#and gave me a box of cat probiotics

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

Took my cat to the vet just for him to be diagnosed with tummy hurted and said he needs different food

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

Tiny Paws

A Give Me Shelter one shot.

Contains: So much fluff, like all the fluff. Much angst but with a happy ending, orphan kittens, large men holding tiny kittens, large men being unable to say no to tiny kittens.

2.9K words

Comment if you want to be tagged/removed or follow #give me shelter.

Happy enlists the guys to help with something he found behind the shop.

"Yes Happy, it's kitten season and I'm up to my eyeballs so please make it quick."

Happy sighed and waved at Tig to hurry up with the hot pack, "I found ginger kittens behind the shop, they still have their cords and mum didn't come back. Do you have spare supplies? The Club will look after them and we'll pay for everything, all you have to do is bring the stuff."

A wave of relief came over you, "we have plenty, I'll be there as soon as I can with everything you'll need, how many are there?"

Tig handed the hot pack to Happy, having rushed into the kitchen to shove some rice in a sock to keep them warm, his hands steady as he brushed the smallest kitten with a warm, just damp, super soft toothbrush, "three, they're not premature, just little."

You nodded, "I'll bring the incubator anyway, see you soon."

Happy smiled, "I love you."

You chuckled, "I love you too, and keep Juice away from them, the last time he got his hands on bottle babies they ended too up fat."

By the time you got there, they were huddled around the tiny kittens, fighting over whose turn it was to brush their little bodies. You placed the incubator on the table with an eye roll, "hey, there will be plenty of time for that, you all need to listen to me right now."

Opie looked up at you from his seat, the kitten on his lab meowing as the brushing stopped.

"Alright, here I have kitten formula, probiotics since they didn't get mother's milk, an incubator and the supplies you'll need for it, a microwavable warmer, syringes, bottles and miracle nipples, a purring fluffy cat doll, a scale and all the paperwork to track how much they eat and how much weight they have put on. Have I forgotten anything?"

Happy looked at the table, "no."

You nodded, "do you all know what you're doing or do I need to show you?"

Happy shook his head, "I know what I'm doing and I can show the guys that don't. You're already busy, go back to work."

You smiled, "I love you so much." You looked at the wriggly little things on their laps, "they are very cute and if I stay any longer I won't be able to leave, please give them lots of kisses for me."

Happy stood up and pecked you, "of course. Off you go now."

You gave them a wave and walked off, Happy turned to his friends and started giving out instructions. "Someone needs to make the formula, all the instructions are on the side. Only make enough for two feeds, then bring it back here." Bobby shot up and gathered all the supplies then Happy started again, turning to Juice, "Juicy, set up the incubator, you remember how to do that right?"

Juice's eyes went wide but he nodded, "yep." He picked up the machine. It looked like a fancy clear bread box with a cover and tube to attach a bottle of distilled water to keep the humidity up. Juice did his best to pile the blankets on top and take it all in one trip, Happy shaking his head as he went.

Jax's hand was still busy brushing one of the kittens when he spoke up, "I'll put a feeding schedule together."

Happy raised his eyebrows, "you think I forget what happened last time, you're a kitten hog, I'll do it."

Chibs chuckled, "you're no better, brother."

Happy glared at him, "find, we'll go around the table, there's enough of them to go around."

Before Opie could protest, unwilling to hand over the kitten in his lap, Bobby came back with the warmed formula. Happy's voice was gruff, "I'll go first, I got to make sure you all know what you're doing."

They all wandered into the office and Jax and Chibs placed the kittens they were holding into the incubator while Opie handed his to Happy, the men gathering around while Happy drew up the warm milk. He placed the kitten on the scale and waved to Boddy to write the number down, then picked and the kitten and grabbed a tissue rubbing it on the kitten's butt, his voice soft as he spoke, "that's a big poo for such a tiny kitten, are you hungry little one?"

The meow was tiny, barely a squeak as Happy placed the kitten on his lap on its belly, his finger gently over its throat so he could tell if it was swallowing and tapped its lip with the rubber nipple, sighing in relief as the kitten accepted it.

His friends looked on as he started to talk, "you got to go real slow when they're this little, one drop at a time so make sure you use a new syringe every time.

Tig rolled his eyes, "we know brother. Never feed a cold kitten, never turn them on their back when you're feeding them, use a tissue to rub their butts so they go to the toilet then weigh them, write the number down and feed them, write down how much their eaten then weigh them again. We've done this before."

Tig went to take a kitten but Jax stopped him, "we're going around the table, it's not your turn." Jax took one kitten in each hand and handed one to Opie before they both went through the process of feeding them while everyone stood around and watched.

The kitten pulled away from Happy first and he grabbed another tissue, wiping its dirty face, "was that good, are you full?" The kitten let out another tiny meow as Happy weighed it then lifted it to his lips and kissed its forehead, "all better now, we'll see you again soon." He placed the kitten on the warm pad in the incubator, Jax and Opie following suit.

They all stood there for a few moments longer before slowly heading back to work, Juice looking into the box with a sad look on his face, "are you sure they don't need more?"

Happy shook his head, "they've all had plenty, you can go next Juicy."

"They need names." Chucky had gone back and forth from the office to the garage every twenty minutes giving them updates.

Happy shook his head, "we won't be able to tell the sex or another few days, we should wait."

"Harley works for a boy or a girl." Kozik's voice was full of hope.

Happy sighed, "no, y/n make me promise not to give her another Harley, every batch of kittens that's come out of here has had one."

Kozik wrinkled his brow, "but it's a good name."

Chibs chuckled, "we'll wait, we can write names on a bit of paper and pull them out of a hat."

They all turned to Jax, who shrugged, "sounds good to me."

Two hours later, they were all back in the office, feeding the kittens again. "They're so little, are you sure we can't carry them around? They'd fit in our pockets." Juice was doing his best to sound conceiving.

"No, they're better off in here where they're in a controlled environment." Once Tig, Bobby and Chibs were done feeding, Happy looked at the weight chart and smiled, "they're gaining weight well, we have to figure out who's taking them home tonight."

They shared a look and Tig threw out his hand for a round of rock, paper, scissors, Chibs eventually winning. He went up to the box and opened it, reaching his hand in and running his finger over the head of the one with the orange stripe on its head, "did ya see that? Ya coming home with me tonight."

Chibs showed up the next day with bags under his eyes and a smile on his face, "they ate every two hours. The wee little things are such darlings I hardly slept."

Chibs passed Happy the feeding sheet and he looked it over, "this is good. We can swap to a bottle now, so it should be a bit easier." Chibs placed in the incubator back in the office then walked into the garage to start his day.

"When did you feed them last?" Juice was always so excited for his turn.

Chibs smiled, "you've got an hour to wait before their next feeding."

Juice looked towards the office, "are you sure they're not hungry?"

Chibs sighed affectionately, "no Juicy, they're not hungry."

As each man arrived at work, they stopped by the office to say hello to the kittens, Opie spending some extra time for cuddles because the smallest kitten meowed just as he walked out. Juice, Kozik and Tig went in for the first feeding of the day, Tig coming out in a huff, "we have to name them now, they need names."

Jax shook his head and went looking for a container and some paper so they could write some names down, "nothing stupid, they need to get adopted and make sure they fit boys and girls." It took them far longer to submit than he would have liked but nevertheless, they were all standing in the middle of the garage ready to pick.

Jax reached in but Opie stopped him, "we should get Chucky to do it, that way no one can say you cheated." He called Chucky and he came running, looking a little guilty.

Tig tilted his head with a smile, "what did you do Chucky?"

Chucky smiled sheepishly, "nothing, they looked sad so I cuddled them for a while."

Tig waved his hand, "come over here and pull three bits of paper out of the tub."

The other watched on with bated breath as he read the name out, "Cheese, Limoncello and Peanut. The little one should be Peanut, the one with the orange stripe on its head should be Cheese and the lighter one should be Limoncello." Chucky looked around, worried that he wasn't supposed to go that far but the other nodded.

"That works." Happy was a man of few words but he always got the point across.

It took three more days for them to be big enough to find out who was a male and female and each second they waited only served to build the excitement, "it looks like Peanut and Cheese are girls and Limoncello is a boy."

They had swapped them to a playpen that morning and had moved in into a quiet corner of the garage but that only made it harder for everyone to work because the kittens would meow for food and cuddles every second that they weren't asleep.

"Maybe we can keep them as shop cats? There's always someone staying in the dorms so they'll never be alone and it's not like y/n will say no to not having three more animals to adopt out, plus, it keeps them together." Juice sounds so hopeful.

They all looked at Jax who rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to even bother putting it up for a vote, we all know what the answer is going to be. Three cats are a lot to look after so we'll have to pitch in, the best food, the best vet care and clean litter trays, we can take turns." Jax sighed, "and they're not allowed in the chapel, I don't want them taking over."

