Here kitty kitty

I "borrowed" this from another website that I found while researching ways to get a cat to take a pill more easily. Apparently, there is NO easy way. In fact, I came across several sites that claim some cats can't be medicated with pills. In that case, you have to ask the vet for special liquids or pastes....So, we aren't having that much trouble, but its no easy task either. And she hates it more than ever, since she knows the warning signs that its med time.

How to Give a Cat a Pill (followed by How to Give a Dog a Pill)

1. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm, as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat’s mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop in the pill. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor, and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw away soggy pill.

4. Take new pill from foil wrapper. Cradle cat in left arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force open the jaws and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl, and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees. Hold front and rear paws, ignoring low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand, while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat’s throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, and get another pill from foil wrapper. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth, and set aside for gluing later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel, and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat’s mouth open with pencil, and blow down straw.

9. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans. Drink one beer to take away taste of pill. Apply Band-Aid to spouse’s forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from neighbor’s shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with rubber band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage, and replace cupboard door on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of Scotch. Pour shot and drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check medical records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw away tee-shirt and fetch another one from bedroom.

12. Call fire department to retrieve ****ing cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrapper.

13. Tie the cat's front paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Fetch heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth, followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour two pints of water down throat to wash down pill.

14. Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room. Sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm, and removes pill remnants from right eye. Stop in at furniture shop on the way home, to order new dining table.

15. Place “Free Mutant Cat from Hell” ad in local newspaper and call local pet shop to see if they have any bunnies.

How to Give a Dog a Pill

1. Wrap it in bacon.

Not Worth the Space

I am seriously not worth the space I have been taking up these past couple of days. Saturday was a lot of fun playing in the snow and going to the Chinese New Year Festival. But these past 2 days....yuck. I have felt really blah with some kind of cold/virus thing. I swear I have barely gotten off the couch. Today, I have alternated between dozing and watching the House Hunter's International marathon on HGTV. It kind of makes me slightly jealous that some of these people can run off to drop a million or so dollars on a vacation house in Cypress, or Paris or wherever. Only slightly jealous, because after the past few weeks that we have had there is NO way I would want yet another home to maintain. Travel...yes. But rental houses, apartments or hotels where I can enjoy my stay and then leave with no strings attached. One of the most beautiful properties I have seen all day was in Nicaragua. That house was incredible and had the most amazing view. It ended up going for about $700,000 but it was this couple's main home.

Oh well, hopefully I will feel better and a little more energetic tomorrow. The only thing of value that I did all day long was to drive up to our local car shop so Bruce could drop off one of our cars for an oil change. And even that made me feel weak, tired and a little bit dizzy. Geez. I hate being sick.

Happy Valentines Day

A very Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather (just a cold), so we are taking it easy. Honestly, a day of rest is the best gift anyone could give me right now. But we did go out and have some fun last night. We went to a Chinese New Year's Festival here in town. And while we really didn't understand very much (they did include a little bit of English, but mostly it was Chinese) we enjoyed it. Stephen's friend, Sun Yi invited us. We took some pictures, but most of them just didn't turn out. It was too dark. Oh well. Today is the first day of the Lunar calendar, and it is the year of the Tiger. Which is our birth year, both Bruce and myself.

Yesterday we took advantage of the snow day and built a gigantic 7 ft tall snowman.



The snow was perfect for snowman building, and we had a good time. I don't think Mr. Snowman will survive for very long. I can hear snow falling off the roof and the trees right now. The sun is out, and its melting fast. And for some reason, as much as I generally do love winter, I am officially ready now for spring. I got my snow, built my snowman, and now I am done with it. We start getting a touch of spring usually by the first part of March, so I don't think its too far off.

Updates

So, it still looks like the first part of next week before we can get a fan motor for our heat pump. But these gas logs keep the den/living area so warm that I haven't noticed the lack of heat. We still have heat in our bedrooms. So, its not a huge imposition. We have snow coming tonight, but we will be warm and toasty. Maybe a little TOO toasty. I like my house on the cooler side. Not freezing cold, but about 68 suits me fine. These gas logs can't be set to a certain temp, but we have some heat so I am going to shut up.

The insurance adjuster came by this afternoon. They are definitely going to fix the roof. Possibly a new one altogether?? We don't know that yet. They are sending a contractor over to get a better assessment of the situation. But apparently all we will have to do is write a check for our deductible and the rest will be taken care of. When, we have no idea. The contractor won't even be able to come out and take a look until early next week. Apparently there was so much damage related to this wind storm that they are swimming in claims. It would be awesome if he decided that the whole thing was so screwed up that we have to have a whole new roof, but if it gets fixed, then I will be satisfied. We will see.....

