march 2, 1998 What a beautiful weekend. We had planned on going to Disneyland Saturday, but Georgie, sweet Georgie, wasn't peeing.

So, at 6:30am, we got dressed and put Georgie in the carrier and off to emergency we went. They kept him and the course of treatment was to be sub q fluids (they inject the cat with a saline solution, to get fluids into the system to help flush the system) and then to watch him and see if he *is* blocked.

They called about 2 in the afternoon and said that he could come home. He peed a small amount for them not long after we had dropped him off. This was good, it meant that he wasn't completely blocked.

Remember that last September, when Georgie's system was blocked? He had a mucus plug and he had struvite crystals in his system. So, the vet catheterized him, got him going again and sent him home. Georgie was also put on ammonil, a urine acidifier and ammoxicillan, which most of us are familiar with, that all purpose cat antibiotic. Whenever Georgie started to have problems, I would put him back on the dynamic medication duo. Well, according to the vet on the 18th of February, when Georgie had bloody urine again, the ammonil was doing the job too well. And Georgie's urine went the other way. The pH was now conducive to calcium oxalate crystals. This excited the vet because he has heard of this before, but never encountered it. (Hey, does that mean this visit is free? Guess not. *sigh*) So, he prescribes eukanuba pH/O for George, says George can only eat this for two weeks. Okay. I get home, consider this. Hmmm.....let's see, if that's all Georgie can eat....OH NO!!! I have to pull up all food and NO MORE FREE FEEDING. What a drag this idea is to me, so I posted to a cat's health bulletin board. Wouldn't taking Georgie off of the ammonil do the trick?

I didn't stop the free feed, but I did stop the ammonil. and Georgie, bless his little heart, would eat his prescription food like a good little boy. He sat right here in front of me at the keyboard and would chow down.

Well, the vet's diagnoses Saturday? Struvite crystals. The combination of no ammonil plus the prescription diet, sent his pH the other way.

Before we brought him home, I pulled up all of the other food. The emergency clinic wrote me a prescription that I could get filled at Vetsmart for Hill's S/D. to dissolve the struvite crystals. All cats are now going to be fed on a schedule, which will be in the morning and in the evening. I'm sure this will help Lisa Violet, the cat, lose some weight, maybe I should do the same thing. We also stopped at a drugstore and ordered some strips so that I can test his urine for pH, blood, proteins and glucose levels. The pharmacist was just amazed that somebody wanted something like this for a cat. He warned me, they're expensive. I said what like $60 and he said no, not that expensive, maybe $30. I said it's cheaper than a vet visit. (Less traumatic, too.) He had to look them up in his book to order them. He was really nice. Just surprised at my request, I think.

Anyway, Georgie was walking like he'd been punched really hard between his back legs. But, he moved from the bed to the tv room. I gave him a bowl of bottled water and he lapped for a long time. Which is a gudgud sign.

The emergency vet had doubled the amoxi dose from my regular vet, Dr. Judy. So, George is getting 100mg of amoxi 2x a day, I started him back on ammonil. And he likes the dry prescription food. I slept on the couch Saturday night, in case he tried to pee and was painful enough to cry out, but, thank bast, that didn't happen.

Yesterday morning, he drank some nonfat milk, ate his dry s/d (he likes it, I am just so surprised!!) and went into the litter box. Only a drip came out, but he went outside to the yard and peed a little more. Then I brought him in, he squatted on the carpet. I put a paper towel under him and there was a little, then I checked for his bladder. All of these years, I have looked for the cat's bladder to see if they were full or not, and never had any success. I found it this morning. I pushed on it and he peed even more. Yay!! I think the immediate threat of a blockage is history.

After picking up all of the free feed cat food Saturday night, I put down a couple of bowls yesterday morning and the cats are fine. Nobody was even hungry. I had expected this mass congregation running to eat. They sure fooled me.

The strips I ordered Saturday, to test pH, blood, proteins and glucose,are supposed to be in today. I am also supposed to contact my vet and bring Georgie in for a recheck. When I'm there I'll ask about the levels that those things should be.

While at the drugstore Saturday, I bought a frosting kit for my hair. I did it yesterday. Hubby pulled the hair through the cap in the back. I thought he was pulling too much through at the time, but I didn't say anything. I'm glad I didn't because he did a good job. I'm blonde again. I didn't realize how dark my hair had become. I thought I had enough gray to look blonde, but not so.

