(Source: dogsoftheinterwebs)
12.14.12 Follow Up Friday: New Balance
Thank you for the wonderful comments and support on the passing of Kitty and Muffy. Your kind words are greatly appreciated and I hope that I responded to each of you but if not – Thank you.
It has been a hard few weeks with losing both Kitty (29 Nov) and The Muffin Man (30 Nov). If you have read the posts this week (Monday and Tuesday), you know that we are now 5 animals in the zoo. We had to wait awhile to tell you because we needed to tell the kid’s away at college first before I posted, and we had to find the right time for that.
Noel, the Christmas cat, is now the oldest animal at the zoo (she’s probably about 6 1/2 years old). She became the alphacat awhile back because Muffy was so old, so there is really no change in power at the top. In the last few months of his life she became his protector and caretaker, always sleeping with him, cleaning his face, and keeping the kittens from bothering him, so now she is wondering a little bit where he has gone to. At about 3 in the morning almost all week, she is in the hall outside my bedroom door, with a cat toy, calling (which she never did before), so I guess she is looking for Kitty to play.
Now that we have a relatively young population in the house, I hope that it will be a very long time before anyone crosses over the rainbow bridge to the great meadow (Please, please, please, please!)
We all adjust to a change in the pack/pride differently. Noel is now sleeping in her old bed in my office again, which she hadn’t done much this year because she was usually taking care of Muffin in my bedroom. The kittens are no longer confined to the cat room at night, since we do not have to worry about Nine terrorizing Kitty anymore, and now they are sleeping on the master bed with us.
We feel the holes that are left by both cats being gone, but I know that the balance will shift to a new normal in time. The dogs, well, I am not sure they sense the change, but for the other cats and humans… its just going to take time.
I made this holiday photo before the loss of our 2 sweeties, so I thought I would share it here. Kitty and Muffy are on the sides maybe looking down from elf heaven.
Merry Catmas
Kitty, Stella, Noel, Nine, Muffy
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
12.13.12 Thankful Thursday: Fur Family
Every day I wake up in a heap of cats. For that I am thankful. Then I open the kennel doors and I am slobbered and licked and tail whipped good morning, and for that I am thankful. There is no where that I go in my home that I am not accompanied by some four legged furry, and for that I am thankful. How totally different my life would be without my fur family. Since about 5 years old (which was a very very long time ago), I have always had fur family. And, for that, I am thankful. There are so many positive things that I get from my pets. They comfort me when I am blue. They are my walking partners. They make sure that I do not forget to do my chores (or they will do them for me: like cleaning the litter boxes in a way that I do not think is acceptable or licking the dirty dishes clean). They give me smiles on a rainy day and provide me hugs. They make me get up from the computer and go outside to feel the breeze. And, so importantly, they make me laugh (especially Louise). Life with furry family is wonderful to me.
We are thankful for you too Mom!
This is part of the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop from “Hey, Its Jet Here.”
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
12.12.12 = 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 9
As I type this title, I realize what a rare date today is, If you type it out in full words, it is not anything special, it is just – 12 December 2012; but, when you do it by it’s numbers it is: 12-12-12. Numbers are such interesting things. The study of numbers is called: Numerology. Numerology is the study of numbers that helps determine and reflect a persons characteristics, talents, motivations and path in life. What I find really interesting today is that the charts used for analysis are made up of the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 22. Where is 12? 12 is actually 3 (1 + 2) in their language.
Let me explain my understanding of how it works: In order to determine which number applies to you, you add up the digits that make up your birth date or name. Then reduce the sum by adding up the resulting digits until a single digit answer (or the numbers 11 or 22 which are special) is achieved. If at anytime during the equation, you come up with the numbers 11 or 22, you do not need to reduce them. Here is an example:
Birthday: March 16, 1957
March = Month 3 = 3
16 = 1 + 6 = 7
1957 = 1 + 9 + 5 + 7 = 22
Total = 32 (Which is 3 + 2 = 5) So my magic number is 5. Now I have to go to the handbook and find out what my Life Path means. Hey, this is fun.
Make sure to do your number analysis to see what your Life Path is. Louise is a 7. Sofie is a 12 which means she is a 3. I knew someone would be a 12!
Happy 12-12-12!!!
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
12.11.12 An Incredible Heart: Goodbye Muffy
I probably told you The Muffin Man’s story more than once, but his story was one well worth telling. He was one of those cats that made every human feel like they were the only one in the world to him: you were his special human (while he was in your lap). When V went to pick a cat out at the shelter, Muffin picked V, not the other way around. He had only one problem his whole life, his heart. He had heart trouble and was on daily medication and regular EKG exams. I guess his heart was so incredibly loving that it just kept ticking despite what the vets’ thought. I am sorry to tell you that The Muffin Man’s heart, after 18 years or so, could no longer beat. His physical being has left this earth and us. We will love you forever, Muffy. You will always be our Muffin Man.
