Mr. Boots still has not been able to come home.  We ran his bloodwork again last week, and when the results came back several of the numbers indicating anemia were even lower.  After discussing it with Dr. Ray at CCR, Dana arranged to send Mr. Boots over there for an ultrasound and x-rays today so they could see if there is any underlying cause for the anemia.

When I went over this afternoon to check in on him, I stopped in to talk to Shannon about any results that might be in.  She said they had definitely found cysts in his kidneys, but didn’t know the size or extent.  That’s indicative of polycystic kidney disease, which I now know (of course I came home and researched) is a congenital condition very common in Persian and Persian-related cats (like Himalayans).  Apparently approximately 37% of the breed develops this condition.  It’s not curable, and treatment consists of pretty much the standard treatment for any feline renal disease.  They also did a urinalysis, which they don’t yet have the results from, and I’m not sure what they are looking for there.

Dr. Ray is supposed to consult with a specialist tomorrow, then will get back with Shannon; Shannon is going to give him my number so he can call me and tell me just what is going on first-hand.

Shannon also said that if we talk it over and decide that we just can’t go through with adopting him, she and everyone else would certainly understand.  Maybe so, and my head says she has a point.  But my head’s not saying that very loudly, and my heart is practically shrieking “don’t listen!!!”  I don’t think I can explain it with any logic, but I feel like this is meant to be — Mr. Boots is supposed to be part of my life, even if it may not be for that long. Backing out of making him part of our family is not a thought I can consider.

On the last day of my spring break last Friday I happily got up early to go fill in on Clean & Feed at Good Mews — I’d been missing my Friday morning ladies! After greeting Connie, Charlene, Patty, and Karen, I popped my head into Intake to say hello to the new residents. Almost all the cages were full because we’d been the recipient of an influx from yet another hoarding case, though at least this time the kitties were still in pretty decent shape.

When I got to one of the bottom cages, I gasped. The cat in there looked startlingly like my IrisKitty, who (with a little help) I had rescued off the mean streets of Norcross and who had been my beloved feline companion until I lost her to cancer on Christmas Eve, 1998. The only major difference was gender — this was a big fluffy boy cat. He was one of the intakes from the hoarder, and had been there less than 24 hours so we knew essentially nothing about him except for his name.

I took time out to get acquainted and give him some good snorgles, which he grumpily assented to. As I cleaned the isolation room, I kept slipping back into Intake just to look at him and coo at him, in addition to discussing him with the shelter staff. At one point Dana told me that he is front declawed, which sent chills up my spine — Iris was front declawed when we got her.

I told DH about Mr. Boots and introduced them last Saturday. I went by just to visit him twice last week. On Thursday, Dana asked if I had put Mr. Boots on hold yet, and she wasn’t just joking. DH and I talked a little, and Friday morning he went up to the attic and brought down our larger cat carrier without telling me, saying “you don’t want him coming home in a cardboard box with holes, do you?” So Friday afternoon before leaving work I downloaded, filled out, and printed an adoption application.

On “Caturday” our first stop after leaving the house was Good Mews, where I walked in, greeted the counselors, asked who had been adopted so far today (two adoptions and two “on-hold” by 1 p.m. — a good day already!), and told Lori the lead counselor that we were here to put Mr. Boots on hold, knowing that he has to have some dental work before he can come home, and handed her the application. She looked it over, hassled me about forgetting to sign it , then signed the approval spot and took my credit card. That’s the fastest adoption interview she’s done in a long time, I bet — though when Michelle and Janet the tour guides commented, I dryly remarked that Lori has, after all, been interviewing me for the past two years (that’s about how long I’ve been working as an adoption trainee, then counselor, myself).

Of course we spent some time with our new family member before leaving. DH had brought in some Feline Greenies (aka Kitty Crack) and Mr. Boots hoovered them up with even more alacrity than our Sarah!!! We also brought the camera:

Don’t you just LOVE that grumpy little face? He adores chin scritches.

It will be a couple of weeks before Mr. Boots can come home, because he can’t get his dental work done until they do another round of blood tests and make sure that the slight anemia was just a temporary thing. But I will be visiting him frequently to get him used to me, and I will probably be utterly worthless this coming Saturday as an adoption counselor since I’ll be hiding in the back the whole time snorgling him ::LOL::.

Ahhh, Thanksgiving break.  A whole five-day weekend, no classes to teach and no meetings to attend.  Never mind that I have my parents, the Offspring, and Mincot coming for Thanksgiving lunch; I’m working at Good Mews on Saturday for adoption counseling;  the GPC  Artisan Craft Fair is in two weeks and I need to take at least some of those beads that didn’t sell and turn them into jewelry (the good beads) and ornaments (the wonky ones); the Glass Haven needs some attention — did I say this was a break?  Silly me!

Thank you, my DH, for reminding me that I’d forgotten to blog today and saving me from letting the challenge slip thru my fingers after 20 days!

Indeed, this weekend’s show was certainly disappointing on the first day, not only for us but for all the other artisan-vendors we talked with.  I thought all day that there didn’t seem to be the attendance I was accustomed to seeing, and both Diane and Lisa confirmed it.  I do not even think we have made the booth fee back, not once the charge for the electrical service is added in.

On the other hand, the “Wonkies for the Kitties” has to be considered a huge success.  Mincot donated her wonky proceeds to the cause as well, and many people were quite willing to drop a dollar or two in the Good Mews can and pick out a wonky bead.

We have definitely gotten a lot of attention, particularly from Min’s necklaces — she hasn’t sold any of them but they do catch people’s eye, and that pulls them over to the booth.  A lot of folks have asked if we are local (yes), if we teach (yes, but not lampworking, but we know who does teach lampworking), and if we have websites (oh, yeah!).  So I guess once I’m back from the show, I can push to get some stuff photographed and up on the website/Etsy/eBay as well as convert some beads to finished work for the GPC show.

It’s all about making contacts and getting your name out there, after all.  Build it and they will come — hey, it worked for The Glass Haven.

No matter how organized you are, there is always a certain frantic scramble in getting ready for a show.  I’ve been pretty good about keeping my display stuff all packed together, but since the tables at Down the Street are eight foot tables and my display stuff is for a six foot table, I had to find another table cover.  I tested all the lighting tonight and it all works, hooray!  Since the business and packing supplies stay consolidated, it’s an easy matter to put them into the carrying cases and get those ready.

The packing challenge is always getting the merchandise together.  What to take and how to set it up changes from show to show, and so how to pack and store it changes as well.

The other big challenge I have is pricing.  I don’t want to devalue my work but I don’t want to price it out of reach, either.  I did decide that for this show, it’s time to move out some of the old beads.  I have a ridiculous number of soft glass beads from early on in my lampworking career, mostly just basic round beads rolled in frit, and they really do need to go.  So I’ve priced them to move.  With any luck those will pay my part of our table fee and expenses.  I also have put a lot of the tinier and wonkier beads into a jar, and am going to put them beside a Good Mews donation bucket with “Donate a Buck, Pick a Bead” or something like that. That way I get rid of them and raise some money for the kitties.
Pricing with focal beads always seems to be a crap shoot anyway.  This time I’ll see if my display method of last time is why they didn’t seem to attract attention.

The boro sets I will have to actually price in the morning when I get there, but I am certainly going to price them higher than the basic soft glass sets.  They look a lot cooler anyway, so I think they can command a higher price.

Setup tomorrow morning will come way too early to suit me — it opens at six a.m. but no way in hell am I going to be there then!  Still, time to get the car loaded and get some shut-eye.