A Feline Friday Edition

I've not taken part in Feline Friday before, but am seeing several posts today, so thought I'd share and link up at Sarah Did It.

For as long as I can remember I've either had cats or been around cats. My farm grandma had barn cats that would stand on their hind legs to lap at the milk she'd squirt from the cows nipples while milking. I always thought that funny. With barn cats you get kittens, and I remember snuggling with them often too.

This is my sister with one of the kitties. The date indicates Oct 55 but that would be a reprint date; it is more likely summer of '53 or '54.

Notice the grandmother's flower garden quilt in the background on the right?

In 1963 we had a mama named Clementine. My brothers are holding two of her babies. It was the first time I recall actually seeing the kittens being born.

Me with Clementine in 1961.

My brother with Tommy. Tommy had a full tail, but it was all kinked up and looked like a ball.

There were many other kitties during my childhood: Kitten, Tommy, Many Toes (she was poly-dactyl), Monkey, and those who were either never named, or whose names are long forgotten and who were never photographed. Such as it was in the 1950s and '60s in rural Oregon.

In adulthood, and on my own, I've had Booger, Wanna, Spooky, Steely, Aja, Skitz, Monster, Fanner, Raven, Flame. Some of these I didn't have for long but Aja I had for 16 years. She was special, a long-haired gray and white girl. She was brought to the place I worked by a lady who was headed to the pound. She was only about five weeks old and spent the rest of the day either in my sweater pocket or curled up on my desk. As a still young kitty she traveled in the back of a camper to Colorado, at one point hiding so well that I thought she'd escaped through the window I found open. Some hundreds of miles later at a stop, my then-husband discovered her and brought her to me - I cried, and had been crying for hours. She was a true lap cat. I won't explain her demise, but I was heart-broken.

Skitz was a solid grey short-hair. Sadly, I never really liked her, but she lived with me for over 18 years. She played fetch and would not give up searching if the object was tossed where she didn't immediately find it. She had a rather Siamese type voice...maybe that's why I didn't like her. She also sprayed my coffee pot once!! Yep, some females will spray, even when fixed.

This is Monster. He was a feral kitty that we took in and tamed. His mama and several batches of her kittens roamed the neighborhood for a couple years before finally capturing them all. We tried to tame one of his sisters, but she never warmed up to us. But Monster became a strictly indoor kitty for a couple years. When my daughter came to live with us for awhile, she brought two cats with her and we decided it was time to allow Monster and his sister back outside. They both kept out of sight for a couple days, but eventually returned. Monster would come back in the house and he'd sleep on the bed all day, occasionally letting me hold him for a short time on my lap. The sister would never let us get close to her again and eventually got really sick, was trapped, and put down. Monster was 12 when we last saw him. He liked to be outside at night so as we always did, I'd let him out the night before I was to leave on an Oregon trip. He hadn't returned by the time I left in the morning and my husband said he never did while I was gone. Sadly, we think perhaps he fell victim to a predator. I like to think that while he was with us, he had many more years spent in comfort, than he'd have had had he been left feral.

Pure sweetness.

Fanner, sweet Fanner, our special-needs kitty. One summer, Nick and I went to Oregon and visited a high school friend. They had a grass-seed business and at their shop had a mama with kittens. Fanner was pretty much the runt of the litter, but was female and had extra toes. We fell in love with her and she with us. Her fur was as soft as rabbit fur. Within a short time, we realized she had something wrong. Thinking it was something she ate (she was allergic to fish), we didn't think too much of it. But then she'd wobble and her nose and mouth would always be wet. We took her to one vet and he wasn't able to determine the reason for her problems. We then took her to a doctor who only treated cats and she was able to determine that Fanner's condition was caused by liver shunts, in her case, congenital. She would have seizures and later developed bladder stones which we had surgically removed once, but they redeveloped within six months and the vet said it would be too hard on her to go through surgery again. Her medications were no longer as effective and after much agonizing decided it was best for her to say good-bye. That was one of the most painful decisions I've ever had to make. Did I mention we all absolutely loved this kitty?

