Cats: 2004 Archives

I just got off the phone with the vet!

Her bloodwork was clear. She has a UTI and asthma, both of which we're treating her for and she's perking up a little bit. Like, actually getting up and saying hi and being cranky!

I'm feeling better about the surgery if her health is good. I found this great page on feline mammary cancer. I think since the cancer doesn't appear to have spread, surgery is a good option for her. Since it is right under the skin, it is not as invasive as it could be. I worry more about the anesthesia than the surgery really.

Poor kitty! I had a total meltdown over the weekend, I love her so. But she's a fighter, Mr. Kallisti says she reminds him of his ole cantankerous late grandpa. I would have to agree.

Biscuit & Zman, December 2004

Both kitties went to the vet today. Biscuit because we've caught him winded and wheezing, probably due, says the vet, to the fact he may be allergic to the xmas tree pine needles he's been chewing on.

Zman, my cantankerous and sweet seventeen year old cat, probably has cancer. I knew this was coming, but have been putting it off because I know some very hard decisions are in the future. She's had a small growth on her breast all year, and it's finally gotten rather large. The vet says he can't imagine the biopsy will come back benign, which breaks my heart. She's been slowing down in so many ways, and she's started losing weight, I just don't know if you should operate on a kitty this old. She's nearly eighteen. Today she got xrays, and he didn't see any other tumerous masses, and she's got general bloodwork coming in on Monday, at which time he'll know what to recommend.

I've been with Zman my whole adult life, I got her a few months after I moved out of the house when I was eighteen. She's my angel and has been through so much with me.

My heart is breaking.

Mr. Kallisti is home waiting for my packages today. Both the Celga box AND Doll & Hobby are due to arrive. Yow!

This just rolled into my mailbox from the mister:

Just like poppa, Biscuit says "I like to help".

Look how little he still is. He's six months exactly, you can't really tell from this picture, but he's still about half of Pekoe's size (Pekoe is very large). And no gangly teenage cat-ness. He's fierce though, and totally badass. Ow.

Yay. UPS later and it is play, play, play all night!

For once, I actually had the camera ready for when the cat does something incredibly stupid, like crawling up the window screen.

All the pokes in the screen are from a previous tenant. Biscuit is just now starting his freehand window climbing career.

He was just hangin' out like this. Honest.

The rest are in the kitten folder, pix 19-23. He's getting so big! He's going to get snipped next week. Poor li'l fella.

Together at last! The fact that Biscuit was a Blue Lynx Point like Zman was one of the reasons I fell in love with him. But she's a cranky ole lady who just likes to sleep a lot and can't see very well anymore.

Well, the two actually managed to spend a few minutes on the couch together tonight, so we got some up close pix so ya'll can see them together. Pretty cool.

Also, Biscuit plays fetch. SO CUTE.

I also love 20's-40's dolls, and have collected just a few. Here are some of my other darlings lying around the house. I may be off on the date allocations. Some of them I'm sure on, some of them I guess.

click for giant pic!

40's Composition Nun doll, Carnival prize dolls in chalkware (20's) and celluloid (30's-40's), 1930's Old Rubber Donald Duck (belonged to my Dad), 40's French Can Can Dancer, 30's Celluloid & Velveteen Monkey & a mini Celluloid Black Carnival Doll, and a couple baby rolly pollies (30's and modern repro).

70's Hawaiian Kissy Face Girl, 40's Sr. Suavé, and a Photo of the Del Rio Midget Singing Group. Then there is Living Dead Girls Siamese Twins, 50's Japanese Kimono Girl, and another 40's French Can Can girl.

And Biscuit insisted on horning in on the photo op. Li'l slut.

There will come a day when I will stop posting so many pictures of my kitten. Lucky for you that day has not yet arrived!

Snuck up on him while he was sleeping. He's become quite the little man! He's all solid and muscley now, but tiny still. Rawr.

Click for MOOBIE!

Woke up this morning and wandered into my work room in which I was painting Blythes last night.

And there were little pinky-purple paw prints ALL OVER my work table and chair.

Hrm.

I guess I left some wet paint on my palette when I went to bed last night and Biscuit (alias Li'l Fucker) decided to channel Pollock. Luckily the chair is vinyl and the table enamel. But it was hilarious. I looked and there was no evidence on his little cranberry paws. I so wanted to see them encrusted with paint.

On a side note, the face hugger CPAP machine is on its third night of use. I detect maybe a 20% increase in refreshment. The mask will take some getting used to. My face feels bruised from having to strap it on tight enough to hold a seal. Blah blah.

The latest up for adoption, and I can't have this one!!!

If you're in the bay area, this little gremlin monkey boy needs a loving home! His japanese name is "Masao" which means "little gremlin monkey boy" ...or, er "holy" because he was found alone in an attic meditating. He is the baby brother of Biscuit Lafitte, who has tested negative for all kinds diseases.

Please to love.

it's my birthday. more on that later.

