Tuesday, July 17, 2001 Well, Friday afternoon, I found out why I couldn't access my website. Hours and hours on the phone with @home and hours on the phone with communitech that were getting nowhere. Emails to communitech tech support. They would have moved my website to a different address if they had to. But, one of the techs called Friday afternoon, sounding very sheepish. It seems, despite the department employees denying it, that someone had blocked access for my ISP. They misled the techs, who were at as much of a loss as I was. But, it's fixed and running now. Whew. Sunday, there was a time I couldn't get in and I called, but they were just rebooting the server.

Friday evening, I looked out the screen door. Benny was on the fence again. It was weird, he looked like he was on *our* side, but standing up on all fours. Which wasn't possible. I yelled over at him and he jumped right down into our yard! I have no idea how he did that. But, Brian said he'd redo that section Saturday, after he was done with his running around. He had it finished by mid-afternoon on Saturday. I kept the cats in until then. And so far, so good. Benny's even coming into the house more often. I'm beginning to think that he does this so that we know there's something that needs to be fixed. He's never gone *over* the fence, always comes right back in. It's like "you need to redo this section".

I let the kittens outside for about fifteen minutes yesterday. It was really kind of neat, watching the older females keep watch over them. Mystie, Katie and Ciara all sat out with the kittens and me. I had work to do, so I shooed the kittens all in the house. They wanted back out and it seems odd to me that I won't let them out knowing that they spent the first weeks of their lives in front, outside. I'm sure they'd be okay. I just can't do it, though.

I came back to the office and did a little paperwork, then went to check on the kits. Richie's ear was all bloody. I got a wet paper towel and wiped it off and it kept bleeding. *sigh* I'm thinking Red did it. Red or Gracie. I called the vet and they said bring him in. I did and after the vet looked at the ear, I was told that Richie had to stay. He had to get a stitch in it. Great.

And he's also on antibiotics. Poor little guy. It doesn't seem to bother him, though.

Here are a couple of pictures I've taken recently:

I took this Saturday. That's Daniece, Sammy, who is sucking on Opie's ear, and Angel. Richie is on the other side.

From top to bottom: Opie, Sammy, Richie

Opie

Angel

I took this last night. I thought it was kind of funny. Kirby on top of the litter box with the kittens all around him. Look to the left of the picture for Daniece and Angel. That's Sammy in front and Richie and Opie on the right. Poor Kirby, he's such a trooper.

One of the things that amazes me with these guys, is they play until they can't move anymore. This is Opie, who crashed on the way down the sofa.

On one of the cat trees. Opie, Sammy, Angel and Richie on the bottom.

My mom got a phone call Friday afternoon that she had to go back and have an additional portion of her back re-MRIed. Sunday. Afternoon. So, Sunday, I took her back in. It wasn't too bad, I was only gone for an hour and a half. I laid in the sun for an hour before I took her and while I was gone, Brian mowed the lawn. He had put the swing on the patio. I don't want the swing on the patio, it makes me nervous, because the patio cover is shade cloth (for those of you who view the patiocam on a regular basis, you'll know what I mean). He swears the cats can't get through, but it's not a chance I'm willing to take. He went to visit his mom and I kept getting more and more nervous with each passing minute. When he got home, the first thing I said when he walked in was "you have to move that swing". Besides the cats, we can't see the stars at night sitting on it with it on the patio. So, he moved it back out onto the lawn. I'm sure I'm being irrational, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

Well, I have laundry to fold and I have to wash all of the bed clothes again. Sweet Ciara has been at it again.

Monday, July 23, 2001 Holy Moley, I can't believe I haven't made an entry since last Tuesday. Boy. Let's see if I can remember all that's happened. We'll start with the most recent, I guess.

