Andrea Moreno

Sisters

I am not sure if I ever mentioned that I have two sisters. The three of us are very very close in age.

Alejandra is 2 and a half years older than me. She was the most beautiful baby girl ever born… at least that is what my moms says all the time. And I have to admit that I agree with mom,  I honestly haven’t seen a baby so beautiful and girly.

Then it was my turn to take a part in the Moreno Rodriguez family. The story of my life started me being a boy. At least for the first 9 months of life inside the belly of my mom. The shape of her belly was so different of her first pregnancy that she was completely sure that I was a boy. My name was going to be Enrique like my grandfather. Everything was blue and with the little E of my name. Well surprise, surprise… It was not a boy after all… I wasn’t  a girl nothing close to be called cute.  The doctors somehow had to use forceps (that is not allow to be used during birth)and as an usual consequence, the shape of my head got a little deformed temporally… So my mom said that I had like two ball in the head, and she was so ashamed to show me to her friends, specially after the beauty of Alejandra, that she actually showed me when I was about 6 months. Since my name was supposed to be Enrique, my dad quickly decided to named me Andrea.

Then just 11 months after my birth my little sister Annabell was born. OMG… another cutie. Alejandra and I were a little alike, since we both had dark hair being Ale of a more fair skine tone. But Annabell was the blond. 

The story of hour sisterhood is so full of experiences and joy… until around 5 years ago. I told my sister my sexual inclination and of course, none of them could take it very well. I guess that Venezuela is a little far away of realities like that. So both of them didn’t know how to handle it but by creating distance. I could write and write some much about how much I suffer by feeling the distance of my two adored sisters, but I am now here to celebrate the recovery of one of them.

Last year in December I went to Venezuela to spend the holidays with the Family and Alejandra surprised me with the most beautiful gifts of all time. He kind of put aside all her difficulties to understand my reality and gave me all her love. I felt the love of my big sister back again and I seriously didn’t have any word to explain how grateful I was. I am so grateful to have her as a sister. Annabell was not in twon when I went so the situation with her is still the same, even though recently she requested my friendship in facebook… that is one step forwards the love we always shared.

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A SISTER, and I have two…

LOVE YOUR SISTER IF YOU HAVE ONE!!! Is one of the best feelings ever.

I am Back

Wow, it’s been months since I last wrote something in my journal. I guess that after the death of my adored Fede, things changed.

Well after Fede’s death, and some more unsuccessful and traumatic pregnancies I, of course needed to give it a turn to my life. Since birth and death are process that we can’t control then I shifted my compass to something I could control.

My professional dream… Yeah, I can do that… I totally can have the power to build that dream, I said to myself then.

So I started giving a better shape to a project that has been transforming since about 10 years ago. Like any other thing in process, there were some periods of silence. However I felt the need to wake it up again to feed the new needs.

My project puts together my two biggest passions; ARTS & CHILDREN. Being an Early Childhood Education Teacher and a Theater Actress, I found in that merge a good picture of my dream.

A moment to review the need came up and even though it wasn’t completely needed it, I decided to enrolled myself in a teaching career again. After so many years (around 15) of my graduation in my country, I was disconnected from the education process and I thought it was good to go for an update, and with that validate my teacher title at the same time.

Instead of enrolling in Early Childhood Education again, I decided to learn a little bit more of the process of older children, so I selected my program in Elementary Education.

At the very beginning I was so afraid, I am the slowest reader in the world and I knew that I was going to be reading a lot and IN ENGLISH uffffff!…

Classes started, I didn’t find it that hard even though it was very demanding. After 9 weeks my first two classes were done and I got my very first A and A- ever.

After that, As’ became my only grade and now 8 months later, I am still stuck with the As.

The dream is in progress and It looks promising

My Little Angel Fede! Purrrr….

Hi guys,

On a very sad note… I’m here to talk about something that I am
still extremely sad about. My adorable and beloved angel cat Federica,
died on Monday Aug. 24th 2009. She was just 6 years old and died of
an unexpectedl Kidney Failure in the last stage. I would like to
share this experience and all of my thoughts in order to alert  all other
cat owners to keep an eye out for the well being of their pets.

MEMORIES

I would like to start by first remembering all the beautiful things
that I shared with Federica, better known as “Federica CONCHITA
Alonso”.

