In what strange world does a convicted animal abuser get hoisted up above his non-criminal peers and heralded as a hero? Ours…where tv executives at networks like BET latch onto train wrecks like Michael Vick to use for ratings, and where money can buy you a “production company” and PR team with which you can film yourself acting like a human being and deliver the glorious footage into unsuspecting homes via tv and the internet.
Read more…

One of the reasons my newest pet is a kitten rather than an older cat is because I wanted to be able to wean her directly onto raw food, hopefully whole prey. It’s going pretty well.

I started first by purchasing a small feeder pinky mouse from the freezer at the pet store. Although it was barely the size of a quarter, I was still amazed to see Aura, my then 9 week old Ragdoll, take it down lightening fast. When she became an extremely picky eater, those pinky mice remained the one food she would not turn down. She would turn down premium canned food like Nature’s Variety and EVO, cheap “kitty crack” canned food like Fancy Feast, and even cooked chicken…but she would always eat those pinky mice.

But I wasn’t going to pay $1 – $2 per pinky mouse when I can get them for as little as $.16 cents each at RodentPro.com. While that price can jump up to around $.50 cents each when you add shipping, I am lucky enough to be abe to pre-order at web site prices and pick up my order at a local reptile show. This weekend I got 50 weanling mice and 50 chicks for $23.

Rodenpro’s feeder prey is so clean and healthy looking! My kitten just loves them – especially the chicks, which I just scored for $.12 cents each! The chicks usually offer her a great workout, too…she loves to play with them for 5-10 minutes before feasting. She likes the small quail too, but I haven’t been able to get her to eat any older, meatier quail yet. She’s not interested. She was also not interested in the Gourmet Rodent mice I bought for her at Petco when I ran out of my RodentPro mice. And I don’t blame her! Those mice were wet and smelly.

I love all animals, and never thought I’d be able to feed frozen whole prey.  But it’s been much easier than I thought; way easier than feeding frankenprey, and much cheaper than canned. I usually pet these cute little guys for a second before throwing them to her, thanking them for supplying my kitten with all the nutrients she needs. Gnawning on their little bones cleans her teeth. They are full of protein, and their organs are full of the vitamins and taurine she needs. Aura highly recommends RodentPro!

I was feeding Aura some frankenprey for a while (chunks of cut up raw meat and organs), but now she isn’t interested in it. She is currently eating the whole prey during the day and some canned at night…the past two days she has started to steal my toothless cat’s pre-made Nature’s Variety raw, as well. She won’t eat it if I offer her her own though, she only wants to steal Charlie’s

One day soon, this blog will start to be about more than my pet’s health issues. Not starting today.

A few weeks ago, I got some quotes on pet health insurance. Based on what I had read in my research, I felt that a company called Pet Plan was the best way to go. I was quoted about $12.50 a month for a Bronze plan with a $200 deductible and 80% reimbursement (their cheapest plan). But, my Ragdoll kitten was healthy, eating top quality food, and was spunky and mischievous. I talked myself out of getting her health insurance. I remembered how I got my other two cats when they were about 1, and how they never had any health problems for years. Bad idea.

Last Sunday afternoon, I noticed that 12 week old Aura hadn’t eaten her breakfast. I showed it to her, and she gagged. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I threw it out and made her a fresh bowl. She gagged again. I let her be to sleep, and got her a different flavor of food. She slept in the sun for a few hours, then got up and vomited clear liquid. I knew that was due to having an empty stomach, so I wasn’t too concerned. I figured she was just having a low appetite day, just like she has high appetite days, playful days, and sleepy days. She’s a kitten.

Back from the vet, with the wounds to prove it.

But by Tuesday, she was still hardly eating, and diarrhea had set in. I was offering her many different options and nothing was tickling her fancy. I called the vet and was able to get her in that very day. I asked the vet to do a full blood test, which showed a slightly elevated liver enzyme among other things that he felt were normal for a kitten feeling under the weather. I didn’t have a stool sample, but took some in the next day. The sample tested negative. Her temperature was on the high end of normal. I was given an antibiotic for her stool, which I wasn’t happy with since her sample tested negative. I asked him to give her fluids and B12, hopefully to stimulate her appetite. It didn’t work.

