Two for Tuesday - Muffin and Fleurp

Aww.. you two are so cute..

Life with Cats

The "groundhog" might not think spring is coming anytime soon, but my cats totally disagree. The shedding is pretty spectacular. I spent Saturday combing the cats and trimming claws and cleaning ears and giving everyone a once over. Some make it easier than others.

After I had finished grooming everyone I noticed Fleurp was quite insistent that I give her a can of canned food in her 'special place' (I will supplement with her canned food when her spring anemia pops up) so I broke out the scale and weighed her and noticed that her weight had dropped a few ounces. I dug out the Furminator and was the horrible mean momma and did the first of several combings that I've started doing each spring.

This might be impressive to you, but let me put this in perspective..

The smaller one in front on the left is what I took off Jack and the one on the right is what I got off Muffin. I'll probably comb Fleurp again in a couple of days and then next weekend, and probably every weekend after that. If her weight doesn't come back up in the next couple of days or drops even lower I'll probably start her back on prendisolone.

Jack had a bit of a health issue a month or so ago. It started with some diarrhea and then some vomiting. I took him to the vet and there was nothing that popped up in the blood work and he didn't seem painful at all so we decided to watch and wait. The vet mentioned that it could be a side effect of too much thyroid meds (which he is on because when he had his I131 it killed off too much of his thyroid so now we have to supplement it) so I took him off his thyroid meds - partially so I didn't have to pill him when he was feeling miserable. He recovered pretty quickly but I didn't start his meds back up again and over the past few weeks he has slowly started putting weight on so I have started him back up on it. He is responding nicely and doesn't mind being pilled at all.

Muffin's leg is still wobbly. Regardless of what we try, I have a feeling it is just going to be what we have to deal with for the rest of her life. I'm saddened by this, but other than her not wanting to walk down the stairs it really doesn't impact her life... so I follow her lead and don't dwell on it.

Eli is doing well. He will occasionally run around the house like his tail is on fire and two or three times he howls the most pathetic howl that hurts to hear, but each time I check in with him he seems fine so I am learning to disregard it... it is not easy.

Twee is good. Her eyes are watery and I'm not happy about it. I took her to the vet and they were less watery that day and he said 'oh it's just watery eyes not much we can do about it', which didn't amuse me in the least.

Skippy is Skippy. He is nearly six years old and his teeth still look like those of a much younger kitty. The benefits of being on a raw food diet your entire life.

Just an aside.. don't try to make cat food the day before the "big game". The store we went to was out of wings, so the rest of the chicken was horribly picked over and not on sale. I'm guessing that tomorrow it will all be on sale..

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I'd also like to take a moment and talk to you all about Rupert. Several people expressed dismay with me that I didn't follow-up with the shelter to see exactly what happened with Rupert. I am sorry you feel this way. On some level, I can understand your desire to know exactly what happened, but you have to realize that this is not a perfect world. In order to know exactly what happened to him, I would have to contact the shelter and ask. I know that many of you think this is an easy thing to do, but I said my goodbyes to him when I brought him back to the shelter and I said my final goodbyes to him when I found out that he had taken a turn for the worse. To ask and find out he was euthanized means I would have yet another set of goodbyes.. (even talking about this hurts and I'm in tears at my family's house while they are all jeering at the big game). I would also be interrupting the shelter staff from what they are doing and asking them a very emotional question and force them to face that again. I can't imagine this was any easier for any of them than it is for me. I know you all came to know him and love him through my blog and I have no doubt that the idea of his loss tugged at your heart... but if I were to find out by some miracle they were able to pull him through the chances of him really making it would be infinitesimal, and we would all be forced to live through this a third time.

Sometimes in rescue, you do not get the answers you want, and sometimes you don't get answers at all. I know full well he was cared for, loved and that they are / did make the best decisions for him. For me, that is enough. If that is not for you, I'm sorry, but I will not put all of us through this again.

Rupert vs the long goodbye

I received a few good reports from the shelter about Rupert so I was hopeful that he would be returning to us to put on weight. I sent a text asking if I might get him back only to find out he took a turn for the worse and things were not looking good.

I have not heard a further update, but I am assuming that he did not make it. It breaks my heart that we could not save him, but I had a chance to love him and we were both the better for it.

It was very apparent he enjoyed his last few days. He bothered the repairman that stopped by the house he was in, he pushed the resident cats out of their bowls so he could have a single bite of their food. He thundered down the stairs and he even helped himself to whatever he wanted in the fridge (shhh she doesn't know I'm sharing this photo with you). He was always a very happy loving boy.

If by some miracle he is still alive and responds to whatever treatment they might have devised for him and I hear more I will share it with you, but I am guessing that is highly unlikely.

#TBT Random Kitten photos

I find myself in front of my computer without a whole heck of a lot to blog about. I did want to mention that Jack's tail feather was of his own doing. I have no idea how it got there but I laughed so hard when I found it. Yes, he got a lot of treats, he always gets a lot of treats.

I decided to open up my folder of kitten photos and see what was in there. This was the first one I came across.

Yes it is Isaac Arnold, and no, I didn't go looking for him.. I just have a ton of photos of him. I was wondering if I had uploaded it so I did a search of my uploaded files for the same image number and liked the collection of photos that came up so I thought I'd share those too.

Because who doesn't need more kittens in their day?

If you want more I've been doing random kitten photos on Facebook recently. Feel free to come and check it out.

Visiting the shelter kitties

When I stopped by the shelter this past weekend to drop food off for Rupert, I intended to bring my camera with me to take photos of the cats and rabbits. As I was about to walk out the door, I noticed my battery was a little low so I took it out and put it in the charger to make sure I didn't run out of juice. I sat down for a few minutes, did a few things, grabbed my camera and left.. and left the battery in the charger. *headdesk*

Fortunately for me, and you, my 3 yr old cell phone takes half decent photos. It was hard to get some of the photos I wanted since there were a lot of people there looking at the cats - but I'm completely okay with that. Because of the crowds, I didn't get everyone's name. I probably could have but I figure names aren't important. I do these so I can practice my cat photography skills and so I can showcase that shelter cats are beautiful.

There were actually very few cats at the shelter. The three major cat rooms had about six cats total in the rooms.  The first had just those two above.

The next room had Lili, a twelve-year-old dilute tortie point with every bit of attitude that you would expect from a tortie. She has beautiful blue eyes that she insist I not get a photo of.

My husband joked that she picked me. She talked to me the entire time I was in there except when another couple came in the room to look at her. She came up and rubbed up against my ankles, but not theirs.. . If you didn't think I thought about Robin and Stinkerbelle, you'd be mistaken.. (although I totally think of Miz Poo in attitude)

The third room had a bonded couple in it, Fred and Wilma Looks like Fred is very protective of Wilma. There was another woman in the room who was talking to them. It was sweet, she was showing them a photo of her own cat.

A few more kitties in cages, including Ruby and Roxanne a bonded pair of pointed five-year-old kitties that had already been adopted.

This brown bunny "Diane" is apparently six years old. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to adopt her, I do miss owning a rabbit, but right now we are in no position to own one.

I wish I had been able to use my good camera and had a little more access to the animals (aka fewer people in the building) but all in all another good exercise in working on my photography skills.