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Wednesday, October 04, 2000 Well, heck, look what day it is. Where does the time go? At least it's still October.
I've noticed something about Pepper. If you didn't know she was sick, you wouldn't know she was sick. She sure doesn't look sick or act sick. She doesn't even drool as much as she had been. She has quite an appetite, but I have to keep giving her different flavors to find it. Like right now, she's eating kitten food. She likes the A/D, she likes Rusty's kidney diet (three different kinds) and now, I find she likes kitten food. The consistency seems about right for her, too. If she seems to be having a problem with it, I add water and make it thinner. She doesn't seem to mind. And I'll even combine two different flavors or brands, if she seems a little disinterested. The other night, she tried to eat a French fry I had tossed on the floor for Pete. When I saw what she was doing, I broke it up into teeny tiny pieces and she ate most of it. She's been spending the evenings outside, chasing bugs. I think she's getting ready for the bridge. But maybe not. Maybe she's just enjoying herself out back. The drooling doesn't happen all the time, either. Sometimes it's worse than others. I was talking with my friend Cecilia (suh-SEEL-yuh, as I like to call her) yesterday and she recently lost a cat to cancer. He had it on his face and it hit him quickly. It started out as a small bump and just got bigger. Like Pepper, there wasn't anything that could be done about it. Well, Cecilia's vet told her that with cancer, cats have good days and bad days. You will have one day when you just know it's time, but the next day, you'd never know how close you had been to believing that it was truly time to let them go. I guess it's when the bad days outnumber the good. With Pepper, we've kind of decided that when she won't eat for two days in a row, then we will seriously consider saying our final goodbyes. I know it's my imagination, but Pepper's chin doesn't seem so swollen today. But I know that's not possible. Wishful thinking on my part.
It's a funky dark drizzly day today. I think it would be great if it's like this when we go to Disneyland later this month. I'm really looking forward to some time off.
Benny has been sneezing, so when I went to the vet's earlier this week to pick up more A/D, I asked about giving him amoxi for his cold. I was told that Clavamox would be better, and I bought some. While I was there, I said something about "hey, next time I get the same prescription for two different cats, is there any chance you can just put it under one cat's name so I don't have to pay double?" Remember last week, I called about it and was told my Tiffany (the new receptionist) after she checked on it, that was how it was done. Poop on that, was what I thought. Well, Charlene was there and asked why I said something. I told her about the Baytril for Lisa and Lola. She laughed and told Tiffany to give me a credit for one of the prescriptions. The credit paid for the Clavamox. I got out of there for less than $85.00 (that A/D is expensive and since I have a couple of cats eating it, I buy two cases at the same time).
I also got my permanent crown on Monday. It didn't take long and the dentist suggested since I was there and it had been awhile, that I should consider get my teeth cleaned. I sighed, said okay. They have a new hygienist from before and boy, she meant business. I swear she had a little jackhammer she put in my mouth to chip away at the tartar. According to her, it was very bad in the backs of my molars and she said that I should probably come in every six months for cleaning since I had such a buildup. She was lots different than the other woman. Brian said with the previous hygienist, he had to tell her to quit trying to pull off his veneers. I'll tell you, my teeth sure feel smooth.
Mystie and Katie are into everything now. They love to get up here on my desk and start pulling paperwork out of my files. There are tons of little kitten teethmarks. Brian said "it doesn't look very professional". So what? We work out of the home. We don't take a tax credit for this office. Why should it look professional? *grin* And I don't put them up anymore. The only time they go into the exercise room is to eat. As soon as they're done, I let them out. It will be nice to have that room cat vacant again. I bet I'll be finding lots of Mickey, Georgie and Ciara pee in months to come. The kittens sleep a lot, but when they aren't sleeping, they are so active. Chasing, playing, investigating, they really keep us amused. Brian is so sweet to them, I just love it when he calls them his little girls. Last night, Mystie came in to sleep with us. I think it won't be long before Katie follows. Only problem was that Lola was under the covers and started getting stepped on and this annoys her mightily.
