The Survivor section; spoilers within; skip to the next section if you haven’t seen last night’s episode or aren’t interested.
Why did they even bother to give the tribes names this time around? You KNOW everyone’s going to refer to them as “Bobby Jon’s tribe” and “Stephenie’s tribe.”
How lucky is Bobby Jon’s tribe to have a frickin’ nurse practitioner on their team? If they have half a brain, they’ll keep that woman around, ’cause she’s already made more of a contribution in the first three days than some of the tribe members will make during their entire stay.
Is it just me, or do the Survivors get younger every season? They’re so young, and so much eye candy that they just kind of blend in to one another; it’s hard to tell them apart.
I’ll say at this point that I really like Margaret (the nurse practitioner); I don’t know if her strategy is to make herself indispensible to her tribe, but she seems to be doing that. I also like Judd because he seems like a likeable kind of guy; he reminds me a lot of Colin Quinn.
So far I don’t hate anyone. Fred was annoyed for a while with Gary (who bears a striking resemblance to Ted Danson, if you ask me), but it’s far too early in the game to know who you like and don’t like.
I wasn’t surprised to see Jim go. Once his bicep snapped (GOD, the idea just makes me CRINGE) and he was obviously in pain and injured, it seemed an easy vote for his tribe.
I sure did miss Survivor and I am SO glad it’s back.
* * *
So, earlier this week we noticed that Spot was gagging a lot. He wasn’t eating and then gagging, he would just be standing there, and would suddenly gag. He was still eating okay, but the gagging escalated, and started to bother us. After a few days of it, Fred took Spot to the vet on Tuesday. The vet checked Spot over, couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him, but said that he was dehydrated, had a fever, and the back of his throat was a bit red and sore looking. They ended up giving him subcutaneous fluids, an antibiotic shot, anti-emetic shot, and prescribed antibiotics for a week. The shot seemed to do wonders; once he got the shot, he clearly felt better, and there was no more gagging.
Fast-forward to Thursday, and after spending part of the morning outside, Miz Poo came inside and barfed up a single blade of grass. And then, every ten minutes or so, she’d sit up, swallow a few times, and then gag. I thought she had a piece of grass stuck in her throat that she couldn’t throw up, but after a few hours the lightbulb went on over my head – I’m a little slow sometimes – and I realized she was doing exactly what Spot had been doing. I called Fred to discuss it with him, and he told me to give her a dose of Spot’s medicine.
I did, and the gagging seemed to slow down a little bit, but it was still happening. When Fred got home, she gagged a few more times and he decided to take her to the vet to see if they could give her a shot of antibiotic and perhaps an anti-emetic as well. When he got there, they took her temperature and found that she was running a fever. The vet looked her over and they ended up giving her the same as Spot – subcutaneous fluids (it cracks us up when they get the subcutaneous fluids, because they end up with a hump that jiggles like Jello until the fluids are absorbed), and an antibiotic/ anti-emetic shot.
In the half hour that Fred spent at the vet, GUESS FUCKING WHAT? Mister Boogers came into the computer room, barfed up a watery puddle of cat food-colored barf, and commenced to gag. And gag. And gag some more. I called Fred (thankyewjeezus for cell phones) and told him he might ask the vet if he could get an anti-emetic for Mister Boogers. They gave him a syringe of antibiotic/ anti-emetic, and antibiotics for both Miz Poo and Mister Boogers.
The only cat who hasn’t shown signs of having this weird throat infection – Fred theorizes that it’s similar to strep throat. Did you know that cats have six tonsils? – is Spanky. I’m keeping an eye on him, but he’s our one cat who is always healthy, so maybe he won’t come down with it.
I mean, I’m not holding my breath, but a girl can dream.
I emailed the shelter manager to let her know that the volunteers might want to keep an eye on Rambo and Jodie. They were fine yesterday morning, so hopefully they haven’t gotten it.
