Snowflakes

Kittens are snowflakes. They are each unique, but more fun in piles. They are soft and pretty to look at. They are also fragile.

On Friday, Chicken started to look so bad that I had to try one more time to get a diagnosis for the sick kittens. Duck started to improve, suddenly eating on his own and gaining weight. I thought that Chicken must have the same genetic problem as Duck, especially since she was wasting away like him. I took all the kittens and a fecal sample in to the vet, just in case.

Finally, I got a diagnosis. The kittens have Giardia. It may be secondary to the inherent problem causing the wasting disease, especially since the other 4 kittens who are not related look healthy and vigorous. Still, it was something I could treat.

I took the kittens home and gave them their first dose of the meds. Flagyl tastes terrible, so the kittens gagged and foamed at the mouth afterward. Still, it should have helped them.

This morning I woke up and started the kitten care routine right away. Michael went to the kitten room to get Chicken and Duck for their fluids. “Uh-oh,” I heard. Michael brought Chicken’s mostly dead body to me. I gave her the fluids I had warming in the sink and some Karo syrup, but I didn’t think it would really work. We then took her to the hospital to be euthanized. She melted away, just like a snowflake.

I miss Chicken, but I really feel like I did everything I could. In this group, 4 kittens have had some major illness or event, and 3 came out alive. Those are amazingly good odds. Still, it hurts to have lost even 1.

When I herd the kittens back into their room after an outing, I count 1,2,3,4,5,6,7…oh. One is missing. It still hurts.

Acceptance

There are times when it is best to accept that you are full of bad juju. I am officially declaring that I am aware that this is a bad time for me, and I am not going to hold this against myself.

Rocko died this morning. I couldn’t believe it – last night he was eating like a champ and purring for us. This morning he was barely moving and making the death cry. I hate starting the day taking a kitten to be put down at 7:30am. It’s just wrong for so many reasons.

To top it off, I was completely defeated by a stupid washcloth pattern. I know, a washcloth, what’s the big deal? Well, I had this big idea that I could design a washcloth with a Celtic knot on it. I made the cables, ripped them back, and made them again about 100 times. Linnea took a stab at it, making a chart so we could do just a knit/purl pattern with no cables. Nothing doing. Some parts of the design came to the front, some went to the back – it just didn’t look like anything recognizable.

I’m also working on a sock for a knit-along. It’s Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. The cable is pretty subtle in the picture I took, but in real life it is visible. It’s supposed to be subtle anyway, so that men will wear the socks without complaining. You can see what it’s supposed to look like when you click on the link. So far it’s coming along ok.

My crochet-along afghan is going well, though. I’ve been working on it while I am doing other things that require waiting, like when it isn’t my turn when we play board games or when I am letting a website load. I am way behind the others in the group, but provided none of my kittens turn sickly (I’m not willing to bet on that – Carrot still has diarrhea) I think it can be done soon. I think I am going to give it to someone at Christmas.

I had a photo shoot with the bigger kittens a few days ago. Most of the kittens I foster really like my yarn projects. I have to sit down to work on them, so the kittens get a nice lap. The projects themselves are pretty soft, and kittens enjoy cuddling them. The yarn and needles become toys that amuse sleepy kittens. I think it’s a good deal for the kitties!

Here’s Patch posing for me:

And Pumkin doing her diva impression:

And poor Tabitha just passed out from all the partying:

Serra found Tabby sleeping like that on the carpet and was apparently concerned. I don’t blame her with all the bad luck we’ve had with kittens here (Tabby is the last of her litter, and Carrot is the last of hers). It’s kind of cute how Serra and Wesley take care of some of the babies. Buttercup still believes that they are all disgusting and should be eaten alive, so that’s why I never ask her to babysit.

I have had a new arrival in the last few days, and I expect another tomorrow. This is Annie (or maybe Siren – she’s loud and sounds vaguely duck-like).

Wesley was kind enough to comfort her when she was feeling a little scared. Annie was found all alone in a warehouse. I’m wondering how someone so cute and well-cared-for got lost like that. No matter – I love her now. She could be Wesley’s little girl, don’t you think?

