That’s what the vet called Molly this morning, when I took her in to find out why she has been a bit unsteady on her feet lately. I thought she might of had a stroke, but she had a really bad ear infection resulting in vertigo that made her lose her balance.

Molly is a sweetheart. She sleeps with me, she follows me around like a dog inside the house and outside as well. If I sit down, she is automatically on my lap. BUT when she is feeling punky, doesn’t feel well or has been injured and I try to help her- she turns into the feral cat from hell. It’s the strangest thing- even putting flea meds on her monthly is challenging.

I tried to look into her ears, but she would have none of it. She twists herself inside out like a pretzel and lashes out with teeth and claw if I persist in trying to find out what is wrong and treat it. So I took her in this morning so the vet could evaluate her and she gave him a run for his money. It took four techs and myself to finally subdue her enough that he could find the deep infection in her ears. She got drops in her ears that will last for thirty days. She received two shots and made quite the wrong impression about what she is all about. She is a tortie and they do have attitude. I just wish her attitude didn’t kick off into overdrive when someone is trying to help her.

Once again, she spent the majority of the time on my shoulders during the visit although it was not a friendly perch and I have the holes in my back to prove it.

Mr. Pigeon is back to his normal, feisty self now. I tried yesterday to get some photos of his rear end, but it was after I had to de-matt him and he wasn’t in the mood for his “photo moment.” LOL  He looks a big miffed in the photo, but that is because I had to use a seam ripper to get out his mats that were around his old wound and I am sure the skin is still sensitive there.

Also. yesterday Salem had to visit the vet. She is a  short-hair black kitty who only wants to live under the shop and not in a house. We rescued her over nine years ago when I got a frantic call from a college student. Her boyfriend had bought her a kitten for her birthday and she was thrilled, that was until he started drinking and decided this kitten would be great food for his boa constrictor! She beaned him in the head and put him to bed and called me to come and rescue this kitten. I couldn’t get there fast enough. I don’t know what she hit him with- but he was still out when I got there.

Salem has been here ever since and yesterday when she showed up to eat- I could see discharge coming out of her mouth. Since she is semi-feral, there is no way she would let me open her mouth (without biting me first) But I did manage to scoop her up and put here into a waiting carrier. I ran her to the vet where they found her canines were jutting out at an odd angle and causing her great pain. Thankfully, they did not have to sedate her to remove them. They were loosey goosey and just a bit of wiggling, they came right out. She is fine, she had an antibiotic shot to prevent infection and when she saw me this morning, she ducked under the shop and didn’t come out until I went back in the house. LOL  Hopefully, in a few days she will forgive me and we will be friends again.

On Feb. 3, 2017, we received a phone call from a woman fit to be tied. She had a cat for about a year, but he wasn’t getting along with her small dog, or her other cat. Now, to make matters worse (according to her) he had the “nasties.” Some sort of skin infection and a gooey eye. She sounded like she was at the end of her rope with him- so out the door I went.

Her small “friendly” dog that this cat didn’t like, met me at the door and tried to bite my ankles! Some sort of terrier mix no obedience training, spoiled to the max. She showed me where she kept “the bad kitty.” he was living in a cage on the dresser- no food, no water, no litterpan, just newspapers spread out underneath the cage. I wanted to scream at the woman, but I didn’t. Instead, I just gathered this black kitty with the “nasty eye” into my carrier and we soon  on the way to the vets.

Turned out that Jet had not been neutered. He was suffering from a fungus infection underneath his belly and legs that was not ringworm. he had a bad UTI, URI, he was a mess. he was a year old. When they cleaned up his eye to see what was underneath, it was not good. His eye was shrunken down into his head- misshapen and he was blind in that eye. The vet said that either he was born that way or had been injured and not treated. They also detected a heart murmur but said it could be from stress and pain.

Later on, we would also find out he had giardia. They decided not to neuter him right away until some of his issues cleared and his fever went away. I brought him home.

As luck would have it, prior to his arrival, I had adopted out Hanna to a woman in Eugene. Her name is Robin. Hanna was not fitting into the family and Robin called asking if she could bring Hanna back to me. Because my time was so full of taking care of Jet-Eye, I agreed. Generally, I would pick up a cat that didn’t work out. That was just the rule, but God intervened because in that transfer back to me, Robin caught a glimpse of Jet-Eye and fell instantly in love. She adopted him a week later.

I received a letter yesterday, informing me that his young kitty had lost his battle to cancer and become anemic from the chemo treatments. Robin has let him go despite her strong love for him. In this case, she loved him enough to understand that his force was fading.

