July 4, 1997 Here we are, in another month. Red is still in the rafters. It has been eleven months now. *sigh*

Hubby left yesterday morning at 10 for another driving trip. This time he is looking in New Mexico. His brother bought some property in Colorado and he is going to meet him there today. He took my Ranger and he called me last night around 9:30 from the truck phone. Said he didn't get as far as he had planned on. The truck wasn't happy going 75 mph so he cut it back to 65 mph and the truck ran much better. He said he got better mileage, too. My poor truck.

Maggie has diarrhea again. I still have some of her medication from April, so I started her on that yesterday. Poor cat. No wonder she isn't getting heavy. I wish she would eat like the other cats and not be so picky.

Well, it looks like summer is finally here. It is very, very hot. I am going to try to catch up on paperwork this morning and not have it hanging over my head. I might go swimming. I don't know. I hope the dogs are okay tonight.

The dogs have been barking alot lately. Driving me crazy.

I think one of the feral cats tried to come over the fence last night. Made a bunch of racket. The tortie isn't going to have blue eyes like I thought. That would have been so pretty. One of the mamas isn't really afraid of me, but the other one has never been sure. She is more at ease when she sees me now. She will look at me and give me kitty love winks. Poor kitties.

There have been a lot of problems with my chatroom. Well, there have been problems with most of the services offered at Paradise. I guess the guy who runs the boards is on vacation. Bad idea.

Racekatz sent a picture of the kittens yesterday. They are so very, very tiny. Barely a week old now. She found them at about 2-3 days old. She wrote that there had been no bowel movements yet, so I called my vet and posted his advice. She got the eyedropper and the mineral oil ready to do a little lubrication, when what happens? The first bm. Its hard to imagine being excited over kitty poop, but we do get that way. What a great thing for her to be doing, with, of course, a lot of help from her husband.

July 6, 1997 I noticed that Lonee wasn't letting me pet her very much lately. So, I have been making an effort towards making her more comfortable around me again. Well, it's working. She doesn't run when I talk to her. I guess ferals have short memories. She was acting really odd tonight. She was going from window to door, crying. And the dogs were barking, too. I heard a lot of racket outside at one point and went to check it out. The first time I didn't see anything. The second time, I took the flashlight. there was a possum on the other side of the fence eating the leftover kitten food from this morning. It was a young one.

A week or so ago, I tried what had been suggested on a newsgroup about Advantage flea control. Somebody was able to split one tube (a one month's supply for one cat) between four cats. I tried it with three cats. Big mistake, didn't work. I am combing fleas off of all three cats. So, I wasted one tube. You live and learn, I guess.

Last week I noticed that O.C. and Angus are coming over for liquid (water) refreshment again. I wish they didn't. I hate the idea of them crossing the street. O.C. is so skinny. He never did completely recover from being hit by the car.

The kittens behind us are getting use to my face hanging over the fence. They come alot easier to eat if I don't make eye contact with them. They always check me out, carefully.

Maggie's poop seemed better today. Still alot of gas, though. She is pretty noisy when she goes, but it isn't nearly as runny. I'm glad. I will keep giving her those pills.

Some kitty peed on the bed today. So, I had to strip the sheets of and I sprayed alot of enzyme cleaner on the spot. Darn it, I wish they didn't do that. It never happened with the water bed. Why with a mattress? At least it was at the bottom, by where are feet are. And I am glad that I use two mattress pads, a leftover from the waterbed.

July 7, 1997 Buddy was chewing himself alot this weekend. I checked him out. He is loaded with fleas. I put some sevin dust on him and he calmed down. I guess its time for a bath. I will need to get some more flea shampoo. Then on will go the Advantage. Poor Buddy.

I am thinking of making a comprehensive list of No-Kill shelters. If anybody reading this knows of any, please email me at lisaviolet@catlover.com.

Annie has been spending more time outside of the bedroom. She has been sleeping on the climber in the hallway. I hope she loosens up more. She has also been coming into the garage at night to eat with the other kitties.

Last night I had all of the cats in but Lisa. We played fetch (sort of) with a pine cone. I would toss it and she would run after it, then wait for me. I would go to where it had landed and toss it back the other way. I think this is what I should do for her to help her lose some weight. She won't play if the other cats are there, she is not competitive at all.

