All good news.

Good news! I have gained almost 2 pounds in 2 months. All that great grain free Wellness soft food, and the organic cooked chicken I have been getting seems to be addressing my irritable bowel disease. Plus I get cod liver every day and I LOVE IT! Not to mention how fabulous it is to get chicken on a regular basis now.

Though it was very dicey for me for a while last week right after my teeth cleaning and extraction, my eyes appear to have healed nicely from the corneal ulcers that developed while I was anesthetized. I was truly in bad shape, and appreciated all the kind purrs I got. Things could have been much worse, and my sight could have been affected, so it was very serious. But I am feeling great now and really enjoying how good it feels to feel good!!

Love and purrs and special thanks to Hazel Lucy for putting me on the purr-list and to all kitties who purred for me!

Snowie

Surprise housecall!

Yesterday around 8 pm we had a visitor...my vet!! He came over to make a housecall, braving the snow and ice and bad weather, in order to check on my eyes. He has been very concerned for me. I was totally relaxed since I was at home and much more the real me. So he got to see how I really am! Mom held me and I was relaxed and calm in her arms. He put some more dye in my eyes to see how the corneal ulcers are doing. Luckily they did not show up green, but now look more white and cloudy which means they are healing. He is very confident that my sight will not be impacted and today I was opening both my eyes wide and the yellow discharge has stopped. I am so relieved! In fact, I have been quite back to my old self. Marching triumphantly around with my octopus and singing my victory cry! Mom's mom says I sound like someone out of Aida. Bet you didn't know I was a closet opera singer!! ; )

Thanks to everycat who has been concerned and purring for me and holding my paw and giving me such nice presents: Hilda, Buddie, Ciao-Li, The Drifter and family, Jean Louise, Lucy, Scooter, Milo, Katie, Handsome (my love), Sky, Hazel Lucy (especially for putting me on the Purr-list) and Anna. Also thanks to Keebler, Gus, Mittens, Kinsey, Bear, Sebastian and Cleopatra for recently signing my guestbook. You are all pawesome and I can't thank you enough for your good kitty wishes!!

Weekus horribilis

I am having a really terrible week. First it was the teeth cleaning, and having the small molar pulled, and the pain from all that and being scared and having to wait at the vet and just the whole procedure which was scary and uncomfortable. Then I seemed to be very sensitive to the pain medications and had a hard time waking up. I slept for 15 hours straight. Then we had to go the emergency room on Sunday evening because I have developed corneal ulcers (probably from my eyes drying out during the teeth cleaning procedure). The antibiotic eye drops I have to have are scary and sting. The atropine drops/ointment which mom puts in my eyes for pain and to relax the muscles in my eyes drips down the back of my throat and makes me gag and vomit and foam at the mouth. I spent a whole hour swallowing and gagging last night. I was miserable. Through all this, though, I have been a super trooper. I have been eating and purring and being my usual lovable/loving self. Mom is really upset for me. She just wants me to feel better as soon as possible. Please send all your kitty prayers that I will not have any long term damage to my eyes, and that I heal quickly!!

With love and thanks,
Snowie

The eyes have it...

