Has any cat seen this show?

Dr. Katrina Warren is an Australian vet who hosts the show. She goes to the homes of people who want help with their cats. I like her a lot. I want to write her and ask her what to do with my grumpy sister Cookie. (Does anyone know how to get rid of this underline?)

Mom learned on today's show that I'm a senior citizen just because I'm older than 7 years old. Of course I've been trying to tell her that for a while now. Now if she would just give an old man the spot on her lap instead of giving it to the computer. 

The one thing my mom dislikes is that the program is paid by Purina so there's a lot of their advertising. 

The show is on Animal Planet. If you watch it, please let me know what you think.

Cats for Sale

We have two cats who are on mom's Smiley Face list and two who are on the Sad Face list.  (The mom doesn't use this with her students, just with the cats.) The two tabbies are on mom's Sad/Angry I'm Going to Sell You to the Dogs list. 

On mom's return from grocery shopping the orange tabby monster cat rushed her and ran outside where he proceeded to run away from her outreached arms over and over again. And then when she finally caught the orange tabby boy and was taking him in the brown tabby girl ran out. Where the orange boy always remains loving and playful during these escapes the brown tabby girl growls at mom when she nears her and starts hissing when she's caught. The tabby girl is now apologetic and is trying to play kissy face to mom as she sits and types. She knows how to melt the woman's heart. The mom is trying to remain straight faced and angry just to make a point, but is losing the battle as the tabby girl licks away her at her face and arms. 

"Okay, you win! I love you Cookie! Even if you do anger me at times. Just please stay inside. Especially when I haven't eaten all day and I'm looking forward to scarfing my salad."

"Hmph, I told you Jake. All you have to do is act like you're sorry after you've pissed her off and she melts every time."

"Thanks Cookie! So when do we make our next run for the door?" asks the orange boy.

"As soon as possible but lets go out at the same time," instructed Cookie.

"Ok! I go right and go left," snickered Jake.

Water, Water

Jake took a swim in Mom's dirty bath water this morning. She was in the outer portion of the bathroom when she heard a ker-plunk and then she saw this orange figure zoom by her. She took a look and found Jake trying to dry himself with his tongue. She offered to towel him dry, but he wouldn't allow her near him. He kept giving her wounded looks as if she had purposefully tricked him into jumping into a draining tub. She had to go into work today, but he was there to greet her when she got home. His furs had dried out by then. Silly, silly brother. I don't go near the tub. He of course plays hockey in there with his pom poms.

We had a scary thing happen at our house. the hose to the hot water on the washing machine burst open. Mom was standing right there when it happened. She feels extremely lucky to have avoided a flood.  She's hoping she can change the hose all by herself without asking my uncle or a plumber for help. It's times like this that she wishes she lived in an apartment. 

What is that?

Tyler: Help! There's an intruder on my blog!

Mom: It's just a cute kitty.

Tyler: Mom, that's not a cat.

Mom: It's not?

Ty: It's a bun. And this is a cat blog.

Mom: It's just a cute bunny. 

Ty: Mom, do you ever listen to me?

Mom: Not too often.

Over the Deep End

I think my mom has gone crazy. The way she told it to me was that she was pulling into the drive-thru Starbucks that she had just found not to far from work when her eyes glanced over a sign for a new taquería opening up. Thinking to herself "Not another taco place," when her eyes continued across the next word on the sign,  "pupusería" her brain started screeching "Ding, ding, ding, JACKPOT!" You see a pupusería is a restaurant that makes pupusas. A pupusa is an El Salvadorean delicacy (it's not delicate at all, but mom insists I use that word. Really it's just a food) that my mom fell in love with six years ago. One of her student's moms would bring her this dish several times a year each time one of her two sons was in her class. Mom looked into finding an El Salvadorean restaurant or even downloaded the recipe for it and the cabbage "curtido" and hot sauce served with it. She never followed through and now she doesn't have to. The silly woman has eight pupusas sitting in our fridge right now. It's as if she was afraid the pupusería would go out of business over night. She bought enough for five meals. Silly, silly woman. 

And did she consider us when placing her order? Not at all! There were pupusas with meat that she could have ordered.  But because she's one of those horrific vegetarians (I'm not lying! I've watched her, never a morsel of meat passes between her lips!), she didn't buy us anything. 

At least she did go back to the store and stock us up on Fancy Feast. Because of that, her bed doesn't need to be "scented". 

