Friday, March 31, 2006 , early morning

Revenge of the Cyst (not Sith)

Hmmm, perhaps I’ve invented a new tongue-twister for geeks and hypochondriacs…. “the sith’s sick sheik sifts cysts”.  I don’t think it makes any sense, but it’s original.  Feel free to use it if you’re watching Star Wars while re-enacting that episode of “The Brady Bunch” where Cindy is being teased for having a lisp, and works on her problem by learning tongue-twisters.  Starring Robert Reed as Obi-Wan Kenobi, with special appearance by Ann B. Davis as “the voice of Yoda”!

I guess I’ve been ignoring the little dogs a bit since the kittens arrived, especially Phoenix.  The bathtub where I used to keep all her special shampoos and grooming tools has been filled with boxes of cat litter, bags of kibble, a trash can, etc.  It means that when I want to give her a bath I need to go on a cleaning surge first, and after that I barely have the energy to think about bathtime.  I don’t know my lack of diligence about bathing her is the cause, but Phoenix has had an outbreak of sebaceous cysts in the past week.  We noticed one after it had ruptured and left a big bloody spot on her back, in a place where the vet had identified a soft lump of fatty tissue a few years ago.  The tissue had never changed that I noticed, yet suddenly it was an oozing cyst with an unpleasant core.  I shaved it and cleaned it out, and so far it’s healing up very quickly and is barely noticeable.  I checked with the vet about it, and she said to just keep an eye on it, but if it healed properly we didn’t need to take an immediate action to remove it.  I think that happened last Thursday, and then this Wednesday (yesterday), Flippy noticed that a little lump on Phoenix’s upper eyelid had also suddenly tripled in size and looked ready to burst.  We’d been told by the opthalmologist that this lump was a little ingrown follicle (I can’t remember the proper name for it), and he plans to remove it whenever Phoenix has surgery for her minor entropion issues.  We’ve put that off because it’s not a serious problem and the entropion isn’t damaging her eye or even irritating it (as far as the vet can tell), but this jumbo lump may mean surgery needs to be hurried.  Even the eyelid lump ruptured as I was looking at it and it drained quite a bit, so it’s gone down in size but is still in a precarious place.  Phoenix is on antibiotic eyedrops, and hopefully those will help prevent infection to the cyst, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on it (no pun intended).  With the kittens needing to be “snipped” next week, we really don’t have the funds for Phoenix’s surgery as well, and we might have to juggle a bit.  I feel terrible for thinking it, but I’ve pondered the notion of having the kittens “speutered” at the animal shelter instead of at the vet.  Their service is open to anyone with an appointment, and I think the cost is about $20 per cat, for a total of $60.  In contrast, our vet quoted us a cost of about $400, and that included her giving us one neuter “for free” (it didn’t include pre-op blood work, either—that upped the price to $700).  I don’t want to seem ungrateful if we don’t have our vet do the surgery, and I’d feel better with our vet doing the surgery because she does a much smaller volume than the city clinic.  On the other hand, if we had “cheap fixes” for the cats, we’d have money for Phoenix’s eye surgery.  A dilemma, and one I need to resolve by next week.

One last thing to add… last night I was feeding the kittens before bed, and found a sample bag of Innova Evo on the bathroom counter.  I decided to just give the kittens the kibble to use it up, as I figured a small bag wouldn’t be detrimental.  I noticed two things—one, all three kittens chose to eat the dish of kibble before they ate their wet food, and two, all the kittens stank to high heaven this morning during their visits to the litterbox.  Nasty!  I hadn’t planned to try this experiment until next week, but I think this is proof that no-kibble poop isn’t nearly as smelly or voluminous as all canned-food poop.  I need to figure out how to keep them all eating the Merrick food without having to take out a second mortgage, because the kibble is less expensive but it makes having seven cats very unpleasant to the nose.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/31 at 07:54 AM
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 , late evening

Fat cats

Perhaps everyone has seen this but me, but here’s a top 10 list from the folks at David Letterman’s show, Top Ten Signs Your Cat Is Too Fat:

