March Shelter Cat of the Month

All freckles, all the time

Malory

Happy Discount Chocolate Day!

One very lucky home was graced with the ultimate Valentine yesterday...

Congratulations to Eugene and his new family!

February Shelter Cat of the Month

He'll win you over with his +2 Leggings of Cuteness

Eugene

UPDATE 2/15: EUGENE HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!

January Shelter Cat of the Month

She's got the eye of the tiger...

Jilly Billy

UPDATE 1/6: Jilly Billy has been transferred to GPSPCA's Merriam campus. Come on, Kansas people - give this girl a home!

UPDATE 2/11: JILLY BILLY HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!

December Shelter Cat of the Month

He's a hunk-a, hunk-a burnin' love:

Bubba

He's a lover not a fighter:

Rocky Balboa

UPDATE: 1/1: These boys have been transferred to GPSPCA's Merriam location. Hopefully new eyes will mean a new home.

UPDATE 2/11: BUBBA & ROCKY BALBOA HAVE BEEN ADOPTED! TOGETHER!!!

2195

That's how many subcutaneous injections of fluid Mike Wazowski has had. 2,195.

He has had 60 vitamin B injections.

He has taken countless pills and been subjected to dozens of baths.

It's been three years since we lost Boo and we almost lost Mike.

I can honestly say that we never expected him to last this long. We thought the sub-Q fluids and the steroids were going to give him a few more weeks, maybe even a couple of months. But then a year went by. And another. And yet another.

Hanging by a thread

You know how in movies and TV shows, when an elevator is falling, there's always a couple of short falls and stops before the final long drop?

source: http://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/ebooks/PhilSciAdventures/lecture17.html

I feel like that's where we're at with Mike Wazowski. For about a month, he was steady at a respectable weight. We thought "hey, maybe we've finally got all this feeding and medication stuff figured out!" We really should know better than to have thinks like that with this cat.

He bounced up and down for a few weeks, then abruptly plunged below 7 lbs and has stuck there for days. And so, barring a magical improvement, we're huddled on the elevator floor, waiting for the cable to snap and send us plummeting into the inevitable.

Belated news

I've been offline more than usual lately, so I somehow missed that our July SCotM, Georgia, was adopted last Wednesday!

This is so amazing. I was there that morning, loving on the sweet girl, and I commented on how her new kennel brought her down to eye level and made her so much more noticeable. Apparently that's all it took, because she went home later in the day!

 

September Shelter Cat of the Month

You'll feel like a smart cookie if you adopt

Harvard

UPDATE 9/16: HARVARD HAS BEEN ADOPTED!

Hat Trick

It's been a little over three years since things went seriously wrong for Mike Wazowski. He spent Independence Day weekend in 2013 at the animal hospital on IV fluids. He was severely dehydrated and his sodium levels were through the roof. I think the vet said they were the third highest he had seen in an animal that survived. So.

July Shelter Cat of the Month

Once you meet this sweet, shy girl, she's forever on your mind.

Georgia

UPDATE 10/19: GEORGIA HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!

Perfectly Normal

me circa 1989

'Normal' has never been a word I've embraced. From my middle-school days as a straight-A nerd in heavy metal t-shirts to my love of power tools over flowers and jewelry, the word 'normal' has not been one that most would apply to my life. But when it comes to my animals' blood work, normal is exactly the word I want to hear.

We were surprised and pleased that as of his most recent tests, all of Mike's values are within normal ranges. It has been *years* since that has been the case. Though he has once again dropped some weight, he is still over 7 pounds and he seems to be more consistent. His day-to-day weight is staying in the 7 lb 5 oz  to 7 lb 6 oz range without the peaks and valleys we were seeing before.

I'm still not wearing makeup or painting my nails, and it's very unlikely you'll find me at a neighborhood Bunco party, but this consummate weirdo is finally learning to embrace normal. Within reason.

Fuzzy Face

I just wanted to share how much I love my Cosmo girl.

Little Pharma

We have quite the cat pharmacy going on. Plus the scale we use to weigh Mike every night (since he keeps trying to turn into a walking skeleton).

Should anyone want to sponsor our cats' drugs, we accept cash, check, and Paypal.

I'm joking.

Am I?

Yes. Yes, I'm joking.

PeeWee's Purrbox

Mr. Sneeze had to see the vet yesterday for a gunky nose. We woke him from a nap to take him in and it's a 20-30 minute drive each way (depending on traffic), so the poor guy ended up stuck in the carrier with a full bladder.

He almost made it home, too. What a trooper.

Ain't no party like a Mike Wazowski party

Cuz a Mike Wazowski party don't stop.

And by "party," I mean "health issues."

We were heading out the door to go volunteer today and I noticed that Mike's leg was quite swollen. So we ended up at the vet instead.

(I know his head is blurry, but at least he was holding his legs still)

Charting Progress

It's been just over three months since Mike started on mirtazapine. He put on a handful of ounces and seems to be pretty steadily staying between 7 lb 2 oz and 7 lb 4 oz. So the drug has helped some - he does eat noticeably more on days when he takes it - but it hasn't helped him pack on the weight like I had hoped.

+1

The Kibbles & Biscuits family has grown!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that our first SCotM, PeeWee, had been returned to the shelter.

PeeWee is an older fella and he has some health issues. He is prone to chronic URIs, so the shelter really isn't the best environment for him.

Ups and Downs

We can't have the happy without the sad.

With Wesley getting adopted this week, Garfunkel making big strides in confidence, and fantastic updates from Blanket's adopters, it's been a time of big smiles.

Unfortunately, the balance of all of that glee has been our buddy PeeWee showing up at the shelter. PeeWee was K&B's very first SCotM back in April 2015. This sweet guy had been in the shelter since October 2014, and he was finally adopted on April 10th.

He came back in about a week ago as a stray. GPSPCA microchips all of the pets that come through, and they have records about who adopted which animal, so when one comes back as a stray they immediately contact the adopter. Clearly PeeWee's adopter didn't bother to come back for him.

He's still on a stray hold for a few days, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his stay on the floor will be much shorter this time around.

Quality of Life

When you have a terminally ill pet, discussions around 'quality of life' are fairly common. There is a balancing act each time a new intervention is considered. How much is too much? When are we being selfish?

Something not often discussed is the quality of life for the human caregivers. Before I say any more, let me be very clear that I am in no way suggesting that we should euthanize our pets when they become inconvenient. I am simply acknowledging that caring for a terminally ill animal takes a toll on people and relationships.