Photo Hunt: View

This week's Photo Hunt Theme is View.
Here is the View from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Photo Hunt: Road

Lotsa roads here...it's the view from Sears Tower.

Suspicious! (updated)

Thanks for the tips on the wraps. I think I'll have to definitely try a lettuce leaf as the wrap, but hubby had made some tortillas and I needed to figure out what to put in them. I ended up making some tofu veggie chili and used that this time.

Anyways, I'm stuck at work and hubby just emailed me asking what time I got off tonight. Actually, he asked when I get home. I told him, and asked why, and he said "because".
Hmmm....I am...suspicious!!!

Oh, Cloud might be coming home tomorrow. Niko still sneezes but otherwise seems much healthier so we will probably just bring her home tomorrow and keep them quarantined a bit.

OK, so this might be disappointing to my average reader, but the surprise was a nice romantic home cooked dinner! Woot!! (I wonder what he broke/ did wrong.... hehe just kidding)

Recipes with tortillas?

Well, Niko and Cloud's blog has a link in the previous post, so I'm back to using this as my regular blog. Or not using it, as may be more accurate, we shall see.
But if anybody still reads this, does anybody know any good recipes for any healthy wraps I can make with minimal ingredients that is low-calorie by any chance? Either email me at ravenkatie at gmail dot com or put a link in comments, if you have any ideas....

Niko has a blog!

His blog (and Cloud's) is http://catsinmd.blogspot.com.
Scroll down on this page to see some pictures of him, and then head over to his site for more. His site is obviously a bit under construction, but we will work on it more as soon as I get him back from his first V-E-T visit.

1 home, 1 to go...

NIKO IS HOME!!!
Hopefully Cloud will be home soon, the shelter lady says she is still improving, but not ready yet. Cloud still hasn't gotten her appetite and energy back yet; she might go to the v-e-t tomorrow if still not 100%.
But Niko is just fine, he also has to go to the v-e-t tomorrow, but just for a baseline checkup and also to verify his Coccidia is gone.
I'm going to set up their blog soon. Right now Niko is downstairs getting settled. Here are some more pictures of him that we just took.

New Update

We are going to visit with them tomorrow. Niko is in purrfect health now, completely recovered. Cloud is much improved, but not quite 100% yet, so we might have to wait til Monday with her. I am hopeful that we can take Niko home tomorrow, but we and the shelter lady both aren't sure that it's in their best interest to take one without the other, even for a day.
I really hope I get to take both of them home tomorrow. I absolutely hate not having a cat at home.

Kitten Update

Niko continues to improve by leaps and bounds. He still shows some minor signs of his illness, but is clearly on the mend and should still be ready to come home Sunday.

Cloud is also doing OK, but she did not get spayed today. She had her shots Wednesday, and last evening started getting lethargic, and is still about the same, mildly lethargic and sleepy today. As far as I know she is still eating OK and not showing any other symptoms. From what I gather, this is a relatively normal response, especially in kittens when they get so many shots at once and are so young, but with all we've been through with cat health lately I worry just the same. The shelter lady is only mildly concerned, she assumes she should improve by tomorrow and if not will take her back to the vet for a check-up. As long as she improves and Niko keeps improving too, we should still be on schedule for a Sunday pickup. Fingers crossed!

Names, and more good news

The Kitten Formerly Known As Callie had her shots yesterday with no problems, and The Kitten Formerly Known As Mallie is improving dramatically. TKFKA Callie will be getting spayed tomorrow, and we will be letting TKFKA Mallie continue to recover. I will be taking him for his surgery when he is much stronger. Both kittens should be arriving here on Sunday and then getting a checkup and possibly TKFKA Mallie will get his shots then as well on Monday or Tuesday.
So, what's with all this TKFKA business? We have picked out names for them....TKFKA Callie is now known as Cloud, and TKFKA Mallie is now known as Niko.
But yes, dear readers, I promised a contest to name them. Well, I decided that hubby and I really should pick out the names together, but a compromise was possible...They can have middle names! So, start thinking of middle names for little Cloud and Niko, and once they are here a contest will be started. I've also possibly picked out a blog nickname, but I'm not setting it up until they get here and settled.

