It’s been one week and two days since the surgery. On my birthday, I spent the entire day in the emergency room. It’s not really fun when you turn 70 years old to have countless people remind you that  your 70! ?

for some unexplained reason, still to be determined, my blood pressure dropped quite low. I am 120/60 typically. They couldn’t verify why this was going on because the test that they needed to do were impeded by the fact that I am in a surgical sling and I’m not supposed to get out of it right now. So that was a fun day

Right now, I am home and resting. I just went out for the first time and fed my outside kitties. The gal who took this over before the surgery has just done a tremendous job. She was dressed the part two because every time I saw her, she was wearing rubber boots! I was grateful because my lawn hasn’t been mowed in quite some time. So Michelle, my hat is off to you for coming forward and helping me when I needed it so desperately.

The most amazing thing about this whole thing so far is the amount of people who are now in my village. People, I barely knew before this, along with the people that I have known for quite some time have stepped up and given me such a support team like I have never experienced before. My heart is just overfilled with gratitude. The women who are suffering with illnesses diseases, ailments much worse than what I’m dealing with now taking me to doctor visits and hospitals, and you name it. I tried to compensate and give them gas money when I can, but right now I am between paychecks and I might have $10 in my bank. But I have cat food and cat litter and that was the majority of my concern was running out of those. I have run out of kitty food, canned food, so the babies are on adult food now. They are thriving. My friend Gaye calls them her three stooges. She gets such a kick out of how much mischief they get into and how quickly they get into it.

my insurance has refused home healthcare as well as home therapy. Don’t ask me why but they have. I am doing everything I can to keep my house straight. My litter boxes scooped. Again thank you Michelle for showing up at such a great time yesterday morning when I was doing that for the first time. Before anybody gets upset with me and thinks I was out there picking up litter boxes and throwing the litter into the waist pan that’s not what was happening. I was cleaning the litter boxes, but it was taking me a very long time to do it. I was actually scooping the litter out with a plastic container

I was miss reading the signs in my arm after the surgery. To me it felt like the Novacaine was wearing off in my arm and that tingly feeling that you get after you’ve had a root canal or something like that when your gums come back alive was all I was feeling in my arm. I thought it was still the nerve block. We won’t talk about the nerve block that was an ordeal all in itself. But turns out that after Novacaine is entered into your body and it dissipates it turns into bile. In a normal person who has a gallbladder which I do not mind left in 1970, that bile gets into the gallbladder and never reaches the liver. So now my liver and my stomach are having a war every night, and I get to listen to them grumble at each other and try to decide what to do with this. Tremendous amount of bile that is now in my system.

The kittens are sequestered from me. They have the run of their new little patio which attaches to the screen door to the cat room. They have my office and the cat room and the patio during the day. At night, they are put back in the cat room and if it’s going to be a nice night, I’ll leave the door open so they can get into the patio as well

we have a mama raccoon with seven babies. We have a mama possum. She has 10. The other night I was awakened by a very strange noise outside so by the time I got to the door and opened it, I got to see four little balls of quills disappearing into the darkness! We have four porky babies! I did not see mom, but she had to be close because these are just tiny babies and they were so cute.

I have made individual goals for myself for example. My goal by the end of next week is to be able to hold a fork. Not use a fork just hold one so that I can wash it. I don’t know if many of you have ever tried to wash dishes, one-handed, but it is a challenge and I’m still trying to master it.

I took myself off the oxycodone over four days ago. It was adding to the nausea and I really am not in pain. I’m sure once this sling gets unattached from my body that will change. That will be on the 20th when I go for my first appointment to see the surgeon. For now I’m just in discomfort. Which I’m handling with ibuprofen and Tylenol.

