What's going on around here???!!!

Something strange has been going on around here lately. First, the Lady and the Man brought in this tree. What is it doing in here?

I thought that it was for me to climb up in and have a look around from up high, but I got in trouble for trying that.

Then the put all these fun toys hanging from the branches and some good climbing bokses underneath it.
I think that they are very fun to bat around on the floor. They are not much good hanging from the tree. But I get in trouble when I play with them. I get squirted with water from a water squirting gun.
And then, the people got out this pretty paper and played with it. But I get in trouble when I try to play with it. Is this fair?


How come Mommyca and Feebee don't get in trouble like I do?

It was a great party!

There was a party at our house on the 21st. Something about Denis being really old. Whatever, it was a great party!

From the desk of...

Updated: The V.E.T report was surprisingly good. On the lab work that was checked, only one value remains elevated and it is only slightly above the normal range. The other value which had actually climbed in the second set of blood work, was back down in the normal range. So the verdict is that Phoebe is improving from the steroid medication. Steroids help to improve a lot of illnesses in cats and stimulate appetite, so we are not sure exactly what has caused this or why it's better. But for now, anyway, we can relax and enjoy the fact that she's actually improved. We continue the steroids twice a day for another week and then cut back to once a day for a month.

Dear Pablo and all my friends,

Tracy and I were just looking back at the most recent blog posts and realized that we have not given you all an update about me in a while. I want to let you know that in the last week or so, I have been eating very well and have gained weight. We got a new scale and according to it, I now weight 8.2 lbs. Tracy says this is very good, but we don't know for sure that it means my liver is any better. That's why she made me an appointment at the V-E-T's office for Saturday. Oh bother! I don't like my ear medicine or getting weighed, but I do feel better and I like our new food. We are eating Science Diet for adult indoor cats. We all three like it, and we don't even have to fight over it because we can all eat it. Tracy put it in the big bowl.

Please also see Monica's post below. There is a strange new thing in our living room that you really should see!

Hmmmm...

This looks like trouble to me. It arrived the other day in Denis' red machine. Does anyone know what it is?

Peaceful

Hi Pablo and everycat! It's me, Joey. None of us cats has been blogging in a looooong time. We've been VERY VERY busy, napping and bathing and eating and I have been rat-i-fyin another boks. (I have to practice rat-i-fyin stuff cause Mr. Pablo says that it is a very important job!) Anyway, I have some more questions. This place is very confusing.

1. Sometimes, Mommyca and Feebee get tied up in some kind of belts and go OUTSIDE. Why would they want to do THAT? I used to live outside and it was cold and no one petted you or left food in a special bowl for you out there like they do inside.

2. The Lady who lives here keeps fussing with all the clothes. She takes them out of a basket, puts them into a noisy metal boks, throws them on the bed and then she puts them on these bendy sticks and hangs them up OUT OF MY REACH. Why does she do a silly thing like that? Why doesn't she just leave them on the bed so that we cats can lay on the soft clothes?

3. Feebee is kind of grumpy sometimes. Two times each day the Lady catches her and rubs some magic stuff onto Feebee's ear. And then her ear smells funny. I like to sniff it and I want to taste it but the Lady says "NO, JOEY". But I like to watch and then I like to tease her and she gets mad at me. Hee hee hee. Feebee is funny when she's mad.


Thanks for your help!

Update from Tracy: Phoebe is holding her own so far. Her personality is definitely much more like her old self, which is a real relief. She has been eating pretty well, but not really gaining any significant weight. But I feel much better that we are not doing very unpleasant things to her anymore and she is not hiding anymore. We are definitely enjoying her company.

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.