We lost Fleurp and Twee within two weeks of each other (and pretty major TFK news)

 

This post is breaking my heart.. If your heart is too sensitive for Fleurp and Twee's story, you can scroll down to the last paragraph where it says "Major News" which I put in bold.

Fleurp:
Earlier this year, Fleurp was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, so we were giving her medication twice a day to help with that. Her levels weren't going down well so we had a medication increase. She is not an easy cat to tend to as she had many opinions and all of them told her that she absolutely positively did not need my help. She hated when I shaved her each spring to help manage her anemia and she hated it when I started giving her fluids every other week or so as she was old and her kidneys could use the help.. She would react like I was biting her and fight to get away. Even trimming her claws was often an exercise in how much I could do before she lost her patience with me.. (most of the time I got them all done, but not always)

She changed when we moved out of Maine. She was a social cat before, but in the years since moving here she separated herself from us most of the time. In the first house we moved to, she almost never left the mud room/kitchen. She rarely came down the hall to go to bed with us.. Her world became very small.  When we moved into our current house, 90% of her life was the kitchen or living room windows (the two rooms are barely separated with a double door arch way).  She seemed happy and totally content. She liked it when we catered to her desires and gave her "candy bars" often standing on the island demanding them.

She spent 10 years becoming anemic once or twice a year. Mostly in the spring but occasionally in the fall. We aren't sure why but she would have a very dramatic shed from winter to summer and I know a lot of fur can impact nutrient absorption (which is why we did what we could to shave her so she consumed less) but it wasn't perfect. She still had issues.  I knew she would most likely not make it to 20+ years, but I never guessed that her thyroid levels would damage her heart.

It started with diarrhea that was gross and smelly, she stopped eating. I took her in for an exam and tests and more bloodwork. Her liver was seriously compromised. My vet suspected her heart was an issue. I took her home to try to fix what we could but we couldn't. I took her back to the vet (on July 11th), thinking there was more that we could do to pull her though this, but after an exam, it was clear she was suffering. We considered taking her to a specialist for further diagnostics in hopes of finding more answers that we could treat, but knowing Fleurp's willingness to bite, her hatred of traveling and being poked and prodded, and the only slim chance there was a better answer, we opted to let her go.

Was it the "right" call? I have no idea.. but it was one made with a whole lot of love.. we wanted to do right by her.. and we felt it was the right decision at the time, and that is what matters, that is what I hold on to.

Twee: 
Twee does not do well with changes to The Crew. Her first loss was Emmy. She was a young girl then and hardier, and there were many other cats for her to hang out with, but you could tell she spent some time being lost. She and Ollie never really got along (he was far too grumpy for her simple nature) so his passing wasn't as hard. He had been the ruler of The Crew so everyone was a bit lost when he left us, but we didn't notice anything specific with her. When Jack passed, Twee became quite despondent. She ate, but not nearly enough and we almost lost her too. We ended up taking her to an emergency facility, where she spent the weekend (and a lot of money) before she was well enough to come home. 

When Fleurp passed, I had been saying for years that Twee wasn't going to be with us much longer. She was 18, 19, 20 years old and had stage two and then three kidney disease. Before Fleurp started with the diarrhea I noticed that Twee was losing weight and I really didn't like how she was looking so I took her to the vet for some bloodwork to see if there was anything else that might be done. I was kinda hoping it was her thyroid.. but it wasn't. Her kidneys just couldn't do their job and she was feeling miserable.  I tried antinausea and appetite stimulant but it didn't really help all that much. (Sadly, pilling her diminished her quality of life.. with the fluids I know that this life style wasn't that sustainable) and I tried to prep my husband for her eventual end. He was in complete denial. I'm not sure which was worse, Twee at 20 or Kit at 9..  When Fleurp passed, Twee really started to go down hill. I pulled out every single thing I could think of.. 

He wanted to try more things, but I had given it my last ditch effort. I said we could try for a second opinion and he glommed on to that so hard but I explained the chances were that we would put her through more stress to potentially get a short amount of time with her. In the end, he realized that it was time. Thankfully my vet lives right near by and was willing to come to the house.

