Hope for Liver Shunt Cats

Upswing Again

Many thanks for all of the well-wishes, healing energies, prayers, positive vibes, and emails of support and encouragement. They are working. He’s had support coming from California to Australia to the UK.

Wow what an international Rock Star

Newt continued to upswing thru the evening, and ate his midnight snack, had a good bath, pounced on his One True Love, rolled and preened and seems generally back on track again. Will post any changes, but he’s acting like his normal, adorable, albeit sleepy, little self.

Still not back to normal

Has been nibbling a bit of chicken and marrow soup, especially when hand fed. Beastie has the jaws of a steel trap! Direct dosing meds and water. Intermittent drool all day. Slept most of day, but at least it was a comfortable, curled up sleep.

Still crouchy, but drank water on his own around 8PM. Hydration is good. Fresh chicken procured and more carrots to make another batch of goo.

Mummy is at her wit’s end. Have been pathetically whining like a brat, demanding Cat Daddy to “fix my Pookie Bear!” Still screaming sore hamstrings from last Thursday’s foray into yoga; knee / hip acting wonky as well; and brain is scattered to the four winds. It’s making bending to give meds and tax prep a bit more challenging than norm.

All I want to do is snurf my Schnookie and sleep.

Oh, and crochet a cat bed

Spoke Too Soon – Relapse

Well, frack.

Pookie Bear perked up remarkably Friday night, and had a really good day yesterday, complete with several rousing overnight games of attack the sleeping toes. This morning all was normal. Ate part of his lunch, spent the afternoon and the Boys of March Birthday Bash sunning in the window.

Around 530, he started drooling again.

Refused to touch his dinner.

::sigh::

Back on the merry go round again, it seems.

Petey Needs a Home

Am putting a temporary post up here, on Newt’s blog, and emailing to my Reiki students. I typically don’t do this, but this is stuck in my heart right now, and I feel compelled to do this.

If you know of anyone looking for a cat, I met a shelter cat this week during an unrelated visit to the Washington Animal Rescue League (www.warl.org) , and can’t stop thinking about him. His name is Petey, and while I know we can’t adopt him, I can’t stop thinking about him. So I’m sending out emails, blog posts, etc. to everyone I know who may know someone who knows someone who is looking for a cool cat.

Saw him again today. He’s an orange tabby, 1 yr old, a few black smoodges, white paws. Looked like copper eyes to me. We had a copper-eyed orange tabby before, so I’m not immediately thinking he’s a shunt baby. He leapt into my arms as I was leaving, demanding to be held and snuggled, and LICKED MY CHIN. Repeatedly. I almost cried – he reminded me so much of the two orange tabbies we’d loved before, and the only cat before him who has ever licked my face is Newt. And then, as someone else was holding him and I walked past the door to leave, his eyes met mine and he yowled. Oh geesh. Cunning little beast, to zing his way into my heart like that LOL.

So anyway, I’m not affiliated with WARL, I know lots of wonderful cats who also need homes, but am sending this out in hopes for the greatest good for Petey. (He was very receptive to Reiki.)

Newt is Having a Rough Week

Just a quick request for vibes, prayers, love, anything you can send our way for Newt. He’s been having a bit of a rough week.

New pattern seems to be emerging; rapid cycling of HE symptoms, back to normal, back to symptoms, repeat, repeat, repeat. Ongoing since Sunday night.

He had sub-q fluids and saw two vets yesterday morning; of course he looked and seemed much better at that time, so no one was terribly alarmed – just another round of ride it out and keep on with the meds, etc. I just had hoped and thought that he would pull out of it by now, since he usually is symptomatic for maybe 12 hours, not five days. Not since he was a baby has it gone on this long.

Direct dosing Lact, orally administering water, lots of Reiki, trying to keep myself calm, but you know how it goes :-/

So, any well wishes for him will be gratefully accepted.

UPDATE:

Seems to be doing better this morning (3/6/10), yay! Played attack the toes last night, ate midnite snack and breakfast, gnawed on his One True Love, eyes bright, fur unruffled. Still a bit of the wobbles, but that’s typical after an ep. Hoping this is a full upswing and not back on the merry go round of this past week.

Many thanks to all for the love, prayers, positive energies, Reiki, etc.

(Yet Another) New Blog – Names Needed!

Okay, okay, okay! As if I’m not far enough behind on keeping you updated on Newt’s progress, updates to his website, acting as his personal secretary, etc,, I’ve added yet another “Thing To Do” on the ever-growing list.

