And we
have sure missed you, Julie! (I enjoyed seeing your lovely letter in
Conscious Choice---at least I assume it was your letter, unless there are two
dedicated animal advocates of the same name!)
I'm
sorry to hear about all the 'life challenges' that have kept you and your family
so occupied, and .
and
I'm so sorry to hear about Wayne too. I can totally imagine how hard that is for
you.
Hope
you--and all those lucky little furballs that found you---have a great
Thanksgiving!
Hugs,
Kerry
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Julie Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:26 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Julie Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:26 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone
Dear Friends,
I haven't posted in quite a while but I wanted to let you all know that you
are always in my thoughts. Thank you to Joan for the funny emails, to Anne
for keeping me up-to-date on Sophie, and to Paolo for everything.
It's been a rough few months and I've been so overwhelmed that I simply
couldn't keep up with my email. I've 'dropped in' a few times to catch up
and to all of you who have had losses, my heart breaks for you. I hope
your memories will comfort you. To those with sick kitties, my prayers are
with you. To all the new folks, welcome; I'm sorry you had to find this
group, but it's exactly what you need and you will never find a better group of
folks.
In September, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes and we've been making
some rather dramatic lifestyle changes (grocery shopping has become an all day
event; it takes that long to read all the labels!). My mom is disabled and
has had several falls recently; she completely ignores the doctor's orders and
my sister and I are just in a quandry about whether or not she can continue to
live alone; we have somone coming in, but not all day. It's a difficult
situtation as I'm sure many of you know. On October 1st, I came home from
work and Wayne (one of my cats who does go outside) was not there. He
rarely ever left the porch. To date, we have no idea what happened to
him. We have searched everywhere. Contacted shelters, vets, AC, put
up posters, etc. There have been a few leads, but none of the cats turned
out to be Wayne. We are heartsick. It's like he just
disappeared.
Some of you may remember Cheddar the cat who was unable to urinate.
We started him on methylcobalamin (a form of vitamin B12 that is being used for
some neurological problems) in September and it made no difference. There
were no options for him other than repeated anesthesia and manual expressing of
his bladder. A few weeks ago, we got a call from the tech who was his
primary caregiver (and who loved him desperately) saying that she felt it was
time for him. His whole personality had changed, his abdomen and the shape
of his bladder had changed from the force needed to express him for all those
months and he was not happy. We decided to euthanize him that night after
the office closed. He had such a sad life, but he finally did find a group
of people who loved him. My dear Tommy has recently been diagnosed as
hyper-thyroid. He's responding well to Tapazole and we are looking at the
radioactive iodine treatment as a permane! nt solution.
My FIV+ kitties are well; Maurice was re-tested with Western Blot last week
and he came back positive. He is a giant tank of a cat who is full of
charm; we've let him out a few times, but there are issues with some of the cats
and him and I can't rule out biting; he does get aggressive with some of the
males who are aggressive with him. He needs a roomate who is a bit more
energetic than Brownie. Brownie is well; he is confined by a baby gate to
a small part of the room where his food, bed, litter and scratcher are all in
the same pattern (he's blind and almost totally deaf in addition to being FIV+)
and he seems quite happy. He LOVES his little bed and he's never met a
bowl of food that he doesn't vacuum up! He was terribly thin when he came
to me, but he's finally putting on weight and is getting quite a big
tummy. Eduardo has become quite friendly and rubs my legs every day at
mealtime. I lured him into the mudroom with food ! when the nights started
to get cool and he tore a foot wide piece of linoleum off the floor trying to
dig his way out under the door. We can only assume he was somehow trapped
somewhere in his life and just freaks out when confined (he ate through a window
screen and the panel of an air conditioner to get out when we first brought him
in the house). He's not aggressive and does well with the outside cats and
will at least come into the garage overnight. I'd rather have him in the
basement where there is heat, but he is very wary and won't come down the
stairs. I can put a doghouse in the loft above the garage (he climbs the
ladder like a little fireman!) and put his down bed inside it and he should be
OK during the winter; at least he'll be out of the wind and those insulated
doghouses are good, I think. I'm going to try one of those discs that you
put in the microwave and insert under their bedding, too. He didn't want
to come into the garage unt! il it got cold at night, so I'm hoping he'll
reconsider the basement when it gets to be subzero!
I have to figure out a way to reconfigure my house so that I can adopt two
double positives (FeLV/FIV) who came into my friend Joan's rescue
recently. Esme is very timid and nervous. Her fur was so matted that
it took Joan and I over an hour to shave about 2/3 of her body and you've never
seen anything like these mats; they were as hard as rocks and literally covered
her body like a shell. She became SO animated when we were shaving her;
she was in terrible shape when we got the call and was covered in fleas.
She was so matted she couldn't even reach her skin. We gave her a good
scratch after shaving and she was licking us like crazy! Backus has a
burst eye but he is too much of a surgical risk at this point and the vets feel
he isn't in pain, so while it looks quite awful, it doesn't seem to bother
him. We're trying to get him built up so that the eye can be operated
on. I am hoping that feline interferon is the miracle w! e are all hoping
for and I am praying for the kitty who is to be treated with it.
We have a healthy new addtion to our home; his name is Donovan and he is
about 8-9 months old. He looks exactly like Wayne and has much the same
personality. We had a knock on the door one night about 6 weeks ago and it
was a neighbor who had found him running in traffic on a busy street across
town. Her son is desperately allergic and she wondered if I could take
him. He is such a sweet and mellow little boy; it's like he has been with
us forever; he just moved in and fell into the swing of things
immediately. Until he was vetted, I had him in the mudroom and I made him
a bed that first night. He got right into it like it had always been
his!
I hope to be 'around' more; I've missed you all.
I wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving; I'm so thankful to have a
group of friends like you.
Hugs and headbutts.
Love, Julie
"I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is
to protection by man from the cruelty of man. "
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged
by the way its animals are treated."
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
Paws Come WITH Claws!!!
If you're thinking about de-clawing your cat, you need to re-think your decision to acquire a pet.
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