We're thinking that Angel isn't Blue's kitten. We're thinking that Angel is Little Guy's kitten. We're thinking that Angel isn't Sammy, Richie, Daniece and Opie's aunt, but their little sister. Their real little sister. Born to Little Guy, not Blue. What happened is yesterday morning, I look out and see a small bundle at the cat food. Open the door and there were two small kittens. Eyes still blue, tails still arrows. Both Blue and Little Guy were out there with them. A little black and white kitten and a little red kitten, who's hair may be long, with a white tipped tail. So, now, I have two more kittens to catch. Then we'll have even more. Oh, joy.

What else, what else, what else? Oh, yeah. Mystie kept throwing up bile and foam Thursday morning. So, I was able to get her in to the vet about noon. He checked her out and said she probably has the same URI the kittens carried in with them. So, he prescribed some antibiotics. The problem was, she just threw those back up, too. As a matter of fact, I think that they made the problem worse. See, she also wasn't eating. Anything. Friday morning, I force fed her a little A/D. She lost that in a matter of an hour. She showed absolutely no interest in anything, besides water. She was drinking a ton of water. I've never seen a cat do this with a URI. And after she drank water, she vomited. When she growled at me when I felt her tummy, that was it. Very concerned, I called the vet's office and they said to bring her in and he'd take an x-ray. I did and nothing showed up. She had some gas, but there was no obstruction. That was a relief. Later that night, I gave her some ferrum phosphate, a homeopathic remedy. I did a search and found out that it's also good for gastritis, so maybe it would help there. The consistency of these pills is like powdered sugar, they melt very quickly once in the mouth. And it seemed to help her. She threw up a couple of times Saturday. Early Saturday morning, I went to the grocery store and got some baby food and some Fancy Feast. I know we should have this stuff on hand, just for times like this, but you run out and just don't think about it. She liked the turkey baby food I gave her, it was the first she'd eaten on her own in days. She didn't eat much, but it was better than nothing. Later in the afternoon, she ate a little of the Fancy Feast, with quite an appetite. I kept giving her the ferum phos every four hours and it seemed to help.

Mystie, Saturday afternoon

Yesterday before I was out of bed she threw up, but that was the last time. Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, I force fed her some A/D, just to make sure her tummy didn't forget how to work. Yesterday she was almost back to normal and this morning, she was. Whew. I was really worried.

And Friday evening, we noticed that there was something wrong with one of Ciara's eyes. I put some Terramycin in it and gave her some ferrum phos (because it's also supposed to be good for inflammation). Saturday, her eye didn't look any better and I kept up with the ferrum phos and Terramycin. I didn't dare put anything else in her eye, because depending on what the problem was, certain things could have made it worse. So, I stuck with the most innocuous treatment. Brian pointed out that her face looked swollen by the bad eye. I hoped she hadn't been hit there, because that could mean uveitis. That would mean a different type of treatment for her eye, which meant we *would* have to go to the vet's office. I knew if it weren't any better this morning, she'd be at the vet's. But, yesterday morning, her eye was back to normal.

During one of the vet visits with Mystie last week, the doctor asked me about Kirby, how he was doing. I told him that Kirby was doing great. Had a new lease on life. He joked about not being drunk for the surgery, so his hands didn't shake so much. He once again said how well the operation went and I told him that I was glad something with Kirby finally went the way it should have. He agreed, said "I really like that cat, and I'm sure that having to constantly go, even when not blocked, had something to do with his attitude. He deserves to be okay". That made me feel pretty good. I'm sure it was just as frustrating to him as it was to us to have to be bringing Kirby in every couple of weeks.

Speaking of Kirby, Opie, I think it was, was playing with him this morning. Kept attacking Kirby. Chased him around the house. Kirby would let Opie be the victor, would lay down and let the kitten attack. They ran out into the garage and Kirby ran up the ladder. The rungs are too far apart for Opie, so he went up on one of the condos. Lucky was laying there and got tired of him standing on her and starting whaling away at him. He moved, she jumped down and ran into the house. And Kirby went after her. Whoa. Guess he's feeling a little proprietory towards the little ones. What a sweetheart.