My teeth cleaning procedure on Thursday went well. I had to have one small lower right side molar removed, however, and then I forget to ask for my tooth so I could leave it under my cat bed for the tooth fairy. It took me about 24 hours to recover from the anesthesia. I was restless and couldn't settle down. Even with a dose of buprenex for pain I was still wired. Finally in the evening I went to sleep, actually I kind of passed out in the guest bedroom on the floor! Later I moved to on top of the guest bedroom convector. Mom has put towels on top of the convectors that she doesn't turn on so I can lie on them. Some heat still comes up out of them even if the fan is not on. I slept for 15 hours straight. I was pretty much in an opium stupor. It was really heard for me to open my eyes, and they were all goopy. Mom called the vet about my goopy eyes and she gave me some eye drops. Over the weekend my eyes kept looking worse and worse. Really red and lots of discharge and I was squinting. Then I started to close my left eye. On Sunday afternoon mom became really alarmed about my eyes and took me to Friendship Animal Hospital to the ER. They flushed out my eyes and looked carefull at them and determined I had corneal ulcers (probably from my eyes drying out during the procedure, since I was anesthetized). They put ointment in my eyes which made me foam at the mouth since it tasted so bad and they gave my mom antibiotic eyedrops to use on me every 8 hours. I got back from the vet and was cat-tired. I curled up and slept in mom's room for several hours before getting up to have my dinner...late. Then I slept all night next to mom and this morning when she got up I wanted to stay sleeping. But I got up too and we walked to the kitchen. I have now taken to keeping both my eyes shut because they hurt so much, and I bumped into the wall next to the kitchen door. I misjudged where the opening was! Mom feels very sorry for me, but I am just trying to sleep, keep my eyes closed and get through this....

Diary of the Day Tuesday 1/20/2009: Inauguration Day!

How wonderful that I was also inaugurated on January 20! As Diary of the Day cat! Thank you for the wonderful messages and gifts I got!! I was VERY excited to be get Diary of the Day.

Speaking of inaugurations. My human mom had a great time celebrating Barack Obama as this country's new president, over the weekend. She went down to the Lincoln Memorial concert on Sunday and rocked out to Bono, Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, and more. She said it was an incredible experience to be in the jubilant crowds. All smart dogs and cats though stayed away from these big human celebrations. Too many people in one place! She also went to an official Inaugural Ball where she saw the Obamas and Bidens, and Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez serenaded the ball goers. Some other celebreties were there too, like Ron Howard. The limo finally dropped her home at 2:30 am, and boy was I glad to see her and curl up in bed with her! It was too cold for any little kitties to go traipsing about!!

And here's the great news about my health! I have gained over a pound in the past 2 months and my blood tests all came back normal!! YAY! My human mom is VERY happy, and I feel great. I have had a change of diet and that has helped a lot.

Today I am going to the vet though because my teeth need to be cleaned. My mom is very nervous and asks all my catster friends to pray for me, as I'll be sedated for the dentistry. I have to hang around at the vet all morning. Mom does not like leaving me, but we have no choice. I am hoping to get out of there this afternoon with shiny sparkly clean wondeful teeth!!

Love and purrs, Snowie

P.M.
Just got back from the vet. One of my teeth had to be removed. Ow. I was all groggy and woozy when mom picked me up but I was so excited to see her I was meowing and tell her all about my ordeal and trying to climb out of my cat carrier so I could be really close to her while she was driving me home. When I got home I was HUNGRY! I am not supposed to eat much today and it has to be really soft mushy food, but I ate some and drank some and basically wandered around the house like a lost soul. When I wasn't doing that I was purring the loudest purr mom has ever heard me purr, and happy to be petted. I was SO GLAD to be home again. I'll be getting pain meds for about 3 days and eating mushy food for 7. But I'm a survivor and I am already almost back to my normal self!!

MY CATNIP!

The other day mom dug through my toy basket and threw my YEOWWW! green fish on to the dining room table thinking that I might like to play with it. I DO like to play with it...mightily...with all the strenth of my back legs and paws. Since mom hasn't cut my nails in a while, I gave that thing a pretty good work out. The next morning mom's mom discovered catnip and stuffing all over the dining room tablecloth. And it was all over my fur, clinging to me. I had managed to bust several holes in the green fish and it was leaking. When mom's mom went to brush the stuff off of me I got really MAD! I hissed and scratched and basically went ballistic. Hey, don't touch my catnip! MINE!! Mom's mom had to vacuum the dining room area. She didn't dare touch me. Now if my human mom had been around, THAT would have been a different story. She would have defuzzed me!

