No More IV

The home-health nurse came this afternoon and removed the catheter from Merrie’s arm. Another small but significant healing step.

While the cats have been working at their 20 daily hours of sleep, Sophie is full-time back on the job keeping an eye on Merrie. She has chased away a couple of marauding squirrels, and she barks to let us (and the neighbors) know that our property has been invaded by a neighborhood cat. Most important, wherever Merrie is, Sophie is.

Speaking of neighbors, Merrie and Sophie’s friend Vito came by for a visit yesterday. Vito has lived all his 90 years in San Diego and used to captain tuna boats. He doesn’t hear, see or walk well but goes everywhere on his scooter and has an amazing passion for life.

Merrie has refilled the bird feeders and they are now fully populated. The house finches, doves and orioles have shown up, and we heard a bird call today we’ve never heard before. It might have been a parrot--I’m not sure. There are also a pair of Cooper’s Hawks hanging around. And we heard what I think was a screech owl last night.

Tomorrow we’ll likely go on Merrie’s first post-hospital outing, to Wal-Mart for bird seed and to the lab for a blood test.