How Do you collect Bodily Fluid from a Cat?

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As you know if you have been following this blog recently, I have a sick cat. Actually I have 2 cats and one of them was having excessive bathroom issues. Hmmm. The problem was that neither I nor my pet sitter had been able to catch the culprit in the act so I didn’t know which one.

Don’t get me wrong. The culprit was very clean. He wasn’t missing the litter box or anything like that. It was just there was so much volume that there were not puddles but lakes in the box when I’d go to “scoop” it.  That kind of thing can be a sign of kidney disease, diabetes or thyroid just to name a few. All are very common in senior cats.

Smokey is 13 (as best we can figure out) and Rocky is 10. That meant that they were both considered seniors and were both candidates.

$400+ later and a couple of stressful visits to the vet for blood tests and the results were in. Rocky was fine but Smokey had elevated levels. Don’t ask me which levels. I couldn’t spell them even if I knew what they were. But I do appreicate the vet telling me and not “dumbing down” the results. The next step is to collect a urine sample for more testing.

I’m sure most if not all my readers have had to “pee in a cup” for their doctor at one time or another. Sometimes it isn’t easy to “go” on demand but at least we can understand why we have to do it. How do you explain to a cat that you need him to “pee in a cup”?

My vet had 2 options. One was to bring him in and they would keep him in a cage until he decided to “go”. They said sometimes it can take up to 3 days because the cat will “hold” it  in since he is in a strange environment.

Option 2 was for me to take a little kit home and collect it myself. (Fun).

First problem..I have 2 cats in a 1 bedroom condo. Isolating one is not easy. The current set up is that the “Kitty commodes” are in the closet next to the human bathroom as the human bathroom is so tiny there’s no room for litter boxes in there. If I close the bedroom door then one cat will not be able to get to their bathroom.

 So I made a trip to Walmart for a Mini-kitty pan ($1.98) and put the pellets from the kit in that. I then got water and cat food and put all of that in my tiny bathroom. I next caught my poor, trusting kitty and dumped him there too and closed the door. Starting his solitary confinement.

Special "Kitty Pellets"

About 2 hours later I need to use the facilities so I figured it would be a good chance to check on Smokey. He was on strike. He hadn’t touched his food , water or his “special” litter and the bathroom was getting pretty stuffy and warm. Time for an alternative.

I pulled out the “Kitty walk” tunnel and moved the food and water to one end and put the kitty litter in the other end. Smokey was in the middle. I located this by the open slider in the living room. Now Smokey could see outside and Rocky and I would be there with him. No isolation this way.

Within the first 1/2 hour Smokey had flipped both his water dish and the kitty litter box and was hunkered down for a good sulk. I refilled the water and scraped up the little pellets and put them back in the litter box but did not give up. Smokey stayed in the enclosure. He just gave me evil kitty looks.

Ok two hours later the water and litter are both upside down again and Smokey is huddled in a lump in the middle of the Kitty walk. I don’t think this is going to work.

The last idea I can come up with is to drag one of the litter boxes into the living room for Rocky. Close the closet door so Smokey can’t get in to use one of the other boxes. I emptied  Smokey’s favorite box and pulled that out and set the “mini” box inside it. I gave him fresh food and water and showed him the box. He is now confined in my bedroom. He has a window, my bed, a chair, cat toys, food and water and the Special litter box. Rocky is on the other side in the living room.

I didn’t count on Smokey having an accomplice to escape captivity. Rocky can open anything. All of my cupboards have child safety locks to keep him out. The tri-fold doors all have stools or something in front of them because he can open those too. Anyway, within 10 minutes I see 2 fuzzy bodies come racing around the end of the couch and the bedroom door is open. It was the Great Kitty Escape!

I caught Smokey and returned him to the bedroom. I then closed the bedroom door and stuffed a dust cloth in the door so it would stick. Hopefully “Houdini” cat won’t be able to open that.

Success…sort of. Rocky started to work on the door right away. When he couldn’t get it open he turned into a maniac cat. He raced around the living room yowling. I guess that was his way of venting his frustration. Right now he is standing on top of his cat tree with his tail whipping back and forth in aggravation.

one very aggravated cat

I have seldom seen the Rockster so upset.

Well he’ll just need to “get over it”. I can only hope that Smokey will finally get the message and “pee in the cup.”

This and That

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Oh no! Labor Day has come and gone and I missed it! I was working! Maybe that’s why they call it Labor Day. Believe it or not the first big Labor Day in the US was celebrated September 5, 1882. Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday 5 years later in 1887. It became Federal Holiday in 1994 and by then 30 states were celebrating the day.

Although Labor Day was meant to support and celebrate the Labor movement it is more likely to be thought of as the symbolic end of the summer with cookouts and parties. It is also the date when fashionable women stop wearing white.

Speaking of fashionable women, my friend Diane is going to try her hand at blogging. Was it really just about a year ago that I took the plunge? I love her concept of a Saturday Morning Coffee Klatch. I hope you’ll check out her site and encourage her along.

http://ladydiblog.wordpress.com/

I had to stop at Walmart last night on my way home. As I entered the store I followed a young man who was wearing the baggiest pants I have ever seen. They were below his “butt”! I kept waiting for them to fall right down around his ankles and leave him standing there in his boxers. They had a blue print by the way. He certainly wasn’t leaving anything to the imagination. I may be an old fogey because I was offended. It made me angry that his parents/family would let him out of the house like that so I was thrilled to hear that Florida has outlawed Baggy Pants on Campus, including high schools. Belts are even being issued to hold the pants up!

