I do believe I have reached my stress tolerance threshhold.

I was trying to find something to write a post about for tomorrow morning, but I’m thinking instead, I’m going to call it a night, play a game of Solitaire, and go to bed.

Last night, Gracie slept at the foot of the bed, Tig was at my right, and nobody hissed at anyone. Well, except for when I moved Gracie from my pillow to the foot of the bed, and pushed Tig from the middle to the end so I could, y’know, fit. In my own bed.

Today, Tig told Gracie she has vet smell and has been harassing her. She’s on a towel on the floor under the bathroom counter right now. But I think I’ll put her in her spot on the bed and throw out Tig if he doesn’t like it.

That’s right. Fluffy bunny and kitty posts. That’s all I’m up for at the moment.

See title.

I took Gracie to the vet this morning, feeling really down and depressed about her whole outlook. Because she vomited up the water that contained the quarter pill of Pepcid AC that I gave her via kitty syringe. Because she looked awful again. Because she still wasn’t eating.

When I got there, I told the vet to give her the works—anti-nausea, antibiotic, and steroids in case she has Inflammatory Bowel Disease (I’ve been doing my homework). The vet also gave Gracie IV (sub-q, as I had requested) and tried to feed her (but not force-feed). She said Gracie showed interest in the food, but didn’t eat any.

Meantime, a very nice blogger whose daughter is a small animal internist in the northeast gave me her number, and we chatted for a good twenty minutes. She had all but convinced me that it was time for a stomach tube for Gracie. I left work early to consult with my vet and pass along the specialist’s advice (which was well accepted by my vet, who is truly only trying to make Gracie better). I was still pretty worried, and thought that we’d take until Monday to decide whether to do the biopsy and insert a stomach tube. The vet gave Gracie one last shot that she’d wanted to give her (forgot which one), and we left.

So, we got home, and she immediately went to the food dishes and circled them. I tried to interest her in other foods, no dice. But finally, a while later, I was petting her near the upstairs food dish (put there to placate Tig when he was freaking over vet scent), and she got more and more interested. And she finally took a bite. She only ate three or so pieces, but it was enough. She kept it down. Half an hour later, she ate another couple of pieces. And again, a little while ago. Now she’s washing herself on the tissue paper on the sofa, which is something she has not done in two weeks—neither the washing nor the sitting on the tissue paper. She has mostly huddled on a towel or in a corner or on my bed. It’s so great to see her acting so normally.

I don’t know what happened today. I don’t know if Gracie turned a corner, or if the shots the vet gave her did the trick. All I know is she is no longer vomiting, she isn’t foaming, the fur beneath her mouth is dry for the first time in two weeks, she is cleaning herself up, and she is eating. Only a little bit, but she’s eating. And keeping it down.

We are very, very happy in the Yourish household today.

Thank you all so very, very much for all your help, good wishes, donations, and purr-ayers. Each and every one of them was appreciated.

If you read this story, and only this story, you’d think that the West Bank city of Nablus was specifically chosen by the Israelis to crush, kill, and destroy. Break out the hankies, folks, it’s gonna be a tearjerker.

Dying. Dead. A corpse. Isolated from the world.

That is how Palestinians describe the once thriving city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Surrounded by sand-coloured rocky mountains, Nablus is also encircled by Israeli army checkpoints and military bases. For Palestinians, leaving means queuing for hours, unless you are a male aged 16 to 35. Then, exit is prohibited without a permit.

Palestinians brand the Israeli restrictions collective punishment.

A centre for trading olives, soap and other goods for thousands of years, Nablus should be the business hub of the West Bank. Instead, many entrepreneurs have left. Other residents say they want to leave. Depression is common.

At night, gunfire echoes from the ancient Old City: Israeli troops on a raid or rival militant factions settling scores.

“This is a story that should be written with tears,” said Hasan Abu Libdeh, head of the Palestinian stock market, which was set up here a decade ago amid optimism about peace.

“Nablus, a magnificent city, is a corpse. It just breaks my heart.”

Say, are they going to get around to telling us why Nablus is ringed by IDF soldiers?

Israel clamped tight restrictions on Nablus, north of Jerusalem, during a Palestinian uprising that erupted six years ago.

Nope.

The army said there were six checkpoints around Nablus and its 200,000 people, noting that curbs were also in place on young men leaving.

Inside Nablus, militants are not hard to find.

Posters of gunmen killed in clashes with Israeli troops line the stone walls.

One shows Fadi Qafeesheh, 33, shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Aug. 31. In the picture, Qafeesheh strikes various poses, holding a pump-action shotgun, an assault rifle and a pistol.

Still nope.

Community leaders said the Israeli restrictions were having a counterproductive effect, encouraging more hardened attitudes toward the Jewish state.

“I meet Israelis all the time. I say you have to take the risk. By suffocating this city you are creating more fundamentalists, more terrorists,” said stock market chief Abu Libdeh, also a former Palestinian government minister.