July 10, 1997 Well, I seem to be making a lot of progress all of a sudden with both Lonee and Red. Lonee let me come up to her and pet her outside yesterday. And Red, well, I moved the dry food to the end of the bench on Tuesday night. He actually came down to eat. Last night, he came down to let me pet him. It was sure nice to cuddle with him and not be standing on a ladder. When he gets comfortable with being on the bench, I will have to set the kitty door to in only. The cats that want to go out will have to go out through a sliding door. I don't want Red outside until he is familiar with the inside of the house, not just the garage.

Kitty GreyCat passed away last night. She is the kitty that thought Bobby is handsome. She was fifteen and had recently been diagnosed with FeLV and kidney problems. Yesterday, her kidneys failed and she was in a coma. She passed away of a stroke last night. Rest in peace, Kitty GreyCat. Say Hi to my Hollywood when you get to the Rainbow Bridge. *tears* To anybody reading this, please say a prayer for her owner, Larry Shaffer. Thanks.

I noticed that Georgie was having a hard time urinating Tuesday, so I put him on amoxicillan and ammonil. I also trimmed his claws and noticed that he has this weird growth sticking out from one of his pads. It will soon be time for his vaccinations, so I will ask the vet about it then. It looks like some extra skin.

I called the vet Tuesday about Maggie's diarrhea. He prescribed more meds for her and I picked them up for her. Her poop is better formed, but now there is blood in it. I will give it a couple of days before I call the vet. This is the same thing that happened in April. Her appetite is good and she is perky. She obviously feels okay. In April the vet thought there might be some sort of irritation in her bowels because of her fur.

July 12, 1997 Lonee has lived here for a year, effective yesterday. Happy Anniversary, sweetie. She slept on the entertainment center behind my head last night when I was watching TV. When we went to bed, the kitty in the basket next to her followed us into the bedroom and Lonee got into the basket. She was still there this morning. She is also letting me pet her outdoors, as long as I don't move up to her too fast. Its sure a far cry from when we brought her home in a carrier and let her live in a big dog kennel and then have her hide everytime I walked into the room. Its a great feeling.

Red played with me this morning. I went out and got a new toy for him. One of the Wild Wands that we send out with our cathouses. This is the type of toy I played with him outside and tried it again. He played for twenty minutes. Every once in a while he would stop, come over and headbutt me and get back to playing. Hollywood was the last to headbutt like Red. *smile*

July 16, 1997 Well, all of the stuff for sending letters to the prosecutor has been deleted. Our end is winding down, the trial is the 29th of this month. We need to get everything organized and printed out.

Georgie peed well yesterday morning. I am glad. I was worried that he might be getting crystals. I guess the medications helped. *whew*

Maggie has had good stools, too. So, these two cats are doing okay.

Lonee is turning out to be a little poser. She loves the camera. I hope some of the shots I am getting turn out. She was *draped* over the doghouse yesterday, she looked like a rag cat. Just made out of cloth, she was that relaxed.

My mother-in-law is coming over today and I have to cut and perm her hair. Of course, I have to clean house before she comes over. I had the cover of the chair washed and just spread over the chair, I hadn't tucked it in yet. One of the cats peed right in the middle of the cushion. So, I have to wash the cover again and I put a liberal amount of enzyme cleaner on the spot. Darn cats. I also washed all of the throw rugs that are in the hallway. The one by the litter box had a lot of pee on it. Hey, cats!! There's the litter box. Its clean. Use it.

The weather muggy yesterday. There were high thin clouds and it was very warm. I don't mind the heat, its the humidity that gets to me. Cats don't like it either. In the evening, they all make a beeline for the backyard. They like being out at that time because of all of the bugs to chase. And it is cooler. Last night, I couldn't find Gracie Anne. I looked everywhere for her. Brian came home with dinner and after we ate we both looked for her. She was sleeping in one of the few areas of tall grass in our yard. Well, at least I didn't get panicked. I knew she was here somewhere.

The kittens in the yard behind us are getting big. I wish I got along with those people better. The kittens should be trapped and fixed.

