Ulysses Day (No Notebook Today)
I didn't do a ton of work today, as I felt I needed a bit of time off to think, and am still contemplating the idea for the new book. It was, however, a special day for my family, and I wanted to share a bit about that here.
In 2015, Melissa and I decided that we wanted a pet. I had previously had ferrets, which I loved, but I recognize that they are not for everyone. In childhood, I had wanted a dog or cat, but could not have them in the apartment where I grew up. Now, as an adult, Melissa and I decided upon a cat. First, my brother has a cat, and my parents had long since adopted her as their cat as well. Cisco actually spends much of her time in Florida, even when my brother is not here. If we had a dog, it would be far less welcome in their house or in the apartment in New York.
There was one other issue, though. My mother is allergic to cats, but Cisco is a pure-bred Siberian, a breed that is said to be hypoallergenic, and Mom has never had any issues around her. We did not want to go to a breeder, as Melissa is particularly socially conscious and would not have felt good about getting a per from a breeder when so many animals do not have homes. We had even gone to a shelter in our area to ask about fostering a cat, but it never came through.
So, we began to search for kittens, from rescue organizations all around. We found several that turned out to be scams (we did not get taken in, but it takes a lot of care to recognize some of them). Eventually, however, we located a small organization that was near Atlanta, Georgia, and which had rescued a litter of Siberian kittens from a breeder that was leaving the business. We got in touch and made sure it was legitimate and set up to go adopt a kitten.
We drove up from Florida to Georgia and stayed the night in a hotel near the shelter. That was November 30, 2015. The next morning, we drove to the shelter and were introduced to a number of kittens. Several were really adorable, and we consider adopting more than one, but eventually, an orange kitten began to follow me around and even plopped into my lap and fell asleep. He had picked us and we knew we had found our kitten. At the time, he had been given the name Elf, and we knew pretty quickly that we were going to change it. In fact, we had been considering different names, with Ulysses as one on the list, when my father, unprompted, came over to see us and suggested that name himself. It means a great deal, now that my father has passed on, to know he helped to name Ulysses.
From the beginning, Ulysses was a sweet, happy, cat, but we quickly found that he also had some other issues. Melissa had actually observed something when we were driving home with him from Georgia (we took turns in the back of the car with the kitten), but had assumed it had merely been a bladder misfire. It wasn't until a few days later that things really started. As we were getting ready to take Ulysses to his first visit at the veterinarian, he cam walking over to me, and suddenly he fell over and convulsed. It did not last for more than a few seconds, but it certainly terrified me, and I was extremely happy that we were already on our way to the vets at the time.
At first, they assumed it had to be something simple and nutritional. It is a well known fact in the veterinary community that kittens do not get epilepsy, and the most likely cause was that he had not been receiving a proper diet in the shelter. Of course, this did not resolve the issue, and it was late in the evening when he had his next seizure. We brought him to the 24 hour veterinary hospital that our doctor recommends and they kept him for the next several nights, trying to get his seizures under control.
When he came home, they gave us pills for him, and anyone who has tried giving a cat medicine will know that this is not pleasant. Even less so when it is several times a day, and every day for the future. Of course, when he was not sick, Ulysses was incredibly sweet, often sleeping in bed with us. He was a happy and playful cat, but for a long while, he was spending almost every weekend in the hospital.
What made this worse was the hospital itself. Now, the doctors there are very capable, and I recognize that the practice is geared towards emergencies and not relationships, however, some of our experiences were pretty awful. For one thing, they were constantly telling us that it was most likely that Ulysses had a deadly disease and would die soon. Then, we got a nurse who spent an hour reassuring us that if he was to live and had some sort of mental issue he could still be a great pet, telling us all about her mentally handicapped cat, and how he is dumb but sweet. As well, each time we came in, they acted as if they did not know us or the cat. One day, we had been in the clinic told Ulysses was being discharged, and were waiting for half an hour or more, and when we asked, they had no idea what cat we were talking about, and then yelled at us for being impatient. Now, it may be that at times we were on edge, but under the circumstances, that may be understandable.
Eventually, we had to find a permanent solution. That was when we were referred to a neurologist at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of Palm Beach Gardens. From the first time we went there, we knew it was a different world. The doctor got Ulysses on a regular medical schedule, which still took a bit of time to get dialed in, but over time his seizure activity diminished. For a while, he was still going in to the hospital each month, at least once, but then it became every other month or so.
Don't misunderstand: there were still nights when we had real fear that he was going to die. One night, he started to seize and didn't stop for the entire time it took to get to the hospital, which was more than an hour. Even when he arrived there, it took massive amounts of medical intervention to get him under control and several more days to really get things settled.
One of the weirdest things is that Ulysses seemed to have a psychic link to my dad. As I mentioned, my father passed away. In the months before his death in March of 2016, he was in and out of the hospital numerous times. Strangely, I would often return home from the emergency room with my dad to have Ulysses greet me and then have a seizure and need to go to the hospital. Once, Melissa was out of town and I had arrived home at three in the morning after driving my mother home once dad had been admitted from ER into the hospital. I sat down and Ulysses walked over to say hello and within ten seconds started to have a full blown grand mal seizure. So, at three in the morning, I had to drive him to the hospital. I didn't get to bed until after the sun was up, and even then was not able to get much sleep before being required to drive back up with some of Ulysses medicines.
