More Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time...even the pets. Well, Starsky was a bit freaked out by the commotion and flying wrapping paper, but the rest of them were pretty happy. The cats have new toys - with catnip so that Sati and Boulder will play with them and not just the thief, Peach. Shelby will probably shred her toy within the week, unless she upgrades it to "suckle status" (a few toys she doesn't destroy, but rather sucks on them to fall asleep). And Tasha liked her treats so much, she was rooting through the bags looking for more. This photo of Tasha with Santa is a little old - she's a bit grayer around the ears now. But she has such a great smile (and I was finally able to scan the picture so I could upload it).

Holidays at Home

We've gone a little out-of-control with the outdoor Christmas decorations this year. We can blame our neighbors, who have always been the brightest spot on block. Here is their yard for this year:

And then, for comparison, is our yard this year...much brighter than last year's (yay for Black Friday sales):


And, finally, a close-up of our door. I had tried to find one of those door coverings pre-cut to fit, but couldn't find any anywhere. I think using pet wrapping paper worked out well and may even be more appropriate given our little house o' pets.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Holidays at Work

We get to do decorations at work - well, for the lobby anyway. I came up with the idea of doing a fireplace scene, so I enlisted some help from my coworker, HW. She had to leave before I did (I was stuck at work late b/c my car had broken down again), so I finished on my own. Unfortunately, noone got to see the finished wall b/c it all fell down over the weekend (guess that tape wasn't the strongest). Below is the re-vamped and less heavy version of the wall:

I tried to do a very subtle homage to Santa and if you look close at the window, you can see Santa and his reindeer flying past:

HW and I also put some festive holiday garland down one of our walkways:

We weren't alone in decorating; there were a lot of others helping out. I personally was a big fan of the penguins on the door:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

Tasha Feeling Better

The above is, of course, a photo of our foster dog Starsky and not Tasha, but it was too cute to resist (although he is not much amused).

I'd mentioned that Tasha had been picky about her food in a previous post. Well, she actually got much worse. She started having these "falling episodes", where she was sitting up and then just dropped over. She had 2 the day of the Thanksgiving Parade and then a couple more since then. They don't appear to be seizures and the vet suspects it may be a heart issue (cardiac syncope) - every so often she doesn't get oxygen to her brain and passes out for a second. The only thing we can do for those spells is keep an eye on them (I have a log of all of them) and keep an eye on her quality of life.

Tasha was also having some major diarrhea, combined with lethargy and no desire to eat. We started her on a new prescription food, Purina E/N, and some medication for the digestive issues. Her x-rays and other tests show no tumors or obvious issues. The first meds we gave her didn't do anything, but this homeopathic stuff we tried seems to be helping a lot. That and having us hand-feed her has improved her appetite. She's also not as lethargic anymore, which is great. We've taken a break from the Pets on Wheels while we work out Tasha's health issues - we will probably give her a bit more time, even though she's doing better, just to make sure she's up for it again.

Peach helps with the holiday decorations

Peach felt like the Christmas skirt around the tree would look much better...

...next to his cat tree/condo

We've moved it back a few times, but he keeps taking it away. I suppose we should just be grateful the pets haven't knocked the tree down yet. :-]

Tasha is so spoiled!

Tasha has been very picky about eating her food lately and we can't afford for her to keep losing weight. So, she is getting spoiled. She gets a little dry food (which she rarely eats) as well as wet food and part of a dog food supplement roll that she really likes. Sometimes, she doesn't even feel like eating that though, so we hand-feed her small chunks. Hopefully she'll keep gaining weight. She got x-rayed the other day b/c she was having lots of pee accidents and we were worried she might have a growth on her bladder (we had already tested & ruled-out a UTI). She was clean and her bloodwork was good except for some anemia. There's medication, but it is liquid and she is a nightmare to give meds to. So, for now, we're just trying to fatten her up (like poor Santa in Rudolph) and hope that gets rid of the anemia too.