Help Your Local Cat or Dog Shelter Win a $10,000 Grant

Purina ONE beyOnd and GOOD magazine want to award a dog or cat shelter a $10,000 grant to continue its good work, and there's still time to nominate your best local cat or dog shelter for this great prize.

This is the last week to submit a story about how your local cat or dog shelter makes the world a better place and why the organization should win the grant to continue their good work.  You can submit your entry for the Shine a Light on a Shelter Challenge until 12 (noon) Pacific time on July 30.  A panel of judges will select the best 40 submissions for public voting.  The public will be able to vote on the nominations from August 6 to August 20.  The winner will be announced after August 21, 2012.

This contest is open to residents in the 48 continental United States and District of Columbia.  All entrants must be at least 18 years of age (or 19 years old in Alabama and Nebraska).  It is recommended that you include a picture or video along with your entry that represents the shelter you are nominating for the grant.

The winning shelter will receive a $10,000 grant to continue its work.  The submitter of the winning nomination will receive a one year subscription to GOOD magazine and a one year supply of Purina ONE beyOnd pet food.

For all of the contest rules or to submit a nomination, you can go here.

Good luck!

Source:

GOOD Maker: Shine a Light on a Shelter

Kitty Birthday Celebration!

I think the kitties had a good birthday celebration today!

I thought I would share some pictures with everyone :)

Here's Jewel waiting for the party to start! I tried to get one without the red-eye thing, but she was annoyed that I'd taken so many pictures of her.

Here's Carmine in the new cube!  He couldn't wait, so he hopped up on the table and climbed in it :)

This was the humans' dinner.

I ordered a Hello Kitty cake for the occasion.  Isn't it cute?

We put 14 candles on it in honor of the eldest kitty in the house, Jewel, who's 14 years old.

Carmine's on a catnip high!

Here's a Hello Kitty ring from the cake :)  The cake was delicious, by the way! I wish I could have shared with all of you!

Milita isn't too fond of photos, so I decided to pick her up and snuggle her for a photo.  She's my beautiful girl :)

Happy Birthday to Carmine (born Feb. 18, 2005), Milita (born in July, 2003), and Jewel (born in June, 1998)! :) 

Looking Forward

Thank you everyone who left suggestions, purrs, prayers, and support on my last post.  I'm lucky to have so many wonderful, caring cats and humans in my corner :)

Although things around here aren't good, I am trying my best to keep my focus on getting my babies and myself to a healthy, safe environment.

The babies' party is this weekend and despite what's going on here, I'm going to do my very best to make their party a great one!  They only deserve the best, you know? :)

I found a pink tablecloth last week and I got some party favor stuffs on Monday.  I'm looking forward to having a nice time with the humans who love my babies like I do!

Carmine's Vet Visit

As promised, here is an update on my little baby, Carmine.

We went to the vet on Tuesday to get an opinion on his health and to see what else we could do to help with his stress levels.

The vet noticed what I've known for years - Carmine is a *very sensitive* cat.  He picks up on stress and he is stressed *very easily!*

She weighed him and he has maintained his weight (thank God!).  He has been feeling lighter to me and some days he is too nervous to eat much, so I was really worried he was losing weight.  She gave him an exam, too.  His heart is perfect (yay!).  But his teeth are not :(  Carmine goes to the vet on a regular basis and they always look at his teeth, so I was disappointed to hear that he now needs 1-4 extractions, depending on how many they can clean up versus have to pull.

The vet specifically said that she doesn't want to put him through the stress of an oral surgery and recovery from extraction/s *until* the family is gone.  She thinks the stress would be too much for my baby and I totally agree with her on that.  She wants Carmine to come back for his dental surgery in three months.  The family is *supposed* to be gone by Sept. 1.  IF they keep their word (God, PLEASE let them keep their word!!!) then he will have some time to recover from this situation before we have to take him in for his surgery.

I really hope my little boy isn't in pain from his teeth.  He doesn't really chew his kibbles, but he never really has crunched his kibbles the way Milita does.  It concerns me that he eats on the side of his mouth when he's eating wet food sometimes.

I'd much prefer to take him in right away for the surgery to make sure he's not in any unnecessary pain, but I think the vet is right - I think we need to wait for this stressful situation to be over before we stress him with the surgery.  I just hope we're doing the right thing.

