Archives for Feline prowls category
Posted on Nov 5th, 09 at
10:04 am under Family Life, Feline prowls, Medical Maladies
5
Nov
Both my grandma and Nala came out of surgery well…
My grandma’s surgery went very well, but it took a bit longer than thought for her to wake up. She was transferred to the ICU after a few hours and will be getting a room either today or tomorrow. My uncle was able to see her yesterday and though she wasn’t talking much, she was all there and just need to recuperate and recover now… He’ll go see her again this morning so later on I will have more news.
Nala’s surgery went perfectly and we picked her up after our Chiro appointment last night, and she was completely awake and happy to see us… though she was walking a bit funny for the first few minutes home she was herself and was starving even though they had given her a small meal there… we fed her and she ate a day’s worth of food without hesitation… She isn’t complaining at all but is very cuddly and is giving all of us tons of cuddles and kisses… we just have to bring her back in two weeks to get the stitches removed.
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Posted on Nov 4th, 09 at
1:33 pm under Family Life, Feline prowls, Medical Maladies
4
Nov
My grandmother is an amazing woman. She is 86 and full of life. She goes out with friends, still works occasionally, loves to gamble and gets her hair and nails done every week (she hasn’t washed her own hair since she was in her teens.. lol) If you want to call her and get her at home, your best bet is to call after midnight… she goes to sleep around 3am every night after completing her crossword puzzle in bed… but don’t call her before 10am!
I don’t get to see her as often as I would like since she and my uncle both smoke in their home, and with my allergies and asthma I can’t visit her. But I do try to talk to her on the phone often and stop by her house when I am in the area even if it just to stay outside for a few minutes… I also love having her here at my home.
Here are some pics that I took last week when she and my mom came over…
(striking a pose and showing off her low cut jeans)
(With my mom and Khéna)
Last month, my Grandmother found out that she had stomach cancer. It is large and aggressive and the diagnosis could have gone either way. She went in for a scan 3 weeks ago and was told that they would call her within 2-3 weeks with either an appointment with the specialist (which would mean that it was too advanced/ had spread / was not operable… or with an appointment for a few more tests at the hospital which would mean prep for surgery. I was a nerve wracking week but she finally got the call to go to the hospital for tests and Surgery was scheduled for today. If she hadn’t been called for surgery she was told that she would have had only another 6 months… I can’t imagine her going so soon…
I’ll find out in a few hours how it went…
Another family member is also in Surgery today… we brought Nala to the vet this morning to be spayed… the boys were sad to find out that she was going to be having surgery and that they would be cutting her skin, Xavier was in tears, scared that she won’t come back… I think it helped that they brought her with me this morning and that we will all be picking her up after the Chiro appointment tonight…
So, today we are thinking happy thought that everything will go well for both of our loved ones…
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Posted on Nov 3rd, 09 at
11:50 am under Food, Misc Ramblings, Raw feeding
3
Nov
Sometimes, the weekly specials at the grocery store just work for you…
I make my weekly menu according to the specials from the grocery stores in my area and I am also trying to stay within budget. I was not being careful for a while and the amount we were spending on groceries was going up a bit more than I would have hoped… So I have been being careful of using what we have in the freezer and pantry and stocking up on things that are on special…
Now that I also have Nala to feed I am really keeping my eye out on cheaper cuts of meat…
I felt I hit the Jackpot this week… Turkey was .99 a pound and so were chickens at another store. I bought two turkeys, one that has been put away in the fridge to defrost for the weekend (which will make a great turkey meal, pot pie, stock and soup along with leftovers) and one for freezer for a later date. I also bought 4 chickens and a 4 bone in chicken breasts. Along with other food to complete the menu plan, including 8lbs of apples and a box of clementines, I managed to keep the cost at about 100$ which I find to be quite remarkable…
The 4 chickens were not the nicest looking or the best quality but Nala won’t mind… I took the time yesterday morning to cut them up and separate them into baggies for about 3-4 weeks worth of Nala’s meals… I am hoping to do the same whenever I see that special so that we have a good stock of food for her in the freezer at all times.
(Ready for the Freezer)
At the same time I was cutting up the whole chickens and was in the groove, I also cut up the chicken breasts that I used in last nights supper which was Fried chicken Sandwiches (recipe to come)…
The bones of course did not go to waste and got thrown into a pot with a few onions, carrots and celery stalks and will become the broth for tonight’s soup and there should be broth left over to freeze for other meals…
(Chicken stock before and after about 20 hours of simmering)
So for about 100$ I will be getting weeks worth of food for the whole family…
Planning meals and stocking up on specials can really be quite rewarding…
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Posted on Sep 20th, 09 at
7:15 pm under Feline prowls, Raw feeding
20
Sep
In the last few days/weeks I have been learning more and more about raw feeding a cat… and of course I still have a lot to learn…
I am pretty sure that she was being fed prey by her mom before she came to us because I was told that she wasn’t taking to the kibble much that they were trying to get her to eat and she took to raw food perfectly.
The first day I prepared little baggies with a few oz of food a day in them with the amount that an adult cat would eat… pretty much just chicken, chicken hearts, livers and a few pieces with bone to make a complete diet. However, Kittens, like babies, go through growth spurts and she can sometimes eat nearly two of the daily portions in a day and then eat less the next. All the portions are frozen and then I just need to take one out, let it thaw (or thaw it in warm water) and then serve. I takes about 15 min to prepare all the portions and it really isn’t too much more work than feeding kibble…
So I have just been feeding her four times a day and giving her a bit more than I think she needs and letting her be the judge of her appetite…
I have also read many times on the Rawcat Yahoo group that when they are young it is the best time to get them used to eating many types of food… So after having chicken the first week, I then went and bough a cow heart and portioned that all up for quite a few meals and then this weekend I bought some pork for her also…
She has eaten everything without hesitation (though she doesn’t like the fat on the cow heart too much) and the more little portion that I have ready the more variety she is getting…
I had also asked on the group if it would be a good idea to try to feed a mouse to her if Sparky (our older cat) caught it and left it in front of the door which he does on occasion. The answer was to try… she might or might not take it…
So when he left a little mouse next to the door during the night we decided to give it a try this morning… When she eats I often tough her to get her used to our presence and so she is OK if someone touches her or her food when she is eating. But when we presented her with the mouse in the kitchen then decided to move her outside on the balcony to continue, she growled and didn’t want us to touch it… it was hers!
