Tuesday, August 11, 2015

This and That

We've also been picking blueberries at Uncle Billy's patch. Can you find Aunt Martha in the pictures?

The days have been full recently without much time to think about posting. When I have tried, Blogger and formatting issues have been driving me crazy. And recently, I haven't been able to open the comment box to comment on my own blog. Is anyone else having this problem? It seems to be working now, so hopefully it will stay that way. However, I must remember that Blogger is free and mostly works well for how I use it. I am happy they make this service available.

Lucy continues to decline, so we are trying some additional medicines. She seems to have perked up a bit since we started the last one, so hopefully we will get to some kind of stability with her soon. In the meantime, we continue to play food games with her and the other cats. They all want what is in the other's bowl (even when it's all the same) or want nothing in any bowl. Let's just say that cats are very smart and determined, so it takes a lot of time and effort to win against them. I have a victory then and again, so I think I am wearing them down.

The last few days, the weather has been cooler, so we've been working outside. It seems like you turn your head for just a little bit and the weeds go crazy. Ward and I have made some significant progress in taming things, but it's kind of like painting your house. As soon as you paint one area, you realize how bad the other areas look. But one step at a time, or little by little, or some such other saying is what we need to remember.

Time to get ready for work especially if I want to get a couple of errands done along the way.

Hope everyone has at least one thing today that makes them smile. :)

Until next time...




13 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry that Lucy isn't improving. I hope some of the addt'l medications work for her.

    It's been cooler here, this week, too, but nights are still unpleasant for me to sleep well. Soon, though . . .

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    1. I bet this is one of the few times a year that you wish you had air conditioning. Not being able to sleep in the heat is the worst.

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  2. Sorry about Lucy! :(

    I think I see Aunt Martha, but I don't have my reading glasses on--upper right picture, correct?

    I had problems yesterday with posting a comment.

    Today is a quiet day (library day for me and the kids, catching up on housework, packing for a trip to see my mom) but it's sunny and I got in a nice bike ride this morning. Sometimes quiet days suit me best--so yes, I'd say I've had something to smile about today. Hope you do as well. :)

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    1. You found one picture of Aunt Martha. She's actually in another picture also.

      Quiet days suit me the best also. I hope your mom is doing okay and I'm sure she will be thankful for your visit.

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    2. This is sad--I had to enlarge the pictures to see her and then I realized the other one was pretty obvious. Boo to aging eyes.

      Thanks for the well-wishes about mom. She fell again a couple of weeks ago (no serious damage done, but that's 2 falls in a month) and finally got herself in to see the PT--she says she's doing a lot better now and is starting to "walk normally" again. I think seeing my kids is a day-brightener for her, so hopefully we will have a good visit.

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  3. Sorry Lucy isn't improving - I guess she's still not keen on cooperating with her special food? A quiet day here. My happy thing today was meeting a toddler on my way back from the library who was picking leaves from a beech hedge to put in her Peppa Pig bag. She really didn't want to stop when her Mum had had enough. I think I'd rather pick leaves than go shopping too.

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    1. Your story of the little girl reminds me of another one I heard today. There was a little girl (3 or 4) in the library with her grandmother. She said, "Look, Grandma. Here's a book with dirty words." Her grandmother took a look and told her that that was a book about learning to use the potty. At first, I thought maybe a book from the teen or adult section was out of place. But no, it was a dirty for the little girl. Who knows what she thought? Dirty in the sense that it needed to be cleaned. (Kids books are often sticky and/or dirty) Or dirty in the sense that some people think bodily functions are dirty. I'm not sure, but it made me smile.

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  4. I'm sending all of my best healing energy out through the universe to Lucy with the earnest hope that she turns a corner soon.

    Let's see... something that made me smile today. Well, to be honest, it's been one of those mornings. Didn't get to bed until nearly 3am. Up at 6 to give Princess food & fluids. Looked outside and saw one of the neighborhood strays, so I brought him some food. Back to bed for a few hours. Up at 9:30 to give Princess more food. Thought I'd catch another hour of sleep afterwards, but didn't wake up until 1pm! oy! So I haven't had much of a day yet. But coffee is making me smile - and I'm expecting CatMan to call any minute and ask if I want to go for a bike ride, and just the thought of that makes me smile!

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    1. She is definitely better than she was over the weekend when she didn't leave the basement and just looked like she didn't feel good. While no ball of fire, she is showing more of an interest in eating and doing a few things like taking a bath and even got on my lap once.

      The vets (there are two in the practice that I use interchangeably) think there is something else going on besides pancreas problems because she is still losing a lot of weight (not much left to lose). Although all of the other tests didn't show a typical presentation for irritable bowel disease or lymphoma, those are the next things they suspect. We've opted not to do the invasive tests to confirm or rule out these. We started her on prednisolone, which treats both. I don't know if the new med is treating a problem and/or the side effect of an increased appetite is making her feel better, but I'm taking it as a good sign. However, I've been fooled before.

      I have ordered some capsules from the pet place online that you told me about, but they haven't come yet. In the meantime, I've been all over trying to find some to buy. Apparently, with the spring up of meth labs a few years ago, most places stopped carrying them because of legal reasons. When I get them, I am going to try different things in them or maybe nothing, so we can get her and us used to the process. (The prednisolone is a liquid.) I told the vet about your method and he was interested.

      In the meantime, I hope you and CatMan have a good ride. That is something, indeed, to smile about.

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  5. I hope Lucy improves. I thought maybe Miss Daisy had lymphoma or IBS with on and off again diarrhea, then over grooming with ears that sometimes turn bright red. But apparently, after multiple vet visits with nothing wrong found, she has allergies, gone on now three years, worse in summer. She is the dickens to medicate. Blueberries in the valley peaked and ripened early and now are mostly gone, due to the drought and heat. One farm still has strawberries. They grow the types that keep going all summer. I love strawberries, blueberries being 2nd favorite and blackberries third. I picked a large bowl of blackberries yesterday and that makes me smile.

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    1. Thanks for you kind thoughts for Lucy. Unlike most cats with pancreatitis or IBS, Lucy has not had diarrhea. Her main symptom is weight loss and listlessness from that. Blood work has confirmed the pancreatitis and ruled out several other things, but we're not ready to put her through an endoscopy to confirm or refute other possible diagnoses because she's an older cat.

      Two of our other cats, Annie and Leo, have allergies. They keep their bellies licked clean from them. We used to use a steroid spray to help, but they hated it. It didn't work that well either, so we stopped using it. They are otherwise healthy, happy cats.

      Blackberries make me smile also. They were such a treat when I was growing up. We always made a blackberry cobbler with the first batch.

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  6. I am sorry to hear about Lucy, I hope she improves soon and spends a few more years with you all.

    Yes, I had all those problems with blogger and more. I finally broke down and purchased a self hosted domain.

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    1. I would certainly purchase a domain if I got more serious about blogging. And some day, I may purchase one so as not to deal with all of the aggravations.

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