Speaking of Lola, she's doing really well (knock on wood). This is an off week for her chemo. She's eating up a storm (she ate almost an entire can of A/D last night at one sitting) and cruising the house a little more. She was never a very active cat, so I don't expect much on that aspect. She's still not real pleased with the kittens. Too much energy for her liking. And they try to get into her food while she's eating. Lola doesn't like that at all.
Saturday, I spent the day washing and cleaning the house. Brian had gone to the Sticks, to put up the tower for his windmill. They had planned on staying overnight. I didn't want to miss his call, so I put off taking a shower. He didn't call. By the time I figured he wasn't going to (ten at night), I was too tired to shower and just slept on the sofa (the bed clothes were clean). Brian got home in the latter part of Sunday afternoon and just kicked back. I think Monday was the first night I didn't put the kittens up for bed, so I slept on the couch for a while, then went to bed. When I woke up, at my usual "time to get up" time, I noticed the middle of the bed was wet. Full on. Brian said he thought maybe it was because he had been sweating. No way. This was a full on emptying of a bladder. There was a lot of urine. Whoever did it, did it on the comforter and there was so much, for the first time, it went through to the mattress. I had to strip the bed and wash everything. I put a bunch of enzyme cleaner on the spot on the mattress and soaked it up with a dry towel. Hopefully, they won't smell it there again. I have suspicions as to who is the culprit, but that's all they are. What's amazes me is that I sprayed Feliway around the entire perimeter of the bed. So, whoever did it, peed in the middle. When I had the bed made Monday night, I sprayed the entire thing with Feliway. So far, so good. I've been doing my best with Rusty. Everytime I see him walking around, not sleeping or in search of food, I put him outside. If he doesn't do his business, just sits there, I will go out and put him in the yard where he will have to walk back. And usually, on his walk back, he will urinate.
I've been working on some new fun stuff for the cathouse. A new game, soon to come, at Benny's. If you like Scrabble, you'll like this game. It can't be called Scrabble, because that's a trademarked name. But it's for four players and you invite internet friends to play. Everybody plays from their own system. I keep getting error messages, even though it does work, but I think the error messages may scare people away. And I got another script, called "TopSites". So, if you have a website, you'll be able to list it and see how well you fare against other cat sites on the internet. I think that might be fun.
Well, the heat press has warmed up sufficiently, I think, so that I can go make some shirts and get them mailed out. I did put up the baby lisa image, so if you haven't seen it, you can get to the merchandise page from the drop down menu at the top of this page. I think it's adorable. Looks pretty good on a shirt, too. Oh, I'll be carrying XXXL shirts, in white and natural. Natural is an off white color.
Friday, October 06, 2000 Well, the new scrabble like game it up and running. For some reason, it wouldn't work on the lisaviolet.com server, so I had to move it to lvdesigns.com, where the other Benny CGI games are (Checkers for two, Blockbuster, Crossword). The game can be found at Benny da kat's interactive crossword board. Oh, I also reserved the domain name "bennydakat.com". Now, I just have to figure out what to do with it. Benny thinks it should just be pages and pages of catnip and toonas.
I got my first shirts sent out yesterday. I'm in business!!
