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Monday, November 01, 1999 Remember how after last Halloween I wasn't able to take down the decorations because my feet were hurting? No problem at all this year. The decorations were all down and put away by 7:30 this morning. Brian figures we had around seventyfive kids. It was hot yesterday and putting up the decorations wasn't a lot of fun. Well, it was, but when it was time to put out the webbing, it was miserable hot. Brian took a nap and I messed around, doing this and that. After it cooled down a little, we finished the webbing and were ready for the kids to show up. I ate a couple of candy bars, we had full sized ones and I should really know better. I just can't handle this stuff like I could when I was younger. When I jumped into the shower, I don't know what the neighbors were doing, but the fumes were in my little room and about knocked me out. I quickly shut the window and finished my shower. When I got out, I was nauseated and felt really crappy. Whatever they were working with didn't like me very much. After I dressed and put my hair up, I almost felt like I was going to pass out. Brian said I probably needed to eat, which maybe I did and I got the spaghetti going. I also took a couple of tagamets to help with my stomach. After we ate dinner my stomach started burbling and whatever I had eaten ran right through me. But I'm fine this morning. I'm sure the fumes played a major part in my temporary illness. I did have lots of fun with the talking skull. At first, we had it by one of the grave markers, but people didn't notice it so much. So, Brian moved it to one of the bushes that is almost right by the gate. The jaw moved and the eyes lit up and it changed my voice to spooky. The older kids weren't real impressed with it, they just got their candy and left, but a couple of the little ones, well, I carried on conversations with them. Like how I used to be really tall when I had a body and when one of them asked what happened to my teeth, I told them I had eaten too much candy. LOL!! I even overheard a couple of parents calling their children by name, so I did the same. The kids were just awestruck..."how did you know my name?"..."I'm the skull and the skull knows all".... I'm going to miss this when we move to the sticks. We only had fifteen candy bars left this morning. Brian only had two yesterday, but I wasn't nearly so good. But that's okay, because they weren't with me long enough to do any damage. *grins* I'm pretty tired this morning, though.
Brian said this morning, "honey, there is yellow pee in my sink!!" meaning that the cat who had the red pee last week is doing better. I'm glad. She sure hates taking pills, but I'm going to finish out the course. Even though the urine was yellow, there still wasn't much volume.
Yesterday morning, when I was out looking for Maggie to give her her pill, she was at the back fence looking up, so I did, too. Ciara was out of the yard on the other side of the barrier. The dog behind us was whining and jumping up on the fence. *sigh* Brian was in the shower, so I bent the barrier over and kind of dragged Ciara over to where I could get a hold of her. I brought her into the house, let her out a little later and she didn't seem interested in going over again. Maybe the dog bothered her enough that she'll not try it again. Brian's going to do something else with the barrier, just in case.
One of the trick or treaters last night was one of the kids from the house where Ciara had been found. He asked if we were missing another cat. No. He described one that showed up at their house in the last month. A very, skinny white female. Skin and bones skinny, obviously wasn't eating properly. She had a collar on. And she has NO claws. A four paw declaw. I'd like to take the people out who had this done to her, then dumped her and cut the tips of their toes and fingers off and leave them to fend for themselves in the middle of the desert. Just to see if they understand what they've done. Idiots. Morons. Imbeciles. Animal abusers. Grr....... People like those are the reason that declawing should be illegal. It just makes me sick to think about it. I told the kid that she's lucky to be alive. He said that they keep her in their garage at night and let her out during the day. She stays in their yard. I told him it was good that she's put up at night, because without any claws, she has no means of defense and can't climb trees to get away from predators.
