Thinking about her life got me thinking about my own life. 10 years was Cali’s lifetime. What part of my own lifetime had 10 years been?

Well, let’s see.

1998

I was newly “rich” from my first “real” job, which I started in February.

In April, I moved into my first apartment by myself without roommates.

In July, I adopted Jade and Cali. They were adorable. My parents loved to come over and see the kittens.

I had an on-again, off-again (finally off) relationship with a pretty unstable girl.

Nicci and Troy moved in close by to my apartment in University City, so we hung out quite a bit.

2000

Though Neela and I had met before, at one of my brother’s parties and a few common friends’ parties/weddings, we finally started dating in February.

In April I was offered a job at Proxicom, in Los Angeles.

In May, we (Jade, Cali, and I) moved to Marina Del Rey, where Proxicom was located. Neela came up after her spring semester was completed.

Worked like a dog on Proxicom’s Toyota/Lexus.com project. Took over the Project Manager position for Lexus.com halfway through the implementation. Crazy hours.

In September, Neela and I we were engaged. Married in December. Small Vegas ceremony with just a few friends and family.

2001

My manager at the time, Sean, and a few other Proxicomers went to a small startup online gambling site, in Long Beach. We moved to San Pedro in February.

We met Dr. Steed, hands-down the best vet we’ve ever had, when we moved to San Pedro.

Soon after we moved in, Max found us and decided to stay. We discovered he was very sick (hyperthyroidism and fibromyalgia).

We did the whole Indian ceremony and reception. Then we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon.

After some political drama at Action Online, I ended up being a casualty in December. Luckily, I had just interviewed with Intuit, and had a job offer to start a week after my job ended at Action Online.

We put an offer on a house in San Diego and it was accepted.

2002

Started the year living at my brother, Poorvesh’s, house while I worked in San Diego and lived in San Pedro. Neela was also finishing up her semester (both teaching and working) in San Pedro. I came down on Sunday nights and went back up Friday nights. Neela took care of the three cats.

We closed escrow on our house in January. Before moving in we ripped out all the ugly (dirty blue carpet) throughout the house and put wood and new carpet in throughout. We moved in to the house (and Neela moved down) in February.

In March, we found out Max had lymphoma. He passed away March 23, 2002. That was a tough time for us, and the whole family, as it was the first time we lost a pet.

In May we adopted Sammy and Leo. Jade and Cali were not impressed with their adorableness.

2003

My 10 year high school reunion. I did not go.

2004

The six of us had apparently outgrown our first house, so we moved about a mile away to our current house (not our stuff in the pictures, these were the sale pictures).

I was (and still would be) extra paranoid that realtors would let my cats out, so we decided to move to Poorvesh’s house for a few weeks/months until the house sold.

Right before the move, though, Cali was hospitalized for three days. She had cholangial hepatitis. We actually noticed her being disoriented and acting weird right when we came back from a Vegas trip.

After being in the hospital, Cali had to come “home” to Poorvesh’s house. In addition to her being sick and generally not happy, there being three other (unknown) cats in the house was causing all kinds of unhappiness.

As soon as we had a buyer for our house, we moved back in to our old home to pack it up and get going.

Everyone loved the new house – much bigger! And a pool table (which arrived before any of the other furniture or belongings)!

2005

After almost 4 years in the same group, I moved into the Consumer Tax Group in October (still within Intuit), and got a promotion in the process. Cool!

2006

Neela found Toby the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Toby came home. He didn’t leave. Craziness ensued. Followed by training. Craziness didn’t stop. Ever.

2007

Four managers into my new position, I got another promotion in December. Sweet!

2008

Starting back in March, I am once again working for the same person who hired me into Intuit 6.5 years ago. Easy learning curve.

We notice that Cali is eating less and less, but she seems to be annoyed by the other cats, so we give her food in separate rooms. We get her checked out and back on inflammatory bowel medication.

After a while she stops eating her food, but no vet, even internal medicine specialists, can find anything wrong with her. I figure “she’s old and picky”, so I give her canned food 2-3 times per day. Her appetite returns for a week.

Again she stops eating, so we take her into Veterinary Specialty Hospital at 10PM on June 11th. She’s checked-in and diagnosis begins. I have a bad feeling that she’s not coming home.

After much turmoil, we decide the right thing to do is to let Cali go on Friday morning, June 13th.

I am very sad and thinking about Cali. I begin writing this post. I finish writing this post.

Technorati Tags: Retrospective

So around 2PM I started looking for pet friendly hotels in the area.  The Westin, where the reception was being held, was on the list.  So I called, they said they have a 40lb limit, and Toby is 57lbs.  I called a few other places, only to find 40-50 lb restrictions everywhere.  But one place said the manager can give an exception to the rule.  So I called back the Westin, asked for the manager, got the front desk, told them the situation, and they said no problem.  The issue was more about aggressive or barky dogs.

Bottom line, Toby went with us to the reception hotel.  He stayed in his travel crate during the reception.  He was anxious at first but we spent some time with him beforhand, and gave him a few peanut butter kongs (and a sedative) before we left him alone.   After that he was really good.

So now, at least, we know we can travel with Toby if we want to.  Pretty awesome.

Tax season is over but, as you may have heard, Intuit had a rough end of season.  That’s why I dropped off the face of the earth for a while.  There were a lot of issues to be dealt with.

So I’ve been on vacation this week.  I ended up working pretty regularly.  I answered calls, returned emails, and thought about some work stuff that I need to deal with.  But I’ve had other things to do, too.

Toby had surgery this Monday to remove a cyst on his side.  It extended from the muscle to the rib.  He was in a lot of pain those first few days.  He’s doing much better now, and wants to run and play.  I’m taking him off pain killers so he’ll settle down a bit.

I made an action list of stuff I want to get done.  I finished 80% of it – the easy 80%.  I still want to scan all my bills/statements/receipts and go paperless.  I’ve found that scanning all the stuff is only part of the hard part.  Naming and filing everything logically takes a while, too.

Alright.  I’ll post more later.  Peace.