The strangest thing happened the other day. I received in the mail, a package from someone I only know off the Internet. Inside, there was a card, a donation for my cats along with Nathan J. Winograd’s newest book Redemption.

When I opened the book, I saw that he had autographed it for me. He said he knew of my work and thanked me for all I do for cats! I was honored and amazed at the same time. I haven’t read his book yet. I haven’t had time, but I am looking forward to what he has to say about the euthanizing of over five million cats/dogs in shelters every year.

In just a few days I am off to the Cat Writers’ Convention in San Francisco. I feel guilty for harboring excitement in going. In getting away from the demands of sickly kitties, nightly bed checks, and braving the slamming rain and winds currently blowing here as I make my way to the stables in the morning to feed the horses.

Yes, I admit, I am feeling selfish. Rather than have hay in my hair, I will have bling bling on Saturday night at the banquet, where we all gather to celebrate the writing accomplishments of our creative friends.

Instead of having kitty claws crawling up my legs, my legs will be embraced by the wonderful feel of silk stockings, sent long ago to me by my mother.

Instead of being wakened in the middle of the night by the galloping of little kitties overhead now healthy playing a mean game of tag on the second floor. I will be sleeping blissfully, lulled to sleep by the sounds of San Francisco’s night life.

Instead of struggling to get into my Carharts so the wind doesn’t chill me to the bone as I let the dogs outside and make my way over to the enclosure to feed the cats. I will be dressed for success in my business attire as I meet and greet old friends and make new ones and meet with the publishers to pitch my book and leave them with a few chapters to read on the plane.

Rather than staying up all hours of the night, medicating kittens, giving supportive fluids, holding solo prayer vigils, I will stay up until I want to go to sleep while I visit with the group, have a drink or two to celebrate with others. Then, when I go upstairs to my room, I will spend time with my two roommates, Nancy and Dusty and listen to their exploits about their lives both at home and at the conference.

Perhaps one of them might be persuaded to set their alarm at midnight, and then set it every ten minutes after, waking up to meow loud and demanding into my ear (just in case, I might get homesick).

Yes, I will be gone from the house in body, but here still in spirit, praying that Mike’s blood sugar won’t drastically drop in the mornings, that Charlie won’t suffer another relapse and that Mike will suddenly realize all that is involved in taking care of so many animals on your own, because now he is doing everything I do.

So for a few days this pumpkin will turn into Cinderella and I am looking forward to having a glorious time!And who knows…I may come back with a book deal and a Muse!

Recently, I keep getting informed from Google Alert about my articles being found on websites around the Net that I have no knowledge of. I guess, I should feel flattered that cat lovers find my articles informative, or intriguing enough to want to take them. But I don’t, I just feel betrayed. The articles lifted, were taken from websites where I was paid to write them. No one has contacted me and asked me if they could take my articles. I suppose, they feel that because the articles are on the Internet, they are free for the taking.

I am certainly curious about this sense of entitlement that some people feel they have the right to. And, sadly, I am not alone when it comes to this type of theft, as many of my colleagues also confess that their work too has been pirated and used for someone else’s personal gain.

This type of situation makes me feel that perhaps I should stop writing about cats and their care on the Internet. But, it is what I do, and what I love. If I can help someone based on my experiences and my limited knowledge, then I want to help. I just wish others wouldn’t help themselves to my hard work. It may look easy to some, but writing and making a difference when you do is hard work.

Tonight, I received a really apologetic email from someone who took my cat carrier article and placed it on her blog. I had emailed her upon finding out the article had been lifted and attempted to explain how sad this makes me, others feeling they have a right to my work. But the others I have contacted within the last week (including two well-known equine vet schools) have ignored my requests to remove what was not theirs to have in the first place.

Charlie has suffered a set-back. I am not sure what happened, but he is once again open-mouth breathing, gurgling and has the feel bads. Dr. Vickie was kind enough to do a house call and he is back on Zithromax and Busperene. I have him isolated in the cat room with the vaporizer going full steam and the heater on. It breaks my heart to watch him struggle to breathe. The good news is he is eating, the bad news is, he is only eating baby food. It is a bit expensive to feed a kitten only baby food. You pay a lot for a small jar and you don’t get much in that jar. I told Dr. Vickie that I haven’t stopped the Lysine, so at least I am ahead of the game in that respect.

