Today I was thinking about what I was up to this time last year. In June 2005 one of our cats, Melon, was sick. Very sick. In fact at one point I thought she was going to die in my arms right then and there. It was terrifying and in the end very expensive.

We saved some money by getting the medicine, shots, and subQ fluid accoutrements and doing the treatments myself. Force-feeding her thin wet food every four hours, putting needles under her skin to get some fluids into her, giving her vitamin and antibiotic shots, getting pills down her throat. The house was vibrating all day from some earth tamping machine for the construction behind us. It was bad.

All it took was stamina and having a stronger will than hers was to just go lie in the corner and die. With that particular illness that's really what the best cure was: having a tenacious will and the time to feed and force pills and fluids. Those are two things I have in spades.

I found out just how tough I was. And how buoyant Melon was too. After a few weeks she started eating on her own. We experimented with all kinds of foods: baby foods, tuna with supplements, raw fish from the deli. We started buying weird crap from the exotic foods aisle and hit on a winner she would consistently eat: tinned kipper snack. Blegh that stuff is gross. But I don't like fish unless its sushi anyway.

This morning, a year later, I woke up and she was making her little "meh" sounds at me, saying "It's time for the wet food, Mom!" At first I was annoyed and wanted to do other stuff first - like get some damned coffee. Then I thought how great it was that she was here, bugging me for food like nothing had happened last year.

Now all three eat the canned Iams food and have access to two different dry foods that they snack on as well. They're probably overweight. In Melon and Kurry's cases, having both been through scary illnesses where I could feel their spines they were so skinny, they can eat all they damned well please.

In knitting news, I knit two skinny pink scarves for think pink yesterday. I have an interesting variety of pink yarn for several more. Yes there is glittery fun fur. But she said any size any material.

I'm out of materials to finish the baby hunter's cap so that's on a break until I have the time to get more plush yarn to make a lining for it. Lining the ugg booties went really well! I even learned the magic loop for the second one. Easy peasy. I can see the benefit of it but I think I'm going to stick to two circulars for right now.

*Holy crap I just quoted a song from Cats

I haven't posted in a while and usually that's a bad sign but I'm actually feeling better physically and mentally this week than I have in a long time. I think we may have found the perfect medicinal cocktail now. I'm very excited about this. The shorter hair seems to help as well. Easier to care for, less tangles, less heat on my neck.

And I actually have several surprise projects in the works. And, get this, none of these particular projects are knit or spun (by me anyway). A few involve crafts in general, one involves yarn specifically, one involves photography and crafting of a sort, and another one involves..well, no real way to describe that one so I'll let you wonder about it for a while. They'll all be revealed in time.

In other non-surprise project news we went and did serious grocery shopping at Trader Joe's now that Cody wasn't afraid of the potential hippiecrit prices (to be honest I don't blame him our bills in a normal grocery store can be pretty outrageous) but we did well! Several new things to try, several re-purchases of things we liked from last time. And while we still have to go to the regular grocery store for a *few* things the bill at TJ's was WELL under our usual grocery bill. So we're both pretty happy about that.

And the cats seemed to like the non fish flavored cat food tins. I don't recommend the tuna for cats it doesn't have a pop lid and that annoyed me I don't open the cat food in the kitchen I open it in the kitty bathroom dammit I don't have any can openers in there. So we're going to try a small bag of the dry cat food and see how they like it. They're very picky about their dry food. In this case picky means they only eat crap Science Diet that I put out as a last resort. But the dog, who will eat any dry food I put out, and loves eating the cats' poop when she sneaks into the laundry room, likes the dry dog food. Which wasn't really a surprise. The question was whether or not I'd approve of the food for her. And I do! No corn, first ingredient is not a meat meal or bi-product so I approve.

Ok, it's been a fairly long day. Before Trader Joe's I did some work on a really cool project (my Albuquerque knitter friends will LOVE this) and we had a visit to Scout's house since she lives near TJ's. So I got to meet Supergirl, Superboy, Superhusband, AND Superdog! Her house was unbelievably clean and organized (would you expect any less) and the kids were so sweet. Let me say, those Superkids are WAY cuter in person. My friend has a great little family there and I can't wait to visit again sometime. I'd invite them here but..I'm afraid the house would scare the children.

t's been warm which is nice but the angle of the sun is brutal on the house this time of year until we get the energy to go on the roof to get the swamp cooler working. So even with the windows open and the fans on the house doesn't cool down until late at night.

Not a lot of knitting going on. Still working on the same old projects. Still need to ply that pretty green yarn.

Oh! And you have about fifteen minutes to go wish Cari a Happy Birthday before she turns into a birthday pumpkin. I don't remember how old she is today but this girl totally kicks ass. She knits and snowboards. Not at the same time of course. And likes Upstairs Downstairs! Paisana!

