Kitties

So, here is our kitty situation. When we got Moose and Reuben they came to me with a bag of Science Diet cat food. I hate this stuff...and promptly bought a bag of Innova cat food, which is rated as the best by a LOT of different people, different backgrounds. This food is expensive and the boys were eating it like mad....I mean like mad! I was afraid that they liked the food too much and were thusly overeating or, worse, it wasn't filling them up and they weren't getting the right nutrition. I changed them to Felidae (another very good food and my second choice) but always planned to put them back on Innova when they were adults.

When I was a kid, our cat, Large, had FUS--Feline Urinary Syndrome (I think) which led to bladder issues and kidney failure. This was possibly caused by his food as back then there weren't the fancy choices we have today. So, I will learn from that and will always feed my kitties really, really good food.

You know...to avoid kidney and bladder problems.

*sigh*

In early November I decided to make the change. Moose has been having skin issues. Not to mention lip-swelling issues. I thought the end of the last bag of Felidae was a good time to try something new...something better. So I thought...

Within about two weeks, Moose's lip swelled and he required an urgent vet visit and subsequent steroid injection. SInce he'd had a (albeit a very mild version) swollen lip before, everyone thought it was just Moose and not the new food.

On the Sunday night before Christmas, I noticed Reuben doing funny things. He went into Mike's office and walked into the "cave" (the little side room) which is something he NEVER does. I noticed only because he never, ever goes in there. I was talking with Mike when I noticed it and finished my sentence but then walked over to see what the heck Reuben was doing. As I peeked in the room, I saw him "burying" something...much like they bury their potty in the litterbox. Yikes. I walked over and discovered he'd peed just a tiny, tiny bit on a blanket. I took him to the litterbox and he squatted but didn't pee. Long story short, he stayed all of the following day at the vet, diagnosed with a very, very, very bad UTI. He came home with a weeks worth of pain meds and antibiotics. He was fine within a few days and has (knock wood) been fine since.

Then last Sunday (what is it about Sunday evenings??) I noticed Moose with the very same symptoms: squatting in weird places, only producing drops of pee, etc. He spent that day at the vet and was sent home with many more cautions as was Reuben the week prior. Moose hadn't peed for them the entire day. To get a urine sample, a needle had to be put directly into his bladder to aspirate some urine. When he was sent home, his bladder was known to be very full and the vet hoped that he would simply pee when he was in his own home, with his own litterbox.

I left for a walk and while I was gone Mike thought Moose must have gone potty on the floor in front of the litterbox (we put one in the very front room just for the time being, for easy access to sick kitties). So, we thought Moose must be fine.

At 4 a.m. I awoke to a moan. I assumed it was Keats as he frequently has noisy dreams. Since I was awake, I decided to check on the patient. =^..^= I found him lying in my closet and he did NOT look good. I immediately gave him pain medicine and laid down with him for about an hour. He seemed okay but, honestly, I knew in my heart that this wasn't going to be good.

I knew the issue was money: the procedure to unblock a cat's urethra is anywhere from $500-3000. Yikes. We'd already put out nearly $600 between two Mondays at the vet. I knew that Mike was going to be mad, he wasn't going to spend the money (not that I blame him) as my last two paychecks have been ridiculous! Let's just say I brought in less than $70 dollars in December. Nope, not a typo...less than seventy bucks for the whole month!! But, the fact that money comes between life & death just makes me ill. I don't care if it is people or animals...we have the supplies, the technology, the infrastructure, the providers...but there is no way we could afford another three thousand dollars on Moose.

There are two parts of this that I absolutely hate.

1) Moose was in SO much pain. He even growled when I would touch him. Anywhere on his body-not just his bladder area. Every time he moved he just let out a loud moan/groan. It was awful to watch my furbaby in such pain and not be able to help him. Had I taken him to the urgent vet (ours doesn't open until 0800) the only option we would have had would be to euthanize him. The emergency vet would have run in the $3000 for care; we would have had to have him put to sleep. So, my only hope was to keep him pain free until our vet opened.

2) This is Keaton's cat. He constantly says Moose is his best friend. He and Moose work together--they are officemates, apparently, and they do some very important work together. ;o) Keaton always tells stories of fantastical things that Moose does, and tells about magical people that Moose knows. Moose has lots of "friends" that do crazy things, and Keaton takes these as a warning. For example, yesterday Keats came to me and calmly, adamantly stated, "Mom, I NEVER want to be an inventor when I grow up." I asked why and he went into this very loooooong description of something that one of Moose's friends invented that went up into space and crashed into a meteor (we recently watched "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" at the theater, and Santa brought him a Jimmy Neutron dvd...) and that crash nearly caused the meteor to head towards Earth. Luckily, Moose (or maybe it was Moose's friend?) invented something else to get the meteor off track. Whew. This stuff is too stressful for Keats so he will avoid it simply by not going into the profession of invention. How could I not take care of my baby's best friend??

I took Moose to our regular vet as soon as they opened. I gave them Mike's cell number and said they'd need to call him with the financial damage; I was leaving it up to Mike to make this horrible decision. Turns out, the procedure would be $500-600 (not including the $275 we spent on him the day prior, plus the $250 we spent on Reuben the week prior, nor the $100 for Moose's fat lip in November....sheesh!) and Mike made the decision to Save The Moose. Yay!

Moose had the procedure, all went well, and he stayed the night at the vet on Tuesday night. Overnight, he removed his own urinary catheter--but luckily no damage was done. He seems to be peeing just fine. Cross your fingers! If he blocks again, we are faced with the very same charges...again. We have to draw the line somewhere. I brought him home overnight and he did great. Early this morning I took him back to the vet. He'll be there for the day to receive IV fluids and have his bladder function monitored. They may also be doing blood tests today. On Tuesday, Moose was in acute renal failure. The vet told Mike that Moose would not have lived through the day without medical intervention. Scary, huh?