She ended up playing with it for about 10 min…
(click on a pic to make it larger)
touching…
Pouncing…
Carrying…
Holding…
And then finally she broke the neck, or the skull or something that when *crunch* and then she starting to eat it…
And then within a minute of starting to eat the little mouse… it was gone..
and she was still hungry…
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Posted on Sep 7th, 09 at
11:18 am under Feline prowls, Raw feeding
7
Sep
My Father in Law’s girlfriend (Chantal) had mentioned to us a few weeks ago that they had found some kittens on their property. The mama cat had given birth in the old outhouse that they were about to tear down… luckily it hadn’t been used in a few years and the wood chips made a nice bed… I said that I might be willing to take one since we had been talking about getting another cat or maybe even a dog…
Yesterday morning we got a call from them saying that they were coming in the area to bring a kitten to another family member and asked if they should bring us one also.. we quickly though about it and called back and accepted. The one we would have liked was already going to another family member so they brought us another little one… the kittens are 7 weeks old and were just being weaned, the mom was walking away from them while they nursed and they were out exploring more… I would have like is she was completely weaned but since they are feral and were exploring more and getting harder to catch by the day FIL thought it would be better to get them while he still could.
She arrived yesterday at about noon and she was so scared but also very calm and cuddly.. the boys held her and she licked and nuzzled Khéna and didn’t try to leave at all while being held and passed around…
I decided a while back that we would be raw feeding our next animal… Chantal had told us that they had been trying to feed the kittens kibble and milk but that they were not taking to it very much… but I thought about it and reasoned that because they were feral they were most likely being fed prey that the mama cat was catching so there shouldn’t be much transition to raw… I was right… I didn’t buy kibble at all but instead got some chicken out of the freezer, thawed it and then fed it to her…
We started with small chunks but then I gave her larger peices along with bone and organs and she knew exactly what to do with it and loved it!
Yesterday I portioned food out for the week and froze it in baggies weighing about 3oz each… estimating that she will be about 9 pounds as an adult and needs 2-3% of her body weight in food…
(click to see one larger)
As for litter training… it is also going great… I showed her the litter box a few times and finally she went in it and has been using it with no problem…
I haven’t had a new kitten in 20 years… my last kitten died when I was pregnant with Khéna at 17 years old… Our other cat, Sparky came to us as an older adult cat…so this is such a pleasure for me… We named her Nala… a name that we all agreed on including the boys… she loves to cuddle and sleep on me and I am enjoying it also..
I have a feeling that she is going to have a special place in this family….
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Posted on Apr 26th, 06 at
9:44 pm under Feline prowls, My Life
26
Apr
After supper, Xavier and Simon found Nelson (our older cat) on the stairs outside with something wrong with his leg.
I choose Nelson when he was about a week old. He still had his eyes mostly closed and wasn’t yet able to walk. We brought him home about 3 months later when he had been weaned from his mom. I was 13.
He became very attached to me and me to him, he slept with me every night and was always not too far. He was also Roger’s favorite also and we used to “fight” over who was his “parent”…
Over the years he was just part of the family, my little sidekick, my “gros nanou”…
In his first year we almost lost him a few times due to recurrent bladder stones and he went through surgery three times. We weren’t able to find a food that agreed with him and finally after the third time we finally found the right food and kept him on that….
When I moved in with Simon, he came with me. he became our cat… Xavier was born, then Colin… Nelson saw it all… he wasn’t close to the kids but would come running if they would cry… He would be around my feet looking at me like he was saying “What’s wrong” and would nuzzle a bit…
Simon brought him up the stairs and put him on the ground to see what exactly was wrong, I was thinking a broken or sprained limb at first but he tried to walk and both of his legs dragged behind him. He was paralysed.
I called the Vet and went straight away, knowing very well deep inside that he wouldn’t be coming back. We knew well enough that we let Xavier and Colin say bye and we told them straight away that there where good chances that he wouldn’t be coming back.
I got to the vet and waited for quite an bit being that they were full but had told me to come when I had called. When I went in she checked to see the extent and though we thought that it may have been that he had not landed well during a fall she explained that it was more likely an embulism. Pretty much he had a stroke of the spinal cord. She explained that we could try anticoagulants and wait 24-48 hours but with his pre-existing cardiac problems, his age and the fact that there was no pulse at all in his hind legs and they were as cold as ice, that it would probably not be fair to him. I had to agree with her. I don’t think it is ever in my right to choose the time of death of another being, but I also didn’t want him to suffer and I knew that it was the right thing to do… as hard as it was…
I stayed with him and brought him home after. My mom will be burying him up at my uncles place this weekend along side our dog and another of our dear cats.
Nelson was 15 years old, was still in great shape,was still as loving and cuddly and as handsome as he has always been, he slept with us each night nest to our heads and would groom me often. Today, he stayed next to me all day and even let Colin cuddle and pet him…
Xavier is sad and wants Nelson to come back but understands that he is dead.It seems that he told Simon that Nelson is with his Pops. Though I don’t beleive in such, I still can understand the comfort it brings…
I will miss him…
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