Poor Loki

We had to bring Loki to the vet this morning to get a steroid shot. The poor guy is suffering from some really bad allergy attacks. His eyes are all puffed up and he's scratching his ears and neck up pretty badly. We're used to seeing this in the spring but not so much in the fall. We think that because of the flooding there might be extra mold floating around in the house aggravating his allergies. I just feel so sorry for him because he looks so miserable. I'm just hoping that the shot works for him this time around. We've thought about taking him to an allergist but the nearest one is over an hour away and he does not travel well. Just going to the vet, which is only five minutes away, causes him to drool quite a bit and that is usually paired with peeing or pooping or both. Though if these symptoms keep up I think we'll have to bring him to an allergist. I just hate seeing him suffer so.

As for the living room, we had FEMA come in to assess the damage and we ended up getting a small part covered. It was only 1/3 of the cost of the actual cleanup but that was better than nothing. I have to give kudos to FEMA. They had assessed us and paid out within a week of applying. I never expected the federal government to work so quickly.

Another Update

The Mommy finally gots to talk to the insurance people yesterday and they are being big poopie heads. It seems that we don't have flood insurance so they won't cover the damage from the flooding. This means that Mommy and Daddy will have to pay for everything out of pocket which is going to be kind of rough for us 'cause Mommy is only working part-time now. Mommy did apply to FEMA for assistance so she hopes that they'll get some money from them to help cover some of the repairs.

Mommy is kind of looking at this as a blessing in disguise. She has wanted to redo the living room floor for a while now as the carpet was really cheap and ugly. Now she wants to redo it with something more durable. Daddy wants more carpeting but Mommy's afraid of another flood that would ruin that again. Instead she wants tile floors 'cause they are durable enough for us kitties. However, tile is really expensive. I personally love the carpet 'cause I can use it like a scratching post but I don't think that argument is going to sway her over. What do you guys think? Tile or carpet?

Omelet Goodness

Chloe: So the Mommy was eating an omelet this morning. You see, I LOVE human food and I always try to steal it from her. Daddy is harder to steal from but Mommy is SO easy. She always lets me sit on her desk when she's eating so all I have to do is wait until she turns around for a sec and then BAM! Food is mine. I love watching her to try and get all mad at me and all huffy and stuff but she's too slow to catch me. I just run away with the food in my mouth MOL'ing all along the way.

Mommy: I want to thank you all for the well-wishes and sympathy. It was hard losing all of that stuff but that's just it. It's stuff. We were a lot better off than some of the others in our community. One inch of water can be very destructive but eight feet of it is a lot worse. Our living room is still in a shambles but at least the carpet has been taken out and the walls have dried. And as for the books? Well, I've been meaning to convert them all over to e-book format and now is as good a time as any. I'm just thankful that we all are OK.

An Update

Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Russ worked really hard this weekend to get out all of the boxes from the living room. As I mentioned in my last post, Mommy was really sad that she lost so many books but when she went through them all she cried. She didn't realize just how many books were destroyed and that gave her the major sads. We tried to comfort her but we weren't allowed outside while they were sorting through all of the boxes. They had to throw away about twenty good size boxes of books that were water damaged plus a whole bunch of other stuff.

Then yesterday, the ServPro people came. They are specialists in removing water damaged stuff. Mommy and Daddy were a bit miffed 'cause nobody told them when they were coming and had woken them up. The ServPro people were nice though. They gave us lots of pets and weren't scared of us. Then they went on to remove the carpeting and padding and stuff. Mommy didn't get the sads about this 'cause she has been wanting to replace the carpeting for a while now. The whole process took about three hours and the men left a bunch of fans and a really big dehumidifier behind to finish up the drying process. One of the guys sprayed down this nasty smelling fungicide that is really bothering Mommy. She jokes that she needs to put some Ben Gay--whoever that is--under her nose to help get rid of the smell.

We're really not sure what to make of all of this. The fans are kind of scary but what's even more scary is that our downstairs stinky pans are gone. Mommy sad that she had to throw them out 'cause the water might have contaminated them. This means all of us have to share ONE litter pan. This is why I said it was scary. Mommy's good at cleaning it out and all but what happens if two of us need to poop at the same time? I don't want to poop on Tao by accident (like I almost did last night). Mommy says that she'll get another litter pan tonight and put that in the downstairs bathroom. I hope she does. I'd really not like to see a poop-covered Tao if I can help it.