Meet Your Purr-fect Match at ARF

"Love Bug", "Personal Assistant", and "Leader of the Band" are the types of cats my mom is suppose to be most attracted to according to this survey she found at:

www.arf.net/adopt/feline-ality-form.html

The only problem is that I'm not any of those cats. I've decided that I'm a MVP. Now I officially know that my mom and I are incompatible. Hey wait a minute, why is she hanging around websites that match cats with new owners anyway. She promised us when she brought Jake home that there would be no more cats, even after Kali left for the Bridge. I'm going to have to search her internet usage to see what she's up to. 

MomLynn: No worries Tyler. You're my cat no matter what your personality type may be. And I'm not bringing in a new brother or sister...but you can't blame me for looking. 

Mancat Monday

Tyler: "Mom, can we get past being mopey and sad and just admire how my dark panther furs showed up so silky and shiny in this photo?"

Mom: "Sure, I think I've cried enough tears.  I'm going to miss that old lady, that's for sure." 

Tyler: "She sure was a hissy cat. Do you think she's still hissing at everybody over the Bridge?"

Mom: "I'm afraid I wouldn't recognize Kali without her hiss. Maybe it's how she's saying hello.

'Hisss, my name is Kali. Excuse me and please don't mind my bad manners, but I've always hissed to introduce myself and I don't want to stop now."

Tyler: "Mom, you're dreamin'. I can't ever hear her say 'excuse me' or 'please'. "

Mom: "Well, it is the Bridge after all. She has to be making friends. You never know how being out of pain has changed her mood. And what's wrong with a mother dreaming?"

Tyler: "Okay Mom. Have it your way. Just don't forget to give me some loving too."

Mom: "Like, 'Wow Tyler, you're furs are looking really silky and shiny."

Tyler: "Yep, just like that."

 Kali left for the Bridge this afternoon. She was her normal bratty self giving the staff at the vets a hard time. Their plan was to put in an IV in the back room bring her back to the exam room and give her a drug to make her fall asleep and then the final drug. I was to leave after the first drug but before the last. Well, I heard her screaming full force in the back room. They came back and asked me if they could sedate her first then bring her back in. At first I said yes, then I asked if they could sedate her with me and then do everything else while I was gone. They didn't like the idea, but I was here for Kali not them. So she complained while they poked her and I tried to sooth her as I said good-bye. I had told the vet that as soon as she couldn't tell I was there to let me know, so that I could leave quickly. So I'm there talking to her for a long time and I finally ask, isn't she sedated yet. And they say told me that she was. So they thought I was saying all of that because I needed to and didn't realize that I was wanting out of  there. I had been focusing on my sweetie and didn't realize that the vet wasn't there. There were two vet techs and they hadn't heard my request to be told as soon as she lost consciousness. Ugh! It didn't go as smoothly as it could, but honestly that was Kali's style. She was a Tortie to the bone.

 I miss her terribly already. The vet had a huge cage filled with four snowshoe tabby kittens with signs requesting that the kits be held so they could be socialized. They were of course up for adoption. I almost considered putting one in the carrier on my way out. "Kitties, surprise, Kali's gone, but we have a new sister for you to meet!" I'm afraid Cookie might have smoothered me in my sleep.

I owe you all my sanity. Whenever I thought I couldn't bear it, I thought of all of you who wrote saying that you had gone through a loss and that gave me strength. I thought of the candles being lit, the moment of silence during Gree and Othello's gathering and people saying they would think of my girl it all gave me such strength. I felt the love, thank you,

Kali Wants to Go Home

I will be calling the vet and trying to make an appointment to assist my lovely lady to the Bridge today. She's developed a tick. Her head jerks back and forth. She's wobbly on her feet. She's always been a very dignified cat. I owe her to allow her to go before she loses any more of her cat sensibilities. 

I forced some Super Charger into her mouth yesterday. And then she actually drank some salmon juice and ate a tiny bit of the fish. I was praising her like crazy and she was trying to please me. Still it's not enough to change my decision.

I'll come back and let you all know if I get the appointment with the vet. 

Thank you everyone for all of your support.

Love, Lynn

Update

4:00 pm PST is the time she will be meeting with the vet. I keep reminding myself that she deserves this. I need to remember it's suppose to be about what's best for HER not me. For me, I could keep her around until the last possible moment...

She purrs as soon as she sees me and allows me to pet her entire body, something I never was allowed to do before. I was limited to petting just her head before. She continues to answer all my comments with a meow, just has she's always done before. That's my girl, always needing to get the last word in. 