Sullivan was supposed to come back today, but they never showed up. I am angry about this. They said they were coming yesterday so I made arrangements for Hailey to come and pick up Madison for a week then did the kittycat shuffle trying to make room for Sully to come home. Now, it is almost 4:30 and they still aren’t here so I haven’t a clue what is going on.

I wonder what happened to Tipster? Last time I saw him (45 days ago) he was peering at me from the top of the hay bales in the hay barn. The next morning when I went to fill the feral feeders, he didn’t come running to take his place at the feeders for breakfast.

I haven’t seen him since and I have talked to neighbors and walked the road looking into the ditch to see if he might have gotten hit by a car. I did not see any evidence that he had.

He is a friendly tuxedo boy who preferred being outside in the barn instead of inside with the others. I miss his white tail tip waving a greeting to me in the mornings and his plaintive meow at night when I go out to feed.

Tip, I hope someone has adopted you into their heart and home. Perhaps, like Funny Face you found a lonely old soul and knew that you needed to stay there instead of coming home. But I miss you old friend- and Dash and Chappy call out to you. I hope you haven’t gone to see India may she RIP- I hope you are somewhere curled next to a fire with a loving human near you to see to your needs. I miss you sweet boy- and my hope is you are still purring up a storm and not in the company of the angels.

I get so endlessly tired of people taking my work and using my words to build up their webpages. I guess they don’t even take into account that it is stealing. Even if the article, story, poem what-have-you appears on the Internet, it DOES NOT give anyone the right to take that author’s work and place it on their website.

Google Alert has notified me that one website is using over a dozen of my articles to start their own site. I contacted the webmaster via email and requested that the articles be taken off at once. So far, I have heard nothing back from them. The site is pretty rinky-dink so suspect a child might be involved in the construction of it and it is swimming with Google ads. It just makes me tired to have done all this work and research, crafted some good articles only to have them be pirated copyright or not.

Meet Kingston, he had the unfortunate experience of meeting a feral dog and still lives to tell the tale. He has been at the vet for four days. He has a swollen throat and neck, wounds on his back and rump, and he is scared to death. I have him on fluids and antibiotics. He is upstairs in the cat room right now getting used to the room and the new smells and sounds. So far, he hasn’t uttered a sound, but just stares at me pretty intently when I enter the room. Poor kitty. I was told he was a Ragamuffin, but I highly doubt he is.

I wasn’t going to attend the Cat Writers’ Convention this year even though I wanted to. The money that I make on my articles all go towards the animals and money is fairly limited. I talked with my Dad the other day and he was kind enough to send me the money just for the conference! I booked my tickets and reserved my room and in three weeks I leave! I can’t wait to go. My parents said the money is a Christmas present early.

Mike told me to write down my routine with the animals before I leave. He has no idea how much work it takes to keep these guys happy. He is about to find out though.

Charlie and the other kitties are doing good. I have a few mouth ulcers to deal with as well as nasal ulcers thanks to the calicivirus that has invaded our space. But overall, they are doing well

Charlie, bless his pea-pickin heart has brought in several viruses to the household. I now have 5 kittens in various stages of the feline herpesvirus and the calicivirus. There are mouth and nasal ulcers so the kittens are all sequestered upstairs where they are medicated in various ways about five times a day. I have a chart on the door so that I don’t medicate the same kitten twice.

Charlie now named Hurricane Charlie is a little fireball of activity! He is scooting around the room, chasing balls and other kittens. His swelling is gone, his gurgling is non existant and his open mouth breathing only occurs when I have to scruff him which is sadly necessary in order to medicate him. he does not look like the same kitten that arrived here!

From the photo you can see the swirl in his coat which has glossed up nicely! That swirl looks like a hurricane with an eye in the middle. That is why we now call him Hurricane Charlie, that and his activity level which is almost destructive at times! I am happy he managed to overcome all that was wrong with him. I don’t believe I am going to go for any more tests with him, he has had enough stress to last a lifetime- which I hope he does!

I am pleased to say that Charlie is not open mouth breathing any longer! He is still gurgling a bit and still coughing a tiny bit but today he was so active in his room with his new toys it made my heart soar.

Right now my dirty kitchen is calling my name so I need to go. But wanted to write that Charlie is doing pretty darn good. One of the vets who has seen him will be at the house on Saturday to check on him! Apparently, she lives just a few miles down the road from me so she is checking on him at no charge.