When the dog is scared of the cat. Current Situation....

Tough for her. I've been using a water bottle to squirt her when she gets too close to the door. Until we can get the pet door that only unlocks if they got the chip/tag she has to steer clear, otherwise she will slip out in a heartbeat. I don't want her outside unsupervised and when we would allow her out with us it only created a monster that became relentless at getting out - so much so that Lila became afraid of her. Most likely my fault for the tone I would use to reprimand (okay, yell) at ZsaZsa for getting out or blocking the door or bopping Lila when she came in from outside.

For the last couple of months we've been keeping ZsaZsa upstairs in her own little room during the day while the dogs have free roam of the house. Why? Because it's too hard to constantly watch ZsaZsa to ensure she doesn't go out the dog door yet leave it open so that the dogs /can/ come and go and they please. Lila never learned to tell us or indicate that she needs to use the bathroom and to this day she will still go in the house sometimes.

Once the dogs have eaten dinner and settled in for the evening I open the door and ZsaZsa can come out. Sometimes she prefers being in her room. She sleeps up there at night even with the whole house to herself. We've got a camera in the room to see how she does and she's very content. I try and go up there every couple of hours to play with her and love on her. The TV is on all day on You Tube playing videos of birds and such for cats. The has her 7 foot cat condo and a bird feeder outside the window.

It's not the most ideal situation and some days I miss her, but the vet/behaviorist is coming in a couple weeks and I pray to the spirits that she will have some good training advice. They lived well together for nearly a year. Wth happened, I don't know.

What It's Like to Have High Functioning Anxiety

Follow Link for video --->>> Not Good Enough  Credits go to https://www.facebook.com/AnxietyonTheMighty 

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

I'm stressed. So what's new?

October 11, 2017

I really dropped off this blog after the death of Shelby. Not one month later Chloe passed. A lot has happened since then and this is the beginning of some posts made on Facebook that I chose to transfer here.

I’m stressed. I know everyone has their own battles and many are 100 times worse than mine, but some days I just want to give up.



1. Estate sale at my parents’ house where everything in that jam-packed home needs to be sold. It’s over 3k square feet that belonged to two generations of people who never threw a damn thing away. We wanted to get the house on the market by the end of the year, but it doesn’t look like it will happen that way. More $$ to support a second house.



2. One of my kitty’s diabetes is back due to his medication to treat his asthma. So many variables trying to get the asthma under control and suddenly his blood sugar is showing a trend upward since two days ago. He’s on 5 different meds (one being an inhaler~ that’s fun to get a cat used to)


3. Over the last 4-5 months I’ve been dealing with some major anxiety and a tinge of depression which has led me to gain 7 pounds. Considering I used to have an eating disorder and I have now gone to the “I don’t give a fuck” phase, I’m seriously disheartened realize I really need to stop eating candy to soothe myself.


4. I have another kitty that was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and during her chest X-rays they found a mass that didn’t appear benign. Her meds have upset her GI tract and I’m doing what I can do get that worked out and get her T4 down before we worry about the mass.


5. There’s so much shit I need to do that I have procrastinating for almost a year that is weighing heavily on me and I can hardly sleep. Exercising would probably help but dammit I’m fucking lazy. Plus, I was diagnosed with asthma last summer and still don’t know what my triggers are. I’m always afraid of working out I might have an attack.


6. I went a month or more with no endometriosis pain and over the last two weeks it has returned. I thought I could taper myself off some of my meds but I guess not. I’ve grown to really hate my body and how much pain and trouble it gives me.

A letter from mommy....

I miss you my sweet baby boy. My heart aches when I don't see you here where you always were. I wish I could pick you up and smell you and kiss your little belly. Your warm paws....