And since Hayley asked about the kitties, they are doing fine. Omen is almost completely healed and the meds keep her from scratching so much. She is taking steriods, twice a day. And even though this is our cat with an insatiable appetite, if you try to hide a pill in her food, she will NOT eat it. I've tried everything, even her favorite treat: canned chicken breast. Nope. Not even that will make her eat something with a pill hidden in it. I can't see how she knows its in there. I thought I hid it so well. So, twice a day I have to hold her down, and force a pill in her mouth. And then hold her mouth closed until she swallows. She hates it, and she struggles to get away. And then afterwards, she looks at me so sadly, like she is thinking "Why are you being so mean to me?" It breaks my heart. But she has to have this medicine so I keep torturing her. Poor thing. And Vixen is fine. I swear she watches the whole scenario with Omen with glee, laughing that its NOT her having to take the torture. I will be so glad when we have finished with this whole course of meds.

Anyway, we are getting ready for the snow tonight and tomorrow. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work and fought my way through the throngs of people acting like it is the end of the world. We are off on Monday and Tuesday, so we are settling in for a long weekend of restful bumming. We both deserve it after spending the past couple of weekends playing plumber in our attic. We aren't quite sure how our roof is going to hold up with so many of the shingles missing, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot that we can do about it.

Matter of perspective

On the one hand, over the past 2 weeks, we have had a busted water heater, holes punched into the ceiling, an injured cat, a roof situation (the wind storm yesterday completely destroyed our roof and its going to have to be replaced), a computer crash (Bruce's gaming computer....yikes!), and tonight? Our heat pump on one side of the house is broken. (Sound familiar, Lori? LOL)

On the other hand: We caught the water heater before it flooded the house. The ceilings are motivation for the painting that needed to be done anyway. The cat is healing nicely (although giving her the meds...scary). Bruce ordered a new motherboard and is back in computer land again. The roof needed to be redone after 15 years and a half dozen or so hurricanes, and now insurance might possibly cover at least part of that. The adjuster comes out to take a look tomorrow. And the heat pump? Its only a fan motor, and while it might be the first part of next week before it can be fixed (parts have to be ordered) at least its not a terribly expensive repair. And we still have heat in the bedrooms, and gas logs here in the living area, so it won't be too terrible.

I guess I can count myself lucky? Its all how you choose to look at it, I guess.

Allergic?

Omen, our pretty little striped tabby cat has had an allergic reaction to a new collar. We think...not absolutely sure. We noticed a few days ago that she had been scratching her neck and had a slightly bald spot underneath the collar. I immediately took it off, thinking that would clear it up. But when I got home today it was worse. She has scratched it to the point that its raw and the bald spot is growing. The collar wasn't too tight or anything because we check that frequently. I guess it was just something in the material of the collar??? I say that only because the rest of her fur is thick and healthy, and her skin is clear as well. No fleas (they never go outside). I read something about food allergies, but wouldn't that be all over her body? This is just too localized.

So, we have wrapped her neck up with gauze and sports tape. She really really really hates it. I think she is hating us too right now for torturing her like this. I called the vet, but they couldn't see her until tomorrow. So...she is going to have to wear the gauze/tape collar for 24 hours. We seem to have gotten it wide enough that she can't get to the raw spot...for now. She keeps trying though. Poor little thing. I hate to see how miserable she is. Hopefully they can do something to help this clear up. I feel so guilty. I bought this pretty little pink collar, with a pink bell because I wanted her to be gorgeous and all I did was injure her. And that is it for collars. We have tried every single kind on the market, and none of them have worked out. Mostly the cats bite them off of each other...they know how to work the safety releases and can get out of them in no time.
This one actually had a buckle, like a belt, although it did have an elastic break-away safety connection. I took Vixen's off, too. She hasn't had a reaction to hers (although its identical), but I don't want to risk it. No more collars for kitties. My cats will go naked from now on!!!!

Super Bowl

Super Bowl? Not watching it. I know, I know...it makes us weird (husband isn't watching it either). But neither one of us cares one whit for football. We don't watch basketball, or baseball, or hockey, or golf, or tennis either. Did I leave anything out? Because we just don't enjoy watching sports on TV. Like at all. I don't even watch the Olympics. Shhh...don't tell anybody. Its like blasphemy or something, but whatever.

So, we finished up our water heater plumbing this weekend. They tried to call me into work on Saturday morning, but I didn't answer. I had enough of work this past week, and we had all of this work still to do. And its done! Hot water all over the house! This evening we went out to Olive Garden to celebrate our victory. And thanks to the Super Bowl it was not busy. We got a table, got served and were back out of the door in record time. It was delicious, too. I had some chicken with cheese pancotti thing. I hadn't heard of that pasta, but it is basically pyramid shaped ravioli. Yum. Thank you Super Bowl, because our Olive Garden is usually a mad house on weekends.

Speaking of mad houses? That would be our grocery store on the way home from Olive Garden. We decided to pick up a few things that we are going to need this week because I really detest having to run by there after work. I am either sweaty from having stopped at the gym, or I am in a hurry to get home and relax. Twice a week, I am rushing to get home and change for that evening yoga class that I love so much.
But you get the idea. We try to pick up everything we need for the week on weekends.
Sunday evenings are usually pretty dead in there, but tonight it was packed. Beer and chips were flying off the shelves. I hope all of you who do the whole Super Bowl thing have a good time tonight. May your team win (I have no idea who is playing...LOL). We are watching movies and ignoring the whole thing.