Best birthday present so far is that kitty Biscuit went for his leukemia/aids test this morning and passed! Yay! Now he's running around like nuts terrorizing the older cats as he's been locked in our bedroom for two weeks. They are unhappy. He also went from 2.2 lbs to 3.4 in two weeks! He's a biggun.

Look, we caught him in a moment of non-movement yesterday:

Too many pix to post, so here's a dir! This one is especially evil. It is going to give me nightmares.

This is not a vegetarian friendly entry (not that all ya'll aren't welcome).

House of Prime Rib was awesome! Much more hoppin' than I would have expected on a Wednesday night at 8:30pm. The place was packed. Real nice joint. Olde World San Francisco style, lots of charm, and leather booths. We got a nice intimate one that unfortunately happened to be squashed up the backside of a large party crammed onto a four seater table. But they left half way through our meal, and once the cocktails were served, we were too happy to care.

Our order was taken by a cordial version of Steven Wright. "How are we doing tonight folks. I'm Michael, I'll be your waiter for this evening. Are you ready to have some fun, tonight? Good. We're going introduce you to your carver "Jose" later on (Jose, was also busing tables when he wasn't hauling the "Airstream" around) but right now can I get some more drinks?"

Rum & Coke and a Gin & Tonic please.

"Comin' riiight up. Ok, let's Rock and Roll!"

Nice cocktails by the way. Old Skool style as well. My Rum 'n' Coke was pure high quality rum on the rocks with a squirt of coke for color. Mr. Kallisti was real happy with his G & T as well. We had two of each. Mmmmm.

Now, the deal with HoPR is that there is one item on the menu, that is Prime Rib ™, and that is it. You get five choices of cut, salad, creamed spinach and choice of mashed or baked potato. Now I'd heard that the "Henry VIII" cut was the thing to get. What I didn't know is that this cut is two inches thick and on the bone, baby. They wheel the Airstream Trailer of Meat (terminology swavely stolen from Swingingwake) over to your table and serve you up the cut and done-ness of your choice. I usually go for medium rare, because although I like bloody, some people's idea of bloody is still cold in the middle (*cough* Dad). I was a bit disappointed though that their medium rare was more medium than rare. But fear not! You get seconds. Yes indeedy. They inform you when you order that you may have seconds. Normally I would have no need to partake, but since I didn't get my bloody, we partook. It was a very delicate lady-like slice, thank goodness. But oh so delish.

The salad was generous, but blah. The creamed spinach was very good, yummy even. They really know how to make even the vegetables bad for you in this joint. The mashed taters were divine with just a sploosh of dark rich gravy pooled in the middle.

Oh! And after they plop this 15lb cut of prime rib in front of you, he wheels in another Cart of Sauce. You have three choices of horseradish, mild, medium and hot. I picked medium and OH BOY, was I lucky! He put a big icecream scoop of hot pink whipped horseradish flavored butter on my plate, that turned the meat juices into a frothy pink yummy mess. This stuff was scary AND tasted good. Yay. Mr. Kallisti, who's sole reason to eat sushi is to get a big mouthful of wasabi, asked for the spicy horseradish. After the initial blast and teary deluge he stated "This is horseradish the way God intended."

We ate a lot. Oh, and then had a whole pan of Crème Broulee. Dumb Americans, crème broulee is supposed to come in these little egg cups. You have a tiny spoon, crack the top, have a deliciously fat saturated bite and then you're done! Yay. Well, no. Their Crème was about seven inches in diameter, and pure heaven in every inch. Damn them. We shared and I still couldn't eat my half.

Oh, and on a side note, I'd like very much to introduce you to our new kitten: Biscuit Lafitte! ("biscuit" pronounced "biskwee" when we're frisky) Click below for cuteness. He's got the damnedest habit of holding down your face and forcibly inserting his tongue into every oriface on your head. I haven't quite figured out the purpose of this yet.

eep. The kitten is creeping into my heart. Not helped by the fact that he looks like Zman's bastard child. I talked to Shannon this morning. And he's a boy, very tiny, cream with faint orange tabby stripes and a grey tail and he was rescued from the wild kitty menagerie in the yard next to hers. Zman is a siamese blue point with very faint tabby stripes.

Shannon is going out of town and said we could babysit Junior for three days. I really was not planning on getting a cat. But he's sooooo sweet. We shall see. We'll pick him up tomorrow.

friends sending me pictures of adoptable kittens. EVIL. *cry* I want kitty.

Anyone in the Bay Area who wants to adopt this rescued adorable kitten let me know. From experienced kitten wrangler!

Just got back from the vet. Doc brought Fluffy in and she could barely hold her head up. He explained a lot of mumbo jumbo but it basically comes down to that she was suffering from liver failure most likely due to eating poison. Once the liver stopped functioning that is when she would have started exhibiting the neurological damage. She'd gone into shock, her eyes were permanently dilated. I told him what we'd found out by talking to neighbors and he said while analyzing her condition that it fits very well with how sick she was. He said he'd tried some very aggressive treatment to bring her around with no luck.

