This made me feel warm all over:

This morning, when I was at a local restaurant checking my donation box (which was surprisingly stuffed full with money!) One of the waitresses came up to me and told me the owner of the restaurant has an 8 year old granddaughter visiting her for a few weeks. The girl (Emma) was in the restaurant the other day helping out: getting waters, cleaning tables, fetching small stuff. The patrons loved her and were giving her some great tips. At the end of the day, before this little girl went home, she went over to my donation box and dropped all her tips into the box! $55.00 worth! I told the waitress to please give this little one a warm hug from me and the cats.

On the Raleigh front, something happened to him at that place that was not good and now he is aggressive to everyone and everything but me. I have him out in the shop now- where he has the whole building to himself and warm cat bed, plenty to eat and drink and he seems to like it out there. I closed off the cat doors so he wouldn’t be surprised by a visitor and decide to beat the pound out of the cat who dared to trespass. Makes me sad, because he was such a loving cat before he left. I suspect that he was pulled out of hiding and made to accept pets and cuddles from the lady because “oh she loves him so much!” He would only tolerate actual holding for a short period of time, but I think he was forced to endure it longer even though I told the woman that he didn’t like it much. I tried a pheromone collar on him but he didn’t like the collar at all so I had to remove it. It is not a breakaway. He also attacked both Cooper and Kirby at the same time when they were playing- so something is wrong. He is eating and drinking and using the litterpans so I think whatever is wrong is behavioral and not health related.

On the Mike front he is was in the hospital for 9 days and he came home diagnosed with congenital heart failure and cellulitis. On the day before his discharge some bonehead doctor decided to put him on warfarin. Warfarin is not only a bad drug, but it has been prescribed for Mike in the past with dismal results. The man should have read the chart! They watched mike for 24 hours after giving him the drug and then released him because nothing happened (Duh! He was bedridden there). I asked his friend to bring him home because I couldn’t find anyone to pick up the cat food donation. Ron brought him, deposited him in this chair and left. About 10 minutes later, Ron calls me and he sounds frantic. He says “Mary Anne, there is a lot of blood on the floor of my truck!” Dang it! I race over to where mike is sleeping- peel back his sweats on his leg and all I see is blood. It is dribbling through the bandages and there is a lot of it. I get all I need for a change and pull the dressing off and he spurts blood all over the living room. An hour later when it still won’t quit bleeding- we are back in the ER of yet another hospital (Corvallis this time). I had taken a picture of the huge wound on his leg and I jumped out of the truck into a very crowded ER and told them that I needed help as my husband had lost a lot of blood. I showed them the picture and suddenly there were countless orderlies around me and they raced to the truck and took Mike directly back into the bay. They gave him Vitamin K- applied a pressure dressing on  him but he still wouldn’t quit bleeding. 🙁 They finally put this special dressing on him that acts kind of like a tire patch does. When the bandage finally falls off on it’s own it leaves behind an artificial scab over the wound that I was told NOT to remove. Only a doctor can remove it.

We are being referred to a closer wound care clinic on an urgent basis and are just waiting for the call to come in. His leg is still bleeding but not like it was thank God. I am watching it like a hawk and if it flares up again we will go back to Corvallis (30 minutes away) and I am sure they will probably admit him this time. If I don’t hear from wound care by tomorrow, I will call them and see if I can light a fire under someone to see him.

Kirby has been such a comfort. I wonder if maybe he might me my EWS (early warning system) because the other morning, I took him with me to get a coffee at my friend’s coffee stand. Patti has COPD and has had surgery for lung cancer (although she has never smoked a day in her life) and she is prone to some pretty severe asthma attacks. I had the window down and Kirby was in the passenger seat when all of a sudden, he jumped on my lap just focused on Patti- I mean intently focused. He started to whine and paw at my leg- all the time looking at her not me- when suddenly she just went into a severe attack. Right before it started- he started barking and wouldn’t quit. Looking all the time at her. He didn’t stop until she used her inhaler and could breathe again. So maybe that’s why he’s here now. He and Cooper have their issues. Coop goes nuts when Kirby jumps in my lap and they have toy wars frequently- although before the arrival of Kirby, Cooper wouldn’t touch any of his toys (wasn’t interested). Now what one has, the other wants. And God help me if I give one a snack and don’t let them finish it before giving the other snack out- or they go for the snapping fight- geez- but I haven’t had him that long- he lays with the housecats but chases the outside cats if I would let him when the run. He’s not aggressive with them- I think he just wants to play. He does come back when I call him off them but not right away. We are finding our way with each other- all four of us.