Thinking back I realize that you were not yourself for at least a month. We assumed that you were laying around because of the Prozac.  But a few weeks ago I just looked at you and I knew something was wrong. At the time you were not showing any signs of illness. It was just a gut feeling that I had but couldn't do anything with. You lost one pound in a month and again I assumed it was because of the Prozac. We reduced your dose and kept an eye on you. I pray to god that you were not in any pain. I would have done anything to have made it all go away for you.....and to do that I had to let you go. I couldn't put you through any treatments because we knew your personality. You didn't want anyone other that your mommy to touch you when you were outside of the house. Anything would have been pure torture and not worth it in the end. 

You were and will always be something special to me baby boy. I saw you crying on the sidewalk at just a few weeks old. We took you home and raised you and your sister. Turned out I couldn't give you up because you were mine. You were my baby boy. 

You will forever be in my heart. Please come and visit me in my dreams....

Love you forever,
Mommy

I'm more lost than she with her loss of sight

Chloe is either progressively losing her vision or I'm just realizing the extent of it. This whole week has been tough for me. I've cried multiple times and held her as I cried. I know that she will adapt and be fine with no vision, but I'm not adapting to it yet. It has been such a quick dramatic change that I'm dealing with it slowly. I've got to learn how to play with her. Learn to speak to her before I approach as to not frighten her. Husband today said that she got frightened by the vacuum and left the confines of her cubie hole but didn't know where to go. I know that she is somewhat vertically challenged at the moment. She can still jump on the bathroom counter, my nightstand and the kitchen counter but I don't think she's taken the stairs or made it off the ground otherwise. I guess I'll be getting her some new soft beds to lay on around the house on the floor. She is eating and drinking and is in no pain. I am in pain. My heart aches for her.

And the journey continues...

Thursday we had a board certified animal behaviorist come to the house and assess Shelby. The Buspar and Cerenia did not work in reducing/stopping his spraying. She gave us some homework and I can safely say that I was overwhelmed with all that we need to "work" on. Firstly though, Shelby needs blood work redone and then Prozac to start with.

This morning however I was cleaning up Chloe's chin because it appeared that her feline acne was acting up on her chin. I tilted her head back and trimmed the hair, cleaned it up and let her go. When she walked away I noticed that her right eye was all cloudy and pinkish with blood. Needless to say I freaked the hell out and called the vet STAT. Brushed my teeth, dressed and was out the door within 5 minutes. Vet's diagnosis....lens subluxation. Basically her lens is loose and has impaired her vision. We are to take her to an opthamologist next week, but in the meantime she is getting prednisone drops to try and reduce the inflammation in her eye.

The Current Battles- Urine Spraying & Renal Failure

Here we are again. I find myself needing to put all my thoughts and frustrations down in writing. I am teetering on the edge of insanity it feels like. 


Chloe is suffering from what the vet wants to call "renal insufficiency" but her creatinine has only gone up in the last month or so......so I would say she has progressive renal failure. Subcutaneous fluids were suggested once a week to start with. Thomas and I decided on our own to give it to her every two days. I being a stubborn person that I am tried to give the fluids myself, but would often have to poke Chloe three times to get the 100cc's in. It was more stressful for me than it was for her I am sure. During her next visit the vet found that her creatinine had gone up some more and her potassium was low. Send us home with a potassium supplement gel. She loved the gel and Thomas starting assisting me in administering her fluids. He did the poking while I held Chloe. This is working great.....although I still get upset about doing it. We try to give her fluids Monday Wednesday and Friday. We do it in the restroom upstairs. I know this has affected her adversely because she no longer ever goes upstairs. She used to spend alot of time up there....it seemed to be "her" space and would also sleep in the study chair. Well...she no longer goes up there AT ALL; unless of course I carry her up to the bathroom for fluids. There are days where she will not show any interest in eating in the AM. Yesterday she had spit up so I gave her a pepcid and she did eat in the evening. This morning she did not eat again, but I placed the food plate in front of her and she did eat some. And by the way....I jinxed myself at the vet. She that she loved the potassium gel and ever since we got back she wants nothing to do with it. DAMN! Her creatinine has gone up even more and her potassium lower. I refuse to change her diet to the renal on because well...the first time I did it gave her the shits and it's just too hard to feed her separately. I need to accept the fact that fluids is about all we can do for her at this point. And once it gets to where she needs them more often we are going to have to assess her quality of life.  She is already skid-dish around me because I am either grabbing her to get fluids or to pill her etc. I don't want her last months to be in hiding.


