Archive for the ‘Cat Safety’ Category

Focusing on Quality of Life for Cats

October 22nd, 2012

First of all, thank you so much for many friends who sent me warm support and encouragement via email and on the blog.  Mikan has been appreciating them also, and in return, she has great news to share this time!

"Do you want to join me for fun?"

Mikan is doing wonderfully well.  Since I wrote my last blog, Mikan hasn’t had a high fever at all!  She is “fever-free” for two weeks – this is a world record for her!  Mikan’s energy is much more robust and lively, and her motor skills and muscle coordination are getting coherent like a REAL cat every day.  Yaaaay!

You might wonder what we did differently in these two weeks.  We decided to focus on her wellness and quality of life rather than “treating” whatever happening on her skin (there is still no diagnosis from the vet).  I decided not to use the vet-suggested OTC skin cream (Lotrimin) for ringworm nor the enzymatic shampoo for the skin itchiness.  Instead, we let Mikan out in our cat-fenced backyard to run around for one hour every afternoon.  She LOVES that time.

At first, she was overwhelmed by the different noises of the wind, the leaves, the cars, etc., but she got used to these familiar outside sounds very fast.  I learned that UV light kills ringworm fungi, so this was perfect thing to do!  I could tell that she is taking in everything that the nature offers to heal and boost her immune system.  She is engaging every movement with 100% focus outside.  What a joy to be with her to experience that feeling together!  Although Mikan has sufficient space inside her master bathroom/closet suite, nothing is better than running around on green grass, freely under the warm sunshine.

By the way, we had a new window installed in Mikan’s suite the other day, so that she can have fresh air and natural sounds from outside.  I didn’t like the previous widow which didn’t open, so I am very happy with the new one.  It is little a silly that sometimes the house project on a list gets done quickly because of the cats, not because of our needs.

"I like to be in your lap, too."

The other two things I am doing twice daily are Colloidal Silver topical application for ringworm and also homeopathy.  Somehow, Mikan likes the homeopathy – when I show her a dropper, she would come and starts licking the tip of it!  She may know exactly what she needs.  We will re-start herbal remedy this week.  As I’m observing Mikan’s growth week by week, she is certainly gaining weight and clearly getting longer (should I say, “taller”).  I’d better go and take more pictures of her now, so that I won’t miss out capturing amazing Kodak moments.

"I AM a tiger, grrrr!!"

Losing Mimi

July 11th, 2012

It was all of a sudden and with 0.1% chance that I thought it could possibly happen.  One of my cats, Mimi, was killed by a coyote or a fox, we don’t know which one.  Mimi was only five years old, raised by us since she was about an eight weeks-old kitten.  She was an inside cat with limited outdoor exposure – only in our backyard which is surrounded by cat-fence.

Beloved Mimi

Apparently, on that day, in the middle of the night, someone opened our outside gate to scope out the house, and scared Mimi who was sleeping in the backyard.  She must have run out of the gate and went to outside.  Then, the gate was closed by the same someone.  She couldn’t get back inside.  I still clearly remember Mimi’s shrieking scream in my bed at 5:56 a.m. on June 26th.  I ran downstairs to the backyard to look for Mimi.  She wasn’t found anywhere inside of the yard or outside the yard.  At the end of the day, my husband and I found half of Mimi in a woodsy area in the field next to our house, about ¼ miles away.

As I saw her remains lying on the ground, I couldn’t breathe properly.  The emotional intensity was so great that I felt it from the core of my guts.  It was as if a powerful tidal wave was rushing up in reverse from my guts to my throat.  It quickly became beyond my control.  I burst into tears, and cried out aloud, “Oh, Mimi.  I’m so sorry, Mimi”.   A lady who lives behind the woods heard my unstoppable loud sobbing, and asked if I was all right.  My husband told her why I was crying.

You all who lost your pets might relate to this pain and sadness.  Each day is a healing process, and it gets a little bit better every day.  I so appreciated the warm and compassionate messages from everyone.  Tora has been less active, and sometimes seems to be looking for his sister in the backyard or in the house.  I am using flower essences (of course!) to ease his emotional down time.  I took a few bottles of flower essences myself, too.

OK, from here, it is practical information.  I was very impressed with the cremation service done by Pet Rest in Pflugerville.  We brought Mimi’s remains to the Emergency Hospital near Central Market South.  They have an affiliation with Pet Rest.  They told us that it would take two weeks to have her ashes back to us.  Here is what I’ve learned.  If you would like your pet’s ashes back, they will arrange an “individual” cremation that your pet is the only animal in the firing chamber.  Otherwise, all remains will go to a mass/public cremation with other animals.  I found out this after we picked up her ashes.  I wouldn’t have minded Mimi’s ashes were mixed with other animals who also deserve lots of love and life acknowledgement, but it is nice to know that all I see in the plastic bag was “genuinely” Mimi.  🙂  Do I sound little silly?

Mimi's Altar with her favorite food bowl

We paid $190 for Mimi’s cremation.  Her ashes came back in ten days in a very nice looking urn with a very sensitively written card.  They were carefully placed in a black velvet sachet with an embroidered white “M” on it.

Mimi will have two other splurges in the near future.  She will be communicating with Sonya Fitzpatrick who is a celebrity animal communicator.  I have read her book, and watched Animal Planet TV shows about her, and I have been wanting her reading on my cats.  Now is the time to do it!

The other splurge will be to have an artist make stained-glass art from a Mimi’s picture as a memorial.  I searched many, many pet memorials online, but nothing really appealed to me until I found the stained-glass artist!

A Family Trip to Sedona - Mimi loved Sedona, but not the car-ride...

Stay tuned for my next report about animal communication session with Sonya!

She was a calm Zen kitty

"I was a kitten before..., I am an angel now."

Cat Preparation for a Flight Trip

July 12th, 2010

My cat,Tora, did not enjoy the airplane trip from Oregon to Florida that we took several years ago. The airline regulations were different back then: the only option we had for Tora was for him to be in the cargo area with other animals.  After about 8 hours of travel time, including the layover, my husband and I anxiously waited for Tora to come out of the animal receiving area at the Fort Lauderdale airport. Then two animals showed up on the counter.  Read the rest of this entry »