I Will Ramble Since I Don't Know What To Say

Our cat Velvet developed IBD in January. We treated him for it and was successful in controlling the symptoms. A week ago Velvet started gaining fluid in his abdomen. Considering his age we did not want to do a biopsy of his intestines. The vet drew off 150 cc of fluid. We started him on prednisolone and a diuretic but they did not affect the condition. The vet said it was almost definitely the diffuse form of intestinal lymphoma. There is no cure but you can sometimes give them a few added months by giving chemotherapy in the form of I.V. solutions of 2 or 3 compounds along with prednisone or prednisolone. Over the weekend he regained the abdominal fluid. I researched drugs that he could take at home instead of taking him 60 miles to Jacksonville.

It was obvious last night that Velvet's condition was rapidly deteriorating and was at the point that any additional drugs would not help. He was still eating but he was having difficulty with finding a position that would allow him to breathe easily. He was lying down as much as possible and his coat was rough. I spent most of last night with Velvet and could see him physically failing. We did not want Velvet to get to the point where he was in extreme distress and pain so we made the decision to take him to the vet this morning to be euthanized. I gave him some pain medication so he could rest a little better. I spent a lot of time with Velvet this morning and you could see in his eyes that he wanted this to end. We fed him his favorite food and he stretched out afterwards. After a lot more petting and talking to him I picked up his almost limp body and gently placed him on a towel in the carrier. He was about a day away from struggling for breath and in fact the slight stress of the trip to the vet caused him to have labored breathing. His blood pressure was so low that even their expert vet tech had some difficulty with finding a vein. She was very good with him, though, and did not hurt him before finally locating a leg vein.

The wife and I both held ourselves together when he came back in. We petted on him and talked to him awhile. The vet was excellent with Velvet, stroking and speaking soothingly to him. I held him in my lap and told him he was going to Rainbow Bridge where he would see Tommy, Sir Francis, Casper, and all of our other furkids who have passed on. Though not very responsive Velvet did purr a little and stretched his chin out when I stroked it. I kept on talking soothingly to him as the vet injected the phenobarbitol solution into his vein. It took a little longer than usual before he became unconscious because of the low blood pressure but we kept him peaceful and he did not struggle. Velvet slipped into sleep and about 20-30 seconds later his heart stopped. He had a few involuntary movements but at that point he was already gone. We petted him a little bit more and the vet confirmed with a stethoscope that Velvet was dead. I broke down and cried then, knowing that Velvet wasn't there to be upset about it. We took his body home and buried Velvet in a sunny spot in the back yard. He always loved to sun himself in the window so this was an appropriate spot for his final resting place.

We adopted Velvet and his son from a local rescue group about 6 years ago. Velvet was always a daddy's boy, lying on my chair arm for petting. When I rubbed him he had the loudest, most contented purr I had ever heard. Velvet was very sweet and he always got along with even the more difficult cats here. He had an unreserved love for me. He was leery of Karen though in his later years he came to enjoy her holding him in her arms and petting him. He was a very special angel to us and now he is an angel at Rainbow Bridge. We miss Velvet terribly.

Here are two photos. The first one shows Velvet on the right and his son Beau on the left. It was taken about 2 years ago. The second photo is Velvet a day before he was euthanized. This is one of the last photos ever taken of him. He is in the sun near a window and is obviously not well. He still seemed to enjoy the sunshine. The bald patch is from an ultrasound.

I know that we did the best we could for Velvet. I wished we could have given him more time but his cancer was so aggressive that this was not possible. I did not want to do what some people with terminally ill animals do and support them with feeding tubes, repeated drainings of his abdomen, and other approaches that would keep him alive just so we could selfishly spend another week or two with Velvet. He would have been in severe pain and would have probably gone into shock from the drainings. He was already in some discomfort and I did not want to wait until it became intolerable for him since there was no cure. The pain shot did seem to help a little and though his quality of life the past couple of days was not great it was good enough to allow us to say a proper goodbye. Now Velvet is free of pain and suffering, free of that horrible cancer that tried to steal his joy. The cancer failed except perhaps during the last day. I think we took him in at the right time, before he totally crashed medically.

