We Found Misha / Scooter Update

Lola received her report card for the 1st semester of the 6th grade. She received one A, several B’s and one VERY low C in Math. Interestingly enough, there is no such grade as “D” in the Fulton County school system. Hmmmmmm….I would love to hear the story on how THAT began…

90 – 100 A
80 – 89 B
70 – 79 C
Below 70 F

In that light, it seems that Lola is scarily close to failing math. EEEK. I have been in contact with her math teacher to see if perhaps she can attend some of the help sessions that have been offered.

I was the farthest thing from the proverbial math whiz when I was in school, so I do understand Lola’s frustration in seeing all those numbers plopped on a page in the form of a problem and having not a clue what to do to get the answer. But logic also dictates that if one does not understand something, perhaps a little help from the teacher would be a step closer to the enlightenment of that subject…

I have even had one of the teachers from the Russian School come over to tutor Lola in Mathematics once a week in Russian. This has been ongoing since last September.

Lola is tragically reluctant to attend the help sessions at her school, she says, because “the teacher is helping everybody else and not helping me.” I have now solved that problem and didn’t even have to ask. Her math teacher offered to provide Lola with a one-on-one help session this week, and if needed, she will set up a time for Lola to come in for extra help on an individual basis!

A couple evenings ago while Lola and I were dining at her favorite restaurant (Fuddrucker’s) we were talking about her friend Misha from her Detsky Dom. His name comes up quite often in conversation and he is very much loved by Lola. She considers him her BEST FRIEND in Russia and she was so very much hoping to be able to contact him now that we discovered in December that he was in process of being adopted by a family in Texas. I did some research and found out the name of the adoption agency that was handling his process and asked them to forward his new family our name, address and telephone numbers. It had been about a month or so and we hadn’t heard anything yet, and both of us were getting quite anxious. As we left the restaurant I looked at my cell phone and found a new message from a number I didn’t recognize. Upon picking up the message, I found out it was Misha’s new mom and she said that Misha is very excited to talk with Lola again ! I had the biggest case of goosebumps the entire time I was listening to the message! I commented, “Wow!! Oh, my gosh!! Woooooooow!!” and Lola kept asking, “What, Mom? Who is it?” Finally I hung up and told her it was Misha’s mom and that Misha is now home in Texas and wants to talk to her. She just sat there and SMILED and SMILED and SMILED!! It wasn’t until we were picking up a few groceries at Wal-Mart before heading home when she suddenly turned to me, grabbed my arms and jumping up and down said, “Oh, Mom!! I get to talk to Misha again! I’m so excited!!” Once we arrived home, she called him and the look of joy on her face was indescribable! I told her later once he’s settled in awhile with his new family we’ll ask them if we can come to see them, perhaps over spring break.

Scooter is still having chemo treatments weekly. He’s such a sweetie. He crawls in bed with us every night and just loves to be petted. His appetite hasn’t been too keen lately and he really cannot afford to lose more weight. I remarked to Chris the other day that I never thought in a million years that I’d be begging Scooter to eat. It seems that cat had the most voracious appetite for most of his life. So voracious, in fact, that at one point he tipped the scales at a plump 19 pounds! In late 2007 I modified his eating plan so that he would lose the unnecessary weight very gradually, so when we took him into the vet last September and he weighed in at 15 pounds I was not overly concerned. I am quite thankful to the doctor for making sure we had a follow-up visit to determine if the weight loss was due to the ‘diet’ or due to some other problem. Since beginning chemo Scooter is now somewhere around 10 pounds. Hopefully he can gain back a couple of those.

He’s moving a bit slower now, and still has to rest while climbing the stairs, but now it seems with the help of some medication to increase his appetite he is willing to eat a bit more. I think once he regains his strength from finally eating he’ll perk up and be able to move around without the degree of enormous effort. I have noticed he has good days and bad days. Some days he’ll be perkier and be attentive at all that is going on around him, and other days he just wants to sleep, eat, visit the litter box and then sleep some more.

This cat knows he is loved. There is no doubt in my mind. Even though he lost control of his bladder for the first time ever today on Lola’s bed (I anticipated a few possible bathroom accidents of every kind with the chemo so I took the liberty to cover ALL beds and futon sofas in our house with those lovely plastic mattress covers and put the mattress pad, sheets and comforters on top) and I spent the better part of the evening doing laundry, we still picked him up and hugged him and gave him kisses. Lola loves Scooter no matter what. They do everything together - - watch TV, play on the computer, eat…

Petie is one of the funniest and most entertaining cats I’ve ever had the privilege to know. Last night he was playing a game I’m certain he calls ‘Aerodynamic Speed Test’. He plays this game on occasion, but last night marked a new entertainment high. Here is how the game is played: he lies on his back at the foot of the stairs, then suddenly jumps straight up in the air, gallops at top speed through the living room and literally becomes airborne, diving through the cat door to the courtyard. He then leisurely walks around the courtyard a couple times, then repeats the process in reverse. He did this about five times last night, with the speed increasing each time Seeing him fly through the cat door is like watching a fuzzy gray bullet explode from an invisible gun. Once he gets to the foot of the stairs, he surfs on a small rug and skids to a stop on the hardwood floor. It is hilarious! He came quite close to colliding with me when I got into his trajectory. The expression on his face when that happened was like “Whoooooooooooooa, there!!”

If any of you have ever seen the movie “Over the Hedge”, just think of Hammie the Squirrel. That is Petie!

Then a few minutes later he’ll hop up with us and lay down on our laps and request a massage.