She's Back

I am happy to report that this little bit is back to her normal wild self.

Yes, that is my kitchen counter.  It's called failed pet parenting but the fact is, she was unfazed by any form of punishment we tried to dole out...

• Sprayed her with water - Phoebe loves water and welcomed the refreshing spritzer
• Put muffin tins and other objects on the edge of the counter - this resulted in the loud bang it was supposed to when they fell to the floor but the noise only seem to startle us and our other cat...Phoebe not so much
• Blow dryer - this is one thing she doesn't like but a solid 30 seconds later she's back for more
• Foil - most cats do not like the sound of walking on foil but Phoebe not only didn't mind the sound, she ate some of it and threw up
• Physically removing her after every jump - this resulted in 30 minute TV shows turning into 60 minute TV shows because I had to get up every 2 minutes.  Something had to give and it wasn't going to be TV!

Needless to say we sort of gave up but not to worry - I thoroughly clean before cooking, etc!  I hate admitting it but I'm happy to see her jumping on the counter again, she wasn't up to doing much for a couple of weeks there.  I'll tell you someone that is not happy about this new development and that is poor Tavia.

The week that Phoebe was at the vet, Tavia was the happiest I've ever seen her!  She was like a little kitten again, playing and loving on everyone.  She's really having a hard time acclimating to the reintroduction of Phoebe.  She's been much more aggressive this time around than when we first got Phoebe.  I just hope it doesn't take several months like it did the first time. 

I'm not sure where I left off with Phoebe other than mentioned my belief that the snow flocked tree had something to do with her sickness.  I still don't think it was a coincidence.  After a week at the vet partaking in IVs and force feedings her biopsy results came back.  The results weren't as conclusive as they had hoped but the vets were still leaning toward inflammatory bowel disease and decided to move forward with that treatment.  After her first steroid shot she started eating and was doing ok so they sent her home but when we would give her a prednisone pill at home she became sick again.  After a couple of goes at that, it was determined Phoebe was having negative side effects to the prednisone.  They wanted to put her on a different steroid but before switching, the vet consulted with a colleague at the Oklahoma State Vet School.  After reviewing her information OSU didn't think she had inflammatory bowel disease but rather had developed an aversion to eating.  They also said they had received several calls regarding fake snow.  I knew it!  Of course, the manufacturers claim it is not toxic and it may not be, but it is definitely an irritant to animals.  They thought the snow could have caused the inflammation and recommended we give Phoebe an appetite stimulant to get her to eat.  She instantly responded to the stimulant but the first night we gave it to her she became very lethargic, uncoordinated and disoriented.  The vet said 1 in 10 cats have that reaction so she said of course Phoebe would be the 1 - ha!  All it took was decreasing the dose and she was eating like Takeru Kobayashi.  Christmas Day she was really acting back to herself and eating well so we decreased the dose to once a day and today the vet told us we could stop giving it to her all together :)

It is such a relief to have Phoebe feeling good again!  Sorry to make a short story long!  Having a sick pet can be stressful at times due to the fact they can't communicate with you.  The cause of the illness can become a guessing game of sorts but we love our vet and know our four legged friends are always in good hands there. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!  I will blog more about my Holiday happenings and subsequent Holiday hangover later this week....

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

This year we embarked on getting our first Christmas Tree, or I should say our first full size tree.  In years past we've used this little guy as our main tree.

I'm still using him but I decided after 4.5 years of marriage combined with the fact that we are hosting Christmas, we should have a full size tree in our living room.  I set out online to do some browsing and came across this beauty from the Martha Stewart Living collection at Home Depot.

My head was swimming with visions of how beautiful she would look in my living room.  It was love at first sight!  Unfortunately for me love can be a little blind and those beautiful snow flocked branches...

...were a disaster!  Putting the tree up and fluffing the branches caused snowpocolypse 2011 right in our living room.  Not to mention I'm married to a neat freak so the messiness of the snow was not going over well with him.  But it just looked so beautiful, I was determined to make it work even if that meant vacuuming every day!

That is until this Lil' Bit started chewing on said snow flocked branches and ingesting all the fake snow.

Within a day of the tree being up she started acting very lethargic which is not like her at all!  She is usually into everything and getting into places she should not be (ahem)...

We knew something was up and after a couple of trips to the vet it was determined Phoebe had an obstruction in her stomach that would require exploratory surgery.  She had the surgery on Thursday and they pulled out a very large, congealed hair ball (gross!) from her stomach.  This was the best case scenario of what could have been in there but while they had her open they noticed some of her bowels and pancreas were inflamed which could actually be the cause of her sickness.  They did a biopsy and we should have the results this week.  Either of the inflammatory diseases she possibly has are very treatable which is good news, the bad news is she hasn't been doing so well since the surgery :(  She's had a fever and refuses to eat which puts her at risk for some sort of liver disease.  Lucky for us she is in good hands!  The vet's office has been keeping her on an IV of fluids and antibiotics and they have also been force feeding her (something we would have a hard time doing).  She's been keeping her food down which is good and this afternoon we found out her temp is down a degree!  This is the first day we have not been able to visit her which has been hard because we miss her!

