Cape adventures and doctors appointments...

My aunt had to have an injection in her back today in Cape which required a driver, so I had the honor of accompanying her on her journey. I wanted to hit up Hastings anyways -- it's only a matter of time before they close their doors for good.

The drive there was nice, super long, but nice. We arrived at the hospital far too early, like we always do. No one trusts my judgment when I say it'll only take 1 1/2 hours, maybe a little longer to get there. I dropped her off at the hospital (I did go in with her), then I headed to Hastings.

Hastings in Cape is like a wasteland. They don't have hardly anything left and the entire back part of the store is just empty shelves. It seriously looks like something from a post apocalyptic movie. So yeah, didn't make it out of there with anything other than a cute monster hat that I'll probably never wear in my life. I still have the tags on it, so I may sell it or gift it to someone this Christmas.

It was a fairly boring day. Long, but boring. I'm happy to be home now, driving such long distances takes so much out of me...

Drive there through Sam A Baker. 

Hospital bathroom.

Hastings: wasteland.

And lastly, my new hat. Meh..

The reason why I hate going to the vet...

Well today was our big appointment day for the cats. Since Zoe is FIV+ and Una had high blood sugar levels last time she was at the vet, a check up was in order. And not to mention, I've noticed Zoe has been drinking a LOT of water lately. Naturally, I went into panic mode and started doing tons of research. The thing that popped in my head was kidney disease. I just kept playing that over and over until I made myself sick.

I've also been worried about how lumpy Zoe's scar was where she had her tumor removed.

Anyways, so we're at the vet, we're waiting -- anyone who has been to the vet knows what the waiting process is like. I was a nervous wreck! Ask LaVaughn. My heart was pounding, I was sick, I know my blood pressure had to be through the roof! Our appointment was for 5PM, we got there around 4:30 and ended up getting called back around 5:25ish.

The vet talked to us before she did any labs, asked us why we were there and wrote down some information. She took Una back to draw her blood first, then she brought her back for her exam. She got Zoe after that and took her back for her labs. She brought Zoe back and did an exam on her as well. Thankfully she didn't feel anything on Zoe's tummy, just lots of scar tissue from where she took so much fat.

Then the real waiting game started! It seemed like we were back there for hours! It didn't help that it was late and that there was an older couple there with 5+ cats that all had some type of URI. The vet and techs were in and out of that room up until after we left.

She came by once and told us Una's blood sugar was still high and that she wanted to run a thyroid test. Everything else of Una's was fine. About 20 minutes later -- this is around 6:25 by now, they supposedly close at 6:30 -- a lady came in with some Hill's Prescription samples of weight management dry food. I asked her if Zoe's results were back yet, then she replied "The vet will be in to discuss everything with you." My heart sank.

The vet came in a little while later and started explaining the results. She started by saying that Zoe's kidneys were showing some signs of distress. Her CRE was 3.2 and her BUN was 74. These are both too high and are signs of kidney disease. Luckily her phosphorus was good, that's great, but the other news was just as I expected. Una's thyroid was higher than it should be for her age. It was at 4.4 and the max is like 4.8. Una is only 8, so it's too high. She put her on a half of a pill once daily to (hopefully) get the numbers down.

Then she started bringing in lots of Hill's Prescription samples, plus two 4lb bags of food and canned food. She explained so much to us, I didn't even know which way was up. Luckily LaVaughn caught most of it. I'm not going to go into too much of what she said, so to make a long story short, both cats are on two diets that are polar opposites. Una needs high, high protein and low carbs, Zoe needs mild protein and low, low phosphorus. It's just like, oh my god. This food is also $24 per 4lb bag. Yikes, right? The cans are well over $1 each, but that's not as bad, considering we've been buying grain free foods, so they're all over that anyways. I'm just hoping and praying they eat this food. :(

This is why I hate going to the vet. I go there wanting to get good news, but I always expect bad news which usually it is. I'm so depressed right now. I'm sick, sad, tired and I feel like I want to hurl myself off of a cliff. I'm trying to think of the bright side, it could have been worse. It can ALWAYS be worse. Una's BS could have been higher, she could have to be in insulin immediately. She could have also been in full swing hypothyroidism. Zoe's kidneys could have been in much worse shape, she could have had another tumor. Things could have been worse, so I'm really trying to look at things that way.

In other news, we stopped at Hasting's on the way home. Everything of theirs is like 50% off now, it's insane. We got a couple True Blood POPS! for $5 each, which is a steal. The real winner is LaVaughn's Batman jacket that she got for just under FIVE dollars! I took the jacket up front and asked how much it was because it didn't have a price on it. She said they were $20, so she put a $10 price on the jacket. When we went to check out, the lady cut that price in half as well making it $5, I couldn't believe it. It was a total win.

So yeah, that's that. It's so late right now, I don't even know why I'm blogging. We didn't get out of the vets office until after 7, so it's nearly 11PM right now. I need to go. I need coffee and a xanax.

Here's a look at our new food:

And our new True Blood POPS!:

Going out of business...

For those of you in the lower US states, you've probably been to, or at least heard about Hastings, the entertainment store. LaVaughn and I have been shopping at Hastings for over 15 years. No, we don't go all the time, but we've always had the options. I'm extremely sadden to announce that they're going out of business.