Sleeping sweetly on the step.

goofy Raven

 So as we were preparing to say good-bye to Fanner, a few months before at Thanksgiving, a neighbor came over with this little itty bitty black and white kitty. He's was out in his truck on a local road and saw this black and white something run across the road in front of him. Not knowing if it was a baby skunk or a kitty, and being an animal lover, he stopped, found it (thankfully a kitty), looked around for any others or a mama and finding none, brought it home where he cared for it with a bottle for a week or so. We welcomed here into our family. The vet said she was probably no more than seven weeks old. We'd already had her for one by then, so she was probably only about five weeks when the neighbor found her. She has a developmental birth defect of her eyelid and her eyes are a bit crossed, but otherwise is quite healthy...and chubby!

Raven

I marveled that she had the black dot next to her nose just like Tommy from my childhood. She plays fetch, but not as much now as she's gotten older, just turned seven. I find I'm a bit allergic to her as if I rub my eyes after petting her, they itch badly.

Flaming Star aka "Flame"

After Fanner was gone, and Raven was still only a few months old, I thought it would be good to be a two cat household, so we adopted Flame from a local rescue. She was there with siblings but we only wanted one and it was Nick's pick as it would be his kitty. Well, kitties pick their humans, and Flame in the last couple years has pretty much picked me as her human. Raven has chosen Marty, so Nick enjoys them when they choose to spend time with him. Flame will divide her time more than Raven. The two kitties haven't really bonded with each other and only play together/chase each other on occasion. Thankfully they don't fight with each other.

That's it on my cats. I'm thankful for all of them. I think if it were up to me, I'd have more, and they'd be indoor/outdoor, but I know there's a lot of risk with that, and heartache when they disappear so we limit to the two, and keep them strictly indoors. The same neighbor we got Raven from has some young kitties running around his yard again - likely feral. A couple had visited our back yard a few days ago and one got up into the tree chasing a squirrel. The other one went 'home', and the one in the tree spent over 24 hours there before it finally found it's way down. 

I'm chuckling right now as Flame has decided she rather likes watching The Spiderwick Chronicles!

Miscellaney aka Fina-Lee Friday

Not all of these are images from this week, but it's Friday, I'm tired, both my arm and back hurt (from back issues), and I didn't want to miss another posting.  I really would like to be consistent with at least a daily post.  So today, I will share a handful of pictures taken since the 1st of January.

Close-up of frost damaged jade plant.  All the dead 'leaves' will drop off and the stems are still viable, so though it may look ugly for awhile, new growth will fill in on the stems - self-pruning?

One, of two, large frost-damaged jade plants.

This is what happens to your iron when kitties knock it over and the water starts seeping out and you don't notice for who-knows-how-long.  And, while the sole-plate is now cleaned, I'm still getting a whole lot of dried mineral deposits coming out every time I use.  I need to do a clean cycle.

These are the culprits, they like to hang out with me wherever I am, and they even like having their own chairs!  Love these guys gals.

This is a section of my laptops keyboard.  Funny how the flash makes it look brown and old-timey, and well, dirty - it really isn't!  Notice the wear patterns on the N and the L .

And check out the wear on the E, S, D, &C!  I've never noticed wear patterns like this on any other equipment I've ever used over the years.  I'm thinking the material must really be soft.  My laptop is probably about 5 years old an I do use it a lot.

Cat Tails # 2

Yesterday was Flame's day to get into mischief.  I have some boxes I'm sorting through of things that had been in the old bathrooms and 'decluttering' them before putting things back in the new bathroom.  This is a sequined hair comb and I'd set it on the box and this little stinker came up and grabbed it and ran off down the hallway with it, not stopping until she got to Nick's bedroom - don't look at his mess, he's a boy, he's 14, he'2 been sick ;p

Along the way we passed the toy bins that were in his bedroom before he rearranged, and just before I broke my foot, and there's as far as we got with them.  We need to decide if there's anything he wants to keep indefinitely and then determine what to do with the rest.

