Category Archives: cat’s… both live and dead…

Our Baby Girl Sakura

Our “Monster”, our baby girl, our pretty girl is gone.

I can’t believe it…..

We’ve been trying to will it that it wasn’t going to happen…we took hope that other’s kitties lasted longer with kidney disease.

She was at stage 4 and last 3-4 weeks we’ve been syringe feeding her the kidney food and giving her fluids. But the last 2 – 3 weeks, she wasn’t even going for her favorite non-vet food. She would lick the juices and that was it…..last 2-3 days, won’t even do that. She was occasionally drinking water, but no where near enough and we don’t remember the last time she was in litter box. She use to up to #12, she was down to #7.5 ?

Vets don’t try and tell you what to do when it comes to this…..they question you to make sure that you’ve thought it through. And when you are telling them what you saw and know, you know that you are making the right decision, even though you are 2nd guessing yourself because you don’t want it to be true, you want the vet to say they help get them through it. The questions were very annoying, but the vet we were seeing had to take a medical and this one didn’t know us or the case, otherwise I don’t think she would’ve questioned so much.

I believe the feedings helped keep her going, it helped to keep her personality. She still growled and swiped at the other kitties if they got to close, still demanded to be held in ToRn‘s arms at night after staring at the back of his head him to turn over or nose him in the middle of the night…….she got more cuddle time with him then I did. ? She was very much a daddy’s girl….very spoiled, never got in trouble doing the same thing Drew got in trouble for.

She growled and swiped at Gimli one last time before we left, we had her purring while we waited, her tail was even puffed up when we held her to say good bye.

She was a very unique cat.

When we first got her, we used to use clay litter and the 1st week I went to change it, I found poo in the open new bags of litter…..baby girl had found the fresh stuff.

The timing of when we got Sakura and Drew couldn’t have been better in 2008. We lost Reggie (our part Maine Coon former barn cat of Mom & Dad’s) a few months later, we lost ToRn’s brother Diesel the following summer and then we lost Alexis (the 1st kitty we got together) within a year of that….if it wasn’t for Sakura and Drew getting into things and making us laugh, we won’t have made it through it with our sanity intake.

She never liked her brother Drew….she would start a fight with him and then run to ToRn because she knew that he would keep Drew from getting back at her. Even last week, she was laying on me in bed and Drew won’t lay near me because she was there and she had growled at him.

Never seen a cat puff up for no reason….you just look at her and her tail would be as fluffy as a raccoon’s. Her eyes looked almost crossed eyed when she would go nose to nose with you. When she laid on her back, looked like a baby seal. She would purr so loud, it sounded as if she would blow a gasket. I’ve never seen a kitty that had coloring like that…..so black on the top coat and white underneath.

After she got out of the house for 24hrs when she was about 9 months, any time she looked out a window and saw humans she would growl at them. ToRn loved that. She got better since we did the RV thing for a few years….learn to get use to seeing people outside of the windows.

She killed 1, possibly 2 mice when living in Troutdale….1 confirmed kill, the other could be Drew’s…..but that is debate between us on that one. I woke up to the first one…..went to the bathroom at 0600, saw her laying on the carpet, purring as loud as could be….looking proud, saw that mouse, thought it was one the toys, went back to bed, laid there for about 5 mins thinking and realizing, that was no damn toy. Sure enough, when I moved the carpet it had a white belly with blood down it…..lol

She corned 3 mice in the RV that I had to catch. She couldn’t make my life easier and just kill them….eye roll.

I’ve been losing it on and off, missing the hell out of her…..and until we get her ashes back, I won’t get any sense of closure and be filled with anxiety that she isn’t back at home.

Love you Sakura, you will be greatly missed.

Our Drew =(

We have an appointment in January to meet with a consultant for Drew. It was the earliest they had ? I wanted next week

Just want to do what we can do, if possible.

So far he eating good, demanding love and cuddles, wanting to play (when the young ones aren’t around…lol)

For us it is all about our babies quality of life, but 12 is way too young for cats. And we aren’t happy about both of our 12 yr olds going through all of this.

Thank you for all the love.

Hating 2020

I’m really hating 2020 right now…..besides the obvious reasons, now not only does Sakura have stage 4 kidney disease, Drew has lymphoma…..he now has a big lump on the side of his throat.

