Wednesday, January 31, 2007 , the wee hours

Microsoft Office 2007 launch

We dragged ourselves out of the house today and went to a Microsoft Office 2007 launch event, otherwise known as, Ready for a New Day Launch Tour 2007.  The event was held in a large ballroom at the Venetian, and we got a preview of some of the new features in Windows Vista, Office 2007, and a couple of other programs which are mostly over my head.  It was interesting because it was like a mini-tutorial, and now I’ll know how to use a lot of the cool new features in Vista when we eventually upgrade.  The best part of the event was the goodie bag—a light-up Microsoft pen, a “Launch Tour 2007” t-shirt, and a free copy of Office 2007!  Yes!  Isn’t that amazing?  Flippy and I each got a copy of Office 2007 and a program called Microsoft Groove, and they have a combined retail value of $600.  So, we left the house for a few hours, learned some stuff, got cool Microsoft freebies, and $1200 worth of free software.

A lot of the Launch Tour 2007 dates are sold out or have passed, but there are still some left.  Check out this list and see if there’s one you can attend—it’s free!  Ready for a New Day Launch Tour 2007 dates

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/31 at 12:34 AM
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Monday, January 29, 2007 , late at night

Freebies for pet owners

Flippy had a couple of medical appointments today, so I tagged along.  We made a stop at the “fancy pet food store”, and I was able to redeem all my coupons from the Merrick Pet Birthday Club to get one dozen free cans of Merrick cat food.  The company sends coupons for two free cans on each cat’s birthday, and I’d been saving them up because we don’t get to that pet food store very often.  I was able to get four cans each of Turducken, Thanksgiving Day Dinner, and Grammy’s Pot Pie, and it didn’t cost a penny.  If you go to register on the Merrick website they say something about sending a gift to your dog (they send a bully stick), but they’ll send a gift to your cat(s) as well.

I wanted to write about some new cat food I bought at Petsmart, but I can’t seem to find a reference to it anywhere on the Internet!  The food is Sheba “Select Cuts”, and it was on sale for 8 cans for $1 at Petsmart.  I thought I’d try it to see if Chelsea would eat it (her taste buds are really pedestrian), and when I opened it I realized it wasn’t conventional wet cat food, but a “supplemental diet” of shredded chicken.  It looks like shredded chicken in aspic.  The fine print says to just feed it as a supplement, and the label shows it really is just meat and some preservatives.  I’m a bit surprised they were able to call it “dinner” when it’s not a fully-balanced meal.  I haven’t brought it upstairs yet, but Missy Mae (downstairs) certainly gobbles it up.  It’s a good deal for $1 per case, especially if you have a cat which needs more protein or needs to put on some healthy weight.

Okay, now for a few actual freebies.  I hope you’ll find these useful:

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/29 at 11:03 PM
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J2, JConnect, Jfax cannot be trusted to serve your business

Sorry to rain on the kitten parade with a rant.  Flippy and I signed up for a toll-free fax number with Jfax/J2/JConnect so we could receive contracts related to one of our part-time jobs.  We paid our credit card fee, received a phone number and PIN number, and I logged in to configure the account.  We even sent a test fax to ourselves and everything was fine.  So, we put the new phone number in all of our business emails, but today we noticed were weren’t receiving faxes that clients claimed to have sent.  I called J2 customer support and THEY GAVE OUR PHONE NUMBER TO SOMEONE ELSE!  The tech support rep IN INDIA (like I wasn’t apopletic already), then admonished me for allowing clients to send faxes to that number, telling me, “The current customer will get charges for those faxes”.  Yeah, well bite me Bangalore boy… you and your incompetent company, too.  I was given a new toll free number with three months of free service, but I don’t care… just one lost contract today is worth far more than $45 in free service.  How can I trust them with the business that pays our mortgage and our bills?  I’m furious (obviously) and disgusted, and if I felt litigious I’d just sue them for what we lost.

In any case, for goodness sake, don’t sign up for one of their “premiere” accounts and then use the number on letterhead or on a business card.  They may just pull the number out from under you, and you’ll have no recourse.  Can you imagine if Sprint or one of the phone companies just arbitrarily gave your phone number away?

