Saturday, September 21, 2002 Well, Meeze only stayed here one day this week. Both he and OC come by in the evenings and they're both here in the morning when I put out soft food. But they're both back across the street by 7:30. I'm thinking that Meezer really misses the companionship of Meetoo. He and OC are usually laying right together when they're here, snuggled up against one another. I feel badly for both of them. I wish they'd stay in our yard. And I think those damn dogs gave Meeze the push he needed to leave our property. Damn it.

Lucky is feeling much better, but her eye looks terrible. I read up on Horner's Syndrome in cats and it can take four to six weeks to get better. Poor Lucky. I'm sure it interferes with her vision.

She hates getting her medicine and that bottle has lots in it. This morning, as she was laying on the stove, I got her medicine ready, scruffed her as she was laying there and put the dropper in her mouth. That was the easiest it's been yet. I'll try it again this evening and hopefully, I've found the best way to give her medicine. She's going to be getting it for a while.

Yesterday when we gave Junior his shot, I noticed an abundance of blood on the patio. With as many cats as we have, finding the source can be somewhat of a game. I finally had it narrowed down to Sammy and Georgie. I had to bribe Sammy with treats to be able to check him over. Then I found Georgie. His fur was dirty, which was an indication that he'd probably been rolling around in the dirt with some other cat. And I found the blood source on his back knee. I started him on amoxicillan. I don't know who he was fighting with.

And I noticed this week that Kirby is missing one of his upper canines. He has nice white teeth, no gum disease or anything like that, so it would appear he broke the tooth somehow. And I don't know how long it's been gone. He doesn't seem to be feeling bad or anything.

Earlier this week, I noticed blood in my bathroom sink. Some of the kitties like to pee in the sink, which I don't have a problem with because it's really easy to clean. I tried to narrow it down and I came up with Annie and maybe Katie. The second day I found the bloody urine in my sink, Brian called from his bathroom that there was blood in his shower. That pointed the finger right at Annie. I put Annie on amoxi and we haven't found any more blood. She has two more days and that should do it. If it comes back, she'll get to go to the vet's office.

We've had a horrible time with ants the past month. I don't like ants. I haven't liked ants since I was a child and saw the movie "Them!" They give me the willies. Well, Thursday I finally gave in and went to the grocery store and bought ant traps. I also got the spray for crawling insects, the stuff that Jane Seymour advertises for. I set up all four of the Grants ant traps that came in a package and one of the other kind, with liquid. I put that one on top of the microwave where the cats can't reach it. The Grants traps didn't worry me. By eight o'clock Thursday night, the ants in the kitchen were almost all gone. It was so nice to not see this trail of black scurvy on the counters when I turned on the lights. I told Brian about the success and he said he needed traps for the Sticks. I told him that he could have the rest of the package of the kind on the microwave, there were six in the box. I showed him the one on the microwave and he picked it up. It was full of ants! They're back! And they're all over that ant killer! I'm hoping they're just back because they think it's a great food source and that they'll all be gone by the end of the day. I just hate the creepy, crawly things. *shudder*

I picked up Lola's remains Wednesday morning. For some reason, I keep saying "Lola" when I'm talking about Lucky. I wish I'd quit doing that.

I haven't done laundry all week. Guess what I'll be doing today? I've been trying to get my work and house stuff done in the morning and lay out by the pool in the afternoon. I don't want to be so pasty when we go up to Disneyland next month.

I had my annual gynocologist appointment last Wednesday. At the end of the visit, the doctor told me what a pleasure it was to have me as a patient. *lol* And my BP was 118/84. Pretty darned good. Better would have been 118/78. And the nurse was even nice to me. Not that she's not always nice, but I could tell that my BP annoyed her back when it was high. Because that's not a good thing. And the doctor commented on how good my BP was. And he brought up the hormone therapy again, but this time, he wasn't pushing it quite like he did last year, in light of the recent studies that it's not all it's cracked up to be. I told him that I'd rather just try to get through all of the power surges and such naturally. Like cold baths. If I could get my BP down without the necessity of a daily pill, I'm sure I can live through the symptoms of menopause. He said that some women had a really hard time with night sweats and hot flashes to the point that it was affecting their quality of life and weighing the pros and cons, they've gone with hormones. But he agreed that I probably wouldn't be needing them. He asked about my last menstruation and I told him it was in July. I told him one thing I've learned is not to thumb my nose at the products in the feminine hygiene aisle. Because as soon as I said "neener, neener, neener" to the stacks of boxes of pads, Aunt Flo would rear her nasty head. He just laughed.

Well, I can't think of much else right now. Guess I'll go putter around the house.