Well, we know that Benny has a cold. And, according to Brian, Georgie has been sneezing, too. So, I stop by the vet yesterday on my way to the post office. They sold me liquid Clavamox, the first time I've ever gotten it in liquid forum. I could have exchanged it, but I figured, what the heck. Good thing I didn't. Pepper started sneezing yesterday afternoon. So, I have to go back and get more liquid, since there's no way I'll pill her. The vet said to watch her very closely, making sure that she doesn't get really sick. I had ordered some Wysong food through Petopia last month and it finally got here. It's human grade food and there are no fillers at all. The can's ingredients says "Beef, Beef Liver, Beef Heart and Water Sufficient for Processing". No fillers. No additives. Just meat. Of course, they'll still get their dry food, and as I mentioned before, I'm switching over to Sensible Choice. All this stuff costs more than I had been paying, but I'm hoping it will be offset by lower vet bills in the long run. I did notice that this can has an ounce and a half more than the other brand's large size. And that a case of Wysong is 24 cans. A case of the large cans of Nutro is 12 cans. According to quite a bit of what I've read, a diet free of preservatives and fillers will help prevent or even slow down cancers. It looks like tumors grow faster on carbohydrates than they do good protein. I hope this new food helps both Pepper and Lola.
Well, we (Brian) had a little excitement the other night. Another chapter in the ongoing saga of "Urine A Lot Of Trouble!!". Here's pretty much what I posted elsewhere.
It's funny when it happens to somebody else and thank God, it wasn't me. LOL!! Okay, you know the pee problems we have with the cats. Well, the older cats just don't seem to get it quite right. Sure, I have to take Rusty to the back of the yard and have him follow me into the house, and on the way, he stops to urinate. Sure, I've had to wash bedclothes day after day because Ciara was showing her aggression. Sure, I've had to totally strip the bed because of pee.
But I'm glad it wasn't me.
Brian was kicking back in his recliner Wednesday night. Watching television. Well, Boney got up into the bay window and sprayed the screen of the open window. Which wouldn't have been so bad, except his aim was just a tiny bit off. His little urinator was aimed at my husband's head. And Boney has quite a bladder, he can hold it for a long while. Oh, boy, did spit hit the fan. I heard the shout of "BONEY!!", then I heard the screen door shutting. Of course, I had to get up from in front of the monitor to investigate. Boney pissed all over Brian's head, down his side and even got the pager on Brian's belt wet.
Hoo, boy, it was hard not to start laughing. I think Brian knew I was ready, but I hightailed it out of that room. Brian took a shower and was cussing up a storm, something he doesn't do much of, cussing, that is. Anyway, he got better as the night wore on. And Boney slept next to his head, all apparently forgiven.
Speaking of cat urine, Brian came back home within minutes of leaving this morning. His brother told him he stunk like cat pee. Brian figures it must be in the track of his mirror door. I have no idea. I'm thinking maybe he sat in a chair that someone had peed in/on. *sigh* I think we should go to all wooden or plastic furniture. I'm planning on cleaning his chair again this afternoon and starting in on the sectional in the television room. The couches in the living room aren't as bad anymore, since I keep them covered with plastic tablecloths and blankets.
Man, I'm just sick right now. I went down to the vet's to pick up the medicine for Pepper and I started petting a kitten the vet kept from a woman who was a known collector. The kitten had been really, really sick, wasn't pooping and it was all backing up into the kitten. He had to do a major operation. Well, at the time, he offered this kitten to me and I said "no". I gues they did find a home for her, but that fell through. Today, I discovered she'd been declawed. I said something about it and Elena walked away. I know she didn't want to hear it. Not that I said much just "she's declawed?" For the first time in his office, I felt physically ill. I left the office, almost in tears and lightheaded, ready to pass out. I actually considered calling around and finding a new vet. I'm so upset over this. But, I guess what I'll do is design the Educate!! Don't Amputate!! teeshirt, maybe a couple, and where one whenever I go in. I just wish that declaw were only allowed for cat health reasons, not merely cosmetic. I got home and Brian was here. I told him and he said "hasn't he learned anything?" I said probably not, because his purebreds don't have problems. But his mutt cats do. I sure hope this kitten doesn't go the way of Zipper and Mew. I guess when we move, I'll be more choosy. I sure hope I can find a good vet who won't declaw. I wish that people didn't think they needed to have their cats declawed. In my most recent newsletter from Cornell University, it says they don't teach declawing there. I wish more veterinary universites would join the club.
