Back home! (for now...)

[winterbadger]

Well, I'm tired and sweaty and stinky from 8 solid hours of travel (including a spring in Phillie Airport to catch my connection), but I'm back and going to leap in the shower and then a bath. Alas, the greeting of every cat owner--hungry cats and half a dozen hairballs needing to be cleaned up. But on the up side, Finn's fur is really coming back noticeably--he's almost black again! :-) I guess it just takes a lot longer to come back from being basically gnawed down to the skin than just from having one spot shaved.

Ugh, the weather and the drivers instantly reminded me why I wanted to get away from here. I may not be able to wait another year to start my hobbity travels...

More on VT once I've cleaned up and had a day to unpack and do laundry (apparently our house has new washers coming this weekend!)

Comments

[la-renardine.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I look forward to hearing about your time and your mountains-inspired reflections...after my vacation which begins tomorrow!!

[winterbadger]

*hoot, hoot* (foghorn--sound of ships passing in the night) :-)

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

That's great about Phineas's fur! Is he on a new medicine? Or is he just less stressed when you're away? :-)

[winterbadger]

It's been growing back ever since he got shots of steroids that broke the cycle of constant licking. He still overgrooms a bit, but whatever it was that happened when he got the first shot, he's felt much better since then. He's much *happier*, which makes a great deal of difference. He's still a bit indolent (like me :-), which is no surprise, as he's a middle-aged cat. But he isn't upset and nervous all the time--instead he seems to be *very* happy most of the time, looking for opportunities to ask for petting or to curl up and purr loudly next to someone.

Before I went away, I noticed dark spots on his side, and after investigating I realised they weren't marks on his skin but patterns in the pigmentation of his fur, which was growing back enough that it was visible. Now his sides have gotten uniformly dark--and very soft, if you stroke him "on the grain" as it were--if you stroke backwards, it's still rough and prickly, like human face or limb hair that's been shaved and is growing back.