Nope. Reuters can still find absolutely no reason why the IDF has six checkpoints surrounding Nablus.

I found a few.

1. In the course of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon , the Israeli security forces thwarted suicide bombing attacks and attempts to abduct soldiers and civilians to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners. Some of these terrorist attacks were thwarted shortly before their planned execution.
2. The thwarted terrorist attacks were planned by the terrorist organizations’ cells in Gaza and the West Bank, the most prominent being the Fatah’s Tanzim cell in Nablus . Some of them (including the Fatah cell in Nablus ) are directed by Hezbollah, which instructed terrorist infrastructures in the West Bank to intensify their activity during the war in Lebanon and perpetrate suicide bombing attacks and abductions so as to open another front against Israel.
3. During the war, the Israeli security forces thwarted nine abduction and suicide bombing attacks on the verge of implementation (see details below). Also thwarted or disrupted were over twenty attack plans in various stages of development. Detained within the context of the counter-terrorism activities were 396 terrorist operatives, including 12 potential suicide bombers detained before embarking on their missions. The detainees belong to Fatah’s Tanzim (177), to Hamas (76), to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (62), and to other terrorist organizations.

But wait, there’s more.

On August 9, the Israeli security forces detained a female suicide bomber and her collaborator at the Beit Iba roadblock in the vicinity of Nablus . The two were dispatched by a Fatah Tanzim cell.

[...] The security forces thwarted a suicide bombing attempt in the city of Rehovot , planned by the Hezbollah-directed Fatah Tanzim infrastructure from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus .

[...] Following a specific security alert, a 21-year-old female terrorist from Nablus was detained on the Tel-Aviv promenade. In her interrogation, she admitted that she had been dispatched by Ibrahim Nayba, the leader of the Hezbollah-directed Fatah Tanzim infrastructure in the Balata refugee camp ( Nablus ).

[...] A specific security alert led to the arrest in Hod Hasharon of Rami Abu Hajle, from the village of Azun near Qalqilya. He was supposed to lead a suicide bomber on behalf of the Hezbollah-directed Fatah Tanzim cell in the Balata refugee camp (Nablus), led by Ibrahim Nayba.

[...] On July 19, the Israeli security forces arrested Shaher Hajj, the head of a Fatah Tanzim cell in Ramallah. In his interrogation, he admitted to planning to abduct Israelis on the road between Ramallah and Nablus.

Nablus is also the home of Al-Najah University, the only university in the world that specializes in suicide bombers. And I don’t even have the time to Google the number of suicide bombers originating from Nablus. But there are a few. Actually, there are quite a lot more than a few. That’s why Nablus is surrounded by checkpoints. Because too many of the inhabitants of that “dying” city are trying to kill Israelis.

The city is not dying. It is committing suicide. Stop trying to murder Israelis, and watch the IDF checkpoints go away. It’s as simple as that, though most people refuse to believe it.

That’s according to a JP headline.

From the past experience, it’s more likely that Fatah is preparing a show of a showdown. With lots of enthusiastic “militants” (using PC lingo) in a variety of fancy uniforms running around horribly beweaponed, shooting off their Kalashnikovs in the air. Hitting mostly the air and, if they get lucky, an occasional bystander in a window on a higher floor.

So - what else is new?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

AP (via Guardian) brings up a list of journalists kidnapped in Gaza during the last 2 years.

- Oct. 24, 2006: Morenatti is abducted in Gaza City and held for 15 hours.

- Aug. 14, 2006: Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig of Fox News are kidnapped in Gaza City. They are released on Aug. 27.

- March 13, 2006: Yong Tae-young, a correspondent for Korean TV, is held for a day along with two aid workers.

- Oct. 12, 2005: Knight-Ridder Inc. reporter Dion Nissenbaum, an American, and British photographer Adam Pletts are held for several hours in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

- Sept. 19, 2005: Associated Press Television photographer Nicky De Blois escapes a kidnapping attempt in Gaza City with the help of a Palestinian colleague.

- Sept. 10, 2005: Italian journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi of Corriere della Sera newspaper is held for four hours in Gaza.

- Aug. 14, 2005: French TV reporter Mohamed Ouathi is kidnapped in Gaza City; he is set free Aug. 21.

- Jan. 8, 2005: Spanish journalists Ramon Lobo and Carmen Secanella from El Pais are held for an hour and a half in the Khan Younis refugee camp.

- Sept. 27, 2004: CNN producer Riad Ali is held for one day in Gaza City.

- May 20, 2004: New York Times correspondent James Bennet escapes a kidnapping attempt in Gaza City.

After perusing the list, trying to find a fault with it, I have to admit: there is no visible preference of any race, nation, religion or political persuasion. This is what I call unbiased.

There is still hope for the Middle East, ladies and gentlemen!

Cross-posted on SimplyJews