Clawdio, Luke and Maya

I just had all three cats at the vet and only two of them got to come home with me.

Clawdio, who will turn 15 in October, got a check up and his vaccinations. He's really in tip top condition.

Luke, who was diagnosed with pancreatitis in the spring and has developed a grain allergy, is doing wonderfully. He's holding his weight at about 12.5 lbs, which is a wonderful weight for him in his senior years. He's 12 years old and living large on the fancy ass cat food we've been buying. (Clawdio also made the change to grain free quite successfully.)

Our hold out is Maya. Maya, age 11, has fatty liver disease and her glucose levels and white blood cells are up. We're also still waiting on blood work to rule out any autoimmune diseases. She's lost weight quite suddenly and appetite stimulant shots/anti-nausea shots haven't helped her regain any of the weight. In fact, our "big fuzzy" is only 8.2 lbs. And she's supposed to be 11.

So, Maya is spending today in the hospital. MacTroll will go back to get her tonight and then tomorrow I'll take her back at 7:30 a.m. They've got her on fluid nutrients right now. They also started force feeding her prescription AD food and giving her her meds to treat the liver issue. We're watching her glucose numbers like a hawk, too.

Tomorrow morning before I take her back, I'll be giving her Denosyl on an empty stomach. Once we know she's stable with the feeding, I'll be able to force feed her at home.

Off We Go

Tomorrow we're on the 7 a.m. flight to DCA (Washington National to old timers, Reagan National Airport to newbies). We're staying at the Sheraton Four Points downtown. I'm excited because it means that we can walk to the National Mall from the hotel.

We'll be staying downtown for two nights and then we'll drive up to Baltimore to take X-man to the Children's Museum and then to his cousins on Friday night, where we'll stay until Monday morning.

We usually go to their house every Memorial Day, but decided that rather than rushing back so X-man could attend 75 minutes of school to get his report card... we'd just leave the day after school got out instead.

So, Lily is off at Doggies on the Farm. Fetch is caring for all four cats, and Super Shanna is in charge of the gardens if it doesn't rain on Thursday. :-)

Me? I'm hoping to take X-man to the Natural History Museum, The National Museum of American History and Arlington National Cemetery (he is the kid who likes to picnic in graveyards).

We're also taking him to his first fondue restaurant in Arlington on Thursday night.

When we get back, X-man starts his twice a week swim lessons with a new instructor at the YMCA. We've also scheduled a couple play dates with some friends from school and I have to finish calling folks to do estimates on some of the jobs I have around the house. I already have a fix it man and a plumber coming to look at my list. It would be nice if all the stuff I can't do myself was all done by July. But we'll see. I know I'll have Picasso and Sons back in January to do some touch ups in the basement and take care of some nail pops upstairs in the hallway and master bedroom.

I'll also need to call Dr. K and ask him to schedule an ultra sound on my ankle. Wearing the brace and taking a lot of anti-inflammatories isn't doing much but making my stomach upset and wanting to me to eat more to try to make it less yucky feeling. Funny how that's always been my drive. Maybe if I eat more, my stomach will feel better rather than -- don't eat anything. Oh well.

Today, X-man went with me to pick up the books from the book drops and take them to the library. They were full, so it was a big job, but as always, he helped me out. Then when we got to the library, he took his special library bag with his big boy library card looped to it on a D-Ring and went to the Easy Reader section. Some brilliant person had finally divided the easy readers up by levels. Not that the various publishers have done us the favor of making a level 1 meet the same criteria across the publishing field, but it X-man knew he fell between the K and the level 2s somewhere. He pulled out all the books he wanted to read himself (because that's required this year as a first grader in the reading program), then he pulled out picture books he wanted to read to me and then he got some graphic novels (one Spiderman and one Pokemon) that he wants me to read to him.

When it was time to check out I knew I had two books on hold for me. He said, "Mom, there are kids on this side. You go to the other side." So I did. And he waited for two bigger boys to check out and then he dutifully pulled every book out one by one and talked to the staff member about his last day of kindergarten, how he could read most of the books by himself, but that he might need Mom to help put them back in the bag. And how he was excited because he was finally big enough to take care of himself at the library.

And it was nice, to sit at the library and have nothing to do. No books to search for my class. No jealous X-man wondering why I spent so much time bringing my classroom books than him books (to be fair I checked out 70 books per unit for my 19 students... and he got 15 books a week just for one kid).