New Year's Health Update

Good news! I have gained almost 1 pound! I was getting very skinny and drinking a lot and eating voraciously and pooping big sloppy poos several times a day. We definitely were trying to address all this by several vet visits, antibiotics, probiotics, a change in diet, etc. For the past 2 months my diet has changed somewhat, and has been supplemented by good, clean, organic protein. My favorite is Chicken! My mom has not put me on a raw diet, but she is leaning that way. But I do get chicken and I love it. In fact, I am absolutely crazy about it. In the meantime, I have started gaining weight, my poos are now normal and the amount of my drinking and eating is also normal. I am scheduled for an endoscopy in 2 weeks, but maybe I won't have to have it if my blood test results are normal!!...Put in a big Purr for me!

Happy New Year to all my friends in Catster Land!! I wish you health, much love and lots of purring in the year to come.

Sucessful Cat Rescue!

Yesterday evening mom came home briefly and then left again, only to return around 8:30 pm. I sniffed her clothes thoroughly like I always do when she has been around other animals. It turns out a good human friend of hers died about a month ago. This friend had two 10 year old fluffy male cats named Pasha and Boots. She hadn't made arrangements for them to go to a home upon her passing, so my mom was frantically trying to find them a forever home, or at the very least, a foster home till she could find them a forever home. She contacted all sorts of Cat Rescue organizations and got the word out to all her animal loving friends, but the time dragged on and there were no takers and she was really starting to get worried. On Sunday a lady who runs Sit-A-Pet (a pet sitting company in the area) emailed my mom. My mom got the email Monday morning at work and she almost fell off her chair in delight. The lady had lost her 20-year old kitty recently and had room in her heart and home for Pasha and Boots. She wanted to go get them that very evening! My mom was ecstatic. She met the lady and her husband and they spent some time talking to and cuddling with P & B before they took them home -- they are both VERY friendly, lovable kitties who need tons of TLC as they have been sad and lonely and grieving the loss and long protracted illness of their guardian. They were in desparate need of a new home and guardians who could really give them hands on care and love. And now they have it! YAY!! SUCCESS!!!

Adventures in NC.

We drove down to Chapel Hill, NC for a few days recently. Mom and I stayed with our friends who have 2 cats named Daisy and Sammy and a dachshund named Max. We had to sequester Daisy and Sammy so that I could run around the house to explore. Max doesn't bother me. We just give each other a respectful distance. The only bad thing about Max is that he tries to get into my room to eat my cat food. Sammy is kind of okay too. One day Sammy was not sequestered and my mom discovered me lying on the landing of the stairs and Sammy lying one step down from me, with one step between us. He was kind of guarding his territory and I was holding my own. But if I meet Daisy, there is trouble. One night mom couldn't sleep and she kept jumping up to go to the bathroom. Finally I couldn't take it anymore, and I dashed out of the room and down the stairs when she opened the bedroom door -- I just had to explore. Mom came running after me and sure enough I had encountered Daisy in the dining room and all the aggression was on from both of us. Mom picked me up quickly and I was all hissy with claws out. It totally surprised me to have encountered Daisy! She spirited me upstairs and was relieved that there was no altercation! Once we got in the bedroom I jumped on the scratchie pad with relief and I kept saying meow meow meow....just telling mom how scared I had been to meet Daisy!

Going away is great, but coming home is best!

My mom just got back from Dubai where she meet Koshikamitsu and Three Paws Running (Frankie) in cat, for real! She loved meeting them. 3PR was really laid back and a bit shy and Koshi was up to all sorts of hijinks. He likes to retrieve so he got my mom to throw him a little twisty thing that he likes to play with and then he would retrieve it and jump up onto the sofa so she could throw it across the living room for him again. She thought it was great to meet them since they have been my pen pals on Catster for a while now.

I was ecstatic to have mom home. I have not stopped purring and meowing and wanting to be petted and kissed for one moment, and guess who arrived yesterday! My human grandparents! So now I have lots of people around to pet me and love me and I am in seventh heavan. I love a house full of people to play with and talk to.