Been having a bad time today. Tired, depressed, annoyed with people. Judgemental, sanctimonious, mendacious, greedy, mean, vapid, and outright disgusting people. And we're waiting for the results on Zola's autopsy.

While I was writing this post I got a call from the vet. Preliminary tests say it wasn't WHS but she had lesions on all her organs, the least affected was her brain. This came as a surprise to everyone. They're going to send more in-depth pathology reports (or something like that) to see if it was cancer (the doctor says this is more likely) or a really really bad infection (which really would've shown signs much earlier). They're sending her little body to be cremated now. Next week we'll know more.

If it turns out to have been an infection I'm fairly sure I'll freak way the fuck out. Which leads perfectly to the rest of the post which I'd mostly written before the call.

I'm going back and forth over whether or not to get another hedgehog. My parents have already put in their vote which wasn't a surprise. They don't "get" pets. And that's fine. A lot of people don't really see the point of putting time, money, and food into something that essentially shits it out again. They can be expensive, demanding, and make all kinds of messes.

But they also don't care which end of the weight-diet-weight cycle I'm on, or if I don't feel like washing my hair, or care what kind of clothes I'm wearing. They're good at keeping me warm when it gets cold and several times a day I get to see tiny sleeping faces that make me happy. There is always someone in this household wanting to show that they love me which might seem a bit crazy but having it works wonders on depressives like me. Also we can leave the pets at home when we want to go out without anyone calling child protective services.

Another hedgehog. I'm not hesistant because I'm worried this would be a "replacement" or that I would hate to lose another one. Mostly it's because I don't feel like I gave Zola enough care. Nonono don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming myself for her getting sick, I know it was genetic, and she led a very happy, warm, cared-for life. But I don't feel like I took her out of her cage often enough, or bathed her, trimmed her nails, or changed her bedding often enough. She wasn't growing mold or becoming a scary clawed hedgehog I just have a fairly high standard with pet care and feel like I fell short. So I might wait a while. Ask me how I feel I'm not up to par with the dog and cats sometime. I realize that I will always have criticisms about it.

This may sound morbid but I know Kurry won't be around too much longer. She's roughly eighteen years old I'm not kidding myself. Luckily she's in excellent shape and her annual senior workup always comes in with perfect results. Maybe that ol gal will just keep hanging on. And I love that, and her. She still gives what-for to our ninety-seven pounds of love dog. That's pretty impressive.

We had a creepy encounter last night. Cody was shaking one of the dry feeders for the cats with the science diet sensitive stomach food - to my complete chagrin that's the only dry food they'll eat. The other one hasn't been touched in months. We keep trying out different foods but that's the only one they touch. Anyway, something weird came out of the bin into the dish. He wasn't sure what it was but he's not the regular food regulator so he just assumed it was a twig with leaves or something and put it aside. I went into the bathroom later and wondered wtf that was on the floor. It looked like maybe a large old hairball but since this is *my* bathroom it hadn't been there that long. I went over and picked it up with one of the kitty's wet food plates. I kept thinking it was a hairball with yarn or something (which, in itself, would be weird they barely notice the yarn these days) but it was really dry so I knew it wasn't recent. I picked it up then noticed it looked sort of like a squashed dried lizard, squeaked and dropped it. Then I asked Cody to come into the bathroom to look at something. Naturally he gets freaked out because I sound scared and hurries in. I asked him if he knew what that was. He picks it up and looks at it again. Then says "Oh I know what that is and hurries out with it." Ok yeah it was something dead wasn't it?

And indeed it was. It was the mummified remains of half a mouse. In my cats' food - in a closed feeder bin which I had filled directly from the sealed bag of food last week. Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew EW. There were no holes in the bag at the bottom - and being half a mouse it couldn't have gone in there, died, then cut itself in half. The cats certainly wouldn't have put a mouse they killed inside their bag of food. And since they're indoor cats they've never had the opportunity to kill a mouse anyway. So. I'm quite freaked out, I'm definitely over my quota of seeing dead animals. There has been much bleaching, antibacterial soap use, and drafting of a stern letter to Hill's going on. I'm terrified of running into the other half sometime so I think Cody will be in charge of the dry food for a little while.

Bleeeeeah.

Rather than making the usual mondo-jumbled posts I usually end up making I'm going to divide up what I want to write about. So there's more to come.

Please send your prayers, prayer-equivalents, thoughts, or simply drink a toast to my sister and her sixteen year-old cat (my favorite kitty niece), Veruca Salt. They were together this afternoon when Veruca peacefully passed into the kitty hereafter following a very bad bout of kidney problems.

May she have lots of fresh catnip where she is now and may her litterbox always be clean.

Meet Sugarbug.

She's not a very sociable kitty. She growls and hisses at any attempt to pet her. Despite attempted bribery in a few different forms and doing all my usual "getting to know a kitty" tricks. We have a cat here that fails to understand the purpose of catnip. Not working. She did play with the wand toy a bit which was nice. I'll keep going in to check on her though. Maybe we can be friends.

