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      Tuesday, July 01, 2008

catstuff 10:12 AM - 07/01/2008 The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #97! ---------------------------------------------- And today, we have Benny back in the spotlight! click for a larger pic I’ve been thinking Ben might be a candidate for a vet visit in the near future.  He’s been terribly obnoxious about jumping on Bart and trying to do the dirty. And Bart is too arthritic to really do much about it.  It’s mostly just posturing on Ben’s part, I’m sure, because he never gets past the biting the back of the neck or the upper back.  I’ve never seen any mounting. But. I’m thinking Bart is not the only cat who’s being bothered by Ben.  Yesterday, I was watching television and reading through the paper when I heard a cat fight out back.  I put down my coffee and walk out yelling.  And I see Jackie has Benny cornered by one of the cathouses in the back yard.  I see a huge area of grey fluffy fur on the ground under the laundry room window.  I tell Jack to just walk away, leave him alone.  I make sure we’ve got eye contact.  It took four or five messages to him to back off until he did.  Then I went over and pulled Benny out of the house, growling at me the entire time.  I brought him inside and rubbed my hands down his sides.  I found a tooth.  A lower canine. *sigh* Then I notice Georgie seems pretty upset, puffy and breathing hard, up on the kitchen counter.  I look at him and see much grey fur in his back claws.  And I start to understand what happened. Benny most likely decided he was going to show George who was boss, just like he does Bart. But Georgie is not decrepit like Bart and he fights back.  Now, I don’t know if any of you are familiar with cat fights in a multi cat home, but it’s like a schoolyard fight.  There’s an audience and it’s a safe bet that when one participant backs off, another is willing to step in and continue the scuffle.  And I think George got away and Jackie stepped in.  I checked George’s mouth and he has all of his canines.  The tooth has to belong to Jackie. There’s not much to do at this point.  I’m not overly worried about it, I’ve noticed that a couple of the oldsters have lost teeth.  Mickey, Bart, Kirby, just three that I’m sure of.  Anyway, I started Ben on amoxicillan yesterday morning, just in case.  He was pretty sore yesterday afternoon, couldn’t jump up onto the counter and had a hard time jumping from the coffee table to the sofa.  Last night while we watched television, he curled up next to me, and I cradled my arm around him and he seemed pretty content.  But I think in the near future, Benny will be making a little trip down to the corner and visit with the fine people at the vet’s office. ================================================ If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!   | Permalink

catstuff 10:30 AM - 07/01/2008 The topic: To the vet! ---------------------------------------------- Oliver has been flatulent the past month.  He’s just not looked like he was on his game.  So, last Wednesday I called to make an appointment for him. The office was closed Friday and yesterday was the soonest I could get him in. Ollie had lost three pounds since his last visit, but other than that, the vet couldn’t find anything wrong with him.  The vet complained and kept blowing in Ollie’s face when he tried to listen to Ollie’s heart.  He couldn’t hear it over the purring.  *lol* He said Oliver was doing well for a cat his age.  18!  I had no idea he was that old, but remember, I got him from the ex-petsitter who got him from her father-in-law.  The vet told met that there might have been a little bowel problem that made Ollie pass gas. He suggested Ollie have blood tests to find out the reason for the weight loss and he’d call me later.  Ollie didn’t fight the blood draw and they kept telling me what a great cat he is.  And I couldn’t help but think of what the ex-sitter said when she told me he needed a home.  “That he had problems with people and if we didn’t take him, she’d have him put to sleep because she didn’t trust him around people.”  Yeah, right. So, the vet calls yesterday afternoon, around 4:30.  Ollie’s kidney values aren’t the best they could be, he’s in stage two kidney failure.  Which isn’t that bad, it goes up to stage five.  He told me of a drug, Calcitriol, that will help extend Ollie’s life.  He’ll get it on a daily basis, just a small amount.  The vet would call in the prescription to a compounding pharmacy in Arizona and they’d call me today to get billing information. And when I need it refilled, I can call them direct. The vet said this should make Ollie feel much better.  I sure hope so. He deserves a good life. | Permalink

