Euthanasia

       I attended a veterinary conference this week and learned a lot about euthanasia. You might be thinking that’s a strange thing to study but it is an art, as our speaker pointed out. But that’s the veterinary side. It can be art on your side of the table as well.
     Have you ever thought about euthanasia? I mean, at a time when you aren’t facing that ultimate decision. There was a time when I didn’t believe in euthanasia. When my beloved cat, Gabrielle’s Galaxy was screaming in pain I changed my mind. Further, I believe we should be better informed caretakers of our pets and be prepared to make crucial decisions on their behalf. 

Thai Tsunami Toy and Gabrielle's Galaxy

     First be familiar with the Quality of Life Scale and be able to interpret your pet’s condition. Is she having more bad days than good days? Is she struggling to catch a breath? Has she stopped eating no matter what you offer her? Only you know when it’s time to help her out and end the suffering, although your veterinarian can help you tell. 
     One thing I learned from this speaker was that really, you want to elect euthanasia BEFORE the suffering begins. That’s one of my downfalls. I nearly always wait too long before choosing euthanasia. I just want to hang on to a cat or dog who really wants to leave. I have a hard time letting go. 

Ineffable "Effie"

     What about you, have you been able to find the right time to let your precious ones go? Did you go through a particularly hard choice at the end of your pet’s life? I know it’s a tough subject but one we all need to think about ahead of time. 
      We are joining The Cat On My Head Sunday Selfies today.

Mast cell tumors in cats

   (Sorry for the bad photo. It was pre-digital)

  Twenty years ago last month I lost my Maine Coon-like cat, Lando Calrissian to mast cell tumors (MCT). He was 19 years old. I find this ironic because that’s exactly what Gooseberry’s tumor is.

 (Gooseberry-left-and brother Strawberry-right)

    Lando was one in a litter of six kittens. Three of his brothers developed muscular dystrophy but he remained robust. At age ten I found the first MCT, a tiny little bump on his cheek and a few smaller ones around his ear but we had them removed anyway. The pathologist named them MCTs and told me that if he didn’t have another one in the next year he should be okay. 
     Just one year later I found another tiny bump. Once again it was a MCT and once again I received the same directive, if he had another one within a year he would probably continue to have more. I sometimes wonder if the fact that his first ones were multiples should have been a clue that he would have more. 
     Lando continued to have more tumors show up. But finally it all caught up with him. We found mast cells in his blood and tumors on his liver. We started him on chemotherapy. Though he finally died of MCT he had lived to the ripe old age of 19 so that’s not bad. 
     Lando’s brother Zeit Geist also had a MCT when he was about 12 years old but that was it. He never had another one. That’s what I’m hoping for Gooseberry. His MCT didn’t show up until he was 11 years old so maybe that’s a good sign. I can always hope. 
     Have any of your cats had MCTs? If so, what did you do? 
      This is a Sunday Selfies blog hop. Our host is https://thecatonmyhead.com/

Ginger Cat Selfies

Gooseberry is joining the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop again this week even though he was too busy trying to see his nose freckles to take a selfie himself. This is an old one. 

This week he is doing so much better. He is getting used to or at least tolerating his collar and the staples are still in. Hopefully we’ll hear soon what the biopsy shows. 

Gooseberry’s brother, Strawberry, is a ginger cat (or red tabby in the show world) as well but I couldn’t find my photos of him. He’s extremely hard to photograph but I’ll keep trying 😀 

Here's a link to our host The Cat on My Head

Gooseberry's return visit

Hi everyone! I’ve decided to try to restart my blog for a bit. I stopped blogging a few years back because my loss of Mewdy Blue just took my heart. But now my cats are telling stories that I have to share. I’ll probably only posted once weekly because my day job of writing articles for magazines keeps me plenty busy.

Gooseberry came on the scene in 2008 and quickly decided that Mewdy Blue was his hero. He’d follow the older cat everywhere, to Mewdy Blue’s tempered annoyance. When his hero died Goose (his nickname) acted lost. He wandered around on his own and seemed as if he had lost his heart much as I had. But today Goose is much better and back to his crazy self.

I sometimes compare him to Waffles of Glogirly fame. He loves to leap high in the air for his toys. He also races up and down the stairs as I move his stick toy (feathers on a stick). And he’s quite the talker. He and I have long conversations at times. I think he must have some Siamese in him.

