The Blog Pound

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 , the wee hours

Zoltar!

Frighten your children on Halloween and every day in-between when you buy your very own creepy, life-sized Zoltar fortune-telling machine! It’s guaranteed to provide nightmares for the entire family—for the kids when Zoltar spontaneously speaks to them when they approach the cabinet, and for the parents when they receive the $9000 credit card bill!

If you’re too much of a wimp for Zoltar, you can treat the family to something a little more delicate, like a 7 foot tall, fully-animatronic version of Robby the Robot. He’s only $49.999.95 (I’m surprised they worry about that five cents).

Seriously, can you even begin to imagine having that kind of money to waste? I thought I was being extravagant a few days ago when I put a $60 wall clock on my holiday wishlist.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/25 at 12:19 AM
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Monday, October 23, 2006 , late evening

A bladder infection, yay!

The subject title of this entry isn’t facetious. I was thrilled and overjoyed today when the vet called to tell me Jackson had a bladder infection. You see, on Saturday evening Jackson started to do odd and unacceptable things, like poop on the sofa and inside some of the cat play-tents. Sunday evening, he walked over to the sofa, jumped up, and proceeded to pee all over it. I was briefly in shocked silence, but put a plastic sheet over the sofa (after dousing it with cleaning solution), hoping Jackson was just being his normal neurotic self and having a brief day of being a brat. I hoped it was a one-time freak-out on his part. The final straw came this morning, when I woke up and found that he’d pooped on the expensive dog bed (the one with the non-washable lining), and had peed all over the side of the sofa. My immediate sense was that I wanted to cry, not because I had to clean up the mess, but in fear that neurotic Jackson had cracked and that this would now be his permanent behaviour. I was slightly panicked at the thought that I’d have to figure out how to deal with a cat who hates other cats and has decided to act out by not using the litterbox.

The first rule in this situation is always “take your cat to the vet to see if there’s anything physically wrong”, so that’s what we did. I was begging the vet to find something wrong with him (I’d bet they don’t see many clients with that attitude!), and we left him there overnight so they could get a urine sample and a stool sample, and so I could just have a bit of a break from worrying about what kind of mess he was making. A few hours after we dropped him off, the vet called to say that Jackson had blood in his urine and a slightly-elevated white blood cell count, so he’d be starting on antibiotics and we could pick him up tomorrow. There are no words for how relieved I am that there might be an explanation for his inappropriate behaviour, and I really hope that fixing the bladder infection will fix this problem. He also had bloodwork done, including a thyroid test, but everything was pretty much normal.

Jackson really is a moody, sensitive, anxiety-ridden feline. He does not like other cats. He enjoys being petted, but does not want to sit on your lap or be held. If you move too quickly around him, he panics and runs away, and he spends almost all his time watching out for our other cat, Frank, and hissing at him. It’s not a nice arrangement for any of us, but we try to make the best of it by having lots of litterboxes and lots of cat trees, but I still think Jackson could benefit from some mood-altering medication when we get the bladder infection under control. The very best situation for Jackson would be to be an only-cat in a non-demanding home, but there’s not much demand for an 8 year old male black cat who occasionally pees over the side of the litterbox.

The foster kittens are rapidly improving since their vet check, so either they had worms of some sort, or it’s just a nice coincidence. Fannie Mae has put on lots of weight, and even Freddie Mac is growing larger and is more active than he used to be. As Flippy put it, they just seem to be a lot happier than they were last week.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/23 at 10:40 PM
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Sunday, October 22, 2006 , the wee hours

About 4 weeks and a little wormy

I took some new photos of our charges today. They won’t win any beauty pageants, will they?!

I’ve been pretty concerned about them because the top two cats in the photo (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae), haven’t really been gaining weight. They also developed a very “fragrant” and blood-spotted diarrhea a few days ago. So, we carted them off to the vet. Their fecal samples were negative, but they were dewormed just in case and sent home with 9 days worth of Albon. Today they seem to be pooping less, although there are still some blood spots. Flippy doesn’t think it stinks as much, though, and her nose can detect anything obnoxious.

