Too Little Butter, Too Much Bread

[shanmonster]

Tubby keeps getting thinner and thinner. She's desperately hungry. She grabs greedily for raisins, nachos, and critter crackers, but after one or two wincing attempt at mastication, she throws the food onto the floor and stares at me, begging for something that won't hurt her mouth. When I touch her, she feels like a chick--just a thin layer of down over a pile of bones. Tomorrow morning, she has her appointment with Dr. Kevorkian.

Squire will miss Tubby as much as f00dave and I will. He hates being alone.

In much happier news, I accomplished much today. I finished a beautiful dance belt made of bronze, Botswani agate, hematite, and rose quartz. It took me three days of work to put it together. Each dangle ends with a bronze spiral, and it catches the light wonderfully. The whole belt shimmers and dances at the slightest movement. I'll try to get f00 to take pictures.

I also worked out a deal with Reverend Monty Lewis. He's the bigtime crack dealer for jewellers and rock hounds in the area. Today, he pulled up in his van, and we clandestinely went through his big box of beads. I'll be doing some work for him, and in lieu of cash, I chose some beads in payment. I got a labradorite arrowhead, and strands of rose quartz, sodalite, and lavender jade. The lavender jade is both rare and very pricey. I could normally never afford it, so I was happy to do some bartering for it. For the next couple of days, I'll be making two moulds for a knife handle.

Monty gave me a strand of smoky topaz for my birthday last week, and I'll be using those and the labradorite arrowhead to make myself a headpiece. I think it will suit me very well.

To top it all off, I made a deal with Marty Ladds for a ring he'd made for the ring competition. It's a huge and bizarre sterling silver ring with an enormous double star sapphire cabochon. It will look spectacular on stage, but is far too ostentatious to wear on a regular basis. Marty is a wiz with carving, and you can find his rings and paintings for sale at Rising Artisans.

Tonight's kung fu class was the easiest one I've attended in months. I'm guessing it's partially because Sifu Danny hurt his thumb pretty badly last night in a hammering mishap. The first half of the class was devoted to a particularly vicious blocking, throat-tearing, and nad-crushing combination. Then I spent the rest of the class working on my sword form. I keep getting hopelessly lost in the last third of the form. I'll remember four or five moves in a row, blank on the next couple, and remember a move every now and then. One or two combinations are still not working for me. There's one low sweep with the sword where I slash my opponent's Achilles tendons, and then I'm supposed to come out of it into a downward circle of the sword, but my natural reaction is to do an upward circle. I need a LOT of work on that one part alone, let alone the rest of the form. I just hope I can get it all together soon.

Next month, I'm supposed to go to Grand Falls for a parade and kung fu demonstration. I have no idea what the Sifus have in mind, but I have no doubt that little sleep and much alcohol will be had that night. Eep!

Comments

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

I'll be doing some work for him, and in lieu of cash, I chose some beads in payment.

Are you part Native American? :-P

Sorry about your Tubby. I guess feeding
her on a liquid diet is out of the
question? :(

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Actually, I am a nonstatus Innu, so I guess the bead trading is in the blood. Heh....

A liquid diet just won't work for a chinchilla. They need to keep eating and chewing, because their teeth grow constantly. If they stop chewing, their teeth grow far too long. This is part of her problem. Her teeth are growing crookedly, which means they are hooking into her tongue and gums. Every time she closes her mouth, she's lacerating the inside of her face.

In extreme cases, chinchillas with this problem bite their own tongues off, and the roots grow into their eye sockets.

I don't want her to get to this state, which is why I'm getting her euthanized now. Poor little bugger....

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the little fuzzball... My friend Sharon used to have a chinchilla, cute little thing. You and Dave are such animal lovers, though, that I'm sure she's had a life that most chinchillas can only dream of. Poor little bugger, yes, but poorer still had she not been yours. :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Ha! f00 an animal lover? That's funny!

For years, he considered animals as barely more than ambulatory plants. However, he has been growing more feeling toward the pets as the years pass. Maybe someday he'll even want to get a pet for his very own!

I can't imagine chinchillas dreaming of life. I can only imagine them dreaming of snacks. Heh....

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

HEY! I considered them somewhat inferior to human children (or stupid adults), which are, themselves, only slightly above ambulatory plants. It's not that I've become an animal lover -- far from it! -- it's that I've developed an interest in understanding how the mind works, and the minds of animals are generally more concrete than people's, though it's hard to be sure, since they don't speak English. ;-)

I've already got a pet monster, what would I need/want with another one? *flees*

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I was basing my assumption on all of the posts about the pigeons, of course :)

[ex-digitalis869.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about Tubby. I hopes she goes in peace. A toast to Dr. Kevorkian.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

The vet is a gentle woman. I'm sure Tubby will have a peaceful sendoff.

[fourcorners.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad for your kitty. I really do. I wish I could help her :/

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Odd. I dreamed last night she was a kitty, and that I kept her in the deep freezer for her own health.

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

I dreamed about TRIBES (wistfully) and about my present research (the ETS representation of developmental biology w.r.t plants, specifically the modelling of auxin-mediated growth patterns in shoot systems). No deep freezer, no cats.

Cats are pure fucking evil, and I wouldn't have one in my house.