In another story Shelby has decided that he wants to spray the entire house. Well, not really. It seems to be directed at me! And this morning he actually got up on the bed, sprayed MY pillow and the headboard. He does not bother with Thomas' side of the bed. I no longer even have a night stand because over the months it had been sprayed repeatedly so I gave up. Now I can not leave anything on the floor because he will inevitably spray it too. He has done my pillow and the mattress/box springs. This is just lately. I haven't even mentioned the guest room closet and other areas that I cleaned up months ago.  Finally found out that it was him doing the spraying and took him to the vet. She got urine and found bacteria. Treated that with a shot of convenia. Turns out the culture was negative....so....he is now on behavioral modification drugs. Namely Buspirine. He just started yesterday. Requires pilling him twice a day. God I pray that this will help because I don't know what else to do. I am ready to pull my hair out. There is no way I will get rid of him because of this because 1) he is my baby and 2) no one else is going to want a cat that sprays.  Alas, I am stressed beyond words. 

Precious Black Kitten

A cute bowl

Should you microchip your pet?

Most of us have heard about microchipping our pets.  But what does this really mean?  How does it work?  Is it going to hurt my pet? How much does it cost?  I will answer some of those most common questions….

A pet microchip uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Each microchip contains a unique identification number for the pet.  The chip simply sits in your pet, waiting to be read by a scanner if he/she ever gets lost and is taken to a shelter or vet office.  Microchips are designed to last the lifetime of a pet.  They have no batteries and emit no radio frequency unless scanned.  The information about the animal and or the owner is not on the chip itself, but is kept in a database or registry and is "pulled up" when correlated to the chip number.  That is why microchip numbers must be unique.

Inserting the chip does not hurt the pet.  As a matter of fact, I had all of my pets chipped in June and they showed no signs of pain.  The microchip was inserted under the skin at the scruff of the neck.  My local vet charged $40.00 per pet.  I was sent home with the all the information I needed to register with the company.  The vet also registered our contact information and microchip numbers for them to keep on file.

YOU MUST register your contact information and pet information (including microchip number) in order for it to be a useful tool in finding your lost pet.  When you register, you provide the unique microchip identification number, as well as yours and the veterinarian’s contact information.  If a shelter or local vet receives your pet, they use scanners to read the number and contact the agency that manages the database you registered with.  Also, please remember to update your contact information with the registration database whenever you move, get a new phone number or e-mail address.  If the chip can be read but there is no owner contact information registered, it will be hard to reunite the pet with its family.

There is more than one company that manufactures and sells microchips for pets.  The consequences of this are that there are microchips that run on different radio frequencies.  But do not be alarmed!  Universal scanners are now readily available to all U.S. animal shelters and veterinary clinics. They are called “universal” because they can read multiple microchip frequencies sold by different microchip manufacturers. Per The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), there are at least four different microchip frequencies marketed in the U.S.  However, I have read that if your local vet and shelters cannot read the frequency of your chip, you can call the manufacturer and request that they send a scanner to the location, free of charge.

“As an alternative to (or in addition to) using microchips, some people purchase pet collars with a GPS (Global Positioning System) device attached. Using measurements from satellites and cellular technology, these devices can send messages to your computer or cell phone to alert you when your dog has left a virtual safe zone, as well as where exactly your dog has strayed.”

 McGrath, Jane.  "How Pet Microchipping Works."  21 April 2008.  HowStuffWorks.com.  31 July 2009.

New Blog Considerations

Okay so most recently I have quit my full time job to stay at home and work on myself. I need to find a career path that truly makes me happy.  Some options are to go back to school or volunteer with animals somewhere. This blog is going to track my everyday thoughts and what is going on with my cats.

I have four cats and think I also have a lot of information to offer the new pet owner.

~Later~