Anyway, I wasn't quick enough with the camera when Flame first grabbed this, so this is actually a re-enactment, yes, she was more than willing to repeat her little grab and run.  Gotta watch these cat burglers fur-babies.
 

Cat Tails

And I can imagine you were imagining the plant that grows next to a pond or in a ditch in some of those parts of the country that actually get rain, something we see little of, but have about a 20% chance of getting, sometime later tonight...maybe.  That also equates to an 80% chance of not getting any rain.  I digress.

This really isn't about cat tails but is more of a cat tale...best viewed in video form (see below).  Raven seems to be a chewer.  Yes, I've been known to call her my puppy-cat, I'm a cat person - not so much a dog person.  Both my aunt, and my daughter, and my first husband's ex-roommate, have or had black labs.  Labs are chewers.  Well, Raven must think she's a black lab.  She chews on everything: paper, cardboard, plastic, bottles.  Yes, she has found my water bottles and tipping them over, bitten into the ends so that they leak.  She has knocked the cat treat container to the floor and pried the lid off to get the treats.  She's quite the character and I guess that's what you get when you have a cat with a higher IQ.  Don't forget, she's the one that plays fetch too!  Maybe she really does think she's a dog!

Now if this video will load.....I apologize for the low light conditions.

What she was doing here was playing with an empty Pringles container...attempting to pry the lid off!

Picture Perfect Day

It's Wednesday and I haven't been on here much lately. Remodel details and things have taken my time. Today's weather, as with the last couple days, is more reminiscent of summer than spring. I almost broke down and turned on the A/C last night. It was 77 here in this room, and outside until nearly 10:00 p.m. The online forecast over the next ten days is showing a high of 83 for Fri & Sat, but it's already been that hot yesterday and will likely be today (which the site is showing should be a high of 75 but it's not even noon and is already that temp). I'm suspecting we'll be hitting low 90's by weekend. Thank God for A/C, I know I'll be using it by the weekend.



Downstairs shower has now been 'floated' in preparation to affix the tile. Tile will be here on Friday except for the darker glass border tile - it'll be here Tues :) And yesterday, the walls were painted in both rooms. It's coming together. But one last critical area to select: the TOILETS ! Oh dear! If we were to get the toilet to match the sink we chose for downstairs (the most used & company bathroom), that toilet's MSRP is $578...and $662 if we want to add the SaniGloss coating that's supposed to help guard against stains and such which would be wonderful in this area. Yikes!!! Did you know that there are toilets out there that cost over $6000.00? And they're NOT gold-plated!



The shiny tile on the left will be placed on the shower walls. In the downstairs bathroom, we're using the extra granite on the three walls from the base of the shower to a 23" height (at least that's the height the fabricator tells us will be available) and the tile will be above a row of that middle border tile piece (bottom center). The granite is shown on the right. In the upstairs bathroom, the tile will extend from the rim of the tub to the ceiling. It will also have a border of the same size/shaped tiles as shown there in the center bottom but they're a combination of dark browns that blend well with the darker aspects of the granite and that border will be higher, around the 5' level. The floor tiles are a co-ordinated/matching tile that's 13x13" with a slightly rougher matte finish.



This is an epiphyllum. It's similar to a Christmas Cactus - not really a cactus as in desert cacti but more like a succulent, heck, maybe it is a succulent. While it has a lot of blooms, it's nothing compared to what it had on it last year. Last year at one point there was something like 30 or so blooms open all at the same time with many, many more buds that opened over several weeks. This year, maybe only 1/2 a dozen are open with maybe only another couple dozen buds showing on the plant at all. The plants tallest branches come up about 4 1/2' and it spreads widely overflowing its pot. I need to clean around it from all the winter debris that's accumulated. There's a schefflera potted behind it.