tales from the parkside 02:31 PM - 07/01/2008 The topic: Bills ---------------------------------------------- My mom was a Kaiser member.  Three days before she was admitted to Chase (the nursing facility), every single one of her prescriptions was refilled at Kaiser, because we didn’t know what exactly she had at home. Now, Chase had me bring in her prescriptions because they didn’t have enough to give her until they got her pills from their own source (she couldn’t take her Kaiser prescriptions with her).  The month after she died, I started getting forwarded mail from Chase.  The billings for the meds she took while at Chase.  They were from a company by the name of Modern Health Pharmacy.  I paid the first one on March 15, for $124.54.  Then there came another one. I can’t find a copy of it, but I believe it was $220.00, or thereabouts. I didn’t want to pay it.  So, I didn’t.  Then we got another one.  Now, keep in mind, these are all forwarded from Chase, none are coming directly to us. So, I call Kaiser. They tell me to send them a copy of the bills along with mom’s Kaiser information and a message.  I did so.  I get a letter back from them, saying they need more information (in the letter I gave them the name of mom’s facility along with the name of her Kaiser physician while at Chase).  Then I get another bill from Modern Health Pharmacy that has how much was billed to Kaiser and with a balance of twenty-nine dollars and change.  I don’t pay it. Well, last week I got another (forwarded, mind you) bill.  With a dollar finance charge.  I growl.  I complained to Brian.  He said “just pay it and be done with it”.  But, but, but….it’s the principle of the matter!  So, today I sit here paying bills and think “I’m going to call”.  I’d already written out a check, but decided to call before they got a check with “blood suckers” written in the memo area (which I really did). I had to leave a message and they called back.  We discussed the bill.  “Oh, it’s the co-pay amount that’s due”.  Okay, then why does the statement dated 5-8, the one that shows what was billed to Kaiser, have the same items on it (albeit a different, lower amount due on them) listed, when those were paid for? “Let me talk to the billing department and call you back.”  Okay. She calls back.  Tells me, again, it’s the co-pay.  It still doesn’t make sense to me.  I ask her exactly what did they bill Kaiser for? Remember, there was the first bill of $124.54, then $220.00.  This statement says they billed Kaiser $268.99.  Something isn’t computing.  I tell her to please fax me a copy of the February statement (dated March 8) and a copy of what they billed Kaiser. So I can compare the two.  I hear the adding maching going in the background. She tells me again “let me talk to the billing department and call you back”.  I said “you can just write this money off and we’ll call it square, I just want to be done with it”.  Nope, she’s going to get it straightened out.  I think she thought that I owed money and she wanted to be able to explain it to me.  I’m thinking that there was a double billing for the first month.  The amount I paid was billed to Kaiser, too, once Kaiser contacted them for information.  So, the phone rings.  I’m getting a check for twenty-six dollars and change. I win!  Mom would be so proud. | Permalink

catstuff 10:03 PM - 07/01/2008 The topic: New camera! ---------------------------------------------- Well, it’s not altogether new, but it has its own page now. I started up the dinnercam again last month and today, I gave it its own webpage.  So, when the occasional cam is down for the night, the dinnercam will be up for a couple of hours.  The background, button and bar graphics are from a picture of kibble I took this past weekend.  It was fun doing graphics again. http://dinner.catcam.us | Permalink

      Wednesday, July 02, 2008

catstuff 12:52 PM - 07/02/2008 The topic: I’m going to hit Marco ---------------------------------------------- with the keyboard if he doesn't stop grabbing my fingers when I type. | Permalink

catstuff 12:53 PM - 07/02/2008 The topic: Drugs ---------------------------------------------- The calcitriol got here this morning, around ten, on an ice pack.  I opened it and isn’t this sweet?  They sent a cat toy.  A wand with a mousie at the end, a mousie that rattled. I had trouble opening the meds, but finally got the lid off (push down and turn, how hard could that be?).  I pulled out the .25ml into the syringe, woke Ollie up, let him sniff the syringe and put it in his mouth and pushed on the plunger. Oooo, he likes that stuff!  He wanted MORE!  Wow, a cat who wants his meds.  Compounding?  Compounding good. | Permalink