I am sorry that he is gone, and she has to cope with loss. But I am not sorry that he lived with her and he lived large. He lived loved, and she kept in touch with me faithfully every month, sending me updates.  I hope to still hear from her. I enjoy her letters when they arrive in the mail and I know her to be a no-nonsense type of woman with a huge heart.I am glad that through this adoption of the kitty with the gooey eye, that she and I found a friendship. And that Jet-Eye was allowed to be in her life along with her bull mastiff and her residence cat Clancy. He had quite the life!

Thank you all of you who helped us over this last hurdle. The cat food started arriving right away and it was so needed! There weren’t many slips in the boxes telling me who sent what- but please know, we are grateful for ALL here who helped either by sending monies or food. I haven’t smiled much in the last 12 days, but I am smiling now.

As a side note, should any of you find yourself fighting with oral Thrush and the antibiotics the doctors are giving you are making it worse- I am here to tell you that Kimchi is your best friend! I read about it on the Internet and thought it odd but figured, I had little to lose. I served up a helping of this fermented cabbage and the next morning when I woke up, I only had one blister left on my tongue! I guess something in fermenting process produces this wonderful effect. Just thought I would pass it along.

Thank you all of you so very much!

Hi Guys, if you are still around to read this from time-to-time.

I apologize for my absence recently. There has been a reason, I promise. first off, I know there is something wrong technically with this blog. I am working to resolve it but right now, the solution is a bit out of reach.

Right now, I am posting to ask for food for our sanctuary cats.We are  still getting weekly donations, but they are slim to none. I hear rumblings as to why, but can do nothing about the events that happen locally around here. So we are just grateful for whatever they throw our way. Right now, it is just scraps. We are in great need for canned food- Friskies (anything but beef) is fine. They seem to love Blue Mountain but the price is a bit spendy for us right now.  We need dry food Friskies, Whiskas desperately. This time last year, our supply cupboard was full. This time, we have three cans left and only six bags of food.

On May 3rd I was bit by a hobo spider. Before I could intervene (once I flung the spider that landed on my hand) on the floor- the cats pounced and made short work of the biter. But a few days later, the bite went rogue and I ended up in the ER where they gave me multiple ouchey shots of lidocaine and lanced it open. They found, staph, mrsa and cellulitus.

They wanted to put me in the hospital but there was NO ONE who could step in and care for all the cats here (let alone Kota) So I ended up getting 10 hours of a high-powered antibiotic IV. Then was sent home with this “superfly of antibiotics.” I was told to take them all. But then I developed oral thrush. I gotta tell you guys, if you want to bring on the pain- this bacteria will bring it! Nine days unable to talk, eat, swallow. My tongue blistered, the lining underneath my tongue shed itself like a snake. I’d wake up in the morning, so weak hardly able to get out of bed.

The cause of this disease is antibiotics. The cure is the same. Finally, I decided to heck with it and went holistic and only the other day was I able to eat a poached egg. Took me an hour, but I gotta tell ya, it tasted like Lobster Newburg! I’m getting better by stopping the antibiotics. My hand is finally healing- had it rechecked yesterday and the end results were positive.

But that is why I haven’t been blogging (although I am writing again). Trying to get a bit of extra money for the kitties. That’s why I popped on- to ask for donations of food- will update my wish list after I post this. No one here is sick (besides me) LOL

Pigeon is completely back to normal and sleeps on my chest every night, with his lovely paws wrapped around my neck. What a blessing that is-

Thanks for listening if you are still around. I do love all of you. I did try to update our wish list. I only pray it worked. Again, we need Friskies canned food and Fiskies/Whiska’s dry food if anyone can manage this we would be grateful. We may not be able to actively rescue right now, but we still have wonderful (mostly senior cats here) under our care.

I apologize, my attempt to update my wish list failed. I am clueless as to why? I hope this does not hamper our attempts to bring in some food for these beautiful kitties-

I

This weekend, was one that I was dreading. I had put off having a garage sale- first because of the weather (rain and snow in April!) Then I was dragging my feet because of the idea of selling off Mike’s belongings was just difficult for me. It was like the sale of his shop equipment-losing him all over again.

Unlike the shop contents being sold, I haven’t been there as his machines and his knives have been carted away. Going through all of his belongings, putting a price on them? For me, that was unfathomable. But I finally decided that this weekend, that would be the time.