Last week I was petting Gooseberry near his tail, something I do all the time, and I felt a bump. He is 11 years old now so I’m always on the lookout for lumps and bumps. I got him into the veterinarian last Friday and scheduled him for a lumpectomy. Thursday of this week he had his surgery as well as blood work and everything went well.

This morning I woke up to see Goose sitting proudly on my bed and I slowly realized something was wrong. He didn’t have his e-collar on. That meant that he also chewed out all of his sutures – both layers of them! So today we were back at the veterinary office getting staples in this time. He’s fine now and I’ve fashioned a kind of anchor for his e-collar. I tied it to his harness (which he hardly ever wears anymore) so it will be harder if not impossible to get off. Of course I’ll have to watch him closely until that incision heals but I’m more optimistic now.

The only trouble now is that I have to wait up to a week to hear the results of his biopsy. I had another cat years ago who had a lump much like this one and it was a mast cell tumor. He had a lot more over the years and eventually died of them. He did, however, live to the ripe old age of 19 so that’s a plus. Please send prayers and whatever you have Goose’s way won’t you?
I've never done a blog hop before but I'm going to try to do the Sunday Selfies blog hop so here goes. Here's the link to the Cat On My Head blog, the host of this hop: https://thecatonmyhead.com/

Shelter Pets

I visited the Story County Shelter today and though the cat room was closed due to illness I did get some photos of some dogs and a couple of rabbits that I’d like to share with you today.

This tri-colored, wirehaired terrier type dog is a friendly but very active dog. I could imagine him making a good family dog with children who have a lot of time to walk him and play with him. Perhaps he’d be a good fly-ball competitor :)

This beautiful girl is lab-sized and friendly but a little laid back. She seemed to be camera shy too. Every time I pointed the camera at her she turned her face away. While the other dogs barked away she simply wagged her tail and smiled in a doggy way. I think she’d be a nice quiet dog to sleep on the couch with you.

 

Then there’s this big happy fella. He may look like a Beagle but he’s nearly 6 foot tall when he stands on his back legs. He was just so happy, happy, happy. He must have a little Lab in him.

 

I tried to get some photos of this unusually colored Cocker Spaniel but he was wary of me and wouldn’t hold still. When I lowered myself to his height he calmed a little and licked my hand. I think he would be best in a home with responsible, understanding adults. He’ll also need some socialization so he isn’t so afraid of people. His color though is so cool. It’s somewhere between buff and liver. Not exactly sure what to call it.

And finally I caught this adorable black and tan Dachsund in the front room just coming in from his walk by the lake. He’s just so darn friendly I couldn’t get a very good picture of him. He just wanted to lick me and be petted rather than have his photo taken!

Then I just couldn’t resist capturing shots of these two bunnies. I don’t know much about bunny breeds so I can’t tell you what they are but the lighter colored one is a neutered male and seems pretty friendly but he didn’t want to face the camera. The darker bunny is a female and just about the most lovable furball I’ve seen. I could just hug her for hours. And those adorable cheek tufts…..what more can I say. I didn’t ask but from the looks of their cages they seemed to be litter-trained

 

Okay, so if you live in central Iowa stop by the Story County Animal Shelter and adopt one of these loving pets. In a week or so the cat room should be open again and there’ll be plenty of cats and kittens vying for your attention. Fortunately there are about 6 kittens in the front room that are available although I didn’t take any photos of them.

July - A Hard Month

July is a hard month. After waiting months for summer to take hold we are suddenly bombarded with 90 degree temps and high humidity. Some days it is hard just to breath. But then we are rewarded with weeks like the one forecasted next week: clear skies and highs in the 70s!

Thai, my mom's Siamese, and Gabbie

Life is like that. Just last week I was struck by the irony of July 8^th. It is a day for celebrating Gabbie’s entrance into my life in 1977 just one day after the day that was supposed to be the end of the world (7-7-77). She was, at most, 3 weeks old and a spitfire of feline fur. She quickly became my best friend, closer to me than any human could ever be.

Effie

But July 8, 2008 brought an end to my physical life with Effie after 16 years. I’d spent nearly 12 years trying to convince her that domestication was way better than her feral life. When she finally agreed to give it a try we had only 4 years left together for a close friendship. I was so lucky that she had already given me her best with her babies, Mewdy Blue and his siblings.