I try and try to clean them up to make them look presentable, but they immediately end up looking like little ruffians again. TJ, the cat in the bottom photo, is huge like a moose—at the vet he literally weighed twice as much as Freddie Mac. The vet doesn’t think that’s significant, but I’m still suspicious about whether TJ is really a sibling of the other two. They’re just getting to the age where they’re very playful, running and jumping all over the kitchen, so they’re a lot of fun when I’m not cleaning up after them.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/22 at 01:10 AM
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Friday, October 20, 2006 , late at night

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog

As mentioned in the NaBloPoMo entry, Flippy and I are going to attempt to write one blog entry each day in November. I’m considering it an opportunity to catch up on all my uncompleted book reviews, but just in case I run out of things to say, we ordered a copy of, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. It arrived today and I give it two very amused thumbs up! It’s a small book and a quick read, but it really does contain good ideas, and great examples to inspire the uninspired blogger. It kind of reads like a good blog, too—short, snappy, and entertaining— so it’s a fun investment for the NaBloPoMo participant, or just the person who wants to hone their blogging skills. I hope to write a sequel to the book, and I’ll call it, “No One Cares What Cute Thing Your Cat Did Today” (which I’m sure it what lots of people say about my blog.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/20 at 11:09 PM
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006 , late evening

Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys

I’ve been meaning to write a bit about a new line of cat food flavours from Fancy Feast called “Elegent Medleys”. In all honesty, they seem to be of reasonably good quality, and our cats really love them. I was surprised to see the cats chow down food with chunks of spinach in it, but they did, and they did it with enthusiasm. Many of the Fancy Feast flavours have a decent ingredient list (lots of meat, low on by-products, few filler carbs), and I guess that’s partially why they’re so darned expensive. If you’re buying Fancy Feast in the grocery store because you think it’s less expensive than a “premium” food like Merrick, Wellness, or Eagle Pack, do the math—you might be surprised. In fact, the only reason my cats had any of these new Elegant Medley flavours was because we were mailed a couple of free promotional cans, and there were good deals on introductory samplers at Petsmart.

I was reminded to write about Elegant Medleys when I received an email this morning about this little treasure:

Can’t you just imagine how your holiday guests will Oooh and Ahhh when they see your Fancy Feast snow globe?! Nothing says “‘tis the season” like a plastic white cat in a glass ball, decorated with poorly painted teal and gold accents and made in China. To get your very own, just send $2.99 and 12 UPC codes (about $10 worth of cat food) to: Fancy Feast limited edition snow globe ornament order form. Please don’t order one for me… I’d hate to keep a gem such as this out the of hands of a true snow globe aficionado.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/17 at 10:36 PM
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Monday, October 16, 2006 , evening

NaBloPoMo

Via Vetmommy (originally via Fussy), comes the idea for NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. To participate, write one blog entry a day for the entire month of November. There are no prizes that I’m aware of, but you’ll be able to fine-tune your writing skills, and maybe you’ll become really good at figuring out what to blog about! Here’s a polite little button you can grab to put on your own blog to promote the idea, again courtesy of Fussy:

On a related note, Flippy and I keep threatening to buy a copy of No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog, and perhaps this is the time to do it! One of the suggested ideas is to write a serial novel, which certainly isn’t my strength, but it’s being successfully done by Asta, Jemima, and Apollo over at Three Cats Write. I think it’s a fine bit of work, especially considering cats have no thumbs, and only type about 25 words a minute.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/16 at 09:24 PM
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Sunday, October 15, 2006 , the wee hours

Penn Foster Veterinary Assistant program

In November 2005, I started taking a correspondence course at Penn Foster to be a veterinary assistant. I didn’t really know if the program had any value or credibility (it’s hard to trust places which offer classes in such diverse areas as “gunsmith” and “floral design”), but I figured it would be a good chance for me to try out the distance education concept to see if I liked it. Surprisingly, I ended up being impressed by the Penn Foster program. Even though my course was only a certificate course and it didn’t necessarily have much real-world value, I thought the classes and teaching materials were professional and challenging. All 38 modules were graded using open-book tests, but they still required a high degree of understanding of the materials. I’ve taken biology, anatomy, and physiology classes many times, so a lot of the material was just review for me, but I feel I learned a lot in the modules about actual techniques used in veterinary practice (restraint methods, instrument sterilization, bandaging methods, anaesthesia basics, etc.). From the small amount of time I’ve spent in a vet clinic, I’d say that these materials were up-to-date and accurate.

