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      Sunday, February 01, 2004

08:41 AM - 02/01/2004 The topic: Gah! Sick cats! ---------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 1, 2004  I’ve never seen this many ill cats all at once.  It’s horrible!  And there’s not a thing I can do for them.  Hopefully, they won’t progress to a point where I have to do something for them.  This cold is travelling quickly through the population now. Thursday, I was pretty concerned about Bart.  I could tell he had a sore throat from the way he was trying to swallow (you know how that is, swallowing and it hurts).  Well, Friday he wasn’t much better, in fact a little worse.  Ten years ago last month, when we got Mickey, Bart ended up with pneumonia. So, I gave Bart an amoxi tab Friday morning and went to the vet later that day and got some liquid Clavamox.  I really don’t think the antibiotics helped all that much, but Bart was sounding much better yesterday afternoon.  I’ve got Katie on the Clavamox now.  Poor little thing.  But she was eating this chicken this morning, so that’s a good sign. Now, Mystie is under the weather.  She looks pretty bad, but she’s sleeping okay.  Georgie sounds and looks awful.  He’s sneezing and his eyes are watering.  It also looks like he’s having a hard time breathing through his nose because he’s breathing through his mouth.  He’s on amoxicillan.  It’s looking like there’s about a three-four day bad period then it starts to get better. Late yesterday afternoon, I saw Jackson walking through the house, salivating badly.  Drool was dripping in copious amounts from his mouth.  His bib was soaking wet.  This really had me concerned, because Jackie is not a cat to be handled.  Other than the drooling, he looked fine. I checked out my health book and looked for all the causes of drooling and the last entry for drooling was respiratory infections.  That made me feel a whole lot better.  Stuff that had been running through my mind was he ate a bee (they’re flying around the flowers by the pool), he’d gotten a hold of a thread or string or something similar and it was wrapped around his tongue.  This morning he’s looking better, I just watched him drinking a lot of water.  So, his tongue must be working properly.  I’ll be glad when this is over with. It starts in the eyes. The third eyelid is up on both eyes.  Potter was the first to get it.  I wonder how far through the population it will go. So, a couple of weeks ago, big cat fight in front of the house. At night. Brian opened a window and hushed the cats, told them to knock it off. I asked who it was (since Repete’s been gone, the only males that I know of are SpotTee and KittyMeeze and KittyMeeze is neutered). Brian said SpotTee and a cat that was big like Sammy, but colored like Wally. Now, I’ve never seen this cat in all these weeks. Not at night eating in the entryway or cruising the hood. But I did see his fur on the lawn, in the driveway and in the gutter on the street. Mass quantities of cat fur. So, Friday morning, I get up around 4:30, open the sliding door a little to let cats go out since Pete was crying. I go back to bed. At 5:30, I get up and start my day for real. Start the computer, get the chicken warmed up for the cats morning treat, unblock and unlock the cat door in the garage, shut the sliding door, Brian gets up, we both get dressed and we make sure Potter is in, set the cat door to in only (don’t want Potter falling in the pool) we’re off on our walk. Get home, unlock door, have breakfast, I make hubby’s lunch, and every once in a while I glance out to see how the cats are doing (I check often because of Potter). Brian’s about ready to leave and I walk out back. I see Wally going under the Sago palm. All the cats are just sitting around, watching him. I say “hey, Wally, how you doing?” Really odd reaction. Wally runs. He runs to the back fence, he runs beside Brian’s workshop, then he starts climbing the fence, trying to get over the fence. Crap, what’s going on with him? I don’t understand, I’m flumoxed. Obviously, something’s wrong with Wally. And there was. It was Notwally. Wally was in the house, Notwally was in the yard. *lol* I rounded up all of our kitties, got them inside, locked and blocked the cat door, checked for Notwally’s location (under the pool pump) and went over and opened up one of the side gates. I went back to the pool pump, tapped the wood over it and Notwally ran. He went beside the shop and when I walked over there, I figured he’d gone out the gate, because that was the gate that was open. Just to make sure, I went to the other side of the house. Notwally was doing his damndest to get over the barrier, with no luck. I called him and pointed to the other side of the house, told him the gate was open over there. He quickly turned around, ran down the side of the house, around the house and out the gate. Smart cat, I think he knows some ‘human’. I walked out front and saw him going into the yard of the other house that feeds the ferals (another home that sticks in the Heartless Bastard’s craw). Went back to the yard, shut the gate and let the cats out. Said ‘hi’ to my Wally. Stuff like this just reassures me about our fencing, how hard it would be for one of the cats to escape.       I took this yesterday afternoon through our garage door of the cats outfront laying on the car. That’s SpotTee in the front (unneutered, really trap smart), Little Bit behind him (unspayed, really trap smart), KittyMeezer (neutered, wasn’t trap smart) and in the background, Notwally.  I sure wouldn’t mind if they all hung around 24/7.  I know they’re safe here. That red VW is the Heartless Bastard’s son’s car.  I wish he’d obey the 25 mph speed limit when he drives off.  Twenty five is the maximum, not the minimum.       Well, Brian finally said goodbye to his sand car.  A old family friend asked a couple of weeks about buying it.  He wants to put it on the street (which will take considerable work).  And we can use the money to pay off one of the credit cards and this will give Brian more room to work back in his shop.  I asked him if he was sad to see it go and he said “no, but I’m sad that I didn’t take it out more”.  He might have if I’d liked going to the desert, but I didn’t.  It was more work than it was worth for me.  When we first were together, we’d borrow his parents motorhome and I’d end up cooking for Brian and his brother and friends.  Being new to the family, I’d try to do it up good.  I’d cook pot roasts, a turkey breast, full on breakfasts….one night I made macaroni and cheese with weiners cut up in it.  I was told by Brian “they can eat like this at home”.  Huh?  We’re out in the middle of the frigging desert for spit’s sake.  I’m in this tiny little motorhome, cooking big meals, doing the cleanup (we got that worked out where Brian would wash the dishes) and he expected gourmet meals?  Uh, nope.  Not gonna happen. Then when we’d get back, I’d have to clean the damned motorhome before he took it back.  That sand was in everything and I just figured I didn’t have a good enough time when I was out there to balance out all of the work it was for me.  I didn’t like three wheeling, scared the crap out of me.  I didn’t like the dirt and I didn’t like the noise.  So, I quit going.  You know, thinking back on it, once I was old enough to think for myself, I really didn’t like camping with my parents.  I’d rather have stayed home.  Brian could go out if he liked, but he got busy with work and never had the time. The sand car just sat there. I did something for the first time last week.  Something I’ve thought about a lot, but never done.  I went to a movie alone.  I went to see “Big Fish”.  I liked it.  I went to the first showing, which was at 11:05.  I was there ten minutes before the show started and I was the first one in the theater.  Only seven more people showed up.  It was great.  I’ll do it again.  And again.  I think back to how many movies I’ve seen on the television that would have been so much better on the big screen.  And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked “Big Fish”.  I was expecting a major fantasy type movie, and though that was a huge part of the story, it wasn’t the important part of the story.  The important part was the relationship of an adult man and his dying father.  It was good, it was sad and it was uplifting.  It was a good movie.  Someone said they felt it was Tim Burton’s best to date.  I think Brian would like it and I told him as much. Well, the satellite guy finally showed up Friday with a new actuator, programmed in all of the satellites and the frigging thing is still doing the same thing it was doing.  Scream!  I’m going to call Motorola this week and find out what else might be causing this problem if it keeps up.  I fiddled with the wires in the back of the unit last night and this morning, it had retained the settings, but I’m not holding my breath that it keeps them.  What a PITA this has been.  We went to Applebee’s for dinner Friday night and Brian had the same thing I had, the southwestern combo.  It’s the one with the tequila lime chicken.  I really like their tequila lime chicken and I have it every time we go there.  It’s only been bad once, it was late and I don’t think the cook was very good.  The meat was pretty burnt.  But it’s been excellent every other time.  The combo is a special they’re running now, with an appetizer, entree and dessert.  The appetizer was a quesadilla, the dessert a choice of raspberry cheesecake or a chocolate brownie with ice cream.  Brian was so surprised at how much he liked the chicken.  He asked “is it always this good?”  Ya.  It is.  He usually goes for the beef dinners, but I figure if I want a good piece of beef, I’d rather go to a steakhouse, like Black Angus or Claim Jumper.  But Applebee’s tequila lime chicken is pretty hard to beat. Well, that’s about it for now.  I’ve got laundry left over from Friday to fold and put away.  Enjoy the Super Bowl.  Stay safe and don’t drink and drive.  Be alive and healthy tomorrow, okay? later  Well, Brian left a few hours ago.  His brother had called while Brian was gone off to Home Depot.  Said it wasn’t important.  I stupidly told Brian about it.  Of course, he couldn’t call, he had to go over there.  His bro wasn’t home, so he spent an hour with his mom.  He called me from the truck, he’s helping his brother put in a door.  He asked what I was doing, I said thinking about going to a movie.  Well, it’s true, I did think about it, but not for very long.  It’s a Sunday and the theaters are probably crowded with women escaping the testosterone at home.  So, I’ve had a few beers and took a nice hot bath.  I tried to read but it was too dark in the tub and I didn’t have my glasses anyway.  *lol*  I just soaked for a while, listening to some light jazz. Georgie is having a tough time breathing through his mouth.  I took a picture of him earlier this afternoon.  Poor little guy.  I try to get him to sneeze to loosen up the junk in his nose.  I’ve even massaged next to his nose like I do mine when my sinuses are acting up.  That starts him to sneezing.  I think that’s a good thing.  I hope.         I wanted to share that with you all.  That’s it for now. | Permalink

