Tarot is exploring the boundaries of his world. We double-check every drawer and cupboard before shutting it, just to make sure his little eyes aren't looking out. If we tell him not to go into something, or onto something, he considers it a challenge. A few weeks ago, he made a 4-foot vertical leap into an impossible location up on the window. It's difficult to explain, but basically, he was standing on his hind legs on the window lock, in between the window and the blinds. I wish we could have gotten a picture of that.

His latest conquest is the sliding glass doors to our bathroom shower:

Angus decided to drink from the main-floor sink again:

And he doesn't hesitate to immediately jump down when he's done:

The stitches come out on Monday.

Angus has changed his routine. He refuses to drink out of our main floor bathroom sink. Instead, he insists to drink first from the second bathroom tub, and after he gets done there, he insists to drink from the second bathroom sink. Silly kitty has had a great week.

Here's a pic of Angus after he was freed from medical apparati:

Things almost seem normal:

Angus had his surgery a little over a week ago, and he's recovering quite nicely. Here's how he looked when we brought him home last week:

He looks much better right now. He's been de-tubed, and de-coned, and can run through the house freely. His stitches will stay in for another couple weeks, and he'll likely be on medication for the rest of his life. More pics later.

Angus came home today from the hospital. I took a picture of him with his feeding tube and cone, but can't find the card reader. Soon after I came home, the vet called with the FIP test results. Angus is positive for FIP. This tissue biopsy is extremely accurate, so there's little to no doubt that he has it. So far, he has the dry form. Tanner had the wet form and barely lasted a week. I've read some things that say a dry form FIP can result in survival of up to a few months. With this recent stress of surgery and the resulting lack of adequate nutrition, I'm worried that the course will speed up.

Dave and I are extremely saddened about this. Angus, however, just seems very happy to be home. If we leave the room, he meows and meows, but when we're around, he purrs. I'm sure the cage area he was in was almost always full of activity and I hope he's enjoying some peace and quiet. Right now we're putting liquid formula down his feeding tube every few hours and giving him some antibiotics. The vet talked about putting him on some different medications once his incision has had time to heal.

We learned some lessons with Tanner. I hope we won't make the same mistakes with Angus. I hope we'll recognize when he's tired and wants to stop.

That will be a very, very sad day.

Well, Angus has had a pretty rough week. On Saturday, he had a high temp and threw up. Sunday we spent quite a few hours at the emergency vet. The vet there said that she felt a mass in his abdomen. An ultrasound was indicated, but they couldn't do one until Monday. So we brought him home after he got some fluids and an antiobiotic shot. He has to be gassed in order to be examined, and I think he tolerates that MUCH better than injected anesthesia. It wore off pretty quickly. He spent the rest of Sunday on the guest bed, not moving much.

Monday, we went back and left him there so that they could do the exam and ultrasound all at once under anesthesia (he really is quite violent, poor scared kitty). I figured we'd come back to talk to the doc, but little did I know that the next time I would see him would be Tuesday night! Using the ultrasound, they aspirated some pus from this "mass" so an exploratory laparotomy was necessary. They found an abscess inside of a lymph node, and incised and drained it, then filled it with an antiobiotic solution. The vet sent off biopsies and cultures and threw the C word around a bit. Ick.

Tuesday, Angus was "fiesty" they said... well, he hates being anywhere but home, so yeah. He wasn't a happy kitty. But his temp was normal, and after chilling with some Valium, he ate some baby food. The vet called me at work to tell me that his biopsy looked "odd." All day I had been obsessing over him having cancer and what we'd do, and she says that the biopsy was negative for cancer, but that she was going to add a FIP test (what Tanner died of 2 years ago) to the tissue, because she was really confused as to why this abscess appeared. Well, I managed to go from total relief right back to freaking out when she mentioned FIP. We went to see him Tuesday night and he seemed okay. A tiny bit depressed, but he liked being petted. He has a little IV they give him pain meds and antibiotics through.

Today the vet calls and says the FIP test (which is highly accurate, btw... not like the blood titers, which are hit-or-miss at best) won't be back until late Thursday or Friday morning. ARGH! That seems like an eternity from now. Also, Angus isn't eating anymore, so in order to prevent some weird kitty-not-eating liver damage, they recommended putting a tiny little kitty feeding tube down his nose into him stomach to feed him liquid. Dave and I aren't very happy about this, but the alternative is, um, liver failure or something. Hopefully after he gets back home, he'll feel more like eating and we can take that sucker out.