Good News!

Since Mallie wasn't using the litterbox, the shelter lady took him back to the vet for an enema. When this was performed, the results were disgusting to say the least. They did a stool sample, which was positively FULL of Coccidia! This is actually good news, because Coccidia is highly treatable! Hopefully he will be doing much better by tomorrow!

And another problem...

So now Callie has a runny nose, and so she did not go for her spaying today, and there has been no real change with Mallie, apparently. This is from a voice mail we got this morning. As of this evening, Mallie still isn't vomiting anymore, which is good, but he's not making poop and he's still very very lethargic. She did end up bringing him to the vet this morning and they couldn't get a specific diagnosis.
As for Callie, she has stopped sneezing, is bright and alert, and will be getting her shots tomorrow, and then being spayed next week it seems. I just can't help but be paranoid, because Mallie had sneezed for a day and then stopped before this happened. I just hope everything works out...more waiting...

Please pray for Mallie...

Sometimes the world seems so cruel. The shelter lady just called, although Mallie hasn't been sneezing anymore, he started vomiting and stopped eating yesterday. She switched his antibiotic to amoxicillin, and started giving subq fluids too. She insists that at this young of an age a vet just wouldn't be able to diagnose him- she thinks it is simply fading kitten syndrome and she is just going to do everything she can for him at the shelter and hopefully he will pull through. She said he still doesn't look good, but at least he has stopped vomiting for now. I just can't believe this--maybe I'm just not supposed to have cats.
Callie is still getting her surgery tomorrow and we can pick her up either Wednesday or Thursday.
I will post again tomorrow night with how Callie's surgery went and an update on Mallie's condition.

Question about caring for kittens

Does anyone know any good websites or books or have tips about caring for young kittens? Texas was my first cat, and we got him when he was 3 years old. These little guys will only be 11 weeks old when we get them. We know I need to go get kitten food as Texas' adult food won't have enough nutrients for them to only eat that, and I know that they need booster shots soon and I have to watch them much closer than I did with Texas...but beyond that, am I missing anything? I'm quite nervous, lol..

Kittenz update!

So the shelter lady called and said that Mallie (I was confused- it was the boy who sneezed) is no longer sneezing, and had only sneezed once yesterday. Once??? and she gave it antibiotics for ONE sneeze??
I have no idea if it is still on antibiotics, but she thinks it is OK now, and she made the appointments for their hoohaectomies on Tuesday. My feeling is that they will hopefully notice any URIs/ worms (the girl kitten had horrid flatuence issues) when doing any preliminary checkup before the surgery, but I also intend on taking them to the vet for a wellness check within days of receiving them. I am not going to wait until the shots 4 weeks from now because I think that while this lady really means well, she might not have the knowledge, time, or money to take the best care of them, and even if I did think it was the best-run shelter, I would want to do that anyway, since even the best-run shelters are inherently disease-infested environments.
So, is it Thursday yet? Figures they will be being dropped off while I am stuck at night school, letting hubby have them all to himself most of the evening! Harrumph!
Anyone who hasn't done so yet, scroll down a few posts to see their blurry cuteness!

Possible Delay in Kitty Retrieval...

So, I just called to find out what food they eat so I can pick some up on my weekly trip to the store, and the the lady from the shelter told me, but also says that the hoohaectomies were delayed because the girl kitty is sneezing. She gave the cat some antibiotic and says she hasn't sneezed anymore today, and hopefully the appointment can be made for sometime next week.

Seems odd to me the shelter lady just apparently has some antibiotic on hand that she just randomly gives to the cats without consulting a vet...

Oh, and that girl cat had some serious farting issues yesterday! It stunk to high heaven! I would gather that it was just nervous and that she just has a run of the mill upper resp. infection or maybe the herpesvirus that 9 bajillion cats have, but after all I've been through with Texas, it makes me uneasy.

I hope that she stops sneezing and that they will still be healthy and ready on Wednesday!

Dare to help cure cancer!