But it was nice to see that independence. Sometimes, I wonder where it went. Because when he was 3 if I even tried to do something for him, he got angry. But the last year has been a lot of whining about how he can't do things. So, today, was a nice change of pace.

Dogs and Cats sleeping together!

Our cat Luke and our dog Riley were in love. We'd find them in pretty affection positions from time to time. For example, I'd carry a laundry basket upstairs, put it down on the bed and be faced with a brown dog and a large black and white cat spooning each other. They both had their heads raised and gave me a look of annoyance like I had walked in during a very intimate conversation. "How Dare You?"

Riley was close with a number of our cats... not at first, but as he aged. Our 4,000-year-old cat Looseyfur used to sleep on the pillow above where Riley was asleep on the bed. It was like she was absorbing his warmth in her little arthritic body. None of the cats minded Riley -- except Clawdio, who would stare down Riley and make him whine in nervousness. 

Riley passed away last June, and I miss him very much, but I am ever so happy we adopted Lily. She is a very sweet and neurotic dog. And although this is a very far away photo taken with my laptop, what you're seeing is a snoozing almost 1-year-old Lily, upside down on our bed, with an almost 12-year-old Luke licking her head. It's not his dear Riley, but clearly he's accepted Lily as part of the family.

And Clawdio? He stares this dog down, too. :-)

A boy and his dog

Last night X-man decided that he'd sleep with his door open for the very first time since he was out of crib. He said he likes the idea of the cats and dog coming to sleep with him.

So last night, as I tucked him in, Lily came into X-man's room, snuggled up to him on top of his feather down comforter and went to sleep with the sound of rain pelting against the windows at 8 p.m.

At 11:30 p.m., I went in to check on them. Lily was startled. She jumped up growled and barked at me defending her boy.

X-man never woke up.

I shushed her and her body became one big wiggly ball of black fluff. It read, "Oh, it's you! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Then she came in to sleep with me.

I should have taken a photo of them snuggled together. But somehow I thought a photo wouldn't have done the moment justice.

It's taken a few months. But dog and boy finally seem to be figuring out each other.

It's Been A Long Time

But we're a three cat family for the first time since August 2001.

Today, MacTroll and I euthanized Nyssa. She had been steadily going downhill despite multiple different medical interventions and force feeding. She ended up dying, not so differently than Riley, our dog, who died in June. She had cancer. It messed up her neurological functions. And finally, she developed a mass in a very short time outside of her skin.

She was a sweet cat who slept with our niece when she was three years old, who slept in X-man's baby crib every chance she could (when he was not in it). She liked old people, people who didn't like cats and more importantly, she's the cat who taught my husband how to love animals.

Before Nyssa, MacTroll liked dogs just fine. He was so so on cats (because although Looseyfur was awesome, she did not begin her life with us as a cuddler -- that really only happened when the dementia set in). And Clawdio, well, he only likes me. So, Nyssa was MacTroll's first, and it was also the first time he was home to go through the process with me.

It made it better to not be alone.

Update on Nyssa

Tonight after I force fed Nyssa, she went to the litterbox and peed. Then she yelled at me and wandered into MacTroll's office. Talking from the kitten is never a good. We've learned that she only makes noise (other than purring) when she's really in need of something. 

He started petting her and her skin slid off of part of her chest/neck area. Yes, it could be a cyst from some kind of random infection. But I'm going to bet my money on it being a mast cell tumor. A quickly growing tumor at that, since she had a full work up on Tuesday and it wasn't there, and we've been picking her up to feed her and medicate her for weeks. 

And as I looked at it, I had flashbacks of Riley's cancer fight. She's sleeping in all the same dark places. She's refusing to eat, just like he did. She's drinking copious amounts and having neurological issues in her back end just like he did. 

We took her to the Animal ER, where they were unable to confirm at cancer diagnosis. I'm not sure they have the lab accessible there to determine the issue. But our goal was to make her comfortable until we could get her to our vet tomorrow. 

And then, I'm guessing, we'll be saying goodbye.

All I can remember is September 1999 when we were cleaning out the cages at the Fair Lakes, Va., Petsmart. I'd clean. MacTroll would check ears, nails and do some brushing while I disinfected the cages, put down clean paper, clean litter and refilled food and water bowls. "MacTroll, hand me the kitten."

Silence.

"MacTroll?"

