Sunday, December 30, 2007 , evening

Hello from Canada

I’ve been taking a vacation from everything while in Canada (everything but my mother’s baking).  I’m going to try to get back on track starting January 1st, and I hope I’ll still have someone reading.  A belated Merry Christmas, (a really belated Happy Hanukkah), and a slightly early Happy New Year from Ottawa!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/30 at 09:55 AM
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Thursday, December 20, 2007 , the wee hours

Cricket’s pancreatitis

We thought we had Cricket’s mild pancreatitis almost cleared up, but today it flared up with a vengeance.  She was absolutely frantic by this evening (the dog version of “hysterical"), and was continuously vomiting/retching, as well as refusing to eat.  We thought there was an all-night emergency clinic just down the street from us, but it turns out they stopped offering the emergency service a few years ago.  Cricket was in such bad shape, we figured we should take her to Vegas’ most-reputable emergency clinic, which is about 15 miles away.

The vet at the clinic felt that Cricket was having a pain flare-up, and that’s what was causing her shaking, the vomiting, etc.  They’re now keeping her overnight on IV fluids, but in the morning at 7:30 (in about six hours), we can pick her up and take her to our regular vet.  She already looked better when we saw here in the treatment cage when we went to give her a goodnight air kiss, but it’s probably for the best she stays there under a watchful eye for a few hours.  I’d love to get her pancreatitis under control!

Sadly, the money issue raises its ugly head again, as this visit cost us a fortune.  Best, cheapest case scenario for Cricket’s 9 hours at the vet tonight is about $623 - that’s how much I had to leave as a deposit.  Worst case scenario, we’re looking at about $1500, just for one evening of treatment.  After today, I’ll have maxed out my Care Credit card again, much to my chagrin.  It’s like the pets choose to get some terrible illness whenever they know I’ve got available credit.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/20 at 12:50 AM
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

Messages from Your Animal Companion cards

The lovely Von Krankipantzen just gave me a plug for the Messages from Your Animal Companion Cards on her blog.  So, I wanted to put up a link to the website where they can be purchased, in case anyone would like to order a box as a holiday gift (or even for themselves).  I’d use that line, “Makes a great stocking stuffer!”, because the box would fit in a stocking, but I think a “stocking stuffer” should cost just a buck or two.  I hate those Tiffany’s ads where they show a $2500 tennis bracelet with a caption, “Makes a great stocking stuffer!”, but I digress. 

If you want to buy a deck of the cards, pop over to AnimalCompanionCards.com.  All proceeds, now and forever, go to the Wee Paws Animal Sanctuary fund for wayward beasts and cute cats.  If you’re sending the cards as a gift, let me know and I’ll even wrap them and include a gift tag, so they can be sent directly to the recipient.

I want to use this moment to give a plug to Kranki’s project, the “Iconic Women by Yoshi” calendar.  I received a copy and it’s both beautiful and hilarious, with profits going to the British Columbia SPCA.  Shipping is from Canada, but my calendar arrived very quickly.  Maybe you can still order in time for Christmas, or it can be a New Year’s gift.  It could even be a nice way to honour me on my birthday, January 5th… give a gift of the Animal Companion Cards to a friend, and then toast me with a brevé latte.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/12 at 03:25 AM
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Why do they always get sick around Christmas?

Our pets have a notable history of getting very ill during the holidays.  This is significant because it’s the time of year when we have less money than any other time of year.  We’re scrimping and saving to try to buy gifts for a few family members (at the same time that our contract work is in short supply), and then the pets go and need bladder stone surgery, or need knee surgery, or die (a shout-out to a cat I really miss, Sweet Pea), and it’s getting so bad that soon I will dread Christmas because it means scary visits to the vet’s office.

