Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Do you have an iPhone? If you do, do you further understand the awesomeness that is Instapaper? If you have an iPhone, you really should start to get it. It’s awesome like RSS feeds are awesome. It’s awesome like GMail conversation threading is awesome. If you get why those are so awesome, then I urge you to consider that there is another kind of awesome that you may not quite get yet.

In Instapaper’s own words:

Instapaper facilitates easy reading of long text content. We discover web content throughout the day, and sometimes, we don’t have time to read long articles right when we find them. Instapaper allows you to easily save them for later, when you do have time, so you don’t just forget about them or skim through them.

In the above audio recording, I explain why, for iPhone users,

Take a listen, try it out, and see if you agree. That trio along with the Kindle app for iPhone means I am reading MUCH more than I did only a few months ago. It’s a no-brainer and easy as pie. It makes it more possible to read all those articles you’ve kept in open tabs. There will be a useful place to put them; a place where they may actually get read!

I decided about a week ago to stop trying to raise money for the Maggie Memorial Fund. I had gotten so close to my goal already, and to be honest, asking for help is a difficult thing to do.

I’ve taken some big risks this year that were unsuccessful, and this was one of them. Still, I have absolutely no regrets. I’ve risked when it’s mattered to me. In the case of Maggie’s surgery, the vet and the surgeon were very optimistic since Maggie was otherwise in excellent health and since the success rate with this surgery prior to Maggie was 97% (29 out of 30 cats had survived and been helped by it). Had the surgery been a success, Maggie would likely have had many more healthy and happy years ahead of her. In the end, there was an unforeseen complication that meant Maggie would not be as lucky as those other 29 cats. Still, knowing that we did everything that was possible for her means my grief is pure. There is no guilt at all – just sadness and a lot of missing her. It’s weird that pure grief can be a gift. It’s not something I’d expect to feel, but I do.

I ran into a friend yesterday who I hadn’t seen in a while. He asked how I was doing, and it was one of those times when I had trouble answering the question. I have good days and bad days, and while I FELT like I was having a good day, the question caught me off guard. “Did you hear about Maggie?” I asked. Yes, he had. He was very sweet about it and said he was so sorry to have heard. Then this morning, I received a surprise donation of $100 from him, an amount that put me over the $2,000 fund-raising goal I’d set for myself. (If you can believe it, I actually WANT to pay as much of the cost of Maggie’s surgery as I can, but having started my own business this summer, this was an unlikely goal.) Here is the fund-raising thermometer as of this morning:

So I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all my generous friends, and know that if you’re ever in a fix, I’ve got your back. I mean that. I had it anyway, but if it’s possible, I have your back MORE! Gratitude is not something one gets to feel on an average Monday morning, but I’ve been feeling it a lot this summer. My friends are my strength. Thanks for the donations, thank you for the kind words, thank you to those who followed Maggie’s story with interest, thanks to the lovely people at XX Merge who came up to me and gave me hugs, and thanks to all my close friends: Shannon, Lalitree, Katy, Oliver, Chris, Brian, Andy, Robert, Elise, Dad, Mom, Jason, Prachi, Pamela, Don, Everette, Nancy, Kendall, Holden, Libby, Kathryn, Ian, Clara, Rachel, Kurt, Tricia, John, Drew, Hugh, Hamilton, Aaron, Brad, Barbara, Ogun, Scott, Sunitha, Jake, Leah, Veronica, all the lovely Blarty-goers, IM friends, interested Facebook friends… ALL of you. It’s funny. I know I’m forgetting tons of people like I just won an Oscar or something. It’s just… during a really hard time, I’ve gotten so much support in so many ways, and without embarrassing everyone I know, I wanted to say Thank You in a very public way.

So THANK YOU!

When I arrived home today, I had a condolence card in my mailbox from Maggie’s regular vet. Maggie died on Saturday, June 25th. Earlier that week, she had spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday at her regular vet receiving fluids in an attempt to get her Creatinine and BUN levels back within range. Maggie was such a sweet kitty and pretty vocal when she was annoyed (although never aggressive). When she came in that second day (Wednesday) after a night at home, everyone knew her name. “Hi, Maggie!” So when I opened the card and read it, it didn’t feel trite to me. It felt like they meant it:

On the left was a little poem:

I’m usually not one for mushy sentiments, but this really touched me. As I approached my apartment, tears streaming down my face from the card, I dreaded seeing my bed through the window without Maggie waiting there for me. That was her spot, and one of the hardest parts of losing her has been that approach to the apartment. Sometimes, I actually leave the blinds closed now when I leave, since seeing that empty space really guts me. So imagine my surprise when I walked up today and saw this through my tears:

I’ve experienced so much loss this summer, and it’s reminded me again how much I have to appreciate. I’m not religious, but Jeep is my little angel, and I appreciate her so much. She’s finally feeling better after a pretty rough week, and I couldn’t be more relieved.