This loss hurts like losing Squash did, there are just some furry companions that have extra special strings.
Now we are 5 at the zoo from 7. This has been really hard.
NOT Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
12.10.12 Incredibly Hard Choices
Warning: This is a sad and difficult post. I will understand if you don’t read any further today because this deals with life/death choices.
Sometimes, things in life are just outside your control. It is impossible, no matter what you do, what medications you try, what behavior modifications you do, to get an animal to respond in a way that is peaceful in a family situation. That is the problem I had here with Miss Constance Kitty. We rescued her 6 years ago as a kitten. We knew that she had scoleosis, which is a curvature of the spine, and that she was always going to be a little different. She was a playful kitten though. She loved her scratching post, jumped and ran like any other cat, and loved to play with Squash’s big furry tail. But, as she grew older, she became more and more cranky and afraid. Though the vet had checked for all obvious disease that could cause pain and crankiness, she did not have any. She fought with the other cats – sometimes starting it and sometimes just in response to fear. She hid, a lot. And when she did not get her way, she peed in inappropriate places.
Two or more years ago, the peeing was only occasional. She peed on the dog beds (ok, I figured she did not like them); then on the newspaper (or any paper), if left flat on the table. In the fruit bowl, if there was nothing in it. Then in any bowl, if there was nothing in it (I was unwrapping some new soup bowls I bought at Pier 1 and before I could put them away, she had already christened them). Then came shoes. Last summer, when my sister was visiting, and sleeping on the living room couch, it was on my sister’s pillow. We started living with a plastic table-cloth on the couch (so that we at least could clean it easier when she went, which she always did). Recently, she moved to peeing on the bed, right in front of us or while we were sleeping. We tried anxiety medicine rubbed on her ear, and anxiety collar with pheromones; rescue remedy 2X a day; we carried her to a private litter box (1 of 4) and applauded her as she did her business after every meal. She had every test and exam the vet could think off. We knew she can go in the pan: she pooped in the pan. We knew she knew where the pans were. I even made her a special bed behind my monitor on my desk so she could be with me and protected all day (thinking maybe it was a security thing) with the litter box right outside my office door, but no, she would stay with me for the day and then go on the living room couch or the kitchen table and pee.
When Nine, the bully boy, came last year, it did not help. He liked to pick fights with her. She started to hide under a side table between the couches, so we created a safe space there for her, so she can be undisturbed, but then she came out and peed on the side table. We gave her time alone with a litter pan and her food in a bathroom; she peed on the floor next to the pan and on the scratching post (she loved that post) that was in there to play with. She peed on the ottoman at the end of the bed. And finally, my last straw was that she peed in my favorite pocketbook on the kitchen table.
To what extent do you live terrorized by the anxiety and antisocial behavior of one of your pets? When you have to worry about where you leave a magazine or the mail, just in case a cat will choose that spot to pee in today. How much do you change your life to accommodate such behavior? For most of my life I have arranged my days to take care of children or animals. I nursed many an animal to the end of its life with its associate ailments and incontinence. I diapered Nikki dog, and gave Squash insulin 2X a day for years; Alice cat was confined to a kennel in my office in her last year due to kidney disease; etc. etc. But I have never had any situation like this. No matter what we have done, no matter how much attention we give her, Kitty did not respond appropriately. We were exhausted by her. We were saddened by her. All I can figure is that she was in so much emotional pain, and maybe even physical pain that could not be tested, that she was telling us, by her behavior, how miserable she was. We thought of rehoming her, but how do you change the life situation of a terrified cat? She would not survive on a farm since she did not like other animals and was physically fragile. She peed everywhere, so how do you rehome an animal and pass your problem on to another person – that would just not be fair? The vet said that we had done more than she had ever seen people do to try and treat this behavior.
We love you Constance Kitty, but we just could not do this anymore. Our hearts are broken but Miss Constance Kitty had to leave the zoo. This is definitely the hardest pet decision that I/we have ever had to make in my life. But Kitty is safe now and once again pain free and playing with Squash’s tail in the big meadow.
Postscript: Kitty left us a parting gift. As we crawled into bed that night, after a long trying day, V noticed that the covers were all wet. This to me was a testament that we did the right thing for us, and for Kitty. 😦
NOT Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
