Mancat Monday

This picture is from the old house.  

Carmine: I was just having a nap on it.  I wasn't reading it, I swear....


By the way, our friend Cyclops is entered in the World Spay Day contest!  Isn't he cute?  We would appreciate it if you could vote for him.  If he wins, his mommy gets to choose an organization that spays to receive $1,000.  Cyclops will also have his photo put on the Spay Day website, be featured as the Pet of the Week at the HSUS, and his mommy will receive a couple of books. :)  You can vote once a day, everyday until March 15, 2013.

Here's a picture of the cutie!

Please vote for Cyclops here!  

Some News About Jewel

Everyone's purrs and prayers must be starting to work!

Jewel went to the vet today to get her blood pressure checked and to get a urinalysis.  According to Jewel's dad, her blood pressure is high, and the vet gave her a blood pressure medication to try.  She wants to see Jewel after we finish the first bottle.

We've decided Jewel will spend more time here because the kitten at her daddy's house might not be helping her blood pressure (the kitten likes to follow Jewel around and poke at her).

This is the first time she's gone to the vet and NOT lost weight.  She gained a half an ounce.  Yay!  I figured out that she will eat Fancy Feast and Pro Plan.  She needs to gain about another pound before I start to breathe easier, though.

The vet also gave Jewel more medicine for her diarrhea.  The stuff smells AWFUL; I cannot even imagine how it must taste!!  Jewel spits most of it out, so I don't know how I'm going to get it in her yet.  I thought maybe try to mix it with a little tuna juice?

Please be sure to check out our interview with PAWS over at Carmine's Orange Pages! 

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

This picture was taken while I was writing a sample article for a new writing position I'm applying for.  Please wish me luck!!

Carmine: Mom? Can I help?

Welcome Home, Emma!

Thank you so much to everyone who came by Carmine's party to celebrate with him and to wish him a Happy Birthday!!  He had a good time :)

Jewel Update: I got Jewel a few different brands of canned noms at PetSmart this weekend.  We are about to finish up a can of Natural Choice.  She hasn't eaten much more of this kind than she was eating of Friskies, though. :(  I will keep trying the different brands, but I'm going to call the vet this week to ask her about the prescription a/d.  Jewel needs to eat more of something!

We has a bit of good news, too.  We got our VSquillion today!!! :)

After Emma ran off to the Bridge, Carmine had a particularly hard time; he grieved for quite a while (one of the many, many, many reasons I love him is that he's such a sensitive boy!).

So, when we saw the Cat Blogosphere shelter had Rainbow Bridge VSquillions for adoption, we knew we had to give our sweet angel Emma a home on our bloggie.

Welcome home, Angel Emma!

It's A Birthday Party!

TODAY IS CARMINE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

My baby is 8 years old today!  

We hope you will ALL stop by and have fun at our pawty!  

Carmine can't have any fish with his medical condition, BUT we have lots of chicken, turkey, and every kitty's favorite....CHEESEBURGERS!!! :)

Carmine: Mom has bread and vegetables for the peoples.  Don't worry kitties, she won't make you eat yours with any of that yucky stuffs on it!

We will also have Carmine's *favorite* dessert - ICE CREAM!!!

Carmine: Mama has vanilla ice cream for us kitties, but hers says that she has "toppings" for any peoples who come to the pawty.  She says the peoples can has cake, too.  Me doesn't care about cake; me just loves ice cream!! 

We have a TON of catnip toys you can all play with.  We also have a light-up ball, bell balls, and mice you can play with, too.

Carmine: We has a few laser pointers around heres, too.  Mom will make the light for any kitties who like to chase them around.  I play with the light sometimes, but Lita is the big light chaser around here!

If you get tired and need a little cat nap, you are welcome to sleep on my bed.  Or you can sleep in one of the cat beds, in a cat cube, or on one of my fleece blankets. :)

Carmine: We has LOTS of soft places to nap around here.  Mommy always makes sure we have plenty of choices!

Carmine: Mooooom! I'm trying to have a rest before all of my wonderful furriends arrive!

Mom says you can invite your peoples along if you want to, too. 

We want to thank everyone for their awesome support and friendship.  You have all made an incredible difference in our lives, and we appreciate you all more than we can ever say!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARMINE!!!

Thank you, everyone, for coming to Carmine's party!  We hope you have a wonderful time!!

Easy Like Sunday with Jewel

Jewel's never sat in my office chair before, so when I saw her there this morning, I decided to take a few pictures.

Jewel didn't seem interested in coming to get her breakfast this morning, so I decided to bring it to her! :)

As usual, she didn't eat much, but she did eat more than I've seen her eat in like the past three weeks, so that's definitely a good thing.

As The Island Cats mentioned in the comments section to my last post, I may ask the vet about prescription a/d (thank you for the reminder, by the way!!).  I'm not sure what the vet's thoughts will be on this as Jewel has kidney disease.  However, I think she and I are on the same page - we want her to EAT - eat anything!  I hear the a/d is quite yummy and high calorie, so that could very well be the way to go.  She needs to gain some of that weight back.


Please stop by later for our party for Carmine's Birthday!! :)

Sad News

Thank you all for the wonderful and sweet comments on our new bloggie design!  Ann truly is amazing and we loves hers <3 p="">
Unfortunately, we have a lot of sad news to share today.

First, while at church, I received a text from a friend who told me she has to put her wonderful doggie to sleep tomorrow (Saturday).  This is so heartbreaking.  I'm so sad for her (she's a really good friend of mine).  It makes me sad for the doggie and for her and her husband.  I shed tears for them when I got off the phone.  I wish I could do something to help them.  I hate seeing the people I love be in pain.

Second, remember our friend Amber?  I talk to her daddy often, and he says that her tumor is continuing to grow.  It is so very sad.  My heart breaks for them, too.