10. Gets winded purring

9. Instead of trying to run from dogs, sits on them

8. The Maury people call every damn hour

7. Ears perk up whenever you mention Wendy’s Free Fixin’s Bar

6. He used 8 lives on heart attacks

5. Cat carrier is a Ford Escort

4. Richard Simmons’ cat staged intervention

3. Can only wear cute sweaters from the Big and Tall Kitty Shop

2. Litter box so huge, it has nude bathing section

1. Instead of “meow” he says, “mayo”

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/28 at 10:39 PM
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About this canned cat food…

I’ve been feeding all the cats in our household just canned cat food since last Friday and I swear to god, they poop less.  A lot less.  And when they do poop, it doesn’t threaten to curl the paint on the walls—the smell isn’t even noticeable.  With the adult cats I could figure it’s because they’re eating less overall, but the kittens are eating just as much as ever (more every day, it seems), and I see the difference in them too.  I empty the litterbox less often (now that the smell doesn’t hang over us like a chemical weapon), and I’ve got so much time on my hands I might have to take up basket-weaving or something.  I don’t know if this will last, or if it’s a temporary condition caused as their bodies transition from eating kibble, but so far I like what’s happening.

I sent an email to Waltham to ask about them to explain why their Royal Canin Urinary SO food contains so many “by-products”, and I’ll definitely post their reply if I receive one.  Maybe they have a valid reason—maybe “by-product” is special code for “it’s good for you, seriously”.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/28 at 07:33 AM
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Saturday, March 25, 2006 , terribly early in the morning

You can thank me later

I was surfing the web, reading some blogs, minding my own business, and suddenly I stumbled across this:  What to do if your eyeball falls out.  I hope I never need to know, and I hope you never need to know, but just in case, don’t you think you should read it?  How stupid will you feel if, a year from now, you’re sitting with your eyeball in your hand wishing you’d planned ahead?

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/25 at 06:14 AM
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Kibble free

As of today, the cats in our household are kibble-free.  I feel a mix of emotions about it, because kibble is so convenient and relatively inexpensive (even the good stuff), and I can’t get it out of my head that kibble promotes good dental health.  Still, after discussing Derek and Chelsea’s weight problems with the vet, we decided that feeding wet food exclusively might end up being the answer.  The wet food doesn’t have the carb-laden fillers in it, like corn and wheat, and the vet thinks that could be what’s causing the obesity issue.  From now on, I’m to feed all the adult cats one-third of a can of wet food, twice per day, and to monitor their weight.  The cats have no complaints so far.

Unfortunately, because of Derek’s bladder crystals we need to feed all the adult cats the Urinary SO (so he can’t get his greedy paws on any other type of food), and it’s going to cost us a fortune—about $110 per month, I figure.  I was hoping I’d be able to try a premium brand of wet food instead, like Merrick, but the vet really discouraged it and said that if we went that route we’d need to monitor Derek for bladder crystals and bladder stones closely, to the tune of $250 every three months for x-rays and urinalysis.  If you’ve been in the car with Derek, you’ll know why we don’t relish the thought of having him the car more often than necessary.  I asked the vet if Derek could have developed crystals because of stress (his first and only episode with crystals was when he had a fight with Frank and had an infected abcess on his leg), but she sort of pooh-poohed that idea.  I’ve read the theory many places though, and wonder if it deserves a bit more research.  Just feeding all the cats the same canned food for the rest of their lives seems like a bit of a cop-out.

The single thing that really bothers me about the prescribed treatment is that I don’t like the Urinary SO food.  I resent paying $1.20 per can on food whose first four ingredients are: water, meat by-products, chicken by-products, and animal fat.  The cats love eating it, but it seems to me that it’s full of crap.  At least if I pay that much for Merrick canned food I actually see chunks of chicken and pieces of carrot and snippets of cranberries—it’s not just a glob of stuff scraped from the slaughterhouse floor.  I resent paying for anything called a “by-product” - it’s either meat or it isn’t.

As with so many things, I feel torn.  I feel like there must be a better way, that my suggestion to feed a premium canned food (organic, holistic ingredients), combined with a recheck in a month, is a justifiable option.  As always, I invite any anecdotal input from anyone reading this, and if need be, I might discuss the issue with a different vet at the practice we go to.  I like the vet we saw, and she specializes in cats, but she can be sort of rigid about things.  What do people do who can’t afford Urinary SO food, or who live in areas where it isn’t available?  What do holistic vets prescribe for bladder crystals?

