I'll see what Dr. Cook says, but it's possible, in my amateur's view, that Copper's weight loss is not related to his thyroid. I've been with older cats over the years and have seen them begin to diminish as they grow older -- much as other beings do -- and Copper might be experiencing that.
I'm happy that despite whatever Copper's body is doing, his spirits are in great shape. He's content. His behavior hasn't changed. He has the strength and agility to jump up on the bed just like always. He's eating regularly -- he's a slow eater, but eventually he eats both bowls of food I feed him, one at 8 a.m., the other at 8 p.m. He eats about a quarter cup of dry food a day out of the feeder.
He always appreciates it when I pet him and rub his underside and take care of his fur.
If Copper has moved into a late stage of his life, he's doing it contentedly.
It's his contentment I care the most about.
2. I thawed a small zip lock bag of ground beef today, ready to prepare any kind of meal Debbie requested. It made me very happy that Debbie answered me decisively when I offered to prepare any meal.
"I'll go to the store and buy some buns and pickles. I want a hamburger."
Debbie raced to the store.
I got out the electric frying pan and started frying
Red onion. Dill pickle chips. Tomato. Condiments. I added bacon and sharp cheddar cheese to my burger.
We rarely have hamburgers at home and this dinner really hit the spot, especially with a side of Debbie's awesome bean salad.
3. I moved into the fourth and final section of East of Eden. It opens with one of the book's narrators ruminating on the eternal riddle of good and evil. It was as if Steinbeck wanted to make sure we realized that this epic saga is, in its own way, an updated version of the very mysteries of human behavior the Book of Genesis addresses.
I might be mistaken, but here goes: I don't think Steinbeck is inviting readers of East of Eden to contemplate what is good and what is evil so much as he's raising questions about why does evil exist and why are we sentenced in our lives to live with it internally as well as socially.
East of Eden is unquestionably takes place, to put it theologically, in a fallen world.
It's a long story of degrees of human fallibility, not in a philosophical or abstract sense, but in the concrete ways characters in this story behave and it explores what they feel or are unfeeling about, leaving us, as readers, to wrestle with why they are the way they are, to examine what can be attributed to the nature of human beings and what is attributable to the makeup, history, and experiences of the individual.
No easy answers.
Possibly, no answers at all.
It is, after all, to me, at least, an interrogative novel.
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