      Friday, July 04, 2008

otherstuff 01:49 PM - 07/04/2008 The topic: The Gateway bit the schnitzel this morning ---------------------------------------------- Yeppers, that little puppy just went and wouldn’t boot up for me.  I’m thinking it’s the video card.  So, for the next couple of weeks, I think I’ll take it apart, or go over to the Gateway website and log in, and find just what’s in there.  And when I do, I’ll start the quest for replacement parts. Aren’t you jealous? I pulled out the old Dell, which is newer than the old Gateway (got the Gateway in July, 1999), and am setting it up right now.  Hope to get the three cameras back up and running.  And maybe I’ll be able to get the remote working on the roof cam.  I ordered a serial to USB adapter this morning off of eBay. One of the problems fixing the Gateway, is the operating system is Windows 98SE.  I want to keep that system because I can run my DOS games on it.  Not that I use them all that much. *lol*  But, dammit, they’re mine and I don’t want to lose them. We did take a break, went to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.  We enjoyed it. I bought tickets a couple of years ago through AAA and we used those.  We’re going out to an early dinner, probably around 3:30 or 4:00 this afternoon. Well, back to work.  So much stuff to re-install and update on the old Dell. Not what I want to be doing.  I’d rather be reading a book by the pool. | Permalink

      Saturday, July 05, 2008

otherstuff 03:38 PM - 07/05/2008 The topic: What a day. ---------------------------------------------- I didn’t get to bed until after 11:30 last night, trying to get those cameras to all work on the old XP machine.  Took a sleep aid we got at CostCo last week, one that just has the same stuff that allergy medicines have, no pain killers or anything like that.  I got up at five to let the cats out, went back to bed, then didn’t get up until seven!  That’s really late for me.  I took a shower and then Brian took his and we went to breakfast.  He told me I looked beat.  When we got home, I came back to the office and started working with the cams again.  Finally got them all sending on the same software I’ve been using since day one.  The live cameras weren’t working, but I’d figure that out later.  I went into the family room, laid down on the sofa, fell asleep.  Didn’t get up until 12:34.  Came back to the office, played with the settings on the computer firewalls and finally figured out it was PcCillan that was preventing the cams from being seen live, I fixed those, then went back to the sofa, turned on the television and promptly went back to sleep. Brian’s been back in his shop working on his tractor all day.  I don’t know why I’m so tired. I’m watching some auctions on eBay for Win 98SE machines and I’ll probably get one, eventually. They really aren’t that expensive.  Since I’ve got the old Dell working and should have the remote working again once I get the adapter, I might set the 98SE machine up in the living room.  So, I can play games on it. I think I’ll go lay back down.  I’m terribly tired. We’ll see. | Permalink

      Sunday, July 06, 2008

otherstuff 11:53 AM - 07/06/2008 The topic: So, it’s Sunday ---------------------------------------------- The holiday weekend is almost over.  I’ve decided to put the new (old) computer, if I get it, in the extra room and set it up to run the games I’ve got that only run under a DOS OS.  And it will be nice to have a place to get away from the cats.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my cats, but some “me” time is nice. I mentioned the Indy movie a couple of days ago, how we liked it.  I’m not usually very squeamish, but I hate ants.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned that fact a time or two before, I hate them due to that old movie “Them”, the black and white film about huge mutant ants in the Los Angeles area.  This was done during the nuclear scares back in the fifties and sixties.  I was just a little kid and my mom was gracious enough to put me to bed, then wake me up later so I could see this movie, because I’d been begging her all day to let me see it. I’ve hated ants ever since. So, when the part of the Indy movie with those huge red ants came on, with those huge nasty red ants came pouring out of the anthills and climbing all over people, I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could and pushed my face into Brian’s shoulder and was squeezing his poor leg.  I don’t doubt he got a little bruised.  Red, people eating ants. Nasty, nasty, nasty. I ordered a serial to USB adapter over on eBay earlier this weekend.  Since I had to pay sales tax, I’m hoping it’s not that far away and I hope to have it early this next week.  And my fingers are crossed that the remote will once again work properly. I’m also after my DH to climb up on a ladder and change out the roof cam.  I changed the one over the office feeder this weekend and the picture is mui better.  The camera on the roof is a 3Homeconnect camera and now Watchport has those cameras.  The one that’s running in the garage, as the “dinnercam” is a Watchport camera, the resolution is much better than the one on the roof.   Originally, I got the new Watchports as replacements for the roof, never thinking to use one of them in the house.  I just wanted to have a spare for the roof.  But now, I’m glad I got two. So, the backyard cam will hopefully, by the end of the week, have a much clearer picture and the ability to be repositioned by folks on the internet.  Unless I’m by the pool, then I’ll set it and turn off the remote. I finally took off the bandage I’ve been wearing on my thumb for the past couple of months.  It’s not hurting nearly as much and I’ve got much more use of it, but it’s still swollen.  You know, you’d think for as badly injured as it obviously was, I’d have realized it when I did it. Well, off to see what kind of wireless adapters are available for a win98SE machine.  You know, just in case I get one. | Permalink

