Month: September 2016

Quick back story: I discovered a mass on Finney’s hindquarters on Friday. Everything indicated an abscess, and even the vet immediately thought abscess when she saw it. But when she went to drain it, it was a no-go on the abscess diagnosis.

It could still be an infection, a benign growth, or a tumor which turns out to be cancer. I’m trying to remain calm. Results from the biopsy won’t come back for 3 to 5 days. She put him on antibiotics right away though, in case it’s still an infection.

This morning Finney threw up and it looked like there was blood in there. The vet said see how the rest of the day goes, and how he eats (which is about the same as usual). If he seems worse bring him in at 9am tomorrow.

Here’s the thing. I’m supposed to start jury duty tomorrow morning. I looked, and they have no procedure for canceling last minute. There’s no way I’m going to jury duty if Finney is worse, but even if he’s not, I don’t know about leaving him alone all day every day, in case he gets worse when I’m not there. I don’t know what to do!

Here is the mass. Look away if you are squeamish.

He’s got this big growth near his butt, it appeared out of nowhere. I’m taking him to the vet tomorrow, it was the earliest appointment I could get. But I googled it, and it could just be an abscess, which doesn’t sound life-threatening. He doesn’t appear in any pain, and he’s eating. Still. I won’t feel okay until I get him to the vet and find out what’s going on.

I know people golf, and some people who live in the city golf, but it always seems so weird to me to see people carrying golf clubs in the city.

I just got back from the dress rehearsal for the New York Philharmonic’s upcoming Gala. I came here to brag about my lucky, charmed life when I saw that everyone can watch it live. Very cool. They’re performing Dvořák’s World Symphony, Gershwin’s Concerto in F, and a new piece from John Corigliano titled STOMP. This program made me feel very nostalgic. A good nostalgia.

The pianist Aaron Diehl followed by a shot of the full orchestra.

The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir is coming to New York to give a concert of a commissioned piece, Zabur, by Mohammed Fairouz, on Sunday Oct 16. For tickets and information, click here.

“Eric Stark conducts the New York City debut of the oratorio Zabur by composer Mohammed Fairouz, a piece commissioned and premiered by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir in Indianapolis in 2015. Joining the Symphonic Choir are the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and New York-based orchestra Mimesis Ensemble.”

A preview. Oh wow. I was moved just by the conductor talking about the piece. You can also read the composer’s comments here.

My phone just made these incredibly loud noises I’ve never heard it make before, to accompany an alert for Ahmad Khan Rahami. It was very effective. And this is a phone where I have the sound turned off on most apps, so I’m not used to hearing it make noise. I wish I had been in a crowd of people, to hear what it sounded like going off on everyone’s phone.

Very unnerving. So yeah, I’ll keep an eye out for him. Now, in more comforting news, here are a couple of shots from yesterday’s Adoptapalooza at Union Square. This is a girl inside a booth with a kitten. That kitten was adorable. There were two other kittens there that I wanted to take home so bad. Had I spent seven minutes with them in this booth I would have been a goner. (Two cats are my limit, two cats are my limit, two cats are my limit.)

And here are two greyhounds in heaven. They were just laying there, accepting the pets. I mean, look at them. Total bliss.