By Thursday, Aura had less energy and was still not eating. I had to syringe feed her baby food, adding in probiotics for the diarrhea and Pedialyte to try to keep her hydrated. I dropped her back off at the vet Thursday for a few hours to get more tests done. When I went back to get her, I was unable to take her home. An x-ray found pneumonia. I was worried that I had caused this while syringe feeding her, but the vet assured me the infection was in her lung tissue. He said this was very serious, and he couldn’t promise she would pull through.

He also mentioned that it could have been caused by FIP or the corona virus, in which case I would really need to worry about the health of my other cat as well.

Friday morning, I called the vet for an update and was told that Aura had responded well to the new antibiotic and I could pick her up. She tested negative for corona virus, feline leukemia, and FIV. I was skeptical, but when I got her home, she was playful again and ate a ton. I know there is a chance the antibiotic will stop working, but so far so good. She is now on Albon for the diarrhea, and CEFA for the pneumonia. No idea what caused the pneumonia, but my other cat did go to the vet last week, so I wonder if he brought something home. Or, perhaps this was developing for a while in Aura because she was taken away from her mother too early (little did I know).

This whole encounter cost me $700. Had I purchased the health insurance, subtracting the deductible and figuring in the 80% reimbursement, I would have paid $340 instead, plus $12 for the month of insurance. That would have been much less painful, especially one month before Christmas.

I think I’ll go retrieve that saved quote.

Get a free bag of Nature's Variety Raw!

My friendly local Nature’s Variety sales rep turned me on to this great coupon for Nature’s Variety Raw food for dogs and cats! “Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Diets are formulated like the ancestral diet with 95% meat, organs, and raw ground bone, and with wholesome fruits and vegetables.”

Click here to register at their web site to receive a coupon in your email for buy one get one free of their 3 pound bag. This is a great deal!

There is also a coupon to try Nature’s Variety’s all new Sweet Spots, natural frozen ice cream treats for dogs. Get a free carton when you buy any holistic diet from Nature’s Variety.

Enjoy!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I posted. The excitement and worry of dealing with Charlie’s feline asthma seems like old news now. He hasn’t coughed since September 1st and is a pro with his asthma inhaler.  Yesterday, Charlie needed his teeth cleaned. They extracted 6 teeth, including his one last “fang.” I miss that fang. My poor old man is pretty gummy now. He is resting.

Aura at 8 weeks old - click to enlarge so you can see her beautiful eyes!

Introducing Our New Kitten

The biggest excitement and challenge we’ve been having around here is the addition of our newest employee, a Ragdoll mix kitten! Charlie is not fond of cats, or really any person or animal for that matter, so I knew getting a new pet would be a challenge. That is why, rather than getting an older cat out of the shelter, I searched for a Ragdoll kitten. Although there is no guarantee, Ragdolls were bred to be gentle and loving, and I needed that for Charlie (and I wanted some hope to find a cat half as sweet as Oscar was). I also knew I should find a young kitten and a female, to help make the introduction as smooth as possible.

Feeding Raw to the Kitten

The good thing about getting a kitten is it’s easier to start her off on the right path with good food. I started her on grain free canned, and started mixing Nature’s Variety raw medallions into it. But when she saw that Charlie was eating just raw, she wanted his. So at 12 weeks she is already on raw food! She seems to prefer the raw to the canned, but will eat both.

Yesterday I tried something new. I offered whole prey for the first time. I didn’t think she would go for the tiny thawed out pinky mouse, but she ate it right up! So, I plan to offer whole prey at least a few times a week, and this will help insure that she won’t have to undergo a terrible procedure like Charlie did yesterday.

Enjoy the pictures of our new kitten. Her name is Aura, after the blue cheese: we picked her up near a cheese store we enjoy, and her eyes are (obviously) blue.

Introducing the New Kitten to the Resident Cat

The introduction was pretty rough at first. We kept Aura secluded in her own room for about three weeks while Charlie got used to her smell. This was mainly due to the fact that Charlie would have reacted badly, but it also served two other purposes:

1. I needed to be sure she was free of diseases, fleas, and parasites before exposing another cat to any of that. So while usually I would be doing smell exchanges by transferring towels between Aura and Charlie, I didn’t do that either until I could be certain that Aura was healthy.
2. to let the kitten get used to her new home gradually. A new home has a lot of new sounds and smells, and that can overwhelm and stress a kitten. On day one all she did was sleep. She didn’t even care if I was in the room, she ignored me.

