Friday, November 30, 2007 , the wee hours

A Bunny update

I don’t have any new medical news about Bunny, but she has responded well to her meds and she’s pretty much the same ol’ Bunny that we know and love right now.  Of course, we pester her incessantly because we want to check her breathing, but she’s being good natured (and even affectionate) about it.  Her ultrasound is scheduled for Monday.  It will be conducted by our regular vet, but then that tape and Bunny’s x-rays will be sent to a veterinary cardiologist for a consultation.  Depending on what the cardiologist finds and recommends, she’ll communicate her treatment plan to our vet, who will then follow it through.  We won’t ever seen the cardiologist directly.  It’s going to cost an arm and a leg, but it’s not like we have the option of not going through with this, and of wondering if Bunny could have been helped with meds or some sort of therapy.  We’ve had to deal with a new vet during the “"Bunny Crisis”, and she figured we wouldn’t want to spend money on the echocardiogram because most clients don’t.  Shows how well she knows us.  I’d be more apt to skip a test for myself (and I’ve done that when money is tight), than to skip any of the pets’ medical needs.

This week ended up being surprisingly stressful and it really took a toll on me.  I’d just completed a Medrol dose pack on Sunday, the day Bunny got sick, and maybe the prednisone messed with me because I’ve been a total wreck.  Today is the first day I feel vaguely “normal” again, and the first day I’ve been able to eat.  It’s my freakish pre-holiday diet plan.  The Medrol pack kicked a lot of my carpal tunnel and overall body pain to the curb, which was amazing, but if it turns me into “Nervous Breakdown Girl”, then perhaps it’s not the drug for me!

What a dramatic NaBloPoMo this has been.  If I could make a request, next year’s could be a little less exciting.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/30 at 02:39 AM
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Thursday, November 29, 2007 , late morning

Royal family gossip, dirt, etc.

Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian, or maybe it’s because I love history and gossip—I’m not sure of the exact reason why stories like the life of Billy Tallon fascinate me.  Billy Tallon was the personal assistant of the Queen Mother until she died in 2002.  The newspaper article I linked to is classic trashy London tabloid (complete with some broken paragraphs to add to the mystery), and it makes me wish I could be a fly on the wall to view the bizarre inner world of the British Royal Family.

Billy Tallon died on November 23rd at age 72, and according to the article, he directly served the Queen Mother for 51 years.  When she died, he was immediately fired, told to move out of the apartment provided to him during his employment, and left to live on a teeny little pension.  I don’t know exactly the size of the pension, but it wasn’t even enough for Tallon to afford to rent an apartment.  The newspaper article says Prince Charles gave Tallon a “whopping” 100 pound per week pension bonus to help him rent an apartment and to buy his silence, and 100 pounds per week only amounts to about $10000 per year.  Even after 51 years of employment, Tallon’s salary was only about $20000 per year!  Can you imagine working night and day for a billionaire family who pay you dirt and then kick you out on your butt when you become “redundant”?  The tradition of firing all the staff as soon as a member of the Royal Family dies is commonplace (so says this article, written just after the Queen Mother died, but before Tallon was fired).  I don’t know how they get away with being such poor employers, considering that their practices are public knowledge.

I’ve always wished I could see all the secret passages and archives inside the Vatican, and the same goes for Buckingham Palace.  The newspaper article about Tallon says that there was a “secret passage” leading from Tallon’s room to the Queen Mother’s room, so he could “sneak in” guests for her.  He was the only man allowed into her bedroom, and he could enter without knocking.  For Christmas each year, she’d give him a signed photograph of herself.  It’s all so creepy and addicting!  I was always very fond of the Queen Mother, and was saddened when she died, but that was because I thought she was sort of “normal”.  I guess she wasn’t.  It’s just plain strange to need your monogrammed linens carried around with you whenever you travel. 