      Monday, July 07, 2008

otherstuff 07:01 PM - 07/07/2008 The topic: Woohoo! ---------------------------------------------- I got the computer!  There was one bid of $24.99 and I won it for $25.49!  $36.99 shipping, but hey, that’s cheaper than an Xbox or PlayStation.  *lol* Ordered the USB WiFi, which has a ten dollar rebate, so that will end up costing less than ten dollars.  I’ve got another monitor (CRT) back in Brian’s shop, I’ve got lots of keyboards (came with new computers, I prefer the ones with the magic programmable buttons for my main computers) and lots of mice.  So, I’m all set.  I’m sure glad I never throw anything out.  | Permalink

      Tuesday, July 08, 2008

catstuff 08:40 AM - 07/08/2008 The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #98! ---------------------------------------------- And once again, two Tuesdays in a row, the model is Benny. click for a larger pic Stretching out on the sofa late yesterday afternoon.  Bart finally turned on Benny earlier this week, he actually was fighting him off.  I haven’t seen Benny jump him since! Yay! ================================================ If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!   | Permalink

otherstuff 09:16 AM - 07/08/2008 The topic: Serial to USB adapter ---------------------------------------------- I mentioned (a couple of times) getting the adapter online, eBay as a matter of fact.  Free shipping, the adapter was under $8.00.  I’d looked at stores online and found these things for $19.99 up to $29.99. Yesterday afternoon, we had to go shopping.  Flat out of food (hey, here’s another reminder, the dinnercam is on nightly and you even get to see my legs!), we hit the petfood store, got one #15 bag of Taste of the Wild food, two #20 bags of Felidae, thirty-six large cans of Wellness and thirty-six medium cans, came to $208 and change.  Then we picked up a couple bags of Costco dry and a 48 can loaf box of Friskies.  Since the pet store is next to Best Buy, we went in because I wanted to see how much they charged for the adapters (if they carried them at all).  They carried them alright. $36.99!  Oh, my goodness!  I can wait.  *lol*  I got an email that it shipped yesterday.  The seller is in Pomona, which in the Los Angeles area, so hopefully it will be here today and I’m hoping to have the backyard cam remote going!  Gosh, it’s been so long. | Permalink

otherstuff 09:32 AM - 07/08/2008 The topic: *Sigh* ---------------------------------------------- We've got a mailbox alert system in our mailbox.  When the door to the mailbox is opened, an alarm in the house goes off.  Very annoying loud beep and it continues every five minutes for an hour, unless you push the button to stop it.  After the hour, a red light stays on, just in case you didn’t hear the loud beep. We did our shopping yesterday after the mail was delivered, so the mailbox alert had been reset. This morning, Brian had an envelope to put in the mailbox on his way to work. The alert sounded. Then he came in the house. Then he went back outside. Then he came back in the house. I asked what was going on. It seems, someone put a firecracker in our mailbox. And it exploded in our mailbox.  Nothing was hurt, there was just a mess of burnt powder and paper. But why on earth didn’t the alarm go off when the door was opened?  Unless whoever did it barely opened the mailbox door and just dropped the firecracker in, like say, from the passenger seat of a car. You know, if one of these things hit the pine needles on our bank, it would be not a good thing.  Not a good thing at all. Rat bastards. | Permalink

      Wednesday, July 09, 2008

otherstuff 07:27 AM - 07/09/2008 We found a nice shiny dime on our walk this morning The topic: Dentist this morning ---------------------------------------------- Bleh.  Teeth cleaning, she’ll dig deep around my teeth and make them ache.  Since it’s been a year since I’ve had x-rays, I’ll most likely have to get those, where the doctor will find all is well in my mouth. And it will cost two hundred dollars.  Or more. Brian’s in the shower right now.  His appointment is at 8:00.  Mine is 8:50. | Permalink

tales from the parkside 07:29 AM - 07/09/2008 The topic: Thelma ---------------------------------------------- She called me yesterday morning, right at eight.  Mom visited her the previous night.  Same kind of dream/visitation I had.  Thelma told me she’d never felt anybody real in a dream before, but the entire thing was so real to her, not a bit of anything surreal.  Not weird and strange like dreams usually are. She said it made her sad. But mom had put on weight and was warm.  There was substance to her.  I told her mom came to see her so she wouldn’t be sad, but to be happy that mom had moved on. Boy, that mother of mine sure has a strong spirit. | Permalink

