Still working on visiting...

Last night when I got home I had a horrible headache, and Barney came over and slept on my shoulder (aww). Then Brad came home and he moved, and while Brad went out to pick up dinner (while I was still laying on the couch) Virgil, the kitty who is the least snuggly of all of them, came and slept in my lap! So needless to say there was no way I was going to jeopardize that lovin' and move, so I ate laying down (well laying down-ish), luckily it was McD's - easy to eat that way. But I also didn't get on the computer because of it. So I didn't get quite as much visiting in as I wanted - but I am still working on it!

I also got up at one point and put Barney by his brother and sister and got some pictures - may never see that again so I will post them later.

Oh, I wanted to answer a couple of questions I saw in comments - some of you may already know this stuff:

Floyd is 14, and he is loosing weight because he has lymphoma (mild), hepatitis (again, mild) and pancreatitis. He basically eats a lot but doesn't really process it correctly so he doesn't get the nutrients and gain weight. This is what caused the hepatitis, which is an inflamaiton of the liver - he may also have a bit of fatty liver syndrome because of the rapid weight loss. For some reason that no one has figured out, he gains weight when on amoxicilin. His blood tests show no signs of any infection but it works - see, when he first lost the weight we took him in and he did have a very minor infection, and the amoxicilin helped him gain weight. Before we knew the rest of the problems we kept putting him on as he lost more weight, and he always gained on it. We did the tests and found out the problems at the begining of the year (we went to a specialist) and he agreed that since he looses weight off the amoxicilin we could keep him on it - but you can't keep it going all the time because then he would get used to it. We had him off for about 6 weeks - he went to the vet after 2 weeks off and was about the same but when we went back for his regular check up he had lost 1 1/2 lbs. So he back on again. The problem is that he will act like he is starving (which he really is) but then won't always eat his kitty food - he will fight for people food but sometimes he just is not in the mood for the kitty food. Right now he is getting back into the kitty food (finally) and he is very interested in the kitten food that we have for Barney - which is ok since he needs to gain weight (the others don't need to so they shouldn't really eat it). Lorianna had mentioned thyroid in her comment, and I honestly thought that was going to be the problem when this all started - we had to female cats growing up that both had thyroid problems (as did my grandma), so that was my first thought. Then I thought maybe diabetic - but both those were normal. I have read on the internet that a low grain diet is better with lymphoma because the grain can "feed the lymphoma" so we have them on a grain free crunchy food, but none of them other than Barney will eat the grain free canned - so they get Fancy Feast (we want to have him eat so we go with what works). I usually try every once in a while with the grain free but it is ignored. Barney likes it so I have been mixing in some kitten milk powder with it and letting him have it as a snack - he gets kitten food for breakfast and dinner and his crunchies but when I get home I give him the kitten milk/grain free because he is a wildman with hunger at that time, and honestly he is doing what Virgil did and sneaking adult food instead of kitten food. So the snack gives him both kitten nutrition and cat food flavor - and he really likes it.

Wow, that ended up long. I am supposed to be working so I guess I should get to that. Don't tell my boss!

I have been bad about posting...

Things have been crazy lately so I have not had a chance to post or even take any pictures of the cats - not that much is going on with them, I mean they sleep like 18 hours a day - Virgil not so much but still. Anyway in case I don't get the chance I wanted to post the following for Valentines Day. I made it with the I Can Has Cheezburger Lolcat builder.


moar funny pictures

Long Awaited Update

Well, I know I have been bad about updating lately. We have been trying to get the house ready for Thanksgiving so we have been busy painting, putting in new furniture, FINALLY hanging the TV, and just general cleaning and reorganizing. This was the first time Virgil was around painting, and really the first time for most of the other cats since we did most of the painting at the house before we moved them in. Floyd was the only one to really get the full experience when he was a baby at the apartment, and it ended up with him having two painted handprints on his back because he got stuck while climbing the screen door and I had to grab him quickly, with wet, painted hands. This time Floyd got out of it paint free, but Virgil wasn't so lucky. The first thing we did was paint the wall where we were hanging the TV white, and he stepped in the paint tray (there are still a couple white spots on the tile and carpet where he was walking, which is ok because the tile and carpet are ugly anyway, and we plan to get rid of them). The next thing I painted was the other two walls behind our couch, and that was a dark blue - he slept the whole time. I hated the dark blue and decided to go a couple shades lighter - this is when the problems began.

You see, Virgil is still a baby, and so he is very curious. Sometimes he is very energetic and bouncy, even more than normal. This was one of those days. So I was painting the new lighter blue paint, and he had to come over and see what I was doing. He decided to lean on the wall for a second and so part of his butt got painted (not to bad yet). I tried to scare him off, and that seemed to work for a couple minutes. But then he came back and rubbed up against the wall again - on the other side of his butt! He got paint on his tail too. I gave up, picked him up, dried him off the best I could (the first time he was pretty dry but the second time he was wet) using my shirt (he was squirming and wriggling to get away so I had to work quickly) and then took him upstairs and put him in the bedroom. He has been sleeping up there with me at night because he is a terror and night and makes so much noise I am surprised the neighbors don't hear it. It worked out ok, because he has a litter box and some crunchy food and water in there. So while I finished the first coat he had to stay up there - I didn't realize Kirzon was in there too, but again, they had food, water and litter so it was ok. The bigges issue was that Virgil was in a playing mood and Kirzon wasn't. After the first coat had started to dry I let them out, and Virgil was much calmer. He slept through the second coat, which was good because I felt bad locking him up. I took a couple pictures of the cat who is now known as "painty butt" and will post them when I get home. I plan to try and take more pics as the holidays go by. I am going to put up a second post here in a bit about my plan for the holiday with a crazy cat in the house. Probably will be up before the pictures.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving from me, Floyd, Kirzon, Lola and Virgil!

No new pics

Sorry I haven't posted any pics in a few days - I haven't really had a chance to take any. I have been trying to update some stuff on my computer and it is taking longer than planned. I will try to take a few tonight to post so that you can get your cat fix.