Tea Tuesday

Ahh tea ... and that robe looks fabulous!

FTD Info

Link of the day: Dementia and the Struggle to Stay Healthy

Website Want

These will be my kids

That's not really a want so much as a statement, I guess. I absolutely expect to have little, silly fish if they have even 1% of my love of water in them

Whoa

Earlier today my mom was telling me how she was up all night thinking and "writing" in her head about all the things she had with my dad and before - a good partner, more money, comfort, lots of friends, etc. And then how now it's more stress, worrying and working, working, working to barely be able to pay for things, a lot of which involves his condition.

Ok, you probably need to know the show to know this character, but Joe was such an amazing, amazing person/husband/dad character and there are some very predominant good characteristics I see in both Joe and my dad.

Just now I found this clip which I think kind of embodies the raw emotion my mom (and I think we all) feel(s)...

Then again, maybe I'm just stretching things here and trying to find a reason to post his because I love Medium's Joe.

FTD Info

Link of the day: Holly Eburne's website

FTD Friday

An interesting open discussion on "How Can Communities Prevent Caregiver Burn-Out?": link here

RIP Weenie

This was the first time I met Weenie (AKA Halloween) and as I'm sure you can see she was a silly girl that just wanted to be with you - where ever that was. This picture was almost two years ago now...

After that, Weenie went to a super awesome foster home in the hopes of being adopted from there. Her foster mom was nice enough to take her to get her shots updates and had her combo tested. It was then that we found out Ween was FIV+, which is no death sentence, but her foster mom could not keep her as she already had an older, immune-compromised older kitty. So, that's when Weenie came to the farm.

For awhile the girl lived on the enclosed front porch, but she was always running out the door with you. Then, Weenie was staying outside with us while we were out. Finally, I think she was just out all the time with the front porch door left open.

The two times I've been down to the farm so far this week, we joked how she's always under foot - literally, she got stepped on sometimes!! We were in the garden, she was in the garden. Down by the lake, so was she. You had to go to the barn, she'd show up. My mom even said she's found Weenie inside her cold frame! She was always, always with you ... unless she found a really good place to sleep.

Yesterday, my mom found Weenie in the front yard and she was gone :(

Although she probably would have lived longer inside and I'll never know what took her, she was definitely happy out there. When my dad used to go out and sit by the lake, she'd sit with him and he'd pet her, which he's not very good at anymore (he's rough like a little kid would be), but she didn't mind. My sister was also telling me how when Luna was lost and the times she and her friend Rachel went deep into the woods looking for Luna, there was Weenie right by them. They'd yell "Luuuuna" and Weenie would make her funny little meow! Even yesterday, my mom kept thinking she saw Ween out of the corner of her eye walking over to her while she was working in the garden.

Oh my god, I'm going to miss her...

Here are some previous posts I wrote about Weenie:
- Spotlight on Weenie
- Caturday: Halloween

Cat Room Tour

I have cats and Matt adopted two in the first few months of us starting to date. Matt's Boxer, Miles, however is NOT a cat fan ... or, perhaps, it's better said that Miles is way too much of a cat fan - he freaks out. So we've chosen to keep the cats separated because poor Kreacher (our slightly neurological, 4 earred kitty) is just a bit too slow to be able to get away from Miles.

For so long I've wanted to do this post and I just kept putting it off. This isn't even the first time I've taken photos for it, but finally I've put together a tour of the "cat room" at Matt's.

{please forgive Big Dani's "basement cat" eyes here - whoa flash reaction!}

The cats have their own "suite" at Matt's. When you first walk in, this is what you see - the big comfy chair, some cat trees/towers, toys and the double-decker cage.

I just cleaned the room in this photo. About an hour before this, there were the shiny blue strips that were once several crinkly toys and carpet pieces pulled out from the cat towers.

The cat tower with all the tubes seems to be the favorite. Oscar likes to hang out in the bottom tube a lot, Norm can usually be found in one of them and Kreacher likes lounging on the very top, though he jumps right off as soon as you open the door. They all seem to scratch that one up the most too. Big Dani prefers that spot he's in and Oscar, well, she's usually in the hide out...

We have the chair in the corner pulled away from the walls a bit and there are two covered cat beds/huts on each side of it with a blanket (and a pillow) in between the two huts behind the chair. This is the "hide out" and where Oscar likes to spend a lot of her time, usually in one of the huts. Kreacher and LJ also like to hang out in the circle area that the chair's base creates too - watching while still being "hidden".

Behind the cat trees is the double decker - there are no words for how much I love this cage, so let me just say I love it!! This double decker has socialized feral kitties, "re-socialized" Roo several times when she developed behavioral problems, confined sick kitties who needed to be fed separately or needed medication and is the "adjustment" cage for new cats. As Big Dani is displaying, it's an excellent perch also. We make sure it's always covered on top and it's had a bed up there since we realized there was always someone going up there. When Big Dani isn't up there, Kreacher is. He really likes snuggling up in that bed.

I completely forgot to get a photo of the "feeding station" where Oscar and Kreacher had their bowels. Since then, LJ's has been added and there's a big water dispenser too. Big Dani's food is over by the old closet and Norman still eats in the double-decker.

Against the back wall are the litterboxes - we have three big boxes and there's another in the double decker. We've got a big one, a corner one and a covered one. There's a little bit of everything because Kreacher is strange with his litterbox habits. Also, I'm not sure what everyone else uses, but Matt and I love Arm & Hammer's Essential Natural litter. It's expensive, but it smells so good and does a good job destroying other odors.

An old closet was converted for the cats. Matt built the shelf you can see in this picture and the really neat ramp which the cats like to leap off of - for a vision impaired cat, Kreacher really likes leaping. They also like hiding back there when I bring in the loud, scar vacuum - that's LJ, Norman (who is smooshed back in the corner) and Kreach.

On the other side of the closet is a cabinet we keep food and supplements in. There are shelves too that we keep clean blankets and sheets on for when we clean out the room and need to put new bedding down.

That's about it for "the tour"... Someday we'll have a fun house with a big yard to burn Miles's energy in and fun cubbies for the cats to get away from him when he's inside with them. For now, the boys (and Oscar) are being spoiled in their own room.