Meanders: And then there's Ursula

Sunday, November 8, 2020

And then there's Ursula

I’ve been remiss, I meant to write about Ursula (Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Urs, Little Checkerboard Face) shortly after the Zora File. Because her personality is so strong, she’s harder to capture. She trills and talks and insists. Her purr is loud and she does a tuck and roll, sort of what Phil use to do, except where he did a solid shoulder down and roll, she leads with her head. Which is awkward and seems it would hurt, but she doesn’t stop. She is at once cuddly and loving and then, suddenly, distant and cold. She loves to play catch the laser, attack the ribbon and runs as fast as she can through the house even though she has no brakes on the hardwood floor. In early August it seemed as though she had hurt herself and after a visit to the vet, she had three days of anti-inflammatories. After the rest and the meds, she seemed fine. About a week later I noticed a huge bump on her head, I thought maybe she had run and hit a wall, a chair or the edge of the bed. When it didn’t go away, she went back to the vet where they took a biopsy, that didn’t look right so it was sent off to their lab. A week later Dr. Jen, told me that she had an aggressive and quick moving cancer. I told her the lump had completely disappeared (which made Dr. Jen, go hmm, that's really odd, wow, hmmm) and she was feistier than ever. So, we agreed to hold off on anything else, watch Ursula for any lumps or changes in diet, weight loss or behavior, etc. As far as Ursula is concerned (if a cat is ever concerned) the indignity was being taken to the vet twice since she’s been with us. Her appetite is beyond reproach. She spends a great deal of the day patrolling the house, checking windows and walking on keyboards. She’s always up for a game of throw the cat on the couch (something Jerry discovered she likes). Jerry tosses her, she runs back to him for another throw. We’ve also discovered she does not want you on the phone, anytime. And when we were talking to the Bambina and were on speaker, she bit me three times trying to get me to put the phone down. As I like to ask both cats, “What’s the deal, weirdy?”