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/29 at 07:22 PM
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Eyes wide open

eyes_wide_open_day_eight (3)

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/29 at 03:47 AM
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Sunday, January 28, 2007 , the wee hours

Madison’s one week portraits

Madison enjoys eating.

Madison_day_7 (2)

Madison_day_7

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/28 at 12:04 AM
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Saturday, January 27, 2007 , late at night

My bug

When I mentioned “my bug” to Flippy, she thought I was referring to Madison.  But no, I was referring to my bug:

MY_BUG

This bug is special because it’s been stuck on the wall in the laundry room for about three years.  No, really.  Years ago, I thought it was alive, but I couldn’t reach it to remove it.  About a week later, I figured it might be dead.  Three years later, I’m quite sure it’s dead.  How long will it hang on the wall if I leave it alone?  Has it turned to dust, but is being held together by more dust?  Curious, isn’t it?

Not doing housework is so much more interesting than actually doing it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/27 at 11:59 PM
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 , late evening

The Madison update

Six day old Madison is doing very well!  Because Madison is an only child, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with her during feedings, and we’ve really been bonding.  I usually have at least three kittens when I foster so it’s feed/burp/pee/repeat, and I don’t interact with them very much.  With Madison, we can sit together for fifteen or twenty minutes after she’s been fed, and I’m surprised at how personable and funny she is.  She rolls around, purrs, likes to have her belly rubbed, sniffs my face, and see seems quite happy.  Her purr has become really loud, too.  I think she’s healthy (knock on wood), and she’s going to be gorgeous—I can’t wait until her eyes open (her ears have unfolded a lot).  I’ll take some pictures of her later this evening.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/25 at 10:32 PM
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007 , evening

The cost of fostering kittens

I’m going to keep a running tally of the expenses involved in caring for two one newborn kitten, from day one until she’s about eight weeks old.  Some expenses, like a crate, towels, bottles, and a heating pad are things I already own, so this will just be a list of perishables and unexpected expenses.  I’ll update things like “bags of cotton balls” as I use them.

  • 4 bags of cotton balls (on sale for $1 each): $4
  • 1 tin of KMR powder: $17.99
  • 1 tin of KMR weaning powder ("2nd Step"): $8.69
  • vet visit for subq fluids and syringes: $17
  • 6 jars of meat baby food @ 79 cents: $4.74
  • 1 bottle of Johnson’s Buddies Instant-Foam Easy-Rinse Shampoo: this stuff is fabulous - I wish I’d discovered it sooner.  It’s a foaming shampoo in a very solid pump bottle.  Sit it on the edge of the sink, and you can dispense small amounts of gentle foam to quickly clean tiny butts: $3.79.
  • a small bag of Nutro kitten kibble, about 4 lbs.: $11.29
  • 72 x 5.5 oz. cans (three cases) of wet food, at approx. 89 cents per can if I’m lucky: $64.08
  • a small litterbox and a bag of something like Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract litter for potty training: about $22.  I tend to send the litterbox home with the adoptive family.

The latter food expenses may seem a bit excessive, but with kittens you have to plan for waste.  While weaning, there will be a lot of food which gets walked in and slopped on the walls, but not eaten.  Also, depending on how long a foster parent keeps a kitten prior to adoption, the kitten will be eating solid food for at least three weeks, and perhaps even seven weeks, so you will go through a surprising amount of food.

There are other expenses which are difficult to calculate because they’re mixed in with products we already buy and use on a daily basis.  For example, when I foster, I use much more liquid soap, laundry detergent, and bleach than I normally would.  I tend to buy a lot of cheap little toys so I can send them home with the kittens when they’re adopted, but my cats play with them too.  I’ve also made some new purchases of things like the Doggles Comfort Pals Cat, and some new towels, but I’ll be using those again for other litters, and won’t count them now.  It’s still my dream to buy my Pet Intensive Care Unit, too.  It will be a large outlay upfront, but I think it will really come in handy.

Last but not least, there are veterinary expenses.  In my sample list, I had to take a kitten in for sub-q fluids, and that cost $17.  Once a kitten reaches the age of 8 weeks it needs vaccinations, and then it needs another set of them at 12 weeks.  When the kitten weighs at least four pounds it can be spayed or neutered. 

