Today's My Birthday and it's okay!

So I would have been 15 years old today, some folks would say.
But I went to visit a bridge and crossed over it
And now today is still my day
To celebrate, to contemplate, to sit
And look upon my family.


Mum is doing great.
She’s showing pics of me
As I party at the gate.
She looks up and sees dancing
As others anticipate
Tears

But she has none today.
Only smiles of gratitude
For having had the chance to care
And love me.

My tail sways as I look down
Hi Mum, "It's the day of a new dawn".

Colorado Salutes His Catster Friends!

Before writing to you I wanted to wait until the pain of losing our fluffy boy subsided and only digest the beautiful memories that Colorado gave us.

The amount of response to Colorado’s passing has been overwhelming. I am so grateful for every star, gift, rosette, comments and personal paw mails and emails that I’ve received on Colorado’s behalf. I cherish every one of them and I will response to each of them.

Many of our friends at Catster expressed shock at his passing and wondered the reason. For those who read his diary since the fall, you know he was being treated for IBD and his health progress as up and down. Being the happy go lucky kitty that he was, he got tired of writing about his bad health and took up poetry writing instead of dwelling on his pain. It was only in the last few days of his life that he became so very ill. When I brought him into the Emergency vet, she indicated to us that he had cancer and that his cancer had progressed to his kidneys and perhaps he had cancer all along when he was initially diagnosed with the IBD. I asked what to do and she said he was very, very ill. I was totally in shock.

I want to remember my Big, big boy, my goofus, my honey pie as happy, sweet, and lovely and I will. And when you least expect it he may pay a visit to you in the way of a message or poem.

Thank you all again for paying Colorado your respects, for giving us the comfort of your warmth and kindness.

RULER OF THE GODS

Poem #5: RULER OF THE GODS

RULER OF THE GODS

Thump, thump, thump
Up the stairway loft
She’s here to offer food
What does she think?
I’ve gone too soft?

Don’t she know?
I only eat food from the gods
The Gods of Fancy Feast, Whiskas, and Friskies too!
I turn my nose up to the
The gods of Wellness, Innova, and Evo, too!

Thump, thump, thump
Down the stairway she goes
To open a new can of what?
I do not know!
But my eyes light up!

Anything from a new can sings right with me!
Now she has found out
Who the ruler of the Gods turns out to be!

A Cat's Life

Poem #3: New Toy

Out of the package
In 2 shakes flat,
A hole-y boxy complete
With scratch post and feather
Assembled by her in 5 minutes;
Disassembled in 2 shakes.
And 1 push-over.
After magical reassembly
It’s time to negotiate that ball out
Out of a hole!
No! Waits until 2:00 AM after
The pawrents are fast asleep
Errrrr-slap!
Errrrr-slap!
Errrrr-slap!

…A bowling ball without a destination.


Poem #4: Company’s Coming

Buzzz! Buzzz!
Door swings wide.

The sizzle of paws along the hardwood floor
To the table, to the couch, back to the door,
Behind it!
Peers around the door’s edge
listening for the inevitable
“Oh look! Isn't she cute?”
Eyes squint
“I’m a he. I claw. I bite.
Leave me be!”

With warning ignored as a peep will do,
Lifted off the floor to her cheek, she hears
Meow! M-e-o-w! MEOW! Striiiiii-tch!
Ouch!
Thump!
Down the stairs I go!

Self-imposed time-out!

IT'S A CAT'S LIFE

Poem #1: Window chirps

Sometimes I watch the birds at top,
It's in the middle they do talk
When they hit the ground
From my window I do talk
Meow, meow, meow
And together we make a symphony!

And the treatment continues and changes somewhat

I tried to post under my other entry title but I kept getting an error 3 message, so I figure its time to start a new thread anyway.

H my Friends!!!Hi Milo, I doin' better sorta! Hi Colors, my sweet! Muah. Sit down here beside me while I tell everyone what's been happening. I had my last of the 4 Vit B12 shots yesterday. I'm now taking my prednisone once/dy instead of twice/dy. I have been doing that for about 4-5 days now. Right off the bat, I'm back to being finicky about what I eat. I take a couple of licks of whatever Mum puts out. And I hate that Beef and Salmon one of Wellness--which I used to love. So Mum took the unopened ones back to the store and traded them.