I went to see him alone tonight. He'll most likely be coming home tomorrow (with feeding tube) and Dave wanted to prepare the room for him... He'll definitely be on a jumping restriction, so Dave took the guest bed apart to leave the mattress in where he can just step up on it. Anyway, he growled at me right when I got there, but then seemed happy that I was petting him. I wasn't sure if going and then leaving was too stressful for him, but I think he needs to be touched and petted. I don't think he lets the vet staff do much in the way of comforting :-) He overall seems quite depressed, though. He's got his little feeding tube, and it looks kind of uncomfy for him. He also has one of those cones around his head so that he won't bother the stitches (long incision... almost top to bottom :( ). I can't wait to bring him home and see if he improves, at least mood-wise. We miss him lots.

He's had a pretty tough week.

Well, we're back from the very best Halloween of our lives!! I wrote this as a comment on someone else's blog, but I think my favorite part was when Dave and I were in the hotel lobby, and a couple walked by and asked if our clothes were "a costume, or for real?" Hahhahhaa.

Our very kind photographer wrote into the contract that we could use some photos for our website, so I thought I'd post some. If you'd like to see all 690 on the web, email us for the site and password. Here are a few of the best:

A very handsome Dave!

Mom handing me my bouquet.

Kristin and Bryce! This is such a good picture of them.

Dave and I. We did do pictures before the ceremony. We didn't want to lose that "first time you see each other" thing, though, so the photographer arranged for us to meet in a dressing room before we started taking pictures together. It was a very sweet moment :-)

Walking around the cemetery that was next to the church.

The girls! Kristin, Gina, Tennille and Ellie in front.

Joe, Dave, and Kevin. The ring bearer was a little too shy :-)

Wedding Party!

Another favorite part of the day was at the reception; since it was Halloween, we didn't want for the kids to have to miss trick-or-treat! So we made up our own, where they went table to table to get treats. We were able to round up a good number of them to get a picture.

That's probably enough for now. It was an awesome day, we were able to see lots of people that we miss very much. And we got married :) It was truly one of the happiest days of my life.

I copied Uberwald and put a cat picture on ratemykitten. Everybody give Tarot a 10!

Well... things are better! Angus is at about 70% - still sleeps a lot, but is much more animated, and is eating, etc. Whew!

Unfortunately, the kitten isn't faring as well. He's been sneezy for over a week now, and today his eyes started draining some really nasty lookin stuff. Back to the vet we go (we have worn a path this week). He got his first dose of antibiotic tonight - hope it starts kicking in soon. He's pretty droopy.

That's all for now - it was a loooong night at work!

Well, Angus is home. Still sleepy (partly due to the sedation he received earlier). After coming home around 3pm, he eventually ate and drank a little. The vet did some bloodwork, which shows that Angus is anemic and has low platelets. She said she sent it off to another lab so that they could look at the actual shape of his blood cells. I can only assume that we're looking for some sort of cancer. It might be something different, but I know it's a possibility.

The good news is that everything else was fairly normal - kidneys and liver are great. His glucose level was quite high, but that could be due to stress. The vet doubts that it's diabetes, because diabetic cats usually drink and drink and drink.... Angus isn't.

We're going to call tomorrow to find out what the verdict is on the other tests.

Ugh.

Well, Angus wasn't really any better this morning. He drank a little, but wouldn't eat. He just radiates this "blah" feeling. Sort of walks a few steps and then plops down in a heap. Unfortunately, he's a total freak at the vet. We are always extremely hesitant to take him. But we bit the bullet and got him in this morning.

He more than confirmed our reservations for doing so. He wouldn't come out of the carrier, so we finally had to dump him out and wrap him in a towel so that he couldn't hurt anyone (hissing and growling the whole time - Angus can look quite mean when he gets this way.) When the vet went to examine him (even with me holding the towel over his head), he screamed like a girl and scratched me. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to stand for the indignity and horror that is a stupid physical exam, so the vet asked us how worried we were about him.

Well, very. Of course.

So she had to give him a shot to sedate him - don't ask me how they accomplished this... all I saw was a squirming heap of towels. It was really fast. They then took him in the back to wait for the sedative to kick in. Ugh. So we came home - it will take at least an hour or so for the sedative to wear off sufficiently that he can come home. We'll have to wait for her to call.

Tarot has been a bit sneezy - I'm hoping Angus just has some form of non-sneezing non-coughing non-drainage cold that's making him feel icky.

