Livestrong Day - Oct. 2, 2010

 

 We are joining in with many other bloggers today for Livestrong Day sponsored by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to bring awareness of cancer and support to cancer patients and survivors across the globe. Thanks to Ann of Zoolatry, Jan of  The Cat's Meow, Chandra of Life from a Cat's Perspective, Linda from Ozark Mountain Cats and so many others who helped pull this together.

We wish to honor the memories of those who lost their struggle with cancer.  Mom's father died of pancreatic cancer, her mother had breast cancer and skin cancer, sister in law Ann had Hodgkin's and breast cancer and cousin Allison died so young from ovarian cancer.  We even lost cats Clarence and Nick to intestinal cancer and Bunny dog to stomach cancer.

And so many of our dear ones and fellow bloggers have the disease and are giving it their best shot to survive or have already passed that crucial five year marker with no recurrence.

To see more Livestrong posts or to find more information about the Lance Armstrong Foundation click on the sidebar graphic or blog titles. Add your blog to the Mr Linky below and share your post.  You can also grab the code and put Mr Linky on your blog too. Mr Linky is not making things easy but it is working - when their window is open, click Blogger on the first section and then click New Easy Linkie in the second and then click generate code - that should give you a code to copy for your blog.  Sorry about that.

Drawing Winner and Forever Friday

Thanks to all our readers who stopped by for our 300th post celebration and Mamacita and Rosa's Gotcha Day. Using the Random Number Generator we chose a winner - the enchanting Miss Kitty! Congrats to her and her Daddy! They just won a copy of Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper.

Last week we told you about a great organization that rescued and placed feral cats - Alley Cats and Angels in North Carolina. Well, we are featuring a few of their kitties as this week's Forever Friday kitties.

Named after the Disney TV show, Sunny with a Chance, poor little Sunny has suffered a head trauma and is at the vets being cared for. He is OK other than than wound.

Sunny and her siblings, three pretty tabby kittens, were born to a feral mom and were finally relinquished into their care. Sunny has a head trauma with some part of the skull visible. However, other than her head, she appears to be healthier than her siblings. Her siblings are terribly underweight for their age. They named these gorgeous kittens - Sunny, Stormy, Cloudy and Windy!

They were all taken to the vet and given the full spa treatment - cleaning, bath, clipping etc. They are now in a foster home waiting for Sunny to get released from the vet. Please stop by their blog to say hi and pass the word on so that these sweet little ones can have a great forever home. And do follow them like we do - they are such a caring group of folks and do wonderful things for homeless cats.

If you buy your flea products online please read an article Mom  posted on her other blog about counterfeit products. And do stop by to link up with us on Sat. Oct. 2 for Livestrong Day!  Mr Linky is set up to be shared so you can put it on your blog too!  Just grab the code and post it under your Livestrong post and publish.

White Wordy Wednesday

Our beautiful Al doesn't think he gets enough blog time so we will let him host White Wednesday this week. He always looks so good on the blue blankets - they show off his eyes so well.

Looks like he is getting a bit bored with blog hosting so let's just tip toe away and let him nap!

It is also our 300th post (actually last Friday) so in celebration we want to give away a brand new copy of the paperback version of  Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper - about handsome house panther who is blind.  Gwen had spoken to Blind Cat Rescue in North Carolina before she wrote the book and promised 10% of her royalties.  Well, she gave them a $10,000 check last week!  Isn't that great?  So if you don't win this drawing, go out and buy a copy so Blind Cat Rescue will get even more money!

To enter the drawing just leave a comment and tell me you want in on the give away. It is open to all readers!  We will run this give away for the week.

We will be hosting a Mr Linky on Oct. 2 for Livestrong Day so do stop by and link up. We set it up to share Mr Linky on your blog too so join in on this day of cancer awareness and support for cancer patients.  Everyone knows someone who has had or has cancer so do join in.  Other blogs will be hosting a slide show, another Mr Linky and a special blog for Livestrong Day so check out the side bar and see what else is going on on October 2.

We are playing White Wednesday today so do stop by!

Gotcha Day and Blog Celebration

First of all thank you for your concern over our Yoko girl.  She is doing better after two does of the antibiotic and is out of jail!  We have left the dog kennel set up and Yoko and Chica are enjoying the comfy spot on the blankets I put n top!

Monday is the 5th Gotcha Day for both Mamacita and Rosa.  With all the posts last week about adopting less adoptable pets, we wanted to give you a brief recount of how we came to have both these beautiful house panthers.  Here goes......

Mom was still feeding Ivy, the last of our feral cats living outdoors, when she noticed a skinny little cat sneaking up to the deck to eat the leftovers,and then running off across the street.  Mom could tell she had just had kittens and started to leave a bigger portion of food out for her all the time. Mom followed her but could not see where the kittens were.  She named her Mamacita cuz she was such a little cat to be a momcat - hardly 5-6 months herself.  Before long, Mamcita moved her two black kittens over to our neighbor's storage shed.  Mom put the food bowl over there so they could eat when they were old enough.

