I'm still here...They haven't beaten me down yet

Sorry......I've been busy with dentist,  doctor and vet appointments all through October.  I'm still not done.   I'll be doing doctor and dentist appointments all through January.  Amos and Hunter have been to the vet several times.  Hunter had a Urinary infection which he must have had for a very long time since he decided to urinate on the carpet in front of me to show he was sick.  There was blood in it.  He just finished a two week round of antibiotics.  He had lost weight and had a dull look in his eyes.  He is now pretty well back to normal and is eating like a little piggy.  Amos, we have determined, must have a growth in his nose.  We have tried every antibiotic we can find and the infection keeps coming back.  We can't afford to have a cat scan on him (at his age) I think we need to just make him comfortable.  I hate to think about saying good bye to another fur child but I know we don't have too long.  The hard part is that Hunter is actually older than Amos.  Though neither one is young...like older than 13 years........It's still too short of a life for my animals.  My cats usually last close to 20 years.  Anyway...I don't want to think about that now.

Thanksgiving is coming very fast.  I shopped  today for all the goodies to cook on Thursday.  I'm not looking forward to all the work but I sure am anxious to see my grand daughter and her significant other Randi.  Misty assured me she would be here for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Then there's Christmas.....
Oh Lord!  More worry about what to get for everyone and lots of work to do both in decorating the house and yard and then cooking the meal again.

I have my husband's family gifts bought. Now a couple of gift cards and I'm done with buying.  Well maybe not...I still have to get my husband a big fat gift.  It's so hard to buy for someone who hates everything you get for him.  I can even purchase something he said he wanted and he would never use what ever it was because I gave it to him.  I swear I'm not making this up!  Well enough of that.......

I'm hoping for Snow close to Christmas this year.  I love the Christmas lights with snow all around them.  I'm not crazy about the new LED lights though.  They aren't as bright and showy as the old ones.  My husband is going to put them up tomorrow morning I think.  That means this week I will have to put up the huge wreath on the front of the house and the lights, ornaments and topper on the Blue Spruce in the front yard.  Oh, I almost forgot....the air-blown Snowman on the side yard too.  I never got out all the decorations last year so I think I'll start early this year.  I always feel guilty when I don't put them all out.  I don't feel guilty however.....when it's time to put things away because it's a lot faster without all the extra stuff.

I went out to lunch with an old friend of mine last week and we had the best time.  She gave me some advice about our current flea problem.  She uses Cedar chips in her dog run and it keeps the fleas to a dull roar.  I think after the holidays we need to do the same thing.  Our two girls are both California girls and DO NOT like to go potty in the muddy dog run.  It's bad enough that we have made them come to a colder and wetter climate....but now we expect them to use a muddy bog instead of soft green (dry) grass?????  How uncivilized!  I'm hoping that the cedar chips or shavings will entice them into using the dog run again.
Have a pleasant one today
Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place's

Hurricane Linda

Life has become a bit more uncomplicated lately.  For a couple of years now we have had a very clingy person think she belongs here at our house.  She showed up at dinner time last Friday and I had a small gathering (my son, a neighbor and her friend) for a BBQ.  When the food was done she said she had to go home and she left.  Two hours later she called me and asked if she could come over and get some things she had stored here for safety. I told her sure and she said she would be right over.  When she got here she blew up.  She informed me that I didn't care a thing about her and that she apparently wasn't in my circle of friends.  I didn't say a word.  She walked out the door saying she wouldn't bother me anymore and so far hasn't.  This is a good thing.
 
I am so happy she is gone because I was going to have to tell her to stop coming here anyway.  Prior to that dramatic incident by three days, she came over and plunked her rear end in one of our cloth covered dining room chairs and pooped her pants.  She would not even try to get to the bathroom until she had finished.  Then she left the bathroom a horrid mess and tracked it all the way to the door.  This woman is younger than I am by three years!  I could understand if she was more handicapped and couldn't walk....but she didn't even try to make it to the bathroom.  It took me three hours to completely clean everything up.  She never apologized but offered a, "I'm so tired of this."  You see...the other part of the story is.....she informed me five minutes before this happened that she had two of these attacks at home before she came over.  Now I ask you...would you go to someones house if you had that problem already at home?  You team that up with the fact that she never bathes or washes her hair and just plain stinks......icky!  Believe me when I say she was on a fast track out of here anyway.  Now I get up in the morning and I am more relaxed just knowing she won't be here ever again!!!!

Now for kitty news:
Homer, Lamont and Hunter are on a calming liquid prescription.  Hunter and Lamont are doing fine on it but the dose was too much for Homer.  I practically had to carry him to the food and water and then again to the box.  Yesterday I reduced Homer's dose and he seems to be able to get around the house again.  The best news is that not one of them is spraying!  Homer has returned to the main part of the house with Fina, Tanner and Paddy.  This is a new medicine that I picked up at the vet in Washington. 

We told Cherry that we will start to look for a sister for her real soon.  She keeps trying to play with the cats and they just don't respond.  She jumps this way and that swinging her body into one of them and they just stand there and look at her or move away.  She needs a playmate.  Mind you...we really don't need another animal.

Now that Homer is in the main part of the house I will probably be taking pictures and showing you again.  Since he is the youngest of the bunch he does more amusing things.


Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

I'm Here...Minus One Tooth

We went to the dentist today and the painful tooth is finally gone for good. One more visit to take care of my three tiny cavities and I'm done.  I have to wonder how long it will be before I take them out and soak them at night.  Getting old is such a pain.

Victor (who we took in, in his 10 or so years of life) went to the vet yesterday for his shot for his inflamed gums.  He was allergic to the enamel on his teeth so we had them extracted.  He still gets swollen and red about every month to month and a half. It's a good thing there is no such thing as a tooth fairy for cats or we would be broke!

Tomorrow we are going to go to KMart to exchange my husband's socks we bought last weekend.  He wanted crew socks and got ones with the heels in them. That concludes his clothes shopping for Winter.  I usually call it his school clothes shopping trip. ( 'cause it bugs him)

My son just bought a new motorcycle.  I even like the looks of this one. My husband was dreaming about it and from what I could understand he rode it most of the night.  He wants a bike super bad but I think he's too old to handle one.  He's use to driving a semi and makes wide turns and rides the center line most of the time so........I don't think so!

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

Back To The Vet We Go

Tomorrow Moosey goes back to our vet.  He is having a problem with a recurring infection that sometimes turns into an upper respiratory infection.  I want to get him there before he stops eating.  When his nose gets so full that he can no longer smell his food he quits eating and he doesn't have a pound to spare.  He is a little under weight though not unhealthy. 

Tomorrow is actually supposed to be on the warm side.  Maybe close to 90 degrees. Could this be the beginning of Summer?  One of our local weathermen said today that we are still under the lingering effects of the La Nina from this Winter and that next Winter it looks like we will again be under the La Nina.  At the beginning of Fall last year all the weather people were thinking we would be having one of the worst Winters we have had in many years.  I'm thinking.....does that mean it might happen this year then?  If they predict the same kind of Winter as last year I'm betting we will have the bad one that was actually predicted last year. *snicker*

I have so much I want to accomplish tomorrow.  First Moosey to the vet then I want to go to the Farmers market in Vancouver and get fresh local produce.  Then I have a tee shirt to return.  After all that ...then we can go grocery shopping.

Because the weather has been so crappy I still have yard work to finish too.  I can't do that until the sun is almost ready to set because my skin gets bright red in the sun.  I don't mean sunburn because my skin is more olive...I mean rashy bright red. The doctor doesn't seem to think this is a big deal so, Oh Well!

Good Night From Muttzncatz's Place

Is There Still A Debtor's Prison?

Our puppy Cherry, went to the vet with Midge today.  Midge got her blood tested for the Thyroid T4 numbers and got a Cortisone shot for her leg as well.  Cherry had X-Rays to make sure she didn't have kidney or bladder stones since she is having her second bladder infection in five months. Good news.....no stones in either place.  Bad news.....the bill for the two was $369.11.  Our credit card is getting sooo high. *choke* 

It's super expensive to rescue animals.  I just can't stand to see animals turned out to fend for themselves.  NOT ALL CATS CAN HUNT!  I can't stress that enough.  I've seen several cats that could not catch a bird or mouse to save their lives.  Those are the cats we rescue.  There are so many animals that need our help.  I wish I could open a no kill shelter for cats.  I would have a geriatric wing for them too.  Sort of like the progressive care/assisted living rest homes for the elderly.  As they get older and need more help they are moved into another wing of the facility.  We could have a visiting vet and a tech on duty 24/7.  There could be a play/exercise room too.  It's a dream but wouldn't that be wonderful?

I wonder if I could start a cartoon strip about these fur people?  I would have enough to write about with all the crazy personalities in this house.  So many of my friends tell me that all these cats are strange.  Hunter talks....he says hello, help and my room. That's just for starters.  Ming does a drum roll before he has a bowel movement.  His front feet go back and forth like he is digging only super fast and there's a beat to it. They use to have Friday evening meetings.  Before my husband's cat died (she was the alpha kitty) she would sit on a table and they would all gather in the room around the table.  The meeting would go on for around half an hour. I'll bet Stephen King would love to take that one into print. It was strange.

What Money?

This time of year just makes me feel so overwhelmed.  We don't have enough money to do Christmas as it should be done.  Both our sons are coming for dinner and gifts on Christmas eve plus my grandson will be here too. I guess we're  going to use our card and hope for the best. 

At some point next year I'm going to start and Internet business.  If it works I'll share my experience with you.  The economy is so still bad.... especially here in Oregon.  So many people are unemployed because of lay-offs and are loosing their homes.  It's frightening!  I don't want to go down the drain too.  My biggest fear is that in my senior years I will become a bag lady. 

I was raised in a home that was fairly well off.  We had an in-ground pool and the best of most everything else. I don't care to have that much again, but to be comfortable would be so wonderful.  Just knowing that I could take the cats to the vet and it wouldn't put us in debt.  This week Victor has to go back to the vet.  His mouth must be hurting him since he isn't eating again.  We have to do something soon!  These are the types of things that scare me so much.  I know he's going to have to have his mouth operated on again.  That's going to be another three hundred dollars or more.  We just don't have it.  This is what's driving me to find some way to make enough money to stay afloat.  This stress has to end.

The next problem is our doctor visits.  If we go to the doctor our deductible is $1500. per person.  We don't have that either.  It just never ends.