At one point in my life after moving to a cozy little studio by
myself, I realized that the obsession of keeping everything extremely
organized was driving me into a robotic and inhuman situation.
Everything needed to be organized, perfectly symmetric and extremely
clean. NO WAY…. something must be wrong here right? It almost looked
like no one was living in that cute place. So I went into deep
meditation and realized that I need a crazy, playful little thing to
fill the house with life and a little messiness. I have many friends
that are animal lovers and they totally encourage me to adopt a little
cat, save its life and accompany my life with the only thing
they can give “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.”

FIRST ENCOUNTER
I remember going to the ASPCA. I was very nervous of that big step I
was going to do… I was going to be a mom. For some reason some one
there let me sneak in where the cats ready to be adopted where.
Apparently you are not supposed to be there until after you fill out
all the paper work and they verify your possibility of giving a good
home to the pet.

At the beginning I was interested in a male cat. I wanted a kitten
since this was going to be my real own pet and I wanted to get used to
it as well as him to me. Well, things don’t always go how we planed
eh! I start looking at all the cats, pretty much all of them were not
kittens (the ages were between 6 month to 7 years). I was walking
throughout all the cages and when I was passing in front of Fed’s cage,
she stretched her paw out the cage and grabbed my leg. I crouched down to
look at her and I felt in love with her yellow eyes, grey tuxedo, and
pink nose. I still needed to keep looking through the rest of the
cages, but there was a clear sign of my motherhood. She was big (8
months) far from what I was expecting, so I kept looking. Minutes
later the front desk called me to sign and get the approval of my
adoption and then they let me pass OFFICIALLY to the place so I can pick
my companion. I did the round again, and again Fed stretched her paw
out of the cage and grabbed my leg. I knew at that exact moment that
she was the one that I wanted.

NEW HOME
I was very nervous to hold her for the first time. We went home and I
introduced her to her new home. She was in heaven … jumping from the
couch to the TV and from the book shelves to the bed. I was in heaven
as well knowing that she was probably feeling in Paradise since the
only thing she knew before was a little cage, where she spent her
first  8 months of life.

I remember when the first two nights I put her to sleep in the bathroom,
because it scared me that she can jump on me while I was sleeping.
But then my friends told me that she wouldn’t do anything to me and I
let her sleep where she wanted. She found the prefect spot, My NECK.
It was very funny when at night I turn the lights off to go to sleep
and right after, you will immediately heard her going crazy with the
toys. Going from one extreme of the apartment to the other. She was
very playful and will sometimes bring me the toys so we can play fetch.

During this time I was very sad after my first heartbreak so I just
wanted to be at home and Fed came at the right time for mutual therapy
of love. We both gave each other  the best of each other. She will
always be at the window waiting for me. We played and hung out
together all the time. After a couple of years, Fed was already my
owner. My life functioned around her. I even took her on a vacation
trip to my hometown Venezuela for a month. She had a blast. My
great and unconditional love, my companion. If I feel sad or sick, she
will came and cuddled up with me, she had the best nurse radar.

FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) ALERT

One day she apparently went in the back yard where we sometimes hang
out and made contact with a sick cat. A few days later I saw her
walking funny, I also saw that one of her eyes were kind of cloudy.
What happened? Did she hit her eye playing with something? She was
acting weird and cuddling me more than usual, so I paid close
attention to her behavior. Minutes later her eye became red (blood),
so I immediately went running to the Vet. As soon as I stepped in, the
Vet told me, these eyes might be something more serious than we
think, lets run a  blood work. And the results were that she was
exposed to a very dangerous bacterium named “Corona Virus” that
produced FIP, which is a fatal illness on cats. That day I learned
that cats can get three contagions and fatal illness from just smelling a sick
cat or being in contact of sick cats urine or stool:

- FIV (AIDS of cats)

- FeLV (Leukemia of cats)

- FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis)

Apparently when a cat is exposed to this Corona virus there are only two
possibilities, either they develop the illness or they not. Well for my
happiness, Federica didn’t develop the illness so after a couples of
days and some antibiotics my girl was again the same crazy, playful,
loving, purring cat.

