Welcome back to Wednesday Links! How are we all doing?
It is a week of ups and downs for me. My partner and I bought a house – yipee! It happened much quicker than we intended, but of course that comes with all the extra inspections, repairs, closing, etc. It is a lot and I’m incredibly thankful my partner is someone who doesn’t mind getting on the horn to talk to everyone while I swaddle myself in a blanket and shove mozzarella sticks in my mouth.
Look, we all have our strengths!
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So…is anyone keeping up with the It Ends with Us movie drama? Or it’s poor promotional tactics? I am RAPT!
And tangentially related, Sarah was in The New York Times with book recommendations if you happened to enjoy It Ends with Us.
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East City Bookshop recently suffered flood damage and they’re hosting an auction to raise funds for repairs. Auction ends August 19th!
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Wake up, babes! New romance substack just dropped! I heard about the Restorative Romance newsletter through a colleague (Hello, Charlotte, if you’re reading!) and the about page describes the newsletter as, “Restorative Romance is a newsletter for people interested in the bigger picture of what historical romance is and can be.”
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CW for this next paragraph, as I’m discussing eventual pet death.
We recently celebrated Linus’s Gotcha Day this weekend and he’s pushing 17! However, my social media accounts blasted me with old memories of Linus looking hale and hearty. Now, he has a diagnosed thyroid condition and is definitely looking his age. Linus is the first pet I’ve had as an adult and I was to do something to really remember him, as we prepare for his inevitable passing (as much as I want to believe he is possessed by an eldritch god). I ordered this pet nose impression kit from a taxidermy artist I’ve followed for a while. She also produces beautiful lockets with materials, which also might be a future option.
Out of curiosity, how have you remembered your past pets? I’d love to hear about them!
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the current New York Magazine cover story about whether we humans do too much to try to extend our pets’ lives, to their detriment and discomfort, out of our own selfishness. But I commend you, bigtime, for thinking about the end before you’re actually facing it. It’s so hard. I’ve made beaded memorial bracelets for friends’ and family members’ late pets; you can also buy stainless steel necklaces with your pet’s portrait etched on a pendant.
When I was a kid, we buried our beloved cat under the birdbath in our backyard, which he’d loved to watch from the porch. It felt fitting.
I have a throw pillow on my couch with my previous cat’s name, a simple drawing of a cat, and a few words about her. She was a cuddler and it helps to imagine her snuggling on the couch with me.
Love love love Emma’s newsletter Restorative Romance, and the recent series of essays on dukes in romance has been so informative and thought-provoking! I’ve reengaged with reading historical romances with an eye for some of the topics she writes on most frequently, especially reconciliation and justice.
We make 1-2 physical prints of cat pictures and put them up on the walls, usually one “formal” and one silly for each pet.
Congratulations on the house. It does get easier, but keep the mozzarella sticks handy.
I’ve seen people find and paint rocks for their departed critters, also paw prints in plaster. There are no bad choices. Sending love and hugs to Linus.
Congratulations to you and your partner, Amanda, on your new home!
We have a very senior ferret and are going through that stage of constantly checking with each other on whether we believe he’s still has a good quality of life. My husband got “clean-touch ink pads” from pearhead to make pet paw prints. They don’t work well for the ferrets, because their paws and claws are too long and just come out as scratches. But it might make a nice momento for cats
I am fortunate that my husband is very good at fixing and maintaining houses, cars, and appliances. Unfortunately, neither of us want to go through the torture of calling anyone.
Congrats to you and your partner on the house! That is such a big deal!
I did a memorial tattoo for my cat, of her sitting on a stack of books with her paw stretched out like she used to do-“pay attention to ME not this thing…” it’s my favorite tattoo
Congratulations on the house! LPT: resolve maintenance issues as soon as they come up, where possible. I’m slowly pulling a house out of 10+ years of bad maintenance. Yeargh.
We lost our very eldritch black cat at the end of 2023 and this coming summer we’re planting a small part of our courtyard garden with areca palms and heavenly bamboo, because he was a fiend for fresh air, and was always to be found in the shade under a shrub even in the hottest weather. Currently his ashes are on a shelf in our lounge, surrounded by his catnip toys and his winter knit.
We rescue elderly cats to give them a good twilight period – which is wonderful until *that* day arrives, and I wonder why on earth we put ourselves through this. I found someone locally who does the most wonderful portraits, so we find a photo that captures the cat, and have her work her magic. We have a little portrait gallery in the hallway outside our bedroom to the cats who went before, which makes me smile every time I see them.