Kota, bless his heart. He is so confused. He has to stay away from me and if he approaches me, he has to do it from my left side. And there are currently no good morning rubs and hugs or time in my lap that we used to share. If I start to pet him, he gets so overwhelmed. He just starts to press against me and I have to move him away with my voice. But he’s getting lots of love from the ladies who deliver Meals On Wheels, the mail lady. Anybody who visits me. He’s not lacking for that. He’s just lacking for his mom time. I miss it as wellStop it

I miss Mr. Bentley every day. I know that where he is he is no longer in pain. My biggest pain was that I couldn’t even bury him on my property. My friend Gabe, he came over with his waders on and took him across my Creek. Laid him down in the forest and gave him back to nature.

this morning, while I was outside feeding, I saw the strays that are coming in and my heart just broke. I know I am breaking every Rescue rule that I’ve ever made when it comes to stray cats. I have told people repeatedly over and over and over during those years that you don’t feed the strays because more will come. However, I do know that once I am back to where I can actually function on a semi-normal basis, I will be asking for my last donation of money for the spay and neuters. There is this beautiful she’s just or he’s just a kitten Maine coon and you can tell just by looking at this baby that he has had a hard life. If I was 100% myself, I would have all these cats already trapped and waiting for their spa dates that’s what I tell every cat that goes to be clipped on or spayed they’re having a spa day! In the meantime, I’m hoping that Emerson Lake and Palmer the marble mackerel, tabby kittens are all boys, the little Maine coon who I’m calling Clover because that’s where he likes to lie down or she likes to lie down in my pasture in the clover and the other new ones are all boys. I know of no intact female in my group at least. So if these guys are all boys, yay because first of all the money is going to be less, and there will not be any new kittens in this vicinity. There might be a lot of lively fights, but there won’t be any new kittens. Everybody cross your fingers for me.

I need to go, even doing the very little that I did this morning has left me out of breath. So I’m just going to sit in my chair and continue to try to make a fist with my right hand. Onward and upward.

they have now reversed my shoulder joint. Reshaped the other portion of it, and I have enough titanium in me right now. I would more than likely set off any alarm in any airport. Good thing I don’t like to travel!

Bentley.  2012-2025

Rest In Peace My Friend

Gibby and Cricket got spayed today.. I was told by the clinic that this was normal:

however, in all the years that I have had kittens get spayed I’ve never seen such bruising. This is cricket. To me it looks like she has ripped a stitch out. I have her confined separate from the other two. I will be up all night monitoring her looking for any type of active bleeding as well as checking her gums to make sure she isn’t bleeding out somewhere. I know they told me that this is normal but again it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it and it was a little bit offputting and concerning.

Flash was going absolutely nuts without her sister today. I spent as much time as I could with her,  I discovered that she likes to play fetch. If I crinkle up a small piece of notebook paper and flick it in her direction. She will run and grab it and then bring it back to me! She’s such a clown. But I could tell she was very lonely today. I had a full schedule of things to do. But most of them got put to the side because she is more important.

Many thanks to those of you who helped to make this possible. It’s so nice to know that they will never have to deal with the stress of having kittens. The girls at the clinic were talking about how much these kittens purr. They purr more than they do anything else, and their purrs are loud and very comforting.

This morning Flash was dropped off at the local Humane Society to be spayed. My friend  Haley got her there right at 8:00. At 3:00 p.m Flash was picked up by another one of my friends and brought back to me. I had made a difficult decision to go ahead and surrender these three remaining kittens to the  Humane Society next week. I wanted to surrender all three of the kittens at the same time and asked that they stay together in the same cage until they’re adopted out. They are currently so friendly and loving, I don’t suspect they’re going to be there very long. I will be monitoring their adoption online as that’s the only way I can do this right now.

Flash had to be a late spay. She was spiraling out of control the minute I let her out of the cage to check on her and see what her incision looked like. I also freed her from the dreadful plastic cone and replaced it with a Trimline collar which is made of fabric and therefore, not a scary thing for a young kitten to deal with.

We moved her cage into the bedroom and covered it with a dark blanket and left her just to try to decompress from what she had endured this morning. I know from past experiences that they keep the dogs and the cats in the same room. (When they are waiting for spays/neuters.) Although the room is quite large, the dogs are kept on one side, the cats on the other. But the barking of all those dogs can be very offputting to cats and especially to kittens. So that, plus all the scary pheromones along with the anesthesia, she was quite altered.