The next feeding fell right in the middle of church, now that they were learning to walk, it a pastime for the guys to watch them waddle around and fall over. The plastic tub was in the middle of the table, Cheese and Limoncello having already been fed meant Happy was left to fill Peanut's belly.

He finished up and placed her on the table to grab a tissue to wipe her face but she had just started to walk and waddled the three wobbly steps and flopped herself onto the sound block that Jax slammed the gavel into. Jax looked at Happy and smiled, "leave her there, she's adorable."

The kittens grew more independent as time went on, soon enough they were being weaned off milk and onto wet food. Happy sat there despondent as they walked through their food and then all over the floor. Chibs walked in with smile on his face, "what got you so sad brother, they're only learning?"

Happy sighed, "they're meant to be apex predators and they can't even eat." He looked at the packet, "tuna flavoured kitten food. I'm a terrible cat mother."

Chibs chuckled, "what did y/n say?"

Happy shook his head, "that this is normal and that the real fun starts when the meat poops start. I don't know how she does this all the time, they are so tiny and weak and dependant. How I am suppose to look after a human child when the time comes when I can teach three cats how to eat."

Chibs sighed, "you'll be fine."

Right on cue, Peanut sat right in the food and Happy's shoulders fell, "I need to go wash this idiot. God the orange ones are stupid."

Jax grimaced, "there is poop everywhere, how did this happen?"

Happy sighed, "it happens when they move onto solid food, they need a bath."

Tig walked over to the shop sink and started to wash it out, "not in there you idiot, in the dorm. Can someone please bring the baby shampoo, it's in the bag." Happy picked up Cheese and Limoncello while Jax took Peanut and they walked towards the dorm bathroom.

Happy ran the tap with warm water and picked up Cheese, "are you ready." The meow was long and squeaky as he ran her butt under the warm stream.

The meows got more upset as it continued and Tig laughed, "they sound so sad."

Jax chuckled, "don't listen. Limoncello meowed until I picked him up then he fell asleep in my lap. I needed to piss so bad and I couldn't get up because every time I tried to move he'd get all sad."

Happy rinsed Cheese off then handed her to Tig for him to dry her off, "just make sure she's dry then take her back to the pen so she can stay warm."

Tig lifted her to his lips and pressed his lips to her forehead, "come on little kitty, you can stay with me while Mr Grumpy washes your siblings."

"Are you sure they be alright? They're so little." Tig sounded worried.

"Yes, their ten weeks and one kilo or two pounds, they'll be fine. Someone will need to take them home and stay with them for the next few days while they recover. It's just a spay and neuter, it's nothing."

Opie wandered over, "I'll take them, the kids are on holiday and they've been begging me to let them come and spend more time with the cats."

You smiled, "wonderful. Everyone sure they've had nothing to eat and drink?" They all nodded, "great, depending on how they go, they will be home either this afternoon or early tomorrow morning. I'll call the moment they are out."

"Alright, here's the official adoption agreement, sign here.

You handed the pen to Happy and he smiled, "thank you little girl, Ope and Jax are in there now converting one of our store rooms into their room. You wanna come and see?"

You sighed, "sure, how much time and money has everyone put into this thing?"

Happy did his best not to smile, "a lot, we even replaced the door with a glass one."

You walked inside and you could hear them walking away. You popped your head around the corner and Jax smiled, "hello darlin, did the paperwork go through?"

You nodded, "yep, they have officially been adopted by Teller-Morrow Automotive Repairs."

He smiled, "thank you, they're in the dorm if you want to say hello."

Happy reached out his hand and you linked your fingers in his as he walked you towards to room. You opened the door and they came running, meowing as you sat on the floor with Happy.

You picked up Limoncello and he nuzzled into your chest, "they got so big."

Happy smiled and shuffled closer to you, looping his arm around your shoulder, "we fed em good."

You chuckled, "you mean Juice fed them half an hour early whenever he could. I saw the logs Hap."

Happy smiled, "their little meows were so sad, it's not his fault he couldn't say no."

You sighed, "it's alright, they have a good home now. I don't have any more to do, I'm happy to help out with their new room."

Happy pressed his lips to your cheek, "that would be great."

The kittens had been great from everyone, turns out a bad day is nothing compared to loud purrs and head bonks. It hadn't taken long for them to get free rein of the Clubhouse, and Jax's rule of them not being allowed in the chapel lasted until they meowed at the door and he let all three of them in himself.

Jax sighed when he saw the open door, there was no point in trying to keep them out of the room, they always managed to open the doors. They all walk in and smiled as they saw Peanut and Cheese lying out like tigers on the table, Peanut's head on her favourite spot on the sound block.

Chibs scratched Cheese behind under the chin and looked around "have you seen Lemon?"

They got their answer as Jax pulled out his chair, Limoncello meowing as his sleep was disturbed. Jax threw his hands up in the air and sighed, "it looks like we're all standing."

Happy shook his head, "you're the only one with a cat on your chair."

Jax smiled, "and we all know that if we're in touching distance of any of those little monsters, we'll never get any business done."

Fin

[lastoneout]

God I am on the verge of a complete fucking mental breakdown rn

So for like 3 days now my dog has had diarrhea to the point that I have to let him out every 2-3 hours to shit even at night so I haven’t actually really slept in 3 days. He’s also been on and off refusing to eat which is FUN. I thought we had figured that out cuz we started giving him wet food and he would eat that, but now he’s back to barely touching it. 

And like Wednesday night we took him to the pet ER cuz neither me nor my partner slept at all and we were like “please help” and they gave him an IV drip, got some x-rays, and were like “yeah his bowels are all full of gas and water and inflamed so he probably ate something he shouldn’t have and also he has a heart murmur” and gave us some clay supplements and probiotics to help, which we did manage to get him to take but they haven't helped AT ALL, and now that he’s refusing to eat again we can’t fucking give him the meds cuz the only way to make him eat them was to mix them into his food. 

So we’re taking him to his regular vet tomorrow since he had an appointment anyway to look at this issue with his toe which is probably cancer and so on top of the heart murmur and the bowl problems he’s likely gonna have to get his toe amputated which like, is extra stressful because the vet ER visit cost $300 FUCKING DOLLARS and during this next one the vet ER was like “if this doesn’t clear up your regular vet is gonna want to do a stool sample and blood work” and I was like cool that’s gonna cost a fucking arm and a leg plus however the fuck much surgery is gonna cost. I was gonna use my stimulus check to pay for it all but that STILL HASN’T COME so we have to dip into all of our savings to take care of this and I know we have to because I love my dog and want him to live but I just am really worried we’re gonna reach a point where we can’t pay anymore or were there’s nothing to be done to help him and I don’t know what to do if that happens. 

Also I’m fucking pissed about people letting their cats be outdoor cats because I know what he ate that made him sick was probably cat shit because all of the neighborhood strays and outdoor cats use our yard as a litter box and even if I wanted too there’s no way I could keep on top of cleaning it all up. So yeah, honestly rn if you let your cats outside you can go fuck yourself.

Anyway, I’m gonna go try to take a nap if I can or at least a bath or something cuz I’m also on my period so my mental stability is in the fucking toilet and I just want to die.

If anyone wanted to donate to help with expenses for the vet tho my paypal is queesting@gmail.com I’m also not really in any mental position to offer commissions but if you did want one and don’t mind waiting for a week or two my prices are here.

[thecat-project-blog]

UTIs in Cats

Urinary Tract Infection or UTI, an infection in any part of the urinary system, the kidneys, bladder, or urethra. The infection is called Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD)* for cats. Similar to a UTI in humans, FLUTD causes painful urination for the cat and blood is often seen in urine.

My old neighbor, a fellow cat lover, adopted a young stray after her previous old cat had died. The young stray also showed signs of FLUTD. For the first few weeks, she seemed healthy and energetic. Then she started urinating outside of her litter box. I physically went into my neighbor’s home and the odor was just vile. Out of my 13 years, I had never smelled anything like what I had smelled then.

Around a year ago, a close friend of mine had to euthanize his because of a FLUTD. My friend told me that his cat had trouble urinating, but when she did, she would frequently urinate outside of her litter box. Due to heavy veterinary expenses, my friend decided to put his little friend to sleep.

On May 14 the 2012-2014 internet sensation Grumpy Cat died to a FLUTD. I’ve read multiple articles saying Grumpy Cat could not overcome her UTI despite top professional treatment. After these three incidents, I’ve wondered about the causes of FLUTD. I also brewed up the following questions:

1. Do house-cats contract UTI more than strays?

2. How difficult is it to treat this infection?

3. Why is it so common in cats?

4. What can I do to lower the risks of my cat catching a UTI?

First,

The most common signs of a FLUTD are:

Painful urination/Difficulty urinating

Will often cry out in pain while urinating

Urinating outside of litter box

Blood in urine

Urine odor is stronger than normal

Frequently trying to urinate or grooming genitals

Thick, contracted urine (smaller clumps of urine in litter)

Now answering my questions:

I would say yes, house cats are more susceptible to UTIs because (according to PrettyLitter) they are responses to stress. Cats become more stressed and sometimes depressed when their freedom is restricted.