Lots of people want to see the Royal Family taken off the public payroll, and left to their own devices.  If nothing else, they need to adapt to the times, because the tales that leak out of that family every time someone dies or is fired or gets divorced are always scandalous (and usually true).  I can see Harry and William changing things for the better, once their stuffy father is out of the way.  And, I’d sure would love to know about all the hidden tunnels and mysterious vaults and passageways.  And hidden, inbred relatives in nursing homes.  And who is the real father of Prince Edward (and for that matter, Prince Andrew)?  The drama never ends!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/29 at 11:41 AM
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 , early morning

Dog. vs. Cat

I haven’t been feeling very cheerful the past couple of days, but one thing which has given me a chuckle is a book called ”Dog vs. Cat: A Nation Divided: Dirty Tricks and Other Shock” by Don Asmussen.

It was only released last year, yet you can already buy a new copy of it for 14 cents from Amazon resellers, which is a bargain for you but a shame for the author.  If you follow politics, pet magazines, and blogs, you’ll love the way Asmussen has twisted them all into coverage of a mock national election between dogs and cats (specifically, “Spot”, and “Mr. Mittens").  There are also a few third party candidates, like Ishmael the goldfish (who’s popular because his lifespan means voters won’t have to put up with him for very long).  Asmussen is the cartoonist behind the political strip “Bad Reporter”, and he uses those same sorts of graphics in this book to mock up The Huffington Post, The Bark magazine, The Washington Post, etc.  The book hits very close to the country’s reality, with things like, “The War on Squirrels”.  It also hits close to my personal reality, with feline candidates who eat plastic bags then vomit under the bed.

Even at full price, I think the book is only $5.91, so it would make a fun, inexpensive gift for your favourite dog or cat lover.  If you’re not familiar with Asmussen’s work, here’s a link to his twice-weekly comic strip, Bad Reporter.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/28 at 07:57 AM
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 , early morning

Our sick little Bunny

I mentioned in my entry yesterday that we’ve got an upper respiratory virus running through the house.  Some cats are worse that others—some have outright “kitty colds”, yet others have no symptoms at all.  On Sunday night we noticed Bunny was breathing a bit heavily, and I attributed that to the URI and perhaps some congestion.  By early Monday she was really breathing heavily, was moving very little, and couldn’t do normal physical tasks like jump a baby gate.  We took her to the vet as an emergency visit first thing in the morning, and she was initially diagnosed with either asthma or pneumonia.  Then the vet did an x-ray, and told us that Bunny had congestion in her lungs and in her airways, indicative of both asthma and pneumonia.  She also had a very enlarged, “Valentine-shaped” heart, which no one expected.  The vet said that could be indicative of “an extremely rare condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy”, but told us not to be concerned about it because for now, asthma was still the likeliest culprit.

By the end of the day, Bunny had been treated with a bronchodilator, cortisone, some antibiotics, and Lasix, and was doing much better.  We brought her home with prednisone, Baytril, and Theophylline, with instructions to bring her back in later in the week to have an echocardiogram.  The echocardiogram would say more about the enlarged heart issue.

Sadly (and there’s not a powerful enough way for me to word that), I do think Bunny has all the signs of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and I think the vet knows it too.  The vet even gave us her email address so we could update her on her days off about Bunny’s condition.  In my mind, Bunny’s episode yesterday was just like congestive heart failure.  Enlarged heart, fluid build-up in the lungs, difficulty breathing, lethargy, etc.  Even today, when she’s “better”, Bunny is still sitting rigidly upright or laying down in a “sphinx” position, and both are ways for cats with lung fluid to keep their airways open.  The other odd thing about her is that a couple of months ago, she just stopped growing.  We were looking at it from the opposite perspective—we thought Carlo was a gargantuan monster—but in reality, Bunny just doesn’t grow at all.  That would also be a sign of a body where circulation, oxygenation, etc., were poor.  One thing that can “set off” HCM in a genetically-predisposed cat is anesthesia (specifically ketamine)… did Bunny’s spay set off a chain of terrible events?  I guess we won’t know anything until she has an echocardiogram.

