pets and gardens

Woman’s Best Friend

Hi, this is Tracy from Kranky Krab, and I’d like to introduce you to
my best friend, Keiko. Keiko means “to be adored” in Japanese, which
is right on the money!

Keiko is a “mixed-breed” or as my husband and I like to call her a
“Basselope.” She is part Jack Russell, beagle, and basset hound.

Keiko initially was my husband’s dog (before we were married). He
brought her up to Chicago where I was living when she was only a few
months old. The first time she snuggled up on my pillow beside me, it
was all over! She became MY dog!

She has been by my side ever since. To our first apartment together in
Chicago, our move to Orlando, and several moves within Orlando. She
keeps me company when my husband travels for business. I don’t know
what I’d do without her! She is my pride and joy.

When Keiko was about 7 years old, she developed Cushings disease and
had to be given medication every day. At 9 years old, she almost died
from a bad reaction to a pain killer – I was a wreck! Thankfully, she
pulled through. A few years later, her Cushings turned to Addison’s
disease, so now, we have to give her steroids every day. Ha – we’re
not done yet……now, at the ripe age of 14 she has diabetes (2
injections each day) and is deaf and blind.

My sweet little girl, who has been there for me through thick and thin
is now dependent on me to be her seeing eye human. Fortunately, she
doesn’t seem to be too phased by the change and definitely has her
“sniffer” working overtime to compensate. She sure knows when I'm in
the kitchen! She has always been my kitchen helper when I cook and you
can be sure she’ll be the first to help pick up any mess that makes it
to the floor!

I am very thankful to have such a loving, loyal friend in Keiko!

pets and gardens

The Tale of a Cat

by Firstlightphoto

Let me introduce you to T.J. He is my little miracle cat. I acquired him from the vet's office after I had to put another cat to sleep. He just kind of wandered into the office one day, and my vet thought of me. I took my then three year old daughter with me to check him out — and that was 12 years ago. The vet did an exam on him and gave him to me, no charge.

Therein lay the end of my free cat. That very night he was limping in pain. I took him back, they shaved a hind leg and it burst from an infection. Right away I had to give him 10 days of antibiotics. Over the course of the next few years and many vet visits for puffy paws, I found  out his little body was trying to grow back a dewclaw (he was already declawed and neutered when I got him). Surgery was needed to completely remove the dewclaw on a front paw.

A few yeara later we noticed he was losing his hair, and ended up with only his guard hairs left on him. He looked so thin now with all that hair gone that I ended up taking him to a vet dermatologist! They did skin and eyelid biopsies and found out he had got something that the vet medical book only has two lines about. They hadn't ever seen this in a cat, and only rarely in a dog. After a lot of money spent, tears and frustration we decided to put T.J. on some nasty autoimmune medicine.

Hallelujah ... T.J.'s hair ultimately grew back. They wanted me to take him back occasionally for bloodwork to make sure he's okay.

Last summer, the bloodwork didn't look good. So they wanted me to take T.J. off the medication to see if that's what was causing his red and white counts to be low. I was told he either has feline leukemia or bone marrow cancer. By this point he was doing nothing but sleeping — ALL the time, and in unusual places. Needless to say I spent three days crying. I called the vet and asked her if it was okay to put him back on the medicine and shegave  me the okay.

HE IMPROVED! And improved. They didn't, and don''t understand it at all, and neither do I. But I just took T.J. back to the vet a couple weeks ago, and his bloodwork still pretty much looked the same with a bit of improvement in his anemia. So I consider T.J. my little miracle cat. I treasure his time with me every day. He does have his bad days, but so far he always gets better.

And I just love all the bad and naughty things he does. Because to me that just means he's feeling good. Now, don't get me wrong: I don't like to find him sleeping on my dining room table. But now instead of getting mad at him, I just remove him.

One of the photos I have in my shop is T.J. It's called "Keeping Watch." It was taken in my upstairs bedroom window. When I'm up there he likes to sit on the hope chest and look out the window. He sleeps next to me at night curled up under the covers. He pesters us at 5:30 in the morning for his moist food (where I hide his medicine). He has a fetish for plastic. He pretends to eat it and makes weird chewing noises making us think he's eating it, but he's not getting anything off. Plastic grocery bags are his favorite. He likes donuts (we'll give him a couple little pieces if we have one). He sits in the chair next to me at dinner and patiently waits for tiny meat offerings. He's sitting in the window next to me as I'm writing this right now.

I love my little miracle cat, T.J. and I cherish every day he's with me.

pets & gardens

Althea of BlackStar

Howdy. My name is Althea. I’m the cat that runs BlackStar. I’m living the good life, here in Tennessee. My life hasn’t always been a bowl of cherries. I spent some time in lock-up back in ’03. On May 14th of that year, Katie walked into the shelter looking for a white cat to adopt. She looked over my papers, which read like a rap sheet. It said “does not get along with others." Did they have to write that? She didn’t flinch though. She paid my bail and off we went.

Oh yeah! I hit the jackpot. Sure I have to work, but it really is a cool job running a jewelry shop, and chatting with people from all around the world. While I have your attention, summer is coming up and lots of folks go out and get pets. Don’t forget to check your local shelters and rescues. Give a pet like me a second chance at happiness.

           Kitty kisses,  

                       Althea