"Look at how cute she is!" 

"We do not need a third cat."

"No, I know. But Looseyfur doesn't like cuddles and Clawdio loves you. Can't I have one that likes to cuddle with me?" 

"Let's think about it."

24 hours later...

"I can't believe we're adopting a third cat..."

A Call From the Assistant Principal and a Sickly Cat

I came home from work today to find MacTroll on the phone. This is not an unusual thing. I popped my lunch in the microwave, poured myself a diet coke and sat down at the computer. Then I heard, "Yes, they're observing if this is regular five-year-old boy behavior or if it's something else."

Shit. Really?

Turns out there was a sub at school today. The assignment the class was working on was to cut out lower case letters and match them to uppercase letters. X-man did a few and then started cutting his clothing with the scissors.

And he got sent to the assistant principal's office for it.

Where he fell apart in tears.

When she told him she wasn't angry but wanted to know why he was cutting his clothes, he said he didn't know.

She had him do the assignment in front of her. And he finished it in less than a minute.

I heard MacTroll explain that we don't make excuses for his behavior. He should not be cutting his clothes, but he's really bored, and he needs a better outlet for those slow times. When I talked to the principal later, he noted that the inattention came in the middle of the project not after it was done. Again, is it because he was inattentive or because it was a boring project? So we're working on him finishing his projects and asking for something else to do so he stops destroying his wardrobe.

So back the ball goes.

On another court, Nyssa, our cat with the paralyzed tail was back at the vet yesterday with a UTI and low potassium. Unfortunately, the drug she's supposed to take for the UTI requires her to eat something, and she won't. So we're calling to see about force feeding.

But we found her sleeping on the floor of the first floor bathroom today. That's not a normal place for her to go. It's also where Riley went the night before I had to call Dr. Mary to the house to euthanize him at the end of his battle with cancer.

So, this week is just getting worse.

Digging to China

Being at home alone has a couple of quirks to workout these days. Namely with Lily. She and I walk every day for around 30 minutes during my two hours of free time. Having her and X-man at the same time is a little difficult. If there were people at the dog park at 1 p.m., I'd take her there, but it's barren, so it seems silly to go. Instead we take little trips around the lake or around Prairie Fields subdivision.

Today, I used up the last of her wet dog food at breakfast and needed to pick up enough to last through the holiday weekend. So when I got home from work, I ate lunch and then I clipped her onto her leash and we walked up the road to Prairieland Feeds.  She loved it. There were toys, treats and 12 cans of dog food at the other end, what's not to love.

Then she went to sleep until X-man got home. Later while X-man was chilling out, she and I played fetch with her favorite Chuck E. Cheese ball. Then I let her outside to make dinner... and guess what she did?

This:

Smells of Motherhood

"This is what parenting is: shit and food, shit and food. Mostly shit. Wiping shit. Keeping them away from shit. Minimizing the external shit. It's parenting -- shit." -- Nancy Botwin, Weeds

I once had a neighbor tell me that she and her husband weren't animal people -- because animals pooped. But one day, she hoped that she and her husband would have children.

I'm sure there were a slew of stupid things that came out of my mouth pre-X-man, but I'm really hoping none of them sounded THIS dumb.

There are certain things you sign up for when you become a parent and a lot of them are similar to choosing to be a pet owner. You clean up a lot of urine and feces that aren't yours. When the whole family gets the stomach flu, you get to clean up your goo and your children's. (If you're blessed with a lousy spouse, you get to clean up his/her goo, too.) You get used to it, because over the 40 weeks you have the beloved parasite in your womb, you deal with a wide range of crazy concerning your own body. There's vomiting (and sometimes peeing while you vomit), frequent trips to the bathroom, edema, random bleeding, acid reflux and sometimes even rectal bleeding. Yeah!

Then after the little tiger is born, you get the breast milk, the return of your period, which is often a lot different than it was pre-birth and a new bundle of joy that poops in the colors of the rainbow (pray they're not explosive), pees in the middle of changing or baths, drools and, when the poor kiddo gets sick, vomits in his/her crib and then rolls in it. You get to suck their boogers out of their noses, too.

So, when people get a little "yuck" over the idea of scooping a litterbox, I crinkle my eyebrows. It's one thing not to want an animal in your house or want to take care of something (or lose something that you bond with). I get that. But dude, kids are gross.