Saturday afternoon, we let the kittens out for a bit. They were so cute, running and chasing and jumping and doing the kitten side hop with the puffed out tails.

They did pretty well, except for when Junior sneezed. Then they all ran back into the house. But they realized that their lives weren't in danger and those who were safely ensconced inside slowly made their way back out onto the lawn. Brian sat at one end of the yard, keeping kittens from wandering too far. They came in pretty easily, with the prospect of dinner. After dinner, though, they thought they could go back outside. I'm sorry I had to disappoint them.

The suns shines brightly on my little Angel

Rusty and Daniece

Sammy

Richie

Last week, I ordered a digital scale for the cats. Now that we've gotten so many, I think it will help me making decisions about when to take them in for vetting. Thinking back to Lola and now we have so many that are getting older (just last week Brian commented that Boney seemed to have lost weight), I think watching their weight would be a good thing. It's something we've discussed in the past and last week, someone asked posting on the Acme Pet Cat Health board asked about scales and I did a search. I ordered the digital scale for $99.99. It weighs to the half ounce, which I liked. My vet's weighs to the one ounce. The scale can weigh up to forty four pounds, which I doubt I'll ever need. If you're interested in it, you can find it at The lactation connection...baby scales online.

Well, I put off housecleaning this weekend because Mystie was sleeping and I didn't want to bother her. I know how important rest is when you're not well, it gives the body a chance to heal. But I can't put it off any longer, so I guess I'll get to work.

Monday, July 30, 2001 Well, it would appear as if I'm not spending as much time online as I had been. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd be doing a better job of updating the diary. *sigh* Well, let's see, what's been happening?

Well, I'm really having fun with my new cameras. I figured out the panorama setting on the Olympus this weekend. I spent hours taking pictures, downloading them and finding out they weren't level with one another, then I'd delete them and redo. The camera only does "panorama" with Olympus SmartMedia cards and the only one I've got is only 8Megs. Not enough for more than ten panorama pictures at a time. I ordered a couple of more Olympus cards, because I'd like to have Ranchita panoramas. Oh, I can also make QT movies that either take you around in a circle, or let you go around and zoom in and zoom out. It's really cool. And really time consuming. Then of course, I played around with another program that's supposed to help compress the movies, but so far, I'm not happy at all with the results. Some nasty weather day, when Brian is gone to the sticks, I'll play around with it until I find settings that I'm happy with. Until then, I'll just have to have bandwidth eating movies that take forever to download if you're using a dialup connection. Good thing I signed up with Communitech when they had unlimited bandwidth allowed.

So, here are some of the pictures I've been taking with the Olympus. Enjoy.

This is Annie, DeeJay's sister. You don't hear much about her, she's pretty camera shy. She stays in the bedroom, behind the bed. I was really surprised she let me take her picture. She's a sweet little thing, isn't she?

I took this picture of Ciara this morning. I didn't have a recent image that showed her striking facial markings. And notice how she's darkened up since she was a kitten.

Richie and Opie stretched out on the sofa.

Something I don't see too much any more. All five kittens sleeping in the same area. From left to right: Opie, Richie, Daniece, Angel and Sammy.

Well, last week, I start letting the kittens out without constant supervision. Oh, my. That's where a lot of time was spent. You know. Not watching them. Anyway, I noticed that they like to run up one of the potted palm trees at the side of the house. The only problem there is that the kittens are light enough to walk on the fronds. And the fronds lead over to the fence. Over the barrier.

And Brian saw Petey running up, too. So, yesterday, he added a new little barrier.

So far, it's working. The kittens are out and running about. I also put some chairs and a cat condo and cat chair on the patio, in hopes that the cats would spend more time playing there. It seems to be working. You can check it out for yourself by going to the patiocam or once again, to the backyard/weather cam. Remember on the latter, you have the option to move the camera. Just click on the "live video" button on the left of the page. To get a better feel for the backyard, I put up my first panorama picture. You can find it here. It scrolls left and right, so I don't think that WebTV users will be able to view it in it's entirety.