Velvet will always be my special "big boy". I will always have a hole in my heart when he left us too soon. He was kind, sweet, intelligent, and obviously appreciative of us adopting him and his son. When it was time I could see in his face that on some level Velvet knew we were trying to help him not to suffer more. I will see you at the Bridge some day, big guy, and it will be a joyful reunion. Until then I may shed some tears for you but I will always remember the good times we shared. Head pats and chinny chompers for you, sweet Velvet.

Oh No, They Are Learning!

Last night I found Elvira, the cat food thief, sitting outside the cat food cabinet next to a 5 pound bag of dry food she had managed to drag out of the cabinet. I swear she had a big grin on her face! Today I was getting my morning pills out of the cabinet and Princess, obviously a quick study, jumped inside. She hasn't quite made the connection yet between cabinets and food but when she does we are in for a world of trouble here. This is a shot of Princess right after she hopped inside.

Sebastian, AKA "Little Old Man"

Here is a nice shot of our little old man Sebastian. He is 10 years old now and was rescued while eating from the dumpster behind my wife's lab. He is a tiny little guy and fits very nicely in the kitty playhouse. The other furkids here are too big now to get inside.

On a different note, the A/C in my room is fixed for now and doing great. The bad news is that the A/C is now down for about half of our upstairs rooms and the classes there feel like a tropical jungle. According to an email "they are working on it." I am just going to enjoy my room's cool air while it lasts.

Could It Be....SATAN???

Elvira's Halloween photo.

Our Spoiled Princess

Yesterday I was walking by the sofa and Princess was lying there with her usual regal look. I know you all are probably getting sick of cat photos from me but she was so cute I just had to grab the camera and post this shot.

All Sorts Of Things

A lot has been happening this week on different fronts so instead of a theme post I am just going to throw all of these thoughts together.

1) School preplanning is in full swing. Along with the usual mix of meetings I have been putting supplies away and trying to get everything ready for the kids' first day Friday.

2) Good news about the supplies! It looks like almost all of my order was approved and came in. I was really worried about not having necessary lab supplies this year due to the budget cuts but everything is ok for now.

3) Bad news. Class sizes are large and still growing. Where are all og these kids coming from???

4) Humorous news. At least one or two of the administrators must be reading this blog since a rumor has been circulating that I am going to retire in the middle of the year. They probably got this idea from an earlier post of mine. Rest assured that I intend on staying the full year. It would not be fair to the school or students to leave like that. The future? Well, let's just say that I will look at things at the end of this school year and decide then about teaching beyond that point. If I am still having fun it might be a possibility. This is going to be sad news for one of the other science teachers here who has already stated her desire to take over my Anatomy classes and room. I feel a little like a mortally wounded robbery victim whose body is being stripped by robbers while they are still alive. As far as my retiring from teaching, the undertaker will have to wait a little longer.

5) I am going to make a real effort to be more positive about teaching this year, not to take things so seriously in education, and to have more fun teaching. I will laugh at the silly things instead of letting them eat at me. I am also going to smile more and try to help the other teachers here.

6) Very sad news. The wife came home yesterday in tears, She called her parents who live in another state. When she talked to her dad, who has Alzheimer's, he did not know he had a daughter and didn't recognize her at all.

7) I am going to adopt out our cat Elvira. The little vixen keeps raiding the cat food cabinet and stealing treats out of it. I have tried blocking the door with heavy objects but she always finds a way to get in. If it keeps up I will probably have to put a lock on the cabinet.

That's all for now. Sorry for the scattered nature of this post.

6)

Alpha Cat

Here is our Princess, AKA Alpha Cat, grooming herself in a series of nice shots taken in sequence. Can you tell she is just a little spoiled?