      Friday, February 06, 2004

11:51 AM - 02/06/2004 The topic: Ack!  How much longer is this gonna go on? ---------------------------------------------- Friday, February 6, 2004 Still with the sick cats!  DeeJay is sick now.  Georgie is doing better, he’s up and ready for chicken in the morning, purring again, but he’s still sniffling and snuffling and sneezing.  But he seems to be having an easier time of it breathing. You wouldn’t even know that Katie had been sick.  She seems to be over it.  And Potter doesn’t seem like it hit him too hard.  Yesterday morning, I couldn’t find Sammy anywhere and he ended up being under the loveseat in the family room.  I think Autumn is there this morning, I haven’t seen her yet.  It’s nice and dark and quiet there and I’ve heard a some noisy breathing coming from under there.  Bart is still congested, but he’s back to wandering around the house and eating again. Opie and Richie are sneezing a lot.  Richie’s eyes are so bad that one was gunked closed.  They don’t have a pussy type drainage, it’s clear, which is okay.  I think with the way Richie was sleeping, the drainage was going down the side of his face and just dried there.  I used a damp washcloth on it this morning and he was able to open his eye.  He doesn’t really want to be messed with, so I left it at that.  The cats who have it the worst right now are Mystie and Daniece.  There’s no rhyme or reason as to why it hit some cats harder than others.  Like both Kirby and Red were sneezing and stuff, but they were nowhere nearly as wiped out by it at the others.  *sigh* I hope it’s over by the middle of the month.  And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t hurt DeeJay real bad. I had to go through the forums for the cats and disable the use of html in the posts as well as going through the script itself and removing the ablility to post links.  Some porn spammer was showing up about once a week and posting a link to a pornography site.  S/he obviously didn’t appreciate my deleting the posts because in the last series of posts (the posts were on about ten of the forums) a reference was made to “free speach [sic]”.  Maybe it’s free on the street corner where s/he hangs out, but I pay for my websites.  Over a thousand dollars a year, I’m sure.  So, speech on my end is by no means “free”.  Stupid twit.  I block the ISPs the posts come from, but since s/he knows s/he’s being an ass, s/he uses some sort of proxy that changes the IP numbers and there’s no way I know where the next series of posts will come from.  My only alternative was to disable the linking and html.  I think that’s sad. We had a guy over here, my mom’s gardener to help with the mess around the pool.  Brian never did his part last year and the grass was even worse.  While he was here, he asked about Ciara.  “How much did she cost?”  Nothing.  “How much would she cost?”  I don’t really know.  “She’d go for a lot of money down in Mexico.”  Well, she’s not going to Mexico, that’s for sure.  *grin*  He thought she was beautiful. He ended up filling the dumpster.  He was supposed to come back this morning, but he never called.  I think there’s another day’s work out there.  I worked out there yesterday cleaning out the pond after the rain we had this week.  Since there’s a leak somewhere, Brian doesn’t run it and keeps it dry.  Well, when we get rain, it just sits there.  Add the leaves from the tree out back in it and it gets really nasty.  I shudder to think of the cats drinking from it. Right now, the house is closed up.  It’s cold in the shade but really nice in the sun.  We got a good amount of rain earlier this week and the air is nice. Well, that’s about it for now.  Have a nice weekend. | Permalink

