Happy Belated Thanksgiving

With the beginning of the holiday season, I am once again mindfully thankful for all that I have. I have wonderful friends and family (you know who you are!) and a wonderful pride of kitties. I love each of them dearly and am fortunate enough to have them.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and take a little time to appreciate all that is around you.

Carolyn

Hmmmm perhaps we have a breakthru!

The past few days have been positive on the Dazzler front. While he is still very overly interested in Ariel, he is not obsessed with her and pestering her like he used to. We of course have not given him the opportunities either but what little close interaction they have had has been positive. Or at least not as negative.

She does not seem to be as scared of him anymore and he does not seem as aggressive either. She wandered out of the room yesterday while he was out and about and he ignored her for the most part. He did chase her a little but she did not howl, he did not tackle her, and it was very playful

Perhaps there is a light!

~Carolyn

Is it paranoia?

So of course since we have found out about Ariel's kd, I have been watching her like a hawk. Some days it seems as if she is her old self and then there are other days where it seems like she is sleeping more than usual and just kind of hanging out. Now that I am home, of course I get to watch all the kitties versus when I was out of the house 50+ hours a week.

This is where I began to wonder if I am being overly suspicious because of all the close observation. Is this normal for her? Did she just lounge around while I was at work all the other times? She's always been a lot more calm than the kittens (Nena and Dazz)and preferred to play at 3am while the others are deep in sleep.

I know the vet told me to watch how she is eating because that will be a good sign of a change in her condition. She was never a big eater except for lunch meat and canned food (which she cant have now unless its the prescription type which she is not fond of). She still eats her low sodium turkey like a champ and does eat her dry food as much as she ever has.

What I have done is make sure that I am not concentrating on her and ignoring the other kitties. Both Joe and I have made extra sure we are giving all four a lot of attention and love time. They all are our kids and each needs love just as much as the others.

But I am still wondering .. is there a thing as being too cautious?

~Carolyn

Calmer Days and a Great Vet

The weekend is approaching along and OMG Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away. But as I sit here with Ariel sleeping near me, I am hoping with all my heart and soul that the NY Jets hold on and beat New England. Ahhh but this blog is not about the lame Pats but my loving cats!

Today the phone rang and on the other end was the Crest Hill Animal Hospital calling to check up on Ariel. There have been two vets working with us during this entire ordeal and Dr Katie (Dr Brandy is the other) called to check up on Ariels eye infection and to see how her fluids and kidney condition has been. It was totally unexpected and made me feel great about the care Ariel is receiving.

Joe often asks me questions about vet visits and what not and does not understand why I do not ask 1001 questions about every little thing. They take into account ease of giving medication as well as the best treatment with cost in mind. When they tell me that they have a cream for the eye infection instead of drops, I did not question it. This call today further proves why I feel this way. What it comes down to is I trust them to do what is best for Ariel and all of our cats.

So the advice for today is find a vet and if you are not comfortable with them, keep looking.

~Carolyn

Nice Relaxing Weekend

Greetings and Salutations everyone!

This weekend was calm for the most part and Dazz only spent 30 mins in time out since Friday so we think hes getting the picture. Ariel seems to be feeling a little bit better but she is still splitting her potty breaks from the main litter box. She is going more and more there so hopefully she will go back to the main place.

Tea and Nena are funny. Nena's demands her "love fest" usually every morning when Joe is making breakfast and then when he gets home from work. She wails and wails at him until he pets her. But as he is petting her, she walks away from him and leads him to her food dish so she can eat and be petted at the same time. Tea on the other hand will take a "love fest" pretty much from anyone at any time. The big love fest time is as we go to bed. She will follow us and dive bomb our hands to "force" us to pet her while she purrs like a motor boat. If you ignore her, she will whisker your face until she wakes you.

Dazz is a good boy and I love him so. I was doing some homework last night and he crawled up on the desk and layed down between my arms and the keyboard. He is so lovable and then with the blink of an eye he turns into destructo-boy.

If you are looking to get a pet, please please visit your local animal shelter and rescue one of these gems. If you are looking for a cat, I recommend you visit the Great Lakes Bengal Rescue link I have to the right to see if a Bengal is right for you. They are great cats but not run of the mill. Not all Bengals show all traits but I love that 3 of our 4 play fetch and Nena actually does it better than any dog!

Thanks for stopping by,
Carolyn

Change of Pace

Through all of the hard times this past week, I wanted to mention how good Tea and Nena have been with all the weirdness going on. Nena's favorite cat toy that actually is a pet toy (as opposed to straws which she plays fetch with) is a squeaky rubber pig that is really a dog toy. She carries that thing around in her mouth and leaves it laying in the middle of every inconspiuous walkway possible. Usually she puts it on the side of the bed at night so when we wake up at 3am, we step on it and scare the crap out of everyone. Today after coming out of the bedroom, she had left it right in front of the door and SQUEAK. No matter where it is in the afternoon, at night it ends up somewhere else.

Tea as usual just wants to be petted. She will lay with Ariel in the cat bed in the room Ariel hangs out in or she will sleep with us and Dazz on our bed. Either way, as long as she is by someone or another kitty, she is happy. She did hear me feeding Ariel and of course our resident cow-cat wanted in! She took one bite of Ariels food and did not like it. This is a good thing just in case she gets into it accidently.

Dazz is a good boy and only reacting to something he is smelling in Ariel's urine. He just went into the litter box and completely covered her spot up and then came in and swatted her on the butt. Its very odd but I know he is just going on instinct.

We are truly blessed to have four such wonderful kitties.

First fluids treatment

Tonight was the first time Joe and I gave Ariel her iv of fluids and while it did not go as smoothly as it did in the vets office, it was not a disaster either. The needle came out one time so we had to make a second attempt since she did not get her full fluids yesterday at the vets. I also managed to stab myself in the thumb and boy its still smarting.

We have decided that after her fluids, we would give her some turkey as a special treat and of course the other three get it as well. They were all sitting outside the closed door waiting patiently for us to open it up.

This is really hard. She was not happy and squirming and meowing to get away. She has been sleeping pretty much since then and I am hoping this starts to help her feel better. The vet says that she will eventually get used to it somewhat so I am hoping thats true. Right now its tugging at our heart strings.

~ Carolyn

The news

Well we got the results back from the vet and Ariel has kidney disease. They are not sure how far along it is and we won't know for a month or so until they do another test to check her levels. We now have to give her an IV of fluids 2-3 times a week and put her on a special diet. This means no more free feeding for any of the cats which will be a bit of a change. I know it will take a few days (I hope) to get them used to the new routine.

I am hoping these treatments will help her and solve our litter and aggression issues. Every time she pees, Dazz instantly shows up and starts chattering at her. He could be on the other side of the house but is picking it up now.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

My poor Ariel

Well Ariel made a trip to the vet yesterday. As it turned out she had been drinking and peeing a lot and peeing where she should not have been. They checked her glucose levels and they are ok so the blood work was sent out to test for a hyper thyroid and other possible explanations. If she indeed is sick and I am 99% certain something is wrong, then it would explain Dazz acting aggressive all of a sudden after 2 years of peace.

Lets hope!