She also recommended Rescue Remedy for cats for him in conjunction with the Comfort Zone deffuser for his stress/anxiety, so I'll look for that as soon as I make it over to PetSmart.  I feel so helpless sometimes to help my baby.  I just want to make his anxiety go away.

We are sorry we haven't visited many of your blogs lately.  We plan on visiting everyone again soon.

Can You Keep a Secret?

Carmine went to the vet yesterday.  I promise I will give you all a complete update either later today or very early tomorrow.  Please continue to purr and pray for my little baby boy.  He still needs it.  Thank you, everyone for your continued support; it means so much!

I have some other news I'd like to share with you all, but you have to promise to keep it a secret from Carmine, Milita, and Jewel, okay? ;)

We are going to have a BIRTHDAY PARTY for all three babies on July 22!!  Carmine turned 7 years old on February 19 (and of course he got presents then!).  Jewel turned 14 years old in June.  And Milita turns 9 years old this month (the vet can't pinpoint her date of birth, but we know she was born in July).  Since Jewel and Milita have birthdays in the summer, we decided to have a party for all three kitties in the summer. :)

We have invited some of the kitties' human friends to come visit and celebrate with us.  I've been told that the family living downstairs will be out on the 22nd, so hopefully the babies will come out and socialize some :)

Here are some pictures of various party things I've gotten so far:

These are the party invitations - soooo cute!

Here are some plates, cups, napkins, and silverware for the party :)  I know Carmine's a boy, but he actually likes pink, so I don't think he'll mind.

I would like some suggestions, though on party favors.  I would love for them to be cat-something, but I'm not sure what.  If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

I decided to get the babies a second cube.  Carmine uses his pink one a LOT and I know Jewel and Milita like cubes, too, so hopefully all the babies will be able to enjoy this present a lot :)

An Update on Carmine

I wanted to give everyone a little update about Carmine.

Some days he eats well.  Other days I have to try to get him to eat his noms about five times before he'll eat a decent portion of them.  He will eat his kibbles regularly as they're in my room, but the wet food is a little harder to get him to eat some days, depending on how nervous he is.  He needs his wet noms for his FLUTD.  We've been mixing a little extra water into his wet noms so when he eats some, he's getting a good bit of water. :)

I went out and bought the Comfort Zone diffuser like many of you suggested and that seems to be helping him quite a bit, actually!  Thank you everyone who has been offering suggestions, purrs, prayers, hugs, and kind words.  We appreciate you all so much! :)

Carmine still isolates himself in his cube a bit more than I'd like, but he has been running around at night more, which is a good sign.  When everyone but me is asleep I think he's most comfortable.  He has been acting like his usual self more often at night since I plugged in the Comfort Zone in our room. It's nice to see him improving.

Carmine has a vet appointment on Tuesday (because they aren't open on Mondays).  We'll see if he's losing any weight, and if he is, how to get some of that weight back on him.

Thank you all for your support.  It means a lot to us :)

Purrs and Prayers for Carmine and Some Sad News

It shouldn't still surprise me after so long in the pet blogging world, but it still does.  I have found some of the most compassionate, caring, wonderful people and kitties and woofies over the years; it never ceases to amaze me how supportive and wonderful everyone, every kitty, and every woofie is when a furry friend isn't well or crosses over to the Rainbow Bridge.  Thank you so much for all the love, support, comments, suggestions, hugs, purrs, and prayers.  We so appreciate you all more than we can say.

Ann from Zoolatry made this badge for us.  Thank you, Ann! You are so talented and such a generous and compassionate person.

Carmine is hanging in there.  He ate well both yesterday and today.  Everyone stayed downstairs for the most part when it was time for him to eat, and I think that helped him not be so anxious. He is spending a lot of time in his cube in my room.  At night, sometimes he goes out to the living room and lays under the coffee table for a while.