It makes me appreciate my cats though. They will do anything to get head and chin scratches (and in Phunq's case, spanks). They love pets and attention all day long. Especially Phunq. He's not even shy with strangers. He'll come right up and start talking..."Merrrrr give me pets! (and spanks!)" Melon and Kurry take a while to warm up to strangers but they'll be in your lap within about two hours. Love my kitties. Hopefully I'll get a better photo of Ms. Pouty Sugarbug. She was on the bed on her blanket last night but went back under the bed when the sun came up.

Now, meet Jaywalker

We're getting along REALLY well. In fact, I'll be turning her heel today. At the Knitter's not Quitters group. And if all goes well, I might be finishing tonight? Maybe.

About the Cherry Tree Hill Birches yarn. I didn't hear about the fading problems with it until after I'd ordered it. I'm going to operate on two assumptions: it was the machine wash and the possible phosphates in the detergent (since she's in England), and possibly a bad dye lot that caused the color bleeding. So to at least try to avoid it I will handwash them and use my usual baby shampoo. Thanks to KnitterGail's test swatches I'm fairly confident that they won't bleed too badly. If they do..well, I'll just overdye em a different color! Not my favorite option considering that the reason I was willing to pay a heftier cost for this sock yarn was because of the neat handpainted colorway but, hey, I'm just trying to keep it all in perspective. (Yay for that Zoloft Wellbutrin cocktail eh?)

now I have Spinal Tap's song "Sex Farm Woman" stuck in my head.

I tried knitting the sock with three strands of the lopi held together on Saturday but I think that on 10.5 needles that is for much stronger hands than mine. I think I'm going to try it again later on but on larger needles - like 13 or 15s. Or maybe single strands. Not sure.

In the meantime I dug around in my stash and found four skeins of unclaimed kureyon (yes I really suck) so I cast my hand (so to speak) at fuzzy feet on Sunday. And it went quickly. In fact I cast it on when "Girl Interrupted" came on tnt and was done with it by the end of "Unfaithful". So, two movies I'd never seen and a humongous sock. Not bad!

It took a little over a skein of kureyon. See the two blue rings on the toe? That's where I had to start using a second skein. Then when I realized I had plenty left over I picked up the stitches at the top and made it a little taller. So the two blue rings at the toe and the green and first grey ring at the top are the second skein. In between those is an entire skein. So I'd say it doesn't even use 1/4 of the second skein, even with the extra rows on the cuff.

And they're not kidding about how huge these puppies are.

So I'm turning the heel on the second one now and should be done with it tonight. I think it'll be a good "pick up put down" project with the trick or treaters.

I did my annual trimming of the bushes and sweeping of the sidewalk for the kids today. I get worried about them stumbling over the rocks from the xeriscaping or getting pricked by our scary bushes. I couldn't find the hedge trimmers though and had to use scissors. Now I have prickles in my fingers and a giant blister. Poor me. But the kids won't get hurt walking up to our door tonight so that's good.

I tried to get photos of Phunq and Kurry since it's Halloween and they're my black kitties. But black kitties are very, very hard to photograph. Especially when they keep moving around. So these are what I got.

This is Phunq (as in George Clinton). He's a sweet boy.

This is Kurry's butt.

This is Phunq and Kurry. And a copper kettle on the brick hearth. Hoo hoo witchy woman.

Kurry at a distance

Phunq again. He likes to pretend that he's a really cool lamp. He's a photogenic guy.

And Kurry being blinded by the flash.

Then the batteries ran out. So there you go. Black cats on Halloween.

Be safe tonight.

So the great two-color dirty blondish foil job I got while I was in B'ham over Christmas is long, long faded and the insidious grey hairs were showing again. I picked up some stuff at the walgreens yesterday and dyed my hair last night. I kept it on for about 40 minutes since I wanted it a little lighter than my natural tone. Going lighter seems to blend with the greys better. The color was called "firelight" and it's pretty auburn-y.

I had the camera on zoom when I was trying to get a shot of my hair so I got some amusing extreme closeup self-portraits. And photos of a silly hat I bought from a cart in the mall Saturday night. Yeah, errands included the semi-annual trip inside Cottonwood to get a bunch of handsoap. I figure if I'm going to be using this stuff upwards of thirty times a day (between pet food handling, gross tinned kipper snack serving, hairball cleaning, and the usual potty breaks it really is about that) I'm going to use a soap that makes me happy.

Phunq was looking very cute on the sofa blanket so I had to get the camera for that. He's an excellent poser (but never a poseur).

Noticing that someone else was getting attention Melon had to put a stop to that meeped at me (well, more like ee-ed at me) until I took photos of her posed on the sofa arm. It was when the photo was loaded into the computer that I saw this photo had supernaturally exposed her true origins.