Kali does have a sister at the Bridge that will help her cross. I lost Katie about 10 years ago to kidney failure. She was only 4 years old at the time. She gave me no warning. Kali used to bully her something awful because Kali couldn't stand to share me with the little one. That was a long time ago. Katie never did hold a grudge. I bet she'll show her the ropes. And Lilly's mother Peggy has written that Lilly. who just recently crossed, will also be there for my girl. (Oh gosh, and now Castle writes that Stormie will be there too!) This means a lot simply because I cannot go with her to make sure she's safe and happy and not hissing at others. I guess this is where faith is suppose to take over. I need to surrender my baby in so many different ways. I'm not good at surrendering. I'm good at holding onto things...tightly.

Ok, well I'm going to go enjoy some last moments. Again, thank you. Please pray for me to be strong. If you're not into prayer maybe you could imagine thoughts of me being a strong resilient cat owner, who can handle this, no problem. Thank you.

Good Bye Sweet Girl !

Stormie, 

We are so proud of you for winning your fight. What a wonderful example of strength  you are. You will be missed and never forgotten. 

Could you keep a look out for a fiery Tortie who should be crossing your way pretty soon?  She's my sister and we want her to find friends over where you are. She's never been very good at making kitty friends. 

We know that now that you are pain free and for that, we are grateful. Enjoy yourself and we'll try and take care of your family over here. 

Until we meet again.

Headbumps and purrs,

Tyler

Kali is still not eating. I tried giving her heated chicken baby food, heated chicken liver (suggested on a website). I gave her the antibiotic, but I don't think she has an infection. I also gave her  some of the Lickable Super Charger that Moki's mom recommended. It's similar to the paste they make to get rid of hairballs. It has calories and nutritional supplements in it. It's the only thing she would eat, yet she started gagging after she first ate it.  After forcing the antibiotic down her, I didn't have the heart to force food down her too. As a Tortie, she's always prized her dignity.  She still is drinking water on her own. But she looked me in the eye and I feel as if she asked me to let her go. 

I still have to go to work today and I don't want to spend the day tearing up in front of my first graders like I did last week so I'm not making any decisions about when I'll take her in exactly. School is over next Tues. Although I welcome a bit of time off before I'll work again during summer school, there is so much required of me right now. I feel as if I can't concentrate on doing as much for Kali as I'd like to. 

I bought so many foods yesterday that I still want to see if she'll eat. Chicken has always been her number one love, but I need to try the other things too.

Oh Darn!

So, now Kali isn't eating. She refused a piece of cheese and Temptations. I want to start her on the antibiotics today just in case that's the problem. I want to try giving her baby food. Does anyone know what type I should buy? Or do you have any other suggestions?

If she still doesn't eat, well that's my sign to let her go. I will ask you to purr for her still. Thank you. 

PS She did eat her pill pocket.

News from Vet

Lynn again: Kali's blood work is back and it's not good news. She has beginning kidney disease. She has some sort of heart disease. Her heart is enlarged. Her thyroid is fine. So that's not what caused her heart to get out of whack. The radiologist thinks she "may" have an infection in her lungs. It's not typical, but it could be what was causing her lungs to look like they were filled with water on the X-rays. So we're going to put her on antibiotics. If that doesn't show a big improvement, it's probably something serious like cancer. 

The vet wanted to have two ultrasounds done at $500 a piece. I cannot afford that. She's an old girl. They might be able to pinpoint what she has, but at her age, what are they going to do to help her?

 I will  need to have her put to sleep as soon as she is not living a good life. The vet said to check out if she stops eating or drinking or showing signs she wants to go off and hide and be alone. I haven't been home a lot, but when I am I still hear her coughing. Before when she was vomiting she would always start with a cough. The same thing she has always done if she had a hairball. In the morning she did vomit after her cough but this afternoon I just heard the cough. Her white blood cells were slightly elevated but that could have been caused by stress. 

Here comes my old geezer girl...

Ah, well that was a quick visit. I opened up the Temptaions' bag for Kali and all of a sudden I had four cats in my lap.  After eating her treat, Miss Kali took off again. I think she read my thoughts and wanted to prove to me that today wasn't her day to go. Normally she would have whapped the others away until she could lie down nest to me.

Thank you Girl, I'm thrilled to know that today your still here to hug and kiss.

Tyler at the keyboard: Sheesh, I finally get to write on my own blog. Mom has been giving my big sis Kali WAY to much attention. She looks like the same old annoying sister of always. She's walking around, eating and drinking, I really think much too much was made of a little hairball yacking. She still is doing that a bit. And mom is feeding her those delicious Pill Pockets three times a day. And when I ask her, "Mom may I please just have one", she says, 'No.' Can you believe that? That old geezer girl is getting on my last nerve.

