Thank you for all our Christmas cards - both email and snail mail. You can see some of them on our 2015 Christmas card page under the blog header. Due to Georgie's illness and passing we were late in getting our holiday cards out - so please take our card from the sidebar if you didn't get one. Some will arrive via snail mail later this weekend!
Our tree
We want to wish you a peaceful, love-filled Christmas from our house to yours. We can't say it enough - thank you so very much for being our friends.
I wanted to write this post a few days ago on Thankful Thursday but I was not ready to write it.. I have lost so many cats in such a short time I don't think I have let myself grieve since I had other ill kitties to care for. I lost Ivy in July and then Minnie took up all my time from her diagnosis in August until she passed in October when Georgie started failing. I crashed after I lost her and I am struggling now with my grief. Being so close to the holidays does not help.
Thank you Ann, Moe and Alasandra for the pleasing graphics. I am much obliged to each of you who contacted me with advice and encouragement for managing both Minnie with CRF and Georgie with diabetes. Vets are only so helpful - you guys gave me so much more support and taught me from your firsthand experiences with these illnesses. I learned a lot. Hopefully I will not need this info in the near future, but now I have more to work with.
Your concern and sympathy after each kitty passed has helped me more than you could ever know. It is wonderful to have such a caring group of fellow cat lovers to lean on in times like this. Your comforting comments on Facebook and the blog are treasured.
To all my Blog and Facebook buddies -
I treasure your friendship.
After a rough week and several days in ICU at the ER vet trying to get her diabetes and some serious complications under control, we made the heartbreaking decision to let Georgie go this morning. Looking back at the 12 months since her diagnosis, she had been hospitalized for multiple days five times in ICU. The rest of the time was in recovery. Not much time spent just being a cat. Her quality of life was taking a hit with this illness.. Rather than put her through more medical procedures and further hospitalizations to hopefully stabilize her, we chose to let her join her Momcat Lily at the Rainbow Bridge.
All worn out this morning.
We visited with her for a long time at the vet, giving her tummy rubs, kisses and telling her how so very much she was loved. She was happy to see us, purred and was alert but as the time went on we could tell she was fading. She was tired, frail and genuinely weak. When I told her Lily was waiting for her, Georgie looked right into my eyes and blinked hers slowly. She was ready to leave this worn out body behind. During the procedure, Georgie rested quietly while I held her and surrounded her in Reiki light and love. It was so sad but very peaceful.
Georgie and Rosa snuggled on the porch of our old house years ago.
We took her her home with us wrapped in a pink fleece blanket and buried her on our land next to Lily. We placed three pansies with her - two purple for us and one yellow for her.
Only on left and Georgie hiding from the tree man.
Just as her mom Lily was the embodiment of mothering, Georgie's gift to us was her patience, sweetness and trusting nature. She calmly let me do all the diabetic procedures to her without a fuss. Her vets loved her for always letting them do their job. She was like water, bending and flowing with life's daily movements, always unflappable, unperturbed.
On the porch this past summer
Her eyes were a gorgeous shade of green. She was extraordinarily beautiful. Yet she had a tough side too and enjoyed being in the middle of a kitty pile of her litter mates, napping or eating and shoving each other around one bowl. She could be fierce if they started rough housing, whapping the offending brother or sister on the head. If she had too much of some procedure I was doing to her, she would nip me too saying "No more."
Most mornings she would get up on the bed after Don left and head butt Tabitha and Woody, snuggling between them placidly waiting for me to wake up and feed her. She would race me to the kitchen talking all the while and line up with the others for first dibs on her food. Eating was her passion and may have been her downfall. In old photos of her, she was quite plump.
Plump Georgie
Our pet names for her were Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie, Georgie Girl or baby girl. She was our quiet kitty who enjoyed sleeping in odd positions, all stretched out and upside down. Although when she was not feeling well, she preferred a hidy hole. Don put her in a cat bed and placed her on his lap when she got home from one of her ICU stays while he watched TV. She was content to be in the same room with us or getting loved up - not much for laps.
Georgie on Don's lap
If you can't see this video of her asking for food after she got the feeding tube in go here.
I appreciate all of your donations for her medical expenses over this past year, and your emotional support through her illnesses.. I wouldn't have made it without your help.
