Better

Well, good news at last. The Jypster is doing better. She's not 100% by any stretch of the imagination, but she improves a little bit each day - one tiny little step at a time.

Last Monday, Labor Day, she came all the way into my room at 5:15am, meowed, jumped up on the bed and let me pet her. It's been over two months since she's done that. Then she plopped down next to me for a long while. I had this huge grin on my face - it felt like it was Christmas or something. And in a way it was - I could not have asked for a better present. Her paranoia seems to be gradually fading. She goes in and out the back door almost normally now, not taking a step and then hesitating for a long time before she takes another. She would not go completely into any room that leads off the living room, dining room or kitchen - she would sit down at the threshold and not venture further. She now will come a few feet in. And she's taken up sitting in the window of the laundry porch; something she also hasn't done in several months.

The weather has cooled off here, finally. We had fall-like temperatures last weekend and she spent a lot of time outdoors while I was doing some yard work. She was zipping all over the yard, chasing bugs, pouncing on leaves and acting, well, acting like normal. We had a follow-up appointment with the vet on Friday, and I told him about the 'drops' I had been using. He just looked at me and asked if they were working. I gave him an unqualified yes. He nodded and said, as a vet in Texas, he cannot prescribe anything like that due to state regulations. I nodded. He said, "You did NOT hear this from me, but you should continue to use those drops until long after the symptoms have disappeared." He's a good man.

Jypsy spent the morning outside with me again and is now crashed in her spot of the week.


She's still pretty quiet, but has begun to get more vocal. Once she decides to get chatty, I'll occasionally give the keyboard over to her again.

In other news, I got a little mini-vacation at the end of August/first few days of September. I flew to Florida so I could turn around and drive back to Texas with Marian, a long time friend of mine, and her cat Murray. We had a great time. No, really! It was fun and I enjoyed it. We also were just ahead of Tropical Storm Lee, who was leaving 10-20" of rain where we had been just hours before. My only regret is that Lee didn't follow us all the way into Texas and relieve some of this drought. Rain dances accepted on our behalf, anytime.