The sweet and the sour

Sadly, this September 25th, only three days after our wedding anniversary, will be one year since we lost our beloved kitty Mr. Earl Gray. We never really knew exactly "why" we lost him the way in which we had, we only know that he was alive and playing on our bed one minute and then gone the very next! 

Not a day passes that I do not think of him. His memory continues to live on in our hearts and in our home with beautiful collage photos, which I had taken of him, displayed throughout. This, my dear friends, is not to make sure that we never forget him, (no chance of that!) but rather helps me to cope with his loss in my own strange little way ...

I will never forget something my hubby said to me exactly three months later on Christmas morning. He said, "There's someone missing from our little family today. Someone who should have been here." What can I say, he was right. After all, our vet guestimated his age to be only around two or three years old.

I know that I am not alone in my sorrow and my heart goes out to anyone who has felt such a terrible loss of a very special furry family member. He is not the first kitty we have ever lost over these many years (as we have shared our lives with quite a few furr babies) and, we will forever and always miss them all. 

As for our blessed Mr. Gray, the kitty who came from nowhere and yet somehow managed to purr his way into our hearts and lives, I can only take comfort in the hope that he knows how much we love and miss him dearly as we say a little prayer and light a special candle in his honor on our anniversary day.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

 OUR SWEET MR. EARL GRAY
(July 2012 ~ September 2013)

Heartbroken ...

It is with such a heavy heart that I write this post. Last night, we lost Mr. Earl Gray not even 15 minutes after playing with him on our bed where he appeared to be feeling just fine. When I went back into the bedroom to check on him, he was gone! Just passed away for no known reason to us. In fact, "shock" does not even begin to describe what I felt!

We immediately took him to the vet to be privately cremated and the vet told us that she thinks he had a heart attack. Imagine, a two year old cat having a heart attack?? It makes absolutely no sense to us but, unfortunately, we have no other explaination for it. I can't tell you how much both my husband and I have cried so many tears of sorrow last evening for the loss of our beloved boy who came to us only a year ago and had been our sweet little house kitty since then. 

I will miss so many things about him. I will miss how he followed me around the house and snuggled with me at bedtime, I will miss his soft, sweet personality, and I will even miss him waking me up every morning insisting I feed him his breakfast. But most of all, I will miss the fact that he loved me so much. We may have given him a warm, cozy home in which to live and loving care, but he gave us back so much more.

It's like my great grandmother always used to say ...

Well, like Gilda Radner's SNL character Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "It's always something!" ... 

Greetings ALL! Needless to say, a lot of things have been happening here on the home front much of which I am afraid I can't exactly share with all of you. However, the latest has been my massive hair loss. A couple of weeks ago while taking a shower, I had noticed my hair falling out in clumps and strands! Talk about heart-breaking, I naturally freaked out! According to the Mayo Clinic, it is considered normal to lose 50 to 100 hairs per day and not be noticeable to most of us. All of my life, I have had a very thick head of hair and I know that what is happening to me is NOT a normal thing!

After doing quite a bit of research on the matter, I have found out that there are several causes of major hair loss. Among them are:

1) Any shock to your system such as excessive weight loss which also causes lack of nutrients to your body and in turn your scalp
2) Stress
3) Medications

All of which have to do with me over the past three months or so. I have been, as is the case with many other people these days, under a horrible amount of stress, I have lost 35-40 pounds within a three month period (even though I have hit a plateau and not lost so much as another ounce since), and due to depression I have been taking meds. I have ceased taking the meds for a week now and have been taking supplements such as Biotin, Multi-vitamins for women and fish oil - none of which have helped in the least as my hair continues to fall out as if I were a cat shedding its' winter coat!

 

I finally spoke to my doctor as things have not gotten any better, and he immediately ordered a series of blood tests - one being for thyroid of course. I will see him on Monday morning so that he can go over the results with me. I pray he can help me find out what is really going on!

On a more positive note, Mr. Earl Gray,  our newest member of the family is adapting rather well to being a house kitty. He is still a bit skittish when we go near his head to pet him, but is gradually getting better with that as well. He has taken to following me and Midnight to bed every night and is quite verbal about his breakfast, insisting that I do not forget to feed him. LOL!

