New Foods

Dear Pablo and everycat,

You have all been so sweet in sending me your purrs. They are very comforting and make me feel very loved. I want to make a list for you of all the new foods that I have tasted in the last two weeks. I'm not sure if there are thirteen, but we'll see.
1. Milk from Tracy's cereal bowl
2. Joey's food
3. My V. E. T. Dr's recommended liver diet wet food.
4. Poached salmon
5. Chicken of the sea from a can
6. Canned "Solid Gold" tuna flavor
7. Real turkey from Thanksgiving dinner
8. Fancy Feast chicken dinner flavor
9. Happy Tails chicken dinner flavor
10. Ground turkey browned
11. Cottage cheese
12. Kitten formula
13. Baby food, turkey flavor.

Wow! There were exactly 13 foods, so I can officially call this a Thursday Thirteen.

From Tracy - At the vet's on Tuesday, she got one dose of oral prednisolone (steroid) to get started. We are waiting for the compounded version that can be applied to her ear. Today, she greeted me at the bedroom door this morning for the first time since she got sick. She has eaten more today than she has in quite a while. Grandma is home and came to visit today. We'll just keep taking it one day at a time. Thanks for all the great ideas. I may look for those pill pockets and see if I can get that gallbladder medicine in without a struggle. It may have been helping a bit.

Phoebe

This is Tracy with an update on Phoebe. We take her back to the V. E. T. today to repeat her blood work. It's been two weeks since it was done. She's completed her course of antibiotics. The vitamins and gallbladder medication have been a bit sporadic because she fights it so much. I have felt like I needed to pick my battles a bit and the antibiotics seemed to be the most important thing. She has been a really picky eater and seems just as skinny as before we started wooing her with fancy foods. I fear that we may learn the worst - that she is not improving. I don't think that I am ready to have her put down today. I hate to have "grandma" come home tomorrow and find that out. I'd also like to have some days without the torturous medications.

We'll keep you informed when we know more. The appointment today is at 3:10 Pacific Time.

The results are in: Phoebe's blood work was not really improved. One value was better, but the other two were worse. She is down to only 7 lbs. So I'm very sorry to tell you that Phoebe is pretty much on kitty hospice now. We are going to try a steroid, topical on her ears, to see if that helps keep her going for a while and perhaps increase her appetite. We are also going to keep doing subq fluids as that really doesn't seem to bother her at all. She doesn't seem to be in pain, still enjoys going outside and cuddles in bed at night. We figure she will let us know when she gets too unhappy. The steroids are not likely to improve the liver function much, but may help a bit. We didn't repeat the anemia test, but she's still quite pale on her gums. I'm not going to fight with her anymore with the vitamins or the gallbladder medicine. It's just too traumatic for her. Thank you everyone for your strong purrs. We are also thinking of having either Phoebe or Joey visit Grandma for a couple of days to give her a break from him. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Bokses

Hi Mr. Pablo and everycat! It's me Joey. Lookit this here boks! It has a nice soft blanket in it and other nice things. It is a very soft place for me to lay down and my favorite thing to do is chew on the flaps. When I chew it and pull it, pieces come off. Then the man and the lady laugh at me and shake their heads. Why do they do that? Don't I look great in it?
Here is another boks at my house:
This is a move-y boks. Things move inside this boks and they are fun and interesting to watch.
Here there is a lady ice skating. I liked to watch her twirling around and around. Mr. Pablo, do you have a move-y boks at your house?

