cat-sitting & picture for mom

We cat-sat for our neighbor from Thursday until late Sunday night. They have a cornish rex cat named Arizona. Cornish rexes are unusual in their appearance - they have huge ears, a tiny head, and a long body of crushed velvety fur. Apparently, Arizona is also slightly unusual in her habits as well. She would actually cry to have us open the door to the tub so she could drink from the faucet.

Below is a photo for my mom, since she really likes those M&M guys. Apparently, another neighbor is part of the M&M Racing Team. Cool, huh?

R.I.P. Dee

Unfortunately, little Dee passed away last night. She was the one I wrote about in the last post. We had considered calling her Diva, but wanted to wait until more of her personality came out before sticking her with that night. Her diva-like behavior so far included crying any time her heating pad started to cool off (we have a microwavable beanbag thing that slips into a really soft fleece-like pad). She'd stop crying as soon as you reheated it. Poor little thing. She was adorable - thought you all would like to see her "got milk?" pose.

They Grow Up So Fast - and Dog-a-Thon News

We had F.A.R.M. take back the kittens we had been fostering. We had 4 of them - 3 (Charlie Brown, Charlotte, & Cisco) were 10.5 weeks old and way too big for us to contain anymore. We offered to keep Cosmo (above; 8 weeks old now), but they thought it best to keep him with his buddies. In theory we were going to be taking a break from fostering (probably until after the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary trip in Oct).

But, of course, that didn't happen. Misty's boss at work brought in some kittens her friend had found. They think they may have accidentally spayed the mother (not realizing she'd already had kittens). There were three kittens, but one was killed by a Jack Russell. Two of the vet techs (including Misty) were called upon to each take 1 of the other two home. So, we have a little girl kitten that is about 4-5 days old. I'll try to post a photo soon. The 2nd kitten passed away last night, so we have the only one of them left. So far, she seems fine...but if she went 2 days or so without food and cold (while mom was being spayed and they went unnoticed), then it is still up in the air whether she'll make it. Fingers crossed.

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Pets on Wheel Dog-a-Thon
There is going to be a dog-a-thon on September 29 for "Pets on Wheels", which is the organization that Tasha does her pet therapy in the senior citizen home with. I've created a donation page for the event here: Tasha's Dog-a-Thon Page - it's a great cause to donate to if you're looking for one. :-]

Weird Bad Luck Continues...

Isn't Shelby the cutest?

So, our bad luck continues. I got a ride home with a coworker, Heather, last night, so that I wouldn't be stuck at work until 9:30pm or later again. She didn't have A/C in her car, which made it a hot ride wearing work pants in 102 degree heat. But, it was very nice of her to try. We were almost home when I realized I didn't have house keys, so we got off early to pick them up from Misty (who was still working). Misty gave me her house keys and we got back in the car to finish the drive...except the car wouldn't start. I don't know about you, but it seems very sketchy that another car has up & died with me in it. I feel like I have some sort of car plague.

Luckily, a mechanic just "happened" to stop by (he was there to visit one of Misty's coworkers) and helped us out. Heather's car was completely out of oil (believed to be due to a possible leak), her coolant looked really cruddy (it has been flushed out several times in the last year, so they think the leak might be letting oil into the coolant), and she may need to replace her starter. Rather than risk her driving me around any longer, we sent her home once our lovely new mechanic friend got the car running (she called me later to say she'd made it safely home). Therefore, I had to wait until Misty got off work to get a ride the rest of the way with her. We had hoped I could get home earlier so I could help our neighbor work on my car. It turns out not to have mattered that I wasn't able to get home quicker since our neighbor had something personal come up and can't work on it until at least Friday. Which means I'm at work until about 9:30pm again tonight. Fun times.

more bad luck....followed by some much-needed good luck

[Jenna is writing again...albeit slowly with just her left hand] The little foster kittens (Charlie Brown is featured above) are getting big...and so cute. Although they are extremely messy! Which brings me to the next lousy bit of luck/injury. On Monday, I had to clean the bathtub b/c they had made it thoroughly disgusting. I was on my knees scrubbing and didn't pay attention to where I was in the tub. When I stood up, I got a nasty gash on my lower back/tailbone from the tub faucet [see end of post for photo]. And now, a couple days later, it is swollen and bruised as well.

Back to Monday...I went outside to go to work...only to find that Misty, in her Percocet-haze last night, had locked the keys to her car (which I'm using since mine is dead) on the driver's front seat. A re-call to AAA and I was late to work. What is worse is that I got the same guy to come unlock the car that had given me a tow on Saturday. Talk about shame. Good news is that Misty got her recheck today and is cleared to go back to work (will have to continue getting the leg checked and stay on antibiotics for a while though). Of course, this means that I'll be at work tonight until about 9pm when she can come pick me up since we only have 1 working car.

A little bit of good news last night though. One of our really nice neighbors has offered to do all the work on my car for FREE if I just buy the parts. So, that nearly $600 + tax repair (that was the even more bad news I got yesterday) is now an $85 diagnostic + $100 parts + gift (b/c I want to get the neighbor something for his troubles). So much more doable. And we managed to get the car started enough to get it home without another tow. Yay! Here's hoping we are finally on the upward spiral of this strange kharmic twist.

[photo of my "faucet injury" after a couple days of healing]

Just a little walk in the woods, huh?!

[Written by Misty Sue] So, July 28 started out to be a gorgeous day. A great day to take the dogs hiking and a little swim (which Tasha could have done without). FYI, when hiking with someone, please keep an eye them. I did not and it resulted in Jenna falling down a river embankment. I was too busy trying to keep Shelby from floating away after her ball. As a result, Jenna suffered a sprained right shoulder, which could be a torn rotator cuff. She'll be in a sling for at least 2 weeks. :-(

I suffered a simple scratch on my right leg from the hiking which turned into a fiasco. By Monday, I was at the doctor for cellulitis and by Tuesday I was admitted into the hospital. I was on I.V. fluids and antibiotics which weren't helping due to an abscess which had formed underneath. The surgeon came and opened it up on Thursday. I was doing well enough to be discharged on Friday (or they were tired of me begging to go home). I am still on antibiotics and still have a swollen foot but I have a recheck appt. for tommorrow. This is the 3rd time this has happened to me, so I think I'll be wearing pants when I go hiking from now on.

As if it wasn't bad enough with my leg and Jenna's shoulder, her car died yesterday while trying to get groceries. I of course can't drive with my leg so we were lucky enough that the tow truck driver gave her a ride home. Her car will get looked at Monday, so she is stuck driving my car 1-armed-which she hates.

[WARNING - infection photo below (added by Jenna on 8/9/07):]

The picture on the left shows Misty's leg on Sunday, once we realized the tiny scratch was cellulitis. You may be able to see the pen markings we drew to show the borders of the redness (i.e. infection). Her leg also appears swollen, was hot to the touch, and, of course, hurt. You can see where she got the infection in the tiny dot in the middle of the redness. The picture on the right is after she was released from the hospital and actually looks a LOT better than it did in the hospital (we didn't take any photos while she was in the hospital). The gash in the center of the abscess (purple part) and cellulitis (redness around purple) was made on purpose by the surgeon to get the infection out.