Is it difficult? Or is it just the price of the surgery that get people tied up? I’m not sure if my question is even objectively correct and I can’t find resources answering it.

After research, I learned that urinary tract disorders are common but UTIs themselves are uncommon. Infections are caused when bacteria travels up the urethra into the bladder. So I’m guessing bacteria ridden places are dangerous? Maybe an unclean litter box.

Luckily (for me, that is), FLUTD is more common in female cats and I have a male cat! But on the other hand, UTIs are more serious in male cats because males have a narrow urethra so treatment may be difficult. UTIs are also more common in younger cats (first 6 years) and Smokey just turned 6! I want to devote more time playing with Smokey, giving him plenty of exercise and fresh water and food so he won’t be stressed :’)

I saw some comments on a natural cure and the most popular is Apple Cider Vinegar. You can buy large jars of ACV in Costco. One man commented that he gave his own infected cat probiotics and ACV daily for few weeks. There are plenty of websites supporting this method and it was proven to be effective for this man. His kitty’s UTI did not come back for 3 years and counting!!

*FLUTD is not a specific term to describe the disease but it is used to describe the conditions of a bladder or kidney infection.

[andilion]

Rough weekend over here, gross post warning ⚠️

Dakota had another diarrhea incident in the night Friday night. So she’s back to eating boiled chicken and rice and I ordered her some probiotics. When this happened a month ago they tested her poop but were like we don’t know, she’s just old 🤷🏻‍♀️ She has no other symptoms with it and when it happens it seems like she’s been backed up even though she’s been pooping normally when I walk her. I switched her to science diet sensitive skin & systems (she gets bad dandruff randomly too) and at the time they also suggested a probiotic. So I ordered her the one she’s taken before when she was having poo probs and we’ll see if that helps. Back to the vet if it doesn’t.

I also switched the cats to the cat version of the same food just this weekend and now Lulu has been in and out of the litter box 800 times and licking herself constantly. I thought the food switch gave her diarrhea, but it actually looks like she’s trying to pee everytime she goes in there so now I’m wondering if she has a UTI. She won’t let us hold her/hold her down at all without having an anxiety attack, but she had poop stuck to her fluffy butt the other day that we had to force her against her will to let us remove. I’m wondering if her fluffy buns are impeding her from cleaning well enough back there and now possibly the UTI. Since she’s such a mess we can’t take her to a groomer either and she had a couple mattes on her back that we had to chase/wrestle her to let us comb out. Also the last time she got sick, trying to give her pills was about the absolute worst thing on earth and she wasn’t cooperating at all (she won’t eat treats either), so she ended up getting worse and when I took her to another vet they finally just gave her an antibiotic injection.

So I’ll see how she’s acting tomorrow and decide about a vet trip for her I guess. It will definitely not be a good time for either of us. The vet gives me so much anxiety because it’s so expensive and I think I have PTSD from when Rylie died; everytime I have to go my brain goes straight to the worst possible thing and omg they’re dying. Plus Dakota is old so I worry in general.

This whole thing is also stressful because as usual I have about 500 appointments on my calendar this week, so taking off work would be a nightmare and I’m leaving for PA to visit my sister Thursday night, so if I leave Peter with two sick animals he’s gunna lose his shit and prob guilt me about it too. I hope their issues just resolve themselves 😩😩😩

[lavenderek]

ok here is the story of my cat and her poops. theres a lot of frank discussion of cat poop here so feel free to scroll past

my cat has some anxiety and she hates the other cats, and whenever something stressful is going on, she gets the liquid poops. when we lived in greeley, one day there was blood in it, so i took her to the vet immediately. he made me feel like it wasn’t a huge deal, but he prescribed her some medicine and i forced it down her throat dutifully every night and her poops returned to form but stayed soft.

and she seemed normal otherwise! her behavior hadn’t changed and she was eating and drinking normally.

then when i moved back home and she was combined w several other cats, she started missing the litterbox. it was deliberate. every day twice a day there would be a shit on the floor two feet away from the litterboxes. it was always soft. i figured it was just a bigass cat middle finger to the other cats

then after two or three years my parents decided to sell the house. EVERYTHING was in boxes and we had house showings and i started plugging in air fresheners everywhere so it wouldn’t smell like cat pee (my mom’s cat fucking pissed everywhere it was a territory thing) and this is when it all went to shit (haha)

she started shitting upstairs in the kitchen instead.

we couldnt put a litterbox there because of the house showings so i just started putting her in the garage (with food and water and litterboxes and blankets) when somebody had to come over. and as a result every morning when we got up, cat shit in the kitchen. and every night when i got home from work, cat shit in the kitchen.

when we finally sold the house and moved, there was a litterbox under the little business nook in the kitchen, and she used that. she did not shit on the floor! but when we found a permanent location for litterboxes we took it away, and day one she took a crap on the floor where the litterbox was, so we put another one in its place.

but after that, she returned firmly to shitting on the kitchen floor. and not even where she had originally shit on the floor, she was putting it across the room.

and she knew i hated it! because when i found it i would come find her and carry her over to it and show it to her and tell her No (i would never hurt her but i wanted her to associate pooping on the floor with me being mad)

and it worked, she knew i was mad. it did not stop her from shitting on the floor! what it did was make her tail poof up with fear WHILE SHE SHIT ON THE FLOOR! and that is how i decided something was wrong. i decided to take her to the vet on my next day off. the day before the vet appt there was blood in it. anyway so different vet this time bc i no longer live in greeley.

THIS vet is a family fav because although he is gruff and kind of rude to humans, he LOVES animals. he knows his shit and he complimented her ears, which are pretty and which she keeps very clean. he also immediately diagnosed her with giardia and gave me some different medicine to force feed her, and he told me to sequester her from the other cats because although the other cats haven’t been having any poop issues whatsoever, not even missing the box or failing to properly bury it, giardia is contagious among cats who poop near each other.

he also said she was a senior cat and may just be getting lazy. i was like idk about that. i got her her own litterbox and her own food and water and set her up on vacation in my room.

my mom is CONVINCED she is sad and lonely and bored, and maybe she is! but she seems thrilled to me. she’s peppy and kind and she obeys the litterbox except once or twice when she had peed a bunch of times while i was at work and then decided the box was too messy for her to poop in. but the poops stayed soft. and after her quarantine period ended (doc said five days, i kept her a week) she returned firmly to shitting on the floor. and i couldn’t afford to take her back to the vet.

and honestly this vet was rly annoyed that we have been feeding her purina anyway and i was like. she doesn’t seem to like purina. shes been eating it her entire life but the last several years she like fishes the food out w her paw and complains about it. it didn’t occur to me to think anything of it but now im thinking about her digestive system like all the time so i was like hmm.

so i bought her some special dry food that’s for senior cats w digestive issues, and i also bought some probiotic supplements to mix into her fav grain free wet food. and i have returned her to her separation.

and it has been two weeks now and her poops are mostly solid. and they don’t smell like death warmed over anymore they just smell like normal cat poop. and !! today !!

she let me scratch her tummy. she has kicked my hand away whenever i touched her tummy for years now! but just now i scratched her tummy and she ROLLED ONTO HER BACK AND PURRED!!

and now im like! maybe she hated when i touched her tummy bc it was sensitive and she didn’t feel good! maybe she fucked around w her food because she was having trouble digesting it! maybe pooping away from the box wasn’t a “fuck my roommates” issue, maybe it was a “hey who wants to diagnose my painful shits” issue!

the moral of the story is if your pet has a misbehavioral issue there is often a chance that they are having a sickness and need help. im frustrated w myself that it took me this long to figure out how to help her, but im also frustrated w my parents because it didnt even occur to them she should go to the vet like all our cats are overdue for their shots and the vet was like hmmm hrmph << >3( about it (like i said hes kind of rude to People but he cares v much about Animals)

ANYWAY scratched my cats tummy today and she loves her new food and eats ravenously.

[cutiecrates]

Review: Doki Doki Crate Jan 2017

I don’t have much to say so lets just get rolling!

Before I begin, I’d like to apologize for keeping the Cuties who like my blog waiting <3 Whether I know anyone reads these or not- I have a lot of fun writing them and I think its great experience.

I also wanted to mention that this box came later can usual this month. As it turned out, there was an issue with the Amuse Cat Pouch that was included in the box. US Customs had pulled it over, and had they not switched it out, we would have been waiting even longer for this box. In the box instead had been this note:

To make up for what happened, they traded that item for these candies:

Right away I can’t say that a bunch of cheap candies may not be able to make up for an item missing in the box- but I thought it was so sweet of them to try, I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Here we got the Nyusankin Ikitekimasu Yogurt Candy, which are little probiotic hard candies with the taste of strawberry and aid in digestion. As well as three Genji Pie Cookies (2 of which were crumbled to tiny pieces) and were fairly plain, but not terrible?