That is about all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and Blessed Be!

Close call ...

First and foremost, I would like to give a shout out and a huge "Thank you!" to Stacy, Jan, and Stacy's very lovely mom for the home remedies for Mr. Gray's little "problem." I will give them a go and hopefully something will do the trick!

Now for the other issue. All afternoon I prayed to the Goddess that I would not be called for jury duty tomorrow morning. She indeed heard me and the prerecorded message to all from the Courthouse was as follows, "No jurors are to report for jury duty for the service date of Monday, January 14th." Hurray! Hurray, I tell ya!!! I know it seems a bit petty to ask the Goddess for such a request, but my little boy just may have to make yet another trip to our vets tomorrow and I am not taking any chances with him after everything he has already been through.

(L-R clockwise) Tabitha, Mr. Gray, Haley, & Midnight

In the meantime; however, he is still enjoying his siblings company and is very, very happy to be back home with us.  ;)

What's up with that?

Since we brought Mr. Gray home from the vets yesterday morning, he seems to be constipated. I have tried adding some Clear & Natural medamucil to his food. I even made him a scrambled egg and mixed it in with that? But to no avail. Poor little guy, we can see that he has to go, but just can't.

The worst part about all of this is that if Goddess forbid I would need to take him back to the vet tomorrow, I run the very big chance of not being able to. As per every two freakin' years, (and I can't stress this feeling near enough!), I receive a jury duty summons in the mail from the Berks County Courthouse. Really does suck, believe me!

First of all, there are so many people not working right now around here why not ask them? Plus, there are actually people who want and can serve on a jury and I see no reason why they have to feel they must keep hounding me. I got picked a few years ago and this was NOT A FUN EXPERIENCE by any means!! I had to drive in the nightmare which is called the City of Reading, we sat there with our thumbs up our "a's" until 3:30, they took us into the courtoom and then sent us home because they decided they couldn't use us afterall! What a damned pain, honestly. All we knew was that it was a D.U.I. case which involved a teenager and the judge asked us if there was anyone who felt they couldn't be unbias. About four people stood up and said they couldn't because they knew someone close to them who was killed by a drunk driver. Home we went., only getting paid enough for our gas milage. PFFFF! Since then, they have sent me a summons every 2 years. This time, I fear they will get me and I will have NO choice in the matter at all.  I tried to get out of it right after I got the notice in the mail, but they refused to let me. What a system, eh???

Anyhow, my real fear is that because I can only call after 5PM tonight (you must call the night before the service date) they will pick me this time for sure and should my poor Mr. Gray need to go the the vet I am screwed as is he!!!! We never went through this before with our other cats getting declawed and I think it might be because they insisted on keeping him an extra night.

Oh well, keeping my fingers crossed that he will be okay if I get stuck on jury duty, EHHHHH!!

Waiting for Mr. Gray …

Four cats and our house still feels empty without our sweet Mr. Earl Gray. This morning was his surgery and the vet called us afterward to say that we can come pick him up and take him home Saturday morning. Normally, we would have been allowed to take him home Friday night (tomorrow), but the vet said that since he is such a big kitty cat, it would be best for him to stay for peace, quiet and observation just one more night. And so, we set up his huge cage from downstairs up in our living room so that when he comes home he will be able to recuperate for a couple more days around his loved ones. Of course, he will not be able to use regular cat litter for these couple of days. Instead, we must use shredded paper in his box.

Hubby commented that he thinks that Miss Tabitha actually misses him as well because she is not her usual energetic self, attacking anything that dares to move, and she has been lying in the spot on the bed where he usually does. I very much agree with hubby!

The Best Holiday Gift Ever!!!

 

That's right my dear friends, Mr. Gray's re-test results came in just this morning from the vets office ... both of Mr. "Earl" Gray's tests were NEGATIVE!!!! Hubby called me at work to tell me the great news! I just want to again thank each and every one of my awesome friends out there who sent healing prayers and positive energy to my little guy ~ you are all indeed a blessing!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas holiday! I know that we certainly did. As per usual, we split up the holiday between our folks. First, my parents place for a lovely dinner and afternoon of opening our gifts ...

