but in my case it's because I had gotten some flaming hot cheetos, and upon first opening, I always end up over indulging. X__x

EDIT: Nurse is doing a bladder scan now.


I'm so tired. Forget breakfast, I want to go back to sleep.

Update: So mom's got another infection, and starting a second round of antibiotics.