My complaints and criticisms of the course are problems inherent in the “distance learning” concept. The course materials were sent by media mail (until I called and complained about it), so delivery was slow at first. I ended up paying for the entire course ahead of time, in-full, just to get them to send me ALL the lessons at once so I could truly work at my own pace and in the order which interested me. While most of the materials were interesting, the required “course options” seemed thrown together haphazardly and were of limited value. For example, when I selected an optional module about cats, I didn’t expect that I’d end up learning about “breeding cats” and “showing cats”. The optional modules seemed like a complete waste of time, nothing more than “busywork”.

My biggest concern was that it was next-to-impossible to have contact with an instructor to ask questions. There was no way that I found to email an actual person with questions—I was limited to using the generic “contact us” form on the Penn Foster website, and as of yet, I haven’t received answers to any of the three questions I asked. The questions I asked related to my other complaint: some of the test questions were vague and confusing, and at least three of them were completely incorrect. On more than one occasion, the text would contradict the supposedly “correct” answer on a test, yet there was no real person I could confront about this.

I don’t know how useful the course would be if I was to use it to seek employment, but I may end up using it as a jumping-off point to take Penn Foster’s Veterinary Technician degree program. This program has just been accredited by the AVMA, and it’s supposedly a lot more professional. I’ve read that there are message boards where you can interact with instructors, and online classrooms/chatrooms with mandatory sessions each week. My tests would be supervised by a proctor, and I’d have required interships at veterinary clinics where I’d have to learn certain tasks. If I want vet tech training here in Nevada I only have two other choices: “Pima Medical” on the other side of town, and the community college, where I’d have to complete the program on a fixed schedule and couldn’t start until the fall of 2007. I also haven’t heard anything good about the community college program—the one vet I asked about it said that the students don’t seem to learn anything of value, so that’s not really a glowing review! I just love learning, and I’ve been taking classes off and on since I graduated from high school twenty-two years ago, so the vet tech classes would be just one more thing to keep my mind busy, and to enhance my employment opportunities.

Oh, the point of writing this entry (besides its information value) was to say that I’ve finally finished the veterinary assistant program, and I should be receiving my certificate in the next couple of weeks. 38 modules of material, 755 test questions… I finished with an average of 97.4%. The radiology module gave me brain cramps, and it was very difficult, so I don’t relish the thought of encountering it again in a vet tech program. I’d wanted to complete the program more quickly, but with the occasional batch of foster kittens, Flippy’s surgery, mortgage agent school, regular work, etc., it ended up taking me 11 months.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/15 at 12:05 AM
Vet Tech school • (8) Comments • Permalink

Kill the spammers

I don’t consider myself a violent person, but I’m just about fed up with the amount of spam I receive in my email. The final straw for me has been receiving spam in foreign languages—I’m now getting spam in what looks to be Russian and Mandarin. With all the little websites we run, and all our “irons in the fire”, I monitor 27 different email addresses (I have individual admin email addresses and “help” email addresses for each message board we run, for example), and I’m receiving about 300+ spam messages every 24 hours. I wake up to at least 60 every morning, and then they come in chunks of 10 or so every 15 minutes, all day long. I’m going to have to change a few of the email addys I use for admin purposes because those are easy to modify, but there’s not much I can do about the others. What really chaps my ass about spam is that Flippy and I have made a living for the past eight years doing Internet marketing, and we’ve never, ever had to spam or do anything even remotely “dirty”. What kind of morons are actually responding to spam they receive to give the spammers encouragement?! Does someone out there truly believe they’re been “prequalified for a mortgage loan of $800000 with payments of only $150 per month”?! Is anyone really responding to ads which advertise “VIwxAGRA”?! The only positive thing about the spam trend is that it seems to be slowly dying. The ads I now receive are strictly limited to illegal software, pills, mortgages, watches, and stocks, so the spammers seem to have lost their opportunities in other sectors (I think the FTC should be able to eventually eliminate the stock spam, too). I don’t even receive porn spam anymore, although I think Flippy might get the occasional piece of it. Anyway, that’s my vent for the day. Kill the spammers and make their hides into ergonomic desk chairs.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/15 at 12:03 AM
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Friday, October 13, 2006 , evening

Me in Cape Cod?