On the thyroid meds, we needed that wasn’t a pill, because Sunny was a demon for not consuming pills. He would appear to swallow them and then spit the little pink pill right across the room 20 minutes later to make a point. He wound up on transdermal methimazole, which just needed to be swiped inside his ear. Sunny thought it was just scritches and was much, much happier on it. Dunno whether it’s an option for Linus, but Purdey (current tiny tyrant) and I wishing you many purrs and happy years with Linus.
I had a pet portrait artist (find her on FB, E.C. Kanko) paint portraits of two of my cats from photos I sent her. I need to get her to do the other two. They turned out so beautifully.
@Jenny, oh, I admire your giving homes to elderly cats. When my current pack are in doggie heaven, I want to do the same as you are but for senior dogs who need a safe, comfy, affectionate place to rest their heads. What are a few more tears if I can give a few dogs peace?
Congrats on the house! And thanks for highlighting our auction!
@Jenny: We’ve gone through many thyroid med methods with Linus. He is very smart lol. The transdermal made his ears all itchy and scabby. We’re on the liquid compound now, which works decently when we mix it with kitty gogurt or some wet food.
@LML: I feel you! If I won the lotto, my dream would be to get a nice parcel of land, a house, and adopt out senior animals to live out their golden years.
After my divorce, I adopted a cat at a shelter. My son loved cats and was so excited. We had him for 16 years. He also took thyroid medication. He almost passed in 2017 but rallied back for another year. We suspect he had pancreatic cancer.
When I took him to the vet that last time and knew it was goodbye, I bawled like a baby. I called him “jerk” (we jokingly called him that) and told him he was brilliant. When they asked if I want to keep his ashes or not. Of course I did. He was going to come home and be with his family.
I have another cat now, he isn’t as friendly and is quite a handful but I love him to pieces. But I miss my first “real” grown up pet all the time.
One of our boys, Hector, had thyroid problems, and the medicines maintained him for about 18 months before his concurrent heart murmur got worse. I will always be grateful for those eighteen months.
My husband’s online friend Keith does hand-drawn/painted art in a sort of mosaic style (https://www.instagram.com/pillekeith/), and we commissioned him to do portraits of both Hector and his brother Westley when we knew their time was limited. Their portraits watch over us downstairs, and we show them to our new(er) cats.
Congratulations on the house!
Congrats on your house Amanda! As a member of the romance book club you used to run at Porter Sq Books, I hope you’re staying in the greater Camberville area!
The best advice I got about house buying was from my real estate agent, who told us “you will get cold feet about buying this house. It’s OK. It happens to everyone. Just feel it and don’t freak out”. Hope that helps!
My cat Athena is an old girl at 19 and also on thyroid meds. She’s doing medium-OK but I know we don’t have a lot of time left. It’s really hard.
Much love and scritches to Linus! Each time one of my cats has passed away, I’ve gotten an ornament (with their photo) for my Christmas tree. So when I unpack the ornaments each December I see them all and they hang on the tree for the month and its like we’re visiting. I also saved all the metal rabies vax tags they accumulated over the years; I’m planning to make a garland with them but I need to find some better pliers to make it happen.
My sister got me a round pillow with a photo of Scruffy sleeping in Croissant Pose but it’s so realistic it always startles me, so it lives in the spare room. She also painted me his portrait at one of those “wine and paint” nights, and sometimes I wonder if Coco looks at it and feels like the narrator in Rebecca.
@jenny We adopt senior cats too! Although the definition of “senior” is – sigh. The oldest cat we have adopted was 20, and we also adopted a 12-year old cat because he is considered “senior” and “too old.” I’ve known so many cats who lived to their early 20s, it guts me that 8 is “senior.” They still have so much love left!
Amanda, one of our senior cats, Baby, had thyroid disease. She could not tolerate the meds so we did the radioactive treatment when she was 15. It has worked well and she’s doing great now. It is expensive but it is also very effective. They handle it differently from state to state – in some states the veterinary hospital keeps them for a week, some are overnight. Then there is a couple of weeks where you can only spend 30 minutes a day within three feet of them because…they are mildly radioactive. Most states/regions have a couple of places that do it (I know the New England ones, but not other states), so there is an opportunity to price-shop. The one we went to, Radiocat, was half the price of the other option!