I was about in tears listening to him growl and (literally) scream. I hate that he's so scared and that it has to come to sedating him. He refuses to even be consoled by Dave or I - one time, Dave bent over to pet him and got a nice little bloody scratch above his lip. I hate when I tell the vet tech/vet that he really hates the vet, that he has claws and he will be violent, and they sort of just go about their business like I'm just some overanxious freak.

But I almost take a small amount of satisfaction when I see the surprise in their eyes as they realize that I am not kidding!

We had a little Angus scare today. He woke up extremely irritable (hissing at Tarot), listless, and wouldn't move much, eat or drink. He seemed to perk up after we made a vet appt for the afternoon (figures), so much so that I ended up canceling the appointment.

He then proceeded to sleep for quite awhile. All in all, he appears to be less listless, but he still hasn't eaten much, and he definitely hasn't had much water today. The little bit he did end up eating came right back up a few hours later.

I absolutely adore my cat. He can be a real pain in the ass at times, but he's so cuddly and has such a funny personality. After Tanner died last year of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP - which is always fatal), I have been so awfully paranoid about Angus' health. I'm constantly on the lookout to make sure his belly isn't swollen, that he's eaten enough, not sleeping too much.

FIP really took a piece of enjoyment in having a pet away. I hope very much that Angus and Tarot both live very long and healthy lives.

I really hope Angus will just drink some water tomorrow.

This is the Official Name Change Form for the residence of Dave, Geena, Tennille, Angus, and the Name Changee. Please complete all fields and pat the name changee's head three times while you rub his belly.

keep reading...

so i've met this wonderful guy and we took a little day trip to see some redwood trees.

of course i had to take pictures, and they turned out pretty good!

some scenic pics: A stream, Trees, and more trees.

people! here he is ;) Us and me.

This cat moved in with us!

keep reading...

The Zen Frog has moved :)

keep reading...

okay, i've been home for over a week, but hey, i'm a busy girl!

work work work! it doesn't look like i'll get laid off cause i have an interview with another client on tuesday. 3 consultants are up for 5 spots hehe. anyway, so i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

other updates: in case you haven't heard, I'm moving to California!

watch out Gina and Dave, uh...i have nothing witty to put here ;)

pics from my vacation to cali are in the link below. just so you know, if you want any actual pictures of my previous pics or anymore that i ever post, ask me (for those that i'll prolly have a hard time explaining the lovely pic making thing yahoo and other sites have)

keep reading...

Lucky son of a.

okay, it is the second day of the year, but I woke up to snow!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

it snows so infrequently these globally warm days that i freak when it does snow. usually i take the white fluffy days off, but i have much to do at werk. hopefully it'll still be there at the end of the day and i'll present you with a snow man pic!

edit: well, i can feel a cold comming on, so i didn't play in the snow like i hoped i could. but here is something close to a snowman ;)

Me:

Other Me pics:
Black and white
Me and Stitch
Me and Chris

my super adorable cat i'm now calling Stitch:

Other Stitch Pics:
Stitch when he was Ebil
Stitch when he was still Ebil
Stitch on a chair

Christmas Pictures:

Dec 14th at Chucky Cheese's
Spencer and Ginny
Spencer and Sydney

Dec 25th:

The day started at Gram's house.

Gram and Peggy (my aunt - grandfather's sister)

Uncle Charlie

Cousin Ellie (this was actually on Thanksgiving - but she is so darn cute!)

My twin cousins Tyrel and Lucas

The twins and Jim

My sister Gina

Aunt Lorri

Ginny and Allen the foster kid ;)

I can't forget the inferno stove that keeps us a nice and toasty 90 degrees ;)

Then I went to Dad's house to enjoy some italian beef and...MmM...PUMPKIN PIE!

I went to my mom's house for a pit stop before I drove home.

Nanna
Step Uncle Ron

Step Brothers:
Ryan
The Sickly Brock

Back in September, my family and Spencer's family all had a little get-together. (For those of you in the un-know, Spencer is my sister's son, who was adopted out soon after his birth.) Here are some pictures and movies from that event:

• Ginny and Spencer
• Everyone - My dad, Spencer, Nell, Adoptive Grandparents (?), My mom, Adoptive Parents, Sydney. Sydney is their other adopted child.
• Sydney, Spencer, and Tennille
• Spencer playing skeeball... Also Sydney, thinking that my dad was going to take a photograph is posing the whole time, unaware that he is actually recording a movie. Hehe. :-) This is a movie that will most likely open up in another window.