A pretty little rusty-colored, fringy tulip from the bulbs I brought back from my mom's that got planted 4 mos. late.



This is a type of daffodil/narcissus. I have never seen one like it before. It just opened up yesterday and has an absolutely divine fragrance. Also from my mom's bulbs. There are 3 or 4 of them opening up.



And how can I not include Raven...no, her eyes are not two different colors. I suspect because they're slightly crossed that the light reflection from the camera hit each eye differently. Another pic showed them both the blue shade. Notice those white marks on my cutting mat? That's where the surface is chipping away to the solid layer between the two green layers. It started happening back when I was cutting up all my scraps and I think it's because I keep this mat on my desk slash cutting table where I'm also known to eat my lunch because I have the computer here. I've always kept a pot holder under any hot plates/bowls, but I can't come up with any other reasons why it might have done this except that for a time I did have the laptop there but it had a chill pad under it so wouldn't have thought it could've damaged the mat.



And lastly, I would love to be snoozing like little Flame. But it's hard to snooze when you have workers in your house...I'm really missing my naps!

Have a joyful Wednesday!

Mid-Week

With things moving towards a remodel of at least one bathroom, most likely two at the same time, followed by the kitchen, I've been busy trying to get some areas of this long-neglected place cleaned up and organized. I'm normally clean but cluttered but with last year's medical issues, maybe some depression thrown in (self-diagnosis here), and spiritual neglect among other things, what was 'clean' no longer is, and what was clutter, is even worse, so...I'm getting some motivation back, but it's a struggle. Physically I'm not at my best due to lack of exercise and not-so-good eating habits.

On Monday I had had enough of how the front of the house looked with leaves piled up in the planter and at the front door, so I gathered a few garden tools, a broom & dustpan and some paper bags. I cleaned out weeds and trimmed a few plants and swept it all up and ended up with 6 bags that I at first had planned to put on the compost pile but couldn't get the gate open (looks like Marty has some work to do there!). The green-waste barrels were on the side where the compost is and since I couldn't get to them, in frustration, I just tossed them all into the trash barrel and called it good. Was I ever sore and stiff on Tuesday morning!!

Yesterday I started my second day of working in the guest room sorting through boxes that had been moved in there, probably 6+ years ago, when I first started clearing out what is supposed to be my craft room in order to work on it. Other than the fabric closet, I've made no progress in the craft room and have actually managed to add more 'stuff' in here since I still use the room for genealogy and other projects. With the forthcoming bathroom remodel, I need to have organized spaces for the contents from the bathrooms.

And don't forget that awful garage mess that I need to work through in order to be able to store all the contents of my kitchen for the kitchen remodel. I have waited 15+ years for this...but am wishing I had the physical strength and stamina I had back then without a doubt!

It's the 29th of February, Leap Day if you will, but even with the extra day of this month, I didn't get the UFO for the month done, however, I DID make some progress on it, and for me that's equally important since I'd essentially done very little on quilt projects last year.

I leave you with a short video of my sweet fur-babies:

Fina-Lee Friday

Just a mish-mash of some things in my week since I didn't spend much time in Blogland this week:

• For whatever reason, Marty has trouble remembering our son's middle name. Since I use our middle names here in blog-land, you all know I call him Nick (for Nicolas). Marty, when filling out forms, puts it as "C" for Christopher(?). I don't think we even had that as a name in our naming pool. So with this current year's medical forms at work, he did it again and I prodded him to get it fixed. It isn't fixed yet, so I i.m'd him at work and asked if he did anything and his response was "it fell through the cracks". I responded with maybe we should just change his name to Christopher, he said "cute" and I stuck my tongue out at him with that little smilie. :P Maybe he meant we should change his middle name to Cute - it begins with a "C", hehe. But then, a LOT falls between the cracks around here.
  