Normally Kota sleeps with me in the bedroom. Tonight, however I banished him out of the bedroom and went in there about 10 o’clock to sleep. Flash had been meowing incessantly.  I had gone in there a couple of times trying to quiet her down or calm her. But nothing worked. Even giving her a little bit of food and water at 8 PM did nothing to even ease her into sleep.

I laid in bed for about two hours, listening to her cry and she sounded so pathetic and so scared. I knew that if I opened the cage door and let her out she wouldn’t calm down. She would just become a whirling dervish in the room and that’s not going to help her at all.

Finally, I just started singing her some Negro spirituals I learned long ago. The one that calmed her down immediately is called. Let There Be Peace. (Pretty ironic when you think about it.) But it worked for her and after three rounds of the song, she has finally fallen asleep. It is almost 2 AM. I am now in the living room and probably going to sleep in my chair instead of the bedroom. I do not hear her crying anymore and I’m grateful that she is now at peace herself.

I am hoping once morning breaks that she will be back to herself,  so she can rejoin her sisters. I know they won’t recognize her because she won’t smell the same. Thankfully, I have still in my cupboard, pure vanilla extract (not the imitation.) I will be putting this on all the kittens before setting her down in the room. They will all have it on the tip of their noses and under their tails. That’s how cats greet each other. They sniff each other’s noses and they smell under the tail. If I don’t do this, there’s going to be a fight. I do not want any fighting, especially when one of my cats just got spayed.

If times were different, circumstances not so overwhelming. I would have loved to keep all five of the kittens. They are so unique and so special. But that’s not going to happen. I still have 14 rescues here. Also my two indoor kitties, Aspen and Addie have not adapted to these newcomers even though they’ve been here several months.there is a lot of charging the screen door that stands between them. A lot of growling and posturing from my resident kitties to these babies. All pointing to the fact that chances are pretty strong they will never get along. One of the reasons for that is, they’re all female. If these were male kitties, this wouldn’t be happening.

So this is my last rescued litter (Knocking furiously on wood as I say that). I pray the Humane Society stays true to their word of keeping all three girls together in the same cage until they get adopted. It would certainly lower their stress level and mine.

We are still under a flood watch and my creek is definitely flooding. It’s halfway up the footpath right now and the current is booking. It is so swift that even Kota understands the power of this current. He does not even try to venture to go down and drink out of the creek. He just stays with me at the top of the path. Such a smart dog. I think they call it animal instinct.

For what’s coming with me next, instead of asking one person to take care of not only me, but also my animals. It would just be too much. So I have asked several people to come in and take care of the outdoor kitties, another one will come in and take care of the indoor kitties. One lady is coming to only take care of Kota- and still another one will come in to pick up my mail periodically and bring it in the house, as well as take out my trash cans if they need to be taken to the curb. I thought that would be a lot easier than asking someone no matter how much they like me to do everything. I know because I do everything every day  and it’s a lot for me.

My biggest concern remains Bentley. I don’t think anybody can give him his pill. I am thinking about perhaps making very small meatballs, inserting a pill inside of each meatball and then freezing them in a ice cube tray. Have three taken out at one time to thaw out. Working it that way, but again. He’s very famous for spitting out his pill.

I’m just trying to cover all the bases. I don’t know how long I’m going to be immobile. My surgeon told me that he won’t know either until once he gets in there and sees what’s actually going on and does his best to put everything right. Good thing I don’t like to fly because he says I’m going to start setting off metal detectors in airports.

It’s hard to imagine having a shoulder joint that is reversed from how nature intended it work. But as I mentioned before, he has a 90% success rate with this surgery and he’s been doing this surgery for 20 years. Wish us all luck-

This morning I met with my orthopedic surgeon, the one that’s going to perform the surgery on my shoulder. Thankfully, it’s not as complicated as the PA made it out to be.

I will not have to deal with my claustrophobia by having an MRI. They are going to do a CAT scan so they can see the full structure of the damage to the shoulder more than they can on x-rays.