HCM is a really bad thing.  If a perfectly healthy cat is diagnosed with an enlarged heart incidentally, like during an x-ray for an injury, everything I’ve read says that the cat can live “many more years” with preventative treatment.  When a cat is diagnosed with HCM because they’re symptomatic, the prognosis seems to be along the lines of “months”, or “up to one year”.  And the year is filled with diuretics, beta blockers, and the omnipresent risk of sudden death. 

I know that having a lot of pets means we’ll see a lot of death.  I didn’t expect to have to encounter the possibility in one of my eight month old babies.  We kept Bunny and Carol because we thought Carlo was the frail one with his digestive problems, but it may turn out that Bunny is the genetic minefield.  If she has HCM and it’s genetic, then we’ll need to check Carlo for it, too.  I know I’m jumping the gun a bit because Bunny hasn’t had a formal diagnosis, but I’m not stupid.  The thought of losing her and having a prognosis written in “months” is just killing me.  I love them both so much.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/27 at 07:19 AM
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Monday, November 26, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

Buy three pet toys, get one free at Amazon

I just spotted this a few seconds ago, and thought I’d share.  Amazon regularly offers a “4-for-3” deal, where you can buy four items for the price of three.  It’s usually an offer on books or CDs, but today they’ve created pages of cat and dog toys which also fit the criteria.  Buy any four of them (you can mix and match from both the dog and cat categories), and the lowest-priced item will be free when you checkout.  Here are the links:

4-for-3 Cat Toys

4-for-3 Dog Toys

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/26 at 06:05 AM
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Cat news update

I’m afraid this will only be an update about the cats in our own home, and not about all the cats in all the world.  I just don’t have that kind of time.

The Beany Boys are living in isolation in the guest bedroom but are becoming more friendly to me.  I think they’re pleased that I figured out that a can of Friskies was the way to their hearts.  Pinto was really sick, but I’m sure he’s getting better, and his congestion has eased up quite a bit.  His one eye is really dripped and gooey, so that might require medical attention.  His brother, the other Beany, managed to avoid getting sick except for a few sniffles.

On a more somber note, half a dozen of our own cats have started sneezing in the past 48 hours.  That’s like, oh, the 7 to 10 day incubation period for whatever virus the Beany Boys are carrying.  I’ve been diligent about keeping the cats separated, washing my hands, washing all utensils, keeping the trash emptied after I clean up in the Beany room, etc., so I’m going to be a very unhappy camper if I end up with 12 cats with URIs.  Right now, Frank, Derek, TJ, Dobby, Bing, and Carlo are sneezing.  Frank seems to be actually getting sick, but he does that once a year or so and no one else catches it.  TJ also suffers from chronic sinus problems.  I hope the rest of them just have allergies and are sneezing out a summer’s worth of dust.  I turned on the furnace this weekend, and maybe all the dust that burns off just gave everyone a bit of a ticklish nose.  I can certainly hope that’s all it is.

The only other cat peculiarity around here is Dobby.  I don’t know how old Dobby was when we found her, but she’s pretty much remained a wild woman.  She loves all cats, and she especially loves TJ.  She’ll approach me for food, and if she’s upstairs in one specific spot (just outside the master bedroom door), she’ll let me scratch her butt and sometimes rub her head and chin.  Most of the time she just runs away.  When we sit in our front room to watch TV at night, she doesn’t come anywhere near us like the other cats do.  Earlier this evening I had two cats on my lap (along with my computer), one wedged beside me, one between my feet, one waiting patiently for an opening, and another who’d just huffed off because I wouldn’t make room for her on the couch.  All these cats love to be near me, but Dobby thinks I’m a horrific monster.  The one improvement I’ve seen from her lately is that she likes to sit on the little cat tree by my desk, and she doesn’t always run away when I sit down.  I’ve have one foot in the grave before she’ll venture to sit in my lap.