And my last observation for this post is the Postal Service. I just heard that they will be bankrupt in 30 days. They apparently have some loans and are about to default on them unless Congress bails them out. The news spot went on to say that the Post Office is prepared to eliminate Saturday Service, close a whole bunch of offices and reduce their workforce by 1/3. The postal workers have a union and their union contract includes a “no lay off clause”.  I can see where this is going to go. Are you ready for a postal worker’s strike?

That almost makes me want to comment on the Verizon situation but I said the Postal Service headline would be my last observation for this post so before I get myself in trouble I think I will close this out. 🙂

Bye Bye Summer

Scout’s Tips~ Passenger’s Bill of Rights

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Scout

With all of the things that have been going on in Dusty’s life from sick cats to photo contests and overtime at her work on top of that, Scout thought it would be a good time for one of his columns to give Dusty a tiny break.

The nice thing is that travel has been in the news lately. I don’t mean the travel alert to watch out for terrorists or the Aruba murders. I’m referring to the Airline traveler’s Bill of Rights.

This little bit of regulation came to be because of the severe abuses that airlines have reaped on their customers over the past 10 plus years or so. It all seemed to start back in 1999 when Northwest Airlines stranded a plane full of passengers on the tarmac for 8 horrible hours without food , water or working toilets.  It’s like being trapped in a cramped tin can. If we treated animals that way the ASPCA or maybe even PETA would be knocking down doors to bring charges of animal cruelty.

The worst part was that this wasn’t an isolated incident. It happened again in December 2006 but it was American Airlines this time.  Not to be out done Jet Blue held up 10 flights in February of 2007.

Still the worst situation involved a diabetic passenger who ran into significant blood sugar issues while trapped on a stranded plane with no food. When the flight attendants finally realized that the passenger was in extreme danger they relented and supplied a “snack” tray but charged the passenger $4.00.

At some point a group of passengers sued the airlines for false imprisonment and a media storm ensued. The Airlines set up their own “voluntary  bill of rights” but with no enforcement teeth, things soon returned to business as usual for the airlines. Escalating fees and ticket prices added to the general arrogance of the airline industry pushed the traveling public to revolt. Finally the government stepped in.

The result: A series of pro-passenger Department of Transportation airline regulations with real enforcement tools. The goal is to decrease the number and length of tarmac delays, clearly explain/define tickets costs and extra fees and decrease the number of fliers being bumped for overbooked flights.

Under these new regulations if a boarded commercial plane sits on the tarmac for more than 4 hours, the airline will be charged up to $27,500 per passenger. ( Currently this only applies to international flights.)

Airlines will now have to display or post in a prominent position all bag, meal, cancellation and any other formerly hidden fees on their websites. They will have to compensate bumped passengers at least double the price of their ticket (provided the ticket is less than $650.00)

In January passengers will be allowed to change their reservations within 24 hours  of booking without having to pay a penalty fee.

And of course, baggage fees. With the new rules airlines will have to refund the baggage fees if they lose your luggage. Duh! Isn’t that just common sense? One caveat… if the luggage is only delayed this does not apply but if truly lost  at least you will not have paid the airlines  for the privilege of having them lose your luggage.

These rights are not due to law but are Department of Transportation regulations. Still for an industry that is notorious for poor customer service it is a step in the right direction. . It’s too bad doing the right thing doesn’t come naturally when it come to flying the not so friendly skys.

Don’t forget to Vote.This is your last chance to help out with the NH dream vacation!

http://www.nhdreamvacation.com/browse-and-vote/default.aspx?page=9

Remember the Cog Railway Photo Contest?

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I am so excited!

If you recall I sent in the #1 photo from my little poll. When I didn’t get any acknowledgement I called to see if they had received the picture. In my conversation I found out that I could submit more than one picture. So of course I had to send in some more. I decided to send in 3 to test the waters and if I didn’t have any luck try the next 3.

I kept checking the web site and they never posted anything new from anyone, not just me. The same pictures from when I first looked into this contest were the only ones on the web page.

Anyway, I got busy and forgot to check for a couple of weeks. Tonight I was just killing some time and I thought , gee I haven’t been to the Cog railway web site lately and to my surprise and absolute delight there were my pictures! Not just one, but all 3!

Here’s the link. Please check it out! www.thecog.com

That takes you to the home page. On the right side of the page under Cog Events is the link to the photo contest. Click on that link and it takes you to the rules and on the right side is a photo of the Mount Washington Hotel. Under that photo is the link to the 2011 entries.

I tried to post a direct link but it didn’t work. So you’ll have to follow the steps to get there.

I read the rules again and all it says it that the winner will be chosen at the end of the season. I’m not sure but it sounds like the contest goes to the end of the year. In any case I guess we wait again. But I am thrilled that they even posted the pictures. I hope that means that I am in the running.

I wonder if I should send the rest? I’ll have to think about that. 🙂