A Thankful Thanksgiving

What I am most thankful for is I get another Thanksgiving with this girl. This is the same photo as last year because she is currently sleeping in her little house.

These past few weeks have been rough on her - and me. I am constantly trying to figure out how much quality of life she has; when she has a rough day I wonder if everything we are going through is worth it for her. At this point, rough days only last a day and she comes around. She is sleeping more than she used to, but she still is demanding food or attention and giving me what for if I don't jump at her whim. Most mornings she wakes me up, even if she no longer sleeps in the bed.

It has been hard for me.. I am still grieving Jack, and I swear that this slow decline is way way better than the surprise ending Jack had, but it doesn't make it any easier.

She is dealing with failing kidneys and we are giving fluids. She hates it. Fortunately, she doesn't fight it and I cuddle and kiss her while it is happening, but as soon as it is done she runs for the hills. Food is an issue too.. she stopped eating the raw in May when she had the surgery to remove the lump behind her ear. Finding a food she will eat consistently has been a challenge. Keeping her brother from demanding his fair share of her food has also been a challenge 😸

She has also lost some weight. At her height she was 14lbs. When we finally stopped all dry food and got them on a raw diet she went down to 12 and hovered around that for years. She is currently ten and a half on a good day. She has lost most of the muscle mass in her feet and her arthritis are conspiring to prevent her from wanting to walk up and down the stairs these days. Because of this, I ordered an Assisi loop lounge. I had the original loop that I won from The Conscious Cat and that helped her quite a bit. While I was using it she actually wanted to sit up in the cat trees and I even found her in a window!! (granted there was a chair there that helped her get up, but it was impressive none the less) so I am hopeful that the lounge will help as well. I decided on the lounge over the loop because the loop is not rechargeable and it only lasts a short time.

Because of the price of the lounge, I have started selling "Scrapnip" toys again. I set up a Scrapnipping page on Facebook to try to drum up business.. but I am happy to work with you in whatever way you might want to reach out to me if you are interested in buying some. I even listed a few knitted bed I made, but no one has seemed interested in them. Probably because I couldn't figure out a price to ask for them.. people hate it when you don't price things 😸

Everyone else is doing well. Twee loves to sign us opera at 5 in the morning.. Eli likes to yell at us for not doing whatever popped into his head. He is 17 years old and never really bothered communicating with us before now so he is a little unsure how to do it. Fleurp is still fluffy and Skippy is still doing his thing..

This was very much a difficult year for me (see Jack) and I know I have not kept up with my blogging as I once used to. When I originally set up this blog I intentionally didn't name it after any of my cats because I knew there would be a time when they would pass and I didn't want that burden on myself or my blog with changing it or keeping it. When Em, Ollie, Kodi, and Kit passed it was somehow okay to continue on. as if this were independent of that.. but Jack.. Jack really was the inspiration behind starting the blog so I guess it makes sense that it is different.  I am hoping next year will be better.. easier.. heck, I will take just having fewer tears

I know, I know, this post has become such a downer.. I am sorry. Hopefully, it will help you to look at your loved ones who are frustrating you with softer eyes and give them a big ol hug and be thankful that you are able to be with them this year.

If you are facing this holiday without your loved one with you.. I send a big ol hug to you..

Heck, I send a big ol hug out to anyone who got through this with me.. It means so much that you keep coming back and want to share my journey, or at least this little part of it.

So thank you..

And I hope you have a wonderful holiday full of love and delicious foods to eat, and cat fur up your nose.

Happy Turkey Day

Mom, this is not what I had in mind when I ever so politely asked for turkey..

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful that this Thanksgiving has us all together. Last year we had just lost Kit and the pain was so fresh. May this Thanksgiving find you will all of your loved ones and may you all still be together next year as well.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we decided to have thanksgiving at home. We invited my parents and my Aunt who ended up backing out when she saw the weather called for a chance of snow. We ended up having a little bit of snow in the morning but then it turned to rain.