I have always missed Hollywood's headbutting. None of the other cats does it nearly to the extent that she did. Well, this morning my head is sore. From what? Red's headbutts. He is the headbuttingest cat I have ever had. All I have to do is look at him and lower my head a little. Over he will walk and BOOM, smacks into my skull. I love it. There is a tall catpost with two levels in the garage. He had been going onto the top level, it is only a little higher than the bench. Last night, I got him to jump down to the lower level, playing with the toy. And he is back to being playful. Once he got to that level, all he did was smell the other cat smells. No interest in that toy at all. Sniff, sniff, sniff, until he had his fill and jumped back up onto the top level. I was thinking last night when we were playing, that it was a year ago that I was trying so hard to catch him. And when we first played together. But without the headbutts. He wouldn't let me near him back then. Not for lack of trying on my part. I just melt when he acts so happy. I am very, very glad we were able to catch him. He is turning out to be so much fun.

July 18, 1997 Geez, what a day I had yesterday. Wednesday afternoon, I noticed that Kirby was very light sensitive. He couldn't open his eyes without obvious discomfort. So, I called the vet and made an appointment for him. Yesterday morning, we went in. I also was concerned about his ears. I couldn't see any of the black wax that is normally associated with ear mites and he had been having problems with his ears.

What a joy he was to get into the carrier. He stiff armed all four legs. And when I would get his head in the carrier, he latched on to the opening with his back paws. Using his claws for added leverage. So, then I tried backing him in. That didn't work any better. So, I sat the carrier with the opening facing the ceiling and tried dropping him in. Out went the two back legs. I finally had to hold him by the scruff of the neck, which I hate doing, and pushing his back legs together. That worked.

He cried at me as if to say, "Gee, mom, I'm okay, you don't have to do this." Out to the truck we went and onto the vet. Kirby would not talk at all to me.

We got to the vet and once in the examining room, I showed them an email I had received from someone about Advantage flea killer. They got packages of both dog and cat Advantage and we checked the ingredients and dosages. The ingredients were exactly the same. The large dog dosage was 4.0ml. The large cat was .8ml. So, we could dose 5 cats with 1 large dog dose. The cost of the large dog package is $36. Large cat is $33. So, if I were to do all of the cats with cat Advantage it would cost $165. But to do all cats with the dog Advantage, it would cost $36.00. Well, that's a no brainer. The vet sent me home with some needleless syringes and my package of large dog Advantage.

When it was time to examine Kirby, he didn't want OUT of the carrier. Somebody had to hold one side of the carrier, while I wrestled him out. Once on the table, the doctor checked his ears. Way deep inside were little earmites. Great. The doc explained that I will have to treat every cat. Every cat in the house. *tears* He prescribed liquid ivermectin. 2cc per cat. 2 doses. Two weeks apart. What fun.

He couldn't find anything wrong with his eyes. He did a scraping and checked it out. He said possibly we could have chlamydia in the house. Gracie's conjunctiva is red as are a couple of other cats'. He asked if there was any sneezing, thinking maybe we had an URI (upper respiratory infection) but there hasn't been.

So, I came home with a little bottle of ivermectin. More needleless syringes. Two eye ointments. One to treat and one to soothe. The Advantage. I was able to get the Advantage on every one. Red wasn't really easy to do, I had to just shoot it at the part on his back I thought it was supposed to go. Lonee, well, Lonee Gail was having no part of it. I finally got her last night when she wasn't looking. She is still mad at me this morning. The ivermectin wasn't really that hard to give. I put Red's and Lonee's in food. The other doses just got squeezed into the little mouths.

I am still working on the eye ointments. I did go around this morning and look for dead fleas.

The wild parrots are back. They are so noisy. They are in a flock 100-200 strong. My in-laws have pecan trees and these birds will decimate all of the nuts on the trees. They eat 'em all up. Needless to say, the parrots aren't well liked by people with fruit and/or nut trees.

Lisa went outside this morning. Ate some grass, came to the doorway. Standing half in and half out, she starts to puke. Of course, her front end is inside. I put her back out before she spit the grass back up.

July 22, 1997 Well, the weekend was quiet, not much happened. The earmites are on their way out and the cats are more active.

