Twyla

A couple of years ago, I drafted some thoughts on Twyla along with a few pictures I took of her at the time, but never remembered to finish posting to the blog.

Sadly, this will be my last on Twyla. As luck would have it (good or bad), we happened to see Twyla lying in the middle of the street (one block over from our house) on our way to a friend's house this evening. I recognized her half a block away and saw she was still alive, mouth open, likely meowing for help, so I made Jon pull over immediately so we could check her out.

Sure enough, it was our precious little Twyla.

She was badly hit, with a terrible head injury (I'll spare the details), but still moving slightly and trying to get up. Jon called animal control and went back to our house to get some towels to wrap her in, while I stayed guarding her from any more trauma, directing oncoming cars to slow (the hell) down and move to the other lane to go around us. A couple of people stopped to ask if I was ok -- I explained that someone had hit my cat, and we had just found her -- while uttering those words out loud, I could feel my chest get heavy, my eyes start to swell and my throat catching.

While we had given up on keeping Twyla indoors (she was always very feral and skittish), she was still my cuddly fur ball. The first pet that Jon and I both found and owned together.  And the thought of losing her, right there at that moment, in front of me, pained me.

It felt like eternity, but was probably only 10 minutes, before Jon showed up again, with the truck, some towels and a box to carry her in. Sometime during the time that I was waiting for him and reassuring her that she was going to be okay, she died. While it was an awful way to go, I'm glad I was there with her during those last few moments of her life (and can only hope that me being there helped comfort her some).

We love and will miss you Twyla dear, but hopefully now you've found a place where you can happily dance forever.

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Draft post from August 2009:

And then there's Twyla. The one who gets stuck on roof tops and is scared of everyone, and I mean everyone, except for me.

She's light on her feet, she runs on tippy toes and scuttles out of sight at a moment's notice. But, when she sees me lie down on the couch or bed, it's cuddle time. She immediately jumps onto my chest, kneading nonstop, with her butt in the air begging for pets, until she can finally find a comfortable spot to lie down on.

She's our most petite cat by far - yet over the last year she's definitely been putting on the weight. She's hardly home long enough to eat a few pieces of kibble, so we're pretty sure she's getting food from the neighbor's.

As quiet as a mouse as she is (her mews are fainter than a kitten's), she's been known to leave scars (on friends) with her razor sharp claws. Yet she still holds that special spot in our hearts and I'm always thankful the day we found her and decided to bring her into our home.

The verdict is in...

And, it's tapeworms.

Of all the worms to get, tapeworms is actually the best to get. Apparently. It's still disgusting if you ask me.

Our vet called me back yesterday to inform me of the news. As it turns out, tapeworms are much easier to treat (one single pill vs. weeks of treatment!) and kill off completely than the horrible roundworms that we were afraid the dogs may be infected with.

So, I gave both dogs a pill last night to kill off the tapeworms and then topped it off with a good flea treatment (dogs, and cats, tend to get tapeworms from eating an infected/carrying flea). I've treated two of the three cats with the flea medication, and will try to tackle Twyla sometime tomorrow, now that Jon is back home (yay!) to help me out. We'll also give the cats their tapeworm meds tomorrow too (theirs is a topical, rather than a pill, so I can't do the flea and tapeworm treatment on the same night).

We've washed all the bedding in the house and will be vacuuming the rugs and giving the dogs big baths just to be sure. But otherwise, another crisis deftly averted! WHEW.

Back in the Concrete Jungle

After only a few hours back home yesterday, Jon commented that we were "back in the concrete jungle". I've never really thought of the South Bay as a Concrete Jungle. San Francisco, ok. Los Angeles, sure. New York, hell yeah. But not the South Bay.

Still, it definitely seemed like a fitting description, having just left the lush jungly backroads and beautiful countryside of New Zealand. There were literally HOURS, even a whole day perhaps, where we'd be driving through farmland and rolling hills without a person in sight. The roads were "sort of" paved, but that was about it.