Trusting my instincts

I lost another one this morning. Zia was just like Endora – she wasn’t gaining weight, she didn’t eat well. I knew that it was going to be a similar battle to the one I had with Endora, so I took her to the shelter to be euthanized. I would think that I would feel guilty about it, but I’ve learned that I have good instincts. The vet tech at the shelter let me stay with Zia until the drugs worked and she was gone. It was actually comforting for me to pet Zia while she was dying. I got to say good-bye, and the last thing she saw and felt was her mommy comforting her and loving her.

As you might imagine, Endora didn’t make it. She died before she got to the emergency hospital. It’s been a rough week.

On the bright side, I have high hopes for all the rest of the kittens. I think that some friends of mine might want to adopt Pumpkin or Patch – or maybe I can talk them into taking both! Tabitha is a little sick, and Wesley seems to have caught the same cold. Those two are both so food motivated that I think the cold won’t affect them so badly. It seems to be dehydration and malnutrition that gets the sick ones, and wet food has plenty of both.

I have to catch up on some knitting now that my hardest kittens are no longer with me. It’s nice to be able to create something when I’ve just had to destroy something I loved.

Almost

Yesterday, I was almost totally unproductive. I woke up feeling disoriented and vaguely tired. I couldn’t focus, but I needed to get some housework done. All I managed was to clean the kitten room and make dinner. Woo.

The day almost ended uneventfully. Carisa came over for dinner and was just going to hang out a little longer before Michael brought her home. I decided to give Endora fluids, because even thought she had almost gotten better, she went back down hill. As I warmed the fluids, the kitten started to crash. She evacuated her bowels – one of the last thing a body does when it dies. I gave the poor thing fluids and some Karo syrup while she rested on her heat disk. She wasn’t responding. Her respiration slowed, and her heart almost stopped. Almost.

Suddenly, Endora popped back to life. She lifted her head and was able to focus on me. I offered her a bottle – she was almost too big for that, but when a kitten’s sick, all bets are off. She devoured that thing. Michael took Carisa home while I held the baby on her disk, and she slowly improved. By the time Michael had gotten home, she was ready to eat solid food.

I slept with Endora on the couch last night. Even though I saved her life when she was crashing, I knew we weren’t out of the woods. The kitten sat up and moved around, but she couldn’t quite walk yet. Almost. At some point she darted out of my lap and gobbled down more wet food in that one sitting than she had done in the entire last month that I’ve lived with her. At that point, I was almost confident that she was going to be ok. She held my hand for awhile, comforting both of us. She even purred for me in the middle of the night.

At about 3:00 in the morning, Endora darted out of my arms again and ran to the coffee table where I stored her litter box, food, and emergency supplies. She almost made it to the litter box, but she started to poo on my coffee table instead. It’s ok, she was really sick. I put her in her box to finish her business. She stood there for awhile, and when I thought she was almost done, she collapsed.

I picked her up and put her back on the heat disk. She was able to take some of the bottle, but it was almost over for her. She looked at me and rubbed her cheek against my hand. I told her to rest while I pet her face and tucked the towels around her. I was just waiting for it to be over.

At about 3:30, Endora started to cry and thrash a bit. She was almost gone, and I inteded to let her go peacefully in my arms. By 4:00 she was still hanging on. Endora wanted to live, but her body just couldn’t make it happen. I called another foster parent so an Animal Control officer could take her to the hospital to be put down. She was suffering so much that I just couldn’t take it any more.

I woke Michael up, and he drove me to the shelter. The officer asked what was wrong with the kitten. I have no idea – sometimes it’s just failure to thrive. He said he’d take her to the emergency hospital. He said that the last 2 dying foster kittens actually survived when they got emergency treatment. He gave me a number to follow up with in the morning. I am almost certain that they can’t save her. I’m still waiting for the call back.

There was a bit of purpose to my trip to the shelter. As I waited for the officer to let me in, I noticed that someone had abandoned a rat on the bench in front of the shelter. Who does that in the middle of the night? The rat almost spent the night alone and cold, save for the fact that I noticed her sitting there.

I almost didn’t save anyone today. Almost.

Shedding Season

Shedding Season has begun. I am generally pretty lazy about brushing my adult cats, but during shedding season it becomes imperative that I remove all the dead fur. If I don’t do it, I have to clean up hairballs. I choose brushing since it is a good way to spend time with my cats. Plus, I gathered the fur from the brushes (which look just like wool cards) and stored it to spin. I am not planning to make a cat fur item, I just want to experiment.