The more I think about it, the more I think a lot of his behavior is stress-related.  BUT I don't want to assume it's stress, so I'm definitely still taking him to the vet.  We will get him an exam and they will probably want to test his urine to make sure his crystals aren't back and probably some blood tests, too.  Of course, we will get him any other test the vet feels is appropriate as well.  I'm just guessing what they might want to use to figure out what's going on with my baby.  I hear that stress is very bad for FLUTD so that is definitely cause for concern.  However, I have been watching him in his litter box to make sure he isn't having trouble urinating.  He has been urinating without trouble so far, so that's definitely good. :)

I really hope the stress doesn't make his arthritis pain worse.  I'd hate for him to hurt at all.  He is too precious to me and I cannot stand to see him suffer - it seriously makes me cry to even think about it.

I am definitely going to look into getting him Comfort Zone or Feliway like many of you suggested.  Does anybody recommend one over the other or are they about the same in terms of effectiveness?

I think I will be heading to PetSmart later.  They have been selling Comfort Zone, but if Feliway is better, I can always order that on-line.

I just want my little fuzzy baby to be happy and content again.

In other news, my little fishie passed away today.......RIP my little Angel.  I wonder if fishies go to the Rainbow Bridge like kitties?  If you are there, Angel, say hi to Emma for us.  We miss you both.

Need Some Ideas on How to Get Kitty to Eat

I am getting really concerned about my baby Carmine.

There have been a lot of changes in his life in the past month (one horrid roommate moving out, a family moving in, kids being here....).  He uses my room as his safe place, specifically, he loves to spend time is his cushy cube :)

What worries me is......he seems to be losing a little weight - again - and he can't afford to lose any.  I have already made a vet appointment for him.  As soon as I noticed it, I knew we had to take him to the vet.  He is due for his three-month visit anyway....

He also doesn't seem to be eating as much as he used to.  I think a lot of that has to do with anxiety/nervousness.  I *thought* we agreed that the family would be in the basement (their space as they're only here for a couple of months) after 8 or 9pm.  Or at least we requested the kids be down there around that time (they are young so should be in bed then anyway) as the kids make Carmine especially nervous.  He's never been around kids before now.

But our request has gone ignored and they are up here a lot after the time we requested they not be up here.  Carmine gets his wet food around then and we want him to feel comfortable eating and not be nervous.

I tried feeding him in my room tonight to try and make sure he could eat in peace, but he was still too anxious to eat much of anything.  After everyone was actually downstairs, we gave him some more wet food.  I sat right by him and reassured him that he was okay.  He ate really well then.

My question is......what can I do to help my baby feel comfortable eating?  Should I just feed him later after everyone is supposed to be asleep?  Do you think me sitting by him would make him feel better?  I know quite a bit about cats, but I'm at a loss here.

Any ideas?  Of course I will ask the vet when we go, too.  I just know that a lot of you probably have some good ideas I can try in the meantime and I'd really appreciate it if you share them with me :)

Thank you so much!

New Flea and Tick Products Just Released for Cats and Dogs

Central Garden and Pet subsidiary Veterinary Product Laboratories (VPL) have just released two new flea and tick products for cats and dogs.

Both Ovitrol X-Tend Flea and Tick Shampoo for Dogs and Cats and Ovitrol X-Tend Flea and Tick Spray for Dogs and Cats contain an adulticide, etofenprox and an insect growth regulator, (S)-Methoprene.  While the etofenprox kills adult fleas and ticks on contact, (S)-Methoprene interrupts the flea life cycle and prevents larvae and eggs from maturing, according to Veterinary Pet Laboratories.

According to CatChannel, because the Ovitrol X-Tend products do not contain permethrin, something that's toxic to cats, these products are safe to use on either dogs or cats.  Thus these products are great for households that have both cats and dogs in them.

The spray comes in a 16-ounce bottle and the shampoo comes in 12-ounce and one gallon bottles.  It can be used on puppies and dogs 10 weeks of age and older and kittens and cats 12 weeks of age and older.

If you are interested in trying the new Ovitrol line, ask your veterinarian about where you can purchase it.


Please note that I am not endorsing this product or making any claims about its effectiveness or safety.  It is always best to consult with your pet's regular veterinarian before trying any new product.

Sources:

Veterinary Pet Laboratories:
With Two New Ovitrol X-Tend Products, Veterinarians Can Now Offer the First Complete Etofenprox System Against Fleas and Ticks

CatChannel:
VPL Launches Vet-Exclusive Flea and Tick Killer for Cats and Dogs