A few days ago we had an unexpected frost. I believe that Fall is going to be a short one this year and Winter is planning to hit hard. My outside cats are at a bit of a disadvantage. Before they did the build, I had electricity to several outbuildings which were turned into cat enclosures. That unfortunately is no longer true. So I have piled on the straw inside these buildings and made them as weatherproof as I possibly can while still leaving access to the cats to get out 24/7 if they need to. Misty, although she does still appear to look quite scraggly, she has more energy and is eating better.

This year my vet debt is such that I will not be able to pay it in full at the end of the year which makes me sad. This will be the first time in over 30 years that this will happen but times are hard and Covid has not helped things. I will just take it a day at a time

I am also going to be mixing dry food with canned food through the winter. Just to stretch the food out longer and hopefully get the cats through the coldest stretches without issues. Buying canned food locally is becoming a bit of a challenge. They tell me there’s an aluminum cans shortage which I’m not sure I buy, I think more it’s just a supply and demand problem. I know I have washed out and recycled over 1 million cans during my time in rescue.

I had to take Magoo into the vet last week. His eyes were looking really strange. It didn’t look like conjunctivitis, he didn’t have a cold, he just had these severely swollen eyes rimmed in red. His eyes were so swollen that they were slanted when you looked at him. The vet was really puzzled and tried him on several different eye ointments  which made him worse  Finally I decided to just stop putting the ointment in his eyes and instead put warm compresses on his eyes as tolerated. It must’ve felt pretty good for him because he would lean into it and sit there for at least 10 minutes or until the wash cloth got cold.

his eyes are doing much better and yesterday I believe I solved the mystery of what was wrong with him. He and Ashley have been sleeping together recently. Something that they haven’t done since being returned. As kittens they were virtually inseparable. Ashley has been licking his face in an obsessive manner. She did that when they were kittens and they were always together. But she was honing in on his ear. She would lick it until it bled. Now she’s doing the same thing to him with his face and his eyes

I believe he’s had enough because now he sleeps in the dog kennel and she sleeps on top. I try to split them apart every time I see them together. Yet they still don’t groom on their own  Ashley just sometimes gets this obsessive licking PTSD behavior. I’m just glad I figured it out because we didn’t know what was going on.

I am relieved to say that after more testing they have ruled out Cushing’s on Kota  There are now two lanes of thought for him  Because of his passion for water. (He is always jumping into rivers, lakes, streams you name it he’s in it if there’s water involved). They believe that he must’ve picked up some sort of foreign organism in the water  I was given a broad-spectrum pretty intensive de-wormer to give him for three days  they also gave him a shot to help alleviate the hair loss and the itching. Unlike prednisone this medication had no side effects. It was prohibitively expensive but it had no side effects.

The other theory behind his ill health is that because he is such a mixture of breeds and not just pure shepherd that he is inheriting something genetically from one of those breeds. He is Siberian husky, boxer, black lab, Dutch shepherd and German Shepherd according to the AKC in Portland when I sent his DNA in.

When I’m talking about the vet debt, I am not talking about his treatment. I’m talking about the cats. It’s been a hard year because of the burn kitties and all their issues, the loss of my seniors and other health care  What is going on with Kota is on me  The vets tell me that if this current treatment does not work they want me to take him to see a specialist. The only problem is she’s booked until mid January. So I’m hoping that what we are doing now. New medication’s, adding supplements, vitamins and another change in diet will turn the tide  I am so relieved and grateful that it is not Cushing’s as first feared

well the day is waking up. We are supposed to have two weeks of solid rain starting tomorrow. Boy do we need it. I need to go out and harvest the walnut tree before the rains hit. We have been without rain for so long that the walnuts are not good this year. Most of them have turned black and mushy because of the vinegar fly invasion. So I want to rake them up and put them in the burn pile before the squirrels come  they can get really sick on spoiled walnuts. For some reason they don’t have the instinct to not eat these mushy black walnuts. I have a friend coming in a few days and he’s going to take my walnut tree completely back. He’s going to take all the firewood and all the salvageable walnuts in payment for the job. I’m good with that because this tree is probably 100 feet across now and taking over my backyard.

Those of you who might still be reading this blog that I am not that consistent with these days. Thank you for still visiting. I worry about those I no longer hear from  I almost wish I could do a roll call to see who is out there. But I imagine most everybody is now on social media platforms and it is my personal preference to stay off of those. I have my reasons. At any rate stay safe, love each other and give your furry ones a hug. When you can spare a prayer, throw it my way  We can always use them.