Wednesday, November 03, 1999 My mom came over yesterday morning. Before she gets to the front door she's asking "did she call? did she call you yet?" I'm clueless. just then the phone rings. It was someone else from Kaiser. She told me that my mom told her to call me because my mom was getting all upset and nervous. Then she tells me why she called my mom. It was to schedule a biopsy of the lumps in my mom's breast. She tells me about the fine needle aspiration. As I listen to her talk, I can feel my brow furrowing. "Um," I tell her, "my mom has already had that test and it came back positive, the cells are cancerous." Well, she doesn't have any of that information, she just knows that she's to schedule mom for the biopsy. I told her about mom's test back on the 14th or 15th of Oct, where they did the needle aspiration and did the sonogram. I explain to her that we met with Mina (the breast cancer liason) and Dr. Paluch last Tuesday night and that she went through the basic orientation and that mom is going to have a lumpectomy followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. I told her that the Doctor even explained about the drainage tube that would be in her. That she's supposed to be going in on the 16th of November. This woman shows none of that and nothing about the appointment mom had mid-October. Geez, no wonder mom was too upset to talk to her. So, she's supposed to be calling Mina, who is supposed to be going on vacation, then she's going to call me back. It's been a couple of hours, now, so I don't have any idea when it will be. Poor mom. This not knowing what the hell is going on is tearing her up. Brian came home and we had to go shopping. While we were shopping, I told him about mom and the doctor. And as I talked with him, I realized what probably had happened. When mom had her first biopsy done, the doctor wasn't able to check out a second lump. He only checked out one. She was to go back in to have the other one tested. That's what the biopsy on the 16th is for. They will test the lump then take her into surgery when they get the results. So, instead of taking one lump, they may take two. When we came back, mom had called and left a message. I called her. She was really upset. She knew that's what this biopsy was, Mina had called her. But she didn't understand why they had to do it. I got her calmed down, told her that they would rather be safe than sorry. She's just really scared that it's going to hurt. I told her at least she wouldn't have to make two trips, one for the biopsy and one for the surgery.
Mickey woke me up early this morning, walking on the headboard and talking. I ended up getting out of bed and let the cats out. It was a little after five. My body is still adjusting to the time change. Anyway, cats wanted in and I opened the door. I heard a catfight out back, just figured it was in the yard behind us. About fifteen minutes later, Bart came in the house. His poor little nose was bleeding, he has a big scratch on his cheek and I had to pull a claw sheath from underneath his eye. *sigh* Benny was up by the patio, so he was probably fighting with Georgie. Brats.
Well, I had to get rid of some of the exercise equipment to make room for the table for my heat press. I put the stairstepper in the garage and started measuring for the table. There was no way I could keep the treadmill and have the table. So, I tried to move the treadmill out by myself without any luck. I had to wait for Brian. Anyway, Brian comes home. Looks at the vinyl floor. It looks like when I moved the treadmill out, the floor dented. Oops. I told him I was just trying to be helpful. He shook his head, said "well, I guess I can replace this panel." Yeah, honey, that's it, go ahead and try to make me feel bad. Anyway, it took both of us to get the machine out of the room and we had to carry it. It wasn't so bad. Anybody want a very loud treadmill? That's the only reason I hadn't been using it. Someday I'll get a better, compact quieter one. So, we got the table at CostCo and I got some cubes that snap together and that's what I have to do today. We didn't exercise this morning because the room is such a mess. I also have to do laundry. A busy day ahead and I won't get too far if I keep sitting here in front of the computer. *grins*
The cats really do like their new posts. Red was even playing with Peter this morning. Lisa has moved out of the bedroom (occasionally) and onto one of the new trees. Jackie likes to sleep in the trees, not the chair. It's great. I'm glad they like them. Now, I just have to vacuum up the mess from the old ones. Like I said, I have a lot to do today. It will be easier to do if it isn't so damn hot.
Friday, November 05, 1999 Oh, man, where does the time go? It's almost five pm. I've been doing some laundry, stripped the bed and washed the pillows. Down pillows stink when they're wet. Puke.
Saturday, November 06, 1999 Well, I sure didn't get far yesterday. I've had a couple of problems with one of my bulletin boards and it took some time to fix it. Stupid mistake on my part. I won't do that again.
Well, running the pillows through the dryer a couple of cycles took care of the stink. I guess they have to be completely dry.
Big Opie hasn't been here for almost a week now. And I noticed Thursday that the food I was putting over the fence isn't getting eaten. I'm afraid someone did a roundup of some of the cats and got rid of them. Most likely they were put to sleep. I know Opie was from outback. So is Blue, though and she's still around, and likewise Meezer. Maybe Opie got caught because he wasn't afraid. *tears* I keep hoping that maybe he has an owner, albeit irresponsible, and he's keeping Opie in. But I've learned in life to hope for the best and expect the worst.
I've started a support board for people trying to lose weight. Let me know if you are interested in joining.
The Concentration game I downloaded a couple of weeks ago is up and running at Ben's Den. I changed some of the graphics, to reflect the fact that it's all about cats (what else?). When I first downloaded it, I couldn't get it to work properly in Netscape, but it worked fine in Internet Explorer. The guy's site was down this week, then back up. So, I redownloaded it and now it's working. It's a lot of fun and you can have more than one player.