Other than the food issue, Chelsea and Derek passed their health checks with flying colours.  Chelsea weighs 12 lbs. and Derek is about 15, so they’re not quite as big as I’d envisioned, but they still need to take off some of their excess baggage.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/25 at 04:37 AM
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Thursday, March 23, 2006 , terribly early in the morning

They need to lose 20 pounds

Okay, maybe not 20 pounds.  Maybe 5, or even 7 though… Chelsea and Derek have turned into manatees.  I’ve cut back their food time and time again hoping to see some gradual weight loss, and it isn’t happening.  By my calculations, they’ve spent the month eating 123 calories of food each day, the amount of food recommended for “maintenance” of a 5 pound cat, and they haven’t lost an ounce.  Granted, they’re pretty sedentary, (although their activity level has increased since the kittens were released into the general population), but I don’t like how heavy they’ve become, and I know it isn’t healthy for them.  I don’t need any diabetic cats to add to our pet health woes.

Now that I’ve got a month’s worth of good “eating data” in hand, we’ve got a vet appointment Friday afternoon for both of them.  It’s been a challenge since the kittens were weaned to try to keep everyone’s food separate, and I’m hoping to find a food solution via vet consultation which will allow us to feed everyone the same thing most of the time.  Right now, the adult cats eat Waltham Urinary SO (canned and dry), because Derek needs it, and the kittens eat Royal Canin and Merrick canned food.  I’m hoping the vet will allow me to experiment with feeding the all the cats the Merrick canned food once a day, with free-feeding of a reduced-calorie kibble like Innova.  That will give the adult cats a lot of moisture in their diet (from the cans), but will still allow them to pick at kibble if they’re hungry during the day.  I’ll be able to give the kittens extra feedings of wet food to ensure they get enough calories to grow up strong and bothersome.  If I make sure every room has the same kibble, I won’t catch Derek in the kitten’s room, eating 450-calorie-per-cup “Babycat”.  I’d of course have to keep an eye on Derek’s bladder and take him in for regular urinalysis, but I’d like to see if there’s an alternative to feeding the prescription diet all the time.  It obviously just doesn’t agree with Derek and Chelsea (although they like eating it), and maybe there are some other food options we can explore.  My last cat, Sweet Pea, was just “free fed”, and although she was slightly heavy, it was nothing like what these two are.

For the record, neither Chelsea nor Derek have any symptoms of hypothyroidism, which I know is rare in cats anyway.  They weren’t nearly this heavy when I was feeding them regular Innova kibble last summer, so I think something in the prescription diet is messing with their metabolism.  I hope to have some conclusive answers by Friday evening.  By the way, the Merrick canned food rocks—if you’re looking for a good-quality canned food for your cat, this stuff is wonderful.  It’s not cheap, but it’s got good quality ingredients, is “low glycemic”, and the cats really seem to enjoy it.  I’ve offered the kittens a few brands of wet food, including Eagle Pack, Felidae, and Science Diet, but they jump on their hind legs when I put a bowl of Merrick down for them.  Mmmm, Grammy’s Pot Pie…

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/23 at 06:53 AM
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006 , evening

Blog drama

I generally like to avoid “drama” online.  I don’t post on any message boards anymore, because I got tired of people who just wanted to be contrary.  I enjoy reading controversial blogs like Molly Saves the Day because Molly can argue the pants off anyone, and there’s always a good, spirited debate going on.  However, I don’t participate… even when someone left a comment disparaging Canada and making it sound like a third-world country, I left it alone.  Given my pacifist attitude, I’m here to announce that I ironically, and inadvertently, ended up causing a big brouhaha on one of my favourite blogs, and I think I’ve essentially been “disinvited” from posting there in the future.  I’d be quite hurt about the whole thing if it wasn’t so bizarre that I can only think the blog owner is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and needed to take it out on someone.