I set up a huge piece of plywood on sawhorses behind the carport, and started bringing out the boxes one at a time. By the end of Weds, I had a huge pile (at least six feet high) of items for the sale. Some, belonged just to me, but for the most part, most was his. I called all my friends and said “Can you possibly help me with the sale?” But no one was free and it was all up to me. I almost cancelled again. Then decided it was time to put my big girl panties on and just get it done.

I started Friday and people came, but they were looking for deals- something priced $5.00 might fetch a dollar or a dime! It was pretty strange that first morning.

Then there was a lull of traffic. A truck pulled up and I had just gone to get another box of priced items to put out and these were some of Mike’s knives that he used to repair for Coast Cutlery. I don’t know if I ever shared this on my blog, but besides being a custom knifemaker, Mike was also the only Authorized Puma repairman for the United States. Other knife manufacturers soon learned of this, and he was getting knives that needed repair from all over. Some of these knives would arrive with letters.In the letters, the person would be ascribing human qualities to this knife.

I remember one example vividly where the man said the pocket knife was given to him by his Great Great Grandpa, and they were fishing out at the lake one year, the knife fell overboard , and although he dove repeatedly looking for his friend, his friend drowned. All felt lost. Then years later, when he was fishing the same lake with his son, the son’s line snagged on the bottom, and when they finally pulled the line up attached to it was this knife! It was just amazing.Mike took all those stories in his heart and he did a superb job of restoring and fixing these knives. So I was pretty much close to tears once I finished the boxes containing knives sent to Mike by the manufacturer’s to use for parts and pieces.

So, to get back to the weekend, this truck drives up. Nobody else is here and the man see’s these knives  and his face just lit up! He asked for a box and he bought them all, then he found some tools and bought those, and kept buying until the box was full!

He brought over the box and said “Can you make a deal for me?” I looked in the box and I saw my husband’s work and love, and I just started to cry. I was so embarrassed but I couldn’t stop. I told him that this was hard for me and told him why. And then I just turned around and hugged the gate with my back to him just emotionally caught up in this storm of tears.Kota was at the gate scratching, frantic to get to me. Then I felt this hand on my back. And I heard this man say “Miss?” I turned around and he was crying!

I told him, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” And through his tears, he said that “no you don’t understand. Last week I lost my son. He was 27 years old and hit by someone who was texting while driving. he died instantly. And then we were hugging and crying together.

After a bit, he told me that he was from Salem (which is quite a ways from where I live). he said he was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast, but the friend never showed and while trying to get back on the I-5 he got lost and ended up “in the middle of nowhere!” He had just flipped a U-turn on the highway, passed my sign and swung in. He said as he turned into my driveway. He thought to himself, “what are you doing? You don’t want to go to a garage sale.” But, he said he felt drawn in.

Then he shared, that since his son passed away. He has found himself in places he would never go. But he finds, when he starts talking to people he meets during these times, that they too, recently suffered loss. He stayed about 45 minutes and before he left pressed money into my hand (he way over-paid for these junk knives) and he left.

Fast-forward to Saturday. I almost didn’t open up the sale. I had stumbled on the stairs and hurt my foot. Walking was really painful (turned out I had lost two toenails. But, I gobbled some aspirin and started my day.

Busy as all heck! I still had boxes and boxes of Mike’s stuff behind the carport, so I was just hustling and as soon as a table cleared, more stuff came out. One the things I found was his camera. It is a brand-new high end digital Canon camera with the works. He bought it before Jack drove him to Alaska that time. When I argued about him regarding the cost. He never told me what he spent on it- but I knew they were expensive and at that time, we really didn’t have the money. But he bought it anyway. When he got home (after he got out of the hospital because he came home septic over a no-seeum bite) I looked at the “pictures” he took. He stuck this camera out the window as they were traveling and took blurred photos the whole trip. I just threw up my hands and zipped my lips, but I was not happy.

As I pulled out this camera and looked at all the goodies inside, the price tag was still on it. So I just halved the cost and put the price, and then “firm” next to the price. So this truck drives up and this couple hop out. She was probably in her late 20’s and they came in. Friendly folk, just looking. I was sitting near the table where all the high-end stuff were displayed and she saw the camera case sitting there and literally gasped! LOL She ran over to her husband and I heard her say “Honey, she has my dream camera here!: He asked her how much it was and she replied, she was afraid to look because she knows how expensive they are. He told her to go look.