The good news is that Carlo does not seem to have any heart problems.  It cost us $350 to find that out, but peace of mind is pretty much priceless.  The other good news is that Bunny seems to have responded well to her heart meds, because she’s been acting like a wild and crazy kitten for the past few days.  She’ll have blood work done on Sunday, to make sure the Lasix isn’t damaging her kidneys, but she sure seems to be in good health right now.  The bad news is that we still have eight other sick cats with upper respiratory infections, two of whom also have bad eye infections.  We had to pick up antibiotic ointment for their eyes yesterday (I bet you can guess how much cats like ointment being put into their eyes twice daily).  The other bad news is that in the midst of all this, Cricket the dog seems to have developed pancreatitis.  She’s been eating Stella and Chewy’s brand of raw food since mid-September, but we finally ran out, and there’s no place around here to buy it.  So, we picked up some good canned food, like Spot’s Stew, and figured that would suffice until we could figure out how to affordably get the dogs back on raw again.  After just a couple of days on cooked canned food, Cricket started to throw up and act as if she was in severe pain.  We thought she was perhaps constipated, but after taking her to the vet (and treating her for constipation), x-rays and blood work indicated pancreatitis.  She’s doing a bit better now that she’s got pain meds, but eating is still uncomfortable for her, and today she was throwing up again.  Tomorrow we have to go in and get some anti-nausea meds for her, as well as a refill of her pain meds.  Cricket is a typical yappy and easily agitated small dog, so it’s easy to tell that she’s not her normal self.  To be honest, I don’t miss the constant yapping, but I’d still rather have a happy, bouncy, annoying Cricket than the sickly one we’ve got now.

I really need the pets to be in good health for when I go to Canada, because I don’t want Flippy to be burdened with anything on top of the usual household chores.  She wanted me to try to have Greg and Spiderman gone before I went away, and I accomplished that, but I replaced them with the Beanie Boys, one of whom is still a bit sickly.  I spend a large part of my day tending for the pets in one way or another, and I’m already feeling guilty about the workload.  It’s just going to be worse if she has to be worrying about sick animals, too!  I thought I could do something like make all the pet food up ahead of time, so Flippy would just have to defrost it, but when I envision how much food that would be, I think it would mean we’d need to buy a new freezer.  Despite all the obstacles, I really do have to go home for Christmas for once.  Of course I miss my family, but I’ve been gone so long that I just deal with it.  My mother, on the other hand, has convinced herself that having so many animals means I’ll never be able to travel again.  I want to make this trip just to prove her wrong (I hope Flippy won’t need to be hospitalized for mental and physical breakdowns when I get back).

After posting once or more each day during Nablopomo, I went a week without saying a peep here.  I think the Bunny news burned me out, because I spent most of that week in bed, sleeping.  I felt so great after taking the Medrol pack last month, but the stress has undone all that good work, and I’m back to square one again.  I’ve found a new companion in my battle to ease stress and to relax, though:  he’s my new boyfriend, Glenn Harrold.  He sleeps with me every night now, (which makes the bed really crowded, as we’ve also got Frank, Bunny, Carlo, and sometimes a few others in there, too).  I found Glenn at Audible.com, after reading that many fibromyalgia patients have had success battling pain and stress by using hypnosis and meditation audio recordings.  At Audible, I found “Deep Sleep Every Night”, and “Heal Your Body by Using Your Mind”, both written and read by Glenn, who is a graduate of the British School of Clinical Hypnotherapy.  At first, I wanted to giggle a bit because the concept of laying in bed and being “hypnotized” by someone with a cockney accent was quite silly.  One I actually started to listen, however, the recordings actually worked.  I’ve fallen asleep to one of them every night for the past week, usually in under fifteen minutes.  I’ve never heard either of them in their entirety because I can’t stay awake.  This is quite good for me, because although I suffer from a lot of fatigue, I also have trouble falling asleep at night.  I’ve been using some form of sleep aid since 1999.  Now I’m sleeping without the sleep aid because of these recordings.  I can’t say that I’m being “hypnotized”, especially because I’m not awake for very long to get the full effect, but something sure makes me relaxed and drowsy.  I’m also someone who likes to sleep in complete silence, so it’s a 180 degree turn for me to be falling asleep to talking/music while wearing earbuds.  If you’re looking for some sort of stress-buster or sleep-inducer, I encourage you to give one of these titles a try.  I can’t vouch for the more “active” titles (the ones that are supposed to make you want to exercise or do work), but the relaxation titles are very good at what they do.  Try and listen to a sample before you buy, so you’ll know that the speaker’s voice doesn’t annoy you.  Glenn Harrold is very compatible with my ears, but some people find his accent too unusual to be comfortable.  A woman named Lynda Hudson has a relaxation title which was well-reviewed and recommended, but when I heard her say “Relaaaaaax” on the sample, it sounded like she was telling a ghost story.  It made me giggle, which is normally a good thing, but not when you’re trying to fall asleep.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/12 at 01:52 AM
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 , the wee hours