But yesterday sucked. There was a thunderstorm in the morning and Buddy was terrified. And I didn't see alot of Lonee Gail all day long.

Sunday night I decided to take Bobby to the vet, as he hasn't been in a really long time. We went yesterday afternoon and the vet said Bobby was doing real well and called him a "purr-purr" because that's what Bob did.

Well, as it got later, I walked into the yard. I saw Lonee laying up by the bank and she was breathing really fast. She wasn't exercising or exerting herself at all. I tried to get close to her and she came into the house. I closed it off so that cats could only come in, not go out. So, I watch her. I call the vet. He isn't in and his service leaves a message for him. I go to Lonee again. This time I can hear her breathe. I am starting to get scared. I have never had this happen before. She is acting fine, but I don't like her breathing so loudly and quickly. With Brian's help, I try to get her into a cage. I have a towel wrapped around her and the only way loose is to the carrier. She was in, but Brian wasn't able to latch the door before she got out. We let her settle for a while then tried again. I am really worried by this time. She goes into the bedroom, we shoo all of the cats out but her. She ran behind the bed and Brian was at one end and I was at the other. We tried to get her to come to me as I had the carrier waiting. She ran behind Brian. Now, I had told Brian to wear gloves. I was operating with a towel. He didn't have his gloves on and he tried to catch her. I found out at Thanksgiving the bite this little lady has. He found out last night. He lets her go, running into his bathroom, cussing like I have never heard (he must have picked this language up from cable television). Blood is dripping everywhere. Ohmagawd. What a mess. I went into my bathroom and grabbed the Betadine scrub and solution. Told him to wash his hand well with it. His hand was just pumping blood. The phone rings, its the vet. I explain the situation to him. He said "well, you can bring her in when you catch her. I wouldn't worry about her" he said, "if she has that much energy to fight and run, she isn't in an emergency situation. If she were really sick or had asthma, she wouldn't be resisting at all like she is." He went on to add that she was a young cat and he said that usually females don't have heart problems so young. Males can. So, having heard so many horror stories about cat bites, I ask him should we go to emergency? He said that if we went to emergency that we would probably be there for hours as the life threatening situations, such as heart attacks, would go in ahead of us. He suggested using antibiotics, icing the hand down and keeping it raised. I told him the only antibiotics we had were for the cats. He told me the amount that a human would need and said if there was any problem in the am, then go to an urgent care facility. His family doctor is the same one we have. A local urgent care. I think that's funny. We don't have a family doctor, but our animals do. After 15-20 minutes on the phone with him and getting the scoop on the best things to do, I hung up a feeling a little better about the whole thing. I brought Brian about a million of these little pills and he took them. He sat in his chair, ice on hand while his hand was elevated. He said that he kind of blamed me, because I was so intent on getting her to the vet. I told him that I had never seen a cat breathing like that and I was scared she was going to die. I slept on the couch and got up every few hours to check on her. She let me pet her and purred very nicely for me. She really wanted to go outside this morning. Poor baby. She doesn't have a clue what's going on.

July 23, 1997 Lonee is acting like there isn't a thing wrong with her. She is begging for food, kissing Junior and chasing Georgie around the yard. Her breathing does seem like it has slowed down, though. That's good. And Brian's hand is doing better. When I saw him last night, I asked him how it was doing. He said he thought it was getting worse. I told him to open the wound up and let it drain. He said he had tried and nothing came out. So, I said, "Well, why don't you do what we do with the cats? Soak it in warm water and epsom salts. He did for a long time last night. It was better this morning. We still might go to the doctor this evening.

My mother called early yesterday night. Her dog was really sick and she was afraid he was going to die. He is an old Pug, never neutered and really spoiled. He hasn't had the best diet in the world. And he has a bad back. He has a tendency towards constipation, maybe because his back hurts him to squat, so he holds it in. She took him to his vet yesterday and he pooped a bunch there. The vet checked him out, said he was fine. Well, he wasn't fine. That's why the call last night. At emergency, I told mother she could walk him outside for awhile. She gets really nervous just sitting and waiting, so I thought that would be a good idea. Well, once outside he pooped and peed alot. We waited for about another half hour and she decided that he would be okay and we left without seeing a doctor. I called her up this morning and he is still doing badly. She called her vet again and she has taken him in. The doctor is going to run tests on him today.