One day she noticed the kittens sneezing and coughing with runny eyes and that scared her.  Kittens can die of upper respiratory infections if they don't get medication. That's when she decided to catch them and bring them indoors even tho we already had plenty of cats.  She used a dog kennel cage and put a string on the door so she could pull it when they went inside.  She left food in there and hoped for the best.  Meanwhile Mom put some homeopathic remedies in the food but it was not enough and the kittens were getting sicker.  Finally it happened and all three of them went inside the cage and Mom caught them.  The kittens' faces were so swollen with infection.  Her vet gave her eye ointment and oral antibiotics to give them.  She kept them in a small room with Mamacita.

Unfortunately their first taste of people and being indoors was to get eye ointment put in both eyes and pills popped down their throats but they did get better.  They were very timid and scared of everything.  Mamacita was doing much better than they were but she was not sick. She gots lots of attention and treats not medication.  All three were moved to a larger room and they were spayed and neutered (not an easy thing to catch them!!!) at a clinic. We named the kittens Rosa and Manny and they got big and healthy. 

We lost Manny in 2007 to a severe urinary blockage and some vet errors He was only two and we still miss him.

Mamacita loves to eat, play with the laser toy and cuddle with Mom on the sofa or bed while she reads.  Rosa is still more aloof and hides in quiet spots most of the day coming out at night to join in the activities.  It will take more time for her to relax and be one of the gang but each day is a little better. They are inseparable and groom each other and snuggle together.

It is also our 300th post (actually last Friday) so in celebration we want to give away a brand new copy of the paperback version of  Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper - about another house panther who is blind.  Gwen had spoken to Blind Cat Rescue in North Carolina before she wrote the book and promised 10% of her royalties.  Well, she gave them a $10,000 check last week!  Isn't that great?  So if you don't win this drawing, go out and buy a copy so Blind Cat Rescue will get even more money!

To enter the drawing just leave a comment and tell me you want in on the give away. It is open to all readers!  We will run this give away for the week. Please help yourself to goodies and nip and have fun!

We will be hosting a Mr Linky on Oct. 2 for Livestrong Day so do stop by and link up. We set it up to share Mr Linky on your blog too so join in on this day of cancer awareness.

NEWSFLASH For those of you stopping by late, we just found out Huffle's friend Diamond is having his 14th birthday on Tues Sept 28. Please do stop by.

Yoko's Trip to the V-E-T!

We weren't planning on posting until our big Gotcha Day/300th Post Bash on Monday this week but we had some excitement here.

On Thursday night Mom noticed our senior cat Yoko rushing from one litter box to another but not much was coming out.  She gave her a homeopathic remedy and watched her.  Yoko seemed to settle down and rest the rest of the night so Mom went to bed.

Yoko ate well for breakfast and had her usual bowl of water with a little milk in it  - she does not drink enough and gets a bit dehydrated.  After that Yoko started to try to pee again and nothing was coming out this time.  She was trying to pee on the bed, floor anyplace but the litter box so Mom called the V-E-T.  Mom uses a holistic vet if she can but in emergency situations she calls another vet that has all the equipment, lab etc. They were booked but said she could drop Yoko off.  So off they went and Mom had to go to work too.

Yoko still hadn't peed for them by the end of the day so Mom said to keep her overnight.  Poor Yoko - she is 17 and does not like to be at the V-E-T.  Mom called later and Yoko was resting OK  She called again in the morning and Yoko still hadn't peed.  They wanted to stick her with a needle toget the urine but Mom said not to.

By noon, Mom called and said why couldn't they just give her an antibiotic and let her go home.  We are used to rural vets who would just have called in our antibiotic to a pharmacy and we would not have had to take Yoko in!  City vets do it all by the rules.This place is open 8am-11pm so who you get as a vet changes each shift.  Mom liked the one on Saturday when she picked up Yoko - they had wanted to run tests, do x-rays etc the day before with another vet.  What did they find asked Mom.  I guess nothing really!  The vet said she thought Yoko seemed fine except for the UTI so we got to take her home and they didn't even charge us for the overnight.

Yoko is in a big dog kennel until she is peeing better - we have an open floor plan and have no rooms to shut her in except the bedroom and bath.  She seems content and we can see if she pees and how much.  Poor girl is worn out and just wants to nap on the bed.  Her pills are crushable so we can put it in her food - good thing cuz Yoko does not like to take pills! Pop had her on his lap all night while he as watching the game on TV.  She is Pop's girl for sure.


We are just very glad nothing worse was found except a bad UTI! Don't forget to come back by on Monday for party!