[Coda]

My poor old kitty... He's 16 years old, and last night we had to rush him to the emergency vet clinic because he had some sort of episode -- a stroke or a seizure or something, he stretched out and tensed up and didn't respond to touch or sound, but then he relaxed and went back to normal, purring because he was happy to be held. The vet ran some tests and he's got congestive heart failure and kidney insufficiency...

I knew this day would have to come someday. He's already past the typical life expectancy for a housecat. But this is about the worst possible time it could happen... I'm already stressed out from being forced out of my house because the property owner wants to sell (nothing illicit, they gave us six months' notice, just stressful and the owner hasn't done a good job of being friendly about it), on top of over a year of COVID precautions and having to be my son's schoolteacher when his virtual class stuff isn't good enough for him... And all of this interacting very poorly with existing mental health troubles so it's just amplifying the stress even more.