The most fun of the trio was the Fortune Candy. A popular and cheap little chocolate candy with a strawberry shell that provide a fun little fortune. Each candy has one of these symbols on the wrapping behind them: ^ X O or a double circle.

The O means Very Good and Good, while X means Bad, and the triangle means Not Good. Beneath each candy is a random fortune aspect; such as popularity, travel, dating, Health, etc.

Apparently my dating life right now is looking not good, but I could took comfort in knowing my friend got Bad for wish. As much as that makes me a horrible person >:3

(I tease I tease, we shared a small laugh over it)

As a whole, I’d like to rank these 3 out of 5. I did like the Yogurt Candy and Fortune Candy, but the Genji Pie Cookies were so boring, and I love cookies. It didn’t help that they were so broken up though. I also noticed the list provided on the page that was in the box did not match up to the list on the fortune candy themselves and I could only match a few of them. I got a headache staring at both things for so long that I eventually just gave up.

Thankfully I think they took notice of this:

http://blog.japancrate.com/blog/2017/01/17/puchu-puchu-uranai-fortune-telling-chocolates/

If you’re like me and you can’t figure this out (I promise I’m not seeing things, they don’t match), this chart comes in handy. The two I opened match to the picture, so this is WAY easier to figure out. I ate a few more after finding it too. I have a not good for exercise, and very good for present!

So moving along, I actually discovered something pretty interesting. I recognized the Yogurt Candy from a youtuber I watch. She was explaining that a DAISO opened up near her just recently. Not only that but she had a few other items I recognized from this box and previous ones. Apparently some of the items we get in the boxes/crates are from Daiso. For those unaware, Daiso is essentially the Japanese dollar store.

On one hand this is exciting because Daiso is really awesome as far as I’m convinced. But on the other hand this might lessen the value of some crates/boxes for some people.

Okay, I apologize, I apparently did have a lot to say. Starting from this point I will be covering crate content.

So here we have the Suteki Crate of January. You may notice the pink being thrown at us here and I am okay with that <3

We have: A Fuji Film Instax, Laduree Japan Macaron Eraser, Cardcaptor Sakura 20th anniversary memorial box, Sanrio Daruma, Cinnamonroll MOMOgraph Pencil, Gudetama Planner, My Melody Backpack, Jinbei San Pouch, Sumikko Gurashi Calendar, and a Mini Arcade Game!

So starting with the cutest kitty pieces around, we have the Shogatsu Julie and Nekomiki Headband. As you can see, Julie is back! This time she has no flaws at all (and the little bow was on a package in the crate- as I mentioned I save them). 4 out of 5 for this one. She’s so cute, but I kinda miss her "Julie“ qualities, like her pill box hat and fluffy tail.

The headband is very cute and fluffy... but (and I feel stupid for saying this) I actually can’t figure out how you wear it. The only way that seems to work makes it slide off in a few minutes so I don’t think I’m getting it... 3 out of 5.

Next we have a super kawaii Relax Panda Hand Rest perfect for long nights on the computer or other little activities when your wrists need a break OwO. 5 out of 5. I noticed very minor defects on mine (not very visible in the pic though), but its so squishy and cute. It also comes in handy, cause I get a lot of wrist pains.

For the month of January, Hoppe Chan decided to make herself look like Mount Fuji! As you can see we got traditional Hoppe Chan, and as usual she is made of squishy rubbery deco bits. The little mountain is plastic, as is the bow on the baby hoppe chan. 5 out of 5. Virtually useless, but I screamed when I saw the tiny hoppe chan <3 I LOVE tiny cute things.

Of course I had to put the cookies together~

Notice anything special about these cookies though??

THEY’RE ACTUALLY SECRET ITEMS!

That’s right, the Macaron Case is a case you can take apart and put stuff in. Nobody will be none the wiser! Not only that but it rolls around too, its a toy and compartment all in one :3

You can put all sorts of items into it, like your favorite pins and bows, or some bracelets and necklaces <3 Also, check out the Biscuit Pen! 5 out of 5 for both items.

I’m sorry if this review seemed a little rushed or boring. I’m starving and I really need a bite to eat~

<3 Cutie Ranking <3

Quality - 3 out of 5. I felt the need to include this today because as I mentioned, not only did 2 out of the 3 cookies come broken up/destroyed, but my panda had little defects on it.

Content - I felt like half of this stuff should have been put in the September cat-themed box honestly ^ x ^ This box was New Years themed, but I can’t say I entirely got that outside of the Hoppe Chan. I do like the content, but... I feel mixed on it. 3 out of 5. 

Practicality - The Panda and Case are very usable, as are the pen and headband. But when you can’t make an item work and get a pen that you probably wouldn’t use all the time given how little it is. 4 out of 5. 

Total Rank: 10 out of 15 Cuties.

<3 Cutie Scale <3

1. Mt. Fuji Hoppe Chan - As usual Hoppe Chan is prec <3 with the tiny hoppe chan on top she quickly won me over. 

2. Relax Panda Hand Rest - I love panda, and I feel more relaxed just looking at this thing~

3. Biscuit Pen - It’s little, its cute, it has a ribbon sticker on it!

4. Julie Shogatsu Edition - She’s really precious and adorable, don’t get me wrong. But I miss the old charm of the original Julie.

5. Nekomimi Headband - it’s so soft~ 

6. Macaron Case - it’s adorable, I love macaron <3 but its fairly plain.

7. The Included Candies - Fun, and again very sweet of them. But not cute at all besides packaging.

I have my last January box coming up in the next post Cuties <3 My February boxes will start to come very soon too!

I also plan to make posts detailing the various brands I Subscribe to, and doing some fun “top 10” lists! So stay tuned~

[naturephiliashop]

I’ve been avoiding all social media lately because something happened that I wasn’t ready to talk about yet. I know I don’t have to share all of this, but I feel like I can’t go back to posting normal things until I get this off my chest. 

My cat Mendel was recently diagnosed with Diabetes mellitus. I used to work as a Vet Tech, so having to administer daily insulin injections and monitoring his blood glucose wouldn’t have been a problem for me to handle. It would have been a financial strain as insulin is quite expensive, but I was willing to do it because I loved this cat so much. I had also mentioned to the Vet who diagnosed him that I’ve been seeing a little bright red blood in his stool every once in a while. I figured maybe he was straining and that was causing the blood, it isn’t uncommon. The Vet had kind of brushed it off and said she was more concerned with getting his Diabetes under control. Just as I was preparing to regulate his diabetes (buying insulin and syringes, glucometer, special food, etc.), Mendel had defecated outside the litter box and it was 100% bright red, frank blood. It was very alarming, so I immediately brought him to an Emergency Vet nearby since all the regular animal hospitals were closed. The Doctor examined him and concluded that the bloody stool is most likely due to colitis. She sent us home with Flagyl and probiotics. I think she was being really conservative with treating him because he was otherwise fine…alert and responsive, still eating and drinking, behaving normally. When I saw Mendel’s extremely bloody stool, my mind immediately envisioned the worst case scenario…he has cancer and he’s dying (I have anxiety, so I tend to jump to awful, sometimes irrational conclusions). Leaving the hospital, I was so relieved that whatever he had was most likely treatable and he’ll recover with time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the outcome. What happened next can only be described as every pet owner’s nightmare: taking your pet to the Vet and never bringing them home again. 

Fast forward to the morning of the following day, Mendel wasn’t really eating much and acting a little withdrawn. I still continued giving him the meds hoping that by night he’ll feel a little better and his appetite will come back. As the day went on, he was only getting worse and worse. He was very lethargic and barely moved all day. He refused to eat anything. I even boiled some chicken for him and when I held a piece up to him, he backed away as if repulsed by it. I knew his bloody stool wouldn’t be resolved in just under 24 hours, but now he was literally leaking pure blood everywhere. There was obviously something more severe going on with him and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with colitis. That night my boyfriend and I took him back to the same Emergency Vet. This time he was seen by a different doctor. She wanted to run blood work on him to get an idea of what might be going on. I was actually writing my previous Tumblr post while I waited for Mendel’s blood work. It pains me to read what I wrote, “I’m sure in a few weeks time he’ll be back to his normal self and his diabetes will be in check”. I am not even joking, a minute after I posted that the doctor came out to the waiting room with the blood work results, looking grave as she pulled up a chair next to us. Judging by her body language alone I knew whatever she was about to tell us wasn’t good. Apparently, he was severely anemic. His PCV (Packed Cell Volume) was 13, dangerously low for a cat. She basically told us that at the very least he needed a blood transfusion asap or he’s not going to make it to morning. She advised us to see an internal medicine specialist at a referral hospital 2 hours away and that they would be better equipped to treat him and provide the diagnostics to figure out the cause of his severe anemia. The Vet kept emphasizing that Mendel was “a really sick cat”. It was so hard for me to process all that information and make the decision to go the referral hospital or put him down right there. My boyfriend Mike and I weren’t expecting to be faced with such a hard decision that night. We had decided to do a few more tests at the vet we were currently at before making the drive to the referral hospital hoping that we would at least have an idea of what we were up against. They took some radiographs and a FeLV snap test (even though I told her we tested him years ago, she said it could have been a false negative). All of those tests told us absolutely nothing as to why his blood count was so low. This might sound horrible, but we were hoping that they would have found something. If he had intestinal cancer (which was a high possibility), the thought of euthanizing him would have been a little more bearable. But we literally had no hard evidence of what was wrong with him. And I didn’t want to put him down for nothing! 