The Personalities Of Ellen and Elvira

It has been a fascinating 7 months since we adopted the terrible twosome, Ellen and Elvira. They started out as so identical in appearance and behavior we could rarely tell them apart. Now with time Ellen has a white whisker that helps us to physically distinguish them. We really don't need that. though, because of their radically different personalities that have developed over time. Here is Ellen:

She is playful but a little bit shy. Ellen is a Daddy's girl and constantly follows me around squeaking to be petted.

And then there is her sister Elvira:

Elvira is an alpha cat in training. She raids the food shelves looking for treats, tossing everything out on the floor. Elvira is the adventuresome sister, leaping up on the refrigerator and on top of the cabinets. Our little Mistress Of The Dark has an almost spooky intelligence. You can see it in her eyes when she cocks her head and stares at you intently. This may be the brightest cat we have ever had. She is at least as intelligent as our former alpha cat Tommy and he was very bright. As you can guess, Elvira is a handful but extremely entertaining to watch.

It is really fascinating how animal personalities can develop so differently when raised in the same environment.

Elvira Strikes Again

Those of you who occasionally drop by my modest little blog know of the ball of kinetic energy we call our kitten Elvira. So far I've seen her toss cat food cans out of the cabinet so she could be fed, offer me a ball in trade for some treats, and I've even seen her dive into the bathtub while my wife was in there. (The screams could be heard a mile away!) Last night I went into the kitchen to rinse out my bowl after eating some vanilla ice cream when I spied a furtive black urchin doing something I had to look twice at to convince myself what I was seeing. I went back into the living room and said, "Honey, after you got us both ice cream what did you do with the carton?" She immediately grasped the significance of the question and ran into the kitchen to behold our little Elvira. She had knocked the ice cream carton off of the counter, dragged it to a corner of the room where she wouldn't be bothered, and had her head and a good portion of her body buried inside the container. We pulled the now-white Elvira out of the carton and spent the next half hour cleaning her up. Gotta love her!

Photo of Gabriella

Here is the Gabriella I told about in the previous post. She came through the surgery fine. They amputated about half of her tail. She has never been handled before and is obviously pretty overwhelmed. My wife met her foster parent at the vet and took this photo. I think my student and her folks will actually wind up keeping Gabriella forever but the fostering will be a trial period. The foster mom really seemed to care about Gabriella and was very concerned about providing a wonderful indoor home for her. It's always so great when stories like this one has a happy ending!

Mistress Of The Dark

I was sitting in the living room watching the news this morning when I heard a kitchen cabinet opening. I looked just in time to see a black tail disappearing into the cabinet. A moment later cans of Fancy Feast started flying out of the cabinet onto the floor where two of our other guys were waiting. The wife Karen was puzzled why I was laughing my head off so she came in to see. Our Elvira was telling us she wanted to be fed! Here is the little scamp caught in the act when I opened the cabinet. I knew you all wouldn't believe this unless I provided visual proof.

And here is Elvira right after Karen grabbed her out of the cabinet to save the remaining cans of food from being deposited on the kitchen floor. I think she would have also opened the cans if she could have. Welcome to my world!

Switched At Birth?

Chris's comment on the previous post about Elvira having that same look as the velociraptors in Jurassic Park got me curious so I put a photo of Elvira next to a velociraptor for comparison. Yep, I can definitely see the resemblance! You can see the thoughts churning around in her mind.

Elvira

This is a lot cuter than the previous entry's photo. We are constantly running Ellen and Elvira off of the kitchen counters but they are bullheaded. This morning I caught Elvira sunning in the sink. When I got her down she knew I was irritated with her so she gave me this "aren't I cute?" pose.

Back In Black!

Beau with his adopted kids Ellen and Elvira.

Whew, What A Day!