      Monday, February 09, 2004

10:36 AM - 02/09/2004 The topic: Well, I think we’re on the downhill side ---------------------------------------------- Monday, February 9, 2004  I think every cat has been hit by the cold.  I think most of the cats are almost over the worst part.  Daniece is still pretty bad. I was just checking on her and she sneezed so hard, her little nose started to bleed. She was talking to me and trying to purr.  My poor little Neeceygirl.  Mystie’s eyes look bad, but she’s back to wanting to be held and eating okay.  As a matter of fact, this morning was the first morning in over a week the cats polished off the chicken I put out for them.  DeeJay still shows signs of the cold, but it hasn’t gone full bloom like it did with some of the other guys.  I hope it doesn’t.  His system is so weak already from the kidney disease. I got the cats in fairly early last night and didn’t think much of the fact that I didn’t see Gracie when I fed the cats dinner.  Gracie has this damned cold, too, and she’s been hiding quite a bit.  Well, when Pete started his early morning meowing this morning, I got up and opened the sliding door.  Odd, I thought, that the screen was opened about four inches.  I tried to go back to sleep, but Oliver’s wheezing made it hard.  He’d have some quiet breaths, then a noisy one.  I started just waiting for the noisy one.  I ended up going out to lay on the sofa.  I thought I heard a cat on the roof, but it was just Jackson trying to come in the cat door (which I don’t usually open at that hour, they have to use the door off the patio).  I got up and opened that door and went back to the sofa.  When I finally got up at six, I started looking for Gracie.  I couldn’t find her anywhere in the house.  I checked outside and didn’t see her, and got Brian to help.  We finally found her in the bottom of the cathouse by the pool.  I got down on my hands and knees and got her out, bringing her into the house.  I will be so happy when they’re all well again.  I just called the vet’s office about Daniece’s bleeding because she’s sneezing so much (she’s not the only one, there was some blood on the counter this morning, I think from Marco or Sagwa) and he wants me to bring in one of the cats who’s having this problem and he’ll prescribe something for everyone.  I’m supposed to be there in a half hour.  I’m taking Daniece. So, that’s it for now.  I have to go get out of my walking clothes and into some street clothes. Update: 1:43pm  Got back from the vet about 11:30.  What we have is a herpes virus.  Highly contagious (duh).  Daniece didn’t have a fever, but she does have a stuffed nose.  Very stuffed.  He prescribed Temaril-P for the sneezing.  This is an antihistamine with a little bit of predisolone in it for the inflammation.  And Orbax for the infections.  There’s enough here to treat eight cats (for the Orbax) more for the Temaril-P because that’s dosed by weight.  So far I’ve done DeeJay, Georgie, Gracie and gave Temaril-P to Annie, who resisted and bit my finger.  I have to print up some sort of table to mark off who’s been done and who hasn’t.  DeeJay is a definite do because of his existing disease. The vet said earlier this year they got a couple of kittens in from the El Cajon Shelter that had the shelter crud.  It infected the clinic cats, it infected the cat room,  one of the tech’s cats got sick and even a couple of client cats got sick.  He said it took a full six weeks before it was over and done with.  When he was examining Daniece, he was asking about the symptoms of the other cats.  One of the questions ‘was there any drool?’  Well, you know, dear reader, that Jackson was drooling.  I guess there’s a possibility he might have mouth ulcers.  But he didn’t drool past the first couple of days so maybe he didn’t have them or they resolved on their own. I’m also to give the cats l-lysine. We haven’t seen Notwally or Notnotwally since early last week. And we haven’t seen SpotTee since late last week.  It would appear that little miss Little Bit is with kitten.  And the neighborhood boyz have gone in search of more fertile ground.  SpotTee stuck around to make sure she was okay with KittyMeeze, then he took off. And even though KittyMeeze does what he can to do the job, he can’t do any harm since he’s fixed (I’ve got them in compromising positions in the past).  *sigh* Well, the pills must be having some effect because Georgie really wants to be held, DeeJay wanted to eat and Annie is eating as we speak.  Amazing how much better you feel when you can breathe. Oh, thank you JS for the donation!  It came at a great time, with the vet’s visit and medications.  I really appreciate it.  I noticed on today’s bill that he’s raised his prices again.  Even with the discount he gives us, we still pay a lot.  One of these days we’ll go to someone else, but I’m reluctant to move on, because how many vets would work with us like he has?  And he knows the cats.  That’s really important.  Thank you again. | Permalink

      Thursday, February 12, 2004

02:39 PM - 02/12/2004 The topic: Nice day. Windy, but nice. ---------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 13, 2004  Boy, it’s windy.  Surprisingly, the cats don’t seem to mind.  I’ve always heard that cats don’t like wind.  It’s almost 72? outside.  Of course, I’ll probably have to shut the house up in the next hour or so because it will start to cool off and then it won’t be so pleasant. I just got four emails that comments were left in this journal, in a previous month’s entry.  A spammer.  Someone linking to adult content websites.  I removed the comments.  And the ISP number was in the mail alerting me to new comments posted.  I sent every single one to hir provider.  And I banned hir ISP from leaving comments.  Hopefully, s/he has a static number, one that no one else has.  Funny thing, s/he found my journal searching for “adult weblogs”.  I used the word ‘adult’ in one of my postings.  Real nice.  :B-no I’m seriously thinking of having acrylic nails put on.  Not because I want dragonlady nails, but I’ve got three nails that keep splitting.  The rest of my nails are pretty healthy, but my two thumbs and left index finger just won’t grow out healthy.  I read that the only thing that really helps nails grow is formadahyde, and I’m certainly not going to ingest that for lovely natural nails.  *lol*  I’m thinking it’s one of those hormonal things.  Speaking of hormonal, Aunt Flo hasn’t shown her nasty face since last March.  Almost a year now.  I’m almost officially in menopause. On the whole, the cats are doing better.  Right now, the worst is Oliver.  There’s still the occasional sneezing and I had to clean more nostral blood from the counter this morning.  I didn’t see who it was, but I’ll keep giving the bad cases the pills.  DeeJay isn’t sneezing so much, but he still has the sniffles.  And an appetite.  I just opened a can of Fancy Feast in the garage, where he’d followed me.  He started eating it before it was out of the can.  I carried him and the bowl of Fancy Feast into the exercise room and he started eating it while I was walking.  I think that means he’s feeling better. One thing I’ve learned is that cleaning dried cat snot off of a window is a lot harder than cleaning dried cat pee. And the snot goes farther.  :blah Earlier this week, I was checking on the garage cats (Lonee, Autumn, Gracie and Angel spend most of their time out there; odd, I never even realized that the girls stay out there) and found Autumn hiding in the bottom of a cat condo.  It looked like she’d snorted a piece of carpet fuzz (you know those pieces of carpet that you find after the cats have annihilated a scratching post?).  I was able to get here without a fight and I pulled on the carpet.  Sure enough, it was in her nose.  Poor little girl, it wasn’t bad enough that she’s congested, she had to have carpet up her nose.  She was happy to get rid of that.  This cold thing looks like it might have an upside, though.  Angel and Gracie are spending a lot more time in the house.  Gracie only goes into the garage to potty and eat dinner.  Right now, she’s sleeping in a basket in the kitty sleep center in the living room.  She spent most of the morning in the sun, on one of the pillows under the kitchen window.  And Angel sleeps on the sofas in the family room, coming over to be held and petted, just like she did when she was little.  I think they’ve realized that the boys aren’t going to chase them like they did when they were younger.  Lonee comes in a little more, but Autumn still stays in the garage.  I’d like to see her inside more. I went to see another movie by myself yesterday.  Note to self:  don’t go spend money on a movie when you’ve read the book already.  I went to see Mystic River and I liked the movie, I thought it was well done, but I knew how it was going to end, so the element of suspense/mystery just wasn’t there for me.  It didn’t help that I had a major headache before I even went.  I tried some Aleve yesterday morning to help relieve the pain I’ve had in my thumb since falling last year (it didn’t work) and it did nothing for the headache I got later.  And I was afraid to take any Excedrin.  I love this weather, but the tree pollen is killing me. I’ve been pretty tired, I think it’s because I’m not sleeping well at night.  I’m finding myself pushed to the edge of the bed by cats.  And when I wake up and notice this, I have a hard time getting back to sleep because of how noisy some of them are breathing, mostly Oliver at this point.  Mickey is still kind of bad, but nowhere near close to Ollie.  Brian’s going to be gone for a considerable part of one of the days this weekend to the property, leaving early, early and getting home late.  He asked me what I’d be doing, I said “sleeping”.  He laughed.  I wasn’t joking. Well, that’s about it for now.  I hadn’t opened any company mail since the beginning of January and I guess I really should.  I did go through and get the ones opened that have to be paid (like utilities and gas cards) and got those paid, but now I have to do the rest.  With any luck, Brian will be bringing home a nice check tomorrow and I can pay a good portion of them.  Oh, I paid off one of our credit cards!  What a nice feeling!  Two more to go. | Permalink