As you can see from the non-satanic origin exposure photo that the shaved bands on her legs are regrowing her fur nicely. As is the spot on her neck where a huge clot of fur fell out and the places they shaved on her inner thighs. She's still only eating disgusting tinned kipper snack and some Science Diet Sensitive Stomach dry food but seems to still be doing fine.

Mr. Man has definitely fixed the swamp cooler now. It's actually getting cold in the house at night, like where I want to put on clothes and get under a blanket!

Since she's pretty cold natured one of Winter's favorite summertime activities is lying on the floor in the afternoon sun.

The dog bed in the den got too ratty to keep so for now she gets to use a Haring blanket ironically given to me by my in-laws for Christmas one year. Ironic because the in-laws aren't exactly gay friendly folks and they wouldn't know Keith Haring, iconic pop artist who donated a great deal of his art for aids activism and research and who eventually died from aids-related complications in 1990, from a Modligiani. And I'm fairly sure it came from Wal Mart which makes me wonder if this was licensed or an outright ripoff. In any case, Winter likes it because it keeps the carpet from rubbing her elbows.

I realized the other day that she'll be four years old next month and got kind of sad that some senior dog foods say they're for ages five and up. But she's still a puppy!

Who waits very patiently for her greenie in our tacky orange kitchen.

Then eats it in forty-five seconds flat.

What the hell do they put in those things?

So we're fairly sure this is what Melon has. No idea what made her start it but the gist is she stopped eating so her body started consuming it's own organs, her liver in particular. She got better a few weeks ago but the calories she was taking in weren't enough to sustain the daily need so she didn't fully recover, so one missed meal and she was right back. In fact, according to the liver tests, worse.

I've been having to force-feed her approx 5 - 10 ml of wet food about every two to three hours. Force-feeding a cat, particularly a very small and fiesty one, is about as fun as you imagine it is. I've found old cordoroy hedgehog cage liners particularly useful for wrapping her up and catching the inevitable drips. I've also been doing a subcutaneous needle fluid twice a day. And giving her steroid and antibiotic pills twice a day as well as an antibiotic shot once a day. And a B complex shot every three days. The good news is she hasn't needed her anti-nausea pills since Saturday morning.

She's improving, to be sure. Over the weekend she was too weak to get to the litter box and was just, well, leaking. She also had a very strange smell (not from the leaking) that was almost like the sickness was coming out of her pores. When I was wiping her off with a wet washcloth on Friday I kept scrubbing her back feet because they still looked dirty. Until I realized it wasn't a stain but the jaundice coming through her white fur. But she's since been getting much better about grooming and using the litter box.

To make sure that she wouldn't wander off to a hard-to-reach corner, assure that she had a supply of both wet and dry food that the others wouldn't get, monitor the litter box, and keep her in a less lonely place than being shut into the guest room I set up a little camp in Winter's crate.

Yes, it's a huge crate so she has room for a catnip pad, wet food, dry food, water, a small litter box, a kitty cup bed, and garrison the bear to keep her company. Cody took this photo of her sleeping in her cup bed the other night.

I haven't had much computer time this week because I'm usually feeding her, cleaning up from feeding, or getting ready to feed her. Or trying to tidy up for the 'rents who will be here in less than thirteen days oh my god. And the brother-in-law, his wife, and their kids will be in town, oh, tomorrow.

And there's been all kinds of crazy construction behind our house, something that involves tamping down earth for huge drain pipes so the house vibrates from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.

I. Am. In. Hell.

The vet called Monday afternoon to say that we could come pick her up. They had a subcutaneous saline iv in her front shoulder to get her hydrated before we left. Apparently the tech never managed to get an inline iv in her Sunday night but now Melon's sporting two lovely shaved bands on both her front legs.

Now I have to give her two pills twice a day and one pill three times a day - anti-nausea, anti-diarrhea, and amoxicillan. She hasn't been eating or drinking that much so I've been doing the oral syringe thing with diluted wet food and water. I feel like I'm torturing her several times a day, and her incomparable pouting abilities don't do anything to assuage the guilt. I couldn't find her after yesterday morning's pills. I searched the house several times yesterday and even enlisted Cody to help before he got ready for work. I found her in a dark corner of the guest room's closet behind a box for a keyboard around six pm. Last night I shut her in the guest room with food, water, and a litter box to make sure she stayed in one place (also so I could see if she was eating). But she was sleeping right in front of the door when I came to check on her this morning. Good thing I opened it slowly, eh?

