This morning, before I even went outside, I looked out the living room window to see what the weather might be like. That’s when I noticed Elusive has returned. He was in my front yard looking across the highway.

With my heart in my throat, I stepped back a little to watch and see what he does. I knew that if I went outside and spoke to him or tried to stop his mad dash across the highway, that could go very wrong. Instead, I just sat back and I watch this kitty actually gauge, the traffic on the highway. He is smart enough to know that what he is doing is very dangerous. But I watched him and could actually almost feel him thinking about what he had to accomplish, which was darting out to cross the highway without getting killed. To his credit, he did not move until the highway was completely clear of traffic. My heart was still in my throat, but I was quite impressed to see that he understands to some degree that this is a treacherous path he is chosen to make in the mornings.

I will once again start putting food out in the front yard for him, to lessen the chance of him, running into twist or Poe, and getting into a fight. I’m glad to see him back, I just wish that he would stay on the side of the highway, he’s playing a dangerous game of roulette.

Today has been a very long and strange day. I went to see the orthopedic surgeon, she was very nice and kind. She was very direct. She did not speak down to me which I appreciated. I asked questions and they were answered. Before I even saw her, they sent me over to have some more x-rays and films done  prior to the appointment.

she revealed several things to me, based on what she sees in all the films. I did not tear my rotator cuff, I don’t Have a rotator cuff. According to her evaluation,  the incident that ruined and destroyed my rotator cuff happened over two years ago. That would put it around the time that Kota got attacked and I pulled that monster attacking dog off of my dog.

I asked the doctor why is took so long for it to be diagnosed? Before this, I was just always told when I went in to see the doctor about my sore shoulder that I had arthritis, bursitis, and osteopenia. For that, she didn’t really have an answer.

She recommended surgery, the only thing is, on this type of surgery that they would do, I would have a complete shoulder replacement. They do not even try to do this surgery for at least six months. They want the drugs on board first. I received my first injection of a combination of cortisone, a numbing agent and a painkiller this morning. The next injection will be in September. My hope is that the injections will help relieve the amount of pain I’ve been dealing with for so long. And perhaps with repeated injections, the surgery will not even be needed. That’s my new hope.

If they can’t put a handle on all the pain, and I do have the surgery. I will be in the hospital from 1 to 5 days depending on what happens. I would be in an immobile sling for nine weeks. During that time I would start a low grade of physical therapy. After the nine weeks, the physical therapy would ramp up. The recovery time for this type of complete shoulder rebuild event is 6 to 8 months. She did say that the people that do have the surgery, generally afterwards, after all the physical therapy, and all the time in recovery, they don’t have any issues with pain on their shoulder again . The surgery consist of taking a titanium implant and putting it into my shoulder to rest my shoulder joint on. Bye bye bone on bone  according to the doctor, there is no cartilage, no muscle tissue nothing. The only thing covering my shoulder currently is my skin.,

So right now, we will let the drugs hopefully do what they do best, which is heal what is broken. The doctor also told me something strange and I didn’t ask for any further information. She told me that if I go ahead with the surgery in the future, I have to check in one day early because they have to get me ready for the surgery? I didn’t ask any questions about that preparation. I am just hoping that the injections will solve the issue.

I will admit that right now I am pretty out of it. The painkiller kicked in about four hours ago, the numbing agent is helping to allow my shoulder to just rest, the cortisone will start to work in two or three days. She also told me that for two days I am supposed to do nothing. I had to laugh, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I told her I can promise her 24 hours that I can be a couch  potato, but beyond that, I can’t make any promises. I still have cats here that need me, my dog with his issues, and a lot of work that needs to still be done. I will do my best, but again I have to be practical.

Out of all this two Angels have risen  two of my friends when I shared my results with them told me that if I did have to have the surgery, either one of them will just move in with me, until I am able to do things on my own. That was very heartwarming to be honest. Going through all of this alone, with no Michael to buffer anything,  has been the most overwhelming part of this whole deal. It’s nice to have answers. Finally, after all these years of being told that it was bursitis arthritis et al. It’s also nice to know that you’ve made a difference in someone’s life enough for them to sacrifice the time that it would take to walk me through recovery.

on the kitty front, both kittens are doing wonderfully. Aspen is slowly coming out of her shell. This afternoon she was very welcoming to one of my friends, who met her for the first time. She also fell in love with her immediately! she wanted to adopt her, but I know better, she has enough kitties right now, and she was only succumbing to aspens charm. She wasn’t thinking about the other eight cats at home that Aspen would have to get along with.

They are both so jealous of each other. It’s almost comical. If I’m petting Laurel, Aspen will come up and get between my hand and laurels head until I am petting both of them. Laurel, she will move and come closer to me, trying to push Aspen out of the picture. It’s the cutest tug-of-war I’ve ever been witness to. Another trick that Aspen’s doing now, when I am paying attention to Laurel, she will start to climb up my leg. Thank God she doesn’t use her claws , she just arches up on my leg and stretches her paw to try to get me to pay attention to her and leave Laurel alone. It’s just funny, especially after having so many feral kitties in my presence who want nothing to do with me. These kitties are certainly not feral . Neglected, yes they were horribly neglected. Now they’re just surrounded in love.

Laurel is adapting to her new home easier than her sister Aspen. She is getting used to Kota in small degrees which is good considering how and her other home she was having to share a very small bedroom with a very aggressive, 170 pound Rottweiler. It is going to take time and patience to let these two girls know that my dog is not aggressive and will not hurt them. They are no longer taking flight when I take him through the room to put him outside, however, they get up on the highest points that they can find in the room, and do some pretty impressive hissing in his direction.

We have opened up the back half of the house for the two kittens. I don’t believe that a third kitty will be joining them. I haven’t seen Elusive since July 4th. He hasn’t been popping up on the railroad tracks in the morning, looking in my direction for food. I suspect that because of the impressive amount of fireworks that were shot off on July 4 near my home, that Elusive has decided to find a quieter place to spend his time. At least I haven’t seen him on the road, so I have hopes that he is still alive.

We are going to have to lay down linoleum tile in the mudroom sort of in a splashguard pattern behind the litter pans. Both kittens are very impressive sprayers, so we need to compensate for that and stop any type of damage that might happen to the back rooms. at least they are not tomcats, even after a neuter, a Tomcat urine is extremely corrosive for at least 6-8 week’s

There are also plans in the work to do a catio on the back deck. This will make the kitties life a little bit easier not to mention mine. Right now, their fear of coda keeps them away from the doors. All they do is need to see his face in the doorway and they scatter. Allowing me to get in and out of the rooms without worrying about them getting out of their area.

Aspen is still quite shy and I don’t have any decent pictures of her yet, but when I do, I will post them. They are now 8 pounds which is a lot better than the 4 pounds. They were when they got here. They are really doing exceptionally well. And I have to admit it is nice to have cats in the house again even if they are not given the run of the entire house.