While we both appreciate not being serenaded by Twee singing opera at 11pm and 3am on a regular basis, they are both missed terribly.  Not only did we lose both cats within two weeks of each other, but going from five cats to three was quite dramatic. 

And to top it all off, we are in the midst of a major life change. The Catman is being transferred from VT to NC. This is something that has been bandied about for a couple of months. What is horrible is that we were so incredibly worried when we moved from ME to this area because Kit was absolutely horrible at traveling by car.. even a 10 minute ride would make her drool horribly for hours. She was a tiny cat and it was really worrisome. When she developed cancer and passed away within a week of diagnosis, part of me was relieved that we didn't have that added stress. Her situation was clear cut. She had a cancerous growth that was incompatible with life. Her inability to travel hindered our ability to get her additional care. I worried about such a huge move with two elderly and medically fragile kitties and wondered what we were going to do.  Part of me yells at myself for "giving up too easily" because of the real potential of moving 12 hours away and not wanting to put either of them through that.  I am sure in time I will forgive myself for making two pretty clearly correct decisions because on another level I'm relieved I don't have that added stress of moving them, but I don't think it will be any time soon.

Major news:
We are going to Raleigh NC for about six months while he is in training, so we are looking for a place to live. We are going to rent a place while he is getting up to speed and then we are going to look for a home and move to Charlotte where his work wants him. This means some serious down sizing and renting a storage unit so we don't have to get rid of EVERYTHING and have to rebuy it in a few months. I am downsizing a lot of my crafting supplies and what not.. it is very very painful for me. I am getting rid of a LOT of my foster supplies since I won't be fostering next year unless he trains quickly and we get into a home faster.  I'm getting rid of a lot of my own cat things because I own far fewer cats and don't see us adding any for at least a year (see the last unless).  A twelve hour move to a two bedroom apartment is a far cry from a 2 hour move to a three (plus) house with a full basement and huge amount of storage (first house - second house had more of both things).  As someone who has attached a lot of emotions to the things I have chosen to own, letting so much go is a really painful process. I am working on giving away what I can't sell, sell what I can, and hopefully it will pare us down enough to be comfortable. but going from an 11 room house to a two bedroom apartment.. yeah.. ouch

That's it! I am totally taking over..

 

Hello Internets, Fleurp here. 

The mom has sworn us to secrecy, but I just can't keep this in anymore.. SHE IS A MEANIE!!

I'm telling you, she's horrid.. I warned her and WARNED her.. but noooo.. does she listen to me?? 

She didn't listen to Skippy either.. see how thrilled by this he is? Okay fine, this is his normal expression over everything, but take my word for it, he was not amused. 

Twee doesn't care, but that's because SHE is oblivious.. that cat is still a few kibble short of a bowl.. 

But let me tell you if Twee knew what was going on she'd... well she would probably be fine with it, but she shouldn't be! I was rightly hissed off.. 

HISSED OFF!! 

She lied to you* and she totally let those kitten things invade my home! IT IS HORRIBLE! they totally need to go!!

Okay, fine, I'm not quite so hissed off now as I was, mostly because the mom has been keeping my mouth full of treats and bed food, but I am still not amused, especially when they come and try to take my food from me.. 

Even sleeping they are annoying!  I told them that if they were going to stay that under no circumstances should they tell mom their real names.. (and they are totally buying it, which is frustrating mom to NO END, servesherrightforkeepinthem) 

Now I can hear you squeein from here.. stop that!! this is not a good thing.. Well okay fine, the free-flowing salmon treats are good, but no no no.. just no.. someone come and take these beasts away from here.. 

~Fleurp

*I didn't lie, I just wasn't horribly clear about their adoption.. if you check, everything I said was 100% true.  Hopefully, I'll figure out their names here pretty quickly so I can do an adoption story for them and get them on the blog properly. I will not be keeping PB&J, but I am clueless about what to name them.. so feel free to shout out your favorite names for them. Maybe they told one of you what they want to be called. 

