For those who noticed the absence of Feline Friday photos, an explanation is in order.

I’m away from home today, and using my travel computer, an 11″ MacBook Air purchased several years ago. It’s light weight, fast enough, and a pleasure on the road.

I actually selected a set of photos to share today, and I thought they had been successfully uploaded to Dropbox where I thought they could easily be accessed for today’s FF post.

But in the rush to get them uploaded while finishing other preparations before leaving, something went wrong. I can’t even quite figure out how I made the error, but…when I went to retrieve the photos, they are missing in action. Embarrassing, but true.

I can report, however, that Ms. Annie has managed to slip into a kitchen closet unnoticed by us on two occasions in the past week. One time she spent the night there, and I didn’t discover her until I noticed her absence at breakfast, and opened the closet door to check. And that wasn’t the first time it happened. She seems to like that cozy little cave. But it’s dangerous, and we’re having to keep closer tabs on her to avoid a disaster.

Toby earned himself a vet visit with a slight limp over the past week or more. I didn’t ask for the full court press in diagnosis, so we didn’t go through X-rays and such. But it’s somewhere in his right front shoulder that’s hurting him. He’s gotten a dose of an anti-inflammatory, and we’ve now got him under observation as well.

The other cats seem more or less okay. Ms. Kili had a “senior cat” blood test, and in most respects she’s doing well for such an old gal. Her main issue is that we had to up her insulin dose to try and get her glucose level under better control. Now that she’s had time to adjust, I’ll have to test for a few days and assess how it’s working.

And I realized that it’s been five years since Duke was diagnosed with diabetes. I remember how scared I was by the diagnosis, and all the fears that we wouldn’t be able to cope. Well, we’ve all adjusted and I can say that he’s doing pretty well. The big problem now is that the cost of insulin has soared. When he was first diagnosed, the small bottle that will treat two cats for a couple of months, cost something like $110. It has now soared to around $270. And there’s no insurance to draw on for the cats treatment. So, ouch! There really isn’t an option, so we wince and pay the bill. I think most of you would do it for your pets under similar circumstances, too.

When I get back home, I’ll post those photos. Better late than never.