Just Ass and Glory

I adopted the cutest most affectionate blind cat last year. He's called Pippin.

We didn't have any data on whether or not Pippin would get along with another cat, he was found in someone's backyard in Philly. He was found blind, declawed, neutered, and near deaf.

Fast forward to today, the cause of his blindness is likely high blood pressure. His BP is very high and he's taking two medications for that. He also has arthritis pain so he gets meds for that too. He doesn't like my other cat, Gimlet. He pees outside the box constantly and scratches himself around his neck a lot, particularly when it's cold.

We are at the vet every 2-4 weeks for BP tests and his monthly solensia injection. The vet is largely unconcerned with his scratching and it's driving me nuts. I've been working with a behaviorist since last fall and he keeps pushing me to identify underlying health causes - and I agree - but at what point do we acknowledge that the poor guy is stressed the fuck out and stabilize him while we get more testing? And we have been testing - blood work every 3-6 months, multiple urinalysies, X-rays, he's even had an echocardiogram. I've spent thousands on this poor cat since I got him.

!! Stop reading now if you don't want to hear the worst of it !!

Which brings me to today. Last night I came to bed and Pippin was actively bleeding all over my sheets. And to be clear sheets can be replaced but normally your pets don't scratch themselves to the point you need to throw your sheets out?? I had to literally clean the excess blood off his face because he scratched under his chin until blood was smeared all the way up to his ear. He also licked the pads on the back of his knees to the point where I literally watched them drip blood down the back of his legs.

Finally managed to get to sleep and dreamed the vet told me he needed to be euthanized. That he couldn't breathe and he was suffering.

I'm just so exhausted. Feels like the vet isn't listening, every time I talk about his behavioral issues they're like yeah but what about his blood pressure? And yeah, let's get to the bottom of that, but is it possible he's just stressed the fuck out? And worse, is it possible that it's my fault for bringing him into a home with another cat? Can we please give him something to stop him bleeding everywhere while we work on figuring out what is causing all this?

It's been months. Months. I feel so hopeless about the whole thing, feels like no one is listening. My cat is hurting himself and my house smells like pee and every professional that might help me with that is like *shrug* but what if he has a heart condition? Can we please treat my whole cat and not just one part of him at a time??

Oof fuck that's a tough one, cuz there's so much... I would say get rid of the stupid dudebro centric misogyny, but I think that should be a given... MILF Saren would be too easy because that's basically my brand at this point.

Is it okay if I say get rid of Cerberus as they wrote it in ME2/3? Like it completely changes the whole main plot but I think the whole thing would be far more compelling if the whole of those 2 games didn't revolve around "the evil human nazis" and actually something more related to the reapers and the protheans...

Also, while we're at it we can get rid of the collectors, the human reaper, and the crucible. I really like the idea that the Reapers could somehow be beaten "conventionally"...

I think I would make it so the reapers weren't something that was intentionally made by the Leviathans but I'd write it as the Leviathans making hyper advanced AI that at some point developed itself into a parasite that became the reapers, and basically the reapers had to come back to the galaxy and prey on living organisms to ensure their own continuity. They can't exterminate everything because they know if they do there won't be anything to prey on in the next cycle.

Maybe you could tie it to a Rampancy (Halo) like behaviour where they need to assimilate organic "knowledge" back into themselves and clear old "code" from their systems so they don't suffer from cognitive decay.

beach filler episode my beloved ˖°𓇼🌊⋆🐚🫧☀️

anyone's shep up for a game of volley? :D