Me 'n' my mom!

 

My sweetie pie dad

 

Then, on to hubby's folks for the remainder of the day with them and Tulip, their King Charles Cavelier ...

After exchanging our presents, we relaxed and had a little shrimp and cheese snack... ummm good! After which, we finally headed home for a bit of quality time with our fur babies, helping them open all of their gifts from Santa Paws, Nana Rita (my mom) and Auntie Judy ...

Hey, gimme some of that!!!

 

Mine, ALL mine!!!

 

 

Well, that was it for our Christmas this year. We are all so very busy in our day to day lives that every moment spent with family and friends is oh, so precious. And it's these special memories which we can cherish for a lifetime ~ and the holidays are, for us, the perfect time to help create them.

 

Quick Mr. Gray Update ...

 

Greetings, my friends! We just arrived home from the vet for Mr. Gray's Fel-Leuk re-test. Unfortunately, we do not know anymore than we did before as they have told us that this time, his blood test will be sent out to the lab which they utilize and we will not know the results until sometime next week due to the holidays.

As far as I am concerned, this is what they should have done in the first place as I have read that the so-called 15 minute or less blood tests, which they call the ELISA Fel-Luek test, that many vets currently use in-house are not known to be quite as accurate and they can very easily be altered by room temperate which needs to be precisely right for definative test results.

Even if his results come back positive, I fully intend to get a second opinion to be sure from the vet whom was the reason I had decided to use our current vet in the first place. He is not a member of the VCA Animal Hospital and left a couple of months after returning to the vets office we now belong to in order to start his own practice. His name is Dr. Sherbyn W. Ostrich, VMD and his reputation has always been impeccable ~ 30 years experience (he was my parents vet for many years until he moved his practice too far away). He has served as President of the American Veterinary Medical Assoc., President of the Berks County Humane Society, and President of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association. My guess is that he does not exactly agree with the ridiculously greedy prices of the VCA affiliated vets, ours being one of them! Truthfully speaking, these people (the VCA) would rather see you put your furry family member down or suffer thereof rather than work with you on your vet bill (you MUST pay ALL fees before you leave their office) or even bring down their rates to something much more reasonable.  :-(

And so, we shall continue to play the waiting game and pray for the best in the end. Thank you sooo very much to all of you who have kept Mr. Gray in your prayers. We so very appreciate your thoughtfullness and kind hearts!!

This and That ...

Merry Meet, my friends! Been so busy this past week that I barely had any time to do my usual posting on my blogs. I have spent countless hours after work this week downstairs cleaning and fixing up Mr. Gray's little "kitty pad." Yesterday, a trip to Petsmart and Ollie's was in order so that I could decorate this area of the cellar. First, I bought a nice little cat condo and a matching colored Martha Stewart cat bed to go with it. The bed is machine washable/dryable ...

 

 

Then, hubby and I made a trip to Ollie's Bargain Store to pick up a couple of cheap area rugs and some throw rugs as well. It isn't exactly going to make the cover of "Good Housekeeping" or anything, but it should do just fine for Mr. Gray ...

 

The white flat cardboard box propped up along the wall is there because the house is very old and the plaster is beginning to break off of the walls. I put it there for Mr. Gray's safety. As for Mr. Gray himself, well he is just having a ball exploring the "other world" outside of his cage ...

As you can see, I still have a bit of organinzing to do and there are still some items left to go out in the trash, but Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will this cellar be finished as soon either. LOL!

Also, hubby's birthday was this week and since he is an avid reader, I bought him a funny little book called, "The Guy's Guide" and it is filled with all sorts of cute antidotes and idiocies of the male gender as written by a man with a great sense of humor ...

Tomorrow, my in-laws are treating us to his yearly birthday dinner at a wonderful restaurant which was built in 1776 called, "The Five Stars." Great food and atmosphere to say the least.

Till next time, here's wishing everyone a very "eventful" weekend!

Cat-Proofing

Good day everyone! Mr. Gray sends lots of love and hugs to all of our thoughtful and caring friends! At present, he is being allowed to explore the downstairs cellar as he his getting a bit weary of us cooping him up in his, although rather large for a cat, cage.