Naturally, when any company goes out of business, they have a big "Going out of business!" sale. Luckily for us, we've been able to take advantage of their sales a couple times now.

Aside from a few movies and some Sons of Anarchy pics that won't be pictured, we managed to grab the ONLY Game of Thrones Night's Watch pledge. This is what I've wanted for months, but there was NO way I was going to pay $25 for it. Since everything was 40% off, we got it for the semi-low price of $14 -- score!

-Megan

Night's Watch Pledge - Amazing!

Keeping my mind off of the obvious...

So, LaVaughn and I went to Poplar Bluff today. Mainly because we wanted to get out of the house for a while, but also to keep our mind off of losing Leo. We did our usual run - Hastings, Petco, food, then home.

We got Carl and Injured Daryl from Hastings -- they're part of series 4 of the POP! Vinyls, now we just need the other 3, which are extremely expensive, go figure. After that we headed to Petco where we got a new rat. There, I said it... we got another rat. We weren't doing this for ourselves, we were doing this for Louie.

I've researched and talked to numerous rat owners and literally everyone said to get another rat. Louie will get depressed and end up mourning himself to death -- that's what Evan did, remember? So we did it, we got one.

We said we would only get one if there was one that stood out. Long story short, there was. Even the guy at the store grabbed the rat that we were eyeing. So yeah, it was meant to be.

And might I say that introductions went EXTREMELY well!

Welcome to the brood, Merle. You'll have the best life we can possibly give you while you're here.

Everyone say hello to, Merle:

I love fat Louie.

The size difference is insane.

Some glider cuteness:

And lastly, our new Walking Dead POP! Vinyls:

Exciting things to come...

I can NEVER remember what I blog about sometimes. Did I mention this, did I post that? I honestly never know what I've blogged about sometimes and if I've said it 3 or 4, even 5 times! I'm going to go ahead and apologize for repeating this, if it's been mentioned already.

Okay, so a couple months ago a photo competition was held across 4 very large cat groups on Facebook. Before we go any further, yes, I'm a dork and belong to CAT Facebook groups. Anyways, you could submit as many photos as you'd like, you just had to pay $2 per entry. I ended up submitting either 4 or 5 pictures and, to my surprise, I actually won! They say the same person can win multiple times, but I didn't. Oh well, one is better than none!

The winners of the competition (there were 10 of us) got their cat pictures hand painted by artist Kate Daniels. She lives in Spain, or someplace like that. Well the girl that hosted the event lives in the UK and ended up picking up the pictures a few weeks ago and ended up sending them from her country because their mailing system is much better than hers. Long story short, the picture arrived today! It's unbelievable and I'm still in shock that I won and have a a HAND painted picture of Cersei! It's amazing, I can't even believe it. Now we just need to pick up a frame for it.

Aside from that arriving in the mail, our e-jackets also arrived. I ordered them from a glider lady last week, just as a precaution. LaVaughn and I actually talked about getting some a few weeks ago when we decided to get Boone neutered. They work wonders for gliders that SM their tails, cloaca, or anything in that region. I hope we never have to use them, but now we have a small, medium, and large one on hand just in case!

LaVaughn and I mentioned going to Poplar Bluff today, but I honestly didn't think we would. After we got up, had some coffee, fed the cats (and gliders), and took showers, we decided to go. We needed to get a cashiers check cashed at the bank up there anyways, so it was a have to type of thing.

We went straight to Walmart where we got our check cashed. We grabbed a couple little things for Angie's kids (treat bag, some toys, and candy) and some FROSTED SUGAR COOKIE creamer! Yes, they had it! We finished up there as quickly as possible and then rushed to Hasting's, where we had wanted to go all along. They had a "Buy 2 Get 1 For $1" sale, and we took FULL advantage! We ended up leaving with 9 glorious movies. It was so much fun, I loved it.

We used to buy movies all the time, then we found torrents and slowly stopped. Now that we have a PS4 and can't really watch any on the TV -- we're confined to the computer unless we burn them -- we've slowly started buying movies again. People stream everything anymore, either on Netflix or Hulu, so buying DVDs isn't all that expensive anymore.

We grabbed Taco Bell and a Moo Latte on the ride home and have been waist deep in movie-watching ever since.

I didn't think I had that much to talk about today. Apparently I did! Makes for a more interesting blog, so I'm not complaining. I guess that's all for now. I may cut a cage set out to (hopefully) sell tomorrow. Who knows...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Pictures from today:

Here are our sugar glider e-jackets.

Royal Mail. :D

The winners certificate.

And Cersei's GORGEOUSLY painted picture.

The rarely photographed, Toby.

Meh...

Our yard is stunning this time of the year.

Just look at that!

The old creeper.

Angie's kids treat bags

More of Norman from my phone:

Seamus in LaVaughn's shirt:

Just look at that face!

More pictures of the yard from my phone:

The yard is STUNNING in fall!

Mr. Bart.

The drive to Poplar Bluff:

Wicked sunset.

Frosted Sugar Cookie creamer!

Hasting's sale.

Our movie haul.

And lastly, my heaven... A wall of Pop! Funko!