Even when Ulysses is healthy, it still is a lot of work. He gets meds four times a day, at 8 am and pm, noon, and 4 am, and some people think we are insane to keep with it. We aren't using pills any longer, now it is liquid suspensions. Of course, for a long time he was still really not happy about it, and would hiss, scratch, bite, you name it. He is a very sweet cat most of the time, but he can be very ornery. That is why we are so glad that he really has become incredibly well behaved about his medicine. While I still need to chase him around the house at times to give it to him, especially at breakfast and dinner, he will actually come to me for his lunch, and sit down for the medicine first. Melissa usually does the four am medicine, and I think he is pretty good for her about that as well. Even at breakfast and dinner, once I have him sitting down and he knows it is time for the medicine, he doesn't fight me or even try to run away. He tilts his head back and opens his mouth just a little bit so I can get the tip of the syringe in, and he doesn't try to run away even when I go to change to the next medicine. He is an incredibly good cat, in so many ways, and this is just one little thing.
The thing is, I have spent a long time talking about Ulysses being sick, and even though, now, after all these years, he is fairly stable, usually only having minor incidents every once in a while, it would be easy to read this and wonder about the devotion that is demonstrated through our care for Ulysses. But he truly is a remarkably sweet and loving cat. He often will sit by a window or glass door in our house and wave, looking like a living version ofhte Japanese maneki neko. He likes to go out in back of our house with me, but knows to stay in the fence around the pool. He even knows that he should wait for me to go out, as he demonstrated yesterday; I had opened the door for us but Melissa asked me a question, and so I didn't go out. Ulysses had already steeped outside and seeing me stop turned to watch and make sure I was coming.
At night, he will often hold my hand and lick it when we are in bed. He does not like to jump on furniture, but he likes to sleep with us, so he will get into his bed and then stare at me until I get him. He only communicates through staring, unless he is upset, and then he will vocalize his displeasure. I have never heard him meow, or really make much of a sound except if he is upset, but this has not stopped him from communicating with us. He often will stare at me, and I can often tell why. In some cases it is purely affection, but at other times it is clear he wants something, and he will make sure I know what it is too.
The thing is, we really love him, and a part of me knows that he may not have that long. As I mentioned, he has had some minor activity lately, due to changes in his medicines. In addition, he had to have surgery for removing an intestinal blockage this year. The point is, he has a lot of issues even now, and we have been told that it may be that he doesn't live all that long. So, today, I really wanted to share this and celebrate another year with Ulysses.
In 2015, Melissa and I decided that we wanted a pet. I had previously had ferrets, which I loved, but I recognize that they are not for everyone. In childhood, I had wanted a dog or cat, but could not have them in the apartment where I grew up. Now, as an adult, Melissa and I decided upon a cat. First, my brother has a cat, and my parents had long since adopted her as their cat as well. Cisco actually spends much of her time in Florida, even when my brother is not here. If we had a dog, it would be far less welcome in their house or in the apartment in New York.
There was one other issue, though. My mother is allergic to cats, but Cisco is a pure-bred Siberian, a breed that is said to be hypoallergenic, and Mom has never had any issues around her. We did not want to go to a breeder, as Melissa is particularly socially conscious and would not have felt good about getting a per from a breeder when so many animals do not have homes. We had even gone to a shelter in our area to ask about fostering a cat, but it never came through.
So, we began to search for kittens, from rescue organizations all around. We found several that turned out to be scams (we did not get taken in, but it takes a lot of care to recognize some of them). Eventually, however, we located a small organization that was near Atlanta, Georgia, and which had rescued a litter of Siberian kittens from a breeder that was leaving the business. We got in touch and made sure it was legitimate and set up to go adopt a kitten.
We drove up from Florida to Georgia and stayed the night in a hotel near the shelter. That was November 30, 2015. The next morning, we drove to the shelter and were introduced to a number of kittens. Several were really adorable, and we consider adopting more than one, but eventually, an orange kitten began to follow me around and even plopped into my lap and fell asleep. He had picked us and we knew we had found our kitten. At the time, he had been given the name Elf, and we knew pretty quickly that we were going to change it. In fact, we had been considering different names, with Ulysses as one on the list, when my father, unprompted, came over to see us and suggested that name himself. It means a great deal, now that my father has passed on, to know he helped to name Ulysses.
From the beginning, Ulysses was a sweet, happy, cat, but we quickly found that he also had some other issues. Melissa had actually observed something when we were driving home with him from Georgia (we took turns in the back of the car with the kitten), but had assumed it had merely been a bladder misfire. It wasn't until a few days later that things really started. As we were getting ready to take Ulysses to his first visit at the veterinarian, he cam walking over to me, and suddenly he fell over and convulsed. It did not last for more than a few seconds, but it certainly terrified me, and I was extremely happy that we were already on our way to the vets at the time.
