Pet sitting hell

**this all happened last Thursday**

So, being the good neighbor that I am, when one asked for me to cat sit while she was on an Alaskan cruise, I agreed. I've been checking on the cats twice a day, feeding them, cleaning out the litter box and watering plants. Yesterday I skipped the morning check because the cats have been great, their food bowls and water bowls have been no where near empty when I've been going. Josh had a cookout for his department last night so Alex and I went. When I got home around 8, I took Alex with me to check on the cats. I walked in and noticed a huge puddle of pee on the ground. I found one cat and she was fine. I walked to the back to look for the other cat and noticed 3 more puddles of pee. The cat was laying in the family room. I bent down to pet him and he barely moved and kinda whimpered. Alex of course wanted to pet him and he still barely moved. I cleaned up the pee really quick and called Josh to see if he could come help me. He was still at the work event and didn't answer his phone. I went home to change Alex because it was about an hour and half past her bed time. Josh came in right as I was putting her down so he stayed with her while I went back to Jeanne's.

The cat had moved so I thought this was a good sign. I sat down with him and noticed his paws were soaked as was his arm and stomach. It looked like he laid in a puddle of water. I looked around her house for her vet contact info and couldn't find anything so I called my vet. They had an after hours number and also provided the number to the A&M small animal emergency hospital. I called the hospital and described what was going on and they said I could keep and eye on him and if he started having breathing problems bring him in. I didn't have anywhere at our house I could put the cat and I didn't want to stay at her house for the night so I called Josh and he said I should take him in to be examined. He came over and helped me get the cat in the carrier and off to the hospital I headed. I knew it was a $125 charge for them to examine the cat but I knew if it was Cooper I'd want who ever was watching him do the same. The vet came out and told me the cat's temp was 90 when it is supposed to be around 102 and he was really sick, but they weren't sure what it was yet. About 10 minutes later they came back and said the cat is diabetic to have any chance of surviving they would need to start a 3 day treatment that runs between $2000 and $3000! At this point the vet wanted to know if we wanted them to start treatments knowing the cat would have a very slim chance of recovering and need to be on twice a day insulin shots for the rest of his life or not start treamtments and they would make the cat comfortable until he passed. How could I make this decision for a neighbor I barely know? I was crying and beside myself. We had no idea what to do!?!? There were a few possible outcomes...

we could start treatments, the cat could recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know she has to give her cat shots twice a day and she owed us $3000!

we could start treatments, the cat could not recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know her beloved cat died and she owes us $3000!

we could opt for no treatments so when she got home we could tell her Robbie died because we didn't want to pay $3000, to which she could say; you made the right decision or worse, I would have paid $10,000 to try to save his life.

She left me 2 pages of written instructions while she was gone, however she didn't leave me anyway to reach her, an emergency contact, or vet info. The vet came back and told me that his body wasn't reacting well to the fluids they were giving him so they had to stop them. He was in a lot of pain, they would continue to give him the best possible treatment but I should go home and try to see if I could reach her and they would call me in the morning. When I got home, Josh and I went back to Jeanne's to see if we could find any information about what cruise line she was on so we could get in contact with her. We found out she was on Princess and found a cell phone number for her daughter who was cruising with her. I left her daughter a message then went home so we could call Princess. They were great and gave me an international number to the ship and her cabin number. I tried calling and found out I didn't have international calling set up on my cell so Josh activated it. After several tries I finally got through to Jeanne, but the connection was horrible and she couldn't hear me. I walked back to her house to try from her land line and still couldn't get through. I checked her caller ID and her daughter had called back and apparently called my cell while I was trying to call out so I didn't know. I was finally able to get them on the line around midnight and relay the information. They made the decision not to start treatment and have Robbie euthanized. It was probably one of the longest nights of my life, one that I hope to never go through again. I can officially say, this was my first and probably last attempt at pet sitting.

my heart

This sweet little girl melts my heart.

I love when she squishes her eyes closed because she is laughing so hard!

heart attack!