As far as spinning goes, I finally got around to finishing my wheel today. There was a spot on the treadles that I missed entirely, and I had to work on the footman that I found after I had finished the rest of the wheel. This, of course, means that I won’t be spinning for awhile. Sigh.

I picked today to finish the wheel because I have a knitting deadline coming up, and I didn’t want any spinning projects sitting around tempting me. I am nearly finished with the baby dress for the baby shower on Sunday. I have completed the front and back, and I am now working on sewing it up and adding the sleeves and neckline. I am not going to get all arrogant and say “Oh great, this will be finished way early,” because I may find myself in possession of a few bottle-feeders soon. I got the call today while I was napping (I think I have a mild version of the flu), and I have to work out the details tomorrow.

I don’t believe I have given a comprehensive list of my current kittens. Who do we have now?

First, I have been reunited with Endora and Tabitha. They did not have names before my camping trip, but once they came back to be with me I took the opportunity to name them. The tabby kitten is Tabitha, aka Tabby or Tablet. We chose Endora because it makes a great fall name – Tabitha’s grandmother on Bewitched (wow, that was a long time ago…). The other 2 in that litter didn’t make it, or I’d probably have them, too.

I also have 2 of the temporary kittens from the great pre-camping kitten swap. One of the temporary foster parents named the little boy Patch, and we called the little girl Pumpkin – also great Halloween names that go well together! These are two of the sweetest kittens ever. Patch loves his people, but he loves to purr even more. Pumpkin likes to sit at my feet while I prepare her food. She’s a chubby little thing!

At least some of the kittens have diarrhea now. Poor Endora is on a downward weight spiral, so I know that she’s one of the affected. I know not all of the kittens are ill because I found a few normal poops in the box. Still, I started them all on Amoxi paired with probiotics. I have decided that any time I use antibiotics for kittens, I will start sprinkling probiotics on their food- no sense in letting all the good bacteria go with the bad.

It’s rough right now in the health area of fostering because all of the late season kittens tend to be a little sicker than the earlier ones. The moms are usually on a second or third litter, and they just aren’t up to producing healthy kittens. I wonder if the emaciated moms are easier for the feral cat trappers to catch? I mean, they have to be starving from feeding and growing all those kittens, and the traps are baited with food. I should ask someone about that.

Trading

I’m thinking of changing the theme on my blog. This one is ok, but I think that I would like something that allows me to organize my page a little differently. The thing is, my current theme does not seem to be an option anymore, so once I change I can’t come back. I just don’t want anyone to freak out if you’re a regular reader and the blog looks different!

On Wednesday, I traded in the smallest 5 kittens for 6 who needed me more. My guys got the good end of the deal – they are staying with Toni in her huge house. She tells me they are happy and playing a lot. They have a cold though, just like every other cat in town. Carisa’s adult cat started sneezing, the 5 kittens I traded are sneezy and have conjunctivitis (pink-eye), Wisteria has red, gooey eyes, and most of the other foster parents’ kittens are sick. My own cats even had a minor cold for a day or 2. Interesting. Only Moonlight seems to have been spared.

One of the 6 new kittens was older (I think 5 weeks old), had good teeth, and was eating on his own. He’s the guy in the bottom left corner of the picture. The thing is, he died Friday morning. I think he was a bit like Sundae – way too small and failing to thrive. The night before he died, he was only 185g. I was planning to ask if we could euthanize him in the morning if he had lost more weight, but I guess he knew it was his time just as much as I did.

The next piece of work is Snuffles. He has cloudy eyes and he’s stuffed up so badly he has to take breaks from the bottle to catch his breath. He was losing weight, too, but in the last few days he seems to have maintained his weight. I’ve been using a Vicks plug-in vapor diffuser to help clear his sinuses enough to eat and sleep. He actually seems better now – his eyes have cleared up a little and he’s more cheerful. I was going to ask to put him out of his misery as well, but I think that maybe I had better wait in light of his improvement.

Number 3 is a black boy kitten with some sort of leg trouble. He’s a sweetheart, totally chubby and strong, but when he walks it’s like his legs can’t support his weight – we wobbles, practically swimming with his back legs. When he’s off the bottle he’ll be checked out more thoroughly, perhaps for a neurological issue.

The other 3 are normal weaning kittens. There is a black girl – still on the bottle, a grey tabby that looks very similar to Snuffles, and a dark brown tabby who is eating on his own mostly, but wants the bottle for comfort reasons.