I have a hard time believing the fake snow ingestion is a coincidence although it very well could be.  The vet agreed that the snow could have helped the hair stick together in her stomach and I'm thinking it could cause some inflammation issues.  Needless to say I didn't want to always wonder if it was just a coincidence so the tree in all it's snow flocked glory came down!  A big thank you to my BIL for coming over, taking it apart and boxing it up for me!  AB was out of town and I couldn't even get the top part off by myself!

Maybe we'll find one next year, maybe not, after all Christmas isn't about the tree!

Happenings

Sorry for the MIAness that's been going on lately.  I've been really focused on my studies which doesn't leave room for much else.  I thought I'd give some highlights as to what's been going on with us for the past month.

We got all spiffed up for a fundraiser benefiting Clarehouse.  Clarehouse is a place here in Tulsa that provides end of life care for individuals who are unable to take on the financial burden themselves.

My friend Janice (to my right) is on the board for Clarehouse.  It was fun to spend the evening with friends I hadn't seen in awhile and support such a great cause!

Then we jetted off to Savannah...

where we stayed in this quaint little Bed & Breakfast.  I hope to blog in more detail about this trip when I have the time.

Last weekend I took this Pre-Ker to the donut shop.  She is going to be 5 in a few weeks...5!  I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

I made some crafty treats for our Trick-or-Treat event at work.  I got the idea from one of Katie's Weekly Faves posts which lead me to this post on Living Locurto which eventually lead me to these.  I was happy with how they turned out!

In other Halloween news this little Cheeser refused to wear his turtle costume!  My SIL Erin and her mom made it so I'm sure it was adorable.  She told me they took him out to walk around and at one point a ghost fell out of a tree and he said "I scared" and wouldn't take his eyes off the ground until they got to the car.  My brother told me that has now become his ploy to get hugs and snuggles (as if he needed one).  He'll say "I scared" or "Jude scared" and run up and hug you.  So cute!

While we're on the topic of cuteness I have to share this picture.  It's so indicative of my two cats' personalities.  Tavia is so cautious and reserved while Phoebe is so uninhibited and in your face but they are definitely equal in the joy bringing department!

Although I've been MIA from my own blog, I promise I've been keeping up with all of your blogs but I'm usually reading them from my phone on a study break at the library so sorry for the lack of comments.  Happy weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesdays

The Tutor

Phoebe has taken a vested interest in my studies. Here she is digesting information and quizzing me on some topics.

Such a great helper :) Now back to our cram session!

Guest Post by Tavia: The New Sister

My name is Tavia Splitz Brown and I will be three years old this month, 29 in cat years. I'm a tortoiseshell cat and I definitely have the tortoiseshell diva attitude. I've recently become disgruntled so my mom said I could use her blog to vent my frustrations.

As many of you know, my parents recently brought home a little sister, Phoebe. At first I didn't think she was going to stay so I was kind of nice to her and even let her lay next to me a couple of times. Now that it's been three months I'm beginning to realize she isn't going anywhere and I am not too happy about it. She's always trying to play and cuddle with me but no matter how much I growl and hiss at her she doesn't seem to get the message. My parents think it's so adorable when she does stuff like this:

I am simply not amused.

I can obviously do cute stuff too.

The only good thing to come out of this so far is I get to eat more food. I LOVE food but my parents have me on a strict diet. Little do they know after I finish my food, I shove that sister out of the way and eat the rest of her food too...he he he.

I guess that's all for now. Phoebe sure does annoy me so I'm sure I'll be back to vent further frustrations. Until then, I'll be thinking of ways I can get her to runaway.

xoxo

Tavia

Sleeping In

One of the things I like best about the weekend is sleeping in! Many of you have children so sleeping in is not an option. That is why I treasure the fact that I can still do this and savor every second. I love sleep - I like going to bed early, taking naps and sleeping in! Granted, I try not to sleep too late because I don't want to waste two free days but AB and I have been known to sleep the morning away on occasion. The luxury of sleeping in has ended in our house, and no we do not have a baby on the way. We have a kitten, a crazy kitten named Phoebe, who has figured out how to open the guest bedroom door. See, we put her in the guest room at night because of her aforementioned craziness, but with the help of this lovely football door knob she can get out. Side note: we referred to this house as the football house when we were house shopping and after three years we still haven't managed to get rid of all of the football paraphernalia.

This morning sweet, serene Tavia was cuddled up next to me when at roughly 6:30am Phoebe jumps into bed and attacks her thus starting Wrestle Mania! WWF continued on our bed for quite some time, all the while AB and I tried to ignore it and cling to the last minutes of rest. Phoebe finally felt the need to leave Tavia at peace, but decided to bring one of her toys into bed and grapple with it. Sleeping in was just not in the cards today :(