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Posts Tagged ‘Lily Monster’
November 7, 2014
Rest in Peace, Lily Monster
Lily
July 2004 ~ November 7th, 2014
Our kitty cat, Lily, passed away today. This was not entirely unexpected. Her health had been declining for the past couple of years, but took a nose dive in early September.
Lily came into my life a little over a decade ago. She was being fostered by a friend of mine, who rescued her from a kill shelter. Lily, her brother and two sisters were dropped off at the shelter in a laundry basket. When my friend found them they were crying in hunger, standing in their own kibble, too young to know what to do with it. My foster friend was already overwhelmed with cats, but was drawn to Lily’s sister, Mona, who had a tear shaped mark by her eye. (Lily’s original name was Lisa – get it? har har.)
Lily was the playful one in the bunch, always on the go. Her foster needed to wrap her up in a blanket like a burrito so she’d sit still long enough to eat. Since then she has most definitely made up for lost time.
I fell head over heals for her quiet Meow and engine sized purr the first time I held her. My foster friend warned me that Lily would grow to be a monster sized cat. Her siblings and she toward over the other kittens, though they could tell by their teeth that Lily and her siblings were smaller. And did she ever grow! Lily stands taller than many small dogs, at over 12 inches to her shoulders.
She was the kind of cat who would purr if you just looked at her, and who would adore whoever pet her. I will miss my super friendly, monster sized cat with a v6 engine purr.
Posted in Life | Tags: Lily Monster
January 31, 2014
No Feline Diabetes Here
We had a bit of a scare with Lily recently. She’s getting up their in age (She’ll be ten this summer) and was having some digestive issues this past year. We’ve switched her to a senior cat food which seemed to fix the tummy troubles. With all that had been going on this past year, I forgot about them. That is, until she threw up in the vet’s office during her annual exam. No food, just bile. The vet chalked it up to the stress of being at the veterinary office, but a lump started to form in my throat.
When the vet was taking her history I began to get really nervous. Yes, she was drinking a little more water and using the litter box a little more these days. Since it had been two years since her last blood workup we decided to do another one.
Her blood glucose reading was 221 mg/dl. The normal range is 64-170 mg/dL. How bad is 221? The graph on the diagnostics sheet didn’t even have a spot for 221. She was not just outside the normal range, she was literally “off the chart”. Lily’s creatinine, a marker of kidney disease, was also on the high end of normal and she showed some signs of a possible thyroid issue.
The vet thought the blood glucose and creatinine could also be due to stress of the blood draw, but I was extremely skeptical. If 221 mg/dl could be a typical reading due to stress (and presumably most blood draws are done in a veterinary clinic and thus on animals under similar duress) it didn’t make sense for the scale to end before 221. I was convinced she at least had pre-diabetes.
The next step was a urinary analysis, but Lily was too big for them to extract a sample. Instead we had to wait for her to produce it, and she has all the stubbornness of a senior cat. So we booked another appointment (and then another when that one failed to produce anything.) The second time was the charm, and the results of the urinalysis revealed she was in the clear.
Domingo and I decided to treat this as a wake up call to get her weight in check. Lily had previously been eating a combination of kibble and canned food. From what I read, canned food tends to have more protein and kibble tends to have more carbs, so we’re thinking of switching her to just cans. Perhaps more importantly, no more kibble means no more “free feeding,” something our last vet recommended more than once.
Tonight will be the first night for Lily without 24 access to the food bowl. Wish us luck.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Lily Monster
May 5, 2012
Walled Off
We’ve been thinking about baby gates lately. Yes, Zippy is still in utero, and likely won’t be mobile until 2013 in all likelihood, but there’s someone else in our household who needs to be corralled.
Both Domingo and I have close family members with cat allergies. I want to keep baby’s things relatively free of dander, just in case. Lily came first, and I’m a firm believer that every reasonable effort should be made to accommodate both baby and pets. My goal is not to forbid the cat from going into certain rooms (after all, nothing is more appealing to a cat than a place she isn’t allowed to go!) but limit her access. She can investigate, but no sleeping on the baby blankets. Luckily, the allergies in our families are mild so if we keep our house clean, and the cat fur down to a minimum, I’m not anticipating a problem. Lily has been showing less signs of stress, which should also help.
We wanted a pressure gate, rather than a hardware installed gate that would have be much more permanent. Pressure gates are held in place by applying pressure to both side walls. With the latch up, the gate is slightly smaller than the doorway opening. When the latch is pushed down and locked into place, the gate expands slightly to be bigger than the opening. Since the doorway is immutable, the gate can’t extend, creating pressure. Pressure gates can be removed and put up as many times as you want.
A few weeks ago I picked up the cheapest baby gate we could find – First Year’s brand gate at target for $10. (Why pay for more when the simple one will do?) The pressure causes the latch bar on this baby gate to bow slightly when in the process of securing or removing the gate. The latch is not the easiest to operate in general, and this added pressure/bowing it makes it even worse. The gate is fine once secured, but putting the gate up and taking it down can be a bit of a pain – which is exactly why we wanted a pressure gate in the first place! The manufactures seem to realize this, making the gate low enough that you can step over it without much hassle, even when you’re short like me.
