Selamat Hari Raya

Hi Honey!  How are you feeling today?  I'm guessing that you must be busy, as usual.  Everybody loves you, but not as I love you.  You are beautiful.  Today is the Eid, marking the end of Ramadan.  There is another Eid, which marks the end of the Hajj ritual.  So Muslims have 2 Christmases so to speak, but I prefer Ramadan over the Eid.  But I am grateful that I don't have to fast again for another year.  Coffee!  "Selamat Hari Raya" is the local lingo for the Eid, the literal translation being Selamat (safe) Hari (day) Raya (celebrate).  It is a public holiday of course, meaning that it is a peak tourist season for this area.  Which also means I try to stay out of sight.

Marmalade is still alive at this time.  I had lost hope for his survival, I have never nursed a cat out from pneumonia before.  100% failure rate.  If he lives it would truly be a miracle, and a wonderful Eid present from God.  I kept him warm and dry last night and this morning by hugging him to sleep.  Marmalade is an ungrateful patient though, but he is a cat after all.  I was blessed to have antibiotics from my last visit to the vet.  Can't buy antibiotics over the counter in this country.  He couldn't keep it in his stomach, but at least it means that the medicine got into his stomach, his mouth, and his lungs.  Then he caught a fever.  He was so close to death, it was right in the middle of my voice training, that I had to force feed him some fever reducer.  So he got some energy back, growling at my every attempt to dote on him.  He can't stomach medicine, he throws it up, so I absolutely cannot overdose him.  I was blessed to give him a single dose of anything.  He's also been throwing up phlegm (cats can't cough), that is another good sign.  Now he needs to cool down, so he's found a station at the door to my bathroom.  I check up on him often, wiping his mouth.  But it's far from over.  We'll see what happens tonight.

Hi Natty Honey!  How's life in Nattyland?  I hope you are feeling terrific, and having a marvelous time.  Are you an honest cop, Natty?  Integrity is such a difficult thing to maintain.  We often hear gossip about musicians and artists trying to keep their integrity.  But who can actually do it?  Today the computer wants you to watch "Serpico" (1973).  It might be on YouTube, but I posted the trailer here.  I also posted an interview with the real Serpico, so you can see what he thought of the movie.