Saturday 19 January 2013

Janathon: Days 18 & 19; or, Foiled by Kittens

One of the rules of Janathon is that you must blog about your jog (or exercise of your choice) within 24 hours.  Oops.  I'm six hours too late with Day 18's post but, frankly, I'm too tired to care.

Oh, if only I had thought of this myself!
Followers of Bassman's blog will know that the kittens were spayed on Thursday morning.  They have been confined post-surgery to the Kittenry because they aren't allowed to jump up on things and there is entirely too much jumping temptation in the wider house, and I have been sleeping in the Kittenry with them because they are just little girls who have had big surgery and might need me during the night.  And because I'm a bit of a hypochondriac on their behalf.

Thursday night was horrendous.  Pandora accepted her Cone of Shame with resignation but Willow went into Resistance Fighter mode.  She hid under the bed, pulled her Cone off, and gnawed at her stitches; I shooed her out and re-Coned her.  She ran and hid under the other side of the bed, pulled her Cone off, and gnawed at her stitches; I shooed her out and re-Coned her.  And repeat.  Ad infinitum.  By 2am, I was ready to join her under the bed if it meant that I could get some sleep.  One last try at Grab the Cat, which has left me with arms that look like a piranha has had a go, and some enforced snuggling on my lap, and we all drifted off to sleep.  We were woken by a hungry Maia scratching and whining piteously at the door at 6am.  I'm not sure how Bassman slept through it all, but he did.

I was SO TIRED but I did manage to get myself to the gym later that day for an uneventful upper body workout and the usual cardio things.  I can't actually remember the rest of the day, aside from having a couple of glasses of red wine while watching telly...nope, it's a complete blank, and that is NOT due to the wine.

Friday night in the Kittenry was a lot better.  The girls had more or less adjusted to their helmets and happily snuggled in with me at bedtime.  We all fell asleep at a reasonable hour.  I was awakened by Pandora using the litter tray at 6.30am and took the opportunity to see what Willow was up to.  Quelle surprise, the Kitty Escape Artist quietly had gotten out of her helmet sometime during the night and was having a thorough wash.  Her spay wound looked to be okay, so she must have left the stitches alone.  I de-helmeted Pandora and spent the next hour watching them wash themselves and each other, until Maia's demands for breakfast became too noisy to ignore.

Pandora, Maia, & Willow:  not to scale
The rest of the day was filled with tending to the kittens and reintroducing them to Maia, who thinks that they are new kittens because they smell like Germolene and not like themselves.  There's been much hissing from Maia, but the kittens are unperturbed and just carry on with their own business, much of which involves washing Maia's ears, using her as a foot rest, and trying to sneak up on her for some snuggling.  Because of kitten duties, I hadn't planned to do any exercise at all; Bassman, however, very supportively prompted me to at least go for a walk and then came with me to make sure that I didn't just find a quiet spot in the woods for a sleep.

So, for Day 19 of Janathon, I went for a 1.6 mile walk with my husband.  But even though I may not be logging the wrangling of kittens as official Janathon activity, believe me, it counts.

8 comments:

  1. That is dedication above and beyond the call of duty! :-)

    Thinking of you being So Sensible, and Doing All Your Stretches, I have been foam rollering and stretching and exercising, and this morning did some intervals on the treadmill with no adverse effects. Hopefully this utterly miserable weather will soon pass and I can try again outdoors.

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  2. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but am probably creating a dangerous precedent and they'll never sleep at all now unless we're all in the Kittenry...

    That's good news about the treadmill & no pain! I wonder if kinesio tape might help too? I know that there are tapings for ITB problems - I am convinced that my own taping of my achilles and calf is partly why things feel so good.

    Just about to head out for 11 miles, and it's starting to snow! Well, freezing rain, but there's no way to do this run indoors so I'm trying to be optimistic.

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  3. All that catching a kitten, going under the bed, going over the bed ad infinitum certainly does count!

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  4. Eleven miles in freezing rain? Serious Respect!! Makes me feel really wimpy for staying indoors ...

    Having perused the Interweb, I'm pretty certain now that it is/was Piriformis Syndrome rather than any ITB issue. I will have to learn to love my foam roller even more, and Work Those Glutes. :-)

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    1. False alarm (freezing rain) and false hope (snow). Just 11 miles of a cold & windy slog; my skippy legs wisely stayed at home.

      I am wincing in sympathy...foam roller will be your new best friend, even if it does make you cry!

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  5. Well, congratulations on an eleven mile cold and windy slog are even more deserved than for your fabulous skippy five miles.

    Only need to repeat it one-and-a-third times, and you've done a marathon! :-)

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    1. Funny, I had the exact same thought during the run, except panic was the predominant emotion!

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