Went to see my regular doctor today as the pain I had been dealing with intensified almost overnight.

I do not have stomatitis, apparently I have Thrush. He gave me some mouth solution to rinse with and even on the first rinse, I could tell my mouth was calming down.

My doctor said that only under extreme circumstances will he prescribe antibiotics. He said knowing all he knows about them, they can do so much harm but in cases such as staph infections, he said there was no other choice. Had he been the one who prescribed those pills for me, he would have made sure I was eating yogurt with live cultures every day for the rest of my life.

So tonight, my mouth is calmer and I even managed to eat a half of sandwich with the crusts trimmed off. It felt wonderful! I am also taking a solution of 1/2 liquid benedryl and 1/2 liquid maalox three times a day.

It is going to get cold again tonight, so I pushed a bunch of loose straw into food alley to keep the kitties warmer. I have a portable heater out there that I cranked up as well. I’ve used it a couple of times and it must work because the next morning when I went out there- all the cats were asleep in the alley- even Chaplain who usually sleeps in the barn. Demando was even in there-

She steps out of the shadows of the oleander bushes after I feed the barn cat. She is just a slip of a cat with a demanding voice. Her coat is chocolate brown laced with tans and white. Her tail is chocolate with a black tip and her rear legs are tan while her front legs are dark brown. She is skinny but quite a striking cat and under other circumstances, she would be a beauty. I do see some Siamese in her.

She starts immediately. I have fed the cats in food alley and now it is her turn. Even at her young age, she is devoid of teeth (probably due to either neglect or poor nutrition when she was a kitten). Her hunger overcomes her shyness and she demands that it is her turn to be fed. She gets canned food, as dry food doesn’t work for her. The trick is to feed her in the shed and not have the others come and rob her of her food.

I slip into the shed and turn on the light- she is right behind me going through the cat door. She’s been with us now for a week and no longer spooks when I bend over to leave her canned food. Always a lady, she waits until her plate is full then moves in to eat it all.

I wonder where they come from? Is my living under the radar here not working anymore and people are just dumping their cats on us? You can’t see our acreage or even our barn from the road- yet cats seem to appear out of the middle of nowhere at times.

I talk to her softly as I prepare a hay bed for her. It is going to drop down in temperature tonight again and without much fatty tissue she doesn’t stand much of a chance of staying warm. As I talk to her, I hope she doesn’t think I talk funny. The blisters in my mouth have bloomed into large ulcers. I have a greater understanding now of cats with stomatitis and rodent ulcers and as mentioned before, a greater respect.

This weekend, we are going to make some bigger feral feeders for the property. These will be coon and possum proof and give the cats a wider area to eat from therefore stopping the frequent food fights that happen.

She was only here with us for two days before she started “training” me. Her demands met, she slips behind the stack of exotic wood and finds her hay bed and settles in for the night. I think she has decided to stay~ I better stock up on more canned cat food! Thankfully, Safeway is having a sale-10 cans for $5.00. I need to get to town before they close.

So crazy, all these cats now. Maybe, somehow the word has spread in the area. “Hey guys, there’s food here and best of all no one bothers you! So follow me—” And so they come-

You have been warned! LOL

Can I please have a do-over? About two in the afternoon yesterday after drinking a bit of soda and eating one unwashed grape, my mouth suddenly started to go numb! My lips were tingling- my tongue felt like there were blisters on the underside of it.

By the time I arrived home from the store, my lower lip looked I had about a dozen botox injections! It hurt to move my tongue, my tongue was swelling and the inside of my mouth was swollen and painful! I’m thinking to myself what the hell?

I go in and decide to rinse my mouth with cool water- it didn’t help. I thought, well okay, maybe I have something in my gums so I put toothpaste on my toothbrush and the minute the toothpaste touched my inner lip- I thought I was going to pass out! The pain was intense.

I called the store and asked if there had been any issues with the grapes I bought? There hasn’t been and they are a product of USA. I contacted the soda company to ask them if there had been any problems with a certain batch of their soda- haven’t heard back from them.