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while might remember that my husband LOVES Thanksgiving. I was hoping to get out of doing Thanksgiving so I told him that if he wanted to have it he would have to do everything.  Well, I think I ended up with the better end of this deal because that man makes a mean turkey..

Fleurp attempted to use her Jedi mind tricks on my mother, hoping to get a bit of something.. I don't think she cared what since it all smelled so good - no, it did not work. She then turned her powers on me and I ended up giving her a bit.  I ended up having to lock the kitties away because they were starting to make a nuisance of themselves.

I made it up to them by giving them some sardines and anyone who wanted bits of turkey got some later on.  Fleurp ended up counter surfing when we weren't paying attention and snagged a bit of skin and ran off with it when I figured out what she was doing.  I can only hope this explains this..

There are about 10 of these spots in the bathtub. It makes no sense that they were caused by Fleurp and the turkey skin, but nothing else makes sense either. I took a shower in that tub just a few hours before so I know one of the cats had to have a paw in this. The spots are tacky, almost sappy. I immediately did a cat check and none of them had anything remotely like it on them... so I'm kinda at a loss. Muffin wants you to know, it totally was not her.. see.. four white paws.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

We here in the USA are about to embark on one great big huge eating fest, and for many people that will continue on for the next five days. Chances are if you celebrate Thanksgiving, or any other holiday centered around eating, you will run into a moment when you have a pet at your feet begging you for a little something something.

If you have been paying attention you will have probably run across articles and infographics on the web trying to scare you into being obnoxiously cautious when treating your pets, if not downright abstaining from giving your pet anything but commercial pet food.

I would like to tell you that some of these fears are absolutely true, and they should be heeded every single day of the year. You should always make sure that cooked bones are not accessible to your pet. You should never feed grapes or raisins to dogs. Raw yeast dough should not be fed to dogs, nor cats for that matter if for no other reason than cats are obligate carnivores and yeast doughs are not meat.

But in the past few days I've seen some pretty frightening articles telling you that your cat or dog is going to get pancreatitis if you feed them so much as a buttered piece of broccoli. Fat is not going to give a healthy cat pancreatitis.

Causes of pancreatitis include:

*Concurrent inflammatory bowel disease or liver disease. The combination of inflammatory disease of the liver, pancreas, and intestines is so common in cats that it has its own name — "triaditis." It is safe to assume that most cats diagnosed with one of these conditions have some degree of the other two as well.
*Diabetes mellitus
*Certain types of infections (e.g., toxoplasmosis or feline distemper)
*Abdominal trauma
*Exposure to organophosphate insecticides

Could your pet come down with a case of pancreatitis if you feed it, or it consumes without your consent, a wildly inappropriate meal with gobs of fat, sure, as anything is possible. Lots of cats and dogs end up in the emergency clinics because they had dietary indiscretions, and some extreme irritation and inflammation could bring about an acute case, but unless your pet already has chronic issues, one piece of buttered veg is not* going to land your pet in the emergency room.

We know that cooked bones are very dangerous for both cats and dogs, but uncooked bones aren't. Cats and dogs are both carnivores and are designed to eat raw meat and bone. Uncooked bones are soft and do not splinter when they are chewed. A lot of people feed wing tips and necks to cats for them to chew on for oral health. It is good for increasing jaw strength which improves dental health, and the ripping of flesh from bone and chewing bone does keep teeth clean from tartar. I feed them to my cats quite often. Many people feed them daily. Could a raw piece of bone get lodged on a tooth or could the cat swallow a too large piece of bone, yes.. and the kibble being fed could be contaminated as well.

Eggs are an excellent source of protein as well as vitamins and minerals and yes fat. A lot of people try to scare you into not feeding your cats eggs, be it they are contaminated with salmonella or ecoli or what not, or the fact that raw egg whites contain a substance that inhibits the absorption of biotin, a very important vitamin. The studies that they base this fear on were done by feeding rats just the egg white. They discount that they yolk is so rich in biotin that the chances of a biotin deficiency is incredibly low when you feed the whole egg.