      Friday, February 13, 2004

11:06 AM - 02/13/2004 The topic: Road Runner condones spammers? ---------------------------------------------- Friday, February 13, 2004  Does Road Runner condone spammers?  I would think not, but apparantly, I think wrong.  Yesterday, I mentioned the porn spammer, the one who got here doing a Google search for “adult weblogs”.  One who obviously never even read the entry she was responding to, otherwise she’d have gotten a big clue that this isn’t a site for folks who are looking for things like sex toys.  I heard back from Road Runner and this is what they had to say:   Hello, Road Runner supports the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet. Road Runner does not actively monitor nor does Road Runner exercise editorial control over the content of any web site, electronic mail transmission, mailing list, news group or other material created or accessible over Road Runner services. Please also be aware that commercially available software provides various options restricting access to the Internet from or to your computer and you may want to consider use of one of those programs. Thank you for taking the time to contact Road Runner. - Road Runner Abuse [AB]   Can you even believe that? :whomp In my mail to them I was very clear as to what had happened. This was my response:   Excuse me? A Road Runner member went to MY website and posted links on MY weblog to adult oriented websites. If you’ll look at the messages I sent to you, it clearly states “A comment has just been posted to entry”. I don’t give a rat’s behind what sites she visits or what she sends in email to others or what she does in the privacy of her own home or street corner, but I do care what people post in MY weblog on MY website. Why on earth would I want software that will restrict ME from visiting MY website because of something one of YOUR users posted? Obviously, Road Runner doesn’t care what it’s users do while online. I’ll keep this in mind. If I ever feel a need to spam people with porn, I’ll sign up with your company, since you don’t want to get involved.   If you’re a Road Runner user, could you email them and find out exactly what their policies are?  I’d like to see a little heat generated here. The jerks.  If you’re going to allow members to spam, at least ask that they know their audience.  I certainly don’t want people kept away from lisaviolet.com because of some lazy assed spammer. Thank you for all the input about fingernails.  I’ve been taking calcium supplements for close to two years now on the advice of my chiropractor.  I really don’t want to put any type of stuff on them that has to be removed, because, even though I don’t bite my nails, I do bite the polish when I’m wearing it and that’s not good for nails.  I try to keep my hands and nails moisturized.  Yesterday, I was trying to open the box of Fancy Feast and split one of the nails down into the nailbed.  I’ve been keeping them trimmed low hoping that eventually they’ll grow out past that weak area, but it’s hard to do when they split so easily.  It’s gotten to the point that I can’t open a cardboard box when you have to poke a finger in an area to do that.  Right now, the only cat who is bad is Oliver.  He seems to be breathing a little better, though.  The overall sneezing has just about ended.  And the cats are back to peeing on the counters and pooping on the laundry room floor.  Oh, well. And there’s been no sign of SpotTee since last week.  KittyMeeze and Little Bit are still around and every once in a while, I see the tortie.  Notwally and the other neighborhood toms have disappeared, now that there’s nothing to hang around for.  Brian and I talked about our cats being sick and I’m wondering if maybe Notwally being in our yard made it worse for them.  You know, the spray and stuff that toms leave around.  All it would take is for one of our cats to get in contact with the virus and *wham*, they all get it.  From what I read, the longer the exposure, the worse they’ll get it.  So, maybe they had a little of it beforehand just from sniffing the front door and the vent by the garage, but having it in the yard just overdosed them. Whatever happened, I’ll be happy when it’s all done with. So, I’ve got laundry started, I’ve dusted the furniture and wiped the sides of everything down (trying to keep it pee free) with Pledge.  Now I have to vacuum, then shower and get stuff ready for the bank, get cat food and hit CostCo.  And I’ve got two calendars to make.  I’d like to be back home by three this afternoon, so I’d best get hopping. Have a great weekend and a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  I’ll probably get the same thing I get every year. Nothing.   | Permalink