Buy this new iPod Nano… help raise funds for Bunny!

I’m sorry I’ve been absent for a week.  I’ve been so burned out… I’m sure you all understand, from one experience or another.  I’m trying to get back into the swing of things now.

Christmas is just around the corner, and I’d like to sell the second brand-new, 4GB iPod Nano that I won at Blog World.  We could use the cash more than we could use the iPod, especially given that Carlo must have an ECG, Cricket has been sick all week with pancreatitis, and a few of the cats with URIs now also have eye infections.  It seems like we’ve been at the vet almost every day in the past week!

As I said, this iPod Nano is 3rd generation, and 4GB.  It’s never been removed from its storage box.  There was recently a sale at a cool store called iFrogz.com, so we purchased a nice case and decorative control pad decal for this iPod, and it will be included in the sale.  Here’s what your new lovely iPod will look like once you put it in the new case and add the decal:

ipod_nano

Isn’t that nice?!  The iPod, without the case, sells for $144.99 at Amazon.com.  The case and decal are worth about $18, so the total retail value here is $162.94 (plus whatever taxes and shipping you’d have to add if you bought it in a retail store or online).  If you buy this Nano from me, I’ll give you the entire package for just $130, and I’ll ship it to you for free.  If you’d like to buy this and send it to someone as a gift, I’ll happily wrap it and send it wherever you’d like, too.  If you’re interested, you can jot me an email using the “Contact Me” link at the top of the page, or just send $130 to me using the Wee Paws donation button in the sidebar.  If I can’t sell this in a couple of days I’ll put it on eBay, but then I’d have to pay a lot of fees to list it.  I figured I’d try this first.l

Thanks for putting up with another commercial here, and for being kind enough to read it.  I can’t keep my eyes open now (and I mean that literally), so tomorrow I’ll come back and write all about Bunny, Carlo, and Cricket with the belly ache.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/11 at 12:25 AM
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007 , late at night

Bunny has HCM

We got Bunny’s report back from the cardiologist today, and it said that her x-rays and echocardiogram are “most consistent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy”.  In fact, the x-rays from the day we took her in to the vet (the day she was having trouble breathing) show that she was actually in the middle of heart failure.  Thank goodness we didn’t wait any longer to take her in—Flippy’s instincts said not to wait, and I’m glad we listened to them.  Right now, we don’t know if she has a month to live, or years to live.  She started on Lasix and Enalapril today, and she’s got a full schedule of rechecks ahead of her—kidney values in one week, x-rays in one month, and another ECG in three months.  Hopefully the tests will show improvement.  Enalapril is an ACE inhibitor, but there’s a beta-blocker called Carvedilol which has been showing good results in clinical trials on cats with CHF.  I think Bunny could take both drugs concurrently, so this is definitely something I want to pursue.  It’s unfortunate that we don’t actually have a relationship with the cardiologiy service—they just consult with our vet, so we never get a chance to speak to them.

This coming Monday, we’ll be taking Carlo in for the same tests, because this condition is genetic.  It’s also more common in males.  I really hope he’s not affected, just because it would be such a huge emotional burden to know that they were both living on borrowed time.