We had a great trip. We're glad to be home - but we already miss NZ - especially as we tackle all the chores today (we both took the day off today and boy am I glad! unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, bills, rental house maintenance and yes, even clean up, since the cats were pissed we left and pissed on our beautiful new leather couches. *sigh*)

If that weren't enough, I have hundreds of emails to sift through, 234 blog posts - seriously - to catch up on, about 1000 pics to upload and scrutinize and 15 days of a journal to blog. :)

Since Internet Access was spotty in NZ, I didn't get to post to the blog like I had hoped. I did, however, keep a daily journal so I could remind myself, and you, what we did along the trip and how Logan, especially, fared. He did wonderfully overall, and we couldn't have been happier about our choice to bring him along. Since I still want to capture and share those memories, I'm going to post each day's logs here, one day at a time. And, if I'm feeling extra motivated, I'll sprinkle in a few posts about how life is faring now that we're home too. ;-)

So watchout. You're about to get a flurry of posts over the next couple of weeks to make up for the lack of posts during our trip. :)

Cat on the roof

We tried out Zafu's brilliant idea last night and found Twyla waiting for us at the sliding glass door this morning. WHEW!!!

Thanks Zafu!!

Of course, now that she's eaten a proper meal, she's begging to go back outside. Think she's learned her lesson? ;-)

I love the smell of vomit in the morning

Nothing says "Welcome Home Daddy" quite like projectile vomiting all over us, in bed, at 5am in the morning....volumes of it. I'm still washing all the sheets, blankets, pillows, clothes....

I know folks are wondering where I am, how Logan and I are doing, and where all the frequent blog postings are.... here's a quick update from the week (things are fine, just a little hectic with my hands full while Jon was gone):

Little Logan is still a bit under the weather but we're not quite sure what with. It seems like he's got a little bug with all the throw up (the other morning he spewed a nice puddle of it while half asleep, through his crib railings and onto the floor and rug beneath) and explosive diarrhea I've been cleaning up. Or, maybe it's his way of saying he missed Daddy this week? I know I did.

The upside is, after dousing us with milky puke this morning, he then smiled and laughed and gurgled and coo'd like nothing was wrong at all, so at least he's in his usual charming good mood while being sick. :)

I ended up taking Logan to the dermatologist since the rash on his face got a lot worse - turns out he's got seborrheic dermatitis (they think the heat wave we had this past week set it off). Can't say I'm entirely surprised given he's had skin issues since birth. So we now have a(nother) new lotion to put on his face. I applied some last night and it's already 100% better this morning. Cool.

We had skipped swim class on Tuesday night with all that was going on, but I took Logan on Thursday and we had a great time. We're still practicing getting our faces wet, and now learning how to turn around and grab for the side after falling in (from a sitting position on the edge of the pool). We also just started the motions of turning over from back to tummy to back again (to get them used to turning and floating on their back if they fall in). Great, practical stuff in my opinion, and I'm really glad we have him going to the classes.

I lost 2lbs from my first week on weight watchers. Let's hope the trend continues!

Twyla is still on the roof. I'm getting desperate and about to plead with our neighbor, the fireman, to help get her down since it's going on a week now....!!! We'll try to take another stab at getting her down this weekend, now that Jon's home to help.

Sanka has diabetes. Her sugar levels are through the roof. I visited the vet yesterday and received a tutorial on how to give her insulin shots, which we'll start on Monday. Twice a day. We have special food to give her as well. We have to take her in after a few days to measure her glucose and see if the dosage is right or needs some adjusting.

Feels like life just got a little more complicated. But, I know we can handle it.

Yes we can.

When it rains...it pours...

Have you ever had that feeling that when the shit hits the fan, it REALLY hits the fan, all at once and splatters indiscriminately all over the damn place?

The past few days, and the next, look to be very entertaining indeed. And, just when I think this is about all I can handle right now something else turns up.

For instance, my back. My injections last Monday went well, but I was in MORE pain the few days afterwards. I got shots of cortisone to EASE the pain. So, doesn't that seem counter-intuitive to you? My PT explained it to me as, if my glass is already full, and we fill it with just a little bit more liquid, it's going to be SPILLING over. Spilling over with aching numbing pain she forgot to add.

Luckily, my back started feeling better about Sunday afternoon. And then, Jon took off for a week-long business trip to NY on Monday morning.

Sanka, our oldest cat, has also been failing (we're all old and rickety in this here house). We started noticing that she's been losing weight these past couple of weeks, at a dramatic rate mind you, yet she's eating and DRINKING, like crazy!