We agreed she needed to be put down. Poor kitty. He waived a lot of the fees except for labwork etc and said we'd done the right thing and handed me a tissue.

What creeps me out the most is there is someone living around here who thinks it is ok to poison small furry animals.

I am so wrecked.

Well, we spent the lunch hour passing out flyers on the 3 blocks on our street. We'll hit the neighboring street later so we can get some work done *wink*. Met some lovely neighbors, including one who lives in my favorite jordan almond green bungalow. She looked just like Ann Miller from "Mulholland Drive" and was the sweetest thing. She said she would have been doing the same thing and was very appreciative that we were such "good kids" (snort). I love her.

Down the other block though we heard some unsettling news from neighbors. Apparently there was a cat lady in one of the apartment buildings and the landlord told her to get rid of them. Instead of turning the beasties into a shelter or rescue agency she just stopped feeding them and threw them outside. I'm fearing that someone might have then put out poison. One neighbor said she would talk to the lady and see if she recognized Fluffy. I told her it was ok if she didn't want her, but we'd like to know we can stop searching. Hopefully the news from the vet will be better tomorrow.

Zoink! Just as I was writing this a nice gent called to figure out if it was his cat that he lost a month ago. No go, she was a tabby. But he said he thinks he's seen Fluffy on the block in the last week and she looked healthy. Keeps looking more and more like poison.

So I was sitting her at home processing spam (for work) and feeling bad for kitty when I realized I was surrounded by kitten love.

Zman, my ole lady, will only sleep under my desk now, to be as close to me as possible, so we moved her bed there. Pekoe's favorite spot is the pullout on the big wooden desk next to me and he will climb all over me and my chair until I pull it out. They've both been sleeping here with me while I work for the last two hours. *sniff* Love your kitty today.

(please excuse the messy desk, cringe!)

I called a couple rescue centers and the nice lady said I'm doing all the right things. But they made it pretty clear that if she isn't healthy she'll be put down.

*cry*

Mr. Kallisti and I were pulling out of the drive way this morning when I noticed a wee tortoise shell kitty on the lawn. Then I noticed that she was trying to walk but kept falling over. I asked Mr. Kallisti to stop and we watched her for a minute and after walking in circles and falling over several times she just laid down on the grass.

Uh oh. Sick kitty. So we idled and got out to take a look at her. She tried to run but couldn't, kept falling. She's the cutest little orangish torty, with big big eyes. I told Mr. Kallisti to go get the cat carrier. We woke up all our immediate neighbors to no avail but lots of sympathy and came to the collective conclusion she wasn't one of the usual strays we see around. So off we went to our vet hospital.

Vet says she's suffering from some kind of head trauma. Either something she ate like poison, brain tumor or she fell and hit her head. She can't walk straight and she keeps trying to stand on her head and her eyes are flicking. No other broken bones or injuries except she's obviously been out for a few days as she's dehydrated and her spine is boney. Poor kitty! So they're gonna keep her overnight while we flyer the neighborhood to try and find her parents.

She's a gorgeous li'l froofy fluff. Pray for kitty.

I took my wee old cat to the vet this morning. Around christmas time we noticed she had a tiny lump under one of her wee kitty nipples. It hasn't changed much but we thought we ought to take her. We braced ourselves for the $2837.23 any vet visit incurs.

[oooooh, she so mean. notice how she hardly has any teef left. rawr.]

Well, not entirely awesome news, but the Dr. said if he thought she had kitty cancer that the tumour would have grown and spread, and that he doesn't recommend a precautionary removal for something that is likely benign on a cat her age. Zman is seventeen years old! I got her when I was eighteen, barely moved out of the house. We've grown up and old together. I named her after a character in one of my favorite movies, unfortunately for her that was "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"... and she so does not fit her name, never has. She's a princess through and through. I love her. Aaaaaaaaah! Oh! And I almost forgot, actually walked outa there only paying $27. I was stunned. It's usually $300++++ a visit. Phew!

K, enough kitty maudlin.

I've been out of work the past three days and I came in today and it was like christmas! Everything I'd ordered over the past six weeks came. Oh boy.

I've gone back to SAL shipping for small things at HLJ.com because it is SO DUMB to pay $28 dollars for $4 pair of doll stockings. I think you feel me. But it does take 2-4 weeks to get my goodies.

I gots 2 pair of azone 60cm cottons stockings in black and white. And the cutest @*#&@! pair of azone pink panties with red polka dots. Gah! Red SD eyelashes from Helen (thank yooooou!), black froofy 1/6th azone lingerie and the little azone snazzy shoes I've been dying for forever.

Oh, and best of all, my first pair of Antique Rose Eyes courtesy of Yuzuko. I got the #39 Rose. They're beeeyoootiful. I wanted baby rose, BUT I'd just ordered some pale pink acrylics from Souldoll. I know, I know, these are SOOOO much better. But there is time for all that. I needed some darker shaded eyes.

love,
kallisti

p.s. I love my cat.