Moonlight has gotten big enough to be spayed now. I am giving her just a few more days because she seems to have relatively large (50g) swings in her weight. If she has to fast before her surgery, she could wake up too small and she’ll have to wait in the shelter longer. Plus, she can use the socializing.

I have some very wonderful news about Wisteria. My friend Naomi (from the spinning class I took recently) is planning to adopt her! I was worried that no other home would be good enough for my little sheep-kitten, but I am totally sold on Naomi. The whole family met my kitten and handled her well. They listened to my advice about her behavior. They also agreed to keep her indoors because she will be stolen otherwise. I feel good about this adoption, so I can let her go. Plus, I get to see her from time to time in the future. What a relief.

Speaking of spinning, I finished and plied the merino/tencel. I decided to make it a 2-ply, and I am keeping it myself. I have no idea what to make with it, but since when do I need a reason to keep a skein of yarn?

Comings and goings

Cupcake was the healthiest kitten I’ve ever had. When the others caught a URI, she was unfazed. The other kittens caught ringworm, and she never even got a smidgen of hair-loss. She was healthy, fun-loving and affectionate. So it comes as a surprise that, as of a few days ago, she is dead.

The shelter I volunteer for is the city shelter. They have had a partnership with another privately funded shelter in the city for many years now. This partnership allows the city shelter to transfer its overflow so it doesn’t have to euthanize for space. Cupcake was sent to the other shelter because Biscotti had eye boogers, marking him as a possible URI case. Since the others who were with him were exposed, they had to be moved to the private shelter as well. The city shelter really can’t afford to treat sick kittens, so this has worked out in general.

I have a much harder time tracking my kittens when they go over to the other shelter. I used to volunteer there, which would have made it easy, but I no longer go for reasons I would not like to discuss here (although the following story does illustrate one of my reasons). I have my friends look out for my babies in my place. I am glad I have these people because I would never have known otherwise. Apparently, Cupcake’s belly started to fill with fluid and she developed a fever. It came on pretty quickly, so the other shelter ran some tests. You see, they expected she had FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitus). I know that the other shelter has a few misunderstandings about FIP. They think that if one kitten in a litter gets it, all will get it (we’ve almost never had more than one kitten in a litter develop FIP at the city shelter). If the kittens are genetically related, the other shelter will kill them all. I had to get the city shelter to make the private (and might I add, very wealthy) shelter promise to return the other kittens in the litter or at least wait and see if they, too, develop FIP before killing them. They gave us a line about genetically related kittens being nearly guaranteed to catch it. We had to prove that the 3 kittens in that group were not genetically related and we told them our postition on the matter. The other shelter was ready to just make a few assumptions and kill them all, but my friend and I saved Biscotti’s and Milkshake’s lives that day. Why so quick with the killing, I wonder?

Back at home, I had more kittens to deal with. Wisteria learned that the bottle is her friend, and now she asks for it a little more often. She’s still pretty quiet, though. She was constipated for about 4 days. I gave her 0.1mL of vegetable oil, and a few hours later she passed a really hard (like dried pasta) poop. I gave her one more dose that night, and she passed a few more. It’s a good thing, because constipation can be just as deadly to a kitten as diarrhea. I figured she needed more bulk in her diet (she just sprouted teeth, too), so I’ve started adding a tiny bit of wet food to her bottle. I also gave her some KMR 2nd step (it’s like rice cereal for kittens) via a syringe. It seems to help her bowels keep moving. Most kittens are like a poop vending machine – put in a little milk, tickle their tummies, and out pops a turd. Wisteria is more difficult than that. Some kittens just are, I guess.

I had some overnight guests this weekend. These little boys were about 24 hours old when I got them. You can see in the picture of the brown kitten that he still has his umbilical cord attached. A mother cat left a few kittens in some construction machinery, so one of the construction workers brought them home so he and his wife could raise them. It didn’t take long before they realized that these kittens were way too much work for them to handle (they cried for food every 2 & 1/2 hours, which is more than any other kittens who lived with me needed), so they contacted our rescue group. After the way the Stars turned out, I decided I didn’t want to take kittens that small again. It just takes a lot of resources and the chances of their survival are slim – I’m thinking less than 5%. Fortunately, there was a cat at the shelter who was due to give birth any day now. I cared for them in hopes that they could be added to the litter, but I had to pass these kittens to another foster parent because we had a few unexpected things come up this weekend.