And then this morning, I got an email from the shelter manager. She’s looking for temporary homes for three sets of kittens – one set of five, two sets of four – who are currently in a foster home. The foster mother is going out of town for the week and they need someone to keep the fosters either for a week or until they’re ready to go up for adoption. They’re currently being treated for giardia, so they can’t be out and about too much (they can’t share a litter box with our cats), but I imagine once the course of treatment for giardia is done, they’ll be okay to socialize with our cats.
Anyway, I’m going to pick up one of the litters of four on Sunday. And we’ll keep ’em ’til they’re ready for adoption – which won’t be too long, I think, since two of the litters are three months old, and one litter is eight weeks old, and I’m not sure which we’ll get.
But anyway – kittens! In the house again! Whee!
* * *
I got my car back yesterday, good as new. It looks good, it smells good (like paint!), and not only did they fix the dent, they washed and vacuumed the car!
If you’re in the Madison area and need a place to have body work done on your car, let me know. This place is awesome.
* * *
It’s almost noon, and the spud is still asleep. There’s no school today – it’s apparently “Parenting Day”, and I’m doing my “Parenting” by sitting on my ass in front of the computer while she sleeps the day away – and on non-school days she sleeps very, very late.
She’s going to be hurting on Monday when she has to get up at 6:30, I imagine.
It doesn’t bother me that she sleeps in so late, although I don’t think I could ever do that (not anymore, anyway. I know I did plenty of sleeping ’til noon when I was her age). If I sleep past 9 on the weekends I feel like I’ve wasted the day away, and I feel guilty, even though it’s not like I have a tight schedule or anything.
Fred, on the other hand, feels like he’s a lazy-ass if he sleeps past 6:00. I guess you’d call him more a morning person than the spud and I are. He’s the morning person, the spud’s the night owl, and I’m somewhere in between.
Just call us the three bears.
* * *
Fred actually admitted last night that he misses having Jodie and Rambo around. I almost fell off the bed in shock, because he’s been telling me for weeks now that he didn’t want to get too attached to them so he wouldn’t feel too bad when they were gone.
Hopefully they’ll get their cute little butts adopted tonight or tomorrow. Y’all keep your fingers crossed!
The last of the Jodie and Rambo pictures:
I have no clue what this look is about, but it makes me laugh.
Oh, she’s so pretty. I MISS her!
So sweet, those babies.
Snuggly babies.
For the record, when we got them, Rambo weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces. When I took them to the vet for their rabies shot the day I took them to the pet store, he weighed 3 pounds, 7 ounces.
* * *
Previously
2004: small things that will remind me of my grandmother.
2003: Man, this whole running-a-business thing is strictly FOR THE FUCKING BIRDS.
2002: Fred (as if narrating a book): “She was a bitter-butted woman….”
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.]]>
In the next to the last picture of the kittens, they are making a heart shape! Awwwwww…
That’s odd that all of your cats are coming down wiht exactly the same thing as my dog (and the other two office dogs) all the way on the other coast, and at the same time. My vet appointment is this afternoon, but the office dogs had it last week, and their person said it was almost exactly what you described. Except more coughing, but no less gagging. Damn, and I had just facetiously said that I hope it doesn’t spread to the cat…
Oh geez, where is the hump? The cats don’t scratch at it? How long does it last?
Poor kitties! Hope they all feel better soon!
Parenting Day? The hell? Like you don’t do any parenting on other days?
Very nice of you to let her sleep in, though. When I was a teenager my mom would wake me up no later than nine AM on weekend mornings “because I thought you might want to get up” (with an unspoken “and do something worthwhile with your day”, I guess, but at the time I felt that sleeping was a good use of my time). Drove me nuts.
Craige: Usually it’s on the back of their neck, I think. It all depends on where they decide to do the fluids. The cats don’t really seem to notice it’s there.
-*-Survivor Spoiler -*-
Could you believe that after Margaret took care of Jim for two days he repaid her by voting for her at tribal council? What was that about!? I loved how Stephenie was all teary eyed when her team won the immunity challenge. I missed Survivor.
I miss the kitties.
The pictures are really cute.
