I wish I could tell you  guys for sure when the surgery will be performed, but his leg has been really bad the last few days and when we got to the hospital and they unwrapped it- well, it wasn’t pretty. They are fearing a blood infection (but they have said this countless times before and it never turns out to actually be a blood infection- just some other type). The doctor did say that IF it was a blood infection and it got into the bone they would have to take the leg at the hip. If this again turns out not to be the case, they are looking at mid calf but really won’t know until they get in there and assess the damage. They initially had him set up to do surgery on Thursday, but one look and sniff at the bad leg turned those plans sour.

They said they will give me a day’s notice. I will be up there two days post-op and then will have to come home again. Surgery will either be Friday-Saturday or Monday. I would love to get up there more during his stay, but it just isn’t financially possible or feasible to do so. Everything hinges on his leg and how the leg responds to treatment. If they take the leg in a swollen state (which they would never do) it wouldn’t go well for the surgeons or the patient.  They have to let the leg rest, lose the swelling the redness and in the meantime they are doing tests to find out what is infected at this time. They triple bagged his therapy boot because of the stench and even though this came home in the trunk of my car, my whole car reeks now. I left the windows down hoping a feral cat might go in and spray and make it smell better! 🙂

So I really can’t tell you guys any more than this. He is pretty tired right now and I just talked to him. He was waiting for them to come in and wrap his leg so he can eat his dinner and go to sleep. He has his computer with him, his new MahJong game he got for Christmas and some books. I think he will be in longer than the “expected” 6 days- but we will just see how it goes.

I don’t know what is going to happen from here. All I can do is pray that God’s hands will guide theirs and He will in charge of the whole production. I’ll be in touch when I know more.

Love you guys- thanks for any prayer support you can manage for him-

He will go to the hospital tomorrow morning to be admitted. They will do a 3-4 day prep on his leg to reduce the swelling, improve circulation and get the skin in good shape so they can amputate it. After that, there will be no telling what is going to happen so please keep us in your prayers. I am dropping B-Dog off at a friend’s house for the duration and George and Haley will be helping me out with the kitties. I tried calling the animal shelter today to see how our five kittens were getting along, but they are closed on Monday. I hope they have made the adjustment to cage living by now. I still need to cover the spays and neuters by the end of this month, but right now, I can’t seem to get my mind wrapped around to much. There is to much distraction in my head at the moment.  I will say his foot is swollen more than ever before and there is a second ulcer starting near the first one. So it is high time we act and get rid of this darn leg.

My now 8 month old black kitten is now hiding under and OSU Professor’s bed in her home in Eugene. Thankfully, Jessica understands that kitties get PTSD and that they hide and can hide for long periods of time. Chaunce has been adopted out twice before but both times, the people could not just LET HER BE! They had to “find” out where the kitty was hiding, pull kitty out of hiding and oh, well, let’s just sit her on our lap while we are at it. Sigh.  I think Jessica gets it- I guess time will tell. Chauncey slid right under her bed so I left my old nightshirt there for her to snuggle with while she gets used to her new “mom.’ Jessica was so nice, and so excited to have Chauncey in her life, even though right now, that life might be under the bed for awhile.

No word from the doctor yet about when Mike goes in. Will keep you apprised as I can.

Just got off the phone with one of the local shelters and they will take (without charging) 5 of the kittens in the bedroom from me! I am relieved and sad at this news because my kittens aren’t used to being in cages. They will spay and neuter the kittens boys are $20.00 and girls are $40.00 (this is the same place that the clinic I talked to previously uses for their spays/neuters but the prices went up for the New Years.) So now I am going to select 5 kittens to take over to them and pray they get great homes and won’t be in cages for very long.  I will have to pay for the spays/neuters but hopefully by the end of the month the money will be raised to do this. They will also call me if they are adopted out so I can bring in more.

Still don’t really have my legs under me. George has been a blessing helping out around here. Alaska came back yesterday to my surprise. Apparently, they didn’t listen to me about keeping her away from their over-active boxer puppy and it was to much for her. She started to poop and pee on down covers in the basement and the woman was not happy. Rather than work with me to solve the issue, she just caved and told me to come and get Alaska.

