From commentor Jacquelyn:
… I adopted Linus from the Humane Society when he was 5 years old. He has an upper respiratory infection at the time and we couldn’t get it to abate. Then his left eye got infected and the lens ulcerated. Did you know there are Veterinary Ophthalmologists? Me neither. She was brilliant and figured out the source of both chronic infections: Linus has been declawed by his previous owners, and their vet cut the bones rather than removing them. One of his “fingers” was infected and as he groomed himself, the infection spread to his lungs and eye. We saved his eye, and fixed his “finger” and he’s a happy, healthy 12 year old now!
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Ying-Mu I got in 2004 when I was about to change jobs. The change meant I no longer worked from home, and Linus would be alone all day. So, I reached out for a kitten. Ying-Mu, now 6, believes he is still the ‘baby’ contrary to reality. I’m attaching a “then” pic… because he was a funny looking kitten, and now he’s gigantic.
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Augie (butterscotch color) was the next addition to the household in early 2006, at which point he was about 2.5. Commenter Satby rescued him from a kill shelter and I loved him on first sight. He was my accident-prone boy when he was younger. In his first 6 months, he broke his right “arm” for which he was splinted and taped up like a florescent mummy. After a week in the tape, he pulled it all off, deemed himself healed, and headed back outside to play. The following year, he broke his face in 4 places. I assume he was a little farther off the ground than he should have been, perhaps up a tree, and came down in one move. After the veterinary surgeon pinned his upper palate and jaw side-to-side (not closed since he cracked them the long way rather than top to bottom), wrapped his tendon around his TMJ to hold the little bone together and fixed his eye socket, a friend of mine agreed to care for him because I had to travel for work. After 3 days of post-op, he decided he was all better and started rough-housing with her 2 cats.
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Biscuit, shown in the same photo with Augie, is a dark tabby I was supposed to babysit for 2 weeks about 3 years ago (thanks Satby)! He was another rescue, this time from a kill shelter. He had a severe tooth infection which I got the vet to take care of. After that initial investment, I opted to keep him. His other favorite “brother” is Linus.
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Finally, Murphy. Murphy walked into my friend’s garage this past January when it was -20F and begged her to take him in. Sadly, she is allergic to cats and so I offered to take him. He is about 2 years old and has stirred up all the other cats magnificently. Where they were complacent, now they are always on the lookout for the brat. He’s a gorgeous and loving boy and really enjoys being in the kitty pile on my bed at night. Fortunately, they don’t use him as the bottom of the stack. He’s the lightest in weight of the five.
(I’m only including 4 of Jacquelyn’s pics, because that’s the maximum number FYWP will allow me.)
General Stuck
The little blue and white one is way too cute, as are they all. Quite a litter you have there Jacqueline.
TrishB
Not only are there veterinary ophthalmologists, there are veterinarian endocrinologists. Thus speaks the owner of a diabetic schnauzer with cataracts, who then went on to develop atypical Cushing’s disease. My sister has had experience with oncologists and cardiologists. My parents’ dog has had a CAT scan and seen a neurologist.
That said, as one very allergic person, those are some damn cute kitties. I often wish I could adopt them.
Ruckus
I wish I was not allergic to cats. A half hour in the same room and I can’t breathe. I used to live with one with no problems. But not anymore. Oh well life gets interesting as much by what you can no longer do as much as by what you still can.
Jacqueline. Nice family. They look content. Certainly a great feeling.
Yutsano
KITTEH!!
Lifting this from below. If you don’t like it suck it haters.
Night two of the grand kitteh experiment. He’s emerged from under the bed and I think is starting to recognize this place is his new kingdom. I let him venture on the balcony some, leaving the door cracked until I can get the damn cat door unlocked somehow. Purring happily on my bed now, plus he got bacon tonight. I may yet live to see another morning.
Moses2317
Celebrate the week when major consumer protections in the health care reform legislation begin going into effect.
Winning Progressive
jeffreyw
@Yutsano: Mmm…bacon
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
Yeah. There are vets in just about every specialty you can find human doctors in. It’s a sign of how wealthy we are as a society. (That’s not a knock; I’ve spent more on veterinary specialists for one cat than most people spend on all of their vet bills in a lifetime. Being able to do that is a good thing.)
Eddie has seen an oncologist and a dentist. He’s now dealing with a dermatologist.
Edit: Hmmn. Apparently, FYWP doesn’t like medical specialties, as this ended up in moderation. I didn’t even mention urologists (though Eddie could have used one at one point).
jeffreyw
Bea is not at all happy that Homer is here. Lots subvocal “growling” with the quotes because it is so eerie sounding I find it hard to credit the source. “Is that Bea” I ask? Mrs J says yup, that’s Bea. Toby seems OK, at least no audible drama. The dogs seems fine, and Annie is more than just OK with him.
FlipYrWhig
I like seeing kittehs who get along. We have two, one about 15 and the other about 8. They’re very sweet with us. Trouble is, even after all this time they just don’t like one another. The younger one was a rescue from a dumpster in suburban Philly, the older one from a litter in the alley behind our vet in the city. The younger one seems to have never been socialized into cat-friend behavior. Really too bad…
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
It only got a brief mention in the NFL thread, but the Broncos wide receiver who apparently committed suicide today is sticking with me. Maybe it’s just because I’ve attempted suicide myself, but it really makes me sad.