Thankful Thirteen

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Phoebe and I are working together on this special Thursday Thankful Thirteen. There are a lot of things to be thankful for this year.
1. It has been almost exactly one year since we met Pablo. We are very thankful that we met him. He has been a great inspiration to us and it was through Pablo that we learned about blogging.
2. We have blogging for just over a year now! We are very thankful for all the great friends that we have met on the blogosphere.
3. We are very thankful for our people, Tracy and Denis. They are good for giving scritches, playing with the laser light toy and doing litter box patrol.
4. We are very thankful that Phoebe is getting a bit back to her old self. She still feels a bit crabby, but she is hanging out with us all now instead of hiding all the time.
5. We reluctantly admit that we are thankful for Joey. He can be a real pest, but he sure is entertaining. We are especially thankful that he is not homeless and out in the cold right now.
6. We are very thankful that we learned about going Outside on our harnesses this year. We learned about that from our good friend and fan club member, Tara.
7. We are thankful that we have lots of food here at our house. My goodness, we have lots of different foods these days than we have ever had before.
8. We are very thankful for our Grandma who lives just next door. She comes to visit us and plays with us. She keeps us company when Tracy and Denis abandon us for a trip. Grandma has been gone for almost a month now on a vacation herself. She comes back next week and we will be glad to see her.
9. We are thankful for our nice wide windowsills where we can look out our windows at the birds.
10. We are thankful that the big red monster machine does not live next door to us anymore.
11. We are thankful for warm cozy blankets and soft pillows to sleep on.
12. We are thankful for each other. Phoebe and I have been together since as long as we can remember.
13. And finally, we are very thankful for all of our friends' good wishes and purrs for Phoebe as she has been sick. Thank you everycat!

Happy Thanksgiving from Phoebe and Monica!

Hiding

Dear Pablo and all my friends,

Can you see me in this picture? I am hiding behind our computer desk. I have been hiding quite a bit in the last week because Tracy keeps making me take pills and some yucky sticky syrup. I hide behind the desk, under the bed, in the closet among Tracy's shoes, behind the curtains and under the dresser in the bedroom. None of my hiding places work too well, because Tracy always finds me.

Oh well, I don't feel so much like hiding anymore. Today and yesterday, I have been feeling a little better. On Saturday, I went back to the V-E-T's office and he said that I seem to be holding my ground. I had not lost any more weight, but hadn't really gained much either. The Dr. gave me some more sub Q flooids that day. Since then, Tracy has been letting me eat some different foods. My favorite so far is tuna. Pablo, have you tried tuna? It is "chicken of the sea" so you are sure to like it. I have also enjoyed salmon. I DON'T like that wet food she keeps putting in front of me though. And I DON'T like the syrup stuff. It is very sticky and it gets in my furs when I spit it out.

Thank you all for continuing to send me your purrs. I miss visiting all your blogs. Monica tells me how you all are.

Fashion Friday on Thursday

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

I have never done a fashion show friday post because I don't wear clothes. But I did find this fancy feather hat to wear a few weeks ago. (it is really the feather from our wand toy. Joey has managed to get most of the feathers off it by now). I would like to wear it to welcome all of our new friends to our blog. If you are a fan of Pablo's and would like to join his fan club, please let me know. Membership requirements are simply to be a fan of Pablo's and show and interest in the fan club by commenting on both blogs. The Fan Club pledge is found in the sidebar for all members to refer to. A big welcome to recently added members Adan and Michico, Lord Jaders, Frodo, Fiona and Ali, Skeezix, MoMo, Tybalt and the (Mostly) Black Cats!

I'm also wearing my hat in respectful memory of one of our favorite dog Fan Club members, Jake. Jake was sick with heart failure for several months and finally went to the Rainbow Bridge last evening. If you would like to send condolences to his family, their blog is here. Jake's blog was taken down a while ago.

Finally, I'm wearing the hat to try to cheer up Phoebe. She's still not back to her old self and I can tell that Tracy worries about her. Phoebe is taking her medicine and eating some, but she also tends to hide for a lot of the day. She got tired of her special new wet food and is only interested in Joey's food. However, she doesn't like to eat when me and Joey are eating. Please keep purring for her. Thanks.

Hi there Mr. Pablo and everycat! It's me Joey. Look at how big I am getting. I am a big and strong mancat. Here are some pictures of me when I was just a little scrawny kid for comparison.


But even though I was scrawny, I was already a great mouse wrangler. There are lots of mouses in this place and I chase them and show them who is boss. What would these people do without ME around here?

Here I have just sub-dude another mouse that was trying to escape out the front door.


I don't know what this thing is, but it is a good thing to attack. I use the stick as my sword and chase the mouses with it.

Now I'm tired from just thinking about all those adventures. A mighty hunter does need his rest.