After one full week of NO interaction between Charlie and the kitten, I cracked the door and asked Charlie to look in. He would hiss and run. Perfectly normal. Then I started bringing out Aura to the kitchen in her crate during Charlie’s meal times. Charlie didn’t appreciate that. Even though he could see that she was confined and eating her own food, he was still too anxious to eat his meals.

I then purchased two baby gates to use instead of the door to Aura’s room, so Charlie could hear and smell her better, and so we could get into the room without Aura running out. Then Charlie began sitting outside her room to watch her, but any movement by her caused him to hiss and run.

After 3 1/2 weeks of this, I was feeling very bad that Aura couldn’t spend much time out in the house with us. So, I brought Aura into the living room with us and put the baby gates at the two entry ways, giving Charlie access to all of the house except the living room. I then played with the kitten and showed Charlie that she was fun and welcome. After a few minutes of watching us have fun, Charlie wanted to come into the living room with us. That was the moment everything changed. He jumped a baby gate while Aura was resting, and laid down on the couch near me, hissing once just to make his pressence known to the little intruder. Later, Charlie went to sleep on the big chair and Aura jumped up on the ottoman in front of it. Charlie hissed, and Aura layed down slowly. Charlie then put his head down and the two went to sleep.

This doesn't fully count since I placed Aura there, but at least they stayed there peacefully.

The two aren’t best friends and probably never will be. But considering Charlie is 14, he is doing great. They do play and scrap, and sometimes they sleep within a few feet of each other. Aura is a bundle of energy and Charlie is dealing with that wonderfully. He still growls and hisses at her, but she attacks him anyway. I try to distract her with toys when I feel that Charlie would like a break, but overall I think the kitten is giving Charlie an energy boost.

As you can see, I had no trouble introducing the kitten to the dog.

Here we are, almost one month after dealing with Oscar’s liver disease and death, and now we are going through a whole new adventure with our other cat Charlie, who is 14 and has been with me since 1996.

My cat has had asthma for years and I never knew it. I took him to the vet for his dry cough many years ago, but the vet didn’t seem to know what it was. He asked if there was vomiting or hairballs (there weren’t), said “I wish he’d cough right now so I could see it,” and sent me home with a shrug and a 7-day course of antibiotic which didn’t help. Since he didn’t seem concerned, I wasn’t concerned. Charlie never wheezed or seemed out of breath. He just coughed once in a while.

So years went by, and then Oscar passed away. Oscar passed on the eve of an August heat wave. For the next two weeks, I slowly started to notice–perhaps because I now didn’t have an eye on Oscar every minute of the day–that Charlie’s coughing was increasing. We tried to bring home a new cat in a foster-to-adopt situation, but the stress made Charlie cough more. So off to the vet we went.

Charlie was x-rayed and his lungs had the “classic donuts” associated with the inflammed airways of asthma. The vet said old, dead heartworms couldn’t be ruled out, but she wanted to lean toward asthma and either way, the treatment was with steroids. I was very nervous about this, but I felt better that so was she. She wanted me to start him on 5 mg of prednisone twice a day for a week, and slowly taper off until we found the smallest amount that kept his coughing under control. I was nervous still, because I knew from previous research that steroids can give cats diabetes, and Charlie is a bigger cat. So I did my research, as always, and became a less compliant cat mom for my veterinarian, as usual. Read more…

In my previous post, 20 Reasons to Adopt a Cat, I wrote about my naughty cat Charlie. Even though Oscar was a big ragamuffin full of love, zen, and acceptance, I love my naughty boy Charlie just the same. Charlie was my first cat, and he was a real challenge. I remember thinking during the worst of times that if a certain type of person had adopted him, he would have been surrendered back to the shelter. To say that he tried my patience is putting it lightly.

I did a number of things to get him to calm down, and they did help. But the biggest help was time and patience. Once Charlie turned three, I noticed a big change. He had matured. Now I’ve shared my home with him for 13 years, so he obviously holds a big piece of my heart. To imagine having surrendered him (something I never would have done) is such a sad thought. To think many people do just that!