Without posting specific urls, I’ll just say that the blog I was reading and commenting on was by a woman passionate about saving animals in shelters.  She rescues, she fosters, and does a great job of saving hundreds of animals.  She talks about all the stupid reasons people surrender their pets to “the pound”, and about owner-neglect, and really hits the nail on the head when it comes to pointing out that people lack personal responsibility.  However, she recently made a comment about dog/cat breeders, and how they’re irresponsible and how they cause the shelters to fill up with pets.  I made a comment about “responsible breeders”, the ones who breed one or two litters per year, the ones who take back animals they’ve sold if the owner can’t keep them, the ones who require spay/neuter contracts from buyers, the ones who microchip, the ones who rescue the breed they specialize in, and the ones who do genetic testing on parents to ensure they aren’t perpetuating hereditary, often fatal, conditions.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Well, the blog owner ripped into me immediately, implying that there aren’t any breeders who fit that description, and suggesting that genetic testing was the equivalent of lab vivisection and was done to cull puppy litters of “undesireables”.  I explained (as did one other person), that genetic testing is done on dams and sires, but apparently no one was listening.  One other person left many comments again equating the desire for purebred dogs to the white supremacist movement.  When I suggested the purebred dogs have value in historical and sociological context, I was brushed off, and was more or less told that ancient breeds like Pharoah hounds are no different than invented breeds like “labradoodles”.

I was shocked by the ignorance, and the unwillingness to learn anything new.  I’m not advocating that people go to breeders and buy purebred dogs, and I’d definitely love to see puppy mills and “puppy stores” go out of business.  I hope that if a person wants a dog, they’ll try to find one at their local shelter or rescue group.  Hell, I’m the person who’s been discussing with Flippy for the last year the idea of starting a non-profit group which rents retail space in strip malls and then donates the space to local rescue groups to display their animals—sort of like “a puppy store”, but with shelter dogs.  But you know, if a person grew up with a Basenji, and wanted a Basenji their whole adult life, and Basenji rescue doesn’t have any dogs available in their area of the country, then I don’t have a problem if that person wants to find a good, responsible breeder who breeds Basenjis.  Animal shelters are not overcrowded because someone’s hobby is breeding one litter a year of show-quality dogs.  Animal shelters are overcrowded because people don’t spay and neuter their dogs and cats and end up with unwanted litters, and they’re overcrowded because people who buy animals treat them as disposable.  If we could spay and neuter every dog and cat that didn’t belong to someone with a breeder’s license, eliminate puppy mills who turn out dogs with behavioural and health problems, and force people to keep the animals they buy/adopt for the entire lifetime of the animal, animal shelters would be EMPTY.

When all is said and done, I’m mostly irritated about the situation because I was treated like I was a horrible, stupid person.  I was described as someone who “purports to love animals”, simply because I felt there was a place for some breeders in the grand scheme of things, and because two times I bought dogs from breeders.  Yes, in my household of seven rescued cats, two rescued dogs (with major health problems), and four rescued parrots, I merely “purport” to love animals.

I wish I could be as perfect as the blog owner who now keeps threatening to delete anything I write if I say anything positive about breeders or purebred animals.  Yes, it’s her right to edit her blog as she pleases, but she shouldn’t invite dialogue and then censor reasonable comments which are contrary to her opinions.  None of us would ever learn anything new if we didn’t listen to new ideas.  The blog owner often complains about how horrible the people are who come to see about adopting an animal from her but who are “shopping around”, but now I wonder if she causes a lot of her own problems by being rigid and uninformed.  I’d rather have a person “shop around” and adopt an animal they really bond with, than to have a person take the first cat or dog they see, and later surrender it because it’s not a good match for them.  I’d also like to make a crack about how the perfectionist is a smoker, but I’ll refrain :blank:

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, later in the day I made a short comment which I thought would be helpful on someone else’s blog, and then got laughed at by one person, and told “I didn’t have a clue” by another, all because I’m not “obese”.  As I’ve only known what it’s like to need to lose 40 pounds, I’m apparently not allowed to have any dieting suggestions.  I was also told that there’s no such thing as “needing to lose 20 pounds”, and that it’s a myth invented by society.  If I’m 5 feet tall, weigh 180 pounds, and I think I need to lose 20 pounds so I can fit back into my size 18 jeans, just take my word for it.  “Needing to lose 20 pounds” doesn’t mean that I’m trying to be a pencil, it just means that my current weight is putting stress on my body and that I think 20 pounds or more needs to come off for health reasons.  When did everyone on the Internet get so damned snotty?