I have actually been cleaning up down there for him in an effort to make it as safe as possible for him to roam around. Right now, the only way he is free to walk around in our cellar is under mom's careful supervision, but after I am completely finished he will have his own little apartment for cats! Hubby and I are finally getting rid of all the unecessary items ~ trashing whatever we no longer have use for and/or haven't used in many years. I need to vaccuum the floor, add more area rugs, and clean each and every corner as it is still afterall ... a cellar! 

He seems to be doing okay and beginning to get acclaimated to his new surroundings pretty quickly. In fact, he appears to be drawn to my Reiki room and loves to lie underneath my reiki bed ...

I have also decided to try some reiki treatments on him. I admit that I do not have near as much experience with animals as I do people, but I am certainly willing to give it a try. Needless to say, he is being treated just a king ~ LOL!

The waiting game

Greetings my dear friends! My apologies for being out of the blog loop for a few days, but I am utilizing much of my time and energy lately to taking good care of Mr. Gray. Since he has been completely quarantined downstairs away from the rest of our cats, I have been spending as much time as possible with him. Hubby bought some chewable vitamins to help supplement his daily food intake. It is our sincere hope that this aids in strengthening his immune system somewhat. I make sure to completely change his litterbox every other day and he gets fresh spring water and top of the line food daily (on top of a lot of lovin') ...

Eventhough we have not exposed our other cats to him, we have had them to the vets for their FeLeuk shots, and we always wash our hands after handling him, eventhough the disease is NOT airbourne, we are not taking any chances!

Saffice it to say, this is going the be the longest most nerve-racking month for us all ~ ever! I have done so much net-surfing in an attempt to get as much info as I possibly can regarding this, I can honestly tell you that it makes my head spin.

More importantly; however, I want to express my sincere and heartfelt graditude to ALL OF YOU for your wonderful and caring thoughts and prayer of support! Regardless of what happens in the end, I feel so very blessed to have you all in my life ~ as does Mr. Gray.

Much love to everyone!

Kim

My poor, sweet boy ...

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I write this post about our beloved Mr. Gray. After keeping him completely separated from our other fur babies for the past three days after we brought him inside, we took him to our vet this morning for his dreaded FeLeuk test. (I HATE THEM so much!) Sadly, we were told that he was "slightly positive." Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean? Tabitha, by the way who shared the very same food dish as him for months, had tested negative when we took her? Our vet told us that it means that there is still a slight possibility that he can fight it off, or perhaps it is merely in its' beginning stages. There is no real way of knowing for sure. Either way, my heart breaks for him ...and us.

So what next now? Well, we are supposed to take him back to the vet in another month for yet another (albeit most likely disappointing) test. If still positive, we will have no choice but to totally resign ourselves to his horrible inevitable fate and the only thing we can do is make him as happy and comfortable as possible until his time. I have personally seen what this  Godforsaken terrible disease does as many, many years ago when I was a teenager, my parents found a beautiful 6-month old kitten I named Whiskers.. We only had dogs at the time, so we had absolutely no experience with this kind of thing what-so-ever. One night, Whiskers got very ill. I remember she was in such a daze staring at her water bowl and she couldn't control her bladder. We immediately took her to the vet. They tested her and told us she had FeLeuk. We were told that we put her into remission and at that point the only thing we could do is put her down. Trust me, this is something I will never forget!

 

As for our other cats, as I already mentioned, they have not been exposed to him at all and we have chosen to take them to the vet regardless this Monday and Tuesday for their preventative FeLeuk shots. Mr. Gray was also given his worm pill, and regular vaccinations. We are even treating ALL of our cats as well as him for fleas since flea dirt was found on his body.

I have given the outside cat house which I bought for him to my mother on Thanksgiving as he will no longer need it and she mentioned she would love to have something like it for her inside/outside kitty cat.

 

The only thing I can say for sure is that if and when the worst happens, he will die extremely loved and cared for, which is a lot more than I can say about so many other unfortunate cats out there. I am asking a big favor of everyone to please send as much positive healing energy to Mr. Gray as possible. It would be greatly appreciated, my dear friends.