Meanwhile, my mouth is swelling, there are a thin line of rodent ulcers appearing at the bottom of my tongue (that’s what they looked like to me at least)- except they were tiny like pimples. Every time I moved my tongue it was all I could do to NOT scream. I put ice on my face thinking I might have been stung or bitten? Then I put heat on it. Nothing helped.

By this time it was dinner time and I had made homemade vegetable soup. I couldn’t even eat it! Any movement of my tongue just hurt. I went in to talk to Mike about it and I found I couldn’t even talk right. Sounded like I had some sort of speech impediment.

I was exhausted and decided to go to bed early thinking in the morning it might just all go away. I woke up at 1:00 in the morning with thick drool all over my pillow and sheets and I am again thinking what the hell? I go in the bathroom and look and I look like someone slammed me in the face, my lips are swollen and huge.

Now I am scared and I go to wake up Mike, whose blood sugar happened to drop at this time and he wasn’t into having any type of conversation… So I drove myself to the ER only to find out I have stomatitis! Next thing I know, I will start meowing!

The doctor said it can resolve on its own but it takes awhile. He gave me a shot for pain and some meds (numbing ointment) and I went home.

The doctor said they don’t know really what causes it- it could be a side-effect of the staph infection, it could be from stress- NO me STRESSED?- It could be caused by something I ate, he did say it wasn’t a hygiene problem which made me feel better as I know my teeth aren’t the greatest.

So now my mouth hurts like someone has poured acid in it or I gargled with Drain-O I have a lovely line of ulcers starting on my lower and upper gum line and I am not supposed to talk for a few days and I need to keep my stress level down/. I can’t eat anything but yogurt and soft foods and if not better in 3 days, I need to see my primary care doctor. Boy, if this is the type of pain that cats deal with- well, I have a better understanding of their courage now.

How was your day?

Here is MC merged into the herd-population-clowder however you want to say it-

He is so mellow~

Gretel does not have a microchip and she tested negative for all the nasties. Poor girl she has no stamina at all- the vet believes it is just because she has been so poorly nourished. She isn’t as bad as Shell was (TYG) no mouth ulcers but she has only a few teeth. He isn’t sure how old she is because of the missing teeth but says he believes she is quite young.

She is now upstairs in what I call the decompression chamber- a very quiet, dark room with a harp of hope CD playing in the background-food all around her and she is safe. I will post a picture soon-

I went to the business this afternoon to check on the kitten. There was neither hide-nor-hair of him around which gives me concern because last night- we had a freeze warning and it dipped down to 21 degrees! I hope he is still with us.

I went back to my car and opened the back door. I popped a lid on some cat food and this shadow passed by me. Before I understood what the shadow was, there stood a Mackeral Tabby on my seat looking at me as if to say- “Is that mine?”

He was a handsome fella, quite friendly, no feral in sight- but we are in a part of town where homes are few and far between. I left him in the back seat eating and went in and asked the owners if they knew where he came from? Not only did they claim to not know, but they want nothing to do with him being there in the first place.

I left the kitten some food and more warm bedding as another freeze is predicted for tonight. Then I walked back to my car and Mr. Cool and I had a bit of a staredown. I told him if he wanted to not rush the door, let me in and not get under my feet as I drove home, he was welcome to come with me. He blinked his sleepy blink at me, jumped down to the passenger seat, turned around three times and fell asleep! He slept all the way home!

Tomorrow, I will take him to the vet to see if he is chipped. There is no way he isn’t owned by someone and my hope is a chip will be found and grateful owners traced down.

When I came home with him- all Mike did was smile and ask me his name. I call him MC for Mr. Cool. He is upstairs and ShyAnne is miffed because he took her favorite room! He is neutered (thank you God)

I was informed yesterday via email that I have been disqualified from the PRP due to “not following the application guidelines.” I called them and the gal said I didn’t furnish enough detail- which I personally find a bit ironic because they limit the character field drastically.

But at any rate, I had a bit of a chance to hope for a few weeks and it helped me get through some of the tough spots with these cats.

