R.I.P.  Born 1997, Died 6-17-11 

Her ear infection spread, and it was too enmeshed in her body to be cured. The poor baby lost 2-3 pounds in about 3 weeks and began to stagger and wobble, due to the middle ear infection.  I am so sad to have lost her, especially so soon after her sister died from a kidney problem.

 

 

 

More Odds & Ends

A third trip to the veterinarian yesterday revealed that Eclipse has pseudomonas bacteria in her ear. So now we have yet another expensive medication to be placed into her ear once each day. At least this med doesn't have to be refrigerated. Can you imagine how much a cat might hate ear drops that, in addition to being scary and annoying, are also frigidly cold?! The previous medication was not doing the trick against pseudomonas, obviously, and the two antibacterial shots she was given only served to pause the infection, not cure it. 

When I asked how my cat could have possibly caught that infection since she has not been around any other animals and doesn't go outside, he said that bacterium lives everywhere on any surface, so it would be impossible to determine. I'm thinking that she might have had it on her foot and scratched her head near her ear. The poor baby has really shown the signs of an ear infection in the last few days; whenever she jumped down off my lap, she staggered. She was so nonplussed by it that she stood still afterward, as if in a daze.

The vet was nice enough to remove the evidence of the drainage (matted hair) and clean out her ear as much as possible. I was amazed at how docilely she sat there for him. I guess she was too scared to move - because for me - she would have scratched, kicked, howled and managed to jump off the table.We are hoping that this last medication will cure the problem in short order!

The Weekend in Photos...

On a clear day, you can see [almost] forever......

One of our Saturday weddings.....the guest book table

One of the centerpieces...

Luscious parrot tulips look good enough to eat!

PINK!

Chester...our shop mascot and chief overseer. Twenty pounds of sweetness.  I had another photo, but it disappeared. I'll try it tomorrow.

I've Been in Denial....

Storm has been ill for a while, which is obvious to me now, but it took a long time for it to sink in. She used to weigh 14.5 pounds and Saturday morning at the vet's office, she weighed only 8.5. I knew she was losing weight, but I laid it onto the fact that she seemed not to like any of the food I had been feeding her and her sister, Eclipse. The weight loss became evident about six months ago, but since no other symptoms were apparent, I didn't take her to the vet. While I was away for the funeral of my friend last week, mr. kenju reported in phone calls that she was lethargic and "not her old self", which I blamed on my being away. She was my shadow; I couldn't walk from one room to another without being followed by Storm, and when I was out of town or when I worked a lot of days in succession, she let me know how displeased she was. 

Friday evening, she insisted on going into the garage - where she usually didn't like to stay for long unless it was very hot - and then she loved it. There was a big box out there, from the deck chairs I bought recently. She got into that box and refused to move. I put a blanket in there for her and placed a bowl of water and some food nearby. She refused broiled chicken (her favorite food) and I knew that something must really be wrong.  This morning on my way to work, I took her to the vets office, where I learned that she probably had end-stage renal disease, from which there is no recovering. Blood work confirmed that, so I had no alternative other than to authorize them to put her down. This is the third time I have had to do that; one other cat and our dog had to be euthanized. It is one of the hardest things I'll ever have to do. Since the alternative was an animal who would be, at worst, in pain and at best, uncomfortable, there was no choice.

My younger daughter said, "Mom, you've had too much death lately" and I sure have to agree with her. My dearest old human friend and my dearest old animal friend all in the same ten day period. I don't think I could take much more, so I'm praying I won't have to.

Happy Easter to you and yours.

R.I.P.

Cleaning Again

I went on a cleaning out kick this afternoon. I have thrown out 1 large plastic bin of papers and memorabilia, like plane tickets to Costa Rica and maps of the places we've been and are not likely to return. I did save some of it to show on the blog (eventually) when I haven't much to say. Aren't you lucky?!

Tonight I will go through some more bins and sort out  (yet again) - and when I am done I'll have to go through it all again, no doubt. I'm not very good at the first go 'round, and then I get tough with myself and toss out some more (and a week from now, I'll say, "Why ever did I throw that away?" )

There are two cats in serious trouble at my house. Several weeks ago I changed the type of cat litter I was using and they don't like the new stuff. Today I discovered just how much they hate it. I have had a large basket full of pool towels under the desk in the kitchen ever since summer, and saw no reason to move it. One of the cats was sleeping on top of the towels a while back and I thought she'd keep doing it. I walked up to my desk today and got a whiff of cat urine - shewwwweeeee it was BAD! One or both of them has been peeing on the beach towels and it smells like it has been happening for a while. I could have spit nails! I have now washed two loads of towels and I'm trying to decide how to disinfect the basket. It is were summer, I'd take it out and hose it down first, but now I think I'll put it in a bathtub with a bit of bleach and a lot of hot water and see what happens. I don't really want to lose the basket, but I may have to toss it out too.

The litter pan has been cleaned out; the old litter is gone and the old standby "Fresh Step" is in use again. Wish me luck.