      Sunday, February 15, 2004

11:30 AM - 02/15/2004 The topic: Sheesh.  Some people. ---------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 15, 2004  Tomorrow should be interesting.  Brian was talking to his buddy across the street when his friend pointed out that one of our tall pine trees isn’t doing well.  The one closest to where the tree hating neighbors work van is parked at night.  Brian comes home to check it out, finds out that our heather bush he planted up there years ago is completely dead.  And the tree isn’t looking good, either.  He got a hose from the backyard and started running water on it.  And he discovered that it isn’t bugs or beetles or worms that is killing the tree.  It’s the paint thinner the neighbor dumps out right at that spot.  It’s been going on so long, that now it’s killing our plants. Brian is going to confront the man about it tomorrow.  Of course, it’s pretty sure the man will deny it.  I told Brian this morning “that’s when you say ‘Okay, I guess I’ll just have to dig up some soil and have the county test it’.”  And of course, they’ll find nasty stuff in the soil (I can smell it when it’s dumped, sometimes the entire neighborhood smells of it, it’s horrible, horrible stuff and I’ve had a physical reaction to it before.  It’s really sickening and now, it’s killing our trees.  The county won’t look too kindly on someone dumping chemicals. Besides running the water on the tree 24/7, he also set the sprinklers to come on once a day for an hour until the tree shows improvement.  Hopefully, he’ll be able to save the tree and dilute the poison. A cat fight woke me up yesterday morning and I went outside to check it out.  It was SpotTee and Notwally across the street.  I also saw the Heartless Bastard out watching, too.  Gah, I can’t stand that man. I'm really happy with the cats’ progress on the cold they’ve got.  Most are now back to normal.  Oliver still has some residual problems, but it would appear the virus has left the building.  I had a scare with Kirby yesterday.  We heard some cat puking in the night and when we got back from breakfast yesterday morning, there was cat vomit all over the house.  As I was cleaning it up, I could see where it went from solid to almost watery.  Kirby was really under the weather.  I did notice that he has tapeworms, but I never realized, until I did a search yesterday, that tapes could also produce vomiting.  I gave him a Droncit? yesterday afternoon and, last night, he was acting a little bit better.  This morning, he’s almost back to Kirby again.  He ate quite a bit of chicken this morning and later, was on the grass, rolling around. Then this morning Brian pointed out a huge vomit on the floor, under the coffee table.  I’d just been looking for the source of the wierd smell and I figured that was it.  But, it wasn’t.  It’s Ciara.  She’s having extremely watery diarrhea right now.  *sigh*  I washed her bottom off a couple of times and I’m doing a laundry of the sofa covers.  She ate this morning, and she’s sleeping now.  I don’t know what she got into. Brian was so wonderful yesterday.  He got a bunch of stuff done around the house.  Replaced my shower head, finally fixed the leaky faucet in the kitchen (put a new one in we got at Costco, since the old one was washerless and couldn’t be fixed), and he edged and mowed the lawns.  My mom stopped by to pay me for the garlic butter cod I’d gotten for her at Costco and she gave me twenty dollars as well, for us to go get something to eat for Valentine’s Day.  At first, I was reluctant because I was still worried about Kirby, but when Brian said we could go early and I wouldn’t have to get dressed up (I did that Friday night, he got home late, we went out to eat, the parking lot was full, so we came home, and boy, was I so not in a good mood). We went to Olive Garden, because I’ve really wanted to go to the new one in Santee.  I recalled really liking the one they had in El Cajon.  I have to admit, we were both pretty disappointed with the meal.  I didn’t like it because it was so salty.  I got the cheese stuffed chicken.  Well, the chicken wasn’t really “stuffed” it was sliced and there was cheese inside and it all melted out.  We decided that we wouldn’t be in a big hurry to eat there in the future.  We did order desserts, but got them to go.  We came home and watched Steve Martin and Queen Latifah in “Bringing Down the House”, then side B of the “Simple Life” video (I bought it, I couldn’t help myself, what can I say?) and Brian said he was going to bed.  I said I was jealous because I’d like to stretch out.  He said I could watch television in bed, it wouldn’t bother him.  So, we watched (he didn’t go to sleep) the Steve Irwin movie that was out last year.  Crikey!  One of the reasons I couldn’t stretch out on the sofa is that since the cats were all so sick, they’ve been really clingy.  Brian was on one end of the sofa, I was on the other and there were eight cats on the sofa with us.  There were only two on the loveseat, but one of them was DeeJay and you just don’t mess with the Deej when he’s sleeping.  He gets extremely crabby.  Georgie, who was the first to get so terribly sick, just won’t leave Brian alone.  He wants to be held all the time. Well, I’m as soon as this load of laundry is done, I’m going to check out that new shower head.  You all have a great rest of the weekend.  I’m printing up a couple of calendars and doing laundry.  I think I’ll also start playing around with my new photo album script. | Permalink

      Wednesday, February 18, 2004

03:02 PM - 02/18/2004 The topic: Sigh ---------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 18, 2004  *sigh*  Ciara is doing better, but if you think of it, could you send some positive energy or prayers her way?  I’ve had to wash the sofa covers three times since Sunday because of her dripping.  Her poor little bottom is so raw. I’ve trimmed back a great part of her hair, I cleaned it off in the shower once, but it was a mess again within a half hour.  The trauma of the water wasn’t good for her.  I started her on amoxicillan yesterday and her eyes do look a little clearer. She’s not eating hardly anything, but I understand that’s what needs to be done, they need to fast to give their intestines a chance to get better. I’d really like her to feel better.  After all those weeks of sick kitties and now poor little Ciara and there’s not a whole lot I can do for her.  At least when all of the cats had colds, I could run the humidifier and give them yummy food, but that’s won’t help Ciara.  She’s so miserable. I have been giving her fluids to make sure she doesn’t get dehydrated. I had an absolutely horrible morning.  First, the stupid 4DTV wasn’t retaining the satellite information.  I reprogrammed it.  Usually, I only have to do one, then let it save the information for all satellites, but that wouldn’t work.  I had to do each one individually.  Then, I was opening the blinds in the office and knocked down my little glass thingy with the red liquid that has three balls and you hold the bottom ball and watch the red liquid bubble up to the top.  Broke it all to hell.  Big mess.  I had a headache and it was an all around bad morning.  The best thing was Ciara ate a little baby food.  Which ran through her and came out within two hours.  *sigh* DeeJay has recuperated nicely from his cold.  And he’s starting to put weight back on.  He lost almost a pound the past three weeks.  We’re expecting some heavy rain here this afternoon through tomorrow.  It’s been starting to come in the past half hour.  We’re supposed to go to the chiropractor this evening, so I’ll have to make sure all the cats are in before we leave.  I don’t want to be looking for cats in the rain.  I’m looking forward to the rain, but Ciara really likes being outside right now.  She’s got lots of condos to hide in, but if it gets really heavy, I’ll have to bring her in. So, send her some good thoughts.  As soon as she looks like she’s firming up, I’ll give her a bath. | Permalink