She was keeping quiet today hanging out on a pillow on the back of the sofa looking like a little Pomeranian until I got a call from our insurance guy about how he'd like to get paid (damn legalized extortion). While I was in the office she ran off and has hidden somewhere in the house. I put a bell on her collar yesterday but she's been keeping fairly still so I'm going to have to search around for her in a bit. Naturally she's not answering to calls (Phunq, Kurry, and Winter are doing so enthusiastically thinking there's wet food involved) and at the moment she will only respond to the weird whistle tone (don't remember why but a few years ago I discovered that a long single b flat whistle makes her meow and come towards me - probably telling me to shut the hell up) when I'm sitting right in front of wherever she is, looking right at her. I've been considering getting myself one of these and attaching them to each of the pets for some time now and this just confirms it.

The good news is the vet called today with Kurry and Winter's test results. Winter is healthy and heartworm-free - not much of a surprise with her heartworm pills and the bevy of supplements we give her. The only thing they can criticize about her is she needs to lose about ten pounds and I should trim her nails more often. It's always about the nails, no matter what pet it is I'm such a slacker with the nails.

Kurry's test results were amazing - she's in great health and even had excellent teeth (aside from the few missing tiny front ones) for her roughly estimated eighteen years. The vet was delighted about her results.

So now we just need to get Miss Melon through the rest of this infection and eating again. And to quit hiding in obscure corners of the house and not answering to calls. Who'd have thought that I'd be wishing for her to eat and harass me for attention?

Final bill? vet: 1269 dollas. car insurance 365. Damn I hate being a grownup sometimes.

It feels like we've been going back and forth to the vet all weekend. It's a bit of a drive to get to their office and we pass several other vetrinarians on the way but we've been going to these folks for years. They took care of Ascii, they've taken care of Winter since we first brought her home at nine weeks. And though they have other doctors in residence we usually see one woman who knows each and every one of our pets by sight, their nicknames, history, and their personalities. And she didn't tease me too much when I asked if I could put a shirt I'd worn in the cage with Melon so she'd smell me and feel more at home (Can't imagine what kind of teasing I'd get if I brought the bed I'd knitted). So it's worth the drive.

Kurry needed to spend a day at "the spa" yesterday too. They needed to get a pure urine sample for her senior wellness checkup so she was kept there with access to water and nowhere to pee until she had a full bladder so they could do a catheter. That was super fun to hear from the other room. Now they know how Kurry bullies the 97 pound dog.

So we were there when they first opened Sunday morning to drop Kurry off and check on Melon, who had chewed through her iv and removed the needle in the night. She then proceeded to beat the shit out of the tech when she tried to put another iv in. We all considered this to be a good sign, it means she's getting her energy back and acting more like her cantankerous self. Don't let that sweet little face fool you. She's a hell of a fighter and is a master at twisting around and taking advantage of the fact that there's a lot of fluffy fur but not a whole lot of cat to keep hold of.

People think I'm kidding when I say she uses her adorable looks for her own evil purposes. It wasn't all that surprising when Cody joked that maybe she had done this as part of a plot to throw us off balance since we had just recently gotten our finances under control. It actually seems possible that she would do it.

The good news is she was her usual vocal self when I saw her. They let me pick her up and hold her the way she usually likes and she was purring. They had shaved her right front leg to get a vein for the iv and it looks like a tiny little pink twig. It's hard to imagine under all that fur there exists a little gerbil on stilts but I've bathed her, it's true. There was medicine and food all over her face and ears from the various struggles. The good news is they've been getting her to eat on her own, which she's kept down for the most part, the anti-nausea medicine is really helping.

They seem to think this is infectious hepatitis or maybe fatty liver disease (which would be weird since she wasn't overweight). No idea how she could've gotten hepatitis. Aside from the fact that vaccinations are supposed to cover hepatitis, none of the cats go outside and the last escape was in 2001. Winter's vaccinations cover it too so I just can't figure out where she'd get it. I've asked several times and been told that no one else in the house is likely to catch it.

When we went to pick Kurry up in the afternoon Melon had been doing pretty well. Definitely looked a lot less lethargic and I saw her nibble at the wet food several times. They were about to put another iv in and put her in an Elizabethan collar for the night so she wouldn't take it out again. They're saying I might be able to take her home tonight!

Thanks to everyone who has sent emails and comments wishing her well. And thanks to the folks who have sent paypal donations! I honestly wasn't expecting to get any but thought I'd just put it up there because it's been something I've wanted to do for my blog friends when their kids or pets have been sick. Have to admit, seeing them come in made me cry. I'm going to knit something fun for each of you.

For the last month or so we've had to feed our eighteen year-old cat, Kurry, wet food. She's not one to fight others for food, although she loves to take any other opportunity to grouch at all the other living beings in the household, so we have to shut her in the guest room alone with her food. It's taken some doing to figure out what she's willing to eat. It's not the good stuff we have shipped from Wisconsin, oh no. Or turkey or chicken or even beef baby food. It's cheap ass fancy feast, only the fish flavors, and only if it's filleted. Yeah, we now have one of those cats. Not something I ever expected.

