You know you're a bit lazy when.....

The other day when I was at the local drug store, I bought a new 2-pack of yellow Labello lip stuff. Tuesday morning as I was headed off to work, I opened the package and pocketed one of the sticks and went on my merry little way. I left the half opened package on the kitchen counter. It was a busy day at work and when I went to bed that night, I just left the package on the counter deciding that I would deal with it in the morning.


When I woke up the next day, I followed my usual routine (wipe sleep out of eyes, fumble around for glasses, go to the bathroom etc.). I got to the bathroom and noticed that my half opened package of lip stuff was on the bathroom counter this time! I asked Mike if he had moved it for some reason (or if I did in the middle of the night and didn't know it), and of course, as usual he had no idea what I was talking about. I picked up the package to inspect it and discovered several small puncture holes, somewhat resembling tooth marks. After looking down at Walter and recieving the glare, I knew I was in the wrong and promptly put away the package, where it should have been in the first place.


Thanks Walter, for cleaning up after your Mom. I guess I shouldn't be so lazy sometimes......

How does one know these cat treats are good?

Let me tell you......

When the fishy smell is so pungent that you hide them in a kitchen cupboard (5 feet off the ground) and when you wake up in the morning to get ready for work, you discover the entire box on your bathroom floor, half eaten.

Yes, it happened.

How Personalized is YOUR Alarm Clock?

So it was a long weekend, thank God...I needed the sleep after being a bit under the weather.
I couldn't really sleep in Saturday, so Sunday I got my chance. It was 11 o'clock and I was stuck in the nice 'lucid dream' state, the one where you don't want to be woke up because you know that you'll never get back there...that's when I heard the noise.
I was woke up by the sound of something plastic being tossed around on the floor. My first reaction was "what did Walter get into now?". And how right is a mother's instinct? I sat straight out of bed and fumbled around for my glasses to see what was awry. Yes it was Walter, my own personal alarm clock, but what was he playing with? His measuring scoop for his dry food that was neatly tucked away on the counter top in a corner (in the kitchen may I add). How's that for a personalized alarm clock? Instead of buzzing incessantly it's 'FEED ME...FEED ME!!! MOM! MOM! HERE'S MY FOOD SCOOP, IT'S TIME TO FEEEED ME!".
Wonderful ain't it? Especially on the long weekend.

Later that night, Mike and I fell asleep lying on the couch. I forgot to give Walter his last meal of the evening (usually 10-11 o'clock), though it was in the back of my head to do that as I stumbled off the couch and into bed, but I didn't get that chance....yet again.
Once more, I was woke up, but this time, it was some sort of crumpling noise. Again, I sat straight up and followed the noise to the kitchen. There was Walter, trying to uncrumple his bag of dry food that he, once again, stole off the kitchen counter. It's nice to know that I will always have my personal reminder for the priorities in life....

I fed him, and we went off to bed.

Week 1 of the Holistic diet

Well, it's officially been a week and a day since Walter has consumed a 100% holistic (grain free/organic) diet. I am happy to report that there has been no vomiting, no diarrhea and he actually likes his new EFA (Essential Fatty Acid) supplement (Welactin).

Positive's:
-Beautiful, very soft coat
-No vomit to clean up
-Palatability seems very high as he hasn't picked at anything thus far
-Energy (I have never seen him this full of energy and getting into more trouble)

Negative's:
-Holy Crap is this stuff expensive....I think I have spent over 20 dollars on canned food THIS week
-He seems to be hungrier at meal times, though he's not on a restricted diet anymore (not sure exactly what this means yet as I am still trying to figure out caloric content etc. of these new foods)

All in all, it is going quite well at the moment, we're still not out of the woods yet and I won't hold my breath.

Blitz's Story....

...continued.....

We had a great long weekend with Blitz. He adapted very well to our house of 'prey animals' and actually took to cuddling with the rabbits. Mike begged me to adopt him as a permanent member of our furry family, but I put my foot down and said 'no', we have no room for a cat. And he went back with me to life at the clinic.

Christmas rolled around the corner and since the clinic was going to be closed for a few days, I offered to take him home with me again. We generally buy presents for the rest of our animals, and I didn't want to make Blitz feel bad so we went out shopping and bought him a few catnip toys and some treats so he wasn't left out over the holidays. Even my mom bought him a few presents.

Over the two weeks that he stayed with us, he sure found his niche. It didn't take him long to start sleeping in bed with us, and when I say in, I mean in. He would cuddle with us, but under the covers, and wake us up bright and early reminding us that it's time for breakfast and an insulin shot.

I found this time it was me begging Mike for us to keep him, although he initially said 'no', it didn't take much time for him to come around. And Blitz was officially part of our family.

It wasn't too long after that that there was a slight decline in his health. He started vomiting frequently and became painfully constipated, this is when he started coming to work with me on a daily basis. He had full work-up's done. Radiographs, barium series, full blood panels, enema's, new medications, new foods, and it just didn't let up, though his spirits were always high.

Through all of this, he continued to love each and every staff member and client as if it were his own family.

We couldn't really keep up with his symptoms and didn't have a diagnosis to treat. We decided after work we would to an exploratory laparotomy to take biopsies from multiple organs including stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, and all parts of his small intestine. He came home with me and was as happy as pie on his pain medication.....Lord knows he loves hydromorphone.

About a week later the results from the biopsies came back and he was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and early changes in the small intestine that would likely lead to Lymphoscarcoma (also known as Lymphoma).

In cats in these early stages, we have had great success treating them into remission. He was started on prednisolone and an oral chemotheraphy agent called chlorambucil.

He started to get better for a bit, but a few weeks later the vomiting and constipation returned. We continued with treatment, both nursing care and medications and the symptoms seemed to wax and wane, as did our hearts.

Putting him through all of this took a bit of a toll on us, we just wanted him to feel his best and do everything we could for him. I think we took this much harder than he ever did, it seemed like nothing ever brought his spirits down and he continued to voluntarily walk into his kennel for the trip to work every morning for his posting as the 'Clinic Greeter'.

One Sunday night in late march, I went looking around this house trying to look for him in his usual resting spots and couldn't find him. I walked into the bathroom to see him lying on the linoleum floor uncomfortably. His breathing was fast. I grabbed my stethoscope and listened to his heart and lungs, his heart rate was incredibly high (200 bpm). I brought him into the clinic first thing in the morning.

I knew in my heart that this was something that I didn't want to face and walked into the clinic with a tear stained face. We took x-rays immediately which showed an abundance of fluid surrounding his lungs. The doctor quickly tapped his chest and removed as much of the fluid as possible, it was an incredible 250 ml. Blitz was instantaneously more comfortable and went right back to his post at the reception desk.

Later that afternoon, we had a doctor come in to do an ultrasound on Blitz. Again, it wasn't good news. He said there was fluid accumulation in his pericardial sac putting pressure on his heart. He asked me if I wanted him to drain the fluid and continued to inform me of the risks associated with this procedure.....death.....

I told him I trusted him and to do whatever he had to do. We sedated Blitz, and he prepared his tools; a 16ga 2 inch catheter attached to an IV extension and a syringe. I gasped when he poked this thing through Blitz's chest and into the pericardial sac, but he drained 100ml from the heart without any issues arising and Blitz was back to normal....for now....

We didn't have any immediate diagnosis and the doctors researched as best they could. Every other day or so, Blitz required both his chest and his pericardial sac to be drained, but didn't fuss through any procedure.

We spoke to an Oncologist and informed her of his history. After going through his records, she didn't think there was anything to suggest cancer causing his new symptoms and referred us to her colleague, a veterinary Cardiologist. Thanks to her phone calls, Blitz had an appointment the next day. I packed him up in the car and we drove 3 hours to a specialty hospital for a consultation. They did a thorough work-up with both the Cardiologist and Radiologist and 7 hours later, still couldn't find anything definitive other than a small 'growth' on his pericardial sac, and we returned home that same day.

The ultrasonographer that was doing his fluid draining, found the growth on the ultrasound and was able to aspirate so we could run a cytology on it. I called in a favour to a vet I previously worked with (a Pathologist) and she said she could look at the slide that afternoon. Her findings weren't good, but at least I could potentially put a name to this awful disease.....cancer. She said she couldn't be definitive, as aspirations of growths never are, but suggested that surgery to remove whatever this thing on his heart was, was the next step.

Once again, we packed up and traveled 3 hours to yet another speciality hospital for a surgical consultation and potential surgery, at least this time I was supported with one of my good friends coming along. We met with the surgeon who said that if we removed as much of the pericardial sac as possible, the fluid wouldn't come back and he would be as good as new. He explained the surgery to us, a thoracotomy with a partial pericardiectomy....essentially.....cutting through the sternum, splitting the ribcage and manually cutting the pericardium off the heart. I know that this sounds like an insane procedure to but an animal through, but this was Blitz and he needed this....I knew that he was in the best facility and had the best care in western Canada.

We said our tearful goodbyes and left him in the technicians arms.

I received a phone call later that afternoon from the surgeon, he said that things went great and he is recovering very nicely and said that I could visit him later that evening.

My friend and I went to visit him after dinner. There he was sitting in an oxygen tank (standard procedure) high as a kite on pain medicine. As soon as we approached him, he flopped onto his back for tummy rubs. We kissed him goodnight and said we'd be back in the morning.

Early the next morning, I received a call from the surgeon again and said he was doing great and we could take him home. The anesthesiologist then got on the phone and gave me directions as to how to give him is pain medication when we got home. We packed up, left the hotel and got the boy.

He looked a bit worse for wear. He had a belly bandage on and a very long catheter that came out of the incision on his chest that was for infusing bupivicaine directly into the thorax. Other than that, he was happy, comfortable and purring all the way home. He did very well at home that weekend, eating, drinking....it seemed like he was back to his normal self again.

He came back to the clinic with me the following Monday. As per the surgeon's instructions, we were to take more x-rays that week, just to see if there was anymore fluid accumulation.....and there was......and it came back with a vengeance. He now needed his chest tapped on a daily basis, and we were removing more fluid than we ever did before.

We continued to monitor him (he was being his usual self through all this), and the ultrasonographer came in to do another ultrasound on him, but this time it showed something definitive. The remaining pericardium around his heart was so inflammed that it is constricting the heart putting Blitz into heart failure. What can we do now? He hasn't given up on life yet, so we're not going to give up on him either.

We spoke to another surgeon at the specialty hospital and they suggested another surgery to remove the remaining pericardium and could get us in towards the end of the week. The only problem was, I had a huge family gathering that weekend, people flying in from all over the world for this, and I couldn't miss it. Thankfully, I had a co-worker that offered to drive the 3 hours and stay with him for the surgery. Words could not explain how thankful I am.

That Wednesday, he had his second thoracotomy in 3 weeks. I spoke with the surgeon after he was done the surgery and he said "although there is an awful lot of inflammation throughout the chest, I feel good that this surgery will save him". Words to my ears. He came home late the next day. He looked relatively good, he had another catheter along the incision of his chest for his pain medication, and a feeding tube so we could ensure he was eating through his recovery.

The next day, Friday, I had the day off to spend with family. I brought him into the clinic for observation while I'd be away. While I was there, he had an 'episode', he began to pant......he had more fluid in his chest, and we drained him and tried to keep him calm. Once again, he sat up at his post on the reception desk, tubes and all, greeting clients.

I picked him up later that afternoon and took him home, gave him his meds, lots of love and had to leave him again to be with family. He wasn't really alone, he had 'guy' time with Mike that evening. I got home a bit later than I wanted, but he was there waiting for me at the door. I gave him his meds again, fed him and we went to bed. He curled up at his usual place at the foot of the bed. I woke up about an hour later to check on Blitz. Still at the foot of our bed, sleeping peacefully. I reached down, and he rolled over on his back for tummy rubs and began to purr. We cuddled for a few minutes, I told him I loved him and I went back to sleep.....if I only knew it would be the last time.....

I woke up a few hours later....5:00 am.....to a horrible sound....it was gasping. Blitz was gone and the bed was wet. I followed the sounds and ran into the kitchen....there he was, lying on the kitchen floor. Pale blue and gasping.....I called for Mike, he brought my stethoscope...no heart beat. I screamed at Mike to give him mouth to mouth as I began CPR. We tried hard for 5 or 10 minutes, be he was already gone. We both held him and sobbed. I held him for a long time....I just couldn't let him go.

With wet eyes and sore hearts, we covered him up with blankets and made the necessary phone calls. I took him into the clinic one last time......

Mike and I had to put on a brave face that day, and went about the family party with smiles on our faces and forcing ourselves to try to have a good time, we didn't tell anyone aside from my parents. Both him and I had to leave a few times to go a brush a tear off our cheeks......

A few of my aunts came up to me, after my mom had told them what happened, and gave me big hug, I forced myself to hold back the tears.

Although we were mourning the loss of one of our family members took too soon, there was a weight lifted off our hearts, it was over, and he wasn't in pain anymore....he crossed the rainbow bridge.

He was the most loved cat in the four months that he was part of our family.

To this day, clients still ask about our little 'Clinic Greeter'

The beginning of my cat-loving life......

If you would have asked about my personal perspective regarding cats only a year ago....I would have told you that never in a million years I would own one. Sure, there's a few that I like, maybe only 1 in a 100 or so. Working in a veterinary practice, I generally see not so pleasant cats.....I can't blame them in that environment though, it smells different, they get restrained, get poked for blood and urine collections and can get quite upset fairly fast. I have only been bitten a few times, and in my opinion that's a few times too many. I have many scars on my hands, arms and even chest and have even had to require antibiotics and a tetanus vaccine due to some.

I really never grew up with cats, my parents were your typical 'dog people', but I did have the chance to get to know a few great cats growing up through family friends and neighbours.

My perspective on cats changed very dramatically one evening last fall. One of our clients brought her 12 year old cat in at the end of the day for a euthanasia. I didn't know the family, all I knew was that he was destroying their carpets and didn't want to use the litterbox. I remember going into our consult room (essentially a room specifically used for euthanasias) to go and talk to the owner about the process and ask if I could take her cat out of the room breifly to put an intravenous catheter in his leg for the procedure. She said 'no' and wanted to speak to the vet before proceeding with anything.

She talked with the vet about surrendering the cat over to the clinic to see if he could be adopted out to a different home as they truly didn't want to euthanize him, but couldn't put up with the house soiling anymore. That was that, Blitz (the cat) was now owned by the clinic until we could find him another home.

When he first started living at the clinic, for some reason I didn't want to have much to do with him....I didn't want to get attached to him if he was just going to go to another home or be euthanized because we couldn't find him one, but I quickly came around. As I would approach him, he would sit up with a little brrruuuppp and 'head butt' your face so hard it would hurt. He would groom your face and purr so loud you ears would hurt. When I read his file from his previous owners, I couldn't believe this was the same cat. They said that he had 'behavioural issues' and would hide in corners of the house shaking....obviously this was far from the truth.

We later learned that the family who brought him in had two other cats that were always beating Blitz up (and it showed in his file....he only ever came in for fight wounds and abscesses) and were guarding the litterbox, so he really didn't have any other place to go than the carpet.

He always used his box at the clinic, but we soon noticed how much water he was drinking and ran some bloodwork and a urinalysis on him and diagnosed him a diabetic and started him on insulin therapy.
He made a wonderful addition to our clinic, we called him the 'Wal-mart Greeter' as he would always sit up on the reception desk next to the front door and purr in contentment when clients would pet and snuggle him.

If you were ever having a bad day or just needed a friend, Blitz was there...he was always there for you, no matter who you were. Even if you needed just to talk to someone, he would always answer back in his scratchy little voice (he was a huge 15 pound cat). Needless to say, my eyes started to open and I began to see cats from a totally new perspective thanks to him.

Thanksgiving quickly came around the corner and the clinic would be closed for the long weekend. Someone had to take care of him as he required his twice daily insulin injections. It seemed like everyone else had an excuse not to take him but me. Having rabbits and guinea pigs in the house and as cats being a natural predator, I hesitated, but something told me everything would be fine.

I packaged up the insulin, grabbed some syringes and a cat kennel from the clinic and we headed home.......


......to be continued.....

The Case of the Missing Spectacles......SOLVED!

Thanks to all your generous tips via the W.O.W. Hotline, our detectives have been working overtime on the 'Case of the Missing Spectacles' and have now deemed the case SOLVED. Charges have yet to be laid.
The missing spectacles were found in the bedroom under a blanket owned by Walter. The owner of the spectacles can now rest at ease due to the publics help with this case.

Thank you to all who was involved.