Lani and Kai are still here as well. Lani is getting friendlier by the day, and Kai has learned to at least tolerate us – it’s progress. They are growing like weeds. This is a welcome change from the last kittens. Some of them really held out there.

I started my spinning class this weekend. I am enthralled, to put it mildly. I got to take an Ashford Wheel kind of like this one home. I’ll include a picture tomorrow. I had to cover the thing up because as soon as I got it home, Serra figured she should make friends with it. It isn’t mine, so I have to be extra careful that she doesn’t hurt it. My homework assignment is to practice treadling. We didn’t get to spin this week because the teacher thought that learning to use the treadle and draft yarn was a lot to do all at once. She is ok if we try to spin this week, but she didn’t show us how, exactly.

I learned a lot yesterday. The teacher showed us new tools and the rawest of materials for spinning. She had a fleece that she divided up for us to take home and wash. It’s kind of easy, but I think I felted the grey one a little. I’m not sure how – they were all in at the same time. I should have gotten a picture of them before I washed, but maybe I can get a shot next week at class (I forgot my camera this time- crud).

We all were given a few pieces of skirted (washed) fleece to practice carding and making rolags (pronounced roll-logs). The bright pink stuff at the bottom is something she gave us to blend with the white stuff so we could practice blending. I’ll get some pictures of the process when the fleece I washed at home dries.

I was pretty proficient at carding. I made rolags like they were going out of style – the teacher decided that I needed more fleece to take home so that I wouldn’t get bored before our next class. I truly love this whole process. I think I was born in the wrong era. Oh, well.

I daresay I am a natural with this fiber making jazz. I showed the teacher the ball of yarn I made recently with the drop spindle, and she was genuinely impressed. I like that I have found a hobby that I have some natural talent for. Now I just need to buy a stinking house so I have room for a wheel. Sigh.

Not Long

I believe I have reached a personal record for shortest time I have fostered a kitten. Sundae was great last night – he ate, he climbed my shoulder, and he was affectionate. This morning Michael went in to feed the little guys and found Sundae dead. I suspect he died not long after we went to bed because rigor mortis had just started setting in.

I had to return the body to the shelter this afternoon since they do necropsies to spot trends in shelter deaths. I was surprisingly ok with it, but I was careful to hide the body from anyone who might not be prepared for such a sight. Finding and bagging the kitten made Michael realize how much he respected the shelter vet – he said he just couldn’t stand to open up a dead kitten.

But, on to brighter news. When I went to the shelter I was given another of the Desserts’ littermates who was just trapped and brought in. He is a little skittish, but he is coming around fast. It’s amazing how good a bowl of food can make your captors look ok after all.

This is Milkshake. He’s bigger than all the rest of them, including Nebula. I even got a picture of his tongue!

Nebby grew for me today. He gained about 26g. I think he just missed me and went on a hunger strike.

Most of the kittens are taking antibiotics right now. Meringue has such long fur that EVERYTHING gets caught in it. He is saving the antibiotics for later, I guess. 

 

 

I have another FO to show you. I couldn’t put the picture up when I actually finished because I wanted to wait for my Aunt Anna to get it first, just in case she was checking my blog.

It’s the sheep pillow!

My next deadline is Alexis’ blanket. I wanted to send all of my neice’s and nephew’s birthday presents in one box since their birthdays are close to one another. If I don’t finish, I at least have a ton of stuff I’ve collected for Blaine over the last few months. It won’t be an underfilled box.

Checking in and golfing

I am not going to post more pictures until I return home. The internet connection at my hotel is abysmal so it takes forever to upload anything. Plus, I’m using my husband’s laptop which doesn’t have my photo editing software (which I use to make the pictures a more manageable size).

I slogged through my email yesterday and today despite the slow connection. It almost seems like dial-up. Anyway, I learned that Merak also died earlier this week. If I am understanding the news correctly, he died of FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitus). That disease is incredibly lethal. It sure explains why those kittens were so unhappy all the time.

In other kitten news, I should have some more on Sunday! I may even get Nebula back (oh please, oh please, oh please!). Speaking of handsome little guys, I have a very cute squirrel story to tell when I can upload pictures again.