I had a job interview today, part of a “first round” of interviews being conducted by International Fund for Animal Welfare. They’re looking for someone to help them market their Internet presence, and are especially interested in a person with blog experience and knowledge of blog networks. I think I fit that bill pretty well, and they invited me for a telephone interview which lasted 50 minutes. Parts of the interview were fine, especially the parts about marketing and SEO, but other parts involved those horrible hypothetical questions which can be so tough to answer. They were extra-difficult for me, because I haven’t had an employer since 1995, so I had to think back to over a decade ago to answer questions about “interpersonal conflicts on the job”, “situations where I had to make decisions I wasn’t necessarily authorized to make”, and things of that nature.

The cool thing about this job is that I’m actually qualified for it (it’s nice to not have to “embellish” any of my experience), and that I love the work being done by the IFAW organization. The bad thing about the job is that it’s an office job in Cape Cod, MA, which is not within daily commuting distance of Las Vegas :P If I was offered the position, Flippy and I have decided that I’d go to MA by myself for a few months to see how it goes, and then we’d decide how to proceed from there. The housing market in Vegas is so horrible right now that we can’t even attempt to sell our house—we’d probably lose about 60 to 70 thousand dollars, if we could sell it at all.

So, lots of decisions to make, and lots of opportunities. Mortgage agent, veterinary technician, “online community coordinator”—it’s kind of nice to be back in the work-force again after my years in immigration limbo!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/13 at 09:59 PM
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Kitty punked

I believe I’ve been a victim of a kitten punking.

Last weekend I picked up three kittens from the vet’s office. The person who’d dropped the kittens off at the clinic had said that the kittens belonged to his grandmother’s cat, that the grandmother was out of town, and that the mother cat was eating the kittens. He said the kittens were about 10 days to two weeks old. He also said that his grandmother had a second cat in the house who’d just given birth, and that he tried to put these kittens with the other nursing cat, but they were rejected. That was the story I was told via the staff at the clinic.

The day I picked up the kittens, something seemed off—they didn’t seem to all be the same age. They were all small, but in different stages of physical development. While their eyes were just opening, other physical features, like their ears, were fully opened, and they had excellent mobility. One of them had a hefty set of painful teeth. On the second day, two of them ate Missy Mae’s solid food, and used the litterbox! I’ve come to the conclusion that two of these kittens are really about four to five weeks old (and just undernourished, with bad eye infections), and that the third kitten is now about three weeks old. I think I’ve got cats from two different litters, even though their colours are similiar (I guess they may have had the same father).

The kittens are all doing very well, but they’re still tiny for the ages I’ve guess-timated. They were just skin and bones when I got them, and someone at the vet’s office suggested that perhaps the mother cat was starving, which was why she wasn’t feeding the kittens, or even why she might have been eating them (if she really was doing that). They obviously didn’t come from a very diligent environment, although it was good of the grandson to make the effort to get them some help. These are the most “wild” kittens I’ve had to deal with—the two older ones (TJ and Fannie Mae), are skittish, and Fannie Mae spent a few days biting me for all she was worth every time she got the opportunity. She still bites and growls a bit, but it’s starting to become more playful and less “I’ll fight you to the death”. Freddie Mac, the youngest, has been cuddly and purring since day one, which is another reason I think he’s younger than the other two. Last weekend he was cross-eyed, but his eyes are now straight and clear, so I really think his eyes had just opened up when we brought him home.

I’ll have to give these kittens some extra attention to make sure they grow up to love people and to be trusting. They’re all eating solid food most of the time (Freddie Mac still drinks from a bottle once or twice a day), so I don’t get the constant “bonding” experience of bottle-feeding. On the other hand, that allows me to just spend time playing and holding them, so perhaps it all balances out in the end.

I’ll definitely try to add some more pictures soon. They mostly look the same as they did in the other photos I posted—they still need to fill out a bit more so they don’t look so sickly.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/13 at 08:12 PM
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