I don’t currently have the time to put into Alaska to get her re-adjusted to the kitties here, so I called the woman who adopted Jordan. She agreed to take Alaska and foster her which was a big relief. Jordan is apparently only a night kitty. She comes out right at dusk and hugs Barb’s side, sleeps with her, head bumps her loves on her- come morning, she vanishes into the kitchen cupboard where she has been staying since I dropped her off. Bless, Barb even though she couldn’t deal with Darby, she hasn’t given up on Jordan and she told me yesterday, she won’t! So now Alaska has a shot at a loving home provided she can accept the two dogs over there in good time.

I put an ad on CL asking for small cat carriers to be donated. The kittens need to be spayed and I don’t have enough carriers here to do the job. I attached photos of the kittens to back-up my claim of not having enough carriers and wouldn’t you know it? Everyone is calling and emailing me wanting the kittens! I’m glad, but they aren’t ready to go.

We’ve got 14 boys and 8 girls to neuter before they can hit the door. The one clinic will do these for $626.00 whereas my regular vet quoted me $1,500.00. But currently the kitty is tapped due to Penny’s treatment and Sully’s mouth procedure. I do still owe my vet a chunk of change as well. So I just need to start raising the money- while dealing with Mike and his upcoming hospital visit.  But I will NOT allow anyone to take a kitten from here that has not been spayed. I know from past experiences that people don’t follow through on those types of promises.

I had this one call yesterday that made me go Hmm here is the gist of it-

“Hello”

“Hello do you sell cats?”

“No, I rescue cats.”

“Oh I want to buy your calicos!”

“My calicos are not for sale, they will be up for adoption soon. I do not sell cats, I am not a breeder, I am a rescuer.”

“You might not have heard me. I WANT to buy your calicos!”

“I heard you. My calicos are not for sale. If you want to adopt them, then just give me an email address, I will send you an application form, you fill it out and send it back, and I will be in touch.”

Click……line went dead.

I know that some people buy cats and steal them as well for research. Sometimes the researchers only want certain types of cats,   So my red flags were up. These calicos are adorable and I have no qualms about them finding loving homes. But this woman was so insistent, it was unnerving to me. She has not called back.

London and Paris say “Thank you Mom for protecting us!”

At the start of 2015 there will be a major change here in our home. Mike went to the doctor’s yesterday for his routine vascular visit and he pulled in all the key doctors he could for this visit. He wanted to know if his leg was really worth saving?

The bottom line is, the leg is toast. It hasn’t been serving him well for over three years now. I stayed home (wasn’t well enough to travel) but I was grateful for the excuse because I wanted HIM to make the decision and not have someone blame me later for forcing him to decide. They ran a bunch of tests on him and some were severe. His leg is red-hot right now and so swollen. He is resting with it elevated and I just gave him some pain pills.

If the results of these tests come out favorable, then come next Tuesday, Mike will be in the hospital awaiting amputation. They will do a three day prep before the surgery where they will try and get the leg as healthy as possible before the procedure, because face it, with his weight, age diabetes and medical history he is a poor surgical risk. They said to his advantage his mental outlook is bright. He is not depressed about this decision that he had such a long time to make. I think he is a bit excited about becoming a bit “bionic.” Personally, I would have cut my leg off myself a long time ago had it been me in his shoes! But he had to come to the realization that this leg was sucking the very life out of him. I am planning a bon voyage party for the dang thing!

He is “only” supposed to be in the hospital for 6 days, but I know better. He just doesn;t heal- but we shall take this a day at a time. Last night, I wrote a difficult email to his four kids all grown-up and into their own lives. But I wanted to let them know what is coming down the pike for their father.

Please do not contribute snake oil solutions for this problem. We shared this at church and have been flooded with people telling us silver collidial water will cure diabetes, or the peanut butter diet will work. They did pray over us- but as I told them afterward, if God wanted to heal him, He had plenty of time to do so in the three plus years we have been praying for that very thing. For some reason this is happening and it is not up to us to question why it is happening. We just need to take it day-to-day and hope for a brighter tomorrow-

Happy Mew Year Everyone- stay healthy and remember to always hug those you love-