So, she comes back over and she picks it up, see’s the price and puts it down. I see the light fade in her eyes. So I said, “Do you like this camera?” She just turned to me and her eyes were dancing again. She told me that she looks at this camera several times a week on the internet, hoping she could afford one of them, but it never happens. She’s wanted one for a really long time. Then I hear myself saying- Do you have $200.00? If you have $200.00 and can give it to me right now, the camera is yours!”

She looked at me like I had just landed in a spaceship! LOL She said are you sure? I said yes, I am sure. It you have $200.00 the camera is yours!” She said she had to ask her husband and then I heard her tell him that for whatever reason, the lady just offered her a heck of a deal and if she had $200.00 and the camera was hers! He asked her if she had the money and then I heard her whisper (I have great hearing). This is really strange Brian. Before we left the house this morning. I heard God tell me to bring $200.00! I never bring that much money when we go garage sale chasing!”

As she paid for the camera, she was crying (at this point so was I) She said  “you aren’t going to change your mind before I get to the truck are you?” I told her No, I stand behind my word and as she walked back to her truck sobbing in joy. I don’t know who she was hugging tighter, Brian or the camera! LOL  I found my smile, my joy again. And went to fetch more stuff to put out.

Ok, I know this is a long post and I apologize- but it ain’t over yet and so go get more coffee and another donut! LOL

The last haul of boxes was everything that Mike used for his crafts- his woodwork, his whittling tools- does anyone even whittle anymore? All of the bits and pieces of knives, some broken some intact that he used for parts for these really cheap Coast pocket knives that broke if you just looked at them wrong. Puma knives, his early custom knives, His extra shop lights, his files (not computer) the tools. Just all of it spread on the tables. I just bowed my head and thanked Him for allowing me to make that one gal so happy and prayed that he would send someone along who might recognize the worth of the contents of the tables and give Mike’s life a new beginning.

No sooner had I prayed, this truck drives up. This gentleman hops out and I smiled, because he looked like a hippie. The long hair, very distinguished silver hair. Just his mannerisms reminded me of a hippie.

He came over first thing, shook my hand and introduced himself as Howard and said tell me about this- this looks like a man’s garage sale. This time without crying, I told him about Mike, what he did, what a nice man he was how  I lost him and explained about his life basically surrounding the tools. After I finished, he said, “Well guess it’s time for me to go to work now.” (I thought he was leaving), and then he asked me if I had boxes? I said, yes and he told me to fetch “several!”

This man, this beautiful soft-spoke soul-bought everything that Mike ever touched, used or belonged to him. He bought it ALL! He kept peeling off Benjamin’s from his clip. And what was weird is as I was fetching more boxes to fill up with goodies and trying to keep track of the money coming through. He would be shopping again, and I noticed several times, he was leaving his money laying around! There were other people that had arrived, and so I kept giving him back this wallet, his money clip. Then I also noticed, he kept dropping Benjamin’s on the ground! I kept hustling to pick them up and return them to him.

It was crazy. In retrospect, I don’t know if he was testing me, or because he was a senior citizen he just loses his fortune as he walks the world? But I was hustling to keep him and his money together!LOL Every time I returned the money, or the clip of the wallet. He would thank me and then tell me bring more boxes! He bought me out! I don’t even have to open today to get rid of anything of Mike’s. The only thing he bought of mine, was my scrimshaw tools and two pieces of ivory I scrimmed long ago. One was of one of my cat and the other was of my horse Racer. Other than that, everything that left in the back of his truck belonged to Mike.

And here comes the really strange part of this miracle. He gave me his phone number and said if I run into anything else that belonged to Mike that I wanted to sell, to call him. Then he drove off. I’ve called this number several times. II doesn’t ring,  no one answers and I hear instead of dead air, I hear tinkling of bells?

So it was an exhausting, exhilarating, emotional, sad and awesome garage sale. I think that when it comes to garage sales, not many people could say that afterward! LOL

Thanks for reading- and God Bless You All!

This beautiful long-haired tuxedo boy has lived on the outskirts of my clowder for years now. Showing up during a nasty thunderstorm, skinny, malnourished and anemic, he was immediately taken to the vet and neutered. Once released in one of the enclosures, it took him less than a week to figure out how to dig out (impressive when you consider when we laid out the groundwork, we used heavy vinyl plastic, layers of gravel, more plastic and more gravel to stop escape attempts). I would discover weeks later after he escaped that he found our only weak part of the floor- right where the cat door goes out into the screened catio. A very narrow space underneath that door, that I still wonder how he fit in there to tunnel out!