So I interviewed many people who adopted pets and then realized they were in way over their heads. Some people innocently adopted puppies and kittens without realizing just how naughty they can be. Some knowingly adopted pets with issues but were still surprised at what a challenge it proved to be. But all of them stuck with it and now live happy, peaceful, loving lives with these pets.

Read the full article, Training With Patience: Making Forever Homes Last

My Oscar left this morning at 4:30 am. He had perfect timing. I had two shows with my band this weekend and today I have off so I can deal with things.

I came home from my job last night at 1:30 am. Oscar didn’t come to the door so I went to find him laying on the ground. I petted him, he cried, and I knew it was time.

My first emotion was actually that of relief because I knew this would be coming soon and my poor boy was down from 9 pounds to 5. Unfortunately it took him three hours to finally go.  I layed there the whole time. I really wanted him to go at home, not in the car or on a vet table. But after 3 hours I started to stress because I didn’t know how much of this he was feeling. He appeared to have a stroke.

I got up to look up the directions to the vet so we could just start driving there, and that moment he left. I don’t know why he left the minute I walked out of the room. Maybe it was because of my stress. My boyfriend told me he was gone. I walked back in and his eyes were closed, ears down. I petted him and his eyes opened, ears went back up, and I felt his body go limp. We drove him to a vet to hold onto him. A cremation service will pick him up for an individual cremation.

I knew this was going to happen, but not today. For the past 3 days he was purring and cuddling in bed, two things he hadn’t done for weeks or months. I don’t know if it was because he knew it was coming, or because of the holistic laser acupuncture and fluids he received last week.
Mr Blue sniffed Oscar so he knows. Charlie saw him, he kinda ran away. Neither seem phased. Charlie has been waiting to be an only cat again for 12 years.

Oscar was already an angel. I’m glad he’s there now and not here being skinny and in pain. I know everyone says their pet was the best, but Oscar really was. I saw him watching a fly once. He litterally wouldn’t hurt it.

Oscar was my boy -
Oct 1997 – Aug 9, 2009

Ever since a rise in pet food recalls and problems with contaminated pet food, pet owners are getting more educated regarding the pet food industry. Many are doing their research and finding out that dogs and cats were designed by nature to digest natural, unprocessed food that consists primarily of protein.

Dry kibble, no matter how “premium,” is not healthy for any dog or cat, especially one with health issues of any kind. Kibble is high in carbohydrates, and the brands that boast they are low-carbohydrates are not compensated with extra protein–making it even lower in quality and nutrition. Kibble often derives its proteins from plants rather than meats, meaning it does not supply your pet with his basic nutritional needs. This includes Science Diet and other dry kibble prescribed by your veterinarian.

“It’s important to note that veterinarians have no formal education in nutrition, vitamins, minerals, or supplementation unless they seek it out themselves outside of their training,” said Dr. Carol Osborne, DVM, a holistic veterinarian who practices in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Of prescription food like Hill’s, Dr. Carol said, “these diets are commercial, not organic, and filled with chemicals and by-products. The more we get such ingredients our of our bodies the better; for pets and humans alike.”

Enter home-cooking and raw food.  Read the rest of this article…

We like to think we’re pretty snazzy and creative here at GoFetchGifts.com. But we tried, and we just can’t think up a really great tag line. We need your help!

Announcing the GoFetchGifts.com “We Need a Tag Line” Contest.

What is a tag line? It’s a quick ‘n snappy slogan, or an explanation of what you do. For example, the music agency I work at uses the following: “We’ve got the dance floor covered,” and “The spotlight is on you, the music’s on us.”

The winner will receive a $75 gift certificate to use at GoFetchGifts.com! Entries will be accepted until midnight on July 31, 2009.

Please keep the tag line short, under 12 words or so would be great. Remember that we like to focus on creative gifts like adorable,  personalized, hand-made and customized pet lover items, but we also have supplies as well.

Enter as many times as you like. No purchase necessary; purchases will not increase your chances of winning. Contest open to US residents only.

We look forward to reading your entries! Please click here to enter today.