Jimmy's anniversary

 On October 21, 2017, I brought home an eight-year-old kitty and renamed him Jimmy.

Words cannot express the joy this cat has brought me. I know it doesn't make sense for this mostly useless creature to make me happy, a little animal that I have to feed and clean up after. But whether it makes sense or not, I do love him. It's so endearing and adorable to have him sit on me and rub his head against my face while he purrs. 

But 2021 has not been a good year for him. In February, he hurt his leg while jumping, so we took him to the vet in March, and he was diagnosed with some arthritis. We took him back in April because he had been drinking a lot of water, and he was diagnosed with diabetes. He had lost a pound in a month. We opted not to treat him with insulin. He doesn't let us pick him up, so giving him shots twice a day would be very difficult, and the vet said it would be worse to give him insulin inconsistently than not at all. It would also be expensive, and he has other health problems (arthritis and missing teeth). 

His arthritis has gotten progressively worse. It is hard for him to jump up on furniture, and even simply walking appears painful. He still does what he needs to do, but he's not as active as he once was. So we decided to take him back to the vet, and they had an opening on Thursday, which was his fourth anniversary.

Getting him to the vet is always a hassle, but I think it was easier this time. Last time, he meowed sadly on the way to the vet and sounded simply annoyed on the way home. This time, he was merely annoyed on the way to the vet, and he didn't meow at all on the way home. 

It's a little annoying when one particular vet sees him. The vet is evidently hard of hearing, so when we ask him a question (especially while wearing a mask), his answer is only somewhat related to what we asked. 

But they gave us some pills to help with the arthritis, so we will have to break them up and sneak them into wet food. Hopefully that will help. He has also lost two pounds since April, and the vet said he has started to develop cataracts.

I hate to say it, but I doubt Jimmy will be around for his fifth anniversary. So I will continue to love him while I can. I love him more than I have ever loved any nonhuman.

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Time for pumpkinundation roundup!

I had this Sprouts Apple Cider Spread on some apple pancakes I made. It has a smooth texture and a fine apple flavor. It's fine, 6/10, but it's not as good as...

Trader Joe's Apple Cider Fruit Spread, which has apple chunks and a tasty, sweet apple flavor. 8/10.

I have had these Lily's Pumpkin Spice Flavor Baking Chips in the cupboard for more than a month now, but I haven't tried them because I was worried they would be gross, and I need to figure out what to put them in. But they were better than I expected. I can't say it tastes like pumpkin spice, but it tastes good, and it has no added sugar! 7/10.

I wanted to try a Granny B's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie, since they're the company that makes those giant pink cookies. Sadly, this cookie tasted like you would expect from a mass-produced cookie with a long shelf life. It's not as good as Dunford Bakers, or even as good as Granny B's sugar cookies. 5/10.

I wanted to get Bahama Buck's proprietary candy corn flavor, so I got a Bahama Buck's Candy Corn Hot Koko. It was hard to taste the candy corn flavor through all the chocolate, but sometimes I could taste a sweet, almost buttery flavor. 7/10.

I cooked up some onions, carrots, potatoes, and green peppers with this Trader Joe's Spicy Pumpkin Curry Simmer Sauce. "Spicy" is right—it has jalapeño puree, so there's definitely a kick. I really enjoyed it, but it didn't really taste like pumpkin to me. 7/10.

These Great Value Pumpkin Spice Pancakes are fine. They're tasty, but not spectacular. 7/10.

7-Select Caramel Apple Flavored Snack Pie has a caramel-esque filling with the apple filling. It tastes so cheap and fake yet tasty. I think it's better than plain apple snack pies. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Greek Nonfat Pumpkin Yogurt is fine if you like Greek yogurt, but I don't really like Greek yogurt. 5/10.

Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Soup has tomatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, and more. It's really tasty. 7/10.

This Pumpkin Pie Perfect Bar is the first one of these bars I have ever had. They are energy bars that need to be refrigerated, though they can be taken out of the fridge for a week. I really liked it! But that was because of the peanut butter. It reminded me of those orange-and-black-wrapped peanut butter taffies, or even like a Reese's without the chocolate. But I didn't really taste pumpkin pie, even though pumpkin is in the ingredients. 8/10.

The Pumpkin Spice RXBar is fine. 6/10.

I got a Pumpkin Taste Off Kit this week.

In the top left is the Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin. It was OK. Not as good as Maverik's. 6/10.

On the top right is the Batch Pumpkin Sweet Roll. I loved the texture, but it didn't taste like pumpkin, and I thought the frosting was overly sweet, like what you'd get on a cupcake, not a cinnamon roll. 7/10.

In the middle is Kneaders Pumpkin Pie, which is a typical pumpkin pie. 7/10.

On the bottom left is the Twisted Sugar Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie, which was my favorite, and it won the Taste Off, but I think ours was a little underbaked. 8/10.

And on the bottom right is the RubySnap Pumpkin Whoopie Pie. I loved the pumpkin spice flavor. But a lot of RubySnap cookies have this strange tang to them, as did this one, which I find mildly off-putting. 7/10.

On Thursday, our professor ended class early, so some of us grad students went to a coffee shop on campus. I didn't get coffee, obvs, so I got this Two Creek Coffee House Pumpkin Spice Steamer. I think they just used Torani syrup. I should have got it in hot chocolate instead. It's just warm milk with some flavoring. Why is that a thing? Maybe steamers are better with different syrup flavors? 3/10.

I forgot to take a picture of this Sprouts Pumpkin Spice Spread last week. It's OK. 6/10.

I guess it was a mistake to have this Yogi Pumpkin Spice Herbal Tea late at night when I wanted to get to bed. It just seemed so bland; "pompous water" is an apt description. But I guess it's better to sit and savor when you're not in a hurry and when you don't want extra calories. 4/10.

For some reason Blogger didn't post this Subway Caramel Apple Cookie last week—so I'll see if I can remember it. The apple pieces seem candied. It's fine but not fantastic. 7/10.