KEEP ON GROWING
Fed kept growing and thinking that she was small enough to still fit
in my neck side… and seriously, if you would have seen her sleeping,
you wouldn’t have had the heart to wake her up. Those were some of
the things that I loved of her… When she was asleep, she will do it
like she was still a little girl. OMG! Her positions were the best.
Also she loved butter and that was a very funny battle every morning
when I used to put butter on my toast. She was also pretty clean and
completely in love with her cat food, specially the wet kind. To see
Fed try to catch a fly or little flying bug was the funniest thing.
When I was on the computer, she loved to clime to the monitor (the big square ones) and lay down there. Sometimes she will look at the screen and try to follow the
cursor as I move it. Fed also developed the ability to do massage. She
loved my hair which looks like a nest and used to massage my neck
while knitting her bed on my head.

Those were the first three years of our happy lives together. She got
to know me and I got to know her. Sometimes I used to think that we
kind of knew each other emotions.

I then met the special person of my life who happens to have two cats,
Alfred (a sweet cranky old man) and Jerry (an athletic always in
trouble crazy dude). After alternating to stay one night in my place
to share with Fed and one day in my partner’s place, we decided to
take Fed to meet her two handsome brothers. It took just two weeks for
them to get use to each other. They loved it together, because Fed was
the youngest, she kind of brought some excitement to the life of Alfy
and Jerry.

My partner and I started to build a very strong relationship and after
a year we decided to move in together, to our current place.

The place is big and the three cats where in heaven. There, didn’t
have to see each others faces 24/7. Now there was enough space for
them to mark their territory and not be bothered while they sleep.

Of course our three babies where the highest level of spoiled too. We bought them a cat condo with three levels, toys, and auto clean cat littler box, a water fountain and the best quality food. Here in this space we got to discover certain aspect of each personalities.

Fed was baptized as CONCHITA, since she developed a
sort of Latina attitude. When it came time to feed them at night, for
instance Jerry who is the most impatience would jump to the counter
two and three times. Every time I put him down and say “No Jerry, not
yet…. you need to wait” so usually by the third time of me putting
Jerry down, Fed, who used to be the more patience will smack him in
the face, kind of like saying… “Didn’t you hear to wait” She was the
ruler. The guys loved Fed and she assumed that she was the mom. She
would clean them and would scold them when it was necessary.

Fed had the cutest meow. It was so delicate. She was fat and it took a
lot of effort to jump to the counter and meow so we can open the
faucet in the sink so she can drink. She looooooved to drink water
like that. She had one particular spot on the couch where she loved to
sleep and it was kind of made just for her.

In the mornings Fed used to become my tail, she would follow me
everywhere. And when I was taking a shower she will sit on the sink
waiting. I loved when she used to sit on the toilet as well and look at me
while I put on my make up, sometimes I will put just a touch of blush
on her like she was my little girl. At night she was my faithful
companion. She would be next to me watching TV, writing on the
computer, or simply practicing some chords on the guitar.



KIDNEY FAILURE
Well when you have three cats it’s hard to see if they all are doing
what they should be doing. Most times we were always aware that they
all used the littler box and the all eat the right amount. Well one
day after feeding Fed at night, I saw her throwing up everything.
Sometimes she ate too fast and would throw up so I didn’t think that
was anything to be worried about. By the next morning she didn’t want
to eat… OK that was weird, so after putting her food tons of times
in front of her she ate. That day after I came home from work, I found
that Fed threw up all her breakfast, and that was more than enough for
me to worry, so the next morning we took her to the Vet. The Vet
examined her and didn’t see anything that could have been suspicious,
anyways she told us to get and x-ray to make sure that everything was
working ok. The x-ray showed that her kidneys where a little bit
bigger than normal so she decided to run some blood work. Assuming
that she could have been going through an extreme hairball clog she
told us not to feed her for 12 hours. After 12 hours, we fed her and
she ate almost obligated. We needed to feed her every 3 or 4 hours
small portions. She didn’t want to eat. I had to put the food in her
moouth. By the end of the day she threw up everything and we took her
to the ER of the Animal Medical Center. She seemed to be active so the
Vet told us that maybe the food was too heavy and to change her diet.
The next morning the blood work came back and showed very high levels
of toxin and potassium, so she needed to be hospitalized to see if we
can make her kidneys work. She got an ultrasound that didn’t show any
obstructions. She was experiencing a kidney failure and the hopes
where almost slim to none. They said that they would put her on a
fluid treatment and stimulants to make her produce urine, if the
kidneys weren’t that damaged she will respond and after 3 days of
flushing toxins she will improve and get well. After few hours she
didn’t produce any urine and her levels where rising like crazy. She
was dying inside even though from outside she looked almost normal.
The vet told us that the best we can do was to avoid all the pain that
she will go through and put her to sleep. In her stage 99.9% of the
cats don’t make it through the night. It was horrible because she
looked so active. But after being with her for 30 min we put her to
sleep and donated her body to further studies in order to find some
answers with cats with the same problem.