I just realized that I haven't put Peter's page up yet. Geez. I guess I'm just not all here since finding out about my mom. I'll do that today. I have to admit, bringing Peter in was the a very good thing. Now, Jackie and Ciara play with Peter and leave the other cats alone. Remember, one of the reasons we decided on inviting Jackie in was so that Ciara would have a playmate. Which didn't happen. They didn't get along very well and Ciara kept annoying the other cats. Well, now, with Pete, Jackie plays with Peter and Ciara plays with Peter. Peter is a popular little guy around the house. And Peter rarely sleeps by himself. He will either be curled up with Ciara or Jackie. And he's even letting us pick him up and pet him more often. When he runs from us in the house, he's now running with his tail in the air, not between his legs. He begs for food when we eat and purrs when he really, really wants something (usually food). Brian made pancakes this morning and we found out that Peter really likes pancakes. Georgie likes them, too and Brian said that Peter was taking the cakes away from Georgie. I warned Brian to please not give them so much, that it gives them the runs. I guess Brian just finds it hard to say no to these little faces. Last night, I told Brian that I'm still not a hundred percent sure that Pete has a peter. I guess I should get him in to the vet next week. Now that I can pick him up and check him out better, it looks like he was bit through the ear before we got him. Poor little guy. It's healing up, but I think he'll always have a bump there. I'll ask the vet about it.
Jackie gets his final roundworm treatment next Tuesday, so I'll be making an appointment for him to get neutered soon. He's getting so much bigger. Brian remarked this morning that he's three times the size he was when we got him. He's growing in proportion, too. He's going to be a beautiful adult. He has such an expressive face.
I moved the catler.org site over to golden hosting. I had it at Simplenet, but it was under lisaviolet.com and when you typed in catler.org, lisaviolet showed up in the URL. Now, that doesn't happen. They are separate websites.
I was getting a little concerned that my new checks hadn't gotten here for lisaviolet designs. Then it dawned on me that maybe the bank sent them to the P.O.Box, not here like they were supposed to. Brian checked for me yesterday and brought the checks home, so now I can get the merchant account information finished and in the mail. yay.
Ciara seems a little under the weather. It's strange how she'll be okay for a couple of hours, then just loses all energy. Brian's wondering if it's because of her earlier problem. I do think we have a little URI going through the house. Mickey had it, but he seems fine now (his eyes were gunky). I think the kitten brought it in. Pete had a runny eye for a couple weeks, but it seems to have cleared up. Right now Ciara is in my lap, wanting to be held. I love this little girl so much.
Monday, November 08, 1999 Yay!! Yippee!! Happy dance!!! When I fed the cats out front last night, Big Opie was there. Looked good, didn't look like he had been hurt or anything. He was happy to be eating. I petted him for longer than normal, but the other cats were hungry, so I didn't stay out too long. I'm wondering if maybe he does have owners and they just never got him fixed. Some people are like that, he's a male, what's the big deal. *sigh* What's the big deal? Lonee, Gracie, Georgie, Red, Cleo, OC, Blackie, Jackie, Peter....I could go on. I was really glad to see him, though. And I saw a couple of the outback cats Saturday. I also heard them hissing at the dog yesterday, so they're still around, too, just not as many.
Jackie's ears still seem really warm, so this weekend I tried to get him to take his medication. The metronidazole just isn't going to work. I can't mask the liquid in food and I can't mask the pill in food. He just won't eat it. But, the taste of the amoxi doesn't seem to bother him in food. I'm cooking up some more chicken this morning and I'll put some in the food processor to make it catfood consistency. Maybe that will work. There's no way that I can hold him down and give him medicine (this is what he was supposed to be getting before we went to Disneyland) three times a day. Tomorrow is his last Nemex treatment, the stuff for the roundworms. I wonder how that would taste in food. The vet said it tastes like butterscotch. Maybe I'll try a little in the chicken.
We went up to Ranchita yesterday. Had breakfast in Julian (Brian let me pay). I had the piddles really bad. I just hate that. Anyway, we were driving up the dirt road to the top of the property and I said "I gotta go" and he turned around and we went into downtown Ranchita (that's so damn funny, a store and a realty office) and Brian said "Bill's here!" Bill is the realtor. So, Brian walks up to the realty office door and Bill came out, said I just left a message for you and he had. I said, "yeah, we got the message that's why we're here." Brian said he was on the phone when Brian walked inside. *grins* Anyway, we start to talk and I mention the fact that my mom has a little dog. And Bill tells me that small animals don't do well up there. Big dogs are fine. I guess the hawks are a big problem. He has one neighbor that lost thirty-five cats in three years. He also made a point about spay/neuter. After we left, Brian said he doubted that all of those cats were lost to hawks and I said "one is too many". So, now Brian's idea of our yard has changed. He can't have it how he had wanted it. He said "what if I plant a bunch of trees?" Yeah, right, we're talking about hawks here, they like trees. No, if the cats are allowed outside, there's going to have to be some sort of enclosure for them. He'll figure something out, we have a couple of years yet.