And I certainly never expected to have food refusal issues with our little grey terror, Melon. But for the last week she has refused to eat, and has been very much not herself, i.e. quiet and listless sleeping in corners of unoccupied rooms, not harassing me every few hours for attention or whenever a tin can is opened. When she refused the canned tuna Friday night I knew something was seriously wrong.

Melon is a ten year-old grey and cream tabby who was a rescue from a house of cat hoarders in Los Alamos. It was clear she'd had to fight for her food in that house because when we brought her home she would make horrible little Tasmanian devil sounds, presumably to scare off the four other cats (Phunq and Kurry, as well as my roommate's two cats), whenever she ate.

One of the three jobs I had that summer was delivering sandwiches on Canyon Road (the gallery row in Santa Fe) and as a "bonus" I would get to take home leftovers. This is the one and only time I worked, or will ever work, in the food industry. I hated those fucking sandwiches and I hate ranch dressing to this day. So usually I'd take a tuna sandwich home and give it to the cats.

Melon loved that tuna. She even had a little tuna dance she would do, moving her front paws in a funny little timestep move: front left forward, front right back, switch, front left back, front right forward. At one point we considered changing her name to tuna. My roommate later worked at a natural food market and would take home the day old sushi so melon could have it. She was also bad about getting into unattended taco bell bags and eating the bean burritos and ravaging the garbage. This was before the canines took up residence, Kurry was too prissy to deign to eat garbage or scavenge, and Phunq preferred to keep his extracurricular nibbling to greenery.

She's the only cat I've heard of that's had to be fixed twice. The first time was a celebrity vet in Santa Fe, the one Carol Burnett supposedly took her pets to. But a year later she went into heat again and it was the no-nonsense country vet in Los Lunas who found an ovary that the other guy had missed, or it had somehow grown back we never got a full story (but I did get the ovary in a little test tube as a dubious pre-Christmas gift).

Winter was due for her shots, annual exam, bloodwork, heartworm meds, nail trimming, and anal sac expression (yeah, I know, ew, but believe me it's better to pay someone else to do it) while Kurry was due for her annual senior bloodwork (at her age we get a full panel every year to catch a potential problem early on) so we packed everyone but Phunq and the hedgehog up and headed off to the vet yesterday. After a few hours we came home with everyone but Melon.

I hadn't noticed the tinges of yellow inside her ears: jaundice. Something wrong with her liver. They did a bunch of tests and an x-ray, processed them in-house to figure things out quickly, and put her on an iv with anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and were talking about a stomach tube if they couldn't get her to eat. I've done the force-feeding they were talking about, with the pureed prescription a/d food and an oral syringe. Did that when Kurry went through a bout with refusing to eat a few years ago, but her bloodwork at the time was fine she was just being finicky. Melon's so far has a crazy high albumin and white blood cell count. The good news is the x-ray shows an enlarged liver but nothing that looks like a tumor. Still not sure what's causing this. But it's really just the first stage.

Believe me, we are not people who believe in keeping pets alive by invasively artificial means.

We wrestled with that moral dilemma when Ascii was diagnosed with severe bilateral hip and knee dysplasia. We researched all the options and, when faced with twelve-thousand dollars and four years worth of surgery, we decided to control her pain as much as we could but have her put down when it got beyond the point where we felt we were sacrificing her comfort for ours.

Before we finally decided what to do about Ascii I was the one who talked about a home equity loan for her surgery but Cody took a hard and rational (and what I believe now to be right) stance: we will not put ourselves in a vulnerable situation where we wouldn't have any options if one of us needed surgery. I think that's the dividing line between animal welfare and animal activism: We love and take care of our pets but humans come first.

Aside from the money the idea of having to keep such a happy, active dog absolutely still four to six months at a time after four different surgeries..it was a quality of life issue. She let us know when she was ready to let go.

We're already weighing thoughts like this with Melon and we don't know what's wrong really. It could be a simple infection and a few days in the icu with fluids, meds, and feeding she'll be all better. The bill is already at 700 dollars and counting. Right now we wait and see.

I know a lot of you will ask for a way to help, since I've donated a few bucks here and there or sent little presents and things to a few of you at different times. So I'm putting up this donation button for paypal.

Please don't feel like you have to but if you feel like giving a few dollars I'd really appreciate it. So far we're doing ok and we both have a lot of belt notches we could tighten. But I know a lot of you will want to offer help and this certainly would.

I hope this doesn't come off as crass. I've been reconsidering my "no paid ads for things I don't use" rule and selling some ad space but I have to admit I'm more comfortable leaving the option up to you.

So if you have a few extra bucks and are feeling generous please click the paypal button. Or just go make a donation to a local low-cost spay/neuter clinic or the ASPCA in Melon's name. That would be good too.

Thanks guys. Keep your fingers crossed, candles lit, prayers made, etc. for us.