Fancy Feast Advent Calendar

 

I saw that Fancy Feast was doing an advent calendar and I sent my husband to the store to snag one of the few remaining ones (according to the website) on his way home that day.  He actually snuck it into the house so it wouldn't ruin Fleurp's surprise 

Since today is the first.. we broke into it and there was much rejoicing 

24 whole days of canned food.. Fleurp is going to be spoiled that is for certain 

Remember Me Thursday: Fleurp's Story

Remember Me Thursday's contest asks this question: Tell us a story of how your rescue pet changed your life! 

While many of my cats, and many of my fosters, changed my life, none so changed my perceptions as much or as often as Fleurp.  This is her story

Fleurp's Story:

Fleurp came to me in 2008 as a foster kitten. I had run to the shelter for supplies for the kittens I was already fostering, but something made me look up at a cage that was above my eye level. There she sat, all meatloafed with an eye all swollen, looking for all intents and purposes to be a rather pathetic soul. As I walked up to her cage to make soothing noises at her, she stood up and screamed at me and told me in no uncertain terms I was coming home with her. She was ANYTHING but pathetic. Spitfire was more like it.  She took no guff from anyone or anything, which is probably how she ended up in the condition she did.

I had originally thought she had an upper respiratory infection due to the nature of that eye. She had evidence that she had been dealing with fleas and her ears were caked with ear mite debris. I bathed her and cleaned out her ears and began treating her for URI. Well, as it turns out she had actually been bitten as she had a few small scabs on the top of her head and under her jaw. I thought it would be sad that her eye was impaired even though it eventually healed; watching her adjust to her new impaired eyesight was very interesting. She had depth perception issues for a month or two, but then she just "got it" and it has never been an issue for her again.

While I was fostering her, she presented with a really large belly. I was so sure she was full of worms that I asked the shelter to test her multiple times (every time was negative) and dewormed her anyway just as many times (not all stool samples show worms). After long past what should have been a worm clearing amount of medication she still had a big round belly. I decided not to worry about it unless something else showed up. She still has that belly today and I jokingly call her my fuzzy watermelon on legs. Fleurp decided I was her person that very first day - who am I to deny what she so clearly knew.

Years later Fleurp became anemic. She started licking dirt and cement, even going so far as to eat a few chunks of cement the vet found upon x-ray. While I thought I knew what caused it, she stumped not only me but multiple vets that have treated her over the years. See, after that initial bout of anemia, she became anemic the same time year after year. Every time in the late spring just before summer she drops a lot of weight and starts looking for something inappropriate to lick.  For years we treated her with antibiotics and steroids, but finally, I took a proactive approach. The only thing different in her life in the spring is that she sheds her winter mane and her very fluffy coat. By shaving her coat once it starts getting warm enough, we have been able to mitigate the worst of her symptoms so she no longer needs steroids to survive. 

Beyond all of this, she has given us so much love and joy that my husband calls her "my little sunshine" She is sweet and sassy, patient and demanding. She often is mysterious to us, even after having owned cats for 40 some odd years and fostered so many. She keeps us on our toes and rewards us for it daily. She has presented me with many opportunities to shift out of my own preconceived notions of what things are to accept that not always what they seem. She often rejects my reality and substitutes her own and takes me along for the ride.

All this from "just a shelter cat" that very well could have been euthanized at another shelter due to her injury, her small size, the lack of resources, the lack of volunteers to help out. So many other cats and dogs and rabbits and birds and various other pocket pets are waiting for their humans to give love and help them learn and grow. Pets bring such joy to pet owners and lovers.. 

If you are not in a position to adopt this year, please consider donating to your local shelter. If you don't have a favorite local shelter, consider Colony Cats out of Ohio, which is currently supporting two amazing little kittens I so very much want to run over and adopt (which btw is an excessively long drive from where I am) but I am currently not in a place to adopt more kitties.. 

Casa de Gato updates - Fleurp

Fleurp was a foster in October of 08 making her ten and a half. I went to the shelter one day to get food for my current fosters and saw her and absolutely had to foster her. She wasn't ready to go into foster so I left her there and then left work when they contacted me to tell me she was ready.

She spent the first few days in my bathtub because I was afraid of URI and I couldn't put her in the kitten room and I was afraid of her giving URI to my cats because of the gap under the bathroom door.

Turns out her eye looked like that because she was bitten. It never healed fully and for a while she had some depth perception issues but she adjusted pretty well by the time we adopted her. Her ears were also packed with ear mite debris, to the point that it looked like earplugs.

