Category: Cats


April 2019

Our April has been a bit on the busy side. Darrell has been job hunting and doing interviews, so he is really busy at work. The boys are still in swimming on Wednesday nights and we just started them in soccer on Saturday mornings. So far they seem to love soccer although it is at 9am on Saturday. We were going to make a trip out to Eastern Washington over Edward’s spring break, but the day before we were suppose to leave, the friends who we were going to visit had come down with the flu. We talked to a few different people, and the flu happened to be really bad in the area, so we decided to scrap the trip because we didn’t want to chance us getting it. Darrell was really bummed, but since he already had the time off work, he stayed home and spent a lot of time playing video games with the boys. The weather keeps teasing us that it is going to warm up, so we have been able to sneak in a few days at the park or other outdoor location. The boys love going for bike rides. 

Edward also got a monthly subscription box from Grammy and he is loving it. He got his first box and was able to build a claw for a claw machine. I am super excited to see what the next one is going to be. It is suppose to be for both boys, but Morgan isn’t quite old enough to build them. But he is enjoying playing with the finished product. 

The cats are doing really good. They like to pretend that they are starving and are constantly begging for food. They just want attention though. The ducks are also doing good. Eager and Smalls got infections in their feet. Smalls was ok and got better quick. Eager didn’t fare quite as well. After about a week, she was limping and doing her best not to be on her feet for long. So Darrell ended up taking her to the vet. She got some antibiotics to take which Darrell has had fun trying to shove them down her throat. The only downside is that we are unable to eat her eggs for the 3 weeks of antibiotics and then for another 8 weeks after that. That means we have to quarantine her every night so we can tell which one is hers and just toss it right into the compost. Darrell also built them a small area on the side of the house where the grass has gotten longer and he moves them over there sometimes so they can get some tall grass since they have eaten most of the grass in their area. 

Darrell got invited to go to a networking event at the Seattle Mariners Game. He took Edward and his cousin Beau with him. They had sooo much fun and Edward was really excited about it all. He keeps talking about the game and has actually shown some interest in the bat and ball we have at home. 

Unfortunately, we weren’t sure how little kid friendly the event was going to be, so Morgan stayed home with me. He was a sad little boy when Daddy and Edward left to go to the game and he cried and cried. Mommy tried to make it better by talking him into going out. We went to the mall where he got to play for a couple hours without his big brother. He loved running around and playing with all the kids his age. After the play area, I let him choose where we got to go for dinner. He picked the “Horsey restaurant” aka PF Changs. So we went to have some dinner. Morgan got some sweet and sour chicken with Snap Peas on the side and I got some honey chicken. Morgan loved the peas and I had to get a second order for him since he wouldn’t touch the chicken. It was cute though that he wanted chopsticks from the time he sat down. He kept asking and asking until they brought some. It was a good night and he passed out in the car before I even left the parking lot to head home. 

Astrid

On the night of September 26, Astrid had gotten outside and got into a cat fight. We checked her out when we got her back inside and couldn’t find anything, so we assumed she came out fine. All day the next day, she wouldn’t eat and wasn’t really herself. Friday, she still wasn’t eating or anything, so we took her to the vet. We were worried about dehydration, so they gave her a saline bag and couldn’t find any wounds. However, her temperature was getting high and they were concerned about an infection, so they gave her some antibiotics. We took her home to wait and see. 

Saturday was basically a repeat of Friday. Still no activity or eating from her and back to the vet for the saline bag. They also did an x-ray to see if there was internal bleeding. They didn’t find any, but they did see a slight area where there was bruised tissue. So we went back home and did some more wait and see until Monday, but we kept her secluded in the guest room so she would have quiet to recuperate. 

Monday morning when I went in to check on her, I saw some blood on the floor. I caught Astrid and looked for the wound. It was right near her butt, so I called the vet and they thought it sounded like a burst anal gland. We took her in so they could drain and clean it. Turns out, it wasn’t a burst anal gland, but it was an abscess that had finally burst from the fight. While they were cleaning around the abscess and shaving her fur, they found a bigger one on her right side. Because of the bigger wound, we needed to schedule surgery. It was scheduled for Wednesday so that any skin that was going to die would already be dead. 

Wednesday morning October 3, I took her in for surgery. After they had finished the surgery, they gave me a call. It was bad. The wound on her right side was a quick stitch after removing some dead tissue. However, when they shaved her for surgery, they found a much bigger wound on her left side that had finally burst. It was like whatever got her had almost removed her tail. They had to use staples and stitches to fix it up and put in a couple drains. So we brought her home and quarantined her in the room.

Saturday morning after the surgery, we went back to the vets to have the drains removed. Everything looked like it was healing well. Next appointment set for Wednesday to check on possibly removing the stitches. 

Sunday night/Monday morning, the wound on the left started looking bad and the staples were starting to split. We took her back to the vet. The left side didn’t have enough time before it was stitched, so a good part of what they stitched was dying skin so the stitches and staples were coming apart. So once again, after a really long tough talk with Darrell and I, she was scheduled for surgery again on Wednesday, October 10. They went in and removed all the dead skin and sewed her shut so it wouldn’t come open again. 

When we brought her home after the 2nd surgery, we were concerned about her catching the cone on her wound and possibly opening it again, so at the recommendation of the vet, we went out and bought a couple baby onesies to put on her. It took a little bit from us and a lot of grumbling from her before we got it on. We then went and put her in the cage we have so that she was more confined (no jumping and popping anything). Somehow, within two hours, even though she didn’t have a lot of space, she still managed to wiggle out of the onesie. 

Finally, after 5 weeks and a lot of trips to the vet, she was able to come out of quarantine and we were able to take her cone off. It was a long and stressful month, but we did it. Now, because of the amount of skin they had to remove, she has a permanently crooked butt and she is no longer allowed to be outside except on a leash with us present. 

The cats are doing great. Even Zedd is adjusting better to having Morgan around. He actually comes down and hangs out while Morgan is awake. I also threw in a few photos of our neighbors dog, Sammy, who we watch from time to time. Sammy loves the kids and the kids love him.

Zedd & Astrid

New Kitty

After Poleeko ran away in May, we talked about waiting awhile and then getting another cat so that Zedd wouldn’t be lonely as he was still sulking around the house. We weren’t planning on getting another cat until sometime early 2016 or later than that giving us time to come to terms and seeing how Zedd handled being an only cat for the first time in his life. However, one of the band members in the Pipe band had a mother in law who found a “fat” stray cat and “fat” turned into 5 kittens. Now she was looking for homes for them. We talked and decided that maybe we could do it and then the kitten would grow up with Edward. We finally got the kitten on August 24 and have slowly been acclimating her to Zedd. There was a bunch of hissing at each other the first couple days, so we kept her locked up in the guest bedroom. Now they tolerate each other kind of. There is no hissing, but neither of them want anything to do with the other. We hope things get better.

But for now, meet the newest Ross addition, Astrid:

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Update: We are happy to say that by the end of September, they are now happily chasing each other, eating from the same dish, cuddling together and all around playing. Astrid has taken over the cat tree and she spends a lot of time running around downstairs while Edward is awake which is making Zedd get out of his “hide all day” habit and now we see a little more of him. He still isn’t fond of Edward, but he remembers a time when there wasn’t a little terror who would chase them and scream at them. 😛

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