Looks like it's going to be another nice day.

early afternoon--march 2, 1998 Well, I took Georgie in for his recheck. When I went into the office, Mewmew heard me and came running up to say hihihihihi!! which he does so sweetly. He looked in the carrier and Georgie ignored him. But I didn't and he played with my fingers and hair and gently nibbled on my arm. Then they had the room ready and I took Georgie in. Mewmew followed. I opened the carrier door and little Mew looked inside. Georgie wasn't a happy camper to begin with, he ran when he saw the carrier at home. But Mew, being the kitten that he is, just had to check Georgie out. He went all the way into the carrier because Georgie had squeezed himself as close to the back as he could. There was no growling or hissing at all. But Mew did manage to tap Georgie on the nose. Then some new clients came in and off Mew ran.

I waited with Georgie in the carrier and then I heard the vet finishing up with another client. I got Georgie out of the carrier and put him on the examining table. Jennifer came in and we talked about my hair, how wonderful it looked. Of course, the vet walks in right then. We did our hello small talk and I mentioned Sandy's eye. That she kept rubbing at it, it seemed as if it itched. He gave Georgie a quick once over, went and got the papers that the emergency clinic had faxed over to him Saturday. (They always send the files to the regular vet.) He said that he believes there was an underlying reason for Georgie's crystal potential, one that wasn't showing up anywhere. He felt that Georgie possibly has a virus that wasn't showing up anywhere, one of those viruses (vira? virae? what's the correct plural of that word, anyway??) and that he thought that Georgie possible has a mycoplasma virus. The same thing that was diagnosed last year with some of the other cats. He did want to take and X-ray to rule out any bladder stones. He said "why don't you go get Sandy while we take care of Georgie."

So, I grabbed my purse and came home. Went into the backyard, called the dogs. All of them were in the big doghouse. I got Sandy separated, leashed and headed out the gate. Buddy thought he wanted to go, too, but I quickly talked him out of it.

When we got back to the vet's, we took a seat. Mew came up and jumped on the bench next to me and proceeded to eat Sandy's fur. Sandy, being such a wonderful dog, patiently sat there, letting Mew nibble on her back. Sandy's fur is so thick now, I doubt that it really bothered her. The clients that were present were just amazed at how my sweet Sandy just sat there and took this abuse from a kitten. "I've never seen a dog like that." Well, they sure haven't looked very far. Sheesh. It's training. Mew just kept reaching up and grabbing Sandy and nuzzled Sandy's back. When the woman that was paying her bill left, Sandy got up, came over and put her front paws on the bench and we cuddled for a while. It's nice to have some one on one with her, without Junior sticking his nose in. Then, the doc was ready for us and back into another examining room. He called for Georgie's X-ray, it was clear, no crystals, but *sludge* as he called it, was in the bladder. The treatment for Georgie would be to keep him on the Hill's S/D (he was really surprised to hear that Georgie likes it) and start giving him another medication, Orbax, for the virus. I am to feed Georgie the S/D for a week and take him in for a recheck next Monday. The Orbax prescription will be for three weeks.

Georgie taken care of, it's Sandy's turn. His fear was that possibly one of the sutures was scratching her eye. He put drops in her eye, the a paper dye stick of some sort, which I guess was to help any scratches on the cornea show up. He turned out the lights and checked her eye out with a special light and there were no scratches on it, it just itched. He turned all of the lights back on, and made up some eyedrops for her. To soothe and to numb her eye, so that it doesn't bother her. She's going back in next Monday to have the stitches taken out. Georgie and Sandy. Again. Sandy weighs 88 pounds and my truck is tall. It's really awkward for me to pick her up. And my being short doesn't help the situation. Oh, well, we do we have to do.

I did mention the strips for testing urine to the vet. He thinks its a good idea.

march 6, 1998 Well, it's been pretty quiet since Monday. I started working on Kitty Comforts again. I updated the website and I also redid the brochures. Problem is, when I am printing out the brochures, anything else I want to do on the computer is really slow.

I couldn't find Benny yesterday. I went outside and called him and called him. The little brat refused to show his face. So, of course, I start getting worried. I went out front and looked for him, no sign of him at all. I hate this. So, I go back into the yard, and did another check. His royal highness was laying behind a palm tree in the corner by the pool. Completely out of site. I bet he was laughing his little kitty head off at me.