In conclusion, the cost of raising one foster kitten me about $145, and the average cost comes down a bit with more kittens sharing one litterbox.  I guess I could save with homemade food recipes and reusable washcloths instead of cotton balls, but raising them takes up so much time already, there’s no way I could add in more work.  After having done this a few times I’m starting to get it down to a science, and perhaps with efficiency will come monetary savings.

Writing this entry reminded me of a local man who didn’t get his cat spayed, but allowed her to roam outside.  Not surprisingly, the cat ended up giving birth to nine kittens.  The man called the vet’s office because he wanted the kittens taken away—he didn’t want his cat raising kittens in his house.  He didn’t offer to donate a penny, but expected some stranger would fix his mess by hand-feeding nine kittens for weeks and paying all their expenses, just because he couldn’t be bothered having his cat fixed.  Using the calculations above, his refusal to spay his cat at a $77 dollar clinic was going to cost some foster parent about $1000.  Luckily, he was eventually convinced to let the mother cat raise the kittens, but the guy was still a jerk.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/23 at 09:22 PM
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The Miles report

Miles and Madison (formerly known as “Mia"), went to the vet today.  It was mainly a trip for Miles, who hasn’t been peeing properly, has blood in his urine, isn’t eating well, and has a bit of rectal prolapse.  So much for such a little guy!  The vet said he was too young to have a UTI, and she didn’t want to give him antibiotics, so we came home with subq fluids.  He’s to get them every three to four hours until he starts eating normally.  He’s still vocal and active, but he eats poorly, and he’s not urinating normally.  The vet suggested Miles could have Fading Kitten Syndrome, so we’re trying to be prepared for that.  I asked if the kitten could have a urinary blockage, but the vet said that if he did it was genetic, and would not be able to be fixed surgically.  In any case, fingers crossed for Miles—if he makes it another 24 hours, I’ll feel more optimistic about his prognosis.

On a related note, I’m going to start a blog entry called “the costs of fostering kittens”.  I thought I’d keep track of all our expenses for this pair of kittens, for my own reference, and for anyone else who’s been curious about such things.  Of course, costs will vary wildly depending on how many kittens you have, and where you live, etc., but it will be a ballpark.

----------------------------------

Update:  Miles died around 11:30 pm on Tuesday.  I went to do the normal feeding, and his sister had wiggled her way out of her blanket and had crawled to the front of their crate.  I thought that was an ominous sign, and it was.  Funny how a three day old kitten could sense death and wanted to be apart from it, yet she’d been snuggling with her brother at 9pm when I did the previous feeding.  I’m not a vet, but my guess is something that contributed to kidney failure.  Miles produced urine normally for the first two days, and then it slowed down and was blood-tinged, and there was no urine at all today, despite numerous ccs of fluids.  I’m pretty sure his death was peaceful and pain-free, because he didn’t cry, and was “normal” (except he didn’t want to eat), right up until I last saw him around 9:30.  He was a sweet little guy, and I’m sure he was doing the little kitten “purr” everytime I held him (the newborn “purr” is more like a little ticking sound).

This is my first foster kitten death, and it’s sad, and I’m weepy, but I’ll get over it.  My main concern now is Madison—I don’t know how she’ll be affected by being an “only child”.  When she’s older, and has been tested for feline leukemia, maybe TJ, Tie, and Scampi will play with her—they’re pretty hospitable.

Would it be weird if I had Miles cremated and kept his ashes?  I guess my ashes collection could really add up over a couple of decades of fostering, but I don’t like the idea of burying him, and I don’t want him just put in the dumpster.  What do other people do in this situation?

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/23 at 08:49 PM
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Monday, January 22, 2007 , early evening

Miles has a UTI

Poor wee Miles seems to have a urinary tract infection, or something similar—I’m not sure how serious it is.  Late this afternoon his urine started to have a tinge of pink, and at his last feeding, he had some pus-like discharge.  I spoke to the vet, and she seems to feel that he can wait to be seen until tomorrow, but if becomes lethargic tonight, he should go to the emergency clinic.  I’ve never lost a kitten, even though both Anya and Fannie Mae were sickly, but I’ve also never had a newborn kitten with such an obvious infection.

Speaking of Fannie Mae, she and her brother Freddie Mac went to a new home together, and I recently found out they’d been renamed.  Their new names are “Sweetie” and “Rufus”.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/22 at 06:26 PM
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