otherstuff 02:40 PM - 07/09/2008 The topic: Big yay! ---------------------------------------------- The remote on the backyard cam once again is functional! The adapter got here, couldn't for the life of me figure out why it wouldn't work. The computer was looking for a driver, I thought the driver was with the camera software. So, I call up my friend Tikky in Texas, who's also computer savvy (she builds websites for a living) and we pass ideas off on one another. I was hoping she might have some sort of ideas. She Googled for me, couldn’t find anymore than I had and I pulled the computer out and looked at the back, putting the USB connecter into a different place.  And my eyes see the serial mouse port.  Duh. I disconnected the serial cable from the adapter and plugged it into the serial mouse port at the back of the computer.  It fit!  And the remote control works once again! Amazingly, when I folded up the adapter, a little bitty disk falls out of the folds of the cardboard.  Has the word “Driver” printed on it. Nice.  But, the remote once again works. Oh, and Tikky told me I might consider moving the “live video” button from the menu to under the camera listings. Yeah, yeah, I’ll think about it. *lol* | Permalink

otherstuff 02:46 PM - 07/09/2008 The topic: Can’t connect to the internet? ---------------------------------------------- So, we go to the dentist this morning.  Brian was making his next appointment when I got there.  He’s got a problem with one of his front teeth, the enamal is eroding and it has to be fixed. I get mine cleaned, the dentist comes in, looks around my mouth, says “there’s decay around that filling” (translation: $ka-ching!$), so I have to go in and get that filling removed and refilled.  Next Tuesday for both of us. Then over to my mom’s, where one of the park residents wants to buy her 26” television.  I throw in the combo DVD/VHS player and the cart it all comes in, for $150.00 (paid for my dental visit, leaving me two bucks).  Brian says when I get home, “hey, you can take us to lunch!”  *sigh* So, we get back from lunch, it seems that Windows automatic update updated automatically while we were gone.  None of the cameras I set in the morning were running.  I get them running and gee, what’s this?  They’re not uploading to the internet.  Hmm.  Then I try connecting. Can’t.  On either computer. Brian, who’s computer did not get updated automatically, is running fine.  Crap.  So, I do a sys restore on this computer and I can get back on to the net.  I do a quick search of not being able to connect to the internet after Win autoupdate and it seems with the most recent update, there’s some sort of problem with Zone Alarm, which runs on all of our computers.  I change a setting on the XP home system and get the camera rolling again. Damned Windows.  I about had a heart attack. | Permalink

      Thursday, July 10, 2008

otherstuff 07:07 AM - 07/10/2008 The topic: Petty irritation ---------------------------------------------- I’m sure you know the type of situation I’m talking about.  When somebody does something annoying, repeatedly. Then something happens and that person stomps her feet and gets all huffy.  “I’m never going to _____ (fill in the blank) again!” And it’s nice when she never does it again. And then she starts doing it again.  Over and over and over and over. And, although I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets annoyed by this, I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself and wish “boy, it would sure be nice if she never ______ (fill in the blank) again.” | Permalink

otherstuff 07:14 AM - 07/10/2008 The topic: Shopping online ---------------------------------------------- I’ve gotta say, the majority of my online shopping experiences are good ones.  Quick response, great prices, and if there’s a problem, most companies are more than happy to help you out. That said, one of the catalog companies I liked before the internet was The Lakeside Company. Then I found them online. Oh, my God, what a frustrating experience it is.  Not to place the order, but the filling of the order.  Shortly after it’s ready, you get an email with tracking information from them. And you check out the tracking information and find that it’s just SITTING IN THEIR WAREHOUSE for weeks!  Not getting shipped out, just SITTING THERE.  According to said tracking information, my order was supposed to be here yesterday. It’s not.  And this morning, there’s no new expected date. And you contact customer service and you get a canned response.  And if you follow up on this, the CSR isn’t much more help than the canned response. I forgot.  I quit doing business with them because of this and I forgot.  Or maybe I hoped they were better.  But they aren’t.  My shipment has been SITTING IN THEIR WAREHOUSE, ready for shipping, since July 2.   Over a week ago. So, if you want your order in a timely fashion, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT order from the Lakeside Company.  It sucks. They’ve got a great selection of stuff, wonderful pricing, but their shipping policy negates it all. | Permalink

otherstuff 01:55 PM - 07/10/2008 The topic: Zone Alarm and Windows updates ---------------------------------------------- If you lost your internet connection, check out this link on how to fix it. I uninstalled the latest update. Then I went into my control panel and reset my security settings so that Windows lets me know there's an update, but doesn't install without my okay. | Permalink