Georgie is doing much better. And it's wonderful that he takes his pills so well. The other cats fight over his special food. That annoys me to no end. And DeeJay is so whiney about it. Gimmegimmegimmeeeeeeeee. Go away, Deej. This is for Georgie. I made chicken in the crockpot yesterday, lemon juice, butter and thyme. I use skinless, boneless breasts and I try to make at least three. One for Brian, one for me and one for the million kitties begging at my knee. They really liked it, too. It was very tender.

I found Red sleeping on the top of the kitty entertainment center this morning. He likes it there. One of these days, I know he'll be in the bedroom on the bed sleeping.

When I went out to get the mail yesterday, my neighbor was out with her grandson. They came inside the house for a few minutes. Lance (he's the little boy on my postcard page) did not want to leave. He loves the kitties. Georgie was following him around. Boney was exceptionally friendly. Rusty looked pretty crabby so we warned him to stay away from *that* kitty. And Lance looked at Rusty and said "no bite". It was cute. He also yelled at Junior through the door. Same as he does at the fence in the backyard. *VBG*

march 9, 1998 The weekend was pretty uneventful. Except for yesterday when I was cleaning the litterbox. There was a big spot of blood. I don't have any idea who it came from. Boney is peeing fine, Brian watched him yesterday spray the fence. And I watched Georgie go in the litterbox and it looked okay. I don't know if it could be Ben or maybe Kirby. I hate this. It's one of the problems of having multiple cats. I didn't see anymore like that this morning, though.

I have to take Georgie and Sandy back to the vet's today. Georgie for a recheck and Sandy to have her stitches taken out. She is doing so well. She's playful and loving. Hard to imagine she's almost twelve years old. I hear that's pretty old for a big dog.

I sat outside Saturday afternoon with Bobby on my lap. It was so nice and warm. I thought maybe he would like being in the sun. He was fine til I put him on the ground. Then he got all grouchy and growly. So, I brought him back into the house and put him on his spot on the couch.

I have been trying (once again) to make a point of playing with Lisa. Maybe with not leaving food out all of the time, she will lose some weight. I caught her playing really rough on one of the kitty condos this morning. So, she's still active. I just don't know what to do with her.

I finally figured out how to do the Lake java applet this weekend. I did the last photo here and added another sunset page. It doesn't look a bit like the other sunset pictures, really stunning what it does.

I was pretty irritable last night. I had to get dinner ready and Brian was late getting home. He had been at the shop waxing the work truck. We had tuna and avocado sandwiches and the cats were making me nuts because of the tuna. Brian just sat in the tv room matching socks that had been washed. Rusty then came in and looked like he was looking for a place to urinate. Here I am, yelling at him, hubby has me totally tuned out, in a way that only men can tune out a woman and I started to get really, really angry. I was so frustrated. So, I started chasing Rusty, guiding him lightly with my foot and yelling "get in the garage, Rusty, get in the garage". Well, Mr In Another Dimension finally comes to and he walks Rusty into the garage and waits with him. I go back into the kitchen and resume making sandwiches. Then, Mr Wonderful comes out of the garage and says (I can't even believe he said this) "It looks like cat food was thrown all over the floor". I lost it. I started yelling at him. I said "yeah, of course there is cat food all over the floor, I take it by the handfuls and just toss it. What do you think happened the cats eat like this [here I made open mouth chewing motions and moved my head all over, as if the food was falling out of my mouth] of course there is going to be food all over. I just haven't had a chance to sweep it up". Then I looked at him, and putting my right index finger and thumb about a half an inch apart told him "I am this close to being this [I spread my arms as wide as they would go] pi**ed off". He got this stupid little grin on his face when I said the first part of my statement, but realized this wasn't going to be humorous and quickly dropped the smile. He didn't say another word, just sat down and continued sorting socks. Then he got up and went into the bedroom with the socks and I started thinking about the grin. And I started to giggle. It was just so funny. So, he comes out of the bedroom, I'm laughing and he said what's so funny? I told him and he, finding the wisdom that he had been missing for the past couple of hours, kept his mouth shut.