Just discovered the downside to the kitty shelves. Phunq is sitting up there on his little dalmatian print shelf purring away at me and there are two huge phunq drool slime trails rolling down the screen.

Ew.

I waited to order the cats' yule gifts until after we got back. And we did go with the cool monitor shelves I mentioned before.

They seemed like the perfect idea since phunq and melon are always hopping up on the monitors enjoying the warm air from the fan and trying to look cute by resting their chins just above the screen.

In case you're curious the order was very easy to place using paypal. They sent an email with a tracking number when it shipped and it got here in about a week.

They're perfect! Clearly handmade which I think adds to the charm. There are really cool adjustable legs in the back with adhesive on the bottom to prevent slipping and there are two large velcro strips on the bottom in the front so the front stays flush right above the screen. I wasn't entirely sure if this would be stable enough for my heaviest (at ten pounds) phunq boy jumping up there but it hasn't moved at all. Well, they say it holds up to 25 pounds and I'd believe it.

We got two different fabrics. One in imitation fleece for Cody's monitor (pictured above) and another in dalmatian print faux fur for mine (below).

I highly recommend these for cat and computer enthusiasts! So do phunq and melon they just love them! Kurry has never been much of a high spot kind of cat and has gotten a bit old for high jumps anyway so she remains neutral.

There are a few more photos in the photo journal.

Did you know there's an unspoken quota of cutesy pet photos amongst pet-owning webloggers? Yeah, I know, mock me all you like but look at that face! Only a few of us know that she has the reincarnated soul of Marie Antoinette. Except now she just says "Hey, you got any more of that tuna cake?"

God that was a bad joke. Anyway today there are some new photos of Melon with a non-cheapo camera! UPS had just dropped it off and she was bugging me for attention so I thought I'd try it out. There are a few of Phunq in his bed on my desk as well. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for Cody's birthday present it's really very nice.

go see the rest in the photo journal

ooh the kitties would love having this in the den!

Please go visit my friend Crankydragon she lost her (secretly favorite) kitty Gwen and needs support.

World's Smallest Domestic Cat Weighs Only Three Pounds. He looks kinda grumpy but I bet he makes the sweetest little meows. Melon's cuter though and she weighs maybe six pounds - two of those are probably fur alone.

Let's take a short break from my series about cat litter shall we? Today I'd like to discuss products that serve the front end of the kitty. A good many of indoor cat owners don't see the need to have a collar on their cats but paranoid pet mom that I am I think it's important to have identification for them just in case they sneak out and can't find their way home. Even though *cross fingers* it's been about three years since one has escaped.

A lot of people insist on using 'breakaway' collars that are designed to pop open if it gets stuck on a fence or tree limb or something so the cat won't strangle itself trying to get free. While that's an important thing to consider they're usually made of nylon with plastic 'break' clips. I found that standard nylon or stretchy nylon collars would snag on my cats' claws really easily when they scratched and they would end up having fuzzy distorted collars pretty quickly. Also, my cats vary in size - Phunq has a pretty thick neck while Melon's is tinytiny. Most nylon collars have holes but there aren't always enough to make the large adjustments I need. The stretchy nylon collars are sometimes built for the buckle to spike through the material which gives a wide range of sizes but I find the stretchy nylon snags and warps more than the smoother nylon.

I guess you can tell I'm very picky about collars.

A few years ago I found the most functional durable cat collars I'd ever seen. Beastie bands are made of a stretchy, synthetic fabric that's fairly soft and not too thick or wide for the smaller necks. The inside of the collar sticks to a velcro panel on one end of the collar which means the size is fully adjustable and you can just trim the excess length off. There's a reinforced hole for adding tags and there are all kinds of designs available. Even seasonal ones. And they're cheap enough where you can buy them a few times a year.

This is the design my kitties are sporting right now-

but they've worn koi, butterflies, snowy trees, and chicks and bunnies.

They're pretty durable - the design gets worn after a few months but the collar itself does not warp or snag. And with the velcro closure the collar will open if the cat gets caught - or it can stretch large enough for the cat to slip out.

this looks just like phunq! Images courtesy of here kitty kitty - my preferred source for beastie bands.

I usually use oval tiny tags on the cats but there are also some cute 'shrinky dink' style fast tags where you can write the information on the plastic tag with a sharpie then bake it in the oven. I keep a few extras of these around just in case - they're really useful when you're travelling.

No matter what kind of litter box you end up using it's still pretty stinky. Even having your cat poop in what is essentially potpourri doesn't do much to cover up the smell. So what can an inside cat owner do?

Put it in another room?