After debating for months, I finally have set Newt up with another site, to showcase the handmade items that have helped to buy his chicken and Lactulose The plan is to provide tutorials to help rescue groups learn how to make simple, inexpensive items either for their own adoptables, or as items to sell at fundraisers.

The site is Knitting for Newt, which is a bit of a misnomer, as it includes a variety of items, including sewn, knitted,crocheted, braided, and other projects, but I liked the way it sounded. Plus,while knitting in public, people ask me what I’m doing, and the standard reply is “Knitting for Newt.” This always led to interesting discussions on how I could be “knitting” without needles, and what in the world does a Newt need with Knitting?

So, once I figure out a name for the blog section of that site (right now, it’s simply called “blog” – how original!), I’ll post links, and upload the site. For now, if you want to be creative and help Name That Blog, that would be awesome, and I bet there will be a token of appreciation to the winner – probably in the form of a cat toy or two.

Hairless Cat Sweater, Part Drei

Almost finished the third version of the Cat Sweater / Cape. Am hopeful this one will be the right one. Earlier version was a wee bit snug at the arms, and a bit short in the neck. So, I knitted really loosely behind the arms (the belly band) and extended the neck as well as the arm area. My goal is easy on/off, lightweight but warm, and sturdy.

Having too much fun with this. Love a challenge. Am determined to loom knit a perfectly tailored nifty, knifty knitted sweater for a fellow shunt cat. Just need to weave the ends, launder and mail.

Newt was more cooperative with this version. Am taking that as a good sign of a better fit!

Blizzard of 2010

Day 1.5 of being trapped in the house during “Snowmaggedon.”

Cat Daddy says that I go crazy in the snow. Hmmm. He may have a point. I do seem to enjoy staying outside in the still quiet,listening to the solitude of … nothing. Nice change from the bustling noise of the DC suburbs. Of course, grab the camera, grab the yardstick, go measure, make snowmen, have snowball fights with imaginary opponents, play with the dogs, let the Newt go exploring, I guess you can agree with his assessment that I get a little snow crazy::grin::

Got out this morning to let the dogs go potty.. took far less time and effort than in years prior, thanks to Cat Daddy’s engineering brilliance. He had the bright idea of using the empty recycling bin,trash can, and other plastic containers laid in a path to help keep the snow from accumulating. Simply marvelous. Move the crates, and a nice path was left, wide enough for a tall Collie to navigate, and minimal shoveling for the Doggy Latrine. Have I mentioned before how much I adore that man?

So far, the snow is up to the dogs shoulders,and still coming down. The dogs weren’t too keen on hanging out andplaying with mommy in the snow, so I had the bright idea to let Newt gooutside. It’s only been a year since his last (first!) snowadventure. Let’s see if he’s learned his lesson about wanting to sneakout of the house.

And NO, I did NOT throw him out in the snow! I simply held open the door to see if he really wanted to sneak out.

As you can see by the pictures, he wasn’t too keen on the idea, and quite happily skated across the frozen porch back into the house as soon as I opened the door. He is now nestled snuggly next to his arch-nemesis, Tinky One Fang., who hates him and regularly tries to kick his skinny little arse whenever he even thinks about getting within tenfeet of her.

Cat Daddy says obviously the blizzard is making us ALL a little snow crazy!

Met a Shunt Cat Parent Today!

Yes, i admit, I was trolling the cat show for liver shunt cats

Was thrilled to be speaking at the World of Pets Expo in Timonium, Maryland today. Gave a presentation on Reiki for Animals, and had a quick dash thru the vendor area, and then roamed the edge of the cat show, peeking at the pretty kitties.

Was thrilled to find out one of the people I was speaking to is a shunt cat parent from Florida, and the person next to her also knows a shunt cat parent. WoW.

Spoke with several vets about our shunt cat friends, and we *may* have a lead on a couple of guest speakers, if we ever have our conference – woohoo!

Made me realize that next time I go to an event like this, I need to take Newt’s business cards as well as mine. I probably gave out more of HIS info on the back of mine than I did my own

We wish you a Snuggie Christmas

Cat Daddy says that I am weird. I have no idea why. Doesn’t everyone spend a snowy day making a snuggie snowman?

After wrapping up a month-long contract and having Newt be symptomatic for about 12 hours earlier this week, I decided to unwind a bit by unleashing my creative urges and using some of the 21 inches of snow we dug out clearing the driveway to build a snowman.

We wish you a Snuggie Christmas

and a fat-free New Year

Good snacking we bring, to you and your kin

Good snacking for Christmas and a Happy New Year

Oh bring us a zebra snuggie

And bring it right here

We won’t move until we get one

So bring it right here!

We wish you a Snuggie Christmas

and a fat-free New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!