Diary of Day pick again!! (6/10/2011)

Wow - that was quite something. I got the diary of the day pick again. I feel so honored. Thank you to all my great kitty friends who sent me so many rosettes and paw mails. You guys are the best.

I have been loving life. My mom went away over the weekend to attend her college reunion. She came home all sappy and happy. My Auntie Grandma petsitter Katherine took care of me and our neighbor Lisa gave me breakfast on Sunday morning. I love them, but still I missed my mom.

This morning when mom was standing in the front hallway about to leave for work, I walked over to her from the dining room and we had a little scritchie/love fest and she brushed me with her hairbrush (I don't like mine, so I make her use her hairbrush, which means there is always Snowie hair and mom hair mixed up in it and mom is always cleaning it). Then I went over to my favorite white rug and laid down on one of my toys next to a toy pile and looked at mom with my most beguiling and cute face. She REALLY didn't want to leave me, which was my plan, but unfortunately she had to go.

I have been extra affectionate to mom since she got back from the weekend (she as only gone 2 days, but still!). I also got lots of great balcony time among the beautiful flowers lolling on the ottoman, and stretching luxuriously in the sun. As the weather is great here now (lower temps, no humidity).... we are loving life.

The only wrinkle in the works is that my last 2 urine tests have come back positive for struvite, with my pH too high, so the vets and mom are trying to regulate that so I don't develop any stones. Please keep your paws crossed!

Love and purrs, Snowie

Diary of the Day Pick 6/8/2011

Yay!! I am diary of the day today. Its totally thrilling! Thanks to all for your concatulations!!

Its super hot here right now, but we are still having our balcony days. Each morning I want to get out there too and have a little nip at the salvia and lounge on the ottoman. And each evening mom sits on the balcony reading by flashlight since I never want to leave!!

This morning, Antonio, our painter, came by to see what needs to be touched up around the house. I was totally relaxed and sprawled on my white carpet while he was here. I like Antonio, as he's a gentle soul and a very nice person. He did lock me in the closet for 7 hours once! but that was a mistake!! I forgive him.

Purrs and headbutts for the diary of the day honor.

Snowie

The Balcony

Now that the balcony is open for business, you can bet that I want to go out there at every opportunity. Sitting at the open kitchen window (with a screen on the window - don't worry!) doesn't cut it anymore! Mom has some nice salvia bushes on the balcony (non toxic to cats) and I like to stick my face into them and chew a little on the leaves. We also have pink geraniums in boxes and english ivy and box hedge, but they are too high for me to reach (toxic to cats, btw). I spent the better part of the Memorial weekend lounging on the balcony sleeping between the salvia plants. Mom can't get me to go inside, and she never lets me be out there unaccompanied, so guess who else gets to spend a bunch of time on the balcony whether she likes it or not! You guessed it, mom.

My new thing is to bang on the watering can which sits right next to the balcony door (inside). When mom hears me banging on it, and sees me sitting and staring longingly at the door, it means I want to get out there! Last night we went out kind of late, after mom was done swimming laps in the pool. She got her book and a flashlight and we sat outside till I got tired and went in...(kind of a first -- usually mom gets fed up and makes me go in before I am ready and then I whine and become petulant).

Oooh, I love it that balcony days are back again!

The String

As dear to my heart as my octopi are, is the long string. I tell you, I ADORE the string. I have never grown tired of it. On Wednesday after the cleaners had been at our house, mom could not find the string. Every evening she said "Snowie, where's the string?" and mom would hunt for it. Yesterday, after 5 long days without the string, mom decided to search even harder. She asked me where the string was and I accompanied her on her search. After a while mom gave up. However, I KNEW where the string was, which is why I had never been worried (though I missed playing with it, which we used to do every day). I went and sat on the dvr player on a chest of drawers in the bedroom and peered behind the bureau. Mom came in, saw me, and had a eureka moment. She looked at me, I looked at her, and she exclaimed "Snowie is that where the string is??!". Sure enough when she pulled out the chest of drawers from the wall, the string was there! We played and played and played and were so happy. Afterwards, I played with the string all by myself for quite a while. We were never so glad to see the string, and mom was amazed again, at how I understand her and my powers of perception!