 

Pixel in 1998

Today is the anniversary of the day in 2000 when Pixel’s pancreatic cancer invaded her brain and I had to let her go. Pixel came into my life as an adult in the feral colony but didn’t stay feral long. I’d trapped her for spaying but afterward, when I opened the carrier to change her bedding and add food and water she purred and rubbed against my hand. She’d taken almost no time at all to choose domestication. I’ve a much longer story about her life but for now just know that she was a special girl.

Only picture of all 6 of Tiggy's babies

In 1980 the clinic I worked for took in the stray animals from local animal control and many of them ended up on my family’s acreage. We all thought that Tiggy was already spayed because we’d felt what seemed to be a spay scar on her abdomen. Only a few weeks after she “appeared” on the acreage I realized how wrong we’d been. On July 12 she delivered 6 unusual kittens. Lando Calrissian and Yoda developed normally to robust longhaired cats. Pirate, Figaro and Zeit Geist, however, suffered from muscular dystrophy. (Princess disappeared at only 2 weeks of age).

Tiggy's babies all grown-up

My sister adopted Pirate and Figaro died early from Panleukopenia (he was vaccinated). Yoda had been the runt of the litter but with my TLC he became the largest of them all. Unfortunately Yoda disappeared only a week before I moved into to my first apartment. Lando and Zeit both experienced mast cell tumors and yet they both lived to old age. Zeit even had a urethrostomy at one point but lived to 16. Lando was my longest-lived cat, to date, finally succumbing to his mast cell tumors at age 19.

Pirate

Figaro

Zeit Geist & Yoda

Lando Calrissian

Then there’s July 13^th.  What else can I say except that Sunday will be the one-year anniversary of the day Mewdy Blue left me. How does one cope with such a traumatic, dramatic loss? I remember a line from the Lord of the Ring movies spoken by Frodo, “Some hurts go too deep.”

Effie and baby Mewdy Blue

Baby Mewdy Blue

Change

It’s spring!

I’m so excited

I wet my plants

I saw that on a sign in Des Moines a couple of weeks ago and just had to share it.

 

Spring in Iowa

Ah, change, ain’t it wonderful? Just because it is inevitable doesn’t mean I have to like it. Things around here have been changing. Typical Iowa weather had us experiencing temps near 80 degrees on Saturday, thunderstorms Saturday night, Four inches of rain on Sunday and at least 2” of snow on Monday. College basketball season is over, ending one of the most exciting seasons my Cyclones have ever served us, and spring football is already in progress.

Personally, I’m still working through the grief that hangs over my household after losing those three precious beings last year. Ironically, while trying my best to help my Cyclones win that last NCAA Sweet 16 game by jumping up and down, cheering and doing all kinds of things in the privacy of my own home I managed to break my foot! So I’m hobbling around in a huge boot while yearning to get out and work in my yard.

And in the family, things have also been changing. That happens when a member of the family dies, or when several family members die, and especially when three of the dominant members die. Leaderships change, dominances get rearranged and loyalties fly out the window. I’ve seen “enemies” sleeping together, sisters and brothers fighting and even attacking their own mother. I’ve even observed some personalities developing, blossoming.

Mulberry Spot and Miss Misty Meadow, enemies?

I’m restarting my blog today as a way of recognizing a couple of very important birthdays and an anniversary of my own. Thirty years ago on April 16^th I began my job at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Nineteen years ago Lady Butterfly was (probably) born. She came to me when she was nearly 9 months old so I guessed at her true birthdate. Then 17 years ago on April 17^th Mewdy Blue and his brothers and sister were born in my house. We’ve never really celebrated birthdays in my family because to cats every day is special. But this year I had to do this much.

So, along with this blog, I’m rededicating myself to my writing. I’ve written two children’s books already and need to concentrate on getting them published. I’ve also begun work on two new books. You will probably see little changes to this blog every now and then. Oh, I’ll still write about animals, including companion animals, livestock and wildlife but I’ll also touch on the writing life once in awhile and maybe even life in general.

I hope you’ll join me in my new adventure and see just where it takes us. And please, let me know from time to time what changes you’ve seen in your life. Let’s all try to embrace the changes in our lives. Only through change can we grow.