 I'm having to sit in mom's lap in the evenings and turn on the old charm, just so she remembers that I live here too. I did get some Temptations last night for allowing her to furminate me. The funny thing is that I like getting my hairs stolen. I have way too many of them for these hot June days. Cookie started growling at mom for the same offense. That one has quite the attitude. Doesn't she know that getting rid of the old hairs feels good? Finally she allowed mom to continue, but she wouldn't put up with changing sitting postions so that mom could have more access to fur. And the surprise was that Jake seems to be liking the Furminator. He hated the Zoom Groom so mom assumed they'd be the same. He actually sat still for a little bit.

 I'm still the best kitty, I don't give my mom any troubles, ever. Ok, when I whap Kali I do agravate my mom and get in trouble for that. But she deserves it, I promise you she does. Have a great day!

Lynn here: I played phone tag with the vet regarding Kali's blood results. She looks a lot better. Yet as Tyler said above she did yack up her breakfast this morning. I need to ask the vet if I should have repilled her after that because I had given her the meds only 15 mins. before. Thanks again for all your good thoughts and wishes. They mean so very much! Enjoy a good day.

7 pm (PST) Update

Dear Friends,

Tyler's mom speaking:

I am overwhelmed by the beautiful comments you have all left on Ty's blog. I believe in the power of prayer and I believe that you all have brought a miracle to our doorstep. I came home from work to find an almost peppy Kali. She got up out of her bed and greeted me. Something she hadn't done for the past three days.  I took her to the new vet and I fell in love with this person. She was so compassionate. She told me all of our options and let me decide. She did say that Kali seemed to have too much spunk today to be helped to the Bridge. She recommended having blood work done and X-rays taken. She wanted to find out if Kali could enjoy more life if we managed her care with medicine. 

The blood work results will come in tomorrow. The x-rays showed some concerns with her heart. She had heard an irregular heart beat and the film showed that her heart was over to the right. Also their might be fluid in her lungs. A radiologist will be in the office on Wednesday to give more feedback. The vet thinks that Kali may be suffering from hyperthyroidism which may be the cause of her heart problems. We'll know more once the blood work comes back. For now I'm suppose to put her on Pepsid AC and then she gave me 2 perscriptions, Reglan to prevent her from vomiting and Lasix for her heart. She wasn't dehydrated so she was able to drink water without spitting that up. I'm to feed her in ver small amounts to see if she can keep  that down too.

Forgive me for calling wolf and saying that she was most likely going to the Bridge today. I honestly thought she would. I wasn't trying to be over dramatic. I plead ignorance. With her age, I assumed that any troubles would be too serious to try to fix. I'm grateful for being wrong.

 But it looks like we have bought her a little bit more time. I am so surprised. With her poor heart and possible fluid in the lungs I'm not sure how much time has been bought. The vet gave me the option of having an ultrasound of her heart and possibly an EKG, although she thinks my girl might be too fiesty to sit still long enough for the EKG. The more I think about it, the more I think that she's too old to go to such extreme measures to try to save. 

I asked the doctor to just make sure that Kali isn't suffering. If she isn't suffering, I'll spend every extra day with her that I can. It's such a huge responsibility to decide what's best for her.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your loving thoughts. We are so lucky to have you all as our friends. We are in your debt. Headbumps and purrs,

Lynn

Kali continues to yack everything up. She even yacked up yesterday's Temptations. I'm going to call my vet today. I'm preparing to say good-bye. Part of me will feel better once she's out of pain. The other part will feel alone without my companion of nineteen years. 

Update

My vet's office only has one vet in today and told me that I'd have to leave her there and they would look at her when they could. Well I know Kali and she freaks out whenever we leave home and at the vet's she has had fits in the past. She's had a lot of painful dental work and I think she's just too smart to put up with any strange people a pokin' and a prodin'. She is a Tortie after all and she can be very opinionated. I am not leaving her somewhere so that they can then call me and tell me that she needs to be put to sleep.

The person who answered the phone felt very badly that she couldn't work me in. But this service just isn't acceptable. I searched high and low for a vet clinic that people seem to like around here. I found one that has glowing reports, has 5 different vets, and who's website has the title "Full Service Care for Pets Who Are Part of the Family." I made an appointment here. She will be seen at 4:00 pm PST. I will be moving all of the cats to this vet, if I like it there. It is so difficult to get into my current vet's office. I like my vets personality, but if I can't see him, then it's not fair to the kids. And these are my kids.