• Not much progress on that bathroom problem. On Monday, Nick said the water flow was wimpy (I'd gotten up too late to shower!). On Tuesday, I showered and agreed, very wimpy! Nick went to take his shower and the shower wouldn't work at all and made gurgling noises in the wall/pipes. The leak may be in the pipes as the only time the water shows on the floor (from under the tub) is after Nick showers, yet we've run just the shower even and had no water show. Nick isn't splashing water out...it definitely seeps from under the tub, and it isn't the drain. Then I noticed the actual faucet (where the water actually pours from) has a big gap between it and the tile where the caulking should be and I keep forgetting to tell Marty - maybe that's the culprit in all this. My actions are 'on hold' until Marty finishes his investigation and determines what we need to do next.
  
• On Tuesday I was feeling a little like Balaam (you know, the guy that got off his donkey and beat it because he, Balaam, couldn't see the angel blocking the donkey's path). It seemed every incredibly slow putsy driver was in front of me and I'd finally get by only to have another one at the next turn. Was wondering if maybe God was using the slowpokes as messengers to slow me down (I wasn't speeding, not even close to the speed limit), but maybe He was preventing me from an accident, or ticket, or just changing the whole timing of my day. One has to wonder sometimes.
• On Wednesday I finally got the bulbs potted up that should have been potted by the end of last October...oops!...but in my defense, I had a wrist problem that's only been better the last month or so. I'm not sure what all they are, some tulips, daffodils, miniature daffodils, maybe a hyacinth or 3? Most of these bulbs were already sprouting, some a good 2", but I potted them all in 4 large pots and didn't leave a huge amount of space between each. I'm less concerned with whether they produce blooms or not than I am in just getting them into soil where they'll at least survive and come back for 2013 blossoms. The ones I planted in 2010 (also late, but not this late) gave me lots of blooms that year, but then didn't bloom much last year. This year, they're coming up nicely and I have one yellow hyacinth, and one yellow miniature daffodil in bloom. I'd prefer to have them in the ground but we just don't have a good spot without digging up the backyard which is full of huge tree roots from our Ash tree that's probably 50 years old.
• Today was a vet day for the kitties. Raven's caught up on all vaccines but goes in on Monday for her spaying. Flame's already spayed but needs one more vaccine which will be in 3 weeks. Flame does NOT travel well, she cries the whole time and even starts huffing - high anxiety...and she's the mellow one of the two (Raven clearly has Oriental/Siamese genetics) Raven loves the car, just lays down in the carrier and soaks it all in quietly. I think Raven would be fun to travel with even if she weren't in her carrier.
• I didn't get to attend my quilt guild meeting last night though I'd planned on it. Seems Nick could get extra credit in a class he currently has a C in (he never gets grades that low!!) IF he went to the school's basketball game and said hi to the teacher during half-time. I want to know what extra credit I get for missing my meeting and driving him 22 miles round trip so he could do this. I have to say it was kind of fun seeing our school team play; I haven't been to a game since I was in high school myself (grad. in 1971).
  
• Signed Nick up for bowling again. In fact, have to remember to take him and his ball back to the bowling alley after 4:30 this afternoon so he can be re-fitted to his ball since he's grown and the finger holes will need it. He also needs to make up a game as this past Tues was the first day and we didn't sign up until yesterday. He had bowled since he was about 5 but then took off since last summer. That and golf are the only two sports he likes to play - he doesn't do team-sports well. golf and bowling, while you can be on a team, your individual score is what you work on.
  

Design Wall Monday, Wk 3

On my design ironing board, lol, is my #5 UFO The Puzzler ~ finally as of yesterday, I was able to get to the sewing machine ~ had to remove quite a bit of 'clutter' from the table before I could get to it! The top & bottom borders are ON, and I'm hoping, no, that's plan to get the side borders on today. I may have to fudge in a few of those checkered/piano keys first as the borders came out slightly longer than the sides by a little over an inch, maybe I can just ease them in...I've probably never said I tend to struggle with that 1/4" seam no matter how many tricks and tips I've tried...and believe me, I've tried a lot, if not ALL of them!!! With this many pieces, even the instructions said fudging may be necessary...so I'm in good company :) Head on over to Judy's to find more exciting projects that others have on their design walls.