      Thursday, February 19, 2004

11:33 AM - 02/19/2004 The topic: Called the vet this morning ---------------------------------------------- Thursday, February 19, 2004  Concerned about Ciara’s bottom looking like raw hamburger, I called the vet this morning to find out if there was anything I could put on it.  They didn’t have anything, but the vet suggested Desitin, the stuff for human babies’ diaper rash.  I know that when I’ve had the occasional bout of diarrhea and I get sore, when I first shower and wash, it stings like crazy, but it feels a lot better afterward.  With this in mind I got Ciara in the tub this morning before six.  I washed her and I knew it burned when I put the cleaner on it (I used Johnson’s Baby Wash), just because I’ve been there before.  She wasn’t real happy about the blow dryer, but after we were done, and after I gave her fluids, she went into one of the condos in the living room and three hours later, she’s still there.  I did get down to the store, where I bought some Desitin and I also got some Aveeno oat baby shampoo.  I put the Desitin on her.  Gah, I hate the smell of it, it reminds me of when Mickey was a kitten and so very ill. It’s been almost an hour now and I haven’t seen her licking as much.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Desitin, it’s a very thick lotion and it doesn’t come off easily.  I thoroughly washed my hands with soap and warm water for a couple of minutes and my fingers still feel like they’ve got it on them.  With any luck, this might help her feel a little better and start to eat.  She’s still not showing any interest in food.  I’ve tried a couple of different things, but no luck so far.  But what little stool she does have is a little bit firmer and a whole lot darker than what was coming out of her Sunday and Monday.  I just tried to get her to eat a little Friskies mixed grill and she did.  I didn’t force her to eat more than she was ready for, but it was nice to see her eating a little.  I hope it doesn’t run right through her. When we were getting home from our walk, the neighbor who killed our bush was outside cleaning off his van. Brian went down to talk to him, I came home.  I guess this guy’s wife already told him about the plant.  Brian didn’t mention the tree.  If the tree doesn’t make it, I would think it pretty likely that he will. Well, I’ve got stuff to do, like work on the album.  I took some cute pictures and I was going to post them here, but once I got started, I kind of lost track of time and I guess I should finish something first.  So, I’ll finish this!  If I get the album started, I’ll post here later. | Permalink

      Sunday, February 22, 2004

11:55 AM - 02/22/2004 The topic: Back from the vet ---------------------------------------------- Sunday, February 22, 2004 Well, we’re back from the vet.  Been back about an hour now.  We took Ciara in.  I thought maybe she was doing better yesterday, but this morning, I saw some really nasty looking poo in the box.  It looked dark brown or black.  Not a good sign.  Let me fill you in on the past couple of days. Time machine to Thursday.  Concerned about dehydration, I gave Ciara 120cc of lactated ringer solution (the same thing and amount DeeJay gets every two days).  She seemed to perk up.  She even ate a little bit.  I’ve been giving her the Immodium A/D, but it made such a mess and she absolutely hated it, most of it ended up dripping out of her mouth.  Although her stool wasn’t as yellow, it still wasn’t looking good and it really bothered me that she was pretty much refusing any kind of food I offered her.  I decided that I’d take her in Friday.  I call my vet’s office Friday morning, only to find out that he’s sick, won’t be in.  Besides, it usually takes about seven days for diarrhea to clear up, just see if we can hold off until Monday.  I ask about how often I can give fluids and was told that I have to be careful, giving them too often can be very bad.  That made me pretty nervous, I’ll be honest with you.  Ciara wasn’t eating, wasn’t drinking, I knew in my heart that she probably would do better with more fluids, but it was a chance I wasn’t willing to take. Yesterday morning, I put some water in the tub and took off my shoes, socks, and jeans, grabbed up a little Ciara and we both got in the tub.  I closed the tub enclosure doors.  She was really good, didn’t put up too big of a stink about getting washed again.  I rinsed her off well and we both got out.  I put some towels on the floor and toweled her off and used the blow dryer (which she hated).  I opened the door, she came back into the office and crawled into a condo, and just lay there shaking.  I didn’t like this, not at all.  So, I figured I’d make a quarantine room of the bathroom.  I took the big water bowl out and put it in the hallway, got a cat carrier and took the door off, put soft clean towels down in it.  Then I got the heating pad and an extension cord and put the heating pad under the carrier, but only about halfway back.  Then I got towels and covered the carrier completely.  A nice little cubby hole for a sick kitty.  Then I put a litter box in there.  I also put different sorts of food in there, hoping that she’d eat something.  Then I put Ciara in there.  She seemed to not be bothered too much by being in there.  And I figured it was easier for both of us.  I wouldn’t obsess about her whereabouts and she didn’t have to keep trying to find a place to get comfortable. And this way I would also know about her pooping and peeing. She ate some Canidae last night about six and vomited it back up about ten.  I also found a fair amount of blood.  It was bright red, so I knew it was most likely from irritation of her bowels.  *sigh*  This scares me, because I start having thoughts of intestinal blockages.  Then, this morning, I find this nasty dark stool in the litter box.  Now, black, tarry looking stool is an indication of intestinal bleeding.  I got scared.  I told Brian, “she’s going in today”.  I got the phone book and found the time that the clinic where we took that tortie feral last year opened.  Nine.  I planned on being there.  So, I took a shower, did a load of laundry, and nine o’clock neared and Brian and I got ready to leave.  We got down there (the rain we’ve been waiting for all week finally started, wouldn’t you know it?), I filled out the forms and we waited for about twenty minutes.  They wanted to weigh Ciara and when I picked her up out of the carrier and took her over to the scales, she let loose.  Poo all over the floor.  The tech syringed some up for the vet to look at and Brian cleaned up the floor.  Then someone else came out with a mop.  Finally, we got in to a waiting room and the vet came in. She asked some questions about Ciara’s history and she started the exam. She didn’t find any intestinal blockages, Ciara’s kidneys seemed okay.  Ciara was dehydrated, she’d need fluids.  She prescribed flagyl (I asked if it was possible to get this in pill form, since Ciara won’t take the liquid; it’s available! Yay!) and 150cc of fluids twice a day.  I asked her about what I was told Friday morning and she said it’s pretty hard to over do sub-q fluids.  Since they’re sub-q, they don’t directly affect the organs.  Either they’re processed or they sit under the skin.  And if they are just sitting under the skin, to not give her the next scheduled fluids.  I told her I’d need another syringe, since I’ve got two sixtys, I needed at least thirty more.  Anyway, she asked if I’d like for her to shave Ciara’s backside to make it easier to clean and I said ‘yes’.  The vet took her into the back and a tech brought her back, all nicely shaved and shampooed.  And she told me what we needed to do.  Ciara will get a quarter of a flagyl tablet twice a day and 150cc of lactated ringers twice a day.  No cat food.  Get meat baby food, because that will be easier on her tummy.  They also gave us a bag for the dirty towels in the carrier (that were clean when we left) and brought us a clean towel to put in there, as well as a towel wrapped around Ciara’s clean damp bottom.  We also got a tube of Animax for her butt.  When I use that, I have to make sure I’ve got it rubbed in really good, or put a collar on Ciara so she can’t lick it off.  I don’t have to leave it on long, just long enough for the Animax to have a chance to soak in and work. So, Ciara’s home, her towels are clean (I’ve washed so many towels this past week, it’s not even funny), she’s gotten her fluids and her flagyl.  We have to get baby food and we’re set.  She’s back in the bathroom, I think she kind of wanted to walk around the house, but she didn’t fuss too much when she didn’t get out.  She just went back into the carrier.  She has pooped once since we’ve been home, it looked better than what I saw this morning.  The fluids should perk her up and the flagyl should help out a lot.  I can’t help but think I should have taken her in last week or at least requested flagyl from the vet’s office.  When I left, the doctor said I should take her back to the regular doctor for a recheck tomorrow.  I’ll call them first.  The last time this happened, I didn’t have to bring the cat in, because the cat was doing fine. We really like this clinic.  And they’re a lot less expensive than our current vet. | Permalink

