Put some money in the jar for the babies. Don’t be a Heartless McGee!
*Edited to add: We’ve received over $2,950 in donations in less than two days! That’s more than enough to pay for the surgeries for ALL of these kittens, thank you all so much! You guys are so amazing!!!
Warning: I’ll be working on my site design over the weekend, so if things look wonky ’round here, that’ll be why. I’m likely going to go back to the updated version of this theme. I’m having issues with this version because it’s so old, and when I used the updated version a few months ago, my only problem was that some of you couldn’t see the entire banner at the top of the page. I promise you I’ll do my very best to fix that problem, but when it comes down to it, it may just be something you have to deal with. With the current version, I can’t even edit my right-side column because according to the theme editor, there’s no such thing. Grrr.
On the up side, we’ll get back the feature where you can reply directly to another comment! Yay!
So, this is how my mornings have gone, recently.
I’m generally awakened around 5:30 by Fred, who’s in the downstairs bathroom. He doesn’t intentionally wake me up at 5:30, but he blows his nose so fucking loud that elephants in the deepest parts of South Africa pause, lift their heads and say “Was that Bob?”
Since I’m awake, I roll out of bed, toss on my nightgown, and then go to the bathroom to pop my contacts in. I stumble down the stairs and into the kitchen. Usually by the time I’m to the bottom of the stairs, Fred is out of the shower, and he joins me in my journey to the kitchen. He goes through the kitchen and out the back door into the still-dark morning, while I stay in the kitchen and start preparing medicine.
A few minutes later, he comes back into the kitchen with The Maestro.
The Maestro.
He noticed, about a week ago, that The Maestro was holding one eye closed. When he picked her up to examine her, he realized that she was wheezing pretty badly and had an upper respiratory infection. We started her on a twice-daily regimen of Terramycin in her eye and a liquid antibiotic down her gullet. He always holds her so that I can apply the ointment to her eye – you can imagine how much she enjoys THAT – and then hands her over to me, and I hold her while he shoots the antibiotic down her throat. And I’m sure you can imagine how much she enjoys THAT, too. Then he takes her back out to the coop.
While he’s out putting The Maestro back in the coop, I prepare another syringe of medication. A few minutes later, he comes in with Hjonkie in his arms.
Hjonkie.
Less than a week ago, Hjonkie stopped acting like himself – he wouldn’t make the sound that gave him his name when he saw Fred, and he wouldn’t jump up on Fred’s arm. Also, the feathers around his neck were sticking out instead of laying flat. According to Fred, that’s an issue and he was afraid Hjonkie was getting sick. So he start Hjonkie on a twice-a-day antibiotic regimen, too.
I think you can imagine how a big-ass turkey fights having antibiotic squirted down his throat. I get to hold the damn bird while Fred does the squirting. Then Fred takes Hjonkie back out to HIS coop, and I begin preparing more medication.
Fred comes back inside and wrangles Jake and Elwood, then holds each of them up so that I can squirt medicine down their throats. Elwood’s usually pretty good about it, but Jake acts like an ass, fighting and kicking and make a face like he’s being tortured. (It’s kind of entertaining, to be honest, he’s such a little drama queen.)
Then, while the other cats meow and twine around my feet, I prepare Snackin’! Time! plates for the foster kittens. They’re healthy, but still kind of having litter box issues, and the thing that seems to help the most with that is powdered Slippery Elm Bark, both sprinkled over their wet food (they get a mixture of Gerber chicken and gravy baby food and Iams kitten food in the morning and in the evening with a healthy sprinkle of powdered Slippery Elm Bark mixed in with it all) and some extra given to each of them in a syrup (“syrup” = powder mixed with water and heated until it’s thickened; can be refrigerated for up to a week) via an oral syringe. So I get the syringes and the snacks ready, and then Fred goes upstairs with me to assist. We put the plates down on the floor the kittens surround the plates, and then Fred picks up the kittens one by one and holds them as I squirt the syrup into their mouths.
Then Fred leaves for work and I go off to take my shower and by the time I’m showered and dressed, it’s light enough so that I can open the maternity coop and turkey coop without fear of nighttime predators (possums, raccoons) coming along and eating a chicken or two.
So, that’s the first 45 minutes or so of my morning, every morning for the past week. The excitement yesterday morning is that when Fred brought Hjonkie into the kitchen, he first hissed at the kittens (I had no idea that turkeys hissed!), and then he registered his displeasure by shooting out a great big Turkey poop on the floor.
“Thank god he got it on the floor and not on the rug,” was my only response. And then Elwood ran over and began vigorously sniffing the turkey poop, and I was afraid he’d start eating it (cats are just the nastiest creatures on earth), so while I was holding Hjonkie and Fred was trying to pry Hjonkie’s beak open, I reached out with one bare foot to push Elwood away from the turkey poop. And managed to SCOOP my big toe through the poop and then at the far point of my kicking trajectory, the poop that had attached itself to my toe plopped off and landed on the rug.
Luckily, it was somehow a DRYish kind of poop, and with a cleaning rag and the application of some cleaning spray, you can’t even tell it was ever there.