It's been one of those busy, hectic, interesting types of days at school. In my second period while discussing mitosis a dean popped in looking for one of my students. I said that she was absent. "Oh no, she isn't!" replied the dean. After checking the absences and tardies it seems that this student has been randomly skipping my class and her other classes. That is very unusual for an honors level student since they usually care a lot about their grades. She will receive a "0" for all missed work.

We started dissecting the cats today. The students were all great and they were all on task through both periods. During the sixth period class we had a little excitement when one of my girls became woozy while dissecting and fell to the floor. I seem to lose one student like that each time we begin working on the cats. I suppose the experience is too much for a few at the beginning but they usually all do well after they get used to doing it. I called for the nurse and the student went to the office to rest awhile. She came back later and finished the lab just fine. I really felt sorry for her as she is one of my best students. She took Biology from me and made straight "A's". She was trying so hard to show me she could handle it. I told her to just take it easy and get some fresh air if she felt the least bit faint. I think she will do fine but the whole thing really embarrassed her so I tried my best to put her at ease.

I came home really pooped. I must have walked 10 miles today around the lab, hearing a constant "Mr. Albin, please come here and help us" from the students. It's great to be able to assist and motivate them this way but it takes a ton of energy to keep it up. They were so excited. Many of them are going into the medical field and this was a real glimpse into the world of surgery for them.

I'm resting with my feet propped up in the easy chair now. Here is Ellen playing close by. She has been periodically jumping on my chest and nuzzling me. What a sweetheart!

The Little Princess

I was originally going to show you photos of our dissection of the sheep brain but since it's the Christmas season I decided to nix that idea. Also, I am sick of teaching at this time of the year and would like to think about anything but facing the munchkins, as nice as they are this term, for another week. Instead here is a photo I took of Princess. She loves to lie on shoes and purses. I think she has a fetish about it because she sticks her head deep inside shoes and keeps it there for minutes at a time. This is one very odd, but cute, furkid.

Update On The Girls

Wow, what a difference a few days can make! Elvira and Ellen have really settled in here. When I come into the room they both come running up to me. Ellen likes to groom my arms and Elvira snuggles up next to me and nuzzles her head under my hand.

They found a folded massage cushion in the corner that they like to slip into at night like a bed. Here they are in it. Elvira is on the left and Ellen on the right.

Our Tommy

My tribute to Tommy.

Tommy Is At Rainbow Bridge

We are heartbroken. Our precious, wonderful alpha cat Tommy stopped eating this weekend. We took him to the vet today and they were running tests on him. He was jaundiced and his kidneys were compromised. While he was there he suddenly threw a blood clot and had a heart attack. Tommy died immediately so at least he did not suffer.

Something in the back of my mind was telling me that we might not have Tommy with us much longer. I spent a lot of time petting on him this weekend as he gradually got worse. Of course our vet was closed Sunday. In retrospect I don't think there would have been much they could have done for him. The heart attack caught the vet completely by surprise since Tommy had been rallying somewhat and moving around the cage.

We found Tommy in the road around 11 years ago. He had been hit by a car a moment before and he was trying to crawl out of the road. I jumped in front of a semi that was bearing down on him and frantically flagged it around him. We rushed Tommy to the emergency vet where they took out part of his crushed jawbone. He always had a limp afterwards but otherwise Tommy was a very happy cat. He was the most intelligent cat we had. Tommy would talk to us like a human at times and he always seemed to understand what we said to him. He had a friend, Sir Francis the bunny, who bonded to him for more than nine years until Francis' death.

We just finished burying Tommy in the front yard next to our fig tree. He loved to sit in the front window and watch the world go by so I thought it was a good spot for him. We will greatly miss you, old boy. Rest easy at the Bridge and we will see you again one day. Goodbye, our faithful top cat.

Sebastian

Here is Sebastian, AKA "Little Protege", again. This time our 12 year old munchkin has just been chased around the house by a playful Freddy cat. Sebastian is telling me all about it.