Quick Fire Update

Hi Everyone!  Ok, so here is a quick fire update.  We are still stuck at Brad's parents house, with all the cats in one room.  Which is so not easy.  Stella is drinking less a got a bladder infection (better now after meds and can I just tell you I have never had a cat that was so easy to give medicine too).  And now today Virgil has a bald patch on the back of his head - he didn't have it when I left for work.  So I am now trying to see if he did it himself (in the spot it is in that seems unlikely) or if someone else is pulling out his fur (due to stress of being stuck in one room for so long).  I wish I could let them out a bit but right now it just isn't possible - we are lucky to have anyplace to stay at all with all six of them.  We should be getting back in the house in about three weeks and I really hope they can hold it together until then - they are doing ok but I am sure this is really getting to them - I know it is really getting to me.  And with the internet here it is so hard to do anything - it is like super slow and I can't figure out why. 

We don't have any pics to share today - they are on my phone and on top of everything else, someone (Virgil is my guess, since he loves to knock stuff off tables) knocked my phone off the desk (like launched it really) and it is acting crazy now.

So anyway, I will hopefully be more regular with the blogging once we are back in the house - it will be a lot easier then.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and hope to see you again at least once before Christmas!!

FIRE!

Ok so let me start out by saying that all humans and cats are fine. The reason I haven't posted in a while is that we had a pretty major fire at our house.  I don't want to get into it too much but it was related to the dryer (not the vents) and the laundry room is trashed.  Unfortunately the electrical panel, HAC, and water heater are in that room.  Fortunately I remembered to close the door to the room so the fire didn't spread.  The garage got a crazy amount of smoke damage (it was the shortest distance for the firemen to get to the fire) and the rest of the house has (mostly) smoke and (downstairs) water damage.  The cats were freaked out a LOT but all are ok - the firemen let me in after it was out to get them. It took a little while because they were scared but I got them all in carriers and in the car.  We are staying at Brad's parents house until who knows when (the fire was on 9/21 and they haven't started any work yet - don't get me started on that I am so angry it isn't even funny) and since they have a dog (who is afraid of cats) and since his dad is allergic all the cats are staying in one pretty small room.  They have been great so far though - a few fights but mostly they are being nice to each other.  I am going insane but the cats seem ok. 

The funny thing is Lola is doing great - her blood sugar is down a lot and I think that is because of the low carb diet.  I check her daily and she is totally good with all of it - it is pretty amazing actually. 

And honestly, she was the one cat who was calm during the fire - the only one the firemen actually found and carried out - and my neighbor held her and she just was totally calm.  She is kind of a lump (never really into playing even as a kitten - if you bring the toy she will play but she won't get up to play - or even for treats - bring them over she eats them, but if she has to make an effort, eh, she doesn't need it).  I think that she is the most brave of the cats and I think that is part of why she is ok with the pokes and everything. I think she also knows it is helping her. 

So anyway, the other issue with having to stay at Brad's parents is that the internet here is terrible - well, that or my computer is having issues (which is a possibility) so I won't get to post too much.  I am hoping to be in our house soon but at this point if we are in by Christmas it will be a miracle (and not because of the work to be done but because of the people involved - don't ask).

But in the mean time here are some pics of the kitties in our temporary home (sorry it is so messy but it is a really small room with Brad's parents stuff, my stuff and the cats stuff, plus the cats) and also a bonus picture of Sonny Rio, Brad's parents dog.

Lola Update

Hi Everyone! Thanks for all the support with Lola.  Honestly it isn't the best news but it is better than what I feared after everything with Floyd a few years ago.  The good news is that she really tolerates her shots well - that was something I was a little worried about.  But she has been great - I give her a little treat after so I think that is part of it (I actually think she looks forward to it because she gets a special treat all her own).  The thing I was most concerned about was actually the glucose testing since that is an ear prick, but she is really good with that too (again, she does get a treat). 

The other good news is that even though we have changed her food (low carb food, and working to get her off the dry food completely) she really seems to like it.  The funny thing I found is that the food the younger cats had been eating (the canned) is actually a good low carb option, but the senior food she had been getting is high carb.  So it has been a pretty easy transition so far.  Now, once the crunchy food is totally gone there might be a bit of rebellion, but so far so good.