For the past few years, Fleurp has become anemic every spring. No one can figure out why. The best guess I have is that she loses so much fur in her spring shed that it inhibits her ability to make red blood cells. Why? I have no flippin clue. We generally treat her with prednisolone and liqui-tinic  We shaved her last year and her anemia was minimal. I am going to do it again this year - even more so - possibly even a lion cut - and we'll see what happens.

This past December we had a scare and I thought Fleurp had eaten something she shouldn't have and she had surgery to remove it from her intestine, but when the vet got in there they didn't find anything. She recovered well and is doing very well. She is enjoying all the extra food I'm slipping Muffin because she gets to clean up the extras most days.

Fleurp and the very bad no good week

My beautiful girl has had a pretty miserable week. It started off with some vomiting. With multiple cats, it can be hard to figure out who is having issues, or even if a one-time event is even an issue. I didn't think much of the first vomit or two, but after that, they started becoming bright yellow and I knew that something wasn't right.

Then I heard the sound and I ran to the source and found Fleurp next to a pile of vomit. I offered her a treat and she ate it happily so I thought she might just be dealing with a sour stomach from being hungry.

Then came the explosive diarrhea that landed all over her "pantaloons". After that, her stool didn't recover. It was quite mucousy and then the blood drops started due to irritation (bright red blood drops on the outside of the stool is generally simple irritation).

I weighed her and noticed she was down a few ounces, so I decided to isolate her and see what happened. I started Slippery Elm Bark to help soothe her intestines and gave her several food options. She didn't vomit the first eight hours and ate some. She didn't eat as much as I would have liked but she regained most of the weight she lost. I was feeling optimistic that things were on the mend, but I wanted to be sure so I kept her isolated overnight.

She woke me up very early the next morning saying she wanted out. She was bright, alert, and happy to be free from the room. I went to check out what she left me in the litterbox, hoping we'd have a formed stool - or at least better formed - and found she vomited up most of what she had eaten during the day.

So off to the vet she went.

She didn't seem painful, nor did she have a fever, but with several days of vomiting and diarrhea and weight loss, I didn't want to risk missing something. I could wait a day or so more to see what happened, but that would be butting up against the weekend which I know full well would most likely mean that I would end up at the emergency clinic. So we took some x-rays hoping we would find something or more hopefully find nothing.

The x-rays showed a little something over a loop in her intestine so we decided to operate and go get it. Fleurp has a habit of chewing on plastic and recently took up chewing on the tips of the Christmas tree. I had found a few nubs around the house and I feared that she swallowed one and the sharp pointy bits were causing massive irritation. I also have her history to go on, where when she first started showing signs of being anemic in the spring she would lick cement and ate a piece once and it took several weeks to work itself out. So, I decided to do surgery and go get it.

Except it wasn't anything. Apparently, it was just a well-placed calcification to look like an obstruction. So she went through that basically for 'nothing'. (But at least we know it was nothing instead of sitting around wondering)

She received IV fluids, we did blood work (things are good) and so far, things are 'better'. I am not isolating her so I have no idea what her stool looks like, but at this point, I'm not sure she is producing anything. Her stomach and intestines were empty when they were examined and she has only had a few small meals since coming home yesterday.

She was excited for breakfast this morning. She had a little before walking away, but she came back for a little more a couple of hours later. As soon as I get this post up I am going to offer her some baby food and inspect her incision and search for any signs of vomiting (I haven't heard anything)

If I don't get a good sign that things are going well I'll probably isolate her tonight until I get some stool. *fingers crossed*

Our Christmas Tree 2018

Guess what time it is..

Yup, it is that time of year that I raid Muffin's stash of toys and stick them on the tree we erect in our living area.. This confuses Muffin to no end, but everyone else seems to like it.

Guess who was the first one to take a toy off the tree.

That toy was NOT allowed on the tree, according to Fleurp it must be on the floor. Once she put it on the floor she immediately lost interest in it and started to walk away so I picked it up and put it back on the tree so Fleurp turned around and batted it off again. When the Catman showed up I shared this trick with him and she told us both that this toy belongs on the ground.. so on the ground, it stays.