And this morning, I got the joy of Motherhood in full. X-man and I took Lily to her last vet appointment (we'll be signing her up for the dog park tomorrow!) of puppy shots and tests. I buckled her into a seat belt on the way up because I didn't want her running all over the car. Responsible, right? Well, um, it turns out if she's buckled in, she can't get her "car legs" about her, and she -- vomits.

Maybe she'll be better on the way home? Yeah, no. Had to stop for more vomiting... As I was cleaning it up with wet wipes and kleenex (the two things I have in my car), X-man started dry heaving. I told him to get out. He walked away shouting, "I'm allergic to dog vomit!"

:-)

I got it cleaned up. I got the puppy cleaned up. Then I unbelted her and let X-man hold her leash. She was perfectly fine all the way home. But now I get to Bissell the backseat tonight.

If you think, yeah, but Loosey that's your pet... How is your kid messy? Right now he's sitting in the living room without his pants on because he accidentally waited too long to get to the potty and managed to pull down his pants and pee on them before getting ahold of his penis and directing the stream. So, I've cleaned the toilet seat and washed urine from his clothes.

See, the rest of my life... urine and vomit and feces that's not mine.

Because, like the book says, everyone eats -- so everyone poops.

Pink Frankenstein

Our cat Luke got a growth removed from his left shoulder on Friday. He came home with a 3-4" long,  bright, hot pink suture wound. He's resting okay, but he's started to lick the wound. They gave us an Elizabethan collar for him, so he doesn't agitate it, but it's too small. :-( So tomorrow I'm running out to find another one. We won't know what the growth was for a few days.

He appears to be resting comfortably with Nyssa (our cat who had dental surgery on Thursday) in our room and bathroom (His movement is to be restricted for 10 days). She had a broken canine extracted, but she's currently lying next to me purring away. She's on antibiotics, but things in her mouth look pretty good.

I'm keeping her with him mostly so that I can check her tooth hole so that I can see it's not infected and keep an eye on him at the same time. I think Luke likes knowing it's not just him shut up, and Nyssa never complains as long as there's a litterbox, food, a soft place to sleep and ample pets at night. Whomever said cats are clean, never met Luke. He's throwing the litter out of the extra box onto the floor of the bathroom. He pushes wet food off of the plates and onto the floor. He drinks by dipping his paw into the water, licking it and then shaking water everywhere. I think he's just trying to piss me off.
:-)

He wants out of the bedroom, but he's happy when I'm in the room lying on the bed. At night we close off the bathroom, and the two cats and Lily are on the bed curled up with me.

Meanwhile, Maya and Clawdio have the run of the downstairs.

As for me, I'm doing okay. I'm walking tomorrow with a neighbor that I've been dying to spend time with, but at the same time, I totally miss running.

On Wednesday, I'll know what's up with my foot (knock on wood) after the X-ray and sports medicine appointment. Mostly, I'm just tired of going to Carle and seeing medical people. Does that make sense?

Geriatric Pets

On Friday, KTDID came over and watched X-man so that MacTroll and I could take the black and white mafia in for their annual vaccination and physicals. You have never seen three cats aged 11-13 look so absolutely miserable in all their lives. I'm not sure if it was just the trip to the vet's that caused it, or the fact that they now have to go with -- The Puppy. :-) And as usual, Dr. Mary had the entire back crew fire up every piece of lab equipment to get ready for our crew.

First off, I expected the puppy to go crazy since she wasn't thrilled about being there the last two times. But she managed to get through her second distemper, rabies and physical examination just fine. Her fecal sample was clear of worms, so that was nice, too. She just has one more set of shots and she's clear to play. We also typed her while we were there. In 2 weeks or so, we'll receive a breed analysis that will tell us what kind of adorable, cute, fuzzy, black, medium dog Lily is. This helps in a couple of ways. It helps us with her medical future in that if she starts to show any signs of illnesses that are specific to some part of her genetic make up, we'll have a better chance of treating it because we'll know what she is. The test also screens her for certain disorders she might have right now based on her type, so we'll know about that as well, and her blood gets used in future medical studies for mixed breed dogs.

Secondly, Clawdio was the healthiest cat there. That's going to tell you a lot about the rest of the visit. Our oldest cat, who is on his last life, was a healthy 9.5 lbs. His coat is shiny and beautiful. His elderly teeth are somewhat discolored but in okay shape. His heart murmur is still there but hasn't gotten any worse.