Today we didn’t do all that much. Mostly, we went to a pitch and putt course in Stanley Park. I got a legitimate par on one of the holes! The rest of them, I am sad to say, weren’t so hot. There were holes as short as 40 yards, but still I managed to get 4-7 strokes per hole. The other golfers were relative beginners, too, which means I had time to photograph the beautiful course between holes. I had such a terrible time that I plan to do it again tomorrow. I think we’ll try to go to Queen Elizabeth Park next. I just need to remember the sunscreen this time. It has been overcast most days this week, so when it got sunny I just forgot to protect myself.

Falling Stars

I am feeling a little guilty that I haven’t given much space to Oscar here. He is actually quite cute! He is affectionate and incredibly sweet. He’s only spent a week with me though, and it was when I had 9 foster kittens. Still, I want to talk about him a bit.

So, here he is! I picked him up with Argo and Leo the day they got neutered. He didn’t really know how to play with other kittens, so his neuter-mates hissed at him a lot. Orion, Lyra and Nebby were much more accepting of him, and within hours I saw them snuggling with Oscar.

Oscar was held back by the ringworm thing, but he seems not to have contracted anything. He did come down with a little cold after the surgery. That happens sometimes. His body was stressed with the surgery, so a latent bacterium took advantage of him. In just a day after starting Clavamox he got better.

So, Tuesday just got worse after my post. Linda (the wonder foster parent) took me to pick up my car from the shop after we spent a little more time at the shelter. I spoke to the mechanic about the state of my car (the bill was MUCH smaller than I expected) and the history I’ve had with it. Long story short, they advised me to sell my car and get a new one. It’s a lemon. It started having trouble at 27,000 miles and has just had more things come up since then. So great, I lost a kitten and my car (which only has 36,000 miles on it) got a death sentence.

Later that night, Mizar began to show signs of distress. He lost about 25% of his weight and wouldn’t nurse. He was dying too. I made the decision to call Linda again and have the poor thing euthanized. It was a hard decision, but I already saw how the story ends that morning. We put Mizar on a heating disk while we waited for Linda to come pick him up and send him to the shelter. He purred while I pet him, trying to say my goodbyes. This is how I last saw him. He at least seemed happy.

 

With the double stars gone, I had to concentrate on Merak. He spent a lot of time covered in the diarrhea from the other kittens. I had to wash him several times a day – sometimes in part, sometimes all over.

He is fussy a lot, but it seems to be more about teething than wanting milk. Besides, if we overfeed him it will make his diarrhea worse, and we all know where that ends. Instead, we gave him a nipple to use as a pacifier. I should make it clear here that if you do that, it is important to make sure the kitten doesn’t chew off part of the nipple and swallow it. It could end up in his intestines.

Merak is doing much better without the other kittens waking him up and pooping on him all the time. He actually gained weight today, so that gives me hope. He has diarrhea, so I spend about half of his feeding times giving him pure Pedialyte. He is by no means out of the woods. I could wake up tomorrow and he could take a turn for the worse. I still have to try.

For now, this is my reward. I love the way Merak gets so happy and purrs for me when I feed him. It’s like he is saying “Good job, mom. You figured it out.”

 

I have transferred all of the bigger kittens to another home in preparation for my trip on Saturday. Merak will go somewhere else tomorrow. Oscar was taken to the shelter today, perhaps to be adopted.

This morning I was able to spend the day at home with Merak. I turned on the computer to put up my blog post, but I had no internet connection. I tried to print a summary sheet about the Constellations and Nebby for the new foster mom, but the computer wouldn’t recognize the printer. I restarted the computer, but it hung up in the boot screen. So, that’s one more thing that went downhill this week. (I have had the foresight to get an external hard drive for my pictures and documents I want to save). I’m going to have to get a new computer when we get back. Just a word of advice about that – don’t buy from Best Buy. The computers are crap (I’ve had 2 in a row just spectacularly fail. Once the motherboard was bleeding, and the second time it started out looking like a virus, but turned out to be a hardware failure), and now they aren’t including the operating system disk so you can format if you have to. They charge you $25 for it. They say it is for “shipping and handling.” Funny that aol would be willing to send those junk mail cds if it costs that much. The computer dies right about the same time as the warranty runs out, and they will not support you. I’m looking for a Dell next time. We’ve had great experiences with my husband’s laptop.

Oh and the icing on the cake – I just realized that I forgot to return my library books yesterday. Now they are overdue. Swell.