One thing that you should keep in mind is that the more limited your pet's diet has been over the past year means you have a much narrower window of goodies you can share with your pet. Cats and dogs are both prone to digestive upset if you do not feed a varied diet on a regular basis and then abruptly change what they are eating. If you always feed the same brand and flavor of food, then giving your pet a plate of cooked turkey or a raw turkey wing tip will cause problems.. just as it would if you abruptly changed them to a different type of pet food.

Your best bet is to make sure your pet eats their regular meal and thus are not starving when your own meal time comes around. Slipping them a few pieces of turkey will not kill them*, and feeding them pieces of turkey that have been sitting around for a while will not give them salmonella* (remember that cats are not only predators but they are not opposed to eating any carrion they find in the wild to keep themselves alive. Their bodies are designed to handle this with a shorter digestive tract and much more acidic stomach acid than herbivores or omnivores)

Keep their treats to under 10% of their general food intake, aim for animal based treats over plant based ones, don't feed them anything you wouldn't feed to them at any other time of the year, and by all means keep your kitties away from the onions and garlic. (and tinsel and snow globes)




*I am not a vet, nor do I play one on the internet. I made several definitive statements on here, and I know I can not say that there will never be a case where giving a piece of turkey to your animal won't kill them. Maybe your cat is allergic to turkey, maybe they eat it so fast it lodges in their throat, etc. I can't say that your cat will never catch salmonella, but I can tell you they are far more likely to do so from contaminated kibble then they are from anything in your home, and I can't say for absolute certainty that your healthy cat won't get pancreatitis from eating a piece of buttered broccoli, but I'm fairly certain the chances of that are so low that the statement is ridiculous. If your cat isn't healthy, then you know full well not to give it a high fat meal because your vet told you so.

Thanksgiving at Casa de Gato

We had thanksgiving at the house this year. I am not a fan of it as I'm not a fan of picking up the detritus around my house, and as an introvert I'm not a fan of the invasion of my safe spaces. The last time we hosted it we had DH's family - which is extremely large. This year it was just my folks and my sister (as her family is now a split family and everyone else went to spend time with their immediate families)

Thanksgiving is DH's FAVORITE holiday and he loves celebrating it so years ago I said he was welcome to if he did the work, and he has been happy to do it. He brines his turkey the day before, he makes plans and lists and takes it all very seriously. Because of this, I have come to kind of enjoy Thanksgiving because his turkey is quite delicious and juicy and it makes the hassle kind of worth it.

DH making dinner

My dad and Jack

Enjoying dinner

Post turkey layabout

Dinner was nice. Several of my cats milled about with hope of a little something but didn't make a huge nuisance of themselves (well Fleurp did jump up on the table once but jumped right down when I told her to). My dad likes to act like a bit like a grumpy ol man, but he was the one slipping Jack, and whomever else asked, some turkey. Since we put in the fireplace there is no tv in the great room so there wasn't anything to put the game on which was nice.. as I am not into football (or any professional sports) so we sat around and chatted for a couple of hours until it started getting dark and we called it a day.  I then took some turkey down to the girls and they were very happy about it.

I then curled up with the paper and looked through all the black friday fliers and watched the parade. I know I had seen everything in the flyers prior thanks to all of the online 'sneak peek' black friday websites, but there is something enjoyable to just sitting around and looking through the paper. Maybe it reminds me of when the Sears catalog came in when I was a kid - prior to Toys R Us.. There wasn't anything that called to me other than the PetSmart half off litter sale which I did go to. It was fun to see all of the other local cat ladies picking up litter - and it was fun to know that I knew at least half of them.