      Friday, July 11, 2008

otherstuff 08:09 AM - 07/11/2008 We found a dime, a penny and a quarter on our walk this morning The topic: How did that happen? ---------------------------------------------- I was checking out the catcam and noticed it was very out of focus. Went over to the chair, the catcam was on the floor, in pieces. I was able to put it back together (maybe some of you were watching at that time) and I got it back up where it belonged and it’s still working. There is a broken part inside, but it doesn’t seem to interfere with the camera’s operation. How weird. | Permalink

otherstuff 10:48 PM - 07/11/2008 The topic: Another late night ---------------------------------------------- Earlier today, I get an email from Zone Alarm.  “Download this!”  I do.  Won’t run with Trend Micro’s stuff.  It did before, won’t now. Stops loading at 53%.  I uninstall Trend.  I uninstall ZA.  I reinstall ZA.  Computer won’t boot up.  This happened all three times I reinstalled ZA.  So, I decided to hell with ZA, I’ll use Trend Micro.  Don’t need both, anyway, and I do have a hard firewall in the router, so I’ve kind of got an overkill of firewalls here. Trend won’t install.  Tells me there’s a newer version already on my computer.  So, somewhere, something, some little piece of code remains, buggering up the installation.  I ended up installing the 2005 version without a problem.  Except the registration number expired in 2006.  No biggie, I’ll take care of that when I upload the latest version. Ha. I didn’t change the number and the software would not update the patterns and wouldn’t run.  So, I had to uninstall it and reinstall it and put the correct numbers in. Everyting be fine now. I started this around 6:00 tonight.  Five hours later, I’m done. On this computer, anyway. And in case you were wondering, that’s why no dinnercam tonight. | Permalink

      Monday, July 14, 2008

otherstuff 08:41 AM - 07/14/2008 The topic: Sure fire way to get your SO to listen ---------------------------------------------- Whisper your message.  Mutter under your breath.  Whatever you do, do not speak in a voice easily heard. I’ve realized that Brian has this knack of blocking out my normal or loud voice.  But, if I whisper to a kitty or I mutter to myself, he can hear! *lol* | Permalink

mailstuff 10:59 AM - 07/14/2008 The topic: Just in ---------------------------------------------- A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table. She said, ‘For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.’ The wife answered, ‘Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband.’ The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands. The husband thought for a moment: ‘Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again.  I’m sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.’ The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish. So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof!...the husband became 92 years old. The moral of this story: Men who are ungrateful bastards should remember fairies are female….. | Permalink

      Tuesday, July 15, 2008

catstuff 07:38 AM - 07/15/2008 We found three pennies (well, I did find a dime, but it was in the melted asphalt - I couldn't get it with my fingernails so I left it) on our walk this morning The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #99! ---------------------------------------------- Well, today is kind of rushed (dentist appointment at 8:40, went walking this morning, very muggy and I’m very sweaty, a shower is a must) and I had no TT for today, so I grabbed the camera and shot what I could.  And this morning I got Richie in the middle of a bath. click for a larger pic And if you look real close, you’ll see his tummy! ================================================ If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies! | Permalink