Anyway, that's our Kitty Crisis story of the week.

I have more to write but will have to blog later--kids up and hungry!

Random Cell Phone Pics

Mason (above) and Erin (below) are all dressed up to attend a graduation ceremony.

Our tree this year...might be our last real tree...

A pic of Debbie as she gets her Lifetime weight goal information last week. Yay for Debbie!

Above, Sully is looking into the metal hardware on the tub and declaring to his image "Hey! It's Sully!!"

Below are just misc pics of him enjoying his bath the other night.

Below are pics taken today. Moose has been sick and at the vet pretty much since Monday morning. Today I took Keats to visit Moose...

...and tonight I brought Moose home. He'll spend tomorrow at the vet again. He still needs to be watched for reblocking and will be given IV fluids all day tomorrow.


This is the set-up I made for Moose to recover. Sully's old room is empty for now so I just made some comfy spots and set up food, water, and a litter box.

Christmas

The above photo pretty much sums up what every square inch of our floor looks like. Legos everywhere!
Melina gave us this drum set. Keats thought the set would be too small for him but it is actually a great size. We put the drums out in the garage and he's already asked to go out and bang on them a few times.

Sully was given a Leapster 2 from Santa.

Have you heard of these handheld games? Neat stuff! First of all, it is all math, reading, and things like shapes/colors...but there is a game going on so kids don't really see it as learning. Jokes on them! ;o) These little machines connect to a website and stores all kinds of fun information. You can follow how your kid is progressing in the three Rs, limit how much time they can play each day---the coolest thing, imho....you can have the machine turn off after 30 minutes or up to as much as six hours!! We chose to set no limit for now since the toys are new and the kids are on vacation anyway. The kids are rewarded points for how much they play and improve and those points can be turned in for prizes on the website. Cool stuff.

Sully is showing off his Buzz Lightyear jammies.

You have to watch this kid with candy! Especially chocolate! I wasn't watching him as he pulled items out of his stocking and when I looked over he had shoved a HUGE piece of chocolate in his mouth and was trying to open a second. He eats the candy incredibly fast, too.

Sully the rock star.

More chocolate!!

Sully just shoves his candy in his mouth as fast as he can, but Keats puts it all out in front of him and enjoys looking at it while he eats.

Chocolatey teeth! Good thing Santa brought new toothbrushes and toothpaste! (and very funny that both boys get so excited to receive new toothbrushes!!)

Christmas Eve-Eve and Christmas Eve

Last night, the boys and I bundled up and handed out Christmas cards with candy canes to some of our neighbors. They looked so cute and were soooo excited....though I suspect they were mostly hoping I was going to give them some candy cane when we came home (I did). If I left it up to them, especially Keats, we'd pass them out to everyone in a one-mile radius!

Lisa sent the boys these funny glasses in their Christmas packages. They are something like a crazy straw. Keaton and Sullivan had a very fun time tyring out their new glasses!

Santa already came...and is heading to bed after this blog is posted. Lol. Mike bought the fire-pit as a family gift, and the drum set was given to us by Melina. The stack of red packages in the front is what Santa left for Sully, and the green stack is for Keats. Everything else is from their parents. :o)

A Special Day At Preschool

Keaton is out of school for two weeks but Sully has school at Melina's. Yesterday was a special holiday-theme day. The kids were making their own stockings and I offered to stay and help. Keaton was invited to come join in the festivities as well.

Sully still had school, just an abbreviated version.

They have a group of songs they sing at the beginning of class.

Here, they are singing "hello" to each child.

The kids choose a weather cling and put it on the window.

Keaton has his stocking sewed together and Melina is using hot glue to attach his decorations.

Sully's turn to embellish his stocking.

Here is the entire group. Starting with the cutie in the front of the table and working clockwise: Ty, Keats, Kyler, Sully, Ariella, Chase, and Justin. Sully, Ariella, and Chase are the usual preschoolers in the group; Justin is Chase's baby brother and he is there during school but doesn't participate in everything.

Keats, Ty, and Kyler. These boys sure love each other. Such a silly group!

Ariella. Isn't she adorable! What a ham for the camera!

Not as much of a ham, but cute and at least he's looking at the camera!

Sully, Chase, and Ariella show off their creations. Melina had lots of stuff to put inside the stockings! These guys sure raked in the loot.

I just love how happy Ariella looks here. She just gets right in there with the boys!

The Preschool Gang (don't let the big boys hear me say that!!)

Happy Birthday To My Not-So-Baby Baby Boy!

Some pictures from yesterday, Keaton's actual birthday. We saved our gift for him to open on his birthday....he was a little bit surprised, as you can see. ;o) He has wanted this yellow ship for months and mentions it approximately every fourth sentence. lol. I had no intention of buying it for him as it is about $60! Last Saturday, I happened to go into Fred Meyer in the morning when they were having one of those "door buster" two-hour sales. This set was marked down to $40 and there was also a "buy two Lego sets, get one free". I bought three that were usually too expensive to consider but that were on sale AND went towards the freebie. I spent about 1-1/2 hours putting this stupid (did I say that??) ship together and nearly went blind in the process. But he was so happy and shocked that it was worth it!

Yet another Lego Star Wars ship. He apparently cannot get enough of them!

Above are just SOME of his birthday Lego sets. Lucky kid!

He came home from school yesterday and immediately put together the three Bionicles that he received; next he and I went to work on the Lego sets.

He loves Bionicles!

Moose tried to help with the Bionicles. Thoughtful kitty, huh?!

I found these "starter" inline skates at Goodwill last week for $3!! They were probably used two or three times...excellent condition. So, Sully opened his new skates while Keaton opened his big yellow Lego ship.