Stacy Horn

I’m dropping Finney off for the biopsy. If it comes back positive they are recommending amputating his leg. Now, I know pets can do very well on three legs, but this is a sixteen year old cat with very bad arthritis in his back legs. He barely walks now, which means he’d have to balance his back end on one bad leg. He has to use pet stairs to get onto the couch! Will he be able to climb stairs?? A friend recommended a prosthetic leg, which I’m going to investigate, but I don’t know how I’m going to pay for the amputation (credit card) much less a prosthetic leg. Right now I’m hoping against hope that I don’t have to make these decisions.

People park cars, bikes, and now children’s scooters. This was outside P.S. 3 on Hudson Street.

I was telling my sister-in-law Robin Horn, who is a tile artist, about the incredible tile art throughout the New York City subway system. I was at the New-York Historical Society yesterday, which is the same stop as the American Museum of Natural History. There’s some great tile work there. This is just one of many, there’s a lot to see at this one stop.

A close-up of a section from the same wall.

I’m afraid this blog is going to become all Finney all the time, but I thought they were doing a biopsy to test for cancer, but it turns out they were doing another test (still waiting to hear what that test even was). Now I’m waiting for a call from the vet to schedule a biopsy.

I keep planning to do a series of people bring rude. Except, I’m not Miss Perfect and I don’t think it’s a good idea to nurture my anger about this issue (common courtesy going out the window). But last night I took a picture of a woman walking in the bike lane, who didn’t even move aside an inch for the guy on the bike. I have to admit, it felt good to document it. But for the reasons I already mentioned I think I’ll call this one shot getting it out of my system and try to move on!

I found a number to call about showing up for jury duty and they were completely blase. “I was supposed to show up for jury duty this morning, but I can’t due to a pet emergency.” They asked for my juror number and said, “We’ll send you another notice in six months.”

Meanwhile, Finney continues to throw up so they told me to discontinue the Clavamox and we’ll wait for the biopsy results before deciding what to do next. I do not have a good feeling about any of this, of course.

Finney on a better day.

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.