So, we decided to make the 2 hour trip to the referral hospital in MA. I sat in the back with Mendel and gave him head scratches through his crate. He never did well with car rides. I felt bad making him endure a long drive, especially since he was so sick, but in the moment I thought it was in his best interest to take him to the other hospital. About an hour into the trip, I started having regrets about that decision. He kept fading in and out of consciousness, there were even a few times I thought he died. I was hysterically crying, I didn’t want him to pass in the car, knowing he was probably in a lot of pain. Luckily, we arrived at the hospital before such a tragedy happened. We were taken into a room while they took Mendel to the back to examine him. His PCV was at 11 now, which really alarmed the Doctor. Mike and I were hoping that they could ultrasound his abdomen before he was given a blood transfusion. If he had intestinal cancer, I didn’t want to put him through a bunch of treatments that would only keep him alive temporarily. I was concerned with his quality of life, keeping him alive just because I didn’t want to let go was so wrong. It turned out that the ultrasonographer wouldn’t be there until 9 am. It was 5:30 am when we arrived. I didn’t think Mendel could wait that long without a blood transfusion. The Doctor put together an estimate for us that only covered the blood transfusion, ultrasound, and overnight hospitalization. The starting total would have amounted to around $5,000 that had to be paid in full. The Doctor proceeded to say that she knew we wanted answers, but if whatever was going on with him was treatable, it wouldn’t be a quick fix, he would need to be hospitalized for days. If the starting price was $5,000, I wouldn’t be surprised if, by the end of all his diagnostic tests, treatments, and hospitalization for days upon days amounted to over $15,000. I would have been in serious amounts of debt if I had to pay that up front and in full. The Doctor could tell that we wouldn’t be able to afford it and added that euthanasia wouldn’t be an inhumane option to consider at this point. For the entire night and morning, I had been crying at the thought of having to put him down. But there really wasn’t any other choice. After I authorized in writing to have him euthanized, they took us to the back to be with him. They had already given him a sedative so he was pretty out of it. Mike and I said our goodbyes and I stroked his forehead as he passed. The Doctor and all the staff there were really kind and empathetic and reassured us that we didn’t make the wrong decision. I really needed to hear that because I felt so shitty. We left the hospital feeling emotionally drained and sleep deprived as we made the 2 hour drive back without our sweet Mendel. 

I love and miss him so much 

💔

[woodchuckvirus]

Content Warning: Petloss

I posted a poem, or more like a sort of song that I wrote both while my kitty was sick and after she was put to rest. It’s not Pulitzer-worthy or anything. But she was my little one. A very adorable, sweet little cat, even if she was 13 years old. She passed away four days ago, and this is just an instance of me journaling about the whole thing as a coping thing. This is a long recount of the last weeks leading up to my kitty’s last moments. 

She had a history of intermittent vomiting for years. But I was never sure if it was because of allergies, or hairballs, or maybe it was that she was eating too fast. Maybe it was stomach acid build up or maybe, in rare occasions, it could have been a stress response. But it got to a point, over time, where she’d be fine for about a week or so, then she’d vomit (maybe because of a hairball). Then for the next three or so days in a row, she’d vomit once a day. But then she’d be okay again. Her weight always stayed pretty low because of it, though. But there was a span of time when I actually got her to gain weight...

She would jump, literally launch herself up into the air and spring across the floor to play. I’d get down on the floor and take an individually wrapped mint, then rub it along the carpet so that it would make a crinkled, scratching sound. She’d watch it with excitement, then I’d slide the mint across the floor and she’d chase it. I’d take a hair tie and toss it in the air over her head, and she’d leap up to catch it in midair. She also had a large bag, one I’d gotten from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and after I’d puff the bag up, she would dive into it just to hear it squish and crumple.

But she started to not feel well. I took her to the vet and found out she had a UTI. She went on an antibiotic, but it would cause her to vomit. After roughly a week of the antibiotic, I talked to her vet with concerns about how she was vomiting, and we agreed to stop it early. Fortunately, it took care of the UTI at the time. But some months later, the UTI resurfaced. At around the same time, it was discovered that she was developing arthritis in her back legs. So she went on an antibiotic again, a different one this time. And she didn’t vomit on it. She even didn’t seem to mind the taste. Her UTI was cleared up again, and she was started on a medication commonly given to cats for arthritis. But the medication made her sleepy, so she started napping more and playing less.

But some months later, her vomiting was gradually becoming more frequent, and after a senior wellness check, we discovered that she had a UTI once again. We put her on the same antibiotic as last time since it had gone so well... But a day after she started taking the antibiotic, she started vomiting literally once a day for four five whole days in a row. Then on the sixth day, she vomited three times. Then two more times the next day. Finally, on that Sunday, I took her to an urgency vet, and they gave her medicine for nausea and an antiacid. When I brought her home that day, she immediately ate. And that was important, because that was another thing that was starting to happen. It was clear that she was having some kind of pain. I figured she must have some inflammation in her gut that was causing her to be nauseated. Because in addition to vomiting, she was becoming reluctant to eat. She *wanted* to eat, though. She would sniff at her food but then she’d hesitate and walk away. In addition to that, the antibiotic was causing her to have diarrhea, too.

The day after that Sunday, her regular vet office called me to ask how she was doing since they saw that she went into urgent care. I told them about the vomiting, reluctance to eat, and the diarrhea. They gave me a box of anti-nausea tablets, which was basically the same anti-nausea medicine that she’d received from the urgency vet. I didn’t get to talk to her regular vet that day. But was relieved enough to have tablets that would stop her vomiting. And they definitely did. But she was still having diarrhea and sometimes was reluctant to eat. So the next day, I called the vet again and asked if there was something she could take that could act as an anti-inflammatory medication for her gut. Once again, I didn’t get the chance to talk directly to her vet. Instead, I was given probiotics with the promise that they would stop the diarrhea... At that point, I felt a bit frustrated. But I was told that it was all because of the antibiotic, probably, so if I could just get her through the rest of the course of the antibiotic, then she would be fine. And, if not by then, then I should bring her back in for another valuation. In either case, I scheduled an appointment one week from then to bring her in to check and make sure the antibiotic had cleared up the UTI.

All during that week, while she had the anti-nausea tablets, she was relatively fine... the antbiotic clearly left her feeling crummy, though, because for the last couple of days that she was on it, she spent all day and all night curled up in a hiding spot. Finally when the antibiotic was done, she seemed to feel a little better and wasn’t vomiting because of the anti-nausea tablets, but she was still sleeping in her hiding spot, and not in her usual favorite sleeping spots.

The day after her anti-nausea tablets ran out, she immediately began vomiting once a day. But her next vet appointment was still a couple days away. I just kept trying to give her food, and then give her more food after she’d vomit, because sometimes she’d keep the food down right after vomiting. But she lost weight. More weight than she ever had before. When I brought her in to have her UTI checked, a different vet started seeing her, and he became very nervous about her weight and her vomiting. After that, they started to prioritize her treatment, which relieved me a bit.

I received more anti-nausea tablets and we agreed to just focus on getting her to regain her weight. I took her home, and she was fine for the rest of the evening. I think gave her the painkiller for her arthritis per usual. Around 8 p.m. About two hours later, she went to the litterbox and had diarrhea again but this time she panted. That freaked me out, and I watched her for the next hour as she kept periodically roaming all around the room, drinking excessive amounts of water, and looking like she was trying to find a cool place to sleep. I thought maybe she was overheating. By this point, it was around 11 p.m., and so I took her to the 24-hour emergency vet hospital. They took her in and I waited in my car for about an hour before they called and I relayed to them her whole vomiting and UTI history. We hung up and they did some more evaluation, then called me back and told me that she clearly had an underlying chronic GI disease, and that she needed a panel of GI diagnostics done in order to figure out what was going on. They said they could start running diagnostics that night and then advised me to bring her back in on Monday night to receive intravenous fluids.