Long story short, I used to think that blogging was a nice, safe, comfy thing to do, and I haven’t enjoyed my little reality check.  I’ll continue to post here, but with the exception of a few “safe” blogs run by people who I know are friendly, I’ll just be keeping my mouth shut.  It’s not very relaxing to spend the day having people call you stupid.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/22 at 09:41 PM
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Sunday, March 19, 2006 , early morning

Bing doesn’t want you to read this

Earlier today I’d written a lovely entry about cats, complete with photo, to submit to the weekly Carnival of the Cats.  I worked on it for about 20 minutes or so, and just as I was about to finish, Bing jumped up in front of my monitor, took a big bounce off the keyboard onto the floor, and somehow managed to delete the entire thing.  I’ve been pondering it for 12 hours and I still have no idea how she accomplished it… she must have highlighted the entire entry, then hit “delete” or “space” or “enter”, and did it all in the blink of an eye.  I can’t even think of how to highlight all the text here unless I right-click and do a “select all”, or do more complicated, “Ctrl-A”, so I’m totally bewildered by Bing’s computer magic.  I’d hoped she’d somehow pasted the missing text onto the clipboard, but nope, she just made it vanish.  I’ve taken the precaution of closing her and her siblings in one of the bedrooms while I tackle this, because if she deletes me again I might cry.

Perhaps she was angry at me because I’m using this entry for another photo of her brother, Tie.  It’s not as if there aren’t dozens of photos of Bing in my photo gallery, (she’s very photogenic), so she has no reason to be jealous.  I chose this photo of Tie because I took it yesterday, while he and I were surfing the web together.  He loves sitting in front of my monitor and watching the screen (not deleting anything—Bing, take a note), and yesterday we visited the blog Melange to read about the escapades of the handsome Mr. Rhett.  Tie was admiring Mr. Rhett’s photo and I grabbed the camera to take a picture, but as soon as the lens cap popped off, he turned around to get a closer look at what I was up to:

image

He’s so homely he’s cute, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  He’s outgoing and cuddly, and has a wonderful personality.  He’s was the first kitten to break the Jackson and Chelsea “paws off” barrier, and the first to become friends with the dogs.  He’s still not sure if he likes German shepherds, but he does enjoy curling up in bed for a nap.  He has a dozen little white hairs on his chest so you can identify him in a police lineup.  Flippy and I wonder if he’s truly a “black Siamese” (one of his siblings is Siamese, one isn’t), or just a run-of-the-mill domestic shorthair, but his head is so angular you could teach a geometry lesson with it.  It’s a sharp contrast to one of our other black cats, Frank, who has a wide, blocky head, like a heavyweight who’s lost one-too-many battles.  We now have three black cats running around the house, which isn’t lucky for any of our light-coloured furniture, but will hopefully be lucky for us :)

Having seven cats isn’t much different than having four, but it’s taking a toll on the litterboxes and our noses.  Right now I’ve got three litterboxes on the go, which I know violates the “one litterbox per cat” rule, but they’re huge, 25 gallon Rubbermaid containers and not conventional litterboxes.  Each container is at least the equivalent of two regular litterboxes, if not three.  They get emptied four times a day on a schedule, but as we work from home, they usually just get emptied whenever I hear a cat using one of them.  My problem is that I can’t find a cat litter that I’m happy with.  I started by using Fresh Step, I think, and dutifully collected my “Paw Points” until I could redeem for a gift.  By that point the perfumed smell of the Fresh Step was making us feel sort of nauseous, and despite the guarantee of it being something like “99% dust free”, it was still pretty dusty.  I put a dust mask on my Amazon wishlist so I’d have it to wear when I scooped, that’s how concerned I became about dust.  I tried another brand, the unscented litter Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Ultra, and I liked it because the granules were larger and it wasn’t as dusty.  I found the bags difficult to manage, though—it only comes in 40 lb. bags which I have trouble carrying up the stairs, and trouble lifting to dump in the litterboxes.  I had quite a bit of neck discomfort after a couple of weeks of Dr. Elsey’s.  I then took one litterbox and tried “Swheat Scoop”, which has a totally stupid name, but it’s a good concept and it clumps well.  I noticed that the oldest cat, Chelsea, avoided the Swheat Scoop box and used the other boxes instead, so Chelsea seems to give it a thumbs down.