Thank you so much for your kind comments. Only cat people can understand. I saw her up and walking about this morning and I'm sure it's your prayers that gave her the strength to do that.

Hugs to each of you,

Lynn/The Mom

Well, my Kali is showing her fiesty tortie nature. As Mom I'm thinking lets have some last day cuddles. I put her on my bed which she hasn't ben up on for a couple of years. She can't jump up there and Tyler used to bully her when she went into that room. I shut the other cats out except for Sophie becuase she is mellow and loving toward Kali. Well, my old lady would have no part of being up on the bed. I returned her to her cat bed underneath the dining room table.

She got up later on ate more wet food and yacked it up...again. My poor, poor baby.

This morning when she showed interest in walking towards the chair she shares with me, I picked her up and carried her there, where she immediately showed me an interest in the bag of Temptations. I gave her about ten, but stopped for fear that she would just throw them right back up.... It's been about 20 mins. and so far she hasn't.

I'm calling the vet tomorrow to take her in the afternoon and I expect to say goodbye at that time.  I feel a sense of peace at the moment, I just want her to stop suffering.

                         

Purrs Needed

Kali isn't feeling well. Yesterday I noticed that she didn't come and visit me when I was watching TV last night. I realized that I hadn't given her glucosamine pill the day before so I made she she had one right away. She didn't want to get out of her bed. She was in the kitchen this morning looking for food. She ate a bit of stinky goodness. Normally she would be sitting with me as I write this, instead she's gone and laid down in her cat bed.  I'm wondering if her time has come to cross over the Bridge. My vet is open today, but he doesn't accept appointments. It's first come, first serve. I'm afraid I'm going to stress my girl out waiting there with all the other pets. She hates going to the vet. She normally pees in the carrier on the way over there. I need to buy puppy pads for her carrier... I am going to see if she perks up a bit after eating the wet food.  I also did hear her trying to cough up a hairball last night. I don't think she was successful. I wonder if that's her problem. My eyes are leaking all over the place. I don't want to let her go, but it all depends on what's best for her. Please purr for her. I'll update this, once I have any news.

UPDATE

 Kali went into the kitchen and I opened up a new can of wet food just for her since she was interested. She ate a lot, but then yacked it all up a bit later on. I didn't see hair in it. And I've been grooming her very well lately with the Furminator because she doesn't groom herself much any longer. I'm most likely going to be taking her into the vet. I'm going to go look up the hours right now.  I'm pretty sure at almost 19 years old that her time has come. 19 years feels like most of my life. I don't want to let her go for selfish reasons. But I must do what's right for her.

UPDATE AGAIN

6:25 pm PST

Well, I didn't make it to the vet's. She went to the kitchen again and ate more stinky goodness and this time she's kept it down. She's still very lethargic. I she continues like this,  will call the vet on Monday. I promised Kali to do what's right by her. Thank you for your purrs. 

The Real Stuff

Jake speaking:  

"Oh Fancy Feast, Oh Fancy Feast,

You make me happy in the tum-tum-east.

 I could eat you all day long,

 That's why I'm singing this song.

Just a few posts ago Momma told you all how we don't like the healthy foods she buys. Well, last Sunday she came home with TWO whole boxes of Fancy Feast. This morning I sang my song to Momma as soon as she got up to use her litterbox (Mom: at 3 am) and she didn't move herself into the kitchen like she's asuppose to! "She shook her head 'No' and went back to bed. I had to sing my song, over and over and over again.  Finally she got herself out of bed and did what I told her to do. Sheesh, it took her FOREVER to put that delicious stuff on my plate!                      

Mom: Jake, you got me up an hour early screaming in my ear. 

Yes, it's true. I found out that two types of FF are healthier than the rest. "They are Flaked Ocean Fish" and "Flaked Fish and Shrimp." Our vet wants the kids to eat wet food so I'm thrilled to have bought some stinky goodness that they actually want to eat. And it was on sale last week!

We "Borrowed" This From the Catblogosphere

Tuesday Tabby Love

"Momma, these are my 'I love you eyes," explained Jake.

"I recognize them, Sweetheart," said Mom.

"Now can I have some fish flakes?" asked the boy.

Well it IS Mancat Monday, After all

"Mom while I snooze, don't let that pesky orange striped thing near me, ok? He's  been chasing me down all day long  to sniff me or touch me. I've had enough!" warned Cookie.

"I'll do my best, Cookie, but I make no promises," cautioned Mom.

"Hee, hee, hee, nor I," whispered Jake.