I have had to change my scheduled a little so I can give her shot in the morning - I just get up the same time every day now, instead of sleeping in on weekends, and then if it is a weekend I get up, do the shot, and then I pretty much go back to bed.

The good news is that we caught it early, and her blood sugar levels were not horrible - higher then they should be of course, but no where near as bad as they could be, and from what I have been reading, it can be very bad.  So I was very lucky we caught it right away.

And I have no pics today - I cannot find my camera's battery charger and it is making me crazy! But I will try to get some posted, and get some visiting in too if I can - it has been crazy here lately (in a good way for some of it) so I haven't been on as much as I had hoped.

Thanks for all the support everyone!!

New Puppies and Nail Polish

So as I am pre-writing this and scheduling it, I don't have an update on Lola (I will try to get one together for next week, but honestly I just published the post about her about 2 minutes ago, so I haven't got anything new right now) but I wanted to post a couple things.

First, I wanted to post a picture of my aunt and uncle's new puppy Petey - he is a Caviler King Charles Spaniel

 

He is 8 months old and just super adorable.  My aunt and uncle sadly lost 2 of their dogs in the past couple years (one they adopted older and the other had a lot of health problems - but they both had great lives) and they were going to wait to get a new dog because they do still have their male, Baxter, and he is older so a puppy wasn't something they wanted to have since he is older and well, pretty much king of the castle.  But one day they were talking and my aunt said she would like to name their next dog after my grandfather (her dad) - Pete.  And my uncle, who is addicted to Cavilers, said that there was a puppy on the site he visits that was up for adoption - he was at a foster family but needed a forever home. They decided to fill out the application just to see what would happen (this was on a Sunday) and by Tuesday Petey was the newest addition to their family.  He and Baxter get along really well, and he doesn't bug Baxter too much to make him crazy.  And he is so sweet!! I think it was totally fate they were talking about that and then he ended up being just the perfect addition to the family.

So the other thing I am writing about is nail polish.  For those of you who don't know (which is most of you I am sure) I am kind of a nail polish addict. And I have been watching a lot of nail art videos (mainly from Simply Nailogical because she has cute kitties in her videos - they are her cute kitties) and I was inspired to do some nail art, and  I decided to order some new nail polish and when it came, I had it out on the table. Well apparently it is in bottles made of catnip or something because Virgil is OBSESSED with trying to pick them up.  I shot some video of it because he is so hilarious (please excuse the TV show in the background.) Hopefully the video will work (ok I decided to upload it to YouTube in case it doesn't work - you can see it at http://youtu.be/ljX7WUBLPMA if you can't watch it below.)  I don't have a ton of pictures right now because I want to take them with my actual camera but I can't find the charger right now.  So once I find it I will have more pictures to post.

Lola

 

 

 So I noticed last week that Lola was seeming a bit thinner then she had been, and had been drinking a lot more water then before, and at her age I know that can be a bad sign, so I decided to take her to the vet over the weekend.  Apparently she lost a couple teeth which I didn't notice (I honestly feel terrible I didn't notice, but I really don't look in their mouths very often either, and her teeth don't stick out like Kirzon's did, so it wouldn't be obvious they were gone, but I still feel bad) but they are all healed and ok, so the vet did a blood test and I got the results back today.  Unfortunately Lola is diabetic - not the best news, but still not the worst either.  She will have to have insulin shots, so I am going to have to learn to do that, but once she is on it she should do ok I think.  She is 16, and so I had prepared myself in case the news was worse than that (although I did hope it would be better than that of course). But the good news is it is something that we should be able to manage, and while I am not a fan of needles, for my babies I can learn to do what is needed.  Right now she is asleep next to me - one of her favorite spots is currently in use by another cat (on the purple pillow - which I have a picture of her on below from quite a few years ago now)  so she is on the couch.  She likes the corner (as does Trixie) and so she is pretty happy right now.  The good news is that they seem to have caught it early and she hasn't got any signs of any serious secondary issues that being diabetic could have caused for her.  Other than the weight loss (2 pounds as of right now - so not horrible since to be honest she could have lost 1 and it would probably have been a good thing) and she is thirsty a lot more, but other than that she is her normal, sleepy self.  She has never been much of a get up and play kind of cat - if you bring her the toy she will play, and if you bring her treats she will eat them, but she doesn't really get up and go out of her way to do any of that stuff, so her not doing much now that she is older isn't really that different then when she was young, so I am not sure if that is a sign that you would notice in a normal cat or not. 