Unless there is a complication (according to him only 10% of these surgeries become complicated either during the surgery or afterward). So those are pretty good odds. This is an outpatient procedure and I will be home within 10 hours after the two hour surgery. That relieves a lot of stress on me as to what to do with the cats, the dog, what to do with the kittens, etc…

I will be in a sling for eight weeks. It is a removable sling, but they will not allow me to remove it until two weeks after the surgery. I will not be able to lie flat-for at least a month because that increases the swelling on the shoulder. There will be a lot of swelling and a lot of bruising. I won’t be able to start physical therapy until two months after the surgery. So there’s going to be a lot of variables to work around, but I feel so much better knowing that I won’t be in the hospital for one to eight days. I don’t need to give blood. They will do blood work before the surgery, but that’s no biggie, They are doing plenty of that right now anyway.

Speaking of kittens, it’s time to spay them. They are now five months old.Unfortunately, due to the fact that I still can’t drive, my shoulder is still frozen. I’m taking them to my vet. It’s going to be fairly costly. My donation button on this blog is dead. That’s how I have it until I can figure out how to remove it. If you feel in your heart that you want to help with the cost of the spays-You can donate through PayPal. You can email me to find out how:

Mary AnneM@ladydawg.net This is the only email you can reach me at from here on in.

Please stay safe and loved-

Kitties are now four pounds and total purr monsters! They are slated to be spayed next week. Winnie threw all females. Soffit has been renamed by her new family as Sylvie- Mudbug is now known as Bug. They are thriving in their new home. As previously arranged by me- the two kittens will be returned to me the day before the spays. This will guarantee that there will not be any kittens in these two sweethearts futures.

Gibby is no longer biting hands and fingers. Cricket is slowly coming out of her shell. They are amazingly loving kitties now. I am really hoping that I can place the other three before I go in the hospital next month.
Crossing my fingers that I find loving families for these three beauties.

The kittens are doing splendidly. We just had a weigh-in. They are now 2 ounces plus. I have started to introduce them to Kota. Most people already own dogs, so if I can get these kitties used to a dog at least it might make them a little more adoptable.

MudBug loves to pounce on Kota’s tail when he’s wagging it-which is all the time he’s in the room because he loves the babies. I trained him long ago. I knew he was going to have a lot of babies in his future. She hangs on for dear life and it’s so funny. She looks like she’s surfing the wave.

Flash just likes to box his ears. After all, they are giant ears, and they flop, she likes floppy ears. The others are gradually getting used to him being in the room. I only do it for a few minutes at a time. Once they get used to him being in there I will ask him to just jump on the couch and lay down and see what happens if the kitties come up to see him.

I have a confession to make, I am falling in love with MudBug. I have started using the kitty couch as an opportunity to elevate my legs like the doctors want me to. She seems to understand where the pain is in my shoulder and she will lay right on the sore part. She won’t fidget or run amuck like the other ones are doing on my chest. They make me feel like I’m doing kitty yoga. I know they do that with goats, so why not with kitties?

MudBug has also discovered a new game. When I am scooping out litter pans, she is sitting in the middle of the pan watching me carefully. (I have to do everything with my left hand now as my right side is now completely immobile) and will continue to be so until the surgery in March. So it’s difficult, but it’s do-able. She’s decided to test me, Right when I get to the point where I’m shaking out all the litter to keep to keep the solids in the scoop, when I lift it up, she takes her paw and she twangs the scoop! Poop goes flying. (I learned how to duck very quickly.) It’s hysterical. I know not a good trait to have when you’re trying to find her a home but honestly, I think for her she is home.

Speaking of homes, the two homes for the other two kittens have fallen short. However, this morning, when I was getting blessed out of my socks. A friend had taken me into town, when I went into the beauty shop to say hi to the girls-walking through the door, Sabine said: “Speak of the devil we were just talking about you, Mary Anne.”

