The kittens are coming!

She will analyse all the results...they took lots of heart readings, blood pressure etc. and try to work out exactly what we are looking at.

She also took bloods to check for liver and kidney damage (didn't like Viola's pooh, which was yellow, runny and had a speck of fresh blood in it.)

Viola DID have diarrhoea for a while, but it had settled. I think stress yesterday made it come back. I think her diarrhoea is yellow because of the colour of her food...which is VERY yellow...and I am hoping the spot of blood was because SOMEONE broke into the rubbish and took some chicken bones. However, the way her luck is running, she's probably got bad liver and kidneys, too.

I have to say that when vet very gloomily brought me the pooh and said she was very worried about it, on top of everything else, she made me use the name of the alleged lord the alleged son of the alleged christian god very vehemently in vain. I felt like curling up and crying.

Vet will then call me or call me in to discuss what all this tells her and what, if anything, we can do about it all. My guess is she will recommend meds to help as much as we can...like blood pressure ones...and then we see what fate has in store.

Viola rtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfrtfggftttttttttttt that was Viola typing....is purring up a storm, holding my face in her paws, and smooching and kissing me as we speak....she considers my computer time as our special time.....76668it's all very surreal.

her job is to be happy...mine is to keep her that way as long as we can, and pull the plug when the time comes...as per usual in furball relationships,

dfr bgvvvvvb'' bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

This cat has gone mad with smoochiness!

maybe she can tell I'm sad?

Thank you so much for 6y7t your kind thoughts everyone. They help.

of course she can. she knows you need smooches and we're just too far away

Sadder than sad and madder than mad. (This shouldn't be happening.)

I'm far away but nearby. And sighing up a storm.

Thinking of you big time.

dammit man...

at least she will be the happiest spoilededest little woolie in all of Oz...

enjoy her while she's here.

Crossing fingers for Viola.

So am I, Deb.

I won't say much more, but it's perfectly clear that you love both Viola & Sebastian dearly.

I hope that you're coping OK. (Admittedly I haven't, when the recipient of similar information from vets about my darling critters.)

So you are in my thoughts today, Deb.

I worry, too, about the likely cost of Viola's treatment.
I know you are not in a position to cope with a lot of extra expenditure right now.

Oh bugger, this seems so unfair!

Thank you all a lot. Very much. It is so kind of you. It means a lot.

So far, it's been about nine hundred...I am paying it off on layby! I have paid $500 so far. Just hoping the next test up isn't necessary....it's about the same again. I'll need the vet to justify that expenditure to me in terms of there being a reasonable expectation it would result in a noticeably better time for Viola.

At this point I am more hoping that there are meds that will extend a happy life for her than I am worried about cost.....but I guess it's take it as it comes.

I AM extremely sad. Viola is one of my favourite cats....I love the combination of quirkiness, wild passion (in terms of affection, but also how she throws herself wildly into play) and the intensity of her relationship with me and others she loves (she greeted Jess, the vet nurse, with lots of kisses and throwings of herself onto the table and ecstatic wiggles...she remembered her from months ago) and her brightness and intelligence. She was just what I wanted in a little girl cat.

However, as you know, I am pretty philosophical about the realities of loving animals...you know, love and death and the whole damn thing.

Sebastian is also one of my favourite cats, I hasten to say.....he's such a huge character! He just makes everyone laugh. At the vet's today, as soon as the staff came, he threw himself onto his back to have his tummy rubbed. He's even becoming more sensitive and kind....a few times today when things were being done to him, he became agitated and went to bite...then recalled himself, and anxiously apologised by licking the part he had begun to bite assiduously. He just makes people happy.

The good thing, as ever with animals, is that Viola has no idea that she is very ill. Her shortened life won't worry her...she'll have no idea that it is any different from the life she'd have had if she had been luckier in the great lottery of life.

And I can make sure that whatever life she has is happy and doesn't end in protracted suffering.

Deb, what can I say to comfort you?

I wish I could think of more than Viola will have a wonderful life with you, no matter how long that life is.

And I do know that is true. Absolutely. 100%
She will have a great life!

I just hope things are not quite as grim as they appear at the moment.
That she responds to the treatment which is available.

And I am so concerned about this serious strain on your limited finances.
But I know, you (like me), will do what ever is necessary.
Sigh.

Sending my fondest regards to you on this sad Saturday.

- Olga

-

So very sad for you too, Deb.

Viola... she has the best MaMa to give her a happy life.

I'm ok....just sad. It's how the cookie crumbles.

I started writing a few times. Stopped. Deleted.

You know how I feel.

Yep. Thanks. It's all part of pet owning.

Meanwhile, Viola has pretty much claimed Sebastian's old man cave on top of the book case in my bedroom and Sebastian appears to be hunting imaginary mosquitoes on the ceiling. It's mildly un-nerving!

Im sorry that one of your new kitties is ill . We too had a new kitty come into our lives when the kids were small. The cat had parvo and it wasnt with us for more than two years no matter what heroic efforts we tried. The little guy mined a special place in all our hearts and we still recall her antics as a young cat , which was when she decided to leave us . She was happy with us to the end and I hope we did her ok as well.

I'm sure you did give her a great life, Farmerperson. I know you love your critters like the rest of us on this thread do. Which is probably ridiculously!

The Animals



They do not live in the world,
Are not in time and space.
From birth to death hurled
No word do they have, not one
To plant a foot upon,
Were never in any place.

For with names the world was called
Out of the empty air,
With names was built and walled,
Line and circle and square,
Dust and emerald;
Snatched from deceiving death
By the articulate breath.

But these have never trod
Twice the familiar track,
Never never turned back
Into the memoried day.
All is new and near
In the unchanging Here
Of the fifth great day of God,
That shall remain the same,
Never shall pass away.


Edwin Muir

Over an early dinner (to me) or midnight snack (to Roberta), the two of us developed the idea that you ought to find an app that makes your iPhone purr. That way, you would still get the satisfaction of the purr. But you wouldn't entangle yourself in such deep and potentially heartbreaking bonds with your purr providers.

Okay, I lied. I developed the idea; Roberta scoffed at it. But she did admit that purrs are in themselves deeply satisfying.

You can actually buy a FAKE CAT....it lies in a little basket all curled up and asleep...and it BREATHES when you switch it on.

Lots of chemists seemed to have them in their gift shop range. Most bizarre and revolting things I ever saw. Most people seem to have felt the same, as they disappeared rapidly from sale.

Roberta is correct. The purr IS great...but not from an App.

There's beginning to be evidence that purring has a therapeutic effect for the cat...and possibly for mammals close to the cat. They purr when they're deeply distressed and in pain as well as when they are happy.

Have you been exposed a lot to the purr?

My favourite part is the soprano trilling that comes in bursts when they are feeling especially loving. Viola is a great triller.

I am very happy you and Boida have been out to dinner....was it Pig Heaven? What did you have?

Not that I'm nosy or anything....

No, not Pig Heaven. We went to a bakery/restaurant called Le Pain Quotidien. It specializes in organic foods and tasty breads.

I had a large bowl of broccoli soup (no chewing required) and a slice of very delicious bread (I took small bites).

Thomas had a small bowl of chili soup and a Mediterranean salad. Fresh veggies and three kinds of dips--humus and two other dips. He had three kinds of bread with the salad and the dips.

It was good to see the big lug.