I’d be really interested in knowing what brands of cat litter other people with multiple cats use.  I do want something which clumps, if possible, but I don’t need it to be flushable.  I don’t mind if it has baking soda or an odor neutralizer, but I’m really not happy with the continuous faux-floral scent of some the of the major brands.  I’m inclined to keep using the Dr. Elsey’s product, even though I can only buy it at Petsmart, and even though I find the bags awkward, but I’m open to suggestions.  I just want something which keeps the litterboxes as clean as possible (i.e., good clumps which don’t fracture and crumble when I remove them), and something which isn’t dusty.  The cats and I are all going to die from some lung disease if we keep using that dusty stuff.  I like the idea of products like Feline Pine, but I’d rather avoid a product which “breaks down” as it would be impractical to have to completely empty the 25 gallon litterboxes on a frequent basis (I wipe them down inside daily, and do occasionally dump out the entire box to start with fresh litter, but I don’t want to *have* to wrangle with doing that frequently if it can be avoided).  I tried the absorbing crystals and just found them smelly.  By the way, in case you wonder why I use the Rubbermaid containers, it’s because Jackson “pees standing up”.  I need to use a box with very high sides or he just urinates over the side… even with these deep containers he still often hits the very upper edge of the box.  It doesn’t seem to be malicious “spraying”, it just seems to be his technique.  In any case, if you have any suggestions or recommendations on the subject of cat litter, I’d love it if you’d post them in the comments.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/19 at 07:02 AM
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Friday, March 17, 2006 , late evening

Admit it, he’s odd-looking

I love little Tie the kitten, but he’s a bit freakish in appearance.  I think he got the Siamese pointy-face with black fur, and he already suffers from some male-pattern baldness above his eyes.  I tried to sneak up on him to take a cute photo while he was resting, but I guess I startled him as I ended up with this:

image

I then couldn’t resist making fun via Photoshop.  Tie, when you’re all grown up and I need you to support me in my old age, please don’t hold a grudge:

image

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/17 at 10:34 PM
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Thursday, March 16, 2006 , late evening

Punished!

The gods of catdom have punished us, as both Derek and Frank seem to have developed URIs.  We took Frank to the vet yesterday as he just wasn’t himself and sounded congested, and he was put on some precautionary antibiotics.  He’s such a good boy about taking pills, and it was a relief that it was a simple malady and so easy to treat.  Derek is already a few days into it (I thought it was just allergies), and he’s still eating like a pig, so we’re just going to take a “wait and see” approach with him—I was more concerned about Frank because he was really out of sorts, and was starting to show a lack of interest in food.

I know that a URI is technically a virus, but the antibiotics will prevent secondary infections.  It wasn’t until I got home that I read cats can be vaccinated against the most common causes of URIs, so I don’t know if our cats didn’t get those vaccinations, or if they weren’t helpful, or what.  If anyone from the vet community can chime in on this, I’d be interested in knowing why two of our cats seem to be affected but the others (including the kittens) seem fine.  The two cats who are sick, Derek and Frank, are both “strays” of unknown origin, and while we had them vaccinated as per our vet’s suggestion when we took them in, I don’t know their histories.  Say it’s the herpes virus causing the URIs in Derek and Frank—does that mean that when they were kittens they weren’t vaccinated against herpes, and so they might just harbour the virus and it might periodically recur?  If our other cats stay healthy while Derek and Frank are sick, can we assume the others have an immunity?  I should have asked these questions at the vet yesterday, but we were squeezed in as an emergency appointment so they were already pressed for time, and when we were there, I didn’t have the background information I needed to know the right questions.

The ironic part of this is that even though we have *more* cats around the house now, they seem to be reduced in numbers because they’ve finally spread out.  Instead of all sticking to one room like they always have, the kittens have given the adult cats incentive to move around.  So, instead of 4 cats in one room all the time now, there might be 2 cats in their normal spots in the TV room, a cat hanging out in the bird room, a cat in the spare bedroom, two cats in the master bedroom, etc.  Our “cats per square inch” has been reduced because the cats have expanded their territories, so it’s sort of frustrating that now is when we have a “disease caused by overcrowding” affecting Frank and Derek.  We’ve got a 2-storey, 2100 sq. foot house… there’s plenty of room for cats to expand their horizons without passing around germs!

On an unrelated note, condolences to Vet Mommy on the loss of her wonderful dog, Montana.  I always enjoyed reading about Montana’s antics in Vet Mommy’s blog.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/16 at 10:39 PM
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