Thanksgiving of years past:

• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010

Thankful Thursday - Thanksgiving Edition

I would like to start out by wishing everyone a happy thanksgiving.  Since the internet is global I know that not everyone who reads this is celebrating, but there is never a bad time to give thanks, so hopefully you will take a moment to remember to be thankful for something.

What I am thankful for is you. Yes, you, the you who would sit and read a cat blog. You who would right a cat blog. You who comment and tell me my kittens are cute, and complement me on the amazing job I do with kittens and call me names that make me blush like a blessing or an angel.  Fostering and volunteering at the shelter puts me in touch with the worst of humanity when it comes to animals.. I see things and hear things that make my toes curl and just make me hate people.. Being reminded daily that there are people who do not see what I do as a waste or stupid helps me do what I do.. so yes, every day you show up and comment you are making a difference in a kitten's life.. It may seem trivial, but trust me there are days when I am pretty sure I can't go on save for the fact that I know there are cat people out there..

So..

Thank you!!

and I'm also thankful for the following..

Jack

Muffin

Eli

Twee (aka Tweedle)

Kit (aka Daddy's Girl)

Fleurp

Skippy

The boys,
because seriously.. they are awesome.. 

The Fluffkits..
who all came out to eat when I was laying right next to the food dish

and a husband who sees value in spending time rubbing a Jack Belly.. 

I have a very full weekend ahead of me, hopefully I'll have time to share with you all before Monday, but I'm not going to stress over it if I don't..

Thanksgiving at Casa de Gato

This Thanksgiving was a little different from us than the norm.

Thanksgiving is my husbands FAVORITE thing.  He loves it above just about anything thing else, so when we were first married he had grand dreams of huge Thanksgiving events.  Being an introvert that was the last thing I wanted, so I told him we could do Thanksgiving if he did all of the cooking.  Well wouldn't you know he would take me up on it.  And darn it if he didn't do it in spades.  The man makes a mean mean turkey.  For the past couple of years he has made a turkey and we took it to his brother's house.  They have a whole houseful of kids and it has always been a lot of fun but we are left with a house smelling of turkey and no turkey.

This year his brother had to work and we were invited over to my parents house.  We were told we didn't need to bring a thing (and we so didn't.  My family goes overboard with food and there was enough to feed quite a few more people) and so it looked like my husband wasn't going to get (yes, get.  not have) to prepare a bird.  Well he wanted to, so we decided to have two Thanksgivings.  Once on the day, and another the next.

He brines the turkey,
notice the heart shaped splashes.. it is made with love

The spread

Photobomb Jack

want

PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!!

Um, Daddy, I was elected to tell you.. 

we want that.. (cause you obviously didn't know before)

Our serving plates

I love these

and this mug is huge and awesome.

nom nom nom nom

I felt quite bad about not being able to give any of The Crew some turkey.  There was onions and garlic in the brine and in the cavity of the bird.  I am not sure how much of these can cause problems in a kitty already dealing with anemia issues (Fleurp), so I opted to forgo giving any to The Crew this year. (Well except the small piece I slipped Jack - I justified it because he is the Alpha.. well at least he should be) and oh didn't they lay on the guilt.  The meowing and carrying on was almost too much to stand.  They did get a special dinner of turkey cat food in small cans that they totally appreciated.  It was complete junk and they LOVED IT.

Surprisingly the fosters ate the turkey but did not devour it.  Lady Friday Floofface enjoyed it the most, which was nice because I not only got her to eat out of my hand, she licked my fingers.  She is still way too tense and can not accept any hands on attentions.. so this was a nice.  I think I'm actually looking forward to working one on one with her and Evelyn.  See now that Ella is of size it is time for her to go back and find her forever family.  There are still a surprising number of kittens up for adoption, so I'm not overjoyed at the idea of bringing her back, but there is something to having her family pick her out of the group and not pick her because she is the only one.  She goes back on Monday, will be neutered shortly after that and a day or so later go up for adoption (probably not before Wednesday).  Elsa is already neutered so she will go on the adoption floor as soon as the staff assess her and see what they are comfortable with.  I am going to send Jackson Pollack along with them.  He is 90-95% tamed.  He freaks when your hands go straight at his head or front end, but the second your hands are on him he is A-OK with, do getting love and attention.  And since a lot of cats don't much like that too, I'm going with it might even just be him.  Speaking of him, don't you just love his :( markings on his side??

