During 2019 a lot of things happened in my life, not just the cooking course. In late January one of my cats was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and had to be admitted in the clinic for 5 days. Here 2019 put me to the test like crazy with this matter. She had a lot of other health problems along the way, seemingly unrelated to CKD: she had severe anemia (I seriously thought I would lose her here) due to haemobartonella bacteria, had to be admitted again for 5 more days, but she fought it (unfortunately anemia and CKD walk hand in hand, if one is bad the other gets worse), a few months later we noticed her breathing was not normal and she was diagnosed with chylothorax (fluid was filling her thorax leaving no room for her little lungs to expand) gladly she fought that too! There was a time she was taking so much medicine that I would have to work around the clock or else there wasn't enough hours in a day to give her everything, plus the forced food and the vet visits, which were either everyday, every other day or every two days depending on her kidney numbers, for fluid therapy. My days, and hers, would start at 5 am and end at around midnight. These were really some tough times.
When I finished the cooking classes (on the 26th of November) I was relieved that I would have more time to concentrate on her. Unfortunately things took a turn to the worst in December. She lost her appetite completely and all she ate had to be forced. Gladly I was at home to make sure she ate every two hours. On the 11th of December she had to be admitted again in the clinic because her kidney numbers were bad. On the 12th she seemed to be responding well to treatments. On the 13th she seemed to become very down again and on the 14th of December we spent the whole day at the vet (I'm not even kidding... we were at the vet clinic from 11 am to 7 pm, only leaving to have lunch) only to have her giving up on life after such a tough year of fighting. Her kidneys shut down completely and all the other organs were shutting down as well. She was put to sleep at about 7 pm that day.
I never thought this could be so difficult, I mean dealing with and grieving the loss of a pet. But she was not just a pet. She was family! She was my first ever indoors cat! She was my first rescue from the street when she was one and a half months old! I never thought she would survive past the first night after the rescue! But she did, she was a fighter since the beginning, but for reasons unknown I was not allowed to have her for more than 3 years and she was not allowed to stay on this earth with me. Three years! I am still grieving. Everything I do and everything in my house reminds me of her. My Tchipi. I still have her sisters, Pinky and Maggie who were also rescues. All with a month apart (Tchipi was rescued in April 2016, Pinky in May 2016 and Maggie in June 2016). I miss her so much, beyond words. But I know she was happy (despite becoming completely blind in 2017 - this is another thing, we think she had a bigger problem and all these diagnosis, including the blindness, were underlying symptoms of that bigger problem... but we were never able to find it out). Rest in peace, my beloved Tchipi <3
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| Pinky, Tchipi and Maggie |
Now, on Neopian food matters :P
I made these Cream Covered Swiss Rolls - Two mini sponge rolls topped with a generous helping of whipped cream before starting cooking classes and I really can't remember the recipe so all I can leave here now are some photos of the thing. All I can say is I used a basic vanilla sponge for the roll and strawberry jam for the filling. I topped it with lightly whipped cream, of course, and some coloured sprinkles. Enjoy!
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| *This image was taken from and belongs to Neopets. |