It's supposed to rain today. Oh, boy!!
Tuesday, November 09, 1999 Well, the rain? It wasn't anything to talk about. A trace? Hah. I piddle more than it rained.
I dropped four rolls of film off yesterday, then went to the bank. Go home and was surfing the net. Around 2:30, there was a catfight in the other room. I got up with the intention of breaking up the fight. There was no fight, it was DeeJay. He was in bad shape. I tried rubbing his belly and it was very, very sensitive. At first, I thought he was blocked and I called the vet to see if I could get him in. The vet usually does surgeries and lunch between noon and three. I was told that they could get me in at 3:45. DeeJay went outside and he was in the poop stance, straining. A little drop came out, it was mostly mucus. He was in great distress, crying and howling and hissing. I called the vet again, this time Charlene answered. I explained the situation to her and told her that I was about a mile away. If anybody cancelled, or if I could get him in sooner, please call me. She said "hold on a minute, let me see what we have scheduled." She came back on the line and said to bring him in at three.
He did not want to get into the carrier. Because of his little diarrhea problem, I took the pillow out of the carrier. Besides, it helped to drop him in. Once in, he got all the way in the back and scrunched up. While driving, I put my fingers in through the door and he let me rub his face. He was still in obvious distress. Once at the vet's, I sat in the waiting room. There was only one person ahead of me, already in the examining room. Before too long, Charlene told me it was okay to go into the empty examining room. I opened the carrier and rubbed DeeJay's face while we waited for the doctor to come in. Once he was in, he reached in and pulled DeeJay out. DeeJay wasn't happy at all. I described what had been happening to the doctor. At first, I had thought he was blocked, but then I thought maybe he had colitis because of the icky looking drop of stool. The doctor expressed DeeJay's bladder and light yellow urine came out. Then he listened to DeeJay's heart and lungs. He felt DeeJay's abdomen and bowels. He expressed DeeJay's bladder again. This time a long stream of urine came out, but it was bloody. The more that came out, the bloodier it got. The vet remarked on how bad the urine smelled. He tested it. No crystals, but DeeJay has a very bad bladder infection. The doc said that the rods in the bacteria were bad looking, so he was going to put DeeJay on Baytril, which is a stronger antibiotic than amoxi. He gave DeeJay fluids and prescribed the pills and we were on our way home. Poor guy. I told Brian about it when he got home. He was extra gentle with DeeJay last night.
One of the things I noted was the fact that DeeJay has put on almost two pounds since he his teeth cleaning back in January. That's when I was told that he may be in the beginning stages of CRF. From the information I found afterward, cats lose weight when their kidneys start having problems. A two pound weight gain is good. Looking back at his other weights, he's right in there. I'm glad to know this. Something else I don't have to worry about.
I'm taking Peter in at 11:30 for his kitten checkup. Brian said "why are you taking him in?" and I reminded him that during Jackie's kitten checkup is when the vet found the roundworms. He's such a little cutie. And I'll find out for sure if Peter has a peter.
Wednesday, November 10, 1999 Well, Peter is a Peter. The doc said, yep, he looks like Mickey Mouse and I said "let me see" and he held Peter's little butt up in the air. He pointed out the two little "ears" (testicles). Looks like Peter is getting a little white fur on them. I said he didn't have those a month ago. Well, of course not, he was too young. The vet put his age at about three months, said he was most likely born in August. The thing in his ear is scar tissue from an injury. I would think from another cat. If a dog were that close to him, I'm sure that Peter wouldn't be here today. And it looks like the injury went all the way through the ear, like a piercing. A cat's sharp teeth. The vet did the fel leuk test and Peter came up negative and he got his kitten vaccinations. I was really surprised that Peter is so active today. I'm used to the day after lethargy. Not happening with him. The vet said he is going to be a great cat as he gets older. He asked how we got him and I said "you don't want to know" and he insisted, so I told him the story about the cat crying and the shooting star and that Peter came from Bobby. He said "isn't that the sweetest thing, Peter came from heaven" and then he made a gagging motion. Well, I told him he didn't want to know. We just laughed.