**Survivor Spoiler**
I LOVE Stephanie and I hope, hope HOPE she wins!
Robyn,if you don’t already know, all the past Survivor series are now on OLNTV. The 3rd season is showing right now but I’m sure they will replay all of them. Check your listings – each program airs several times a day.
Please don’t kill the messenger,BUT when it comes to animal welfare,I’m not crazy like PETA ,but I will speak up and give advice.You can make your own decision after you’ve read my opinion.
When I read about your cats illnesses just now,I immediately thought it was “something the foster cats brought in.”
Cats are at risk when exposed to strange cats,no matter how healthy the foster cats seem to be.
Bacteria and viruses can sometime incubate a long time before showing up in a test or as visible symptoms.
Please just be very careful. This “bug” that your cats now have and another reader from the west coast mentioned, sounds very virulent.
Have all the cats that are sick been in the back yard???? I’m not trying to panic you or anything – but wasn’t there new ant killer stuff applied out there?
I miss the kitties! You take such great pictures!!!
*Survivor Spoiler*
Did you see Jim on the Today show? The host was mentioning how lucky they were to have Margaret and Jim said something along the lines that she really was not that helpful, “it wasn’t like she could do an IV and help the dehydration”. It looked like she knew how to take care of them even with the limited resources, yet he votes her off. I did not understand that either!!
And did you hear Brandon call Bobby Jon “dumb”, it may be too early to tell but so far he is my choice for the one to hate.
Rundmc: It could be something the foster kitties brought in, but who knows? It seems strange that the first cat afflicted was Spot – who had nothing to do with the kittens – and the last was Mister Boogers, who hung out with the kittens all the time. It’s hard to know, but we did have the kittens for six weeks, and it seems strange that something would wait that long to start presenting. All our cats except Spanky are on antibiotics, and they’re all getting better.
Jules: Let me know what the vet says!
Elissa: Yeah, all the cats have been in the back yard, but we didn’t put any kind of ant poison or spray out there; we put spray on the front steps, and I put ant bait in the front yard. The cats can’t get into the front yard, they’re confined to the back yard.
**Survivor Spoilers**
I couldn’t believe Jim voted for Margaret, either! I wondered if he knew he was going, so he just put down some random name, but that’s gratitude for ya!
I did hear Brandon call Bobby Jon dumb, and I immediately said to Fred, “Country don’t mean dumb.” Heh.
That Bobby Jon is a pretty, pretty boy.
**Survivor Spoiler**
Robyn, you’re right. Bobby Jon is a pretty, pretty boy. Unfortunately, I occasionally get flashbacks of the image from last season when he was shooting snot rockets!
*Sniffle.* It is sooo hard to give up foster kitties. I kind of expected you to keep the two babies – they fit in so well! – but it is nice you’ll keep sharing your home with more kitties in need.
I learned in ‘Adolescent Psychology’ that teenagers need almost as much sleep as six-month-old babies – i.e. twelve or so hours a day. They tend not to get enough during the week, which is why they sleep so late on weekends; adolescents actually *can* bank some of the chemicals produced in a sleep state to get them through bad days.
Wouldn’t it be great if that lasted into adulthood? I hit the hay at ten!
Robyn, I just want to thank you for getting the feed to LJ set up so your whole entry is visible. My work has your site blocked (Blacklisted! probably because of your title), and I’ve not been able to read very frequently due to time constraints, but I can check LJ from work. So, thank you! You are my little ray of bitchiness 🙂
Von – you’re entirely welcome! Some credit goes to Desi, though, since she’s the awesome one who set it up. 🙂
Beckajo – Interesting! I guess their bodies and brains are still growing, huh? 🙂
**Survivor Spoiler**
it was a no-brainer that the old guy with his arm in a sling would get voted off…LOL
but did you see who he (Jim) voted for? he voted for the nurse….HELLO?!? you don’t vote off the person that basically kept half of your tribe from dying!
i love survivor!
Oh, I hope your cats get all better! Freaky how they all came down with the same thing, ‘cept Spanky…
More foster kittens???? Hooray!!!