I freaked out... she’d already been to the vet earlier that same day and had received a shot that caused her to scream pretty loud. I felt scared for her. It was nearly 1 a.m. by this point and I didn’t want to traumatize her by putting her through more tests now and then intravenous fluids without talking to her regular vet, first... but that meant that we had to wait all Sunday and Monday before she could see her regular vet because that weekend was a holiday. Since they didn’t seem to think there was any reason that she needed emergency care that very night, I just brought her home and said I would call her vet on Tuesday to begin those diagnostics.

So I brought her home. She was generally fine all Sunday. Still somewhat reluctant to eat but she did nibble food and treats here and there. On Monday, she was fine, even ate breakfast, but then around 1 p.m., after she ate a little bit of dinner, she started roaming around the whole room anxious again like she’d done that Saturday night. Then she’d pause and open her mouth to gag. She was trying to vomit, but since she took an anti-nausea tablet that morning, she couldn’t. Her body was trying ridiculously hard to get her to vomit. But she just couldn’t. This lasted all afternoon, and even all night. I kept hearing her wretching and gagging all night, and it wasn’t until nearly three or four in the morning that she finally stopped... I had been too afraid to take her back to the emergency vets that day, because I suspected the exact same thing would happen again: that they’d tell me they’d run diagnostics and give her intravenous fluids... But that they probably wouldn’t do anything immediate gagging...

So we both went through that long and painful night, and then the next morning, her vet called. They recommended that I have her fast overnight so that I could bring her in the next morning to begin GI diagnostics, like a sonogram.

That worried me. Because this whole time she was still way underweight, and I’d been having more and more trouble getting her to eat, and she was drinking absolutely no water... but I had her fast all night, even though she was hungry...

The next day I brought her in and they did diagnostics. Then they called me and told me the sonogram person would be in later today, so they could get that done in one day rather than rescheduling her for another vet visit. But this would require her to continue fasting all day... I went along with it, though, as they said they’d keep an eye on her all day. And I just wanted to get that stuff out of the way so that I wouldn’t have to keep taking her back and fourth to the vet... so she stayed there all day. They then called me to tell me the results of some of the tests, including the sonogram.

They saw that her stomach was completely bloated. It was full of liquid because it was unable to pass anything into her intestines... It wasn’t clear why that was happening. But the vet suggested a medication that would stimulate her stomach and intestines in order to get things moving, which would clear up her nausea and allow her to eat without vomiting.

The only problem was that the vet was worried about whether or not the cause could be a foreign object blocking her intestines. Like that maybe she’d swallowed something that had gotten caught in there. The vet said that if she took this medication, since it was fast acting, if there was something there, then she’d be in immense pain and I’d need to immediately bring her back for emergency surgery.

That scared me all to hell... taking her home and being responsible for deciding whether or not I needed to immediately bring her back for full-on surgery after she took that medicine... so the vet and I agreed that I’d bring her back to the vet tomorrow, and drop her off. Then they’d give her the  medication and observe her, and if she’d need surgery, then she’d already be there. If not, then I’d bring her home and now have medicine that would get her gut working. That seemed like a good plan.

So I brought her home with the intent to bring her back the next day.

That evening, much later, around midnight or so, she started gagging again after she’d eaten. But again, because of the anti-nausea pill, she couldn’t vomit. This went on for four hours, and I was so worried that it was going to be another long night... but after about three hours, she finally did vomit, even despite the anti-nausea tablet... Then she purred, probably feeling much better, but now having lost that little bit of food that she’d managed to eat. She curled up next to me, though, feeling much relieved for that moment at least... so there was that.

The next morning, very, very early, her vet said that the results of her bloodwork came in. Her white blood cell count was ridiculously high... Between that and the sonogram showing her filled stomach, her vet said that it looked like it could be highly likely that there was a foreign body stuck in her gut. He recommended explorative surgery that day... Because she was so thin, he said they’d put her on fluids for a few hours before the surgery, and that they’d be very careful. So I agreed... and packed my poor little Meggie up and brought her in for emergency surgery...

She was there all day, then in the evening they called and said the surgery was done. But they didn’t find any blockage. I had given the go ahead for biopsies to be done, too, so those got sent out. Even if there had been no blockage, at least biopsies were done. Which would have been the inevitable next step anyway. The vet noticed that her small intestines seemed swollen as well as a lymph node. That looked like it might have been what was causing the blockage...

But because she was so thin, and since she’d just had surgery now, it was recommended that they would put her on intravenous fluids, and then when the vet office closed, I’d go to pick her up and bring her to the 24-hour vet so she could continue the intravenous fluids overnight while she recovered. So, I did... transferring her was scary to me because the doctor never called the other clinic, so they only had the printed out reports that I handed to them to go off of... But they got her situation, and she stayed at the pet hospital overnight.

The next morning, they said she seemed weak so they’d like to continue with the intravenous fluids throughout the day. They also suggested that I let her be transferred to a specialist at their clinic. I agreed, and that specialist took over her case. Near the evening, the specialist called and recommended that she stay another night for more fluids. We were now just waiting for the results of the biopsies, but in the meantime, the specialist prescribed more medications for various things. I took all of those and Meggie home with me the next evening.

Meggie was okay the evening I took her home, but very, very thin... and still reluctant to eat... But I gave her some of her medications, including the one that was supposed to stimulate her gut. She ate a couple mouthfuls of food that night but not much more.

The next morning, she just didn’t eat at all. She was spacing out periodically. Even if I put food in front of her, she wouldn’t even smell it. By this point, to me, it looked like I was really starting to lose her. Or maybe being at the pet hospital overnight so long had severely traumatized her... I don’t know, but she was so lethargic. Barely moving. Spacing in and out... I was really upset and scared.

At one point, I took out my laptop and I put on some Cat TV for her. It was a video of mouses running in an out of a hole in a wall. And I laid her down next to my arm, and she watched the mouses. And she started to purr. So we both sat and watched the mouses together for about half an hour, before she lost interest and started spacing out again.

She would get up and walk around sometimes, but she was clearly in pain. Her stomach was probably full of fluid again, even though I gave her all her meds... by that afternoon, she still hadn’t eaten anything. I had gone so far as to fill one of her syringes with some baby food and gave it to her that way. But after that, I suspected there wasn’t anything I could do for her at home if she was like this. So I brought her back to the pet hospital again, and she was admitted overnight again.

By this point, we were still waiting for the results of her biopsies. Her specialist by now was suspecting either GI lymphoma or Inflammatory Bowel Disease... In either case, she recommended starting Meggie on steroids in anticipation of either diagnosis. I said okay, that sounded like a good idea. And I agreed to let her stay overnight in the pet hospital until her biopsy results came in. Which we anticipated would be coming in probably the next day at least.

Her biopsy results came in that evening. It was small-cell lymphoma in her small intestines.

The next morning her specialist called me. She said that Meggie wasn’t doing well. She had lost even more weight, even though they were feeding her intravenously now. They said that her body didn’t seem to be responding well enough to her medications. And then I told her that her biopsy results had revealed small-cell lymphoma.

By this point... small-cell lymphoma is treatable. And some cats can live up to 1 - 2 years more. Some even more if their treatment goes well. But it would require chemotherapy as well as steroids. And we had to figure out how to stop her stomach from filling up with fluid so that she could eat without pain or vomiting. But she was barely more than 2 lbs. And her potassium level was starting to fall despite her receiving supplements for it. And her vet even suspected that she might not make it through that very same night.

So I said I’d bring her home. Let her stay home overnight, and then in the morning, I’d have a doctor come to my home and put her down.

The vet agreed, and they left the catheter in her arm and showed me how to periodically flush it. I brought my Meggie home, and I stayed with her all night. She could barely stand or walk, and sometimes she could barely lift her head. But I put blankets down on the floor and stayed with her there. She even curled up on my chest like she always did. And when I brought her over a can of food, she at it. She ate ALL of it... I was shocked but she was SO hungry... she just didn’t care. I slept next to her. I had already scheduled the doctor to come the next morning.

The next morning, I brought her another can of food and she ate it all again. I started rethinking my decision... because if she was eating, now, didn’t that mean she could have a chance to recover??!??!?!?

But all I could think about was: she’s eating now, sure, but eventually that’ll wear off as her stomach swells up again. Then she’ll go back to not eating and losing weight... it’ll just be an up and down ride of her getting better, then worse, and repeatedly carting her back and forth to the pet hospital over and over.

My mom came over and stayed with me for about an hour while we sat with Meggie and talked. Then there was a sharp knock on the door.

There couldn’t have been a more literal example of Death Knocking.

I let the doctor in, and he had his bag and scrubs. We went and sat with Meggie, who was too weak to move anymore and was lying down on her big crinkly bag. The one she used to love diving into when it was big and puffy. I picked her up and brought her onto the blankets where we’d slept and put her in my lap.