I think the stress of him being gone so much, Georgie and now this new bloody urine, no money in the bank, even though we have a ton billed out, is getting to me. And he had said that he's probably going to be really busy through April. *sigh* That oughta be fun.

march 10, 1998 I called the pharmacy yesterday about the test strips. I mistakenly thought they were going to call me when they came in. I was told they had come in and I could pick them up at anytime. So, I drove to Long's yesterday before I was to take George and Sandy back to the vet. The woman behind the counter handed me the strips and I walked to the front of the store, reading the box. Ooops. The box only said that these were for testing glucose and protein. Not a word about blood or pH. I walk back to the pharmacy and hand the box to a different woman. I tell her the problem. She took the box back to the pharmacist and he didn't know what to say either. He called Bayer. Well, it's after six pm on the east coast and they are closed for the day. He brought the catalog out to me and showed me what he had ordered. Well, the catalog is obviously wrong. Because we had the box in front of us and it *doesn't* do what it says. I felt kind of bad for the pharmacist, because I thought maybe he thought I blamed him. I wasn't blaming anybody. It was just a mistake and I understood that. Just get me the correct strips. LOL!! He is going to call Bayer again today and I will call him tomorrow to find out what the scoop is and when the correct strips will be in.

The appointment for Georgie and Sandy was at 4:15 yesterday afternoon. The vet said that Sandy's eye looked good and he took all of the stitches out. And he took the stitches out of her cheek and said that she's probably happy that she doesn't have a jawbreaker on her face anymore. Then we took Georgie out of the carrier. He wouldn't pee for Dr. Judy. So, the doc had to get a syringe with a needle and stick it in Georgie's bladder to get some fresh. He tested it for pH, blood and took some back to look for crystals. Looks like his diagnoses was correct. The Orbax is working. The pH was perfect, no blood and he found only two crystals in this very concentrated sample of urine. Good deal. So, Georgie is on s/d for another week, Orbax for two more weeks and I take Georgie in next Monday for another check up. Now, I have to figure out who the other cat is with bloody pee. *sigh*

march 13, 1998 Well, haven't found anymore bloody urine. Georgie is doing much better. I have to go get him more prescription food today. Maggie, Benny, Pepper, DeeJay and Rusty drive me crazy when I put it out for Georgie.

Georgie wanted some sort of attention last night. He would play for a little bit, let me cuddle with him for a little bit, then he would just cry. I wish I knew what he was saying.

I upgraded my postcards from the cathouse page. Now, you can send lake applet cards, too. I was having so much fun with it. I have 12 different photos that use the applet. Very, very nice. I took pictures yesterday around the yard to use in more lake pictures. I laid on my stomach on the sidewalk trying to get a great picture of the bank with all of the daisy's in bloom. I think that will look really nice as a lake background.

Monday, I have to start doing our taxes. Blech. I hate em.

Sandy's eye has healed well. And she's feeling great. Buddy still barks too much.

It's supposed to rain today. I wonder if it will?

march 16, 1998 It's cloudy today, with a chance of drizzle this morning. I'm tired and I have to start working on last year's taxes. Hopefully, I'll be done by the end of the month. It wouldn't take so long if I did what I should be doing daily. But, that's no fun. Pressure, that's what I need. Yeah, right.

Ran out of S/D yesterday, went to VetSmart and they didn't have any in. Not until Wednesday or Thursday. I asked if I could have the C/D and was told that since the prescription calls for S/D that's all that they could sell me. If they had it. Spit.

Georgie is supposed to go back in to the vet's today for another recheck. I hope he's finally better. He's sure acting better.

We went to Disneyland Saturday. It was really crowded. Didn't like that at all. We saw the Hunchback show. I liked Pocahantas more.

march 17, 1998 Georgie got a clean bill of health yesterday. The vet believes, and this surprised him because he didn't have much faith before, that the Hill's S/D did such a good job of dissolving the crystals that Georgie had. He said that we might consider giving it to Georgie for the rest of his life. He said, since George likes it and it's better than bringing him in to the vet.

I called the pharmacy yesterday. The strips are finally in. But we don't have any money. LOL!! We spent what little we had Sunday. I spent last Friday night wrapping saved up coins in wrappers so we would have a little extra. After Disneyland Saturday and shopping Sunday and the vet yesterday, that's about depleted. We did get a large check yesterday, but since it's so big the bank put a hold on it. We can't write any checks on it til they are certain it's gonna clear. I couldn't even pay the payroll taxes. Being broke is so much fun. Not. I guess I could finish wrapping the pennies.