You know you want my life.
Will you make turkey bacon from your turkeys eventually?
Though of course I’ve learned to NEVER say “never” (see: “Oh, we’ll never have dogs.” “Oh, we’ll never have more than, say, 20 chickens.” “Oh, we’ll never have more than 5 cats.”), I can say that at this juncture, I do not plan to make turkey bacon.
(At his desk at work right now, I suspect that Fred is cackling and rubbing his hands together. I’m sure he has OTHER plans.)
Kate is just being phony and playing it up, the left behind, innocent, sweet person who did nothing to make him want to leave. That’s what I see. I can’t see her being that different that easy. Yes divorce hurts and is rough, but I doubt that she is just little miss sweet butt all of a sudden now. Just for the camera of course.
I think that Kate realized that she was coming across as a complete bitch, and decided that she was going to remedy that by being Upbeat! and Positive! and Happy Shiny Kate! and it rings completely false.
Does Miz Poo “talk” a lot? I have a torti cat {for almost a year, come October}, and she is the chattiest cat I’ve ever met!! I’m wondering if it’s the breed?
Miz Poo is the talkingest cat I’ve ever known. If something disturbs her (and EVERYTHING disturbs her), she’s gotta talk about it. And talk about it. And talk about it some more. She’ll follow you around and howl at you. She’ll pick up a toy and carry it from one end of the house to the other, keening the entire way. It’s been my experience that calicos and tortis tend to be talkers more often than other cats.
A funny note… I was wondering how “the one who invented blogging” was staying in business because I had not seen an ad on her page for nearly a year. Imagine my surprise when I fired of Firefox and saw all the ads. Also, I didn’t know PW had ads on her site either, they were not showing up on my dinosaur version of IE. I must say, I could do without the ads… especially the ones that scroll down the page as you go. Annoying!
If you read her in Google Reader, you never ever have to see the ads. 🙂
Our dear older cat, Kitterz, is 19 years old. He’s actually in pretty good shape, has a full set of teeth, sleeps a lot (isn’t that his job?), but can still jump up on to the couch, and he likes to go outside in the backyard to sit in the sun. Eating and drinking are normal.
Last time I took him to the vet for a check-up, I half-jokingly mentioned that I am planning to get new furniture as soon as our cats go to kitty heaven, and the vet said, “Well, don’t plan on it for awhile…”
The only thing is that he has slacked off in the grooming department over the past couple years, and I know that is normal for aging cats. But he smells a little off these days … and I don’t know what to do. It’s not a urine odor (he’s not incontinent at all) and not really a poop odor, just a musty old-man cat smell. We’ve never really bathed him, as he’s always kept himself very well groomed … and I’m afraid if we tried to bathe him now, he’d have a stroke or something.
Any suggestions?
I really like Jen’s suggestion:
We have an older cat with grooming issues too. He’s not as old as Kitterz – a mere 13 and most of Fred’s problems are due to girth. He’s a bit of a chunk and simply can’t reach most of his back. He can get a bit niffy sometimes in summer – though he washes the bits he can get to really well.
Our 3 cats have a ‘loves and cuddles’ session before being shut in the kitchen for the night. I started brushing Fred as well as stroking him and when he’s chilled out, use an old face cloth (folded and stitched so its a bag to put your hand in, like this he can still feel my hand and your body temperature keeps it warm) and dampened with warm water, to wipe him over with. Depending on his mood, I might only get to wash him installments. He doesn’t get soaked and dries naturally. And smells better.
He’s only had one experience in getting wet and soapy- after my son, who was 3 at the time, decided to coat the cat in butter ( a whole pat, rubbed well in – picture toddler and cat loose in the kitchen, lumps of butter everywhere – on child’s PJs, in hair,all over the floor and rubbed well into cat fur – good morning mum, did we wake you? here’s some fun for 5am ). It took 4 baths that day to get it all out. Fred still remembers and won’t willingly go into the bathroom.
I can’t even imagine having to give a cat 4 baths, Jen – you have my sympathy!
Anyone else have suggestions for keeping Kitterz clean?
Thought of you and wondered if any of your cats would be so patient!
I actually think that Tommy might be pretty patient, at least for a little while.
What’s surprised me in the last week is that Jake and Elwood have gotten the hang of Snackin’! Time! (it generally takes perhaps three days before they completely understand what the Snackin’! Time! call means), and so I’m giving them their own plate of snack. But if I’m not fast enough with their plate, they’ll belly right up to the plate with Kara or Spanky, and I am AMAZED that neither Kara nor Spanky hisses or smacks or reacts in any way. Unheard of!
So we have a strange situation going on here. Tell me what you think is going on. We are in the process of taking out a Home Equity Loan to do replace our deck and also roll a car loan into the loan for a lower rate. So We get a call from an appraisal company to set an appointment for a walk through appraisal. No biggie, we were expecting it. They are supposed to come today. Last night we get a call from company B appraisal company trying to set up our appraisal appointment. Hmm, we already have an appointment with company A. We called the bank and they do not know anything about company A and only deal with company B. The bank is concerned and company B is concerned and frankly we are really concerned. Anyone else ever have this kind of issue? We are thinking we are getting scammed. Bank thinks so too. Question is, how did company A know what we were up to?