July 26, 1997 We had a small earthquake last night. 4.9 in Borrego Springs, which is about 80 miles from here. We wuz rokkin an rollin. I got more excited than the cats did.

We have been putting Buddy in the shop at night. He seems to be chilled in the morning. One morning he was shivering. I think the dampness gets to him more than anything. He resisted going in at first, but he is getting use to it. A bonus is that he doesn't bark as much, either.

Boy, we had a rotten night's sleep last night. Maybe the earthquake did affect the cats. All night long, in the window, rattling the blinds, running into each other. They kept stretching out on the screen and getting their claws caught. They were very restless which didn't help us to sleep.

Lonee is letting me pet her outside on occasion. I really like this. I hate it when she runs from me. Brian is the bad guy. LOL!!

Well, Red has almost been in the garage for a year. On the Friday, the first, it will be a year. Sheesh. Red, it's been long enough, come on down!!!!

July 28, 1997 Well, it was a pretty quiet weekend, except for Buddy. I have to give him a bath today and put some Advantage on him. He just rubbed his back raw Saturday and was dripping blood. Poor guy. We put some spray on him that is anti fungal and anti bacterial so that it doesn't get infected. It also soothes the area.

I cleaned out the fishtank in the bedroom Friday. It was really dirty. Poor fish. There use to be alot more than were in there Friday. When I was finished, you could even see in the tank without the light on.

I am pet sitting for some neighbors. I started Friday and they come home today. They have fish, kitties, a bunny and dogs. They said to make sure that the dogs weren't stuck in between the gates after the gardeners left. I go over there Friday afternoon. Look for the kitties to make sure they are all okay. One cat, Mixer, just hates anybody but her mom, always hisses and growls at me. I found all of the kitties, gave the bunny the eyedrops she needed. Then I went to check to see if the dogs were between the gates. They weren't, but I got stuck. Oh, man. Hubby wanted to go see a movie and I was ready to go. And here I was, outside of my neighbor's home, stuck between two gates. I couldn't get either one open. On my way over, I had seen another neighbor outside. I started yelling. No answer. I looked through a crack in the fence and couldn't see her or her husband, so I guess they had gone inside. Not one to panic (yeah, right) I fiddled with the gate latches again. I finally got the one open that I needed open. I found the dogs in the garage, gave them a pet, went into the house, fed the cats, played with the baby cat a little bit. The baby cat attacks one of the other cats as he comes out of the litter box. So, his litter box habits have gone downhill. I went around the house looking for little piles, picked up the ones I found and flushed them. I also found a piece of used dental floss which I threw out. Things went smoothly Saturday and yesterday, Mixer actually let me pet her. Then she realized she didn't know me, hissed at me and threatened to bite me.

July 30, 1997 Well, less than two full days til Red's one year anniversary in our home. Will he be down? Or will I have to wait another year?

I started a recipe page this week. Special treats for special occasions. Maybe I will even try some of them out.

The cats finally calmed down last night. No fighting and banging on the blinds. We slept through the night. I wonder why sometimes they are so restless? I can understand one or two at a time, but all of them? Maybe there was something going on that we couldn't hear.

I am going to try to give Buddy a bath today. He really needs one. Got some flea shampoo this weekend and then I will put the Advantage on him once he is dry. The fleas just love him.

July 31, 1997 I gave Buddy a bath yesterday. He wasn't very happy with me. And hubby made me put Bud in the shop last night. Buddy would just lay outside and get chilled if we didn't. Well, he didn't go back to his bed. He just layed on the concrete, shivering. I came into the house, got a can of his prescription food from last year and heated up half a can and brought it out to him. Boy, did he like that. Then he ate the two small biscuits I had given him. This morning, he was all nice and cozy in his bed. He came out of the shop and is now up by the house. I put Advantage on him this morning. I think he might hurt his back a little when he is laying on it and twisting from side to side, scratching it. Maybe my latest assault on his fleas will help.

I don't think Red will be in the house by tomorrow. His one year anniversary. *sigh*

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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