      Wednesday, July 16, 2008

catstuff 08:27 AM - 07/16/2008 The topic: Vet visits - next two days ---------------------------------------------- So, this morning, Bart can hardly walk.  Not a good thing.  He’s getting better as the morning goes along, but I’m concerned.  He’s been diagnosed with a heart murmur and athritis.  I’d like to be able to do something to make him more comfortable.  He’s been on glucosamine/chondrointen for a while now and it’s helped, but I don’t know why he’s having problems this morning.  Maybe Benny hurt him, jumping on his back and biting him. His appointment is at 10:45 this morning.  I hope it’s nothing along the lines of “he’s gonna die”, but “give him this and he’ll feel better”.  I see x-rays and bloodwork in his near future. Then, we have Pancho.  Pancho has a big raw spot on the back of one of his front legs, in front of his paw pad.  I’m thinking it might have started out as an abscess from a cat fight (we had quite a few of those a couple of weeks ago) and he’s just not letting it heal, he licks and licks and licks it.  I’ve tried Bactoderm, but he licks that off.  I’m hoping the vet has an idea.  His appointment is at 9:30 tomorrow. Then Oliver has a followup for bloodwork tomorrow.  One of these weeks, I don’t want to leave the house, not once. UPDATE: Well, we’re home.  No x-rays, no bloodwork.  The vet pulled out the pictures from last autumn and said that Bart has the same problems now, just worse. When I pointed out the area of his back that seems more painful than normal, he shook his head and told me that Bart was in to see him back in 1993 for that same problem area.  For pain relief there are three different meds that we could use, but two of them are for very, very bad pain, human drugs.  The other is metacam, which we’ve already got here.  He said this is the drug he’d advise at this point. We discussed how Bart gets around.  I told him this morning was pretty bad, but as he moved it got somewhat better.  He asked if Bart objects to being held, I laughed.  Bart really wanted up yesterday, was following me around until I picked him up and carried him.  He asked about Bart jumping up on things, does he have problems there?  Well, he was in bed last night and this morning, he jumps on the sofas without too much of a problem.  Today’s diagnosis is pain due to arthritis.  I did ask the vet if Bart’s arthritis might be due to his polydactylism and he said “oh, most definitely. Those extra toes change the way he stands, carries himself, just about everything, it places more stress on the joints”.  He mentioned that when Bart had bloodwork taken last year the results were “awesome” so at this point, he’s not worried about liver damage.  Bart will get .2CC three days in a row of metacam, then off of it until his next bad episode. The vet feels that right now, the little aches and pains he has are all hitting at once. As well as the metacam, Bart also has to have some fish oil in his kibble.  Vet says that studies show this is a great help for arthritis conditions.  Just don’t give him too much or he’ll get diarrhea. Since we’ve been back, Bart ate some kibble with fish oil (broke it open with my teeth, yish), got his metacam (best given with food) and now, he’s all stretched out on the futon, ready for his afternoon snooze. | Permalink

      Tuesday, July 22, 2008

catstuff 08:08 AM - 07/22/2008 The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #100! ---------------------------------------------- Welcome to the 100th edition of Tummy Tuesday.  Today’s tummy model is Richie, who was a little shy last week. click for a larger pic But today..... But wait! I'm not done yet! I've got more to say! | Permalink

catstuff 12:18 PM - 07/22/2008 The topic: Back from the vet! ---------------------------------------------- Today, as mentioned in the TT entry, Richie had his lip looked at and the official diagnosis is “collangenalytic granuloma caused by allergy”.  In layman’s terms “fat chin”. Which is the same thing as a rodent ulcer, just on the chin.  But two weeks ago, if I’d taken him in, he’d have had the rodent ulcer.  Treatment is the same thing that Pancho is on, prednisone.  And when I get the pred refilled next time (I’m still working on a bottle I already had, for a cat who’s no longer here), it will be refilled with prednisolone, something that does the same thing but the liver doesn’t have to work as hard to process.  I think that’s what he said.  He’s lost a pound, but the vet didn’t seem all that concerned about it. Next up was Chandler.  Chandler’s always had a problem with his nose, runny, snotty, he would get bouts of sneezing, but mostly no problem at all.  But last week, before I got up one morning (did you know that cats can tell time?  they know when it’s close to 5:45 AM because when I get up, there’s probably between eight and ten cats between my side of the bed and the hallway, just waiting for the morning treat), I heard a cat that sounded suspiciously like a short nosed dog, like a pug or something.  Really noisy.  It was Chandler.  I watched him as the week went along, listening to his breathing intently.  I watched his face and looked at his nose. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to Brian that Chand looked a little puffy over his right eye.  But it went away.  But this breathing thing had me concerned (thinking back to Ciara and the polyp she had).  So, when I made Richie’s appointment, I made one for Chandler, too. I explained all of my observations to the vet and he asked some questions, like did any of the other cats have similar symptoms, does he fight with the other cats, is he eating okay?  Everything is good with him, it’s just the breathing thing. So, the vet holds a thingy to Chandler’s nose to see the air coming out. Then he uses some sort of tool with a light on it to look up Chander’s nostrils.  Left one is clear, the right one is not.  You can see small polyps in it.  Well, the vet said it could be a couple of things, one is something that’s treatable, but will never completely be gone, one could be nasal sarcoma (!!) but he didn’t think it was the cancer because Chandler would be one very sick cat if it was. If it’s what he thinks it is, it will take a while to treat, and once again, there’s a chance it won’t ever be completely gone, but Chandler can have a decent life with this thing in remission. And treatment is a pill, which used to be really expensive ($10 each), but is a lot more reasonable now than it was five years ago.  I got thirty for $17.00.  Anyway, the vet wets a Q-tip and sticks it up Chandler’s right nostril.  He rubs it around inside and pulled it out.  It had a little bit of blood on it and Chandler lets out this huge sneeze.  The vet took the Q-tip to another room, where he rubbed it on a slide and looked at it under a microscope.  He comes back in.  “Come in here, I want you to look at something” he says.  I do. He told me what to look for.  Chandler has a fungus. It’s a soil organism that Chandler must have picked up before he entered our backyard.  This organism usually doesn’t take hold unless the immune system is stressed.  He said he may have gotten it from hunting, sniffing in the dirt and it entered his system that way.  Now, you may recall that Chandler was VERY thin when he came to live with us.  Thin and unneutered and not a well cat.  The official name for what Chandler has is “nasal cryptococcosis”. If left unchecked, it would eventually kill him. One of the things the doctor had me look at under the slide was a couple of the organisms that were bigger than the other ones he pointed out.  He said “see those two with the thing that looks like halos around them?  Those “halos” are what prevents the immune system from taking care of them”.  We got home, I got the carriers out of the car, someone stinkered and it was poor Chandler.  When I opened his crate, he was gone and I saw that he’d both peed and pooped, which isn’t something I normally see.  And he quickly ran out of the house and I have no idea where he is right now.  But he’s probably embarrassed and not a little uncomfortable from what was done to his poor little nose.  I have one of the pills in a gelcap and as soon as he’s settled back in, I’ll give it to him. Poor little Chandler bo Bandler. | Permalink

