1Y39W: Saying Goodbye but Not Goodnight (11/22/10 - 11/28/10)

Monday morning was very sad and tragic as we woke up to find our sweet cat Nolan dying. It was very touching because the other two cats were hovering around him as if they were trying to provide moral support in his time of need. Dear Nolan had never given us one bit of trouble but he left this world in a very messy fashion which involved pretty much every room downstairs. The vet’s office wasn’t going to be open for a few more hours and we didn’t want to make him suffer any further so I carefully placed him in his carrier and took him to the 24 hour Animal Emergency Center in Novi to be put down. Paul stayed behind to try to clean up the house while Lily, thankfully, slept through it all. I was very impressed with the Animal Emergency Center. They took Nolan to be cleaned up and get an IV inserted while I filled out the paperwork. Then they led me to a nicely decorated tasteful sitting room and brought Nolan to me for our final goodbyes. It was so hard to say goodbye to such a sweet and loving cat. I was so glad that we had so many wonderful years together. When I gave them the okay, they injected the overdose of anesthesia and Nolan took his final breath. They sent him home with me so that we could bury him next to Betsy in the backyard and also gave me a plaster impression of his paw print to remember him by. I drove home in a daze totally forgetting that it was a workday and that I was scheduled at Brighton which meant that no one could take my place. The shock of the morning put all of that completely out of my mind and I didn’t realize that I needed to get to work until I saw the immense amount of commuter traffic heading westbound on I-96. I got home and had a whopping 10 minutes to make myself presentable before having to run out the door to make it to work on time. That evening was spent finishing cleaning the house and burying Nolan. It was not a good day at all. Nolan’s obituary is on my previous post.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly uneventful which was fine with me. Thursday was Thanksgiving so the details of that day and beyond will be on the next two posts.

After over a year and a half of Lily being a horrible sleeper, we finally had her in a good routine and in her own bed for the entire night. That all changed on Monday night as Lily suddenly became a horrible sleeper again and seems terrified to sleep in her crib. The fight begins as soon as we sit in her rocking chair to read her ABC book as is our bedtime tradition. She used to lean right back on me and happily listen to the book but now she bawls her eyes out. I tried reading her a different book instead which made her stop crying but perhaps she thought that not hearing her bedtime book meant that it was no longer bedtime because she seemed surprised when I put her in the crib after the story and instantly started crying again. She used to lay right down without a fuss. I would leave while she was still awake and not hear a peep from her again until at least 1am. Now she will not fall asleep and instead fusses constantly and cries until I come into the room. When I do come into her room she is standing up in her crib all covered in tears reaching for me, desperate to get out. I tried leaving more lights on, letting her cry it out, taking her out to rock in the rocking chair, you name it. Nothing seems to work. This goes on until nearly midnight when she finally passes out with exhaustion. Then she still wakes up at 1am and 3am as usual. The whole ordeal means that she (and I) hardly sleep at all. She was exhausted and crabby when she got to daycare and I was in a sleep-deprived fog all day at work on Tuesday and Wednesday. The rest of the week was bad, too, but we were out of town. Lily always sleeps poorly away from home so that was no surprise.

All week Lily talked about the Splash Dogs that she saw at the Pet Expo last weekend. She would enthusiastically say, “Dogs jump, SPLASH!” She was very animated while talking about it which was adorable. Another cute thing she did this week was to demonstrate that she recognizes emotions. She was watching a short segment on Nick Jr about a boy who always made a lot of noise and annoyed everyone until his parents got him a drum set as a creative outlet and then everyone was happy. Lily watched him when he got in trouble for banging on the table and said, “He sad.” Then after he got his drum set and everyone was smiling, she said, “he happy!” I found that very cute and a further demonstration of her growing empathy skills. Now if she could only be empathetic with poor exhausted mommy and sleep at night to help me out we would be all set!

Since this post only encompasses three days, I have hardly any pictures to post. Just these three of Lily building onto a Lego tower that Paul started: