Cat Meme

Cat meme, and Dad joke, featuring Harold and Scout!

Happy Birthday Scout

Our little fluff ball, Scout, turned two today. She is an Epiphany or 12th Night baby. Today's the day we kick-off Carnival. The humans got King Cake and the kitties got Turkey Fancy Feast (their favorite).

But wait, there's more!

Spark and Joule at Zeus Place before I took them home.

In April of 2017, I went back to work at Zeus' Place. A pair of feral kittens were brought in. A woman trapped them in the parking garage of the Entergy Building down town. They were to be TNR - Trapped, Neuter and Released. Usually with TNR you return the cats to the same area you caught them, but a parking garage is no place for cats. I offered to take them so they could live in our shed and back yard. We no longer had any yard cats. Dexter stopped coming around and then Twin got really sick and we had to put her down. That was around the time I brought Scout home. We assumed another cat would show up to live in our yard but they did not. So we imported some LOL.

Kitten double wide.

I kept them in a dog crate so they wouldn't run away. I hoped I could socialize them enough that they would stick around. At Zeus' Place they would always run and hide when I would feed them. Eventually they go too big for just one crate, so I made them a double-wide with a crate a friend gave me.

 They were growing fast, eating like crazy and loved to play. Slowly they warmed up to us. I fretted about the appropriate time to set them free. They made that decision for me. Once morning I walked out to give them breakfast and they were lounging on the deck near their crate, waiting for me.

The white tips on their tails are so cute!

 

Spark

Joule loves boxes.

Spark loves the hammock.

 They are no longer feral and are very sweet. They are a little jumpy, and they prefer you sit down so they can come up to you to be petted. But they will crawl in my lap and purr. They are socially awkward, having not been brought up around house cats, but that just make them more adorable. We named them Spark (male, more white) and Joule (female, more gray) in honor of their origins. The woman who trapped them trapped and later litter and finally the mama cat. Mama cat got spayed and return and her kitten found homes.

A recent morning, hanging out with them.

Kitty update

Good news and bad news. Gonzo did well until January 2018. Then a new lump appeared. We had already decided we would not put her through any more surgeries or treatments. The cancer just kept coming back. A full senior panel showed her to be in perfect health. Except for the cancer. We spoiled her and kept her comfortable. The cancer was very localized and very aggressive. We said good bye to her March 19th. She had lost so much weight and the tumor kept growing. This photo is from 15 days prior. It was a beautiful day and we put her in a large dog crate to enjoy the outdoors. We couldn't risk her running off or anything. She seemed to really enjoy herself.

We had to put Hana down November 16, 2016. She was 16 years old and she had had some liver issues and seemed to be responded pretty good to medication, but then took a turn for the worst. This was one of her last photos, taken November 1st.

We miss our kitties dearly. Harold was showing signs of stress and loneliness. I had been telling G for years that Harold needed a kitten, someone to play with, for years. After Hana was gone he agreed. We didn't rush into anything. I frequently visited Zeus' Place to cuddle the kittens. No big deal. But February 22, 2017 one orange tabby spoke to me. We were going out of town, so not a good time to adopt, plus the kitten was so cute it was sure to be adopted. March 16 I brought her home. It took some time but now Harold adores her. She is really his kitten. Even Gonzo, who wanted nothing to do with Harold, liked the kitten we now call Scout. With all the kitty heart break, Scout has brought us so much joy.

Scout, the first meeting. She was about 1-1/2month old. So tiny!

The day I took Scout home, March 16, 2017.

Scout and Harold. So cute.

I remember when I fell in love with Scout I asked Michelle, the owner of Zeus Place, if Scout could put up with asshole Harold. She sent me a video of Scout wrestling with her father. Yes! She could hold her own. I knew Scout's father and mother. They were brought in with their kittens a cold January night by a kind soul.

Scout's parents Sonny, the orange and white one, and Cher, the calico. A couple of young, sweet kitties who were very good parents.

Happy 9th Birthday Harold

 

 Wow how did Harold get to be 9? I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't for my posts 9 years ago. Unfortunately, Gonzo's cancer came back in January and we decided she had been through enough surgeries and treatments. We said goodbye on March 19th. Harold now takes over the birthday Photoshop photo duties.

On March 16, 2017 I brought home this cute, orange fluffy girl kitty we call Scout. Harold was lonely with Hana gone and Gonzo in no mood to socialize. So I brought home a kitten for him. They adore each other.

He spent the morning lounging in a sunbeam.

Happy 11th Birthday Gonzo!

This Easter Gonzo turns 11!  She's doing well however, she had another lump in December that was removed. The cancer has spread. It's too close to the spine for radiation, plus we don't want to put her through that. We decided to enjoy her for however long we have her. She's eating well, looks great and is being affectionate. Here's hoping for a few more birthdays with of panther girl!

Gonzo's Biopsy Follow Up

Hurry fur, grow back!

It was getting harder to keep Gonzo from picking at her stitches. We kept her confined to the living room and office all this time. I made an appointment for the afternoon of May 11 to have the stitches taken out and talk about the biopsy results. Dr. J and I had been emailing since it was hard to both be free to talk on the phone at the same time. Also during this time, I had jury duty which made my schedule even more difficult. Surprisingly, when I got home to get Gonzo, she was snoozing inside the cat carrier! All I had to do was close the door. On that day, Dr. J got stuck in surgery so we didn't get to talk. A vet tech took Gonzo to the back, took out the stitches, and had her back to me in 10 minutes.

We weren't able to talk about the biopsy results until May 14. I put Dr. J on speaker phone so my husband could listen in. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet. Some of the cells were inflammation and others were precancerous. The two options were amputation and radiation. I had reached out to some of my other pet people and a few had pets who had cancer and /or amputations. It sounded like radiation is very hard on an animal's health. Plus we would have to drive her to Baton Rouge to stay for the week for treatment. It also sounded like pets bounced back pretty quickly from amputation. We told Dr. J we'd discuss it and get back to her. Over the previous 2 weeks I had more or less come to peace with the possibility of amputation and after further discussion with Dr. J, that was our decision.

Dr. J wanted to do the surgery on a Friday, so Gonzo could stay over the weekend. We had made plans to go out of town for our anniversary the weekend of 21st so that seemed like a good time. In hind site it was an excellent idea. Had we'd been home while Gonzo was at the vet, I would probably have obsessed over it and stressed myself out. The trip was a nice distraction, and we got phone calls with updates on Gonzo twice a day.

The following Wednesday, May 25, we were bringing Gonzo home.  We talked with Dr. J about the surgery and follow-up care. She showed us photo of Gonzo so to minimize the shock of seeing her post-surgery. I'm glad she did because I was just imagining Gonzo as if her leg was removed by Photoshop. 1/4 of her hind quarter was shaved and there was a large, u-shaped incision with stitches. Her leg was sent to be tested.

This was a couple of weeks after surgery. The stitches had been taken out and the fur was growing back.

She was pretty out of it from the pain medication. But again she got very excited once we got home. We let her out of the carrier, keeping her in the living room. For some reason she decided to get under the couch and didn't touch the kitty cave. She would come out in the evening. I put a small stool next to the couch so she could hop on the stool on to the couch. It was surprising how well she was getting around. I slept on the couch with her at night.

Good morning Gonzo!