I swear, this child is trying to give me a heart attack. I was loading the dishwasher yesterday while she played in the living room. I looked up and she was kneeling on the window ledge. Granted, it's only a foot off the ground, but it scared the crap out of me. She has a habit of losing her balance backwards and hitting her head. I dropped the silverware in the since and ran over to grab her. The clank from the silverware scared her and made her cry. She is a climbing machine. Over the weekend, I was sitting on the couch, she stood up and used my legs to climb up there with me. She is also trying to climb on top of the exersaucer table any chance she gets.

While we were in Chicago, her schedule went completely out the window, so I figured it would take a couple of days to get her back on it when we got home. Nope, yesterday was just like any other day. She actually went to her bedroom door, which was closed, and cried and fussed until I let her in for her nap yesterday afternoon.

Alex now has enough hair pig tails! She looks soo cute with them! It makes her look like a little girl instead of a baby. She actually leaves them alone, but only if she doesn't notice when I put the bows in her hair. If she sees me do it, she will immediately try to take the bows out.

Chicago!

We had the best time in Chicago, once we got there! Our original flight out of CS was cancelled so we ended up flying out around 3. We made it to Chicago around 10 and to Josh's aunt's close to midnight. Alex was PERFECT on the plane. The first flight she was a little antsy and squirmy. By the 2nd flight she was a pro! She ate dinner, watched a Baby Einstein DVD then fell asleep just as we were flying over downtown Chicago. She ended up sleeping the first 2 nights in bed with us. The first night, because she was so off her schedule, had a fit and screamed if I got anywhere near the pack and play. Then the second night, just because she was so snuggly the first night, we wanted her in bed with us one more night! The last 2 nights, she slept in the pack & play without a problem. I didn't take my camera so I only took a handful of pictures on my cell phone.

Dawn and Mike's wedding was beautiful! Alex was so quiet during the ceremony because we kept her occupied with Cheerios and puffs! She started getting fussy and sleepy during the cocktail hour at the reception, so we fed her again a little pre-dinner snack of all the appetizers that were going around. She lasted longer than we expected her to, but we ended up leaving early to get her to bed. We were asking a lot of her to stay up much later than normal 2 nights in a row! Saturday we went to Dawn's for a picnic. It was baby-palooza there! Alex had fun playing with all the kiddos and her cousin (really 3rd or 4th cousin) AJ. He is 3 months older than Alex and is absolutely adorable!

Sunday, we hung out at the house all day relaxing and AJ came over and he and Alex had a blast playing. She is sooo darn close to walking. I thought with AJ being around, she would finally give in and walk to keep up with him, but not so much. She is constantly taking a step or 2, but still doesn't have the confidence to take off.

We headed home this morning. When we got to O'Hare, they were asking people on our flight to give up their seats for vouchers. It would have put us in CS around 8:30, since we didn't have anything planned for the entire day, and we are looking at flights to go to California to see my sister, we decided to give up our seats for the vouchers. At the last minute, they were able to get us on our original flight...in first class! Man, I love first class! It made traveling with Alex so much better! We were the very last ones on the plane, in the first row and one of the first ones off the plane! Alex nibbled on our yummy salads, got her own milk and had a warm chocolate chip cookie! She fell asleep while we were waiting for everyone to board the flight to CS and woke up a few minutes after we touched down. Over all, Alex is a perfect flyer and we are looking forward to traveling with her again!

Our trip was just what we needed; we got to relax, see family and eat a ton of great food!

Alex checking out the plane for the first time!

Chicago, here we come!
Alex and AJ "driving"

Uncle Andy pushed the gas pedal with a stick while Josh took the wheel!

