It's already summer.

Dammit.

Every year since I've lived in this condo I've wished I had nice furniture on the balcony. Then this happens:

And I think maybe the cheap stuff is good enough. Damn, that was a storm. The forecast was 20% chance of rain when this mini-hurricane blew up out of nowhere - trees lost small branches, my entire balcony was soaked with horizontal rain, the lights flickered but stayed on. But I'm hoping this means we'll have a more normal weather pattern of these occasional big storms around dinner followed by a pleasant evening.

Never mind the weather report, woman! What's up with Sophie and Porch Cat?

PC has mostly moved on. He showed up for breakfast a couple of times last week but he appears to have a girlfriend a couple blocks away, and doesn't much need me anymore. I've packed away the winter shelter and washed his winter bedding (because it's SUMMER and FLEAS) and that's pretty much that. Those of you hanging on for an adoption story, yeah, you can move along now. It was not to be.

Meanwhile, Sophie gave me a mild scare today. She woke me at 5 a.m., doing that weird reverse sneeze thing. She's done it before in a mild way, but this time she did it so hard she gagged herself and threw up a bit of foamy stuff on the bed (the sheets were due for changing anyway). It went on for quite a while. She was not in respiratory distress, I could see that she was breathing between snorts, and we both just waited until it passed. But it definitely scared her and must have hurt. She was tired and droopy and not herself all day, didn't want to eat, didn't want to go for a walk. She took care of business outside and turned for home. Delaney came for a visit and she actually was irritable with her - she played a bit, but wasn't herself, and didn't want to go for a walk with her, either.

After a long nap she's finally bouncing back. She just ate her dinner and is perking up. I think she snorted and gagged so hard she gave herself a sore throat, and has spent the day in self-pitying misery. She ate her dinner and we're about to go for a walk, now that the worst heat of the day has passed. Because it's May 1 and we are already in the humid 90s.

Dammit.