Today is St. Patrick's day and I forgot to get my mom a card. I didn't even realize what day it was til last night. I looked at Brian and said tomorrow is St. Pats. He said, yeah, so? I told mom I was sorry, I didn't send her a card. She said she forgave me. *VBG*

march 20, 1998 Got a pretty good start on getting the stuff together for the taxes. And we finally got some money in, so I have been busy paying bills. I also started filing stuff that I should have filed away last year. Procrastination always gets the best of me. I don't know why I do it.

I finally got the Combo-Hemastix on Wednesday. They were $72.00. Now, to get a cat to pee on them. Cat doc, who posts on occasion at the AcmePet health board, suggested to someone to put saran wrap under the kitty when the kitty was going potty in the litter box. That would work. After, I left the drugstore with the test strips, I went over to VetSmart for more S/D dry. I planned on buying a couple of bags of it. Sure enough, they had restocked the shelves with prescription food. Only problem, no S/D. So, I asked one of the people that worked there and she said that they have X amount budgeted and if sometimes they don't budget for certain things. Well, dry S/D was one of them. A heck of a way to run a business. I left and got on my carphone, called my vet and asked if they could order about twenty pounds worth. And I will pick it up next week. I did buy some Nature's Recipe and a bag of Purina Pro Plan, the one for urinary tract health. It's not something I will do on a permanent basis, but I think sometimes the cats like a little variety. We are totally out of food for the feral cats behind us, so, this morning, they got the food that I feed our guys.

My connectix camera came in yesterday. I tried for hours to get it to work, ended up calling their tech support. We tried for hours to get it to work. The last request was that I try it on somebody else's computer. If it works on someone else's system and not mine, I'll just scream. I did find out that my system's parallel port isn't set for bi-directional. Maybe I'll call Glenn out to put in another port. Get another serial port at the same time.

march 23, 1998 It was a beautiful weekend. And I spent a lot of it here at the computer trying to reconstruct programs lost when I followed the Microsoft guys instructions on the phone Friday. Did a partial reinstall of Windows 95 and files are fragmented all over the place. *sigh* I have email in to ULead and RealAudio. Hope I hear from them soon. All this because my new camera from Connectix isn't working with my system. It works on the neighbor's, so it is my system. Darn it. Glenn will be here Wednesday. I'm getting more RAM, a new sound card and another parallel. And he will see what he can do about the serial port problem. Not that it's a problem, but it would be nice to be able to run my digital camera and my modem at the same time.

The animals are well. Georgie has been so full of life. He's been running around the yard, chasing bugs, jumping high to catch them. He isn't real happy to come in at night.

Lonee has been more social lately. She will walk right by me to get to the other room. She sniffed my hand outside last week. It seems like such a small step, but I know it's going in the right direction.

I read posts on bulletin boards about people who are getting rid of an eleven year old cat that they had declawed a long time ago, because they are getting new carpet and they don't want cat hair on it. People who's cat isn't using the litter box and they want to dump the cat outdoors or take it to the shelter, just get rid of it, because it's too much work. And I look around at my home and I am sad for these other cats. I can't imagine having a cat for eleven years, being it's only home for eleven years and then dumping the cat. How very, very sad for that poor kitty. Who's only mistake was being born a cat with fur. The claws have already been removed. I wish these people a quick Karma. Our local newspaper had a large section in the classifieds last week, with pictures of cats and dogs that need homes. And it said that only one in five puppies and kittens live out their lives in one home. Somebody, a troll I sincerely hope, posted at AcmePet that he bought two kittens, brother and sister, at a pet store and wants to breed them together. His question? Will the offspring be flawed? Retarded? Are people really this ignorant to the reality of pet overpopulation? Or do they just not care? I copied this guys post, posted it on my forum, ask lisaviolet and asked "What would you say to this guy?"

I have been making myself clean the litterboxes every night. I read last week that one reason cats may have urinary problems is because their boxes aren't clean. Maybe because they hold it or something like that. I noticed the litterbox in the bedroom hasn't been used in two days. Maybe Annie is going down the hall.

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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