I just know that there are people out there saying that he had a great life, and that there are millions of people who would give anything to be where he was, and so implying (or flat out stating) that this shows he was weak. Aside from the fact that I think that the life of a professional football player is beyond horrifying, you just want to shake these people and scream at them that it doesn’t work that way. All they’re accomplishing is making it more likely that the next guy will also kill himself because he doesn’t get help.
Depression just can’t be evaluated with any sort of objective analysis of someone’s life. A significant part of it is chemical, and the parts that aren’t can’t be evaluated in absolute terms. It’s the ultimate in things where everything really is relative. None of us, except maybe a few people really close to Kenny McKinley, knows what he was comparing himself and his situation to. So the rest of us just need to shut up and be sad about it.
As long as I’m ranting, this humidity needs to go Galt. It’s been brutal since the middle of June. The Land of 10,000 Lakes? Fuck that. It’s the Land of 10,000 Puddles, good for nothing but producing humidity and breeding mosquitoes. I hurt. The Lyrica can’t keep up with the humidity. That means I can’t exercise enough, which makes things worse.
I need to move somewhere dry, except that there isn’t anywhere dry I can move without needing a entrance visa where I can also get health insurance.
Linda Featheringill
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
So how is the depression nowadays? I can certainly sympathize.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@Linda Featheringill: It’s not so much depression these days as just anger at the whole world.
The depressing part, given that I’ve managed to convince myself that I’m never going to get a serious job again, is that, if I don’t develop better skills at meeting people, I’m looking at another 30-40 years of living like this. That’s an ugly thought.
And I have officially been diagnosed as borderline Asperger’s, which provides a shorthand for a lot of my social issues. The upside is that, when I went to the business school’s career center, saying that you have Asperger’s means that they take you seriously when you tell them that a recommendation to build a network by going to their meet-and-greets is pointless. In the past, they always tried to convince me I just needed to practice, as if I didn’t have 40 years of experience with it.
The downside is that they just punted and said that they don’t have anyone who can help me with suggestions given my diagnosis. They told me to try Disability Services, which would have been fine advice if I had gotten it when I was a student rather than just an alumnus. At this point, it’s just another useless thing I’ve heard from a completely useless office. God forbid they should be equipped to help someone who actually needs help. Fuckers. Yet another reason it was a mistake to actually file to graduate.
About all I have going these days is occasional work for one of my former professors. I help him prepare presentations for the seminars he gives around the world. In exchange, he pays me far more than my efforts are really worth, which is nice. He’s a fabulous guy, despite thinking highly of Ayn Rand; I find it fascinating that his personal ethics are so at odds with those espoused by the politicians he favors.
Wandering off on a tangent, one of the things I learned in the accounting program is that the Senior Lecturers (read: people without PhDs who spent a couple of decades in private practice before becoming full time faculty) are much, much better professors than the tenure track folks. The tenure track of accounting departments is now filled with people who went into the field only because they couldn’t get into a good econ program. I’m a math nerd, so their papers can be a lot of fun to read: elegant, pretty proofs that depend upon assumptions so absurd that they have no relationship to the real world.
The non-tenure track people are all much more dedicated as teachers. It took me a while to figure it out, but these are people who could be making the kind of money Todd Henderson is if they had stayed with the firms they worked for before coming back to campus. They gave it up because they wanted to teach, and they take it very seriously. The Senior Lecturers in the accounting department are just about the only people in the business school I can stand to talk to for very long. More than one of them has said pretty much the same is true of him.
Linda Featheringill
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
You seem to relate well in the written form.
In my later years, I have come to depend on the written form of communication more than verbal and face-to-face communication. I am just not as quick in responding as I once was. When I write something, I have time to see if what I have said is what I really mean. And things seem to turn out better.
[I do okay in already-established relationships.]
adolphus
Note to Jacquelyn:
Our household is on the cusp of adopting a second cat. A stray kitten that has turned up unwelcome in the usual clowder of local strays.
Any tips on introducing a strange kitten into a house that already has a cat and an elderly dog?
Joey Maloney
I’ve just had my first comment deleted ever (that I know of) for pointing out facts a blogger finds unpalatable. Apparently Radley Balko’s thirst for liberty does not extend to his comment section.
My sin, apparently, is pointing out that despite what his colleague Jesse Walker says, the Tea Party is not a “movement”, it’s Republican astroturf and anyone who can use the Google can find that out.
Anyway, it’s a proud moment for me and I wanted to share that with my Juicer family.
Linda Featheringill
@adolphus:
Some of the inhospitable nature of cats is probably due to smell. I have introduced newcomers by putting perfume on my hands and then rubbing every cat in the house. So they all smell funny. By the time this has worn off, the newcomer will smell more like the rest of the gang does because of a common food source, etc.