Tuesday, September 24, 2002 Daggum, I can't believe how hot it is. Pant pant....

I finally started working on my tan this past weekend. I would have been out there today, but I started getting those declaw stories up that I found earlier this year. And they're up. Some of the mail I'd gotten couldn't really be categorized as stories, so I'm considering putting up another page dedicated to the mail I've gotten about people who have changed their minds after doing research on declawing. I put up thirty one new stories, some over a year old. Dang.

Anyway, I've found that I still enjoy laying by the pool and reading. I do my paperwork and housework in the morning, then go outside around two in the afternoon and come in about 4:30. It works out nicely. And the pool has cooled down from earlier in the summer, so it's quite refreshing.

Lucky's eye is looking much, much better. Sometimes you can barely see the third eyelid. At other times, it's pretty far up, but not as far as it had been. That's usually when she's really tired. And I got a surprise yesterday when the vet's office called to see how she was doing. They haven't followup called in years. That was nice.

I'm probably going to have to take Mickey into the vet. I gave him the mite stuff to kill the mites, put Advantage on him last week because he was scratching so much. Well, yesterday, his ears started to look like he had ringworm. *sigh* That's something that they can carry forever and when under stress, it hits again. Whatever it is, it's just him that has it. It doesn't seem to bother him, though, it bothers me a lot more than it does him. But if it gets worse, I'll be taking him in.

Meezer stays here some days and some days he doesn't. I haven't seen those dogs on the loose in over a week. I have seen all five of the remaining ferals around. And Repete has been coming over earlier, with OC and Meeze. Angus is usually here fairly late and some nights I don't see SpotTee at all, but he shows up in the morning with OC and Meeze. The ants out front are bad, too, as they are all over this place. I had sevin dust down and because it was so messy, Brian hosed off the walkway. It does look a lot neater, but the ants could have been a problem. So I got the can of that safe spray (the one that Jane Seymour advocates) and sprayed the edges of the walk. It doesn't smell too bad, but it doesn't smell real good, either. And because it was so hot, I didn't have any doors opened to create a breeze to push the smell through. But the cats finally ate and this morning, the smell was pretty much gone. You can still see the residue. I'm glad it's safe.

Speaking of ants, we still have them in the house. Every morning, the ant traps are just crawling with them. I finally found where they were coming in. It was around the vent pipe over the microwave oven. There's a cupboard there that I have the breadmaker in and have a couple of other things stored. I pulled everything out and got the real deadly ant spray and sprayed the hell out of it in there. I have to admit, having an ant fall in the eggs I was cooking this morning was the last straw. Ish. I hate ants. Hopefully, they'll be out of the kitchen now. But I did see some in my bathtub... I hate ants.

The roof cam has that crummy yellow streak in the picture again. The last time this happened, they sent me a new camera. Which I still have, so I guess one of these days Brian will have to change it for me. I'm thinking this heat must do something to it. Cook it or something.

I'm working on getting the webrings up again. And I have more pictures to add to the family album, pictures I haven't posted anywhere. And I'd really like to do some work on the cardshoppe. I've got more pictures to add and I'd really like to do some new java cards for Halloween. Got a couple of cool new applets.

Well, guess I'll get ready to watch some of the returning tv shows. Gilmore Girls and then NYPD Blue. Boy, I really like being able to watch prime time before eight.

Friday, September 27, 2002 All I want is a year without animal health problems. Yeah, okay, that's maybe asking for too much. How about six months with none? Or how about, when one cat gets sick, nobody else gets sick until that one has resolved, one way or the other? How about that? I think that would be wonderful.

So, we have Lucky. Now, Lucky is doing much, much better. The giving of meds is still up in the air, sometimes it's easy, sometimes she fights it, but she does get her medicine and she is feeling good. This afternoon, she was playing with one of the cat tracks in the living room. I just took this picture of her:

And then there is Annie. Now, remember, Annie was the one we figured who had the bloody urine. I gave her the week of amoxi, she was okay for two days, then BAM! She wasn't only peeing blood, she was peeing parts of her bladder wall. *sigh* That was Wednesday. Luckily, it was early enough in the afternoon that I was able to catch the vet in. I called and talked to Becky, told her what was going on, she asked if I could bring in the clot. I did. The urine that was around the clot was pretty clear. Anyway, the vet sends home a forty day supply of amitriptyline, nine torbutrol pills for pain (said she's gotta be in a world of hurt from the looks of that clot) and some MSM to add to her food. This is gonna be fun. Anyway, I haven't seen one of those clots since Wednesday night. Haven't seen to much of Annie, either. She's keeping herself out of sight. Doesn't care much for the pills. I don't blame her.

