Sick Kitty and Thoughts on the Pope and the Death Penalty

1.  Our poor kitty is sick. 

Doesn't he look pitiful?  And he likes to sleep in a box of Christmas beads. 

 It all started on Saturday night...he started making this awful caterwauling sound.  Awful.  Sunday, he wasn't eating or drinking and kept trying to use the litter box, but nothing came out.  Sunday, night I figured it all out.   Apparently it is super common for male cats to get completely blocked and unable to pee...at all.  This is extremely painful as you can imagine. So, Monday morning, we took him to the vet and sure enough he was completely blocked. His bladder was the size of a baseball.  Poor guy. 

2. At one time in my life, I wanted to a vet.  Now...I still love animals, but we're at the point in our lives where we really can't spend a lot of money on vet bills for a pet....beloved as that pet may be.   So, it was hard choosing whether to have him treated or put to sleep. I couldn't just let him to continue to suffer.

3.  Turns out that treating him wasn't as expensive as I was thinking, so we had him treated. Our vet is pretty down to earth and understands that not everyone wants to spend thousands of dollars on their pet.  So, we had him treated.  They catheterized him and he stayed at the vet one night. 

4. Now he's home, but still not doing well. Slowly he may be improving, but it's very slowly.  I have the vet in my frequent calls now.  Thankfully, they don't charge for phone calls!  He still isn't really eating...although he is drinking and peeing (all over himself), so we have him shut up in the basement (don't worry the basement is actually finished and nice) and we stopped the medication the vet gave him (that was probably making him pee on himself).  He's definitely lost weight though and is pretty traumatized by everything.   Poor guy.   I'm hoping he starts to pick up soon.  I miss my naughty kitty that jumps up on the table and gets into everything.

5.  On a totally unrelated note...did you see my post about the Probiotic giveaway?  There are still a few days left to enter.   I'm going to randomly pick a winner and announce next week.

6. The Pope is in America and my Facebook feed is blowing up with posts about him.  It seems about half my friends are thrilled with what he says and the other half are critical. Personally, I like what he says and I like that he is so social-justice orientated.  I'm not a fan of the death penalty and I am a big fan of subsidiarity and helping those in poverty.  I know a lot of people think he should be doing more to end abortion, but I do feel that helping the poor and abolishing the death penalty (in America, where it is not needed, we have the means to keep dangerous people imprisoned for life) is a step in the direction of abolishing abortion.  You can't garner respect for the unborn, unless you garner respect for all the born people...even those our society deems less desirable...those in poverty or prison.  The people that society tends to want to throw away as worthless. It seems as though a lot of people only value those who are innocent or productive. Yes, many people make very wrong or poor choices, but I think the saying "There but for the Grace of God, go I" is important to keep in mind.  Yes, it's important to fight abortion, but it is also important to fight for the rights and respect of ALL people. So..go Pope Francis!

7.  And that is probably the most controversial I will be in this blog for the next year or so.  So enjoy it now!

(Linking it up again!)

Theme Thursday: Animals

This weeks Theme Thursday is Animals.   Yay..one of my favorite topics.  I basically think there are two types of people in this world...pet people and non-pet people.  We are definitely pet people.  I was an animal science major in college and for a long time wanted to be a vet, before realizing that I'm NOT cut out the handle the stress of that.   So, I ended up going to graduate school instead and studying reproductive physiology of dairy cows.  Yep...you can actually study that.    This involved spending lots of time wearing long gloves with my arm up the wrong end up of a cow, feeling or ultra-sounding her ovaries.   Fun times, I tell you. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of that, so I shall not subject you, dear readers, to such an atrocity.

Instead I shall tell you the tale of a striped, orange cat. 

It was a rainy night, that night back in May, 2008.  I casually strolled into the kitchen, in search of a bedtime snack, unaware of the horror my eyes were about to see.   I was just reaching for a glass, when I saw IT.  A small brown thing scurrying across the floor.  I screamed in horror, dropping the glass.   That was the beginning of the stuff nightmares are made of.  A horrific mouse infestation.  We set traps out, we cleaned, we disinfected.  I HATE mice.   And, the very next day, I ran right out to our local animal shelter and picked out a big, orange, striped cat.  

We named him William, after this delightful children's story. 

William is not obedient. 

William is always getting into trouble. 

William is polydactyl.

William has sneaked out of the house several times...but the prodigal cat has always returned. 

William has never actually caught a mouse...but we love him anyway. 

Isn't he a handsome cat??  And, yes, that is the refrigerator he is on top of!

Now, go see Cari for more awesome animal photos.