Update from Tracy: Phoebe and I went for a stroll outside today. Her harness is so big on her these days... The subQ fluids that she got at the vet's office seemed to give her a boost that she needed. She has eaten her new food better than she had been eating over the weekend. It may be my imagination, but it seems like I can already tell a little difference in the meat on her bones. As long as she doesn't take a turn for the worse, the plan is to go back in two weeks after the course of antibiotics is done so that she can get the blood work repeated. Until then, we just hope she keeps eating and gaining weight.

Torchured

My dear sweet Pablo and all my friends,

I want to thank you all for your strong purrs these last two days and your words of encouragement. They really helped me feel a little stronger today. And I really needed strength because I went back to the V-E-T's office to get torchured again.

I am so embarrassed to tell you that those people shaved all my pretty furs off my tummy. Then they rubbed some goopy stuff on my skin and waved a magic wand over me. It showed the doctor inside my liver, whatever that is. The doctor man spent a long time talking to Tracy and Denis about me - blah blah blah, cholangio, blah blah. Whatever, as long as I was safe in my prisoner box. But then they tricked me and made me come back out. They weighed me and found out that I have gained a little weight back - now 7.75 lbs. Then they torchured me again to take more of my blood and they gave me some of Caesar and Prinnie's flooids. I had a funny hump on my back for a while.

So now we are back at home. The first thing Tracy did was make me take a pill!! I thought I was all done with those nasty things since I stopped throwing up and all. This evening, I tried some new food - it is wet and I like it. There was also some sticky sweet syrup mixed in it that I liked to lick. I suddenly realized that I was pretty hungry, so I ate all of the wet stuff.

Well, I guess that is all there is to tell for now. I've had a busy day so I'm going to rest now. We are going to watch The Amazing Race together.

Update

My dear kitty friends,

I just wanted to give a quick update because I have to run. I think Phoebe will want to tell you about her V. E. T. session a bit later tonight.

She had an ultrasound of her abdomen today (we just got home). It showed some un-homogenaity of her liver which goes along with her lab tests. Also some dilation of the gallbladder. Due to her history of inflammatory bowel disease, the Dr.'s best guess is that it is a gallbladder infection that is causing some back up to her liver. Most of the scenarios of a possible cause include an infection somewhere, so that is good news. She will start on antibiotics as well as some vitamins to help clean out the liver toxins and build back her blood. She's also going to try some special liver food.

Hopefully, she's start feeling better and perk up. The Dr. said he thinks the prognosis is good because her liver tests were not too terribly elevated.

Thank you so much everycat for your good wishes for Phoebe. She'll have a chance to tell you how she's doing herself soon.

Dear Pablo and friends,

Monica here, bringing you some information about Phoebe. We both were at the V-E-T's office yesterday for our check up and we found out that Phoebe is not very well. She has lost a lot of weight since this time last year. She is down to 7.5 lbs which is 1 lb underweight. Since she is so floofy, no cat had noticed that she was getting to skinny until recently.

Well, my examination was over lickety split, but Phoebe was taken in the back room and torchured with a needle for a blood sample. The test showed that she is a little anemic and her liver tests are high. She has to go back on Monday for another test. In the meantime, Tracy is trying to coax her to eat anything that she will. We are getting to eat some of Joey's food, but Tracy doesn't let me eat as much of it as Phoebe. That doesn't seem quite fair to me, but oh well. She has also gotten to try some baby food turkey flavor, which I don't even get to taste. But Phoebe didn't take much of that. I offered to take it off Tracy's hands, but she said no.

So will everycat please send some extra purrs our way to help Phoebe get better? Thanks.

Getting a Drink

Dear Pablo and friends,

Have you tried drinking water out of these things? It's hard to get at but it's very tasty. For some reason, Tracy doesn't like me doing this...

What we've been doing.

Dear Pablo and friends,

I am very sorry that Monica and I have not been blogging or visiting our friends' blogs lately. We have been so busy trying to keep that little Joey in line that we have been very distracted. We also had company for a little over a week this month and I was participating in all the activities. Monica was mostly hiding, but she claimed the people's laps when they would sit still and be quieter for a while. Joey has been tormenting me day and night because he always wants to play. He has demolished one of our mice - it was a wobbly mouse and fortunately, not one of my favorites. Here are some pictures of life around here for the last month or so.