I whispered in her ear to think of birdies and mousies, like what she’d seen on the laptop that had her purring so much.

And she was gone.

And my little Meggie is gone.

Those last weeks were scary and painful. For me but most especially for her. There are so many “solutions” that I wish could have worked. If we had figured out how to get her stomach to stop filling with fluid so she could eat without issue... if we could stop her vomiting...

She was so scared I’m sure, but she wasn’t scared that last night that she was home with me. She was very tired and very weak, though.

She was 13 years old but got to have a pretty full kitty life. When she lived with my parents, she even got to chase and catch mice. The first time she saw an exposed lightbulb, she tried to fight it by smacking it with her paw, although she kept squinting because it was so bright in her little eyes.

She had a big yard to explore and play in when she lived with my parents. And when I brought her home, she had the entire place to herself. It was her safest sanctuary. She had zoomies, she climbed my curtains. She meowed at me and I meowed back at her. If she was at one end of the  hall and I knelt down and held my hand out, she’d trot all the way through the hall until she reached my hand and then rubbed her head on my palm. She was a very good girl. She never used her claws, not unless she really felt like she was being threatened. She likewise very, very rarely ever hissed, again, only doing so if she genuinely felt threatened. She made sure to use her litter box, always.

She was never too crazy about cat nip. But she LOVED anything that smelled like mint. Like the inside of mint bubblegum wrappers, or the smell of toothpaste. She always had to smell my breath after I’d just brushed my teeth. She’d run into the bathroom and sit on the toilet seat and wait while I was at the sink.

Every time I’d open the fridge in the kitchen, she always had to go over and inspect what was in there, too. And if I opened the pantry door, she had to walk inside it, turn around, then she’d vibrate her little tail, very pleased to be in there, then she’d walk back out. She just really loved walking in and out of the pantry.

It’s been a few days, now, but I feel her absence. Everywhere I look, I see something that reminds me of her. The spot where her food and water bowls used to be. Her cat carrier, her toys scattered across the floor. A blanket in my bedroom closet that has an impression in it where she used to sleep on it. What gets to me is her litter box. Because every time I see it, now, it never changes. It’s exactly the same. Which means that she’s just not around to use it. She’s just not around.

I used to always step carefully through the hallway so as not to accidentally step on her. And when I worked at home, I’d have to try to quietly open my bag of snacks, otherwise she’d soon be there waiting for me to give her one, and I couldn’t because they’d be too sweet for her. But now, it doesn’t matter how fast I walk through the hall. It doesn’t matter how loudly I crinkle my snack bags.

Sometimes, she’d be the  motivation for me to finally get groceries if I hadn’t all week long. Because if her soft food ran out, then I’d need to get more. Same with her litter. But now these motivators aren’t there. It’ll matter less whether or not I’m timely with getting groceries.

I don’t want to pick her toys off the floor because I don’t want to “put her away” anywhere... I did throw away her dozens of unfinished cans of food. And I gathered all her unused medicines and dropped them off with the Humane Society. In those cases, I wanted to get rid of all the evidences of her illness. So that’s gone at least...

There’s a part of me that feels guilty for being relieved. But I keep telling myself, I’m not relieved that she’s gone, I’m relieved that her illness is over. Because I’m not relieved that she’s gone. I cry, out loud, just about every day over her. The smallest little thing can set me off, like seeing a small pile of her treats left on the kitchen counter. The ones she didn’t eat because she didn’t feel well enough to eat them at the time.

Or that song/poem I wrote. I cry every time I reread it. I know it’s not profound but it really breaks me. Because I started putting together that little tune while still having hope that we’d find a solution for her stomach problem. But the end of the poem/song is her passing away instead.

I miss her and of course feel guilty. When she started eating that last night I ... wasn’t sure if I was making the right call. But what more could have happened? There wasn’t going to be any miracles. But a very long, relentless, ongoing struggle to keep her from losing more weight. I don’t think we’d have been able to figure it out in time. My mom had told me repeatedly not to feel guilty because I was protecting her from a worse fate. From more scary stays at the pet hospital with tubes running all through her body. From god knows what else would have been next for her...

So I try to keep that thought with me. That I protected her from those things. Because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do was protect her and to love her and make her happy. And I miss her.

[awkwardlyamusing-blog]

The Levy Family's Irving Powerhouse

New Post has been published on http://doggietrainingclasses.com/the-levy-familys-irving-powerhouse/

The Levy Family's Irving Powerhouse

Nine years ago, Taiwanese pig farmers caused a stir that reverberated 7,700 miles away in an Irving office block. An odor-eating cleanup chemical made by NCH Corp. had mistakenly been poured into a water tank used by 25,000 piglets. When told to flush the biological product—unlicensed as a feed supplement—the Taiwanese flatly refused.

Their defiance stemmed from seeing the pigs gain 3 percent more weight on the same diet over a month, while mortality halved, from 4.5 percent to 2 percent, saving the farm a bundle. The Taiwanese attributed the improvements to NCH’s product and, with the pigs so healthy, regulators gave special permission for the farm to continue using it.

NCH now markets a probiotic feed supplement made from more effective, FDA-approved ingredients, to farms in Thailand, Taiwan, India, and Mexico. A study by a university in Taiwan found chickens gained 4.4 percent more weight than a control group, with an added bonus of statistically “significant” less E. coli and salmonella, a major problem in the poultry industry.

“If we can do this for animals, why can’t we do it for humans?” asks Lester Levy Jr., one of four co-CEOs (that’s not a misprint) of family-run NCH. 

Going beyond their core fields—lubricants, water treatment chemicals, plumbing parts, and cleaning products—is nothing new for the company. Over time, it has sold church sheet music, fish tanks, graffiti removers, first aid kits, a hairball remedy for cats, and diapers for dog.

The Levys now running the company trace that entrepreneurialism to their grandfather, Milton P. Levy Sr., who launched the National Disinfectant Co. in 1919 near Old City Park in Dallas. It was a good time to go into hygiene products, as the world was in the middle of a Spanish influenza epidemic. Milton had other motivations, too; he wanted to impress a reluctant girlfriend so she’d return from New York and marry him. He ultimately prevailed, and the match endured—as did his company, becoming National Chemsearch and later renamed NCH Corp.

Over the next 100 years, the family-led venture survived a near collapse after World War II, went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969 (with the Levys holding a majority of shares), went private again three decades later, and weathered a major downturn during the 2008 recession. It is now generating a comfortable $1 billion in sales in 58 countries, employing 7,500 around the globe. 

Still, NCH and the third-generation of Levys remain far less well known than other homegrown North Texas enterprises and their respective founding families. “When I tell people in Dallas that I do work for NCH, they say, ‘Who?’” says Jim Davidson, an executive trainer who has done work for the company and known the family for about 15 years. “The Levys have been very successful and support community efforts, but they don’t go, ‘Look at us! Look at us!’ They keep a low profile in the community—I would assume deliberately.”

AGREEING TO DISAGREE

The four NCH CEOs also serve as co-presidents of the company. They’re two sets of Levy brothers—John and Robert, and their cousins, Walter and Lester Jr., whose sister, Ann, is the other Levy on the company’s board.

John handles global corporate services and the Partsmaster division of industrial supplies. He’s tall, quiet, and health-minded, Davidson says. “He’ll walk up six flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. He is the financial person, very factual.” 

Walter, who supervises Asian chemical sales, is the most sociable, Davidson says, and likes to look at new ideas operationally. Robert, who handles the Danco-brand and the rest of the plumbing division, as well as retail pet products, is quiet, but can be the catalyst for action at the end of a discussion. 

Lester Jr., who oversees biological product lines and Latin American chemical sales, “is an idea person, always bouncing ideas, looking for more,” Davidson says. A former college athlete, Lester studied the African meerkat during prolonged stays on the continent and maintains a website about the mongoose cousin, meerkats.net.

The four CEOs have figured out a way to work well together as a family unit, Davidson says: “They have different personalities, but they respect the different aspects of those personalities. Each brings a unique perspective to the business.”

All four of the Levys have MBAs. Lester and Walter earned theirs despite having dyslexia—Walter severely. He dealt with the challenge by getting his textbooks recorded. Both brothers now routinely use text-to-sound software. Walter recently expressed disbelief when Lester told him that he had read an entire book cover to cover. “What book?” Walter challenged. “Tuesdays with Morrie,” his younger brother replied. 

The four frequently argue, but it never becomes a fight, Robert says. “Twenty minutes later, we’ll all be at dinner together.”

By 2013, Walter had concluded that NCH needed to quit the fracking business. Sales for its “green” fracking chemical were booming like the drilling technique itself. But costs also mounted. Only Robert joined Walter in his skepticism. “I drank the Kool Aid,” admits Lester Jr., as did John. Revenue poured in, but NCH had to keep investing ever more to keep up. 