These gals keep me company while I'm at my computer and/or trim scraps. Raven on the left, Flame on the right. They don't always sleep like this (Flame woke just enough for the pic), and often wrestle in this box but they get a bit wild so I place them on the floor, where they'll do silly baby kitty things like this...


Too cute playing with the plastic tub in between as they try to catch each others' toes. It's so fun having little kitties in the house again, but we sure miss Fanner still.

Introducing...

Flaming Star/Flamingstar "Flame"
We adopted this little darling early this afternoon. She's about 10-12 wks old, exactly what we were looking for. She's already had shots, tests, micro-chip, spaying, etc. from the shelter we acquired her from. They had called her Dylan - somehow that just doesn't fit, and Nick has read the entire "Warriors" cat clan series of books - the only books he'll read that aren't assigned school projects! I can see it now, 30 years in the future, he's a cat hoarder or runs a cat sanctuary or something along those lines. Guaranteed he won't be a vet - he doesn't enjoy school and thinks it's 'dumb' even though his 2nd quarter grades were all A's and 1 B.

Raven is surprisingly hissy. Amazing what just a few weeks of age in a kitten brings. When Fanner was still here, Raven never once hissed and only wanted to snuggle and play and Fanner would have nothing doing. Now Raven hisses and spits and lashes out...even at ME when she smells my shirt where Flame was held! Oy!

They should settle down in a few days, weeks, hopefully not months! For now, they will only be together when they can be supervised. Flame needs to get accustomed to her new home, so we'll start with a small area as we did when Raven first came to us.

Fina-Lee Friday

Here we are again with yet another week having passed by all too quickly. The days are getting better, and I hope to be back on track with quilting reports on Sunday and Monday!! I have at least been working on cutting up scraps into blocks, squares and strips, so all has not been set aside.
We are in the process of looking for a 2nd 'kitten'...did you know there's a 'season' for kittens? I suppose in the back of my mind I did too, but it escaped me. I expected to be able to go to our local shelter and find several to choose from...not ONE!! and only a few adult cats. I then went to another about 30 miles away and goodness, I'd have had to wait over an hour and a half just to ask questions about adopting one of a couple we might've been interested in. Oh, and it was late in the day and I had only my prescription sunglasses for driving. Guess who didn't wait! We've since looked at photos of several kitties of various kitten/young ages that are up for adoption through rescue places. One in particular caught our attention, but we're 2nd in line and won't know until the 1st in line meets her on Sat. Raven clearly needs another cat to keep her company. I tried to update our Quicken data - impossible with this little monkey! So we played fetch on the stairs to tire her out a little and I think I have her down for a nap (sounds like I have a baby, huh?). She loves to be curled up on Nick's uber-soft bathrobe for her nap. She thinks it's 'mama' and tries to suckle and knead on it. Clearly she was removed from mama to soon, but no choice from the story of how we got her.

I was going to upload a video of Raven but discovered Blogger's max. is 100mb and mine is 285mb. So does that mean I just make a shorter version? So much to learn....still, lol.

Well, Wow, It's Wednesday

So I've been absent for a few days, I'll just say the days were pretty rough through at least Sunday. They're getting better. It's been quite awhile since I've felt the gut-wrenching pain of loss, and maybe it's because I'm getting older, or maybe we just loved our kitty TOO much (is that possible?), but I'm sure a lot of it had to do with also having to see and hear my 13 year old baby go through his first real loss and it being his cat at that. We are better, but we still miss that little fur-ball something terrible.