The Cat Realm is having a "Dare to Get Involved" contest. Basically, on each cat blog you would dare The Cat Realm cats and staff to do something for charity, for the community, or whatnot and they are having a contest to see who gets to decide what dare they do. Well, Texas was very sick, and entered the contest quite late, but he asked that they do something to kick feline cancer's butt. This was inspired by a challenge Petey'sowner made after Petey died from feline lymphoma in March of this year. Although Texas was excluded from the judging due to being so late, they have honored him by posing his dare to everyone anyhow today. Please go over to The Cat Realm today and check out the dare!

Also, cancer is just as icky in humans, so if you'd prefer to donate to kicking human cancer's butt, go here. The event is called "Stand Up 2 Cancer". This organization is apparently having some sort of telethon tonight too. Details are on that site.

I have decided that I will be adding these sites to my linkroll shortly. As I know there are some woofies in the blogosphere with cancer, I would like to add a woofie cancer site, but don't know of any. Perhaps Jackson or someone else knows of a good site?

Finally, one quick note about the kitties. I've edited the below post as well, but the kitties will indeed be getting their own blog. I haven't made it yet because 1- they aren't here yet, and 2- since we don't even know what to name THEM, I don't have a CLUE what to name their blog yet. So their blog will be here temporarily, and once they get named and settled in, I will link to their new blog from this site here.

Awwwwwz!

Meet Callie and Mallie. They need to be fixed, and aren't quite ready to go, so this gives us a little time to grieve Texie, but these little guys will be coming to live with us relatively soon, likely next Wednesday. I miss Texas so bad. But once we've recovered a bit, these two will be able to help us continue to recover, I think. We will be giving them new names, most likely. Yes, this is a blurry shot. They are only 10 weeks old,so they are sort of perpetually moving. I'm sure we'll get better shots once they move in- the shelter lady brought them over today so she could see our home and we could see if the cats were excessively interested in birds. The kittens did not seem dead set on eating our birds, and they are just amazingly adorable, so we put the deposit down today and should be getting them in a few weeks.

UPDATE: The kitties will indeed be getting their own blog. I haven't made it yet because 1- they aren't here yet, and 2- since we don't even know what to name THEM, I don't have a CLUE what to name their blog yet. So their blog will be here temporarily, and once they get named and settled in, I will link to their new blog from this site here.

UPDATE # 2: Someone suggested we have a name the cat contest. Although I can't guarantee we will pick a name from the entries, I'm definitely open to getting ideas from you guys, so we will definitely have a contest. I will wait until we get them and I can post some better pics of them, and can tell you about their personalities more, and then we will announce a contest. Also, speaking of contests, they will be running a Funny Picture Contest regularly, maybe not weekly, but at least monthly or biweekly, but it will be on a different day I think, probably Saturday or Sunday, and it won't be for a few weeks after we get them, so we can all grieve Texas and the new guys can get settled in and make their new bloggy.
Now, without further ado, I present....BLURRY CUTENESS!!!

Goodbye, Sweet Texas

We took him to the bridge today. I am so terribly crushed. I miss him so bad. At least he is not in pain or suffering any longer.

Updates

Well, the lump is apparently nothing to worry about, as my bloodwork was normal. As I know too well with Texie, that's no guarantee of non-lymphomaness, but it makes it less likely. Also, I've now had a total of 3 doctors feel the lump and they all say it seems normal.

Oh, I'm down 19 pounds now since starting WW. I want to be happy, but I'm so sad about Texas right now.

I don't use this blog much, I think I mentioned somewhere I just put this up so I had an outlet for the time when Texie goes until we get new cats.
Well, Tex might be going to the bridge tomorrow. His lymphoma came back last week. It is in his nervous system. Poor guy wobbles like crazy. It makes me so sad. We decided not to do further chemo. We just didn't think he wanted it anymore. I think he knows it's his time. He's been spending tons of time cuddling us.
Well, I might end up needing some time to recover from this, but I will soon be using this blog regularly, until the new cat or cats takes up blogging. Maybe I will let my birds take over this blog one day. I don't know. My head is sort of spinning here. We've had since March to prepare for this, but I'm not ready and don't think I ever will be.