She's thinking if I carry on like this for a couple more days, she might go back to giving me the prednisone twice a day.

Pigeon, I miss you too. Why don't you come visit again!

Finnegan, you see napoleon's diary ok now?

Milo, thanks for worrying about me. Now you go keep you mom good company.

Colorado's Diagnosis

Colorado was diagnosed with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) today. IBD can occur within any organ or multiple organs. His IBD is in the intestines. His other organs are normal. He is to follow a 3-pt regiment.

1. Hills Z/D dried food. Its first ingredient is Brewers Rice, then hydrolyzed chicken liver, hydrolyzed chicken, soyabean oil and then a whole bunch of vitamins + rosemary extract. Mix a sachet of Fortiflora in with the food once daily.

2. A vitamin B shot once weekly

3. Prednisone twice daily for 21 days in pill form, 2 pills, twice a day.

Of course it's important that he just eat period so I won't feel pressured into giving him any one thing at first.

The vet says if all goes well I should see some weight increase and overall improvement in 2 weeks but that it will take months for him to be really quite good. From Sept 11 when he first saw Colorado, to today, Colorado lost 1.3 lbs.! We have a long hard road ahead of us but the vet said he has seen senior cats do well and live several more years with IBD. He also said that Hills Z/D has seen the best results of all the other products out there so he'd like us to try that food first even though I objected to the rice component.

Thank you to all of Colorado's kitty friends who helped ease the first part of this journey for him and me! If elements of his regiment don't work well, I will welcome advice from all of you, too!

Love Colorado and Mum

P.S. Colorado says, "I ate some supper tonight with the Z/D. It's not so bad! But I don't like being pilled!"

I might have to go on Medication for Life!

Even though I was given a clean bill of health last February, Mum noticed me puking more often and getting skinnier and having difficulty swallowing. So she carted me off to the vet this am and he did some tests. Although he won't have the test results until tomorrow or so he highly suspects what Mum does, that is, Hyperthyroidism.

Tt sure would be nice to be treated and get all better.

Thank you for Celebrating my Birthday with me!

I had so many friends stop by to pay comments, rosies and gifts, that I felt warm-heartd and loved. I sure got a lot of cake. AND I LOVE CAKE! And there were a few other kitties celebrating their birthday on my day and they invited me to their parties!!!! Thank you to Presley, Paris, and Blade for that. I think this was my favorite birthday thus far!

Oh, I forgot to mention! You know how my brofur Napoleon likes to be the Center of Attention--well he just had to have a DDP on my birthday!!! MOL


THANK !

YOU!

FRIENDS!

Did you know that I'm Purrfect?

I just found out myself at the Vet's today! The day started off well with mummy giving me some unexpected cat nip. It went downhill after that. An hour later she brought up my carrier which I glanced at in trepidaton while Dad was holding me. Then he placed me in it upside down! Excuse me!

Once I was at the vet things started looking up. The VA said,"Aren't you a handsome cat!" Mum beamed and I faned my tail out a bit. Then she took a little history. I vomit probably too often. She takes my weight 12.5 lbs. Later on the Vet said the weight was good, but would like to see one more lb, though. Then the Vet looked at the computer file. "You're almost 14!" Then she looks at my teeth."Beautiful! Well I have to say this is one heck of a cat. I have never seen such nice teeth on a cat this age." Mum pointed out to her that another vet (she knew her) said a year ago that he would have to have dental surgey. She looked again and said, "These teeth are perfect and very white!"

Whew! Mum was afraid to have the surgey done 'cause of Napoleon not fairing so well with the anaesthetic a year ago. Mum is happy now she took the advice the other vet gave her a year ago about changing my dry diet. I was on Orijen and I changed to Hills Prescription Diet T/D a year ago. The yellow around the gums is now gone! Maybe I really did need a deep gum cleaning a year ago. But not now! Mum is so relieved now.

After all these compliments the Vet says she has to do blood tests on me since they haven't been done for quite some time.

So me and mum waited in the waiting room for almost a half-hour for the results. When the vet appeared, she held up the papers very excitedly and said, "This is the perfect cat! I can't believe the results. Every test showed better than average results." She didn't even say 'for a cat his age' this time.