Third, I talked to the vet today about Jewel.  Jewel has lost more weight.  In two week's time, she's lost another 3.5 ounces, making her current weight 8 pounds, 14 ounces. :(  She is losing weight at a rapidly alarming rate!

Jewel's thyroid test came back normal.  So now they want to check her blood pressure and do a urinalysis to check and see if she's urinating protein.  If those don't reveal anything, they want to do a GI panel and an abdominal ultrasound.

I asked the vet what we could do to get her to eat.  She said to give Jewel whatever food she wants.  Right now, she won't even eat Lita's yummy wet food, so when we go to PetSmart this weekend, I'm going to get a few different brands to see if she'll eat something else.  Any suggestions for yummy wet noms?

The vet also suggested giving her 1/4 a 10mg Pepcid because Jewel's kidney problem might be making her tummy upset.  So I will remind her dad to do that, too.

I am very worried and upset about her continuous decline.  I love hers so much; I don't want her to go to the Bridge!  I know that's selfish, but it's true.

Finally, Carmine was acting kind of strangely when I got home.  I HOPE I'm just overreacting, but I'll be watching him very closely over the next few days to make sure he isn't getting sick.

Purrs and prayers for all the kitties and their families would be appreciated.  If you have an extra hug to spare, I could use one, too.  Sometimes I really don't like how empathetic I am.  I feel the pain of those I love.  I just wish I could do something to help. 

Our Beautiful Blog Made Over!

We wanted to invite everyone to look at our new bloggie design!!!  Isn't it beautiful?  

We owe a huge THANK YOU to Ann of Zoolatry for all of her amazing and hard work!!  We don't know how we can ever thank her enough for all that she's done.  If you haven't visited her, please visit Ann at Zoolatry.  She is awesome! 

She made our beautiful new header, icon/avitar, our Carmine's Orange Pages badge, redesigned this blog, made a header for our new blog, and designed that one, too!  

By the way, we are planning to launch Carmine's Orange Pages on Tuesday!  It is quite exciting :)

Carmine's birthday is on MONDAY!  He will be 8 years old.  He has a few surprises coming (shhh, it's a secret!).  I cannot believe I've had my little orange baby for 8 years already!  It seems like yesterday he was that crazy orange kitten hanging off my curtains because he wasn't big enough to jump up into the window.

Here's a picture of Carmine as a younger kitty (sorry for the blurriness).  His kitten photos are on a CD.  I'll have to drag a few out for his birthday post - I'm a mom, it's my job to embarrass him, right? :)

Jewel's Declining

I got Jewel on Friday, like I usually do.  I picked her up so another friend could say hi to her before we went home, and I noticed she felt lighter - again.  I had hoped that since we stopped feeding her the wet kidney food that she'd be eating better and not continuing to lose weight, but it doesn't look like that's the case.

While she was here, she ate little of each wet meal I served her.  She ate some kibbles, but I'm very concerned about her not eating much of her wet meals.  

She was also acting strangely this weekend.  She usually keeps to herself; occasionally, she'll come out here and join me, Carmine, and Milita, though.  This weekend, she was out here quite a bit.  She spent a ton of time curled up on her favorite fleece blanket (of mine).  One night, I left her sleeping on the blanket when I went to bed, and then found her in the same spot in the morning.  That was kind of concerning to me.  She usually comes back to the bedroom and sleeps in the pink cube when it's bedtime.  

There were a couple of other little behavior changes that I noticed, too.

Her diarrhea is bad; I won't gross you all out.  Let's just say there was quite a mess.  

I'm very concerned about her.  I think her dad is taking her to the vet to get the special thyroid test done this week.  I'm going to call the vet later to tell her what I've noticed so she's aware.  

I'm really upset because I don't want her to suffer.  I feel helpless to make her feel better, and it breaks my heart.  There's more to the situation that's upsetting me, too.

Could everyone please purr and pray for Jewel extra hard?  I love her so much.  I just want her to be a happy kitty again.  There's a purrs and prayers badge on our right sidebar.  You can put it on your blog if you like.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I heard Carmine had a turn with the Wii.  Now I want a turn, too!!

Forever Home Needed

Jewel's dad and I went to PetSmart on Sunday to get litter and cat food.  While we were there, we saw this beautiful orange girl.  This PetSmart doesn't let us in the room with the cages anymore to pet them, though.  I snapped a picture of her through the glass, but I really wanted to pet her.  Somebody should go adopt this adorable little kitty!!  She's in the PetSmart located at 40 S. Abilene St, Aurora, CO 80012.

Pets Add Life Children's Poetry Contest

The 5th annual Pets Add Life kids poetry contest is open for submissions.  Children in grades three through eight may enter the contest.  The contest deadline is February 22, 2013 at 5pm EST.

Children may write an original poem about any pet topic.  Examples include how a pet has changed their lives, a relationship with a relative's or friend's pet, why they have a pet, what they love about their pet, the joy a pet brings them, etc.  Poems are to be no more than 100 words in length.

A panel of judges will select one winner from each grade level.  Winners will receive a $250 gift certificate for pet products.  They will also have their poems published in a national publication.  Additionally, each winner's classroom will receive $1,000 to spend on pet education, such as a field trip to a local animal shelter or zoo, a class pet, or books.

Kids can submit their poems online at the Pets Add Life website or by mail.  If you choose to submit a poem by mail, print and fill out the submission form here, and send the form as well as your poem to: Pets Add Life, 661 Sierra Rose Dr., Reno, NV 89511.

You can see the contest's official rules, submit an entry, or print a submission form from the Pets Add Life website.

Good luck to all who decide to enter!

Source:

Pets Add Life: 5th Annual Pets Add Life Children's Poetry Contest