30Nov25: no ice today…

He decided not to have any ice just then.

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29Nov25: Don’t do it, Doug!

Oh, the temptation to “boop” Andy’s nose was strong!

My better angels told me not to do it. “Let the little guy have his rest,” they told me.

His only motion was the soft heaving of his chest when he breathed.

28Nov25: leftovers…

But he regrets it not. That’s what you do before taking those Thanksgiving naps.

=(*+*)=

I had a Thanksgiving-style meal last Friday when I got together with my Class of 1966 friends. I turned down an offer of another Thanksgiving meal yesterday. There is such a think as too much of a good thing!

My Thanksgiving meal was a simpler one of ham, sweet potato, and green beans in mushroom soup – not “that” casserole, just green beans in a mushroom sauce.

I put some water in the refrigerator around 8 am so it would be icey cold in time for lunch. Yeah, it’s that American thing about icey cold drinks, though I skipped the ice cubes or Andy would want his share!

A final treat was to come!

27Nov25: he crossed the line…

Andy slept on the chair next to my bed last night, as usual.

…crossed the line. Time for me to prepare his breakfast!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the USA and to her citizens abroad!

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Light shining in his eyes, folks! Creepy-eyed Andy and I are now headed for the front room to catch up on news or, maybe, watch a documentary on public television. Ken Burns did a fantastic one on the American Revolution that I’ve mostly watched. I think I have one or two more parts left to watch.

26Nov25: I almost forgot…

It was a more comfortable position, apparently, than this earlier position sleeping with head and paws pressed against the wall.

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This Thanksgiving schedule has messed me up, blog-wise. I thought I was prepared for today. Nope! Sorry for this shortish hurried post.

25Nov25: the sun goes down early this time of year….

I turned the photo a quarter turn to make Andy into a scary carnivore. That’s a pillow in the upper right-hand of the photo. Scary, eh?

Andy had a busy afternoon, so he needs this catnap. He’ll be very busy later tonight!

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Kitty cat on duty now: Andy’s sharpening his claws. He has an important kitty job to do!

Ready to go! A moment later, he was off on his mission. Good kitty!

Andy makes it official: no mousies! He can take another catnap now.

24Nov25: a quiet midday…

He stopped licking for a moment. Brain freeze?!

He even left for a short time, then returned to lick the ice.

A bit of kitty lovin’ is appreciated, too.

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My dialysis schedule this week is Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, with Thursday and Friday free.

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I think kitty boy is starting to wake up!

23Nov25: routine…

After a very busy day yesterday, Andy and I were happy to have a big “nothing” day today.

There were Greenies to eat and kitty baths to take.

Later, I made a cup of coffee to go with leftover apple pie – yum! Andy followed me into the kitchen. He had a request of me.

(This is the “Andy view” of the business….)

Of course it was. He wanted to check out the cabinets for mousies. Though he can open them without my help, he does, of course, expect me to do it for him.

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I misplaced my phone or lost it at the hospital after dialysis today. I was prepared to have lots of complications. Doing these blog posts, for one, depend on me having my phone to take photos!

Anyway, I hoped someone would find it and it eventually would “come home” to me.

I ate lunch, fell asleep on my glide rocker, and woke up around 4:00 pm.

I double-checked my walker pouch for my missing phone, thought a string of foul language out loud – no phone, still, then headed to the kitchen to make coffee and get the leftover apple pie out of the refrigerator.

Passing by the front door, where my old walker was positioned for Andy to look out for one of his favorite kinds of kitty business, I saw someone had put the phone on the seat!

After singing high praise to the person who recognized the phone was mine, I continued my quest for coffee and pie.

Andy’s photo is the first thing you see when you turn it on, something they’d do to determine whose phone it belonged to. Someone who knows me and knows what Andy looks like found it.

Andy heard me grinding coffee beans and came running. He had important kitty business to complete now: make Doug open the kitchen cabinets for him for his mousie check.

Great! Now I had my phone to take a few photos for today’s blog. (See above!)

“A few photos” turned out to be literally true. The phone battery was nearly totally discharged, and the screen faded away when I took the last photo of Andy looking in the cabinet.

I didn’t mind, though. I had my phone back, probably returned by one of the dialysis nurses.

22Nov25: Where’s Andy?

Andy’s mostly missing from today’s post…

…because I spent the big part of my day with Tootsie since I was at Donna’s for my Class of 1966’s monthly luncheon.

This is my friend Terry. Our friendship goes back to the origins of our time!

Terry and Bev always do a great job setting up the luncheons. Bev and Paul have the luncheons at their place during the warm weather.

Dan joined Nancy, Donna, Susan, and me at the kitchen table.

Gad! I made a pig of myself! So much food and I made a second plate of the sides. It matched the best of Thanksgiving feasts in my past, you bet!

Paul and John. John is Dan’s brother. Meal done, we head to the front room.

Poor Tootsie. No one played tug-a-war with her while I was there. I tried. So did others, but….

Nancy is one of my classmates. Bill is Donna’s brother.

After our meal, we have excellent conversations about pretty much everything.

Talk goes on for hours as we old friends recall our school days, catch up on town talk, solve the problems of the world, and note any classmates who’ve passed since out last luncheon.

Sadly, I fell prey to whatever that chemical in turkey is that makes you want to take a nap. I left earlier than I wanted to because the alternative was to take a nap in Donna’s front room!

Once home, I was happy to give Andy a little lovin’ time before I had a nap.

It was the least I could do for my wee buddy!

21Nov25: a moment of reflection.

On November 19th six years ago, I posted this photo of the late Dougy, Andy’s littermate. He was a comedian. I laugh just seeing my late kitty sitting upright in the recliner. We miss this little guy each day. Andy took a long time after Dougy died to risk getting on Dougy’s recliner.

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I do have a low level of atrial fibrillation. My cardiologist put me on a blood thinner that I will take twice a day as soon as the prescription is processed. Happily, he doesn’t feel surgery would benefit me at this point.

My earlier concern that dialysis + blood thinner might be a lower risk than I imagined, as other dialysis patients are on a blood thinner. The staff can monitor the impact of this drug on the patient by way of the dialysis machine, that is, is it thinning the blood too much? In that instance, bleed out is a greater risk, so an adjustment is made to the dosage.

I feel like a science experiment a lot of the time!