BTW, we are still going to post the lined up octopi picture....we haven't forgotten, and we REALLY want to thank Casey, Grace, Leo and Frankie's mom for making two amazing and beautiful pictures of me to honor my cat of the day a few weeks ago. Mom was amazed and touched by these great pictures which were clearly a labor of love and a beautiful gift to us. We will post them too! Mom is just TOOOO busy these days.

Purrs to all!!

Octopi Artwork

Anybody who knows me knows I love my octopi. I have several of them, and they no longer have any of their little heads/bodies, because I chomp them off pretty much as soon as I get them. So I have a bunch of octopi with just legs. I like to carry them around with me, but I do have to pick them up just right with painstaking care so that all their 8 little fuzzy legs dangle down equally. Which always makes my mom laugh because it makes me look like I have a multicolored-fuzzy-octopus-leg beard. (Hey -- stop laughing at me! This octopi thing is serious business!!) I like to sleep with one, so most of my favorite sleeping spots have a resident octopi to keep me company (this is why it is good that we have so many, so we can spread them around for various tasks!). What I also like to do with my octopi is to bring them up with me onto the skinny kitchen counter where my food bowl resides, where they guard my food for me. When it is time to eat, they usually end up summarily pushed down onto the kitchen floor. Lastly, I like to line them up in neat rows. Sometimes when mom comes home, she is greeted by octopi art projects. Just lately, my catsitter, whom we call Auntie Grandma because she initiates bad habits (like taking my food bowl in to the living room and feeding me on the white carpet!), called my mom in amazement to tell her that I had lined up all my octopi in a neat row and how cool was that! But Mom has seen it all before! Even so she says she is amazed by my artistic nature and what she calls my aesthetic sense! I'm just an artsy kitty!!

Cat of the Day!!

Wow! I was cat of the day on Friday, April 22 (good friday). I feel very honored! My mom had a busy Easter Weekend so we didn't log on and found out the good news till today. In the meantime I am still basking on cat of the day glory!....

Glad to hear that my good friend Muppet is doing well, and also glad to hear that Hazel Lucy's mom is doing well and looking forward to "newcat". It was so nice to hear from old friends like Hilda and get concatulations from many others on my being cat of the day.

Love and purrs, Snowie

Hazel Lucy

It is with great sadness that I see that my friend Hazel Lucy has crossed the rainbow bridge. I am not very active on Catster anymore, but we logged on and saw the sad news. I treasure my beautiful valentine and candy corn hats, and my lovely collars, especially the fun fur collar (!) and the beautiful tranquility blanket that I use every day. It is one of my favorite special spots - all Hazel Lucy tested and approved. These are constant reminders of the beautiful Miss Hazel. She will be greatly missed. She was such a Cat-itarian -- always caring and looking out for her fellow cats in the Catster community.

May Hazel Lucy watch over us and keep us from harm. May she be at peace and content and free from pain and sorrow, wherever she is.

Love and purrs, Snowie

The straight poop

All the purrs and good wishes must be working because I am starting to feel better. Yesterday I pooped for the second straight day in a row...the poos weren't perfect, but they weren't terrible either. Mom was proud and pleased nontheless. We played with the long string and I even chased it down the corridor to the bedroom and leapt onto the bed after it twice (which is one of my favorite games). My snuggling sessions are getting back to normal too. I like to lean in on my mom's chest and throw my body across hers and rest my chin on her nose or cheek and purr purr purr purr the whole while. This morning, I had a nice session lying on the big cushy chair on the balcony. Mom has basically given up the chair to me (a little cat). She perches on the ottoman when we are on the balcony and I stretch out on the big chair.

Floppy colon?

Thank you to all the FOS (friends of Snowie) who have wished me well after my latest scary vet adventures. Thank you so much to Hazel Lucy, Hilda, Muppet, Fluffy & Alex, Buddie (always loved), Sky, Minka (cupcake), and Kittanna for their kind words and gifts. You have boosted my spirits so much.