They don’t allow you even a 24 hour window to change your mistakes but I did reapply. The chances of them pulling my name out of the hat twice for this money? I have more of a chance of being hit by lightning! LOL

But, for the cats- I did try-

I stopped by the business where the kittens were and discovered that I missed one of the kittens! I had thought they had been killed or captured but somehow a Mackeral Tabby boy got left behind. I felt horrible. I took his complete comfort station with me when I left- so I quickly ran home and grabbed my kitten carrier. I set it up with warm bedding and stuck some warmed cat food inside. He was so hungry- he went right in! I pulled the cord shut and when I leaned over to latch the door- I dropped the wire and he got out!

Just that few minutes on my feet killed me, so I couldn’t try again- plus I know that he wasn’t coming back any time soon. He got scared when that carrier door slammed shut.

I left him more food and warm bedding and talked to a friend of mine. She will go over to the business tomorrow and see if she can trap him (dang foot of mine anyway!)

I’m sorry little boy- I took your mom and your brother and sister. I would have never left you behind- but no one even saw you the first time. I don’t know where you came from but I hope in the next 24 hours you will be here with us.

I am celebrating at the moment at finding a dirty litter pan. Axle has pooped! I am so relieved as this would have been one week since he came home after vanishing for five days. I heard him crying last night- so far he has been silent and it was a strange cry. I wanted to go to him,but I was so dang tired. I just fell back to bed.

This morning, when I went upstairs to check on him, he was crying by the door and pacing and pawing. When I opened the screen door he stepped away. I fed him. I turned to look at the pan and saw a mound and my heart skipped a beat- could it be? YES! The lactulose has done its job (or is starting to).

Great strides with the new babies, I let them out of the cage last night and they are now under the bed. They are both eating and when the room is vacant and the house fairly quiet, they explore their new world. They seem to like what they are seeing. I can now pet both of them without any warnings coming out of their throat or any fear of reprisals. My friend said I will never see them again- but I disagree. I have done this for a very long time and each kitten is of course different. These two will stay hidden for about a week, then they will come out and meet and greet both of us. It’s their time to run things in that room- for now.

Or trying to at least! This kitten season has been so out-of-control this year. Hawthorne, the sweet Siamese rescued from a farmer who could have gave a rip that he had two beautiful Siamese mixes in his woodpile- sadly succumbed to a flea-born illness. His sister, Fog is doing just fine. I have placed her with the other kittens because her and Hawthorne were so close.

Scotty, the little mackeral tabby stuck in a letter box in a steel yard and left to die, well, he didn’t. He is alive and hungry all the time. He yowls his tiny head off when I turn off the lights- so I leave a small night light burning for him at all times.

The gleaner kitties-still not named because they are so new, we are just moving easy with them. I was able to hold the little black girl this morning and was amused to see out of the corner of my eye, the other boy sneaking down off the top level of the cage and peeking at me around the corner of the cat carrier. It was as if he was saying “are you really safe? Or are you going to hurt me?”

McGee and Donovan, the cow kittens and Piper and Pippi the torties had to have their spays cancelled. They were scheduled on the fourth- but one of my barn cats vanished for a few days and when Axle came back, he wasn’t acting right. I confined him, but he continued to slip slowly away from me so today I ran him to the vet. They suspect an abscess (though no one can find a bite wound) and he is heavily impacted. In order to pay for this Saturday emergency visit, I had to dip into the spay and neuter fund.

Fog has decided, she is “Pop’s” kitty. She plays with the mouse when he is on the computer and somehow, this tiny 2 month old siamese mix knows when Mike’s blood sugar is crashing. She will climb up on his neck and snuggle down and keep his neck and head warm. When his sugar drops he gets really cold.

I guess you could call the state of my life- Mary Anne’s madness. My cats come first before all else. I shop at thrift stores, clip out cat food coupons in record time and lug huge bags of stall dry home in the trunk of my car. I am pretty much committed to making sure these kittens and cats have a chance at a life that offers them love, comfort and security. That’s my madness. My friend says it is my Gift- sometimes though- when I unfortunately get to look at the dark side of humanity, it seems more like a curse.