Unfortunately, we lost a number of toys this year as something got in the basket and started consuming them. The feathers were stripped down to the spines and other natural fiber toys had holes in them. Whatever it was set off my allergies something fierce so I had to stop going through the basket halfway through and stuck it in the garage I fear we are going to lose a great number of toys once we go through it. Ah well, a good excuse to buy more.

If you would like a Christmas card from us you can send me your address, fill out the postable form Previous trees:

• 2008
• 2011
• 2012
• 2015
• 2016
• 2017

Checking in with Fleurp

For regular followers of this blog, you might be wondering how Fleurp is doing. Fleurp is my little mystery in that every spring she becomes very anemic. She drops a ton of weight and her gums get very pale and she starts licking very inappropriate things (cement, mirrors, and she'll eat dirt if she can get to it)

She has seen a number of different vets over the year and none of them can give me a reason for it, but since she responds very well to prednisolone I have a vial of pills that I am keeping on hand for when this happens.

Fleurp normally weighs 12 lbs.  When she starts having issues her weight starts to drop, so I weigh her on a regular basis. She has come to understand the routine and she sits patiently while the scale zeros out and is ready and when I give her the signal she climbs up and waits for her treat.

I start the pred when she reaches 11 lbs 3 oz. When she drops under 11 lbs 8 oz I will comb her and remove more loose fur and give her a can of food with some liqui-tinic, which gets some iron and amino acids in her system to help her rebuild red blood cells... so right after this photo she was furminated and when she had enough I got out a can of food and gave her a treat. (she is sitting next to a ball of her fur in the photo below, that is not her tail)

If you remember, earlier this season I took Fleurp to be groomed to try to remove excess fur from her because I have it in my head that the amount of fur she sheds is the problem. That seemed to help this year because so far we haven't had to put her on steroids. Since we are officially into Summer, I think we are past the worst of it and I'll just need to check her weight a few more times as she loses the last of her mane.

As this year went so well, I have plans to take her in to get a lion cut next year. Unfortunately, she reacts very badly to grooming and is more than willing to nip at you when she has had enough so to get a full lion cut she will have to be sedated. She's is just about 10 at this point and she has never needed a dental but maybe we'll get one of those too - cause if you are going to sedate a cat, you might as well get it all taken care of at the same time. We'll see when we get to that point and see what the vet recommends. Hopefully, we'll have found a local one by that point.

Wordless Wednesday - Heavenly Glow

Blogging conference: day two

It is way too late, and I am way too tired, but I thought I would check in with you all and let you know I'm still kicking. 🐱 There is something uniquely special about hanging out with people who get you, who are into the same things you are. Tonight a number of the cat bloggers went out to eat at a local BBQ joint and had a wonderful time talking about cats and blogging and the things we have learned and vendors of products we have met.

I am really enjoying being here, even if the furry hoard at home is giving me major guilt trips for not being at their beck and call

Seriously, how did I ever leave the house?
and yes, that is snow back there. it is still coming down according to the Catman

Wordless Wednesday - Brothers and Sisters

You bought this for me, right?

We bought a new rug for the living room and we put it down late last week. I have seen Fleurp sitting in the middle of it several times, often grooming herself as if she believes the center decoration highlights her awesomeness.

I think I agree with her.

The Cutest Cat gets to try Fancy Feast Purely Natural Filets Cat Food Topper - #chewyinfluencer

Since Fleurp won the Cutest Cat survey last week, I thought I would let her have first crack at this month's Chewy Influencer offering - where they send me free product in exchange for an honest review - of Fancy Feast Purely Natural Wild Alaskan Salmon Filets Cat Food Topper

This is an interesting product as it is just a few simple ingredients and it looks very much like a salmon fillet. Since they all look exactly alike and with the wording on the package I'd say they are formed and not 'real' salmon fillets but created ones, but I am okay with that.

I picked salmon over the other flavors because they called it wild Alaskan salmon, and I am trying to get more omega 3s in my older cats to help with their kidneys and their arthritis. But in the end it comes down to will the cats like it?

And to be fair, I put some down for the others.

And they promptly cleaned the plates.

Hey, can I have some more??