When I returned the vet’s phone call today, it was literally right at sundown… I noticed it getting darker outside as I waited on hold.  I don’t think I’ll ever go through another Hanukkah season without thinking about this particular day.  Although I’d been just beside myself with emotion when the idea of HCM was first posed last week, I’d actually convinced myself that Bunny didn’t have it because she’s had such a good week.  When I got the positive diagnosis today I was really shocked… I thought bad news just happened to other people.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/04 at 11:26 PM
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Bunny update again

Bunny went in for her echocardiogram this morning.  She also had another chest x-ray.  All the materials are being sent off to be analyzed by a cardiologist in San Diego, and we should get the assessment within 48 hours.  Our vet isn’t an expert on heart issues, but she said that Bunny’s lungs looked much better than they had a week ago, and that Bunny’s heart was still enlarged, but it was less enlarged than it was last Monday.

Bunny does seem to be acting normally, and I know she’d be thrilled to be healthy as it would mean no more trips to the vet!  She’s not fond of the car.  Even if her heart is enlarged from a genetic condition, I think we’ve caught it early enough that medication should be able to prolong Bunny’s life.  I feel a lot more positive about everything than I did a week ago, that’s for sure.  Back then, her congested lungs and enlarged heart pointed to congestive heart failure, and I felt so helpless and devastated.  I truly hope we’ll still have years and years of happiness with her ahead.

On another note, I want to say good things about Care Credit.  I called them this morning to ask for a credit limit increase so I could pay for the cardiology consultation, and they gave me the increase immediately, and also wished Bunny good luck.  It was good to know that I could pay for today’s visit without emptying the bank account.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/04 at 12:19 AM
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Monday, December 03, 2007 , the wee hours

Crosswords

I’ve recently become addicted to crossword puzzles.  I’ve been worried about keeping my mind sharp, and I started to do the daily newspaper crossword puzzle to try to improve things like my word-retrieval skills.  Surprisingly, I’ve not only loosened up my old grey cells, I’ve found a wonderful way to relax.  I now try to complete the puzzle in every daily paper if I have the time, and I’ll do two, or even three puzzles in a row if I’m uptight.  It’s been wonderful, purposeful therapy!

Our local newspaper gives me the daily crosswords from both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, so I’ve got a wealth of riches in the driveway each morning.  My favourite puzzles, however, are the Friday Wall Street Journal puzzle, and the weekend puzzles from “the Observer” and Tribune Media.  They’re really large, and contain lots of puns and detailed themes.  If I’m in a pinch and desperately need a puzzle to work on, The New York Times offers their puzzles online, and they offer access to their entire database of puzzles for just $6.95 per month.  The interface is really easy to use and intuitive, so I’d happily recommend it to anyone needing almost limitless selection.  You can complete the puzzles in your browser, save them, compete against the clock or other players, or even print the puzzles out if you want to be all “Little House on the Prairie” about it.

Once I discovered how much I love these puzzles, I started to explore ways to have puzzles available while I was “on the go”.  I purchased a battery-operated, handheld crossword game by a company called Excalibur, and it was just awful (luckily I got a super deal for it on eBay).  The screen isn’t backlit, it’s difficult to read, you can only see one clue at a time… it’s pretty much worthless.  It’s so worthless that I’ll send it to anyone who asks for it, because otherwise it may end up in the trash.  I don’t even want to subject a buyer at Goodwill to it.  The very best portable player I’ve found is the Nintendo DS and the game ”New York Times Crosswords”.  I didn’t have high hopes for it, but it’s easy to use, the clues are easily accessible, and it’s easy to see large portions of the grid to keep things in perspective.  This is definitely something I could carry about with me and use often.  It will be ages before I run out of new puzzles, and even longer before I can complete them all.  The puzzles are organized by Monday through Friday (easiest to most difficult), or you can choose a random game.