I was all kinds of freaked out on your behalf, Elaine, ready to scream “Fraud!” and “Scam!” and “Identity Theft!” but then Hannah came along and had to be all reasonable about it:
To answer Elaine: Maybe you shopped for the loan with more than one Loan Officer and the one you didn’t choose didn’t know they aren’t doing the loan for you so they ordered the appraisal?
Or, when you applied for the loan, the credit company (Kroll Factual Data) sold the info that you are shopping for a mortgage (inquiries into your credit record what kind of credit you are shopping ie: car loan, revolving credit, mortgage.) It’s common for them to sell this “lead” to a company – this is why you may get people calling you even if you only ever spoke to one company about your loan. Perhaps the appraisal company buys these leads and knew you were shopping. I think the first option is more likely.
Help me save a trip to the Dr. – Did the Dr. say what to expect from the tendinitis? I imagine the pain patches will help – but will it resolve itself? My elbow has been hurting for several months. I am wearing one of those straps around the forearm and it helps a lot. But man, one day without it and my world comes crashing down from the pain. It probably doesn’t help that it is my ball-throwing arm and I simply can not let down the dog on her weekend runs.
I just don’t know what the Dr. could do other than prescribe more medications. I am ready to amputate! Anyone else have any suggestions (aside from not throwing the ball! Other things make it hurt too – any lifting or grabbing. There are many times when I can not even lift a can of soda. Pathetic!)
She said that wearing the elbow strap would allow the tendon to “heal”, so I assumed (though she didn’t say it directly) that it would resolve itself eventually.
Fred actually stumbled across this article yesterday and told me to order a couple of those rubber bars. He’s got the same issue – he takes an anti-inflammatory for it; I can’t take anti-inflammatories in pill form since I had weight loss surgery – and if a simple exercise will solve the problem, we’re both all for it!
Any other tendinitis sufferers out there with words of wisdom for us?
Why do they have to have your car for two days? I don’t like being without mine for any length of time either. One time I put it in on Thursday and they were going to try and have it back by Friday. It turned out to be Tuesday! And over the weekend I had a horrible time getting people to come and get me to do things.
They had to keep my car for two days because they had to do an oil change, check to see why I had a leak in the leg area of the passenger’s side (under the dashboard), and checked to see why my engine was running in fits and starts (when you put it in reverse, it almost always acts as though it’s going to stall. In fact, sometimes it does stall.).
We took it to a new (new to us) place just up the road, one run by a couple of brothers, and they did the oil change, fixed the blocked hose that was causing the leak, and told us to put some of that engine cleaner stuff in the gas tank. For this, they charged $60. The “big” place we usually use? We’ve never gotten out of there for less than $200.
I think we’ll keep going back to that “small” place.
You guys are AMAZING. By 3:00 yesterday afternoon, you had sent donations to Challenger’s House that totaled almost $1,100. When Susan told me that, I was floored. You guys are THE BEST. Thank you so much for your donations and your blog, Twitter, and Facebooks links!
*Edited to add: We’ve received over $2,950 in donations in less than two days! That’s more than enough to pay for the surgeries for ALL of these kittens, thank you all so much! You guys are so amazing!!!
Once the first couple of eye surgeries are done we’ll know better exactly how much the surgeries will cost, but this vet is willing to do them for a very low price, and I think that with the donations Challenger’s House has received, we’re about covered.
And the kitties would like to thank each and every one of you. Or at least they would, if they had any idea what was going on. They’re kind of busy running around like their butts are on fire, though, so I’ll thank you in their place.
Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you!!!!
(I’ll do my best to get you an updated total donations by Monday!)
Did I mention they’re busy racing around like wild things?
Terry can’t decide whether he wants IN the bed or OUT of the bed. He’s afraid he’s going to miss something.
They LOVE to chew on these cat beds. Something about the fabric must feel good between their teeth.
Bill is cross-eyed – which you can never usually tell in his pictures, because 99% of the time his eyes are mostly closed. Doesn’t slow him down, though!
The Beast Between the Pillows pops out to show Sam who the boss is. (Hint: it’s not Sam who’s the boss! In case you wondered!)
All day long, they claw their way up the comforter to my bed. I imagine that one day I’ll pick up one side of the comforter, and it’ll just disintegrate into a million pieces.
Okay, we’re off to the vet, Sam and Hoyt and Bill and I. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well, would you? I’ll post over at Love & Hisses first thing in the morning to let y’all know how it went.
Annoyed Newtles.
Previously
2008: Who knew we’re such cranky motherfuckers?
2007: On my way back home.
2006: And I thought Fucker, at least they don’t leave me to cool my heels for over an hour without bothering to let me know they’re running late.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: These kids need someone to come organize their lives is what they need.
2002: “What the hell?” I said, amazed. How far could the fucking thing have gone?
2001: Gah. I’ve got that unsettling panic-causing “waiting for the other shoe to drop” feeling, and I don’t know why.
2000: “An E-scort. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of those. I wonder if they’re new.”