Birthday Present

Okay it wasn't exactly a birthday present but Grace did get this guy the day before her birthday. A friend at church really needed to find a home for him because they don't have AC and ferrets apparently don't sweat. So Mr. Gwen (named after the ferret in Inkheart) was free with all his supplies and cage. The cage is huge with three tiers. Grace is having a blast with him. With three cats and three dogs in the house he only gets out 2-3 times a day for exercise with supervision. When you add in the 20 chickens in the backyard - Just call us the local zoo.

What Puppy Lives For

Puppy (whose real name is Angel but only gets called puppy) lives to chase sticks in the back yard. It has gotten to the point that she refuses to go down the deck stairs to use the restroom unless I throw a stick for her. Scott collected a bucket of sticks and sat it right outside the door. Now we are in business. She really is the funniest thing. She will be inside but the minute she hears any of the outside equipment start running, she knows that Scott is out there and will throw her sticks. This was a daily occurrence as long as it wasn't raining, but now that Scott is not here during the week days she seems a little lost. I find her hanging out at the door looking for him. Today was beautiful so many a stick was thrown and chased down.

Off To the Animal Hospital

This is our 7 month old cat Silver. As many of my readers know we found her in a Mexican restaurant parking lot about 4 months ago. She has had one medical issue after another since bringing her home. We love her, she is one of the sweets cats I have ever come across. Anyway the past two days we have seen some vomiting and diarrhea, subdued behavior, etc. Also I wanted her heart murmur to be checked which was graded a 2 out of 6 about six weeks ago when she was spayed. Well we couldn't find a whole lot wrong with her so the doctor gave her an injection to settle her stomach. The heart murmur though is a different story. It has progressed to a grade 3 out of 6. The next step is to do a echo but that costs 300.00. Not in the budget at the moment. The doctor suspects she has myocardial hypertrophy which will continue to progress until she needs to be put on daily meds. From my understanding myocardial hypertrophy thickens the heart wall and blood cannot be dispersed properly. As long as she continues with no symptoms (fainting, coughing, heavy breathing, sudden death and blood clots in the rear legs) we can hold off on further diagnostic tests and medications. But it is also possible to live a long life on medication. So we will hope for the best and try to start saving money for the echo.

Something New To Us

In all the years I have owned cats and dogs (including 17 years of working for an animal hospital) I have never had a cat or dog go in to a heat cycle before being spayed. Remember the kitten we found in the parking lot of the local Mexican restaurant? Well we couldn't find a home for her and we also fell in love with her sweet little self, so decided to keep her. The first visit to the vet gave her an age of 9 weeks. But when we returned in three weeks for her next visit she had gained enought weight to actually age her older than we thought. Kittens gain about one pound a month until six months of age. I had a discussion with the Vet about when to spay her and how much time she thought we might be able to wait. I just didn't have the funds yet to do the surgery (the going rate for feline spays in this area is 181.00). She assured me that waiting till mid October would be fine. Four days ago Silver started meowing alot especially at night. Low and behold she is already in her first heat cycle. For two night no one got any sleep because she was loudly meowing all night long. Last night we knew desperate measure were needed. We set up the small dog crate with all the necessities and had her spend the night out in the backyard shed. Wonderful, blissful sleep for all. Hopefully she will be finished with this heat cycle by mid October so I can think have her spayed.