It took me several days to get to the point of being able to clean up her litter area. I forgot to mention in Friday's post, that one of her troubles was bladder stones. We had them surgically removed Dec. 2009 & they re-formed by July '10 which caused the urinary problems. The ones removed in '09 were the size of my little finger nail, so not small and presumably painful. Needless to say, this problem along with the others made for quite a messy litter station because she'd step in whatever she did, it'd stick to her feet...you can guess the rest if you have animals. I was using those dog training pads but there were still areas where wet tracks were found. I also finally switched to a pellet type litter which helped...wish I'd thought of it a LOT sooner; kitty sand everywhere isn't fun.

I baked the clay paw print that the vet gave us on the day of her demise. The vet & staff are very compassionate.

We have also started looking for another kitten now to keep Raven company. We checked our local shelter yesterday, but alas, no kittens - only big cats and sorry, but I don't want to bring in an adult cat. Did you know that this isn't kitten season? March/April would be better. We even checked County-wide via their online site and not too many kittens. There were a couple posted and we'll drive up there today (about an hour away) after school, but there's no guarantee it'll still be there. Otherwise, we may be forced to hold off a couple months until babies are born/old enough to wean. I was also surprised at the cost of adopting from both the shelter and Petsmart. $90 and $120 respectively. But then, I guess that includes their first rounds of shots, etc. The shelter also microchips as a matter of course. I think looking is helping Nick as well. I told him he also needs to talk about Fanner to help work through his grief. So we have been able to do that at times...without blubbering!

Raven is quite the personable cat. She's grown a lot since the end of Nov. She has confidence in her running, jumping, leaping, pouncing and does them all too well, lol. She likes to jump onto my chair and then onto my shoulder where she'll drape herself or chew on my hair and try to re-pierce my ear. She's quite rambunctious and clearly looking like she may have Oriental Shorthair genetics. She's very affectionate too and purrs a lot. I need to try to capture on video, her fetching ability. I'll throw the pompom down the stairs while I sit at the top and she'll chase after it, pick it up, bring it back, set it down and lay down until I pick it up and throw it again...no, she really isn't a dog, but she does behave a bit like one including following me around constantly, except when she's getting her cat-naps.

Fina-Lee Friday: All About Fanner

Not so long ago, a good day.
Many years ago.
Being held by Marty.
Sleeping soundly.

This is NOT a Friday I was finally glad to see. We, no, scratch that, I finally made the decision that not one of us wanted to make to have Fanner put to rest. I detest having to make such decisions. I would lay in bed at night and ask the Lord to take her so that I wouldn't have to make that decision. And the hard part was, she would seem 'OK' quite a bit, but I've watched her for months, years even, and knew she wasn't. She'd growl, huff when you'd pick her up, clearly painful. Her breathing was changing as was her litter using abilities. It was time, but it's still very painful.

She was so special. She was 'Nick's' kitty (even though he didn't take care of her), one he was supposed to grow up with for many more years. She was oh-so-soft, like rabbit fur, and a good lap kitty. But she had a lot of medical problems and the first time we almost lost her (and had the decision of her living or not) was when she was only 6 mos or so old. It took years to find out what was really wrong. At first we discovered she was allergic to fish. If you're a cat owner that feeds canned food, check the labels, fish-less food is not that easy to find. In Friskies, there's maybe 3 flavors that don't have fish in them. Fish in dry food didn't seem to bother her, maybe they use a different part of the fish.

But then she started having seizures too. And we almost lost her again when her first vet decided to give all of her necessary shots at one time, after that...no more vaccines for anything. We were referred to a new vet. She determined, even without the other uber-expensive testings recommended by ER vet when she was ~6 mos., that she had a condition known as liver shunts. More common in dogs than cats, but she was 'lucky' - hah! Actually, she was lucky: to have us to love and care for her for 7 3/4 yrs, and a vet who knew what to look for & how to treat her and keep her comfortable and who would work with us.