Thirdly, in all the crap that's been going on lately, I've been watching Nyssa but I haven't actually been checking out Nyssa. I noticed she was getting thinner and that she was licking on her front left paw in the last few weeks. A few months ago we had her in and she tested borderline for liver issues and had some other issues that we figured was pre-hyperthyroidism. So the wanting to eat more of Clawdio's left over wet food (and the diarrhea that comes from it) made sense. But had I checked my cat out, I would have noticed that at some point, she broke one of her canine teeth and the reason she was lining up for the wet food was because it was painful to bite into the dry food. And the fact that she was getting thin, according to her bloodwork, was because of the pain she was in. The good news is that her bloodwork is fine, so next Thursday, I'll be dropping her off for a dental with Dr. Mary. And well, at that point, she's got a while of eating anything she wants to eat to bring her back up to around 8.5 lbs. She's currently at 7.8 lbs.

And last but not least, Luke. A few years ago, Luke's microchip migrated away from between his shoulder blades, I know this because I thought it was a hard mass and took him in panicked. The vet waved her wand over his chest and boom -- the microchip wand went off.

Well, in the last few months, I noticed that his chip seemed to be getting bigger. That is, there was something hard around it. I wondered why it would bother him now. Mary stuck a needle in on Friday and examined what she was able to draw. She did not get any cancer cells out to diagnose, but I could tell she was really hoping it was just an abscess. Now we have to take him in to have the growth removed and analyzed. It's about the size of a dime, but in case it is a skin cancer, she'll be removing as much of the growth and the surrounding area as she can. He has the surgery next Friday and will need to be restricted in his movement. The incision is likely to be 3 inches wide. And he'll need some decent recovery time. And then, we'll get the labs back and know if it is benign or malignant.

So, next Thursday and Friday are going to be very interesting times for my family. As such, I'm going to end up canceling my plans to go to the spray park in Bloomington on Friday. I'll have to try again some other day.

Pros and Cons

I'm not going to lie to you. I've been thinking about adopting a dog sometime in the fall. I've been making a list of pros and cons regarding the dog ownership situation.

Pros
I love dogs. Particularly long-haired, fluffy dogs.
Outside of the six years I was in undergraduate and graduate school, I've always had one. I'm not sure what life is without one, and I'm not sure I want to know.
There's something that touches me about an animal that literally lives and breathes to make you happy. (Something my very independent, opinionated, geriatric cats don't get.)
They are awesome companions.
You think when they do things like eat the two sticks of butter you had out warming to room temperature or "find" your box of granola bars on the counter that you can't stand them and their dogness. But then, when they're not around any more, you suddenly find the dumpster diving funny rather than annoying.
I liked being active with my dog and taking him for walks around the neighborhoods and to local parks.
I liked throwing sticks in the water and watching him swim out to fetch them and chase ducks.
I love how my dog used to sit on a dock watching fish and quickly and quietly as he could jump into the water like he was going to catch one.
Repeat that story, but eliminate the dock and the water and insert my back yard into the scene with him stalking a ground squirrel or bunnies in the backyard.
I like that my dog was fine with cats and kids and other animals.
I like that my dog liked to go in the car and travel with us.
We have the perfect set up for a dog and we have the financial and emotional resources to help a dog that doesn't have a home. I also have time for a younger dog, as he'd only be by him or herself up to 4 hours a day with my work schedule, and I'm home all summer.


Cons
There's the whole acclimating time period that always makes me worry. What if the dog we find decides he doesn't like us or our cats or our kid. Mixing different species is always interesting and stressful.
I have four geriatric cats, a small child, a large house, a new job and an absentee spouse. Don't I have enough to take care of?
In all likelihood, I'll probably pick a dog less than two years of age -- and it's been a while since we've had a puppy. It takes a lot of energy and patience.
The search for me takes a lot of time. With Riley, I went to four different shelters once a week for eight weeks before I found him.
Crate and housetraining are potential issues depending on how young the dog is.
I get to fall in love with another animal and have my heart broken when he passes away before I do.
I always said that the next animal we got would be X-man's, and that we'd talk about it when he was 7.
If we end up moving to California in 2 or 3 years, a dog adds one more consideration to the moving list. Because in our family, everyone goes or no one goes. It's a non-negotiable.
Scooping poop.
Possibly squeezing more anal glands.

So, you know, I'm thinking about it.