Then yesterday morning, DeeJay puked big time in the bathroom. Lots and lots of liquid, not much food. It was so bad, I had to use the FloorMate to clean it up. I was very thankful he didn't do this on one of the sofas, as he usually does. It's not like he pukes often, maybe once every two weeks, but boy, does he puke a lot. I didn't think much of it because there was grass in it, but last night, he didn't seem to feel any better. This morning he did eat a good amount of dry food, but he wasn't gung ho on drinking water. He did drink some water that was from the cooler and had ice in it. I call the vet's office about eleven this am. Doctor wasn't in, but I could bring him in and they'd check for dehydration, then give him fluids if he needed them. And he did. I also picked up some more amoxicillan, since I've only got a week's worth left. I sure hope he picks up soon. His eyes do look better. Yanno, he's just never been the same since that megacolon a few years back. He used to be such a strong, healthy cat. Now he's just a skinny thing. I wish I could find something he'd eat. And eat. And eat. I'd let him have all he wanted.

And something is going on with my big toe. It really hurts. I think I got bit by a spider or something. I hate it.

Speaking of hating. I hate ants. Have I ever mentioned that? Maybe once or twice you say? Well, let me reiterate. I hate ants. I finally got them out of the kitchen, then they showed up on the other side of the house, in my bathroom. Got them out of there. Then yesterday, they were all over the empty bags of catfood in the garage (I have to cut off the UPC symbols). Ish. I tried to see where they were coming from and I found they were coming in from the corner of the garage out front. I take the spray and spray the heck out of it. Good. Well, guess what? They didn't leave. The found another entrance. They were coming in around the garage door. I spray that. Hours later, a new entry. The electrical for the sprinklers outside. The cord comes in through a tight hole, but there's obviously enough room for them to come in there. I spray outside and in. That's taken care of. I thought. Last night, when I went out to feed the cats, there were ants all over the counter. ARGH!!! I hate ants! Really, really hate them! They were crawling on the cans of food I had stacked yesterday. They were all over the crock of the bottle of water we have out there to mix with the food. They were all over the chicken that the cats didn't finish (because of the ants, I bet). I got the ShopVac out and started vacuuming those suckers into it. I pointed it in every direction. Cats went flying out of the garage. They couldn't leave quickly enough. I turned off the ShopVac, then looked at my handiwork. Still, the ants kept coming. There were thousands of them. Little black ants, so thick it looked like someone had marked with a thick Magic Marker. I went into the kitchen, grabbed the pet safe bug spray, grabbed the stool, and got the flashlight. I was bound and determined to find where those suckers were getting into my house.

I flashed by the window and followed the trail. It went to the wall. It went over the big garage door. It went on a diagonal beam to the wall across from the window. Then I lost track of them behind a box. So, that's where they were getting in. I went outside and looked. I could see no long tracks of ants on the walls anywhere. Not by the garage. Disgusted, I took the spray back inside and sprayed and sprayed along the garage door, along the beam and as far as I could on the other wall. I fed the cats. I settled in for the night. This morning, there weren't quite so many. I took the empty bottle off of the crock last night and saw the many ants drowning in the water. Bwahahahaha!! Die, you scurvy scum, die! Gah, I hate ants.

I saw Gracie trying to get a drink from the crock this morning and that's when I brought it in the house and thorougly cleaned it. I washed the bottle, too. Right now, I'm waiting for water to filter and I'm refilling the bottle.

And earlier today, I finally found where the ants are getting into the attic. Not a place I'd expect at all. Outside, on the wall opposite the garage. There is some wood siding that connects to the stucco. And at the top of that, there is a crack. And going into that crack, was a thick line of ants. No more. I got my handy dandy Raid ant and roach and sprayed until that can was empty. I hope that does it. Ants. Shudder.

Sweet little Autumn White is turning out to be quite the little huntress. She has been bringing her prey in and leaving the dead prey in little piles in the bedroom. And she's so proud of herself, you should see her strutting in the open door with the prey in her mouth. What is her prey? Leaves that have fallen off of the neighbor's avocado tree into our yard. It's just the cutest thing. Then she'll lay on the bed, knowing that her catch is safely inside. Little cutie bug. Here's some of her trophies:

Anyone need a Sammy Bammer fix?

Here's Bart, totally relaxed

And Lonee has started coming around again. She's going back outside on a pretty regular basis. I caught her in the cathouse yesterday.

Well, that's it for now. Gonna go check on DeeJay.

One more thing, I almost forgot. I got the webrings up and running. So, if you have a website, feel free to join. the cathouse webring, or the Educate! Don't Amputate! WebRing.

Now, I'm outtie!

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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