One time she escaped the house and a neighbor came over and asked if we knew anyone in the neighborhood who'd lost a cat with big feet (Fanner was polydactyl). She had opened her door & Fanner rushed in, likely thinking it was her own house as she'd never been out before. We didn't realize Fanner has scooted out our door when we answered it for a door-to-door salesperson after dark. Another time she escaped the back yard. I should mention here, that with her special needs, she also didn't have hind-quarter muscular strength and could barely jump up onto the bed let alone scale any 6' walls, and she had become 'blind' with maybe only being able to distinguish light and dark. This one time, a gate was slightly ajar and she got out. She was gone nearly 48 hours and Nick & I were especially fearful and heartbroken, we put flyers on light standards and people's doorsteps, took them to local vets in case she'd been hit by a car, and checked the pound, and we prayed for her return. Then one afternoon the phone rang, and the guy asked if we'd lost a cat saying he found one in his backyard by the pool just before he let his pit bull out (scary) - he had seen the flyer with our phone #. Turned out, he lived across the street, one house down. We knew each other minimally as neighbors here do, and incidentally, he's the one we acquired our new kitten Raven from at the end of November!

Fanner would sleep with either Nick or I. One time when she was with me I woke in the middle of the night and was scared witless. It seemed she wasn't breathing, she was limp like a dishcloth and for what seemed like an eternity, I nearly pounded on her to get her to wake up. She finally did, much to my relief, I truly thought she'd died then. This became a frequent event, and I learned not to panic. She just slept so soundly, that she was nearly comatose. We'd eventually laugh at how limp she'd be, but I'd always fear we'd accidentally break her neck or something. The one photo above is one of those times.

Fanner ~ we miss you! You will always be remembered.

New Addition

We have a new addition to our family. She looks to be between 6 - 8 weeks old. A neighbor brought her over last night and said he'd found her about a week ago when she ran across a road in front of him. She's very sweet. I, personally, don't think she has the prettiest eyes - to me they look crossed (Lord, may she NOT be part Siamese!), but she has the cutest little muzzle and facial markings. Nick wants to name her Raven. I called her Pipsqueak. She may learn to be just "Kitty". Whether she remains or not still isn't definite...she needs a healthcheck at the vets. I noticed she has a lump (maybe swollen glands?) under her left ear/chin area. Fanner is not happy, she hisses - even at us now. And that's where it's a hard thing...I wasn't ready to adopt a new kitty yet, not with knowing we'll likely be putting her down soon. She (Fanner) was in and out of the litter box today and seeming to strain with no result. And the poor thing can't tell us that she's in pain or not. I did give her one of the six pain doses we have, but I couldn't tell any difference even hours later other than she did finally go to sleep. But then she had a seizure so she's pacing all over the house and hissing even more, and she ate over half a can of food - that's normal post-seizure and she'll stay hissy and agitated for at least 8 hours. Sometimes I think we should have taken care of this nasty decision months ago ... before Nick's birthday, before the holidays. It'll be very hard to not have this cat with us anymore. We have loved her probably more than any other cat we, or I, have ever had. And one, Aja, I had for 16 yrs before she was attacked by a pack of rogue dogs and had to be euthanized. Aja was special to me too, she was probably only 4 - 5 wks old when I got her...on the way to the pound...and could barely drink milk from a bowl on her own.

Kitty Update

Fanner saw Mrs. Vet yesterday. In a nutshell, it's a wait-and-see, or try to get through a couple weeks with observations, an antibiotic and to get beyond near-teenagers birthday (and thus bad/sad associations) before having her put to rest. While the probable stones didn't show on the xray, the symptoms lead to that conclusion given she didn't appear to have a urinary tract infection - no crystals in the urine, and that last December when she had surgery to remove the stones, the stones didn't show in an xray either, but did in an ultrasound right before surgery. The fact that the stones have recurred in such a short time (first indication might have been as early as July) confirms the vets recommendation to not do another surgery. This little kitty, at only age 7, has already out-lived her life-expectancy given her medical problems. We've been blessed to be able to have her and to love her and care for her. Why are these things always so hard?