I told her I hoped it was a good talk. She pointed to the woman who she was cutting her hair and said this woman wants two of your kittens! I was brought up short, and then she added: “Oh, and by the way, she’s a Veterinarian!” I was thrilled. The two kittens that she is interested in are Soffit and Flame! She said that she will call me later and talk to me about it. I am just so relieved to know that they are going to a good home. I know this vet from a friend. I hear she’s very good. I know that she will make these kittens, a wonderful home.

I am following all of the doctors orders. I am doing range of motion exercises daily. Some of them I can’t accomplish on my right side, but I keep trying. Because I can’t drive my car right now, I am walking to the creek and back daily. The doctor wants me to simultaneously do as many trips to the creek and back as I can. So far all I’ve managed is three. Kota is  always with me, while his buddy Mama  trails behind. Behind Mama her six kittens follow. I am sure my neighbors think it’s a very strange parade they’re watching. I really want to do it four times in a row, however, my legs punk out on me. Apparently, during the last car incident, the doctors believe that I must’ve jammed my feet underneath either the brake pedal or the accelerator. I don’t know I can’t remember. For the life of me, I’ve tried but It all comes up a blank.

I found someone who will stay here for the time I’m in the hospital. She is a good friend of mine. She used to be a vet tech, and she’s watched my cats before in the past so that takes a lot of stress off of me. It also means that I don’t have to board Kota. I am sure he will miss me, but he will miss me less when he’s home then when he’s at the vets being boarded or being at a boarding facility. The only thing that won’t happen is Bentley will not get his pill until I get home and I’m mobile again. I talked with the vet who said that although it’s not ideal. It will just mean that Bentley will go hyperactive again because his metabolism will be out of whack.

I was told that immediately after my surgery, there will be four physical therapist at my bedside and I will go straight into physical therapy. Depending on how I do with them will depend on how long I stay in the hospital. I saw my husband be very noncompliant in the end, especially with the physical therapists that were visiting at our home. He would tell all of us that he was doing all the exercises, but I knew he wasn’t because I never saw him do any of them even the easy ones. They knew just by watching him go through their maneuvers while they were there that he was not doing anything to strengthen himself or give him more stamina. By that time he had given up.

I wanted to also thank the two people who recently sent me a donation through this website. However, I just sent my final closing forms in for my nonprofit. So I have refused the donations and refunded them. I do appreciate all the support that all of you have done for me over the years. It really means more than I can say. I am sad to put this behind me. It almost feels like part of me is missing. But it’s unfair to the cats because I can no longer do the work. Even simple things like scooping a litter pan becomes a problem. I’m learning to do it with my left hand though while watching out for MudBug and the flying poop! LOL

Don’t you dare think about it. You stay put!

This meeting will now come to order.

?

Just remember-I am the sheriff around here!

I was told to watch out for you. I take my orders, seriously!

Don’t you try to escape!

You need to stay here because we love you!

This team is on the case. Someone is always watching me!

Had quite the scare day before yesterday. Because of that I went to see my orthopedic surgeon. I called them after the incident and although they were fully booked, they got me in quickly.

I want to thank James for that steady voice on the phone that grounded me. I value the friendship that we’ve formed through this blog. Helping me get through the scare of the moment, helped me to face reality.

I am concerned about what I’m going to do with my kittens, my cats and Kota. He was in the truck when the incident happened. So he was in the truck both times. Once when my brakes failed. And again when my body failed. He is altered, but not painful or hurt. Now, every time he sees me, he tries to jump up on me. (He has never jumped up on me not even when he was a puppy). In the mornings when he follows me out of the bedroom, he will start to talk to me. It’s almost like he’s trying to comfort me. I can’t explain it. I know we are connected in ways that puzzle some people. We’ve been through alot together.

Now, my next visit will be March 6. On this visit, they will explain the procedure and everything surrounding it. The rest as they said is up to me. I intend to follow all their instructions to the letter. There are too many valuable beings who depend on me, not planning on letting them down anytime soon.

Hospital stay can be up to up to five days. Directly after surgery there will be physical therapists working with me. Watch me to go home the second day!

My faith in God grew stronger in that parking lot.I saw Him move many times in order to keep all parties safe. Glory to God-