      Tuesday, February 24, 2004

03:42 PM - 02/24/2004 The topic: *Deep heavy sigh* ---------------------------------------------- Tuesday, February 24, 2004  DHS…..poor little Ciara… So, I call my vet’s office yesterday for the check up, right?  The appointment was for 11:30.  I gave her the flagyl (which is a very chalky type pill and if it doesn’t go right down, it is so bitter she just foams at the mouth, dripping saliva for quite a while after taking the pill) and her fluids.  She still wouldn’t eat.  I had to go to the bank, so I made it there and back just in time to get her into the carrier and off to the vet.  We didn’t have to wait long.  The vet came in, checks her over.  Poo just drips from her.  He doesn’t like that at all.  Said it’s not a normal diarrhea thing, that this would appear to be something wrong in the colon or bowel.  He took blood so that he could run a blood panel and also wanted a sample of stool, which he couldn’t get from her (believe it or not).  He asked about the other cats, did any of them have problems with diarrhea (no).  You can actually see him thinking, searching through information in his head.  He gave me a little cup and I had to scrape some poo off of a towel here at home and take it back.  He suggested using baby wipes for her bottom, not the Desitin or the panalog, said they’d be greasy and along with the nasty poo it wasn’t helping her.  When he took her back to take the blood, he also trimmed more of her fur off so that it would be easier for me to keep her clean. He wanted a sample of her stool so that he could send it off and have it tested for Giardia. I came home, got the sample and took it back.  Then I came home.  He called a couple of hours later, to tell me that the blood test showed that her albumin was low and that it looked like she had malabsorption syndrome.  Her body wasn’t digesting the proteins and stuff in her food and it was going right out of her.  Now, we had to find out why this was happening.  He advised putting her on prednisone for at least three weeks to see if that would help with the inflammation going on inside of her (and on her poor little butt).  He said there was a possibility that she would have to be on these indefinitely.  We’d start off with three weeks, I’m to bring her back in a week so that he can recheck her Albumin values. I had some prednisone on hand, only enough for five days, so I had to go get more.  I gave her one and she foamed it all over the place.  I had to come up with something to get these pills down her.  On my way to pick up the additional pills, I remembered people talking about gel caps.  I asked Liz at the vet’s office about them.  She said she could order them for $17.00.  I said I’d check Henry’s (a local health food chain).  I found some there, only $3.15 for a hundred but they were huge.  I dropped by the vet’s office on the way home and showed them to her.  If they could get smaller ones, I’d prefer smaller ones, because I dreaded trying to get this humongous thing down that little throat.  No, she thought that’s all that they had.  I came home and opened up the bag and looked at them more closely.  Gosh, they were big.  I knew that we’d had them smaller in our human herbs and stuff.  I started looking at all the pills we had and found that the milk thistle was in small gel caps.  I took a couple of those and dumped the milk thistle out (it’s not harmful to felines or canines, Junior used to get one a day), ground up the prednisone and the flagyl together and poured them into the empty gel cap.  Then, I gave it to her.  It went right down. Grinding her meds and putting them in gelcaps has made it a lot easier to pill her. Before, the pills were so bitter, if they didn’t get down her throat, she’d foam really bad. Who knows how much of that little pill was actually getting into her tummy and how much was dripping out as foam? I ordered smaller ones online last night.  They should be here Friday or Saturday.  Until then, I’ll keep dumping the milk thistle and using those. The first time I gave her one, last night, I thought maybe it was a fluke that it was gone down before I knew it. This morning was the same. So, that’s good, I know she’ll be getting her medicine, no more finding spat out pills later. And the vet called this morning, the stool was negative for Giardia, which is a good thing, because now I don’t have to treat the rest of the family. He also asked if she’d eaten, and as far as I could tell, she hadn’t. But I went in a little bit ago with a new jar of turkey baby food and she ate almost a third of the jar! The most she’s eaten in days!  She’s still dripping. The only way I have to describe it for those of you who’ve never dealt with this, is when you’re menstruating and you have absolutely no control over what your body does. I started using pee pads under her and I think that’s helping a lot. The towels, even though I changed them often, still let her get damp. I think the pee pads are better because they trap her runny poo and she’s not laying in it. I still change those often, more often than the towels, because I can actually see how nasty they are. The doctor said she should be doing noticiably better tomorrow. Just a little while ago, she wanted out of the bathroom.  I let her.  She went outside and traversed the yard, sniffing as she went along.  I think the fresh air and little exercise was good for her.  After about a half hour or forty five minutes,  I had to search for her.  She was laying under the wheelbarrow on the cold wet dirt (we had considerable rain the past couple of days).  I figured she was tired and brought her back inside.  She almost went over to eat the shredded chicken I boiled up earlier today (I quit giving the cats chicken in the morning; we were going through a twelve pound bag a week and it wasn’t a treat like it started out being, something special for those days we wouldn’t be home and they had to stay inside),  but saw me watching and passed.  *sigh* Now, I’m back to waiting.  Waiting to find out if the pred helps.  Waiting to see if she starts eating again. Waiting to find out exactly what is wrong with her.  Hoping it’s not cancer.  I finally got some pictures up on my new photo album.  Feel free to check them out.  As you can see from the categories, I’ve got quite a bit more to add. cathouse album I’m really tired. I’m worn out.  I’ve had a headache for days now and my lower back really aches. I want to sleep, I want to not be worried about this cat or that.  I’m so tired. | Permalink