Well, it's dark outside and I'm still writing in you, dear diary. *lol* Didn't get squat done, but tomorrow is another day.
Monday, October 09, 2000 Well, let's see. The last time I wrote in here was Friday night. What's happened since? Anything exciting? In my life? LOL!! Let's examine.
Okay, Saturday we went to breakfast at Denny's. Not exciting. We went to WalMart and I bought a home permanent. Not exciting. Came home and did nothing. Well, we argued over the fact that there's nothing on television. Oh, Brian went somewhere and came back with Foster's fries and ice cream. That was dinner. It was before four.
One of the things we had wanted to do Saturday was take my mom to buy a new car. She had her eye on this little Hyundai Accent. I called her Saturday and she said she couldn't go, the gardener was there. She said Sunday would be better. I called her Sunday at ten, asking if she was ready. No. Could we make it after eleven? Her brother in Ireland was supposed to call. Sure. Brian was in his recliner, I was on the sofa and we both fell asleep. At twelve thirty, the phone rang. I told Brian to get it. It was mom. "Where are you?" We got into the truck and went over to pick her up. I sat in the back on the little fold down seat. Not a really comfortable place for my big butt. Once down there, it took three hours. The middle hour we spent waiting for the car to be washed and detailed. We ended up getting something to eat. Brian drove mom to our house in her new car, I drove the truck home. Then mom drove home. See, mom doesn't like lots of traffic and in the new car she would have been too nervous to drive herself.
Meezer hasn't been around in almost a week. And the white kitten hasn't been around, either. *sigh* Brian is serious about getting the two remaining kittens into the home. I haven't seen either of them since Saturday. Last night, we were watching Katie and Mystie running through the house, jumping and tumbling and kitten wrestling with one another and Brian said "can you imagine four?". Yep. He also worried about how much weirder the other cats would get. I told him the other cats have been weird since Lola got sick. And that's a true story.
Last night, when I was thinking about getting the rest of the cats in the house, I found Benny, George and Peter down by the pool in the grass. Pete went running like he usually does. George just sat there and Benny came over and acknowledged my existance. Wondering where Pete went, I went into the house and got a flashlight. I found him trying to get into the house through the cat door, which I had blocked off from the inside. And he was carrying a dead rat in his mouth. Fun. I finally got him to come into the office and I closed the screen door behind him. I managed to get him to drop the rat, I picked it up by the tail and put it out front for those cats to take care of. By the time I went to bed, the rat was gone.
And that was my weekend. Not exciting at all.
Wednesday, October 11, 2000 Well, I go to turn on the stereo this morning and although it has power, the amp isn't powering. Spit. This means nothing works. No radio. None of the CD players. Can't listen to surround sound. I come online, start looking at some sites with stereo stuff. I end up calling J and R - the internet's largest home entertainment and computer megastore (honest, that's what they call themselves). I looked at what they had available and had some questions. I have three CD players, a tape player, a tuner, a phonograph, the television, the DVD player, the satellite receiver. With my switch boxes I really only need eight inputs. Well, I find out they don't make what I have anymore. Obviously, my thing is so old, that they wouldn't, but they don't even have anything comparable. So, I told him what I have. He said not all receivers are equipped to handle phono, so we had to make sure whatever I got would. I ended up getting another Yamaha. The price listed online is $499.00, but it was only $429.99. They had just reduced the price!! Lucky me. That price reduction paid for the shipping. I upgraded shipping, so it should be here Friday. Plenty of time for me to get it set up before next week. I thought Brian would be unhappy, but he didn't say too much. He knows that the stuff we have won't last forever. I bought our current amplifier (I guess it's called an integrated amplifier) at least thirteen years ago. The new one will have true surround sound, whereas the old one had pretend. The way I found out that I didn't have a receiver was that my tuner is separate. Receivers come with tuners. Duh. That makes a lot of sense. I was worried that I wouldn't have room for the new receiver, but by taking away the tuner, I'll have plenty of room.