Post anesthesia/dental/constipation AND diarrhea I have been pretty lethargic. I have my moments when the old Snowie shines through but I have not been myself. I haven't been eating as much and my poos are not back to normal. I sneezed a lot over the weekend and we think that is part of my healing mouth. I have been sleeping a lot more lately and just not feeling up to snuff.

We have a vet visit to the internal medicine specialist on Thursday, a follow up visit to the dental vet on Friday and a visit to my regular vet on Saturday. Mom wishes she didn't have to drag me to all these vet visits but it can't be helped.

My colon is still not cooperating so my poos are not great. Despite the miralax, lactulose and pumpkin added to my food. My regular vet thinks I need medication to help my colon move things along. We just hope I haven't developed a floppy useless colon.

Big time emergency drama

We have had a very dramatic time. This was my third teeth cleaning and both of the others had very bad outcomes. Right when we thought this one might turn out going okay, things took a very, very bad turn.

My teeth cleaning and extraction took place on Friday morning. (I lost 2 teeth. I have a disease where the cells that attack the baby teeth, also attack the adult teeth. The dentists have said it is painful while the affected teeth are receding and the best thing is to extract them.) Mom has been monitoring my poo all along and adding extra fiber and probiotics and even then I really haven't been making the best poos. So add to this the effects of aenesthesia on the GI and the pain killers I was on post dental, and you have a recipe for disaster. Despite the good care mom always tries to give me, things went very south.

We got me home on Friday and I was restless and not myself. The drugs had made me antsy and jumpy and agitated. Over the weekend mom did her best to make sure I was not in pain. I had stitches in my mouth and they had shaved part of my front paw for the catheter. With the help of the pain meds though, I slept and mom thought I was healing and recovering well. She was very careful when giving me my pain medication and administering my antibiotics as she did not want to hurt my painful mouth.

On Sunday I had violent diarhhea. No doubt the antiobiotics were wreaking havoc with my GI system. To counter it, Mom was giving me extra acidopholous to try to build back up the good bacteria in my system. However, on Monday morning I woke mom up at 1.15 am by digging my back claws into her knee. I was lying on my side on the bed crying. Mom woke up instantly and seeing the state I was in she reached for me to try to figure out what was wrong with me. I jumped off the bed but stumbled and fell over. I could not walk or stand up. I was crying in pain. Mom threw me into my carrier and threw on clothes and sped through the empty dark streets running every red light. She was shaking with fear.

We got to the emergency vet and because I had just had the dental surgery they were worried I was having a toxic reaction to one of my medications or a post anesthesia reaction or had had a stroke. We had to call Poison Control and have them research the drugs I was taking. Because they thought this might be a neurological issue (my inability to stand up, my intense pain, and how stiff my entire body was), they did not give me any pain meds and it took a long time for them to x-ray me. In the meantime, mom was hysterical. I was in the back in a cage with an elizabethan collar on for hours, in excruciating pain. I couldn't stand up. Mom couldn't be with me. She felt helpless and frustrated and feared she might lose me altogether.

Finally the x-ray revealed the extent of the backed up poo in my colon. It was also pressing on my bladder and I hadn't been able to pee so I was in an amazing amount of pain from all this. They performed an enema and expressed by bladder and gave me pain medication and I finally got relief from many hours of intense pain. We were at the ER till 7 am. When mom got me home and the first thing I did was go to the guest room (which is my boo boo room), crawl up onto the guest bed and fall asleep in pure exhaustion. Three hours later I woke up and had drooled a bit from both ends.

Mom left food for me and had to leave me to go to work, and I went to sleep in the bedroom closet under the blouses. Now my poo is being monitored and I am being given a laxative and stool softener and I may be put on medication to help the colon do its thing. Mom will start adding 2 tablespoons of pumpkin to my food per day. We never want to go through this again. This was our second time, and this time was far worse than the first.