tales from the parkside 09:12 PM - 07/22/2008 The topic: Please keep your fingers crossed…. ---------------------------------------------- The appraisers came by mom’s tonight.  The (hopeful) new owner was there, he paid them.  They seemed okay with it, we’re asking sixty thousand for it.  It’s a really nice place and mom did a great job of keeping it up.  (She moved there in 1988.)  The big selling point is the yard.  It’s a big yard for a mobile home park, she has lemon trees, peach trees, even a producing avocado tree that she grew from a seed.  The wife, before having seen mom’s place, told the park manager that she really wanted to plant a lemon tree.  Well, mom’s got a couple of those with tons of fruit on them.  Both Bill and Norma fell in love with it and he says he goes to sleep at night thinking of things they want to do there.  Like pull up the carpet and put down laminate, reside it to make it look like stucco, things along that line. So far, the hold up was from the (hopeful) new owner’s union guy, the one who needed to send the information to the prospective lender about his retirement.  But the man is back from a two week vacation and now things are moving along.  I sure hope they get it.  One of the things I was asked by the appraiser when I was inside with her, was about the refrigerator. She asked if it was staying.  I said if Bill and Norma get the loan and become the new owners, we’ll leave anything they want.  Like the refrigerator and the washer and dryer. That seemed to be a good answer, she wrote it down.  They moved out here from back East and live in an apartment now and these are things they’d need. So, please keep ‘em crossed.  Bill said tonight this place was made for he and his wife.  They really, really want it.  And they’ve got an Irish last name, so it’s only fitting it stay with it’s ethnic group.  *lol* We should know in the next few days. Well, that’s it for now.  I’ve got cats to medicate (Pancho, Richie, Chandler, and Bart). | Permalink

      Saturday, July 26, 2008

catstuff 11:56 AM - 07/26/2008 The topic: Catnip ---------------------------------------------- I added pictures of the nip to the store. And while supplies last, I'll include a free cat toy with each order for a half ounce or more! http://www.lvdesigns.com/store/catalog/product_355_Benny_da_Kats_Finest_Kind_Catnip_cat_78.html | Permalink

      Tuesday, July 29, 2008

catstuff 01:29 PM - 07/29/2008 The topic: It’s TUMMY TUESDAY #101! ---------------------------------------------- Got busy doing paperwork and paying bills and it completely slipped my mind that it’s Tuesday and I had no kitty tummy ready.  So, off in search of a sleeping kitty cat and I found Katie nodded off on top of the sewing machine cabinet. click for a larger pic Man, I hate paying bills. ================================================ If you've got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies! | Permalink

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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