So after his great hisscape, he was elusive, running at the very sight of humans (even me the head cat food can opener person). In the last few weeks, I have seen him more than ever before, and he looked bad. Past attempts to trap him have failed, so all I could do was pray that God would allow me the opportunity to help him out if I could.

This morning, my prayer was answered. He was right outside the door when I opened it to let the dog out, and MK stayed on the steps while Kota made his way around him. Concerned, I bent down to pet him and he didn’t move much, so I scooped him up Still no response (very worrisome). I hustled him inside the house and put him in the patio cage until the vet opened.

He came home at 4:00 shaved from all the mats, on board were flea treatment, de-worming and covinia shot to help his infection. They did bloodwork on him, the results will be back in a few days. I think this bad weather has just kicked his butt. They place him at about 12 years old- most of his teeth are missing, the rest are dirty but not infected. he just laid there and let them examine him, groom him, shave him in spots to get rid of the bad mats- offered no complaints, didn’t scratch or bite anyone. he’s back in the cage right now sleeping off his new experience at the vet. He will stay there until the blood work results return. I am not sure why he has mellowed out- I am hoping it is just age and not something major wrong with him. Of course, I just paid off the vet last week! Now I have $300.00 more to cover- but he is worth it.

Hi Everyone,

I’ve missed blogging on here. Got hit with a bad bug that took me out for about 2 weeks. Recovery came about the 9th day when I was finally able to keep water/Pediaylyte etc down. Looking back, probably a lot had to do with stress, lack of sleep and just not taking proper care of myself since Mike died. But I made it and other than getting fluids IV I did manage to stay out of the hospital.

Through it all, the cats kept me company, especially Pigeon. He is also on the road to mending FINALLY and doesn’t look like Franken-Kitty much at all anymore. Here is where he is today:

He and his brother are still at war with each other. Even though I made the re-introductions slow, they still have their moments where they are out for blood. But Pigeon’s smell has changed tremendously for PITA to accept him 24/7.it’s slow-going and hopefully in a few weeks, they will be back to best buds again.

Like most of America, we are dealing with severe and out-of-the-ordinary weather. 3 of our 5 acres are now flooded, and Little Creek, well it isn’t little anymore. We have another week of virtually non-stop rain and yesterday water came pouring into the bedroom- sigh… I moved the bed and dresser out of the way and set up buckets. Now I just have to find someone who can help me out. Pulling down the ceiling tile, I see dry-rot up there, so I know that the insurance company is going to tell me to go and pound sand when it comes to coverage.

Above the bedroom is the attic so I need to go up there today and see just where the leak is located. I hate going in the attic, but at least now it is emptied out. So that’s pretty much why I haven’t been around- and despite being so sick, I still did manage to feed and care for the cats. With the water getting so close to one of the enclosures, I just let the cats out and hoped for the best. Everyone is here and accounted for,

After so many frustrating months, this kitty is finally on the last two weeks of healing. His prison sentence to be isolated from all the other cats was lifted yesterday and we started the slow re-introduction to the rest of the clan. Right now he is in the main cat enclosure that attaches to the house. He is stretched out in the sunshine. I am so relieved that the worst is behind us now. Never thought we would get there.

Due to the inclement weather, Kota hasn’t been able to get out of the house and socialize with his canine friends. Two days ago, I took him to the dog park and it was packed! (no pun intended) There had to have been over twenty large breed dogs running amuck after being cooped up for weeks.

With his leash on, we went inside and once he had met all the ones who came up to him to say hi- I took off his leash and he just flew. He was having the time of his life. He was especially enamored with a beautiful Tibet Mastiff by the name of Missy. She was just his size and the same age and they had a blast. I know the vet told me not to run him- but he is a dog for pete’s sake and he can’t just spend the rest of his life in the house, taking drugs and staying in his cage all night.

He was so tired when we left. Instead of running up the ramp into the truck, he just slowly walked up and laid down. When we got home- he just plopped down on his back and passed out. LOL!

On the Pigeon front, he is still having almost continuous tremors. He is not running fevers, his wound is slowly healing. He did finally come up and cuddle with me when I went in the other day to lie down for a quick nap. He was nudging me so hard in the throat, I thought he was going to cut off my windpipe! I have wound gel to put on him now three times a day that is supposed to stop the pain- but the tremors continue. One vet says it is fever (although he doesn’t have one) while the other one said it is because I touch the open area (which I only do gently when I am putting the gel on) So, I have no idea why he has these tremors, and apparently no one else seems to know either, or how to stop them.