Oh, I thought of one more thing.  Remember itty bitty Carlo, with his digestive problems, and how he was so tiny?  He’s now left his sister in the dust in terms of size, and he’s massive.  Ten month old Carlo runs by and we think it’s 15 year old Chelsea.  He’s still the sweetest little dude, and his litterbox habits have been really good for the past couple of months.  He’s still prone to stomach upset, gassiness, etc., but I don’t wake up to find poopy accidents anymore.  That’s wonderful!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/26 at 01:41 AM
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Sunday, November 25, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

A blog about kittens

You can thank Flippy for helping me find a new blog, Itty Bitty Kitty Committee.  It’s about foster kittens!  A few different foster homes contribute photos and stories, so there seems to be new kitten pics all the time (unlike here).  I don’t think I’ll have another set of fosters until January or February, so the IBKC blog will help tide you over.

I do love bottle-babies.  Just looking at the picture on that blog makes me want to go give a kitten a hug.  Unfortunately, Dobby is the youngest kitten in our household right now, and she’d kick me in the face if I tried to pull a stunt like that.  I want to hug an innocent, naive kitten, not a street-smart one.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/25 at 06:21 AM
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Saturday, November 24, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

Mutts Shelter Stories

Every year, Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the “Mutts” comic, does series of strips called “Shelter Stories”.  They’re about pets waiting to be adopted, and pets which have been adopted already.  This year’s series started with a very poignant Sunday strip about dogfighting, but then continued through the next couple of weeks.  You can see the strips on the Mutts website… just start at November 4th and then click forward to subsequent days.  The online strips are available two weeks after their print publication date, so the latest strip available is November 10th, two weeks prior to today’s date.  Just check back on subsequent days to read more, or sign up for a free subscription to have the strips sent directly to your email.

Patrick is going to put out a new book containing only his shelter-themed strips, and it will be called Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed.  It will be released in April 2008, and if you pre-order it from Amazon now, you’ll save 5%.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/24 at 03:42 AM
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Friday, November 23, 2007 , late morning

What I did on Black Friday

I admit it… I did a bit of shopping.  Flippy‘s parents gave us a Thanksgiving check to be thankful for, so I did a bit of shopping online at Kohls, Staples, and Office Depot.  That pretty much completed my holiday shopping, so I feel relieved.  Now I just need to mail it everything I bought!  The biggest shopping disappointment of the day was Amazon.com, where they had some “lightning specials” that we stayed up for, but the Amazon backend had problems so the lightning sales were delayed by hours.  There are lots of unhappy Amazon customers today, although I just moved my browser and spent my time buying discounted Carters baby clothes from Kohls.  I hope the baby doesn’t read this and spoil her Christmas surprise!

It’s been a long couple of days.  I’ll try to get back to posting normally tomorrow.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/23 at 11:57 AM
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Thursday, November 22, 2007 , late at night

Remember last year’s Black Friday?

I send you back to this blog entry, November 2006.  Flippy and I attempted to tackle Black Friday, and we lost.  This year we’ll do no such nonsense, especially after reading this article in Motley Fool about how seriously Best Buy takes Black Friday shopping.  And in case we were tempted, we drove past Best Buy tonight at about 8:45pm, just to see if there were any signs of any people waiting outside.  I was shocked to see that with still 8+ hours to go, there were about 200 people lined up with lawn chairs, blankets, even tents.  It was already 45 degrees outside, and windy, so they’ll definitely earn whatever reward they come up with tomorrow.  I had trouble standing outside to pump gas for three minutes, so I could not survive a night outdoors.  I’ll just have to work harder and earn more money.

There are some Black Friday sales online, if you look around.  Amazon.com will be having some stuff for sale (they already have one page of pet products on sale, with some decent bargains), and for the rest of the stores, you’ll have to find those yourself.  I’m afraid I’m going to pack it in for the evening, so I leave you to find all the best deals (and to brag about them in the comments!).  Good night, all, and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/22 at 11:25 PM
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