Looking online, treating it can go from $1,000 to $10,000s. ?

He was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago, we almost lost him then….I syringe feed him so much that weekend, that he got enough strength to get an appetite that he started eating on his own.

Thought we got through it and now this…..

ToRn has taken over syringe feeding Sakura. She eats on her own, but won’t eat what she is suppose to help her kidneys. That is what he has to syringe feed her. He does it quicker and probably less stressful on her then I do.

That helped my stress level some, but the vet results from Drew is confirming my worst fears…..all I want to do it break down and lose it….

I see that lump on him and I just feel so bad.I’m just going to take my cat and head to bed.

Crazy Cat Tales

Having a pet is always interesting. We have two crazy cats and they are great for providing laughter, comfort and distraction when it is needed.

We’ve never had cats that will poof up for no apparent reason, even while purring. They still let us pick them up and everything. Our other cats would’ve clawed us if we did that. Drew hisses at hubby out of frustration when they are playing….it is nutty.

You would think after five years they have finally settled into their habits and there is nothing new for them to do……but over the last few months that has been proven wrong….lol

During the very cold parts of winter, Drew finally learned that it is nice and warm crawling under the blankets to cuddle with mommie. His sister, Sakura, usually sleeps in the middle of our pillows, partial under the blanket while demanding that hubby has his hand on her…..or she’ll sit there and stare at him until her puts her into her usual spot. Or she’ll nose him. =)

Now that Drew has discovered cuddling under the blankets, he jumps up on the bed, on my side, near my head and starts to paw at the blankets, while staring at me. I’ve opened my eyes a few times to see his paw coming towards my nose to wake me up.

Twice in the last two weeks, I’ve been woken by Drew hissing! First time, he was pawing the blanket, but I obviously wasn’t waking up. So he hisses at me, I open my eyes, he is just looking at me…..he didn’t look upset or in pain…..as soon as I lifted the blankets he crawled right in.

The second time, I had my back to him when he jumped up……I’m like “really???” So now he is using a hiss to wake me up and let him in….rolling eyes.

A few mornings ago, I woke to a dream of something wet on my nose…..opened my eyes and Drew was very close to my face and staring at me. I’m not sure, but I think he nosed me, I really think he did……..ggeeezzz

Sakura is a whole another ball of crazy. She is definitely a “daddy’s girl”. Her association with me, is when she wants something….like jumping on me and running me over to get to her spot on bed, if I have treats or the big thing, a brush. And not just a cat brush……my round prickly brush. She will run into my leg and trip me to get into the bathroom, jump on the toilet seat and look at me……if I don’t brush her, she starts rubbing against me.

She use to do it once in awhile, but the last few days she has gotten very demanding. Anytime she is not sleeping and even think I’m heading back there she races to the bathroom and just stares and stares and stares…..it is nutty. As soon as I grab the brush, that she is eyeing, she starts purring like crazy…so loud. Hubby calls her a “purr monster” She’ll grab the brush, while you hold it, get her claws into and rub her face against it.

There is nothing like having your life ruled by your cats. They really let you know that they are allowing you in their lives……lol

Our last days at Fort Flagler State Park…

Well, until we go back at least.

This should have been written on or prior to April 29, 2014, but well I got lazy and busy with moving our box with wheels to another island.

We had been doing a lot of cleanup of fallen branches as well as cleaning the upper camp ground in the last few months of our stay at Fort Flagler that we once again had a very large pile of brush to burn and the head Ranger gave us the honor of burning the pile before we left, so that is what we did.

I was out there for the better part of 8 hours, making sure it was burning in a safe manner as well as making sure I burned as much of it as I could. There was still a few stumps from the last burn pile that had not burned completely as well as huge chunks of cement from past dumps that kept getting dug up, which caused one end of the burn pile to not burn at all.

Once I figured out what the problem was, I spent a hour or so with the tractor building a road to the problem area and pushing the wood debris further away from the chunks of cement that was preventing a proper fire to burn.

While doing this I had a feeling I was being watched and sure enough, I saw the coyote watching me from about 50 yards away. He was there on and off throughout the day, it was a really nice, sunny and warm day with light winds, perfect for a large fire as well as napping in the sun which is what the coyote was mostly doing.

Here are the pictures, just a month later.