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I haven’t written up a special post for the new year. There are a lot of reasons. I’m still trying to figure out just what the hell has happened over the past year. I mean, a book? A book tour? Two reprints (small reprints, but still, it’s on it’s third printing!)? It’s just weird. I don’t even know how to go about explaining just how it all feels, because it’s not all joy. I’ve now set a bar for myself that I’m having a hard time getting over. I have too many ideas, too much I want to and I feel like I’m spinning my wheels. I love pushing myself, challenging myself, so I’m certainly not tortured over it, but I’m definitely competing against myself and am determined to kick my own ass. Along with the joy are a bit of anxiousness, fear of failure, and a drive to succeed that is like a drug. And despite the book doing fairly well, it has by no means provided me the‚ stability or paycheck‚ for a new career, so my full-time day job is still at the top of my list of things to do. But it’s all good. I even really enjoy doing presentations at book signings now and I’m going to be scheduling more soon! W00t!

Another reason I haven’t done a New Year’s post is that Jon and I have both been a bit distracted lately.‚  And no, I’m not pregnant like a certain redhead I adore and couldn’t be happier for, but I figured if she can show pictures of innards, so can I.

First, this is the outside of our slightly evil baby Mike.

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Fierce Bad Mike. You may remember him from his demonstration on Live Dying.‚ 

And here is the inside of Mike.

Click for big. It’s kind of hard to scan an X-Ray, so I circled the points of interest. As you can see, crafty cat that he is, Mike has made himself a lovely set of Bladder Stones. He has been keeping most of them in his bladder, but recently rearranged a bit and decided that his urethra might be a good place to put a couple. You know, mix things up a bit. A few days ago, we noticed he was acting strange, kind of mopey and crying this pitiful little cry. He was in and out of the litter box a lot and eventually I saw him pee in front of the litter box. He looked really distressed and barely anything came out.

We took him to the vet, yadda yadda, they removed his penis and now he has to pee like a girl out of a brand new orifice under his anus.

Yes, you read that correctly. Go ahead, read it again. I’m telling you, your eyes did not deceive you.

He had to undergo emergency surgery yesterday because he was completely blocked. The procedure is called a Perineal Urethrostomy. When they ran through the estimate for us, they mentioned “Holiday Prices”. Now, normally this means some kind of big sale, but trust me, when you hear those words in the emergency room of an animal hospital, there are no low, low prices to get excited about. Turns out surgeons would rather go to parties on New Year’s Eve rather than perform Penectomies on cats and apparently need to keep well hydrated while performing the surgery. I mean, I didn’t actually see the Krug itemized on the bill, but I can only assume that’s why it’s costing as much as it is.

‚ Mike is still at the hospital recovering. He should be home tomorrow or Wednesday and we’ve set up our bedroom to be his little sanctuary where he can be secluded from the other cats while he recovers – plastic head cone and all. Poor little guy. Imagine peeing from a whole new place? We visited him today and he’s officially a post-op transsexual. Huh. Imagine that. I think that makes us a progressive household!

Did I mention that I’m selling some really amazing t-shirts and tote bags? And that 100% of the profits will go to the *Save Mike’s Life (But Unfortunately Not His Penis) Foundation? Well, I am and they will. They really are great.

I hope this new year treats you and the panty parts of all your loved ones well. It’s a whole new bucket of worms we’re opening with 2007, so let’s look alive and make it the best ever, people! Get out there and own it! Group hug!
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