I guess that we weren’t ready to lose her first. I guess that we where
kind of preparing our self to say by to Alfy (12 years old) or maybe
Jerry (9 years), but not her at just 6 years old.

Fed is now in a real heaven. I am miss her like crazy. Mornings and
Night are the hardest to take, but now she is in a peaceful place and
will be waiting for me when my time comes. I am so grateful of all the
love she gave me and I feel that I gave her the best of me as well.

She was the sweetest cat God could let me borrow for a while. I wont ever forget her sweet soft usual meow and her strong purr.

I will always miss you MI FED.



IMPORTANT FACTS:

- Always make sure that your cat is eating. They always want to eat
so, if they refuse, something is wrong and the best thing to do is to
take it to the vet.

- Half of a Tylenol, Advil or Aspirin, some flowers specially lilies or roach and rat killers can cause an immediate Kidney Failure. Never put flower at their reach and be extra careful with this pills.

- When a cat is not eating is because is feeling sick and when a cat
feels sick feels really sick.

- If your cat drinks too much water and pees a lot something is wrong,
take it to vet immediately and early Kidney Failure detection
guarantees more hope.

- Cats usually never show their weakness by instinct even if they are dying.

- Feed your cat with more wet food than dry. They get most of her
water from their food and dry is dry.

- Take your cat at least once a year to the vet and run a blood work.



For the LOVE OF ALL THINGS.



God Bless you Fed !

I Miss  you so much…

And will always have you in my heart.

QUIET YOUR MIND!

I guess that you never now when you will have another peaceful inspirational moment to sit down and keep on going with the writing eh! I guess that to write in my blog intimidates me a bit, because is like publishing my thoughts to the open world.

My life has certain blend of realities that someones are ready to accept and someones not quite. So I usually silent many details of my life for respect of those that can’t understand it, and in the same way I share it with those others that can accept it “for respect as well”.

So sometimes I feel that are many details of my life that I just have to keep it low and is fine, isn’t life a daily challenge?

I decided to improved my spiritual connection and I just started this week. Any activity that allows me to quiet my mind have been always greatly appreciate it. I have done it through theatre, meditation, special music, and now Tai Chi.

I have done yoga and other activities that involve the harmonic movements of your body in relation with your mind, but Tai Chi seem to be the most spiritual. I am not an expert yet, even though I am starting to be very familiar with the whole idea and intention of the Tai Chi.  Trying to find inside yourself that tree that stands tall and sways with the breeze continuously could be very difficult at the beginning.

I am about to start another cycle in the challenge to bring that Sol or that Luna to our life. This time I am feeling very relax and with a trust feeling more than a desire to make my dream come true. I will do what I need to, the result will be given to me whether if is a moon, a sun or an entire universe to explore.

A Novel

Hi Dear Followers,

My life as I am sure most of yours as well, is full of particular things worthy enough to write something about it. So I have been trying to write a Novel since 5 years ago about some happenings that I experienced, of course mixed with some creative ideas in order to maintain my creative side active and in shape.

I know that I have the talent of the writing and also through my grandma and grandaunts we discovered an amazing poet in our family tree. No wonder my grandma and I used to share poetry all the time. Recently all of the grandchildren of that branch of my family, created a group in Facebook named “The Inmortals” and some here and there we create email threads, the most recent was to organize a get together, and in a group of maybe 20, 25 people, imagine the amount of different ideas that came to the table. Well we are well known as a crazy family that love to laugh and there is always a joke or a funny story to tell about a member. Suddenly for example, in the middle of an email exchange of the group, one of my 2nd cousin started writing a very funny poem with rhyme about how the get together should be and as it run in our blood everybody started writing funny stuff in rhyme as well. So I have not a single doubt about my writing skills and the power of the inspirational fact that Andres Eloy Blanco a very legendary Venezuelan poet of the late 1800’s runs in my blood.

So with not to much to say now

I will promise to come back again

and with more of who knows what

I will try to write somehow

Spanish is more my strength

but with risky threads my flag is made

so I will try to go ahead

with English rhymes if is okay.