Of course, I had to hold Mew for a while. He came into the office and I gave him a piece of the chicken I had put into the carrier for Peter. Peter wasn't interested in chicken, though, this being his first time in a carrier, he wanted OUT. Mew ended up eating all of the chicken. I put it on top of the carrier for him and the vet said "Pew [this cat goes by many names, Hugh, Pew, Mew...see the pattern?], that's really cold to eat Peter's chicken on top of his carrier." I let Peter out to meet Mew and Peter, who loves other kitties, just started purring away. Mew tried to smack him and growled at him. I told Mew if he wanted to be like that he could just leave. I opened the door and he ran out of the examining room. I have to bring Peter back in three weeks for his followup kitten shots.
The vet started asking me all of these questions about Brian and Ranchita. "What kind of cattle is he going to raise..." He started listing out all of this stuff about cattle ranching. He said when he first got out of school, his practice was large animals. I just stood there looking stupid (not a new look for me). He asked if Brian knew anything about ranching. "Well, he has a book..." And his brother is going to help him. "Does his brother know anything about ranching?" Well...no, but he gave Brian his book. *grins* I can tell the next few years is going to be a real adventure in our lives.
Yesterday, I thought a grilled cheese sandwich would be good for dinner. Except, I didn't have any bread. Well, I do have a breadmaker and I have some mixes in the closet. I get them down and see which I want. The wheat looked good. The directions say to use the wheat cycle. Okay. I put everything in the maker and set it. Twenty minutes later, it still hasn't come on. That's odd, I think to myself. What's going on? So, I fuss with it, try the quick wheat cycle. Still doesn't come on. Spit. So, I ran the regular cycle. Then I figured maybe I should look at the manual. Well, how about that. There's a thirty minute "rest" cycle before it begins. Makes no sense to me. The bread turned out to be fodder for the trashcan, where it is right now.
DeeJay is still under the weather. He isn't as bad as he was, though. I know that it takes at least three days before he'll start to feel better, for the infection to clear up enough to make a difference. He's peeing fine, but he doesn't have much of an appetite. I tried some Fancy Feast yesterday and he seemed to eat a fair amount of that. Not too much this morning, though. It's quite possible he eats in the garage at night, after the dinner food has softened up. I'll try to get him to eat more later. He never has had much of an appetite. He spent a lot of yesterday laying by the pool in the sun (there are some really nice sunny places down there). He was there earlier this morning, but I think it was a little cool for him. I brought him in the house, but he wanted back outside. Well, if he's more comfortable out there, then he can stay out there. I just hope he's warm enough.
Friday, November 12, 1999 DeeJay is doing much, much better. He's even gotten more affectionate. I held him in my arms for about fifteen minutes this morning, he just purred and headbutted me. He's not taking his pills any easier, but he is taking them.
This morning, I opened the back door to let the cats out while I was putting laundry in the machine. Ciara went out with the others. She's been pretty good, so I didn't worry about it. About a half hour later, I walked into the dining room and Jackie was looking out the window, staring at something intently. Curious, I looked out, too. Spit. Ciara on the other side of the fence at the front of the house. I went out the front door, calling her, "little Ciara, toe monster, where are you." Luckily, she didn't try to run from me. She was by the dumpster and I picked her right up. Brat. I guess we just can't let her out unsupervised. I have no idea where she got out this time.
Lately, we've been letting Benny and Bart stay out after we get the other cats in. I'm not real sure about Benny, because he's such a butt when I try to get him and it's dark. He will go under the pool pump and I'm not going in after him. Now, we have Benny, Bart, Georgie, Lisa, and Rusty who can all go out after dark. All of them are pretty good about coming in when called, with the exception of Benny. So, last night, Brian helped to get Benny in. He carried the flashlight and I carried Benny in.
Peter was laying on the sofa, on a blanket and Brian was petting him. He said "Petey, you must be fluffering a lot" (fluffering is what the little girl who stayed with us for a while called farting). I tried to think of what Peter could have eaten to give him gas and came up with a blank. Finally, Brian said "I wonder if I stepped in dog poop" and held his boots up for me to look at. Yep, there in the waffles of the sole was the offending material. Brian had to go outside and hose off. LOL!! Poor Petey. He wasn't doing anything but being cute. He's getting more lovable. He's actually starting to come to us to be petted. This is such a nice feeling.
I wish I could say that our relations with Jackie are improving, but he still runs from us, for the most part. We do have the occasional time when we can pet him, but it's not as often as I would like. He isn't as mean as he was, that's good, but I just wish he didn't feel so threatened by us.
Mickey has big scabs on his back, who knows what from. I know that he might be chewing on himself, so I sprayed bitter apple on it last night. And this morning, I noticed a big scab by his ear, but it felt like a scratch scab. So, I'm starting him on amoxi this morning.
We'll find out Monday what time mom's surgery is.
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