Have you ever had one of those day when all you want to do is crawl back in bed and have a do-over? Well this is shaping out to be one of those days.

This morning while feeding the dogs, Lei (all 100 pounds of her German Shepherdness jumped off her dog house landing square on my foot. I have a very handsome bruise spreading from my big toe to my ankle. I also have a very painful hard swelling on the side of my foot- I am suspecting a bone bruise. I can’t hardly walk, but I know if I would call the doctor on Monday, they would just tell me I need to die by appointment only! Health care in this town is nothing more than a joke anymore! I also know they would take an x-ray $85.00 I would have to pay $40.00 for them to tell me I hurt my foot and bruised it… then they would tell me to stay off it and give me pills that would make my already numb brain dumber. No thanks! We won’t even get into the cost of pain killers at the pharmacy.

I come back into the kitchen only to discover the kittens have knocked down the paper towel holder- a magnificent feat considering it is five feet in the air! And they and the other cats are now fully engaged in paper towel play! Harmless fun for sure, but awfully messy to clean up.

I have been working with Dash over the last few days. Initiating contact with her, even though she would prefer to be left alone. I have been successful in being able to pet her without incidence, but this morning just as I was going in for the pet, Matuse leaped onto the condo (where Dash was) and guess who got nailed? It wasn’t Matuse!

Dash has been here almost a year now, she is an older feral cat who when she arrived with four others, she was in such bad shape that even the vet thought she was only a 6 month old kitten! Turned out, after she had some groceries, she was way older than that, and turned out to be the mom to the other five kittens who arrived with her. They were found in an abandoned campground and brought here.

So I decide to do something that doesn’t involve animals and begin to clean the kitchen. I drop a plate and where does it hit? You guessed it, my sore foot! Man, I really do want a do-over today!

I had to take Twirl to the vet today. Oliver lit into her and tore open her ear. She now has 6 brand new stitches in her ear. I asked a Cat Psych what she thought was going on with my group treating Twirl so aggressively? Her answer made a lot of sense. With Twirl’s ear flaps gone, she looks aggressive all the time and the other cats respond with aggression. For Oliver to be the attacker, he is my most mellow cat (besides Prowler) really made me think.

If I don’t keep the stress level down here, there is going to be a lot of territorial marking going on. Another factor, is keeping Twirl’s stress level down, and her being attacked repeatedly is not how to do that. I am going to keep Twirl isolated upstairs from here on in. I know it has to be the missing ear flaps issue because the crew has already accepted the latest arrivals, the two kittens, Tyler, Rayne and Sullivan. Even the last cat Buzzby wasn’t met with so much aggression. If Twirl’s stress level rises this could cause the cancer to come back.

I went upstairs and talked to her and told her that I was sorry for the isolation but that I feel this is the best way for her to be here. The only other option would be to try and find a good home for her, but most people want kittens, not older cats, even those with special needs.

This is the time when the enclosure doesn’t even factor in. Unless we can screen off a portion of it and let Twirl live among the other cats without being able to threaten them.

They can turn a gray sky blue, a frown into a smile. Kittens get into the funniest predicaments and then become highly insulted when you dare to help them out! Tyler got into her track ball. I am not sure how she did it, just that she did. She didn’t seem to want to get out, in fact, she fell fast asleep inside of it! She wasn’t stuck, I checked. I am glad that I decided years ago to share my life with cats and kittens that others could care less about. It makes moments like these priceless!

It has been months since Guinevere and Cleo were both diagnosed with Renal Medullary Solute Washout thanks to the pet food recall fall-out. For days, I stayed up keeping vigil, supplying supportive fluids and prayers when needed. I almost lost Cleo then he rebounded, then Guinevere took a nose dive for awhile but she recovered. I contacted the pet food company first thing when I discovered they had eaten the tainted food. They were very polite, took a lot of information and then I never heard back…until today.

The call I received was quite cautionary. The woman wanted to know why they hadn’t heard back from me. I told her it was because I was busy keeping my cats healthy trying not to lose two beautiful creatures. Then there was a bit of a pregnant pause and I was asked if I was joining the class action suit or if I had contacted an attorney on my own.

I will be honest here, initially when all this came down on us and I was faced with astronomical vet bills, I wanted heads to roll. But, with time, I have been able to throttle back. I know this was a horrible dreadful accident. The company was just as mortified about it as I was (probably more so). I have also talked to several people also affected, some are suing, others are not. I am in the group of the Are Nots.

I told the Rep how I felt, and how I feel now. I could hear the gratitude in her voice when she thanked me for not taking further action against them. I talked to Mike about it, way back when, and both of us decided that suing wasn’t the way to make anything right. The vet bills have been paid, the cats have recovered. I told the woman to just close my file. She said they will send me food for my trouble! Sure hope the food being sent is safe food.

Not much is being said lately about the pet food recall fiasco, though I understand from some who have settled that they cannot discuss anything else about the situation. A sort of gag order is in effect. I am just glad we didn’t lose our two seniors. That would have been difficult to deal with.

Through July, a website I am associated with is holding a contest for Cat Lovers who Blog. You can check out the details at felinexpress

I stayed up all night keeping a close eye on the kittens. Apparently, because the wormer was Strongid, overdosing isn’t a large problem as it would be with over-the-counter wormers or Drontal. The kittens were fine all night, they played, pooped, and drank a lot of water. So hopefully, they have passed the crisis mode here.

I now have a new worry. My old farrier had to quit because of severe injuries. A new farrier was out yesterday and against our advice, he trimmed back Racer so short- that Racer now looks like a show horse! He knew about the founder, but and this really angered me- after he trimmed Racer out so short he had the nerve to say “Well, he isn’t trimmed back to where I THINK he should be!” WTH? He won’t be back on this property. I didn’t like one thing about him. I did talk to another farrier last night and he will be out in August to trim. I’m going to miss Mr. Clint, I already do! I suspect in three days, Racer will be lamed up. 🙁

Two young kittens were brought over tonight. They have been accidentally been overdosed with wormer medicine. I will be keeping vigil all night over them to see how they do. They are drinking more water than I have ever seen kittens drink, but they are peeing and pooping and passing large amounts of roundworms. Hopefully, they will continue to be okay. They are bright eyed and playing

My heart broke today. I took in this 8 month old tuxedo kitty long-hair. She has been so traumatized, that any time I come near her, she pees all over herself. She has a raspy meow that sounds worse than fingernails on a blackboard. She has taken refuge in the enclosure, on one of the topmost rafters, which is how I got cat pee on my head today. I was reaching up to touch her when she let loose. God only knows what she has endured since arriving here. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to let her see that she has come to a good place.

The two new kittens have a new home! The lady isn’t going to be picking them up for a few weeks (she is in the process of moving) but she is taking both of them. That works for me, because I am still treating them for roundworms.

Living in a multi-cat home, the alpha cats have the clear advantage over the rest of the clowder. They eat first, push the more submissive away from the food bowl, become a bit of a bully toward the pariah cats (the shyer cats of the bunch that generally get picked on daily). One of our alphas, Ripley had a bad habit of constantly beating up on another younger cat, Mercedes. Mercedes would hide from her aggressor to escape torment.

Ripley passed away recently, and as is our habit, we allow the cats to pay their respects. This does help the cats to get through their grief easier. Mercedes walked by her past tormenter, who was laid out on a towel on the floor then squatted and left her mark on Rip’s leg.

It was as if she was saying “There you go bud, now you can Rest In Pee.”

Here is Stormy- excuse the hand in the photo