'Van' the Netherlands

In Dutch, the word 'van' means from. It's quite common to see it as a prefix in Dutch last names: or 'van der' meaning 'from the' is also common.

My family heritage is Dutch but up until October 2010, I couldn't apply for dual citizenship. Despite my father's Dutch heritage, the fact that he became a Canadian citizen at age 22 and was not a Dutch citizen when I was born (even though my mother was a Dutch citizen at that time), meant that I could not apply for citizenship. Citizenship was through the paternal line and not the maternal.

There was a push in Holland that this sexist rule be changed and in October 2010 there was success. People like myself can now apply for citizenship through their mother's heritage under the special title of 'Latent Dutch' ('Latente Nederlanders'.

This process has not been simple and I just at the beginning of it still. I'm hoping that my blog posts might be able to help other people who might be wanting to apply as Latent Dutch also.

Walking Around Cast Free

Batman got his casts off about a week ago and he's doing great! The first few days were a bit rough though. He was in a lot of pain. He meowed alot and also hissed and growled and took it out on Fatty (Robin) a bit too. The vet didn't want to send home any pain medication because she didn't want him to do something stupid because of it. Better for him to feel pain and be careful.

It was quite obvious that he needed to strengthen his legs again. The joints looked very "rounded". He has been managing to strengthen his legs on his own quite well by playing with his toys & Fatty and jumping and trying to scratch on his cat stand (gripping and scratching things seems to be the most dificult for him). He has also been stretching his front feet alot- I'm sure they bother him. The bones were not perfectly aligned when they healed, but on the whole, he is doing awesome. He was even the Pet of the Month at our vet office!

Utterly Beautiful

I finally have a spare minute to blog! Fortunately the craziness of my life has simmered down. The busyness hasn't quite yet though. I have 3 more 6-day work weeks and then I get to have a vacation! Yay!

Good thing I like my jobs! I found this beautiful yellow rose at work today. I only have a few planters at my place so it's nice to be able to work with all of these other beautiful plants. Too bad I can't include how wonderful this rose smelled!

Venturing Back to Painting

My boss at the art studio challenged me to paint something. We had this big (3'x3') painting on the wall of a butterfly. It wasn't a very good looking painting- I should have taken a before picture. The butterfly was yellow on a blue background and the whole thing had been outlined in thick black. Ugly.

So the challenge given to me was to paint something on to this canvas that is Robert Bateman inspired (our studio will be offering a Robert Bateman kids
Summer camp). This is what I came up with.

My life has been so crazy lately that I haven't even had a chance to paint anything - probably for about 3 months now! It's been nice to get back into it again.

Take two- Returning to the Vet

I just left Batman at the vet. I feel quite guilty. Poor little guy; everytime he goes there he gets knocked out. Today they're knocking him out again to do a tooth extraction and possibly shave his upper left canine so that it's not digging into his gums so much. They also wante to do more X-rays on his legs but I said no.

NO MORE X-RAYS ON HIS LEGS DANGIT!!

The casts are due to come off this week anyways so at this point his legs will be what they are and if they've healed crooked, I am sure he will be fine. For the last 4 weeks he's been hopping around just fine on Popsicle sticks so there's no reason why his own two front legs wouldn't be just as good. He's an indoor cat too. Eating his kibble and playing with his buddy are his top priorities.

So I leave you know with one last photo of Batman's doctored up smile (which they will hopefully remove today when they do the tooth extraction).

This is how Batman feels about going to the vet.

Smile for me Batman!!

So we went to the vet today for Batman's tooth-pulling appointment.

The results of the appointment? More X-rays on his legs and he still has his tooth. We now have ANOTHER appointment to get the tooth pulled. The tooth is still giving structure to his jaw as it heals. His legs are healing pretty well- the splint in one cast had twisted a bit so that one had to be replaced. Now he has a ridiculous looking bandage with Popsicle sticks taped to the outside.

Here's a creepy photo of him smiling his toothy grin (really its the bonding on his teeth). It shouldn't look the same after his next appointment.

Apart from his hatred of going to the vet, he is doing really well!

Returning to the Vet

Tomorrow morning, Batman and I will be heading to the vet again. It's a good thing he can't read!

Batman is due for a tooth extraction; the lower left canine and possibly the teeth on either side of that canine.

When Batman fell, his canine tooth was shoved down into his jawbone so that the bottom of his tooth nearly came out the bottom of his jaw. The break in the jawbone was also directly behind this tooth. Now that the jaw has healed, the tooth needs to be removed so that it won't abscess and cause him painful problems later.

He has been recovering very well. He can now go coneless when I am home. (He occasionally gets his teeth caught in the bandaging on his legs) I think the vet will be changing his bandages tomorrow too. Hopefully he won't have to wear them for too much longer!