Anyway we will be starting her on insulin but if anyone has any suggestions to make it easier (I know people who have given treats after the shot and that worked well, for example) I would greatly appreciate it.  I am just happy it is not anything worse.

And the Mystery Tuxie is.....

Drumroll please..........

 

TRIXIE!!

 

I know it is tough to tell - like I said there are times I can't really tell to be honest with you.  The main differences are that Trixie has white fur around her nose, but of course you can't see that too well in the picture.  She is rounder than Virgil but again, in that picture it is hard to see that.  The one thing that you can use to tell it is her - her paws!

 

 

For those of you who didn't know, Trixie is polydactyl (so she has extra toes) and she is polydactyl on all 4 paws.  On her extra toes, her claws don't retract (which is normal for a cat that is polydactyl) so you can kind of see her extra claws sticking out there in the picture.  Some of you noticed the little bit of white on her face that is over her nose just peeking out - that is impressive because until you guys pointed it out I didn't even notice that part. 

 

It is really common to see Virgil sleeping like that (he looks like a little curled up squirrel to me when he does - I have no idea why but I am sure I must have seen a picture of a baby squirrel curled up like that at some point) and usually Trixie is more splayed out, even when she is curling up a bit.  So I thought it was cute when she was sleeping like a squirrel and had to try to take a picture - luckily it was successful.

 

The other way to tell would be if you were familiar with my house - that pillow is on the couch I usually sit on - Virgil is totally Brad's cat and almost never sits by me, he sits by Brad on the other couch, if he is going to sit by someone, which almost never happens.

 

I am hoping to get some newer, better pictures of the kitties posted soon - I need to get my actual camera out and use that instead of the phone. 

 

I build a scratching post for the cats about a week ago (we have a post that is about 3 feet high under the stair landing and I wrapped it in sisal - unoiled so cat safe) and while I was doing it they were all really into playing with the stuff, but now the only one who really pays any attention is Trixie - she actually climbed it the other day. It was so cute, but I didn't have my camera and was to far to get a good picture with the phone (and I knew she would jump down as soon as I got close).  So hopefully I can get a picture of that and you an see how cute she is up there.

 

Ok so this is a lot of posts this week - don't expect it to be quite this frequent, but hopefully it will be more frequent then it has been.

 

Thanks for visiting! We will see you soon!!

 

 



Ok technically she isn't my cat........

Wow, two posts in a row!  Ok, so I don't plan to complain about work anymore on here, because my goal is just to not think about work if I am not there.  But the field guys I work with (or sadly used to work with since many have left) are awesome, even if there are other issues.  Two of them are huge animal lovers like me.  One (who left a few weeks ago) was a dog person, but then one day in the winter his dog wouldn't come in (which was very unusual).  He went to find her (him - I can't remember to be honest) and she was snuggled up to a white cat in the snow - he wouldn't leave her and she had no tags, collar or anything. So he took in that cat, and then adopted another so she would have a friend (and had dogs already).  And then the other one well, he is now the proud parent of the little girl below - he texted me this picture on Sunday and it is obvious she is already fitting in quite well from the picture below.  The guys are the reason I am still there - with the way things are going they may all be gone soon, so then I won't have to feel bad about leaving them in the lurch.  But they are awesome and they are why I am still there. 

 

Anyway that is the last thing I will be saying about that place, unless I get more cute pics like this of course!

 

And tomorrow (or Saturday or the next time I post - hopefully soon!) I will let you know which tuxie it is in that last picture from yesterday.  To be honest if I hadn't taken the picture it might be tough for me to tell - sometimes if one is sitting in the window so I can't see their face or feet, I can't tell who it is right away so I know it might be tough to guess!