This morning, the kittens were out and playing and I was watching them. Katie was watching something in the grass and that grabbed my attention. I saw the bee she was watching and figured this wasn't a good thing and picked it up on a leaf to move it where the kittens wouldn't get it. Too late. The bee was missing it's stinger. So, who got the bee? The first kitten I picked up was Richie. He had bee cleaning his paws. I looked at his paws. Nothing. Then I looked at his face. I saw the stinger in his bottom lip. I brought him inside and took him into the bathroom. I was able to pull the stinger out with my fingers. I set him down and he proceded to drink a bunch of water. But he seems to be fine now.

Some people may wonder why I let the kittens out, just because there are dangers like bees. Well, keeping them inside isn't a safeguard as far as bees are concerned. Saturday morning, the screened garage window was open, the doors to outside closed. I saw Opie and Katie playing with flies on the screen. No big deal. I went out a little later and Oh. My. God. Opie had a wasp under his paw. I grabbed him up and the little spit grabbed his wasp buddy in his mouth. Arrgh!! I was able to get him to drop it and with an "I'm sorry, Mr Wasp", I ended that bee's life. I checked Opie over and he was okay. I don't know where that wasp got in, they used to come in from around the big garage door, but I haven't seen them there since Brian put foam all around the opening. There are some vents, though, that lead outside, so it could very well have come in through one of those.

Last Thursday, I took him in to have the stitches in his ear removed and they only removed one. They felt it was too soon to take the other one out, so it's still in.

I have to admit, it's sure nice to have all of the doors opened again. And I'm hoping that some of the indoor urination stops, now that the big cats once again have free access to the great outdoors.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the vet about upping Ciara's Buspar dosage to twice a day. Well, I gave her a dose Friday morning and again Friday night. She didn't react well at all. She was really nervous and pacing around. I was so scared, I didn't sleep much. I slept on the couch and woke up about every half hour to check on her. I'd rather having her peeing than to see her in that much distress. I'll stick with the once a day dose.

The scales got here Friday and I went around grabbing cats and weighing them. I didn't write all of them down, but I did get a book together on Saturday so that now I'll have a place to write the weights in. Lola was down about an ounce and a half from her visit last month. I'm sure this is because she now has to fight for food and she won't do that. We're starting to protect her when she eats now. And I'm giving her more soft food and kitten food. DeeJay weighs exactly twelve pounds. Lisa weighs a little over fifteen. Bart tops out around seventeen pounds, seven ounces. Big boy. The kittens are growing quickly, Richie having gained almost a pound in less than two weeks. This scale is fun.

Something else I did last week was to set up a poll for my friend Dorissimo of Dorissimo's Domain, a fun filled cat oriented website. She runs a "Kitty of the Month" contest and it seemed like there was a little cheating going on. So, I offered to run the poll from this site and I also set her up with a tracker, so she could see where the votes were coming from. This would also make it easier to pinpoint cheats. If you're interested in voting, check out Cat Talk's Kitty of the Month Contest.

Well, I have much to do today. I have to go to the bank and get money for Brian to pay the guy who fixed his diesel. That's finally done. He had talked of selling his crewcab and using the diesel for his personal truck, but now he's leaning towards not selling either of them. The only problem we would have is storage. We already have four vehicles parked in the driveway, there's absolutely no room for a fifth. The money from selling one would be nice, but whatever he wants to do, I won't be complaining about it. I also have to get the catboxes cleaned out. We bought sixteen thirty pound boxes of litter last week and I want to completely dump all of the boxes, wash them, then put new litter in them. And I'd really like to get Brian's recliner washed again. DeeJay puked big time in it last week. I made Brian a CD yesterday and I have to get the label made for it. On top of all of that, I'd really like to lay by the pool, so I guess I should get on it.

I'll really try to make entries more often.

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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