Adorable Kitties for Adoption

A friend sent me an e-mail, asking if I might pass on a photo and information on to anyone interested in adopting a kitten. A stray gave birth to these cats near an office. The friend of my friend rounded up all the kittens including the mom and paid for all the vet services including spay/neuter. She is asking for references to make sure the cats go to good homes.

Stupid allergies! I want the kitties! Look how precious... I miss the kitten stage (she said as the black and white blob on the floor stared resentfully up at her.) Anyway, here is the picture and info on the kitties is below.

Starting at the front and moving clockwise...
 
MooMoo - Male. He is small but has a very curious and playful personality. He is friendly and loving. He has short hair.
 
Asia - Female - Solid Gray - She is the one who was never afraid of people at all. On her first night at home she was rubbing against my leg, letting me pet and love on her, sticking her little tale and butt in the air and purring like a motor boat. She is the leader of the pack and is setting the stage for the others that people are good. She is short haired.
 
Jessie -  Female - Gray/white - She is the runt. She is cautious still but loves to have her legs massaged. She will lay on her back in my lap and go totally to sleep. She is short haired.
 
Smokey - Male - He is becoming more trusting everyday. He watches and sits arms length away to be touched and gradually petted. He has a very sweet, timid personality. He has medium length hair.
 
Gaicomo (pronounced jock o mo) - Male - He is the big boy of the bunch. He loves to play, he's still a little shy but loves to be petted and also falls out when he gets a leg massage. He is a beautiful boy and has medium to long hair.
 
Casper - Male - larger gray/white is of the last litter we trapped and found homes for. He was the only boy and remains at large. His Mom was smart enough to get them through a tornado that ripped through our parking lot when he and his sisters were just 3 weeks old. He inherited her sensibilities. He is a friendly feral and knows his name but he will only come so close and has watched us trap so he's very aware of what the contraption is...

I don't have the woman's permission to post her e-mail, so if you or someone you know would like more information, e-mail me and I'll get the contact info to you.

A Chapter A Week

I am a woman on a mission. I mentioned that I have a 30,000-word book by the end of the year. Me being me, I of course drew up a timeline, to-do list, and flight plan to ensure everything occurs on time.

So far, so good. The plan calls for me to write a chapter a week which sounds intimidating, but each chapter need only be 3,000 words each. Which breaks down into 600 words daily. It's still an aggressive schedule, but breaking it down into baby steps makes it doable.

I'm three chapters in. On this schedule, I'll "finish" writing the book in November, which gives me a month to go back through and polish and tighten and add humor wherever possible. I'm almost spooked by how well the writing is going at this point. Like, since it's so natural it must be really, really BAD writing and I just haven't realized it yet.

The master plan calls for me to spend my morning hours on the book - say 7 AM to Noon. As I'm writing this blog at 9:43 AM you can see how well I'm sticking to that plan. I still have the hardest time saving e-mail, blogging, and social networking sites until the afternoon. E-mail especially. I still hold out hopes that someday soon I'll sit down to work in the morning without first checking to see what's arrived during the night. Willpower. That's all it takes.

Afternoons are for "work" work - magazine assignments, corporate work, etc. What I'd like to do is also start setting some afternoon or evening time aside to work on my growing-cobwebs-in-the-corner novel. It's a challenge--too much computer time and I run screaming from the room. But I'm wondering if I might do a little pen and paper writing for the novel, just to mix things up.

I'm falling behind on PR tasks. I need to add a calendar or "appearance" page to my website. Sounds ego-based, but it's all in the name of platform. I have a number of speaking engagements lined up and it's good to be able to show potential publishers of my book that look, people come to hear her talk! And she has bookings! Maybe we should publish her book! It's all in the pitch...

Speaking of websites, I need to update mine... and start work on the magazine class I'm teaching in October... and prepare for my radio interview next week... 

Hope you're having a productive week.

"There's Lucy Poo Waiting For You"

There are many ways for a man to show his affection for the woman in his life. Some women get flowers, others candy. A lucky few get gems that sparkle. Me? I get cat poo.

I came in from this morning's trail run and saw there was a message blinking on the answering machine. I punched the button and heard Blair's voice: "Hi honey. Listen, I wanted to let you know there is some Lucy poo in a plastic baggie, sitting on a towel in the guest bathroom. Okay? Love you. Bye."

Back off ladies, he's all mine.

Okay, in his defense, we've been trying to get a stool sample from Lucy since Saturday. Our cats share a litter box so we pretty much have to catch her in the act right after we've cleaned the litter box, to make sure we're taking the correct cat's poo into the vet. Apparently Blair struck gold this morning and I just wasn't there to see it.

So lucky me gets to transport Lucy poo to the vet this morning. But who knows? Since I'm giving away my prize, maybe Blair will surprise me and show up with flowers or chocolate this evening. 

Who says romance is dead?

Lucy Health Update

This past Friday, Blair and I met friends for dinner and then as a group we went to the preview of Charlie Engle's movie, Running The Sahara, narrated by Matt Damon. Charlie is a running celebrity and the movie was inspiring, as three men ran up 2 marathons a day in their 111-day treck across the Sahara.

What awaited us at home was not quite as pleasant. Piggy-girl, aka Lucy, had thrown up in 4 different locations around the house. She also threw up twice more during the night, making us anxious to get her into the vet first thing Saturday morning.

We took her in, they did bloodwork, Lucy peed on the vet, pretty much a status quo visit. Although the fact that Lucy was down to 11.5 lbs from her prior 14 lbs. concerned us.

The vet called yesterday to say that Lucy has hyperthyroidism, a disease common in older cats. Lucy is eight and only 5% of cats are diagnosed with hyperthyroidism under the age of 10. For the moment, this means we'll be giving her medication to control the disease two times a day for the rest of her life. Surgery or radioactive iodine treatment are options, but we need to give her medicine for a couple of weeks, retest her blood work and see where we stand. 

She looks and acts fine. The weight loss and excess vomiting were what clued us in to a problem. Other than that, she's bright-eyed, shiny coat, and full of energy. The vet said he thought he may have detected a heart murmur but it was hard to tell as Lucy growled at him during the entire exam. But he probably did - elevated heart rates and/or heart murmurs are common in cats with hyperthyroidsim.

We're fine for now. Just kind of holding out to see where we go from here. I'm of course going to dive in and do some reading on the disease. Our vet says they don't know for sure what causes it, but a recent theory is that an upswing in the disease may be related to all the chemicals and plastic liners found in homes. I also read that pull-top cans of cat food are thought to add risk. Who knows?

Google, here I come.