after all these experiments with different products, I still have to conclude that my favourite way to work on a crossword puzzle is to sit down with an old-fashioned pen and paper.  I like to be able to browse all the clues, to fold up the game and stuff it in my pocket, and to not worry that the batteries will die.  I know I’ll want to take something with me when I travel, and although Flippy has offered to lend me her Nintendo DS, I think I’ll either buy a small book of puzzles, or just bring along a few newspaper tear-outs.  I love gadgest of all sorts, but when it come to crossword puzzles, the only gadget I want to employ is a nice pen.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/03 at 12:11 AM
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Sunday, December 02, 2007 , late at night

Hug your Mutt today

Most of you have probably already heard, but “Earl McDonnell” passed away a couple of weeks ago at age 19.  Earl was the real-life inspiration for the character of “Earl” in Patrick McDonnell’s comic, Mutts.  The real Earl was an adorable Jack Russell, and what an amazing legacy he leaves behind.  My condolences to Patrick, who canceled a book tour because of Earl’s death… I don’t blame him one bit for needing some time with his family.  A few years ago, Flippy and I had tickets to see Mary Chapin-Carpenter in concert, but she canceled her show at the last minute.  I was disappointed, and probably even sort of annoyed, but I later found out that she’d gone home to be with her dying dog.  I can’t fault that, in fact, I admire it.

Patrick McDonnell’s book tour is for his new book called “Hug Time”.  It’s a childrens’ book about a cat who wants to give the entire world a hug.  Because the promotional tour is on a bit of a break, I’ll give the book a bit of a plug myself.  Sorry the link doesn’t have the cover photo!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/02 at 11:58 PM
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Saturday, December 01, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

Home for Christmas

Thanks to the generosity of my sister and brother-in-law, I’m going home to Canada for Christmas this year.  I have to say that besides the logistical issues of leaving three hundred animals behind, my biggest concern is the cold.  I am afraid of being cold, as I now have thin, Las Vegas blood.  For the past 16 years, I’ve lived in places which don’t have snow in the winter.  My last trip back to Canada for Christmas was in 1994, and it was so bloody cold I had to wear long underwear and wrap blankets around me if I sat and watched TV.  I had to make an emergency trip to the store for earmuffs because I thought my ears were going to fall off.  It was -26 degrees during that Christmas (that equals -15 fahrenheit), and it haunts me.  I keep crossing my fingers that global warming will now mean that palm trees grow in Ottawa, and that I’ll be wearing shorts on Christmas morning.

The above paragraph is what I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of weeks.  I’d finally convinced myself that the weather during my trip won’t be very cold, and that I’ll be able to deal with it using a barn jacket and some tennis shoes.  Then, today’s Toronto Star printed this article, Brrrr-ace yourself for a cold, hard winter.  I offer to you the offending passage:

Environment Canada yesterday predicted the country could see its coldest winter in almost 15 years. “The last time Canada had a significantly cold winter was back in 1994, more than a decade ago, and this may very well rival that one in terms of coldness,” said senior climatologist David Phillips.

Pardonner à mon Français, mais, Ce qui le Tabernac?!* Is Mother Nature trying to kill me?  At the very least, does she want me to cry?  Because I’m not above crying at the drop of a hat when I’m stressed out, and I’m already stressed about traveling and airport security and packing holiday gifts and dragging my luggage through Toronto customs.  It would be fine if Santa wanted to send me on a $500 shopping spree at Lands End, for example, but I think I’ve got Santa all tapped out this year.  I wonder if I can fit an electric blanket under my clothes?  Those of you who still live in the cold white north (north or south of the 49th parallel), have any tips on warm-weather clothing for a girl who now goes through life wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and a pair of underwear i.e., as little as possible)?  I’m guess socks are a start, right? 

*I invented the little French phrase up there.  It doesn’t directly translate to anything specific, but it will be more gentle on the eyes of my family should they ever read this.  I really wanted to say, “What the fuck?”, but French is so much softer.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/01 at 05:50 AM
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