And then there's the pee. Ohhhhh, the pee.

Remember when I mentioned we got back from our LA trip only to be greeted by a warm stuffy house smelling of cat shit and pee? Well, the pattern has continued - pee just outside the litter box, on the floor, a nice shiny wet big puddle for one of us to clean up each morning, noon or night.

And just when you thought that was enough (we're tearing our hair out trying to figure out WHY OH FUCKING WHY aren't the cats using their litter boxes properly anymore?!?!) I wake up with a jolt the other night to a nice warm WET lap. That's right. More pee. On our bed. On our comforter. On my pajamas. ON ME.

And we thought, hmmmm, maybe this pee deal is Sanka and not Iz (who my husband we were blaming) afterall.

So I took her to the vet today to get checked out. They think it's either one of three things:

1. $ Diabetes
2. $$ Hyperthyroidism
   
3. $$$ Kidney Problems

We'll find out tomorrow.

That's the oldest cat. Now let's turn to the youngest cat. Twyla. She's our most feral skittish cat of all, and really only likes to hang out with me. She will sneak outside when she gets a chance and frankly, we haven't really cared esp. given she's put on some extra weight after moving to the new house and she needs to work. it. off.

But I digress. So Twyla likes to do the cat walk along our fences, our neighbors' fences, everyone's fences, you name it. And, has discovered hey! this fence juts right up against the house so it's only a 3 ft (or so) jump up onto this nifty roof here.

And there you go. She's now stuck on the roof. Been stuck up there for A FEW DAYS. I kid you not. Jon tried, unsuccessfully, several times before he left for his trip, to get her down. Me with the bad back, even *I* have tried several times to coax her down (I even climbed onto the roof tonight in a desperate attempt to free her, just don't tell my PT that). We must look like idiots, teetering at the top of our ladder, leaning over the edge of our roof, shaking a bowl full of kibble saying "heeeeeeeere kitty kitty kitty!! c'mon cute kitty! heeeeeeeere, little Twyla!"

And the moment she gets within arm's reach, I try to grab her and WHOOSH she splits. She's just super spooked. And, the longer she's up there, the more spooked she gets.

Hey, and did I tell you we've hit a heat wave this week and it's running in the 100's during the day and oh yeah, roof tops are probably one of the hottest places around to sit all day with no food, no water, no shade?

Jon tells me tonight, don't give her too much food and water. Then I'll have to clean poop and pee from the roof.

Ummm, Jon? If I don't give her food and water, you'll be cleaning a dead cat from the roof. Take your pick.

Who's next?

Oh right. My son.

I got a call this afternoon from Logan's preschool. It's never a good sign when your cell lights up with your preschool's name on it. The teachers aren't calling to chat about the holiday weekend or the Stevie concert you just went to. Nosiree. They call and say "Hi Bree, no need to alarm, but Logan seems to be really sick."

No need to alarm? Then why the hell are you calling me?

Well, that little rash he had around his eyes yesterday has come back, and looks a lot worse. In fact, it's all over his cheeks now too.

Oh great.

And, he hasn't been eating nearly as much as usual.

Uh huh.

And, his cough seems to be getting worse.

Anything else?

Yeah. He had an explosive diarrhea a little bit ago. He doesn't have to go home just yet, but if he has another, then he has to go home for sure.

But you know, no need to alarm.

*sigh*

So I took Loganito to the dr's this afternoon, right after my PT appt (where I swore I wouldn't be climbing on any rooftops) and right before Sanka's vet appt (where I juggled a crying kitty in one arm and a crying baby in the other).

Luckily, it doesn't appear to be anything too serious. The doc thinks he's had some sort of allergic reaction, probably to food (the most recent new food we gave him was yogurt just a couple of days ago) but it's really hard to say.... So, we're laying low for awhile. Off the yogurt and will wait for the rash to go away. In a few weeks we can introduce yogurt back into Logan's diet and see if he has any of the same reactions or not (the dr thinks most likely not so we'll see). Other than that, he's ok. Nothing contagious or life threatening. His cough is a little "croupy" but nothing to worry about (clear lungs, nose, ears, etc.).

You'd think all this would drive a woman to drink. And yet....

I started weight watchers last week instead.