We finally installed the coolest thing last night. If you've seen the simized version of our house you'll notice we keep our litter boxes in the laundry room and keep the dog out by using a toddler gate in the doorway. So it's an open door to a room where cats poop right next to where we cook and eat. Not very pleasant. I spotted an interesting pet door on foster and smith called a cathole. It's about thirty dollars, which is reasonable enough, but the big selling point for me was a brush insert that brushes the cats as they go through! This is basically like a big framed mousehole for your cat so this is for indoor doors only. And you can stain the frame to match your door.

photo from the cathole site

installing the door
The biggest challenge I faced with installing the door was getting Cody to remove the door from the hinges and finding my scroll saw. We ended up borrowing his dad's reciprocating saw because we seem to have organized my tools in a way where we can't find anything. We installed it on a very heavy solid core door but I understand that they're pretty easy to install on hollow doors as well. Installing the frame itself is really easy and that brush really does just click right into place and doesn't seem to wobble at all.

a few tips

I was worried that the chubbier cat wouldn't be able to get through or that they would have a problem adjusting but I slid the frame around Kurry to be sure she'd fit and just put a can of wet food in the room, guided each cat's head through the door enough where they'd smell it and each went right through.

There are some great directions and photos of the product in the 'more information' link at the Foster and Smith site and the cathole site has great tips for installation, photos of how people finished them, and cute little personalized plaques for sale.

the verdict

I totally love this thing! The kitties have a good escape hole from the dog, the smell stays in the laundry room, the kitties get brushed several times a day, and I even like how the light comes through the hole from the laundry room.

I'm not entirely sure if something like this would increase or decrease the value of our home but we figure with the customizing we've been doing that we're targetting the geek pet-owner market ;)

Next installment - masking the stink.

As any owner of indoor cats will attest, it's all about the kitty litter. What holds it, where it goes, the mysterious watermark (so to speak) where beloved fluffytuff decides that the box is too filthy for her dainty paws. I think the most cats I ever lived with at one time was five. My usual three suspects and two belonging to my roommate. So there's been no shortage of cat shit in my life.

Meet the Jetsons' cat's waste recepticles

I bought the littermaid when it wasn't even available in stores back in 1997 but that didn't pan out. Those poop trays are awfully small and the poop doesn't fall neatly into them either. With three healthy little cat bladders that machine was constantly running. And it was loud. And for god's sake don't use the arm and hammer scoopable litter! That stuff hardens so much it actually broke a few of the sifters! If you want to replaster your walls that litter would sure do the job.

It's really too bad that the litterfree autoflushing cat toilet company went out of business before I could muster up the courage to spend 300 bucks on a repository for cat shit. Although I hear it was kind of stinky.

If you're curious about other automatic litter machines there's a whole forum dedicated to them.

Pop n Toss

So about a month ago I caught an ad on tv for this new cat litter called Pop n Toss. The basic premise is the litter comes in these little cardboard pup tents so you can just pop them up, let the cats go, then collapse them and throw them away. They claim these things last for two weeks. The litter is made from dried orange rinds. No kidding. I've used litter made from cedar pellets, cedar shavings, recycled newspaper, sand, and this new miraculous silicone crystal things but never dried fruit! I love the longetivity and lack of smell with the crystals but I really worry about their nonbiodegradability and my dog's inability to digest them those few times she manages to sneak into the litter room for a snack. Yeah well that's what living with a dog is like. The clincher for me with these popntoss dealies was the price. 9.99 each. That's pretty cheap for cat litter these days.

I spend about 14.00 a bag on larger bags of Fresh Step crystal litter. Three of those lasts about a month if I'm being vigilant with the cleaning. So that's about 45 dollars a month. But I only have to go to the store, buy new litter, and change the boxes entirely once a month ? that's worth more than money trust me. Sometimes the stuff in the plastic bins is cheaper but I hate throwing big plastic bins like that away and having held kitty litter I don't like to reuse them to store stuff. Except garage hardware. Hmm. There's my next project.

Anyway, that 9.99 price made it worth my while to give it a try. So I picked up three Pop n Tosses at the petsmart and gave them a try. First off, the cardboard popup tent thing isn't that bad. Pretty easy and fairly self-explanatory. The litter is in a little plastic bag you have to tear open. I tried to use the plastic as a liner since wet on potentially nonabsorbent litter + unprotected cardboard = potential leakage disaster. There's not a lot of litter there and I prefer having a lot to maximize coverage. I'm sorry to say that the dried orange rind did very little to combat the severe stinkiness for which my cats are known. And I'd say even with three boxes they didn't last a week. The air in that room after two weeks and my cats could be considered to be weapons of mass destruction. Haha. Oh god that's bad.

So, it's a thumbs-down from me on the popntoss. Back to the plain plastic litter bins and the fresh step crystal litter.

Pop-n-Toss
pros- litter and container are biodegradable. orange rind litter has a pleasant smell and isn't nearly as painful on bare feet as crystal litter. Cheaper than crystal litter. Comes in its own container.
cons-collapsing the box is kind of a pain. Orange rind litter didn't really take care of the poop smell. Very small amount of litter. May be cheaper to buy than crystal litter but the crystal litter lasts three times as long.