This and That

I made it to 50 geocaches found. My next goal will be 100. That's going to take awhile. When winter sets in you can kiss geocaching goodbye around here.



I took a couple of the travel bugs out of some local geocaches and will drop them off near Yosemite when we get to California. I'll photograph the geo-travel bugs at the different tourist attractions along the way. It's kind of like Flat Stanley. When they get dropped off in California, someone there will take them on to other countries or other states and will document the travels it makes when they have it. When you pick them up or drop them off you log the transactions online on geocaching.com so the owner of the travel bug can see where it is and where it has been. Someday it will be returned to the owner with many thousands of documented miles on it. It's just for fun. There is no money involved.

Catch-Up

My clown cat is totally well. The fever has not returned and he has been back to his old self for a few weeks now. We don't know why he got a kidney infection but it's gone now.

The oldest cat, bless his little old heart, hasn't gained any more weight but his intestinal tract is doing well on the Wellness Core food. It has no dairy, no grain and no soy. It has salmon, blueberries, yams and other stuff instead and he likes it so that's good. He has been constipated a few times but that is better than him having it the other way and not using the litter box. He has a second chance on life. How many more years he'll live, we dont' know and we don't know his exact age but he was middle aged when we got him 10 years ago.

The third cat has a charmed life with no health problems and so he doesn't get quite the attention the "sick" cats do.

The Clown Cat

Today was the last day giving our "formerly" sick cat his antibiotic. Every morning we trick him into coming and with our promise of extra caressing he comes and right in the middle of his twirling around for more he gets swooped up into my husband's arms. My fingers pry open his mouth and I drop in the formed piece containing the crushed antibiotic mixed in some soft cat food. Our hands immediately clamp down on his snout to keep him from using his tongue to spit out the terrible substance. A couple of throat movements later we let him go and he runs and hides under the chair. He fell for it every day. He's so trusting and it pains us to do it but like my mom used to say, "it's for your own good." But today, our last day, he ran out of the room when he saw the scenario unfolding. But we got it done and now he can relax. He will trust us again tomorrow and tomorrow we'll deserve his trust as there will be no more trickery.

He's back to being his old self, making us laugh, begging for food, starting fights with the other 2 cats. We saw a cat hat at the store the other day that I thought would really fit his personality but we wouldn't do that to him (unless we are taking photos of our little clown.)

Now it is a waiting game. If he has kidney stones, the infection will probably reappear. He gave us a real scare and I hope that is the end of it.

Follow-up on My Sick Cat

Yesterday afternoon my cat felt a little better but in the evening he started acting sick again. He just didn't want to move his little head. I stayed up with him until 3 AM and he seemed the same. This morning he was walking around a little but we took his temperature and it was 104. That's better than it was but still too high. I broke the antibiotic pill in half like the vet told me and crushed it. I then mixed it in this liver-flavored soft treat that the vet gave me. He wanted no part of it. I divided it into 2 parts and we forced it down his throat and held his mouth shut until he swallowed. He didn't like us very much after that but it was for his own good.

About 4 hours later he was purring and wanted to be petted. He begged for a treat. He came when I rattled a toy mouse but he didn't want to play. Still, it was a big improvement. I called the vet with the update and as long as he continues to improve, we don't need to bring him back in. I'm so relieved he's doing better and can't wait until he's back to 100 percent. But even then it may not be over. We have to watch him and if he gets sick again, it could be that kidney stones are causing infections and we'd have to have X-rays. I'm pretty hopeful it isn't as he doesn't walk funny and doesn't seem to be in any pain. I'll be able to sleep a lot better tonight.

Emergency Visit to Vet

We had a terrible day today. This morning our most beloved cat was very sick. He was breathing very shallow and fast. He didn't want to move. I watched him closely for a couple of hours and determined this was an emergency and took him in to the vet.


He had an extremely high fever. They did blood tests and the HIV test came up negative but his white blood count was extremely high. He had good red blood count, though. Some tests showed that the kidneys were some how involved. I was distraught and didn't catch all the vet said, I just wanted our baby to get well. She gave him an antibiotic shot and gave him fluids under the skin. He seemed to feel a little better after that. At least he'd raise his head up and when he got home he climbed up on his favorite chair.

He looked better for a while but tonight he doesn't feel good again. If his temp isn't down tomorrow I have to bring him back in for Xrays and fluids to see if he has kidney stones causing the problem. The vet said the infection was bacterial not viral.

This is heart wrenching because we went through a similar episode with our first cat. After a week of tests and IVs and him staying at the vet hospital for a week with that tiny chance of survival we had to put him down. The vet bill was through the roof. We said we'd never do that again. I was so devastated and I cried for weeks over that cat and I still get teary eyed when I remember him. Of the three we have now, this one is the clown, the entertainer, the one I'd miss the most. He just has to get better.