Alex and AJ

tired Alex on the way home!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Tomorrow we are flying out of the tiny little College Station airport to DFW, from there, on to O'Hare! I am still a little (ok, maybe a lot!) nervous about the flight. Typically when it's just Josh and me, I relax, read a book, play a game on my phone, listen to my ipod or sleep...none of that will be happening tomorrow. Since our flight is so short to DFW, around 30 minutes, we are going to try to keep Alex entertained without toys, snacks or the DVD player. We are saving the bag of tricks for the longer flight to Chicago. I have spent the last 2 days washing clothes, getting Alex's stuff together and running errands to get a few little last minute things. I think we are ready. Alex's stuff is 95% packed! I haven't even started on our stuff, but that's what we are doing tonight! I am crossing my fingers that tomorrow Alex will sleep at some point or if she doesn't sleep, I am praying she won't completely melt down and make us "those people" with the screaming kid on the plane!

Chicago, here we come!

Getting Ready!

I started several post over the last week and never finished so I figured I'd ditch them all and start over!

Last week we turned Alex's car seat around! She loves facing forward and just watches everything. The only bad thing about it, she won't sleep in her car seat now unless it's dark. We went to my parents on Friday night. I knew Alex was tired because she barely napped during the day so by 5:30 she was rubbing her eyes. I fed her dinner and gave her a bath while Josh loaded up the car. I put Alex in her jammies and off we went. She was wide awake until about 8:45 then she finally fell asleep...about 30 minutes from my parents! Alex usually sleeps in our room while we are traveling, but since she was a pill over 4th of July we decided to put her in a different room so she couldn't see us if she woke up. She was having no part of that! She screamed and cried every time I tried putting her down. Friday night, she finally went to sleep around 11. At 5:30 she was up. I laid on the bed with her for an hour, she was still tired, but wouldn't go back to sleep, at 6:30 my mom came in and got her so I could go back to sleep. She stayed up until a little after 11. Again, she screamed when my mom tried putting her down so they sat in a rocker and my mom held her for an hour and a half while Alex slept. Naps and bedtime were just way off the rest of the day and Sunday. I we spent so much time on the bed with Alex just trying to get her to sleep. She would lay with us, but never go to sleep. We finally just had to let her scream and cry until she fell asleep. I think she was finally getting used to the new room yesterday because we put her down thinking she would take a short nap like every other nap was then we could head home, but nope, she finally slept for a little over 2 hours, so we didn't head home until almost 6 last night. Again, Alex stayed up for the entire car ride. We changed her into her jammies, gave her some milk and put her to bed as soon as we got home at 9:30!

We had so much fun relaxing at my parents. We took Alex out on the boat for the first time. She was not loving the life jacket, but I think she liked being out on the boat. Alex finally started clapping and she said Daddy. Not just dada, but a very clear Da-Dee, so cute!!! I was really bad about taking pictures over the weekend, my mom took most of them so I'll have to get them from her and post them later!

I feel like I have so much to do this week. We are flying to Chicago on Thursday. I am so nervous about it because it will be Alex's first time flying. I am starting to pack and I'm a little stressed about it. Josh told me he would like to keep it down one suit case for the 3 of us!!! I am such an over packer that I don't know if I can do it! The only thing that is nice, is we are staying with family so I can do a load of laundry or 2 if I have to so we can pack a little less. We also don't have to worry about all of the little things for Alex because Josh's cousin has a little boy who is a little older than Alex so his aunt and uncle have pretty much everything we would need for her at their house! He doesn't want to have a ton of stuff to keep up with because he thinks we will already have our hands full trying to get through security with Alex, the stroller and whatever we pack to keep her occupied on the plane.

Baby Grand

Last week the birthday present we ordered for Alex finally came in! We had the hardest time figuring out what to get her, then I came a cross an adorable little pink baby grand piano and knew it was perfect! She adores playing with our big piano so we thought a little Alex sized one would be better for her. I showed it to Josh and he loved it. While I was giving Alex a bath and getting her ready for bed, he put it together. She was so excited when she saw it! She started banging away. She has been playing with it non-stop. One of her favorite things to do is play hers, then reach up and play the big one to hear the difference!

Alex's hair is getting so long, but it's a weird long. It's long on top and over her ears, but it's not as long around the sides. I've been playing with her hair on a daily basis and Josh just laughs at me! Here are 2 new hair do's we tried...I decided we'd wait a little longer to try pig tails again!