Since the latch style seemed to be the problem, we needed to look at the next category of gates. The cheapest one in the next category up was the Munchkin Quick Install Gate
For our needs, the munchkin gate is definitely worth the price increase. Since it’s still on sale and we need at least two gates, we’ll pick up another one.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Baby Gear, Lily Monster
April 18, 2012
Stowaway!
This evening I got out our suitcases to pack for our trip tomorrow and discovered this:
Looks like we have a stowaway hiding in our suitcase!
Tomorrow we’re flying to the east coast to see my sister get married. This will be my third trip flying with zippy. I was 4-5 weeks pregnant on our trip to Hawaii, and 12-13 weeks pregnant flying to Pennsylvania for Christmas. This trip, at 30 weeks, will be the first time I’ll be noticeably pregnant. (At least I think I’m noticeably pregnant.)
We were originally going to have a fourth trip in May. It was going to be a dual trip with two different east coast stops. One stop at my parents for my baby shower, and then another stop further south to see my college roommate get married. We decided pretty early on that the baby shower wasn’t going to happen. It was too much to cram into one weekend, especially given how late we will be in the pregnancy. But we were holding out to see if it would be possible to attend my former roommate’s wedding.
In the ended we decided I would just be too pregnant to make it practical. I’m already getting tired easily, and since I don’t bend too well in the middle anymore, I sometimes need a hand for doing even simple things. This trip for my sister’s wedding I have not only had Domingo to help me, but my parents as well. Having my parents around took a lot of stress off Domingo and I. If the fourth trip had happened, the return flight would have also be right at the cusp of when my doctor will give me the ok to fly.
I still feel guilty about not going to my college roommate’s wedding. We planned (or at least tried to plan) zippy around these events. Since airlines let you fly up to 36-38 weeks, I thought it would be no problem. Now naïve I was about how much pregnancy takes out of you.
I also feel guilty about leaving Lily in the kennel for a week. Now that the suitcases are out, she knows something’s up and isn’t happy about it. I can’t imagine how confusing this time is for her.
Posted in Travel | Tags: Lily Monster, Pregnancy - Zippy
March 8, 2012
Stressed Kitty
Domingo and I have been busy getting ready for the baby and Lily does.not.like.it. Like most felines, she hates when her environment changes. One way cats show stress is to shed. When you combine that with the fact that it’s been an extremely mild winter, already turning to spring, and we have fur everywhere. Normally I wouldn’t care (hello Dyson Animal!) but the excess shedding is starting to cause hair balls so we need to deal with it.
We’re starting with brushing. She mildly puts up with it. She likes the attention, but not the brush, so we do short intervals of brushing intermixing it with lots of petting. So far we’ve had the most success with the FURminator
We’ve also been increasing the kitty treats and kitty love time in an effort to help her adjust. This _may_ be a mistake to reinforce her need for attention, as once the baby comes she will get much less. She has been our fur-baby for so long, I feel so guilty that she will no longer be the ‘baby’ and get as much attention that she craves.
Lily waking me up for early morning cuddle time.
But if we can’t get her shedding under control, the next step may be bath time. Lily actually does pretty good with baths, especially for a cat. We crank up the heater a bit so she won’t be cold, and she seems to tolerate the water alright alright. She’s only had a handful of baths, usually after she’s gotten into something I don’t want her licking off herself. But I have noticed it helps with the loose fur, so it is a step we can consider.
In the mean time, Lily is spending a lot of time curled up on my baby bump. Apparently it makes a good pillow. Zippy starts kicking when the baby climbs into my lap. Lily doesn’t seem to notice, or if she does notice she’s being obstinate. She just purrs away. I swear this kid is going to come out recognizing Lily’s purr more than mommy’s own voice!
Posted in Life | Tags: Lily Monster
October 14, 2011
Poor Kitty
Lily is having a rough October. Last Friday was her annual appointment (read: lots of shots). The vet has been talking about getting her teeth cleaned for a few years ago, but last Friday his language changed from “we should start considering…†to “let’s schedule that appointment…â€.
In order to get her teeth cleaned, she first needed a blood draw. I figured rather than make two additional appointments (and add to her stress level), we’d get the blood draw during that visit and come back in a week. Today was the big day. Since the teeth cleaning requires general anesthesia, the vet has us withhold food and water. If she has anything in her stomach, it can interfere with the drugs. Poor kitty was so confused. She kept crying and leading us to her food and water dish so we could see they were empty. All throughout the night she would wake us up because she was hungry.
Bright an early this morning, we took her off to the kennel for her second appointment. It’s was an “all day†appointment, she didn’t come home until 3:30! Again, the vet is requiring no food until tomorrow morning, and no water until tonight. She is just as mad as she was last night, except now she’s groggy and mad instead of just mad. She looks like she wants to sleep, but can’t. She keeps getting up and walking around (albeit slowly) to find another spot to try and nap. I may cheat and give her a little watered down food early. The vet said his main concern was the after affects of anesthesia can cause vomiting, but there’s no real risk. So once she’s allowed water, she’ll probably get a little food.
Next week Domingo is going on travel. I’ll be joining him about five days after he leaves, and miss Lily will be going to kennel. At least she loves the kennel, and they love her. (You know the kennel loves your cat when they send you a Christmas card with pictures of your kitty on it!) But getting her in the portable cat carrier and taking her in the car? That’s a completely different story.
So it’s two vet trips and one kennel trip all in the month of October. It’ll be a long time before she trusts us again.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Lily Monster