And the amp isn't the only thing that died this week. Monday, when I turned on the Bissell, nothing happened except for smoke coming from the motor area. *sigh* I really needed an upholstery cleaner. I don't want Becky getting piss smelled out next weekend, so I'm washing the sofas and carpet. Luckily, I still had my old Hoover SteamVac and started using that. Brian said he'd get me a new machine and I checked online at Sears to see if they even carried them. They had none at Costco. We found one at Sears and he used a $25.00 coupon from a book we got earlier this year. I finished the tv room sofa yesterday, then cleaned the carpet. Did a wonderful job. Today, I'm doing the living room/dining room area. Won't be as much to do because that furniture is covered. I just have to do the sides. And there aren't as many scratching posts in that room, either (I also washed those in the tv room). I even got the cat tv and chair out of the garage yesterday and cleaned them up. They're both set up in the television room now. I can't believe how nasty the pad in the tv was. I had to wash it three times to get the smell out. It's just right for a cat to stand up to and spray in. So, I'm keeping them spritzed with Feliway to keep them from getting pissed on and in. I told Brian this morning I've come up with a new style of furniture. You've heard of "distressed"? Well, we have "pisstressed". He didn't think it was as amusing as I did. *grin*
Well, I decided to let the colds run their course in the cats without medicine. I got to thinking about when I have a cold, that there's really nothing that can be done about it. It just has to run its course and my immune system does its job. I asked some very knowledgable people about doing the same with cats and they do. They don't just give antibiotics unless there's a reason or the cat has a depressed immune system. I am giving them to Bart because he sounds terrible. He just started sounding bad yesterday and I may end up taking him in. He's had pneumonia before, when we got Mickey. I don't know if that leaves him open for it again, but I'll be very careful with him. And I do have the full prescription of liquid Clavamox.
I noticed last night that Lola once again has bloody pee. I have some Baytril left from DJ last year, runs out 10/00, so I started giving her that last night. I'll tell the vet about it tomorrow, when she goes in for her next chemo treatment.
Pepper has been really playful. Monday, she ran up a tree in the backyard. She's been playing with other stuff, too. But it seems that the past day or so, her drooling has gotten considerably worse. I don't think about it too much, because when I do, my stomach feels funny and I start to get really sad. Sometimes she sleeps soundly, other times she seems pretty restless. I wish she could talk.
It was almost cold this morning and for the first time this year, I turned on the furnace. Poor Annie. It really freaked her out. She ran out of the bedroom and was standing in the hallway, talking to us, obviously distressed, I think warning us that something was wrong. Well, nothing was wrong, it's just that when we first run the furnace each year, it smells weird. It must have taken twenty minutes to calm her down. Once she realized we weren't all going to die, she went back to her spot behind the bed. I bet she felt much better.
The TopSite script I got was a bust. The passwords get lost, so no one can edit their information. I found a different one, but the one I downloaded isn't the one they advertise on their site. I can't manage the information like I should be able to. I'm waiting to hear back from them. I hope it doesn't cost a gazillion dollars. I just can't afford too much right now. Only four shirts have been ordered since I opened the store. Not quite a money maker.
We've had a couple of rainy days. It's nice. I hope it stays like this for our trip next weekend. I'm getting really excited.
Well, Pete doesn't freak out around the kittens anymore. He's playing with them. And Jackie will spend hours playing with them in the garage. They love to climb and run and play hide and seek behind all of the old cat posts we have out there. I really think it's mellowing Jackie out.
Hey, Tuesday night, Meezer was back. And we saw all three kittens. Plus another grey kitten, who is a little older than the other three. Brian wants them all. It will be hard to trap them since they don't come by on a regular basis. It would be easiest if they showed up during the day and I could get them to follow the trail of chicken into the garage. Like we got Jack and Red.
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