I'll leave this off with a funny. Bailey (the big fat Maine Coon) sat on Mommy's little USB receiver for her wireless keyboard and mouse and BROKE it. MOL! That girl seriously needs to lose some weight. And they make fun of me for being fat.

Flooding is Bad

We thought we were lucky to have no real damage after Hurricane Irene went through but with all the rain we've been having Mother Nature finally decided to pay us a visit. Our entire lower level where the living room is located is now under an inch of water. Mommy discovered it when she went down there to clean the stinky pans and her feet went squish. This is not a Good Thing as not only are our stinky pans down there but there are lots of boxes with Mommy and Daddy's books in them. They are now all ruined. :(

Mommy did call up the 'surance company to make sure we had coverage and called up some people to get the water out. She warned us that there will be lots of men with very loud machines in the house in the next couple of days to get rid of all of the water. We're also going to lose the nice soft carpeting that was down as well as all the boxes that were fun to play on. This is a sad day. At least we're all OK which is all that matters but Mommy is still has sads about the books.

Happy Labor Day!

Da Mommy and da Daddy are busy today cleaning the house. The weather is too yucky outside to do something more along the lines of a BBQ or going to the pool. While the Mommy was cleaning, she found a DVD labeled "fuzzy photos" and guess what? There were lots of old fuzzy pictures on them. She found one of me and Loki from when we were kittens. We were about a year old in this picture and we were already showing signs of how big we were going to get. Well, at least Loki. I'm still about the same size I was when I was that age. Loki, though, became a moose. I still have the poof around my neck too.

Why Won't They Leave Me Alone?

Mommy sometimes thinks I would have been better off as an only cat. You see, I don't get along well with most of the other kitties. It's not my fault though. The boys, like Monkee and Nermle, are constantly chasing me around and trying to bite me in the butt. Of course I'm going to screech and yowl whenever they come near me 'cause I know what they are going to do. At first Daddy used to yell at me then he realized what a pain in the tushie the boys were being. Now he threatens to lock Monkee up in the bathroom whenever he starts up trouble. Trust me that's a big deal 'cause Monkee hates being locked up in there (yes, he gets in trouble lots). At least Mommy knows I'm a good kitty and she treats me really special. I like to sit on her desk all day long so I can get pets and belly rubs.

Formerly Feral Friday

Here is Chloe just chilling out on the TV stand above the air conditioner. It's one of her favorite spots as it's in my office which means it's near me. She is definitely a momma's girl.

Update on Phoebe

As many of you asked, here's what happened at the V-E-T last night: I got lots of treats! They were nummy too. The nice assistant said that when humans give blood they get cookies and OJ so why shouldn't I get treats?

Wait...what? Oh besides the treats? I got poked and prodded and Dr. Country Bob took out some blood. He was rather baffled by what happened to me in Cape Cod but he has a good theory as to why things happened. Before we went up to the Cape, I had a couple of cortisone shots. I had been having bad poopies and vomits and Dr. Country Bob thought I had something called Irritable Bowel Syndrome, hence the shots. However, now he thinks that I might have had some kind of infection in my system because for a long time I had a high white cell count. Everybody thought it was just a chronic infection but now Dr. Country Bob thinks it might be along the lines of toxoplasmosis or some other type of infection that messes with my immune system. When he gave me the steroid shots that just lowered my immune system even farther and screwed me up. This may be why I had a seizure and then lost my motor control 'cause they both corresponded with the shots. For this he's going to keep me on clindamycin for thirty days, which is the standard treatment for toxoplasmosis.

There was another thing Dr. Country Bob was worried about: my red blood cell count. It was down to 14% (normal is above 29%) when I was up at the Cape. The V-E-T up there mentioned a blood transfusion but didn't push that issue. Dr. Country Bob took more blood and I was up to 24%. He is going to check me again in two weeks. He thinks that what ever caused the other problems also caused the red blood cell count to go down.

And just an FYI, I don't blame Dr. Country Bob for any of this. He couldn't have known I had an underlying problem. Toxoplasmosis wasn't even considered an option 'cause I never went outside and never ate raw meat. None of the other cats in the household have either. Also, I am doing considerably better than I was last week. Hopefully my good progress will continue.