At first, they assumed it had to be something simple and nutritional. It is a well known fact in the veterinary community that kittens do not get epilepsy, and the most likely cause was that he had not been receiving a proper diet in the shelter. Of course, this did not resolve the issue, and it was late in the evening when he had his next seizure. We brought him to the 24 hour veterinary hospital that our doctor recommends and they kept him for the next several nights, trying to get his seizures under control.
When he came home, they gave us pills for him, and anyone who has tried giving a cat medicine will know that this is not pleasant. Even less so when it is several times a day, and every day for the future. Of course, when he was not sick, Ulysses was incredibly sweet, often sleeping in bed with us. He was a happy and playful cat, but for a long while, he was spending almost every weekend in the hospital.
What made this worse was the hospital itself. Now, the doctors there are very capable, and I recognize that the practice is geared towards emergencies and not relationships, however, some of our experiences were pretty awful. For one thing, they were constantly telling us that it was most likely that Ulysses had a deadly disease and would die soon. Then, we got a nurse who spent an hour reassuring us that if he was to live and had some sort of mental issue he could still be a great pet, telling us all about her mentally handicapped cat, and how he is dumb but sweet. As well, each time we came in, they acted as if they did not know us or the cat. One day, we had been in the clinic told Ulysses was being discharged, and were waiting for half an hour or more, and when we asked, they had no idea what cat we were talking about, and then yelled at us for being impatient. Now, it may be that at times we were on edge, but under the circumstances, that may be understandable.
Eventually, we had to find a permanent solution. That was when we were referred to a neurologist at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of Palm Beach Gardens. From the first time we went there, we knew it was a different world. The doctor got Ulysses on a regular medical schedule, which still took a bit of time to get dialed in, but over time his seizure activity diminished. For a while, he was still going in to the hospital each month, at least once, but then it became every other month or so.
Don't misunderstand: there were still nights when we had real fear that he was going to die. One night, he started to seize and didn't stop for the entire time it took to get to the hospital, which was more than an hour. Even when he arrived there, it took massive amounts of medical intervention to get him under control and several more days to really get things settled.
One of the weirdest things is that Ulysses seemed to have a psychic link to my dad. As I mentioned, my father passed away. In the months before his death in March of 2016, he was in and out of the hospital numerous times. Strangely, I would often return home from the emergency room with my dad to have Ulysses greet me and then have a seizure and need to go to the hospital. Once, Melissa was out of town and I had arrived home at three in the morning after driving my mother home once dad had been admitted from ER into the hospital. I sat down and Ulysses walked over to say hello and within ten seconds started to have a full blown grand mal seizure. So, at three in the morning, I had to drive him to the hospital. I didn't get to bed until after the sun was up, and even then was not able to get much sleep before being required to drive back up with some of Ulysses medicines.
Even when Ulysses is healthy, it still is a lot of work. He gets meds four times a day, at 8 am and pm, noon, and 4 am, and some people think we are insane to keep with it. We aren't using pills any longer, now it is liquid suspensions. Of course, for a long time he was still really not happy about it, and would hiss, scratch, bite, you name it. He is a very sweet cat most of the time, but he can be very ornery. That is why we are so glad that he really has become incredibly well behaved about his medicine. While I still need to chase him around the house at times to give it to him, especially at breakfast and dinner, he will actually come to me for his lunch, and sit down for the medicine first. Melissa usually does the four am medicine, and I think he is pretty good for her about that as well. Even at breakfast and dinner, once I have him sitting down and he knows it is time for the medicine, he doesn't fight me or even try to run away. He tilts his head back and opens his mouth just a little bit so I can get the tip of the syringe in, and he doesn't try to run away even when I go to change to the next medicine. He is an incredibly good cat, in so many ways, and this is just one little thing.
The thing is, I have spent a long time talking about Ulysses being sick, and even though, now, after all these years, he is fairly stable, usually only having minor incidents every once in a while, it would be easy to read this and wonder about the devotion that is demonstrated through our care for Ulysses. But he truly is a remarkably sweet and loving cat. He often will sit by a window or glass door in our house and wave, looking like a living version ofhte Japanese maneki neko. He likes to go out in back of our house with me, but knows to stay in the fence around the pool. He even knows that he should wait for me to go out, as he demonstrated yesterday; I had opened the door for us but Melissa asked me a question, and so I didn't go out. Ulysses had already steeped outside and seeing me stop turned to watch and make sure I was coming.
At night, he will often hold my hand and lick it when we are in bed. He does not like to jump on furniture, but he likes to sleep with us, so he will get into his bed and then stare at me until I get him. He only communicates through staring, unless he is upset, and then he will vocalize his displeasure. I have never heard him meow, or really make much of a sound except if he is upset, but this has not stopped him from communicating with us. He often will stare at me, and I can often tell why. In some cases it is purely affection, but at other times it is clear he wants something, and he will make sure I know what it is too.
The thing is, we really love him, and a part of me knows that he may not have that long. As I mentioned, he has had some minor activity lately, due to changes in his medicines. In addition, he had to have surgery for removing an intestinal blockage this year. The point is, he has a lot of issues even now, and we have been told that it may be that he doesn't live all that long. So, today, I really wanted to share this and celebrate another year with Ulysses.
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