“I kept saying, ‘No!’” Walter recalls. “Every month the list of customers changed and I asked, ‘Why can’t we keep customers?’ At any time, Schlumberger or Halliburton could spend more on R&D and create a better product. I thought there would be no way to compete.” 

Walter finally won over the two holdouts, and today there’s only relief. Explains Lester: “We don’t want to put a lot of assets in a highly cyclical business. 

In 2016, NCH sold the Terra Services unit for a few million and wrote off the losses. “The major lesson for us,” John says, “is that we are more comfortable innovating products that are closer to the traditional  markets we have pursued in the core chemical business.”

The coming-of-age moment for the third generation of Levys was the foray into East Europe, as the Soviet Empire collapsed. Lester was visiting West Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. He joined hordes of mauerspechte or “wall woodpeckers,” who handed him a rail spike and a hammer to chip off concrete pieces of history. 

A small chunk of the wall is mounted in a shadow box at NCH headquarters, enclosed with a snapshot of the hammer-wielding Levy.  “There were 200 Russian tanks waiting there and I told myself, ‘I’m going to get killed,’” Lester recalls. But the armored vehicles didn’t shift or fire and he had an epiphany. “I realized the East was opening up.” 

REBOUNDING FROM TRAGEDY

The previous generation of NCH leaders—three sons of the company’s founder—had come of age in a very different way: by saving the business. Milton Jr. (Bubba), Lester Sr., and Irvin shelved their own ambitions in 1946 when their father dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 55. That left their 52-year-old mother, Ruth, in charge, but owing the government a crippling wartime “excess profits” tax bill of $100,000 (equivalent to $1.34 million in 2019) and a third of its gross revenue. 

Lester Sr. had passed the bar exam before serving in the Army Air Corps and wanted to practice law. But his mother implored him: “Lester, you run the company and make it right.”

An emergency infusion of capital was needed. Luckily, Jack Mann a longtime and loyal employee, stayed with the company. He took the three Levy sons to Mercantile National, where he told its chief, Milton F. Brown, that extending a life-saving loan was better than the bank finding itself in the disinfectant business. Brown needed little convincing. “I never lost any money on your dad,” the banker told them. “He borrowed from me for years, and I don’t believe fruit falls far from the tree. So, I’m going to go along with you boys.”

Crisis averted, the second generation leaders transformed the distribution company by hiring chemists, microbiologists, and other technical specialists to expand manufacturing of their own industrial and maintenance products at a new plant in Irving. Sales offices, then production units, were opened around the country and overseas.

 National Disinfectant Co. was rechristened as National Chemsearch in 1960 to reflect new product lines. Sales reached $47 million by 1969, when NCH floated publicly traded shares. Instead of hiring outside consultants to suggest how to enter new markets, the brothers tested the waters with face-to-face sales calls, relying on an internal sales bible called The Gears of Selling. Irvin and Bubba conceived the manual while on a business trip to Oklahoma in a stick-shift vehicle. The selling process was broken down into three steps, or “gears.”

A generation later, the sales handbook was used to get through locked gates at a Russian factory, to demonstrate a self-polishing floor cleaner in a Budapest hotel, and to show amazed Chinese trade fair-goers that an electric motor could be cleaned without highly flammable gasoline. The sales manual explains the importance of initial small talk, handing out promotional novelties, giving live demonstrations, and closing a sale, and includes tips on overcoming excuses not to buy.

TAKING ON EASTERN EUROPE

NCH’s West European managers had taken a pass on the East, where free market economics was still a vague notion. They didn’t want to risk their budgets, or their reputations, on what seemed like a futile effort. But the third-generation leaders relished the challenge. “It was really fun,” says Lester Jr. “It didn’t seem hard to us.” 

Walter cold-called on a power plant over the objection of his Russian interpreter. He got in to see the manager by chatting up a guard and handing him a rare, Western-made pocket knife, engraved with the NCH logo.

But not everyone was friendly toward Americans. Portraits of Lenin still adorned some factory managers’ offices. And there were other challenges. Phones didn’t work. A Czech Ph.D. took a 13-hour bus journey for a job interview after being reached by messenger. “The hardest part was finding people to trust,” says Jerry Mansfield, a British employee who was recruited for the East Europe expansion. A Russian chemist ran off with NCH’s product formulations. A St. Petersburg factory had 40,000 people on the books, but only 100 actually came to work. Russian authorities twice drained NCH’s bank accounts; in one case, half was seized as “taxes” and the remainder taken as a “loan” to the government. 

NCH gave up on Russia and Bulgaria, and Ukraine, Moldova, and Kazakhstan were a no-go, Walter says. But other former Soviet bloc countries proved welcoming. It helped that maintenance supplies from Russia were no longer imported. But the poor conditions cut both ways.

“Prague was crumbling, and dirty. Things didn’t work,” recalls Edward Jansen, a multilingual Dutchman who would end up running sales in East Europe. “Some factory floors hadn’t been cleaned in years—a half inch of oil covered the floor. It was like walking on gum. But it was great for us,” says Jansen, explaining that NCH’s cleaning products fulfilled an obvious need.

The company opened small warehouses throughout the region, hiring and training core management. Ph.D. holders were willing to peddle the company’s goods—something unheard of today. “We went from zero to 250 salesmen in five years; total sales quickly hit $60 million” says Jansen, in a call from Switzerland, where he now runs his own business after 15 years with NCH. “Competition became tougher with more foreign companies coming in, but they didn’t build a good foundation with qualified people like we had. That’s why NCH is still here.”

A FAMILY BUY-BACK

Another turning point was the decision by the third generation to take NCH private. Their fathers were not keen on the idea. The sons argued that the company was undervalued. Diversified conglomerates were out of favor and NCH was no longer followed by Wall Street analysts. “We had been among the ‘Nifty 50’ [for high earnings per share] because of our high growth in the 1950s and 60s,” says John. “But growth had slowed to single digits,” Walter adds. “We stopped being sexy.” 

“We saw our parents were getting older and tax laws were friendlier to private companies,” says Lester Jr. “By keeping it in the family, we protected employees from upheavals,” says John, adding that “it took us two years to persuade our parents to take on debt.” Having grown up during the Depression, they were wary of borrowing heavily. “Really it was John who pulled it off,” Walter recalls. “He convinced everyone.” 

In 2002, the family bought back the 43 percent of stock it didn’t already own, by borrowing $108 million. “We paid that off,” Lester Jr. says. “In 18 months,” adds Walter. “No, two years, two months—paid in full,” says John. Revenue grew from $679 million in 2001 to $1 billion today.

That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges. Three years ago, the Department of Justice fined NCH about $335,342 for plying Chinese government officials with gifts, meals, and other hospitality to influence purchases. Compared to other U.S. companies that have been fined millions for bribery, NCH’s penalty was relatively small. The DOJ explained the leniency by noting that the Texas company had blown the whistle on itself, carried out a comprehensive internal investigation of the bribes, and took disciplinary action against those who were responsible. 

John Levy says it should come as no surprise that NCH voluntarily informed federal authorities. “Our family has always had a very strong philosophy about doing business ethically, with no exceptions or tolerance for marginally questionable activities,” he says. “We repeat advice that has been handed down to us: ‘You should not do anything that you would not want to read about on the front page of your local newspaper.’”

LOOKING AHEAD

The company is gearing up for ongoing expansion. It has outgrown its Irving plant and is shifting production of water treatment chemicals to a new 200,000-square-foot facility in Greenville, freeing up more room for lubricant manufacturing in DFW. Then there’s the biotech breakthrough that evolved from the Taiwanese pig incident. After the 2010 episode, a small team in Irving reworked the probiotic, using microbials deemed safe by the American Association of Feed Control Officials and the FDA. “It took us eight months to develop the first product safe to feed pigs and chickens,” says Charles Greenwald, an A&M geneticist who heads the group. 

Using a proprietary system called ECOcharger, even more probiotics are absorbed in an animal’s gut. The additive did cause one problem; at one Asian poultry farm, eggs came out 25 percent bigger, so packing machinery had to be shut down until readjusted to handle the extra jumbo eggs. The ECOcharger radically ramps up absorption of beneficial bacteria to 90 percent, compared to about 3 percent absorption of probiotic products now on the market. 

Would there be a way to deliver a super beneficial probiotic in, say, an Earl Grey teabag? Human testing is planned for this year at a Texas university, and preliminary talks are under way with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and food processors.

 “There was a lot of disbelief internally, at the board level,” Greenwald says. “They didn’t know we had the skill set to enter this market. Lester supported us.” And the others were won over. “The Levys are dreamers,” Greenwald says. “They also get things done.”

Meanwhile, four adult cousins from the fourth generation of the Levy family have joined NCH. Will they someday lead the company? “That’s left to be determined,” says John Levy, noting that there had been no formal succession plan for him and his co-CEOs. “It just evolved,” he says. “We’ll see how they progress in their careers.”  

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