Thankful Thursday

What better Thursday for a thankful post..

I am thankful for cold noses in armpits at 5 AM, because it reminds me that my Jack misses me and wants me to start my day with him.

I am thankful for fur and whiskers up my nose when I wake up spooning Muffin because she likes to snuggle.

I am thankful for high pitch squeaking that sounds a lot like nails on a chalkboard, because it means my Eli has finally found a use for us.  After spending the first part of his life being that typical "aloof" cat, he's finally forgiven me for saving his life with all that medication as a kitten.

(we interrupt this post to comment that I'm still currently laughing from Eli trying to jump onto my shelves of sweater to take a nap.  DH was just commenting how he tends to do that and knock the sweaters over, and not 5 minutes later he jumped up there and missed the landing and fell to the floor taking 10 sweaters with him.  He's fine, but I've got more work and a very good laugh out of it)

I am thankful for Twee's utter cluelessness and lack of tact and subtly.  She may be a little touched mentally, but she is so sweet she makes your teeth ache and you know that when she wants your attention she has no clue that walking over the keyboard or stepping on your tender bits might be a problem, she just wants love - and who can fault her for that?

Yeah, I really have no negative to turn into a positive here.. I adore that Kit adores my husband, I adore that he adores her, and I love that she lets me dress her up in cute clothing and hats because it makes me giggle..

I am thankful for the hairball at the end of the hall because they remind me that my cats are generally healthy at this point in life, and I'm not overly stressed over Fleurp's recurring anemia (even if it is on my radar)

and I didn't step on it.

I'm also thankful for being drooled on because it means that Skippy has worked his way past Muffin, Jack, and Twee and found a way on my chest and is spending part of his day with me.  He adores to cuddle and always has.. but he is intimidated by the older bigger kitties a lot of the time so when he does it is special.

and I am thankful for fostering, which led to this blog, which led to this photo..

Ella in mid jump

Which led friends on Facebook to have fun with it..

by Red Puff

by Rene and her mad Photoshop skills

to the caped Ella I laughed and laughed but said she should be flying over somewhere saving the day..

And then we had other discussions which led to..

I seriously could look at this all day

and an adorable Christmas one, but according to my husband, we shall never celebrate Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving.. (with one exception of the local holiday church fairs)

So we shall save that one

The paper now awaits me.  I know all the Black Friday deals are online, but I so much prefer to look at the paper ads.. The last year I did door busters was the last year they were at 6 AM.. Personally, I think this "Black Thursday" or "Power Weeks" are inane.  They say that is what people want, but what they want is to save money, and if they can only do that by giving up their Thanksgiving, that is what they will do.  I am very thankful that Maine has blue laws that prevent these stores from opening today.  Only ME, MA, and CT still do.  I think it is a shame.  I wish we could go back to the 6AM openings (heck I'd be so freakin happy if they'd not open till 9AM) but in this country where profit is king and people will do anything to earn another penny out of every dollar, the business who opens at 5 will get those shoppers first, so then someone else opens at 4, and really it is just wrong.

If any store would return to normal hours, I bet a ton of us would go shopping there..

and I am thankful I have a blog where I can talk about this and the financial footing that I don't feel I HAVE to find a store opening at 8pm tonight.  I can wait till I wake up on Friday and just go out and enjoy the hustle and the bustle and peace and goodwill.

May this find you thankful for things you weren't even considering, and may you either be full of turkey (or Tofurkey if that is your choice) and pumpkin pie.  And if you are not in the US, I still hope you find this day full of wonder and joy.