      Friday, February 27, 2004

11:05 AM - 02/27/2004 The topic: Fingers and toes crossed… ---------------------------------------------- Friday, February 27, 2004 Well, I’ve got all of my fingers and toes crossed.  I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel concerning Ciara’s problem.  Her poo (everytime I type that I think of a little bear and the scrunchy I got at Disneyland one year because my hair was extremely annoying and the jokes my friends made “you’ve got Pooh in your hair!” they told me, repeatedly), while far from normal, is much better than it was three days ago. Wednesday morning, she still wasn’t eating and she was still dripping.  I’ve got a couple of analogies here that are gonna sound pretty gross, but they are the only universal type of things I could come up with, in the way of describing what she’s going through.  You know when you’re menstruating and you have absolutely no control over what your body does, you can only plug it?  Well, that’s what it was like with her and her stool.  Except that plugging it was not an option.  And what she was dripping?  Well, have you ever cooked spinach and noticed that green, watery spinach juice that you drain off?  That juice is what her stool looked like.  There was no odor what-so-ever, and I thought that odd.  And it was eating up her little butt.  I was still giving her the fluids and I was a little more assured that she was getting her needed meds, using those gel caps (by the way, if you’re interested in them, I ordered some (a thousand, should last years) here, the size 3; I read on one website where the cats liked the taste of the ones made with beef more than the vegetarian kind).  Concerned that she still wasn’t eating, I checked my pet pharmacy (stuff I’ve gotten in the past that wasn’t used up and still hadn’t reached the expiration date) for some periactin, an appetite stimulant.  I had some, but wasn’t going to administer it until I got the vet’s approval.  I called a little after eight to see if they could check when he got in if it would be okay.  He was already in and said that it would be fine to give to her.  And I might also think about getting her some Hill’s A/D, which is pretty darned tasty and pretty darned digestible.  Since the gel caps hadn’t arrived yet, I’m still dumping out the milk thistle caps.  I dumped one and put the half periactin tab in it (it fit!) and gave that to her.  A few hours later, I went to the vet’s office and used my Christmas money to buy a case of A/D.  I also got a catheter syringe, in case I had to start force feeding her.  I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. Well, when I got home, I opened up a can of A/D and put some on a paper plate.  Boy, was she interested in this.  She started lapping.  I was thrilled!  She ate a little bit, then started covering the plate.  I left it there for her and let her rest.  As the day wore on, her drippings looked less and less like spinach juice and more like A/D.  Yeah, it looked like it wasn’t stopping much through her system, but it wasn’t as runny and nasty.  Because her backside was so dirty, I gave her a little bath, just to get her tail, back legs and butt, and it really stressed her out.  We were both in the tub, the enclosure door shut and I could tell she wasn’t taking it well.  And I could see what a toll this was taking on her.  Her back heels were just red and raw.  It just broke my heart.  When I tried drying her off, the stool just started dripping out of her again, but, like I said, it didn’t look so bad.  She went into the carrier and I just let her be.  As the day wore on, I tried combing her out.  She wasn’t at all interested in grooming herself.  I turned on the heater and just hoped she’d be okay.  The good thing was there wasn’t all that much fur back there, what with me trimming it, and both vets trimming even more.  Later, I gave her fluids and, once again, poo spilled from her.  Would this ever end?  I started thinking that maybe we’ll be living with this for a long time, after all, the vet said it could be at least three weeks to see any improvement, and even then, there was a possibility it would be a lifetime thing for her. Wednesday night and yesterday morning were pretty much the same.  She still was dripping, although now it looked exactly like the A/D.  I pulled the little water bowl out of the bathroom and put the big one in, the old crockpot, the one that I’ve had in there for years.  And I decided not to give her fluids, to see if that might have been one of the problems.  I gave her a little bath in the sink, which was more open and not nearly as traumatic for her.  And I could just get the parts of her that were bad, her back legs, tail and butt.  A lot of feces and old fur went down the drain.  I ended up combing out quite a bit more from her tail.  And last night, she finally started purring for me again.  She purred a lot.  Something else I did was I gave her some dry food.  I gave her Purina One last night and could tell she’d eaten a little this morning. And this morning, I gave her Sensible Choice.  She ate some of that.  I gave her her pills and about an hour later, dished up some fresh A/D. She ate some of that.  What really was a wonderful thing to see was her going over to the water bowl and drinking.  What a great sign that she was feeling better.  Around 8:30 this morning, she made it to the litter box, no drips.  The stool was looking more like normal loose cat stool, not like A/D or spinach juice.  I think the dry food was helping. I opened the door and let her out of the bathroom.  She went into the garage and used the litterbox.  Then she got on top of one of the condos.  She moved from there and went into one of the tubes.  Within an hour, she was back in the house, at the big free feeder, eating Sensible Choice kibble.  She went back to it a couple of times.  Then she went into the family room, crawled into one of the short condos and she’s been there for a couple of hours now, resting more comfortably than I’ve seen her in close to two weeks.  It’s so adorable, she puts one of her paws over her face. I made the appointment for her recheck for next Monday at 9:15.  The vet will take more blood and see what progress, if any, we’re making.  From the looks of it, we’re making lots of progress.  Knock on wood. So, what else?  Lots and lots of rain.  I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced the rain here as hard as it was coming down last night.  I worried for the ferals, but looking outside, I saw both Little Bit and KittyMeeze cuddled up on one of the blankets in the entry way.  They were on the one that’s over the feeding station, one with one of those self heating pads.  All of the little beds are up off of the ground.  The rain was hammering down and from the looks of it, the entry way was flooded, but the cats stayed dry. The air is so fresh and clear now, I think I’d love to dress in warm clothes and go for a ride in our local mountains.  We haven’t done that in a while and I think now that Ciara is feeling better, I could do it without spending so much time worrying about her.  Brian is taking most of the day off, helping his brother get ready for a big swap meet.  When he’s done with that, we’re going to go shopping. And then we’re going to dinner.  I told him I’d like to hit happy hour.  I’d like to be happy.  :lol That’s about it for now.  I cleaned the house Wednesday, since I didn’t do it last Friday.  Don’t have much laundry either, since the machine has been going about non-stop since Ciara got sick.  I do have a bed to make, though.  Guess I’ll sign off and go take care of that. Oh, and I’m going to go watch Ciara sleep. | 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. In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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