Our hearts ache at this loss and the house is so empty without her enduring presence. I know I will be looking for her in the cat bed by the back window, or on the bed in the early morning light, her white fur glowing in the darkness. When you care for a seriously ill cat like her, your every moment is tied into their schedule and needs. I feel adrift without my routine with her. But I will adjust. I am just grateful we had nine wonderful years with her although much too few Goodbye baby girl. Give my love to Lily when you see her.
Lily, her mom on left, napping on a cool spring day.
WED PM UPDATE - Saw Georgie - she is perkier and doing better. Her blood glucose is finally coming down and she seems more comfy. She will be able to come home Thurs PM if all goes well. Glad I brought her in when I did - hopefully they caught the ketoacidosis in the early stages and we can get her regulated for insulin. Kind of upset at the ER vets for missing this. They will hear it from me on Thurs! Keep purring until she comes home please.
UPDATE
- so far Georgie has a UTI plus her blood showed a tiny bit of keytones
from her glucose running high. They will do a full blood panel and
xrays if needed. Sounds like the ER vet missed a bunch of things! Glad I took her to her regular vet today. Georgie is getting IV fluids and
antibiotics to start with. Will let you know more as I get more info,
Keep the purrs coming!!! Thanks.
I have not blogged in a while because we are having health issues with Georgie, our diabetic cat. She was at the ER vet two weeks ago - dehydration, kidney values up a bit and high blood glucose. After fluids for two days, antibiotics and a change in insulin she seemed to be back to nrmal.
She stopped eating yesterday. I had just brought her in for a check up on Monday and she was OK - not great but doing better. I am bringing her in to the vet today and we will see what is what. I am afraid there is something else going on with her and not just the diabetes. I have been assist feeding her to keep her from getting hepatic lipidosis again.
Please keep her in your thoughts and purr hard for her. She has had a rough year.
We have a lot to be grateful for this year even tho it has been a hard year as well.
Today is Angel Joey's Gotcha Day at the Rainbow Bridge.
We took him inside to live on a Thanksgiving morning 16 years ago. He
had gotten beat up by another cat, yet again so I just decided that was it. We are grateful we had 12 wonderful years with Joey living indoors with us. Happy
Gotcha Day dear, funny Joey - we miss you so much and think
of you every day.
Handsome and personable Mr.Kitty came to live with us this past April. He has adjusted well at the age of 16 and seems to be content with us. We are so thankful we could offer him a home when his humans could not keep him due to a medical condition his human pop had.
A year ago this month we were able to take Georgie home after she spent several days at the ER vet - she was then diagnosed with diabetes.She had had set backs - fatty liver disease in the spring but now seems to be on a good stretch. We are grateful that she is still with us and that we have such good veterinary care nearby for things like this.
Silly Georgie in her usual nap position.
Nobody wants to say goodbye to a pet, let alone three in three cats within six months. Pets enter our lives to teach us about love and when they leave we learn about loss. Each cat we rescue expands and opens our hearts. We become less us and more a part of everything. I am forever grateful to Lily for her mothering nature, to Ivy for her ability to live out loud and to Minnie for her fierce independence. Until we meet again dear ones....
Knowing how much work is involved with caring for many kitties like we do, I am thankful for my husband who helps in so many ways. He feeds them, cleans litter boxes, medicates them, drives them to the vet, digs graves and mourns them with me when we lose them. Our cats could not have a better Pop.
Food, shelter, and transportation - simple things that many others do not have. We are so full of gratitude that we can care for our wonderful cats and still help others who are in need, in shelters or on their own.
Usually I am not one to believe in visualization techniques to manifest what we desire or at least it has never worked well for me in the past. But things have changed. Back in 2008 when the economy crashed, we lost our land to the bank. It was a wrenching loss. The land sold twice in the six years since. We didn't have the money to make an offer so we let it go. I loved this land and walked it when I knew no one was around and got to know its trees and trails. I felt it was still ours. This summer we finally had some money to use so we called the current owner and made an offer out of the blue. They accepted! It seems they had decided to retire to another part of North Carolina and were getting ready to list the property. Nothing has ever worked so well and so effortlessly than this transaction. I am forever grateful to the powers that be for this opportunity to have our beloved mountain back.
Our mountain
Lastly, but most importantly, we are so appreciative of friends like you. We are so lucky to have a network of kind, compassionate animal loving people to celebrate the good things, to share our experiences and to support each other when the going gets tough. Thank you for always being there for us over these past seven years!
May you and your family be as blessed as we are on Thanksgiving and throughout the coming year.