Also, it would be nice if the older animals had a place to nap so that the new brat wouldn’t interfere with their sleep. But that isn’t always possible.
Linda Featheringill
@Joey Maloney:
Congratulations, hon. Obviously, you hit a nerve. :-)
Joey Maloney
It’s disappointing, really. I mean, I agree with Balko on some stuff and disagree with him on others; I think he’s doing yeoman work on police abuse. And he had always struck me as honest and fair-minded.
Deleting comments you disagree with is a punk move. I would’ve said it was beneath him.
HeartlandLiberal
We discovered there are Veterinary Ophthalmologists last year. I noted one day that our new one year old yellow tom, Spencer’s, left eye was clouding over. Our regular vet referred us to a specialist clinic on the north side of Indianapolis, an hour 15 minute drive one way away from Bloomington.
Diagnosis was a viral infection that cats get. So for 9 months or so we put drops in Spenser’s eye everyday. Finally, after getting the basic infection under control, we added steroid drops, which helped clear the final cloudiness.
The down side of this was that Spenser, who was a foundling we got from the shelter, and whom we suspect was mistreated as a kitten, because he was incredibly skittish, and fearful of male adults, especially, would not let me come near him willingly, since I was the one who held him while my wife put the drops in his eye twice a day.
It is now been six months, the eye remains clear, and he will at least 90% of the time now not run away when he sees me coming.
Oh, one nice coincidence, the vet was a fellow graduate of Urbana Champaign campus of University of Illinois, where I got my master’s degree what seems like a lifetime ago. I guess because it almost is at this point. But that was nice.
Jacquelyn
@adolphus:
When I introduced each cat to the household, I found there was a period of 48-96 hours that were just a hissing fest. I made sure each had there “own” food dish and then slowly replaced that with the group dish. I didn’t have a dog to worry about, although a dog entered the mix for about 6 months in ’08. That was an interesting feature for the older cats. It took nearly a month for all the hissing and growling to stop and it took about a year since to stop the food inhalation (the dog always got into the cat food even though she was not allowed to have it). Good luck adding the kitten. I recommend getting it it’s own litter box.
norma
We have Serena,Lucky,Mo,Pris,Mrs Back[she hates all of them] they are all strays that showed up at our door, two of them on a winter day temp -20 below. My husband just looks wild and then gets in his recliner and stares off into space{he used to hate cats] and talks baby talk to them when he thinks I’m not listening. We also have a dog Whosis we picked up on a road in Missouri, he cleans all the cats up. Had to get a Dyson for all the hair.
Keith G
@adolphus: It’s best to keep the newbie in his/her own space for a bit. Use a see-through barrier so they can meet and greet on their own terms.
AhabTRuler
@adolphus: Let me nudge you gently in the direction of Werebear: Way of Cats.
WereBear
The perfume suggestion is a good one; I use vanilla extract.
I adore Murphy! But they are all adorable. Just wanted to clarify.
Anyone who doesn’t have at least three cats are missing out on a bunch of great stuff in what I call Cat Civilization.
The interaction, the scheming, the pileups, it’s all good. I’ve discovered that the more cats you have, the better everyone gets along. Of course, rescuing, you don’t get to sort them out the way you’d like, but having more cats betters the odds of finding a friend.
Jacquelyn
@WereBear:
Thanks! Murphy is definitely unique in appearance.
satby
(FYWP) My posts all get eated, but I just tried to say that I wish all our rescue adoptions would go as well as Jacquelyn’s, she spoils the “boyz” as she calls them.
asiangrrlMN
Beautiful kitties. Glad to know they get along for the most part.
@jeffreyw: She’s Queen Bea. Give her more time. Man, but Homer is a-dor-ubhl! Annie really seems to have taken him in under her paw.
WereBear
@Jacquelyn: In fact, would you mind if I used Murphy’s pic as part of the rotating headers on my cat blog?
Sounds like he’s a nut.
WereBear (itouch)
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): Sounds like the thing to do is build a portfolio to do the networking for you.
adolphus
Thanks everyone for the tips.
We have taken the little one in and keep her in a medium size dog crate off and on. Everyone has their own water, food, litter box and pouting corner. The new kitten is let out of her crate under controlled situations.
Much hissing by veteran cat and some snarling by dog. The latter only when there is food present.
We have begun the task of assuring she has no owners. Chip check, posting fliers, and posting pictures on appropriate web sites. There are no signs she has owners other than her desire to snuggle anything in sight and the loudest purring I have ever heard.
Tomorrow to the vet for a chip check, shots, and fixing.
The perfume idea was good. However veteran cat just came off a series of sulfur/lime dips so she already reeks. Have to think about that one.
Jacquelyn
@WereBear:
Please do use his picture! He wants to be a movie star!
WereBear
@Jacquelyn: Awesome! Look for it in a few days, for certain…
Elie
I had two kitties until three weeks ago when I lost Bill, my 18 year old brown tabby who I adored and miss terribly.
Buddy is hanging in there but seems lonely so I expect to get another kitty before long. I acquired both by serendipity before, so I will wait for a little while to see what the fates bring.
I did not realize how much two of them made in my/our life…I do now…