I took on a last minute cat sitting job twelve days ago. The owners are clients where I work and one of their cats was diagnosed with diabetes three days before they were headed to Hawaii. I agreed to make twice daily visits to their house to give insulin injections since the house sitter was not comfortable medicating the cat. It has been a big time commitment and extra driving, but I am happy to report that the kitty is doing very well on his insulin injections.

I will make $520 gross. I haven't looked at my gas expenses yet. Their house is 19 miles one-way from my house, but only 2 miles from my office.
I'm so glad the gas prices have come down recently!

On Thursday I cashed in $25.54 points for account credit on a Chase account.

And $125 worth of account credit to a Wells Fargo account.

Next, I need to gift card shop ($600+) with my Southwest points. I don't think there is a cash option there.. I didn't see one.

ETA: Thank You everyone for the kind comments!





She passed over The Rainbow Bridge early this morning.

She was with us for 14 years and 4 months and she used to sleep with me almost every night.
She was tough and spunky and she will be missed.

This past weekend I did a trial run sitting a client's dog. They dropped her off at my house on Saturday and I brought her home to them Monday morning before work.

Everything went very well. My family loved their little dog. The dog parents were thrilled that everything went well. They are planning a big vacation in a few months and were anxious about where their dog would be staying. Now they are so happy knowing she will be at my house.

I collected a check Monday morning when I dropped her off. $70.

Then during lunch I visited my usual cat client and collected $80.

$150 *extra* for the week!

I have decided to dig my heels in and I just applied the $60 cash to the cc I have special focus on.
I let snowflakes "melt" into our checking account way too often.

Feeling much more collected today.
And absolutely confident that I will not have lunch out or a family meal out for the rest of the month. I will need to go to the store for bananas and dinner fixings for next Saturday, but other than that we have a ton of food.

A friend and her family are taking a weeklong trip to visit family. She was going to board their little dog at a local kennel. I told her I would watch her dog at my house for half the cost of the kennel. She was thrilled.

It is a Win/Win/Win. I'll make $150. She'll save $150. Pup will have totally tailored attention.

Speaking of horses.. got notice that our boarding rate is increasing by $10/month to $170/month. Operating costs going up for the ranch owner -especially the cost of hay. I figure the drought is only going to make that worse.

April is also vet visit month for our horse. Likely $100 for that.

** Just re-posting what I could remember of my last post before the site crashed over the weekend.**

Good rainy weather here! Yay!
Really has made everything green and blooming.

This is our Tulip Tree in the backyard.



The hens enjoy strolling around on the grass.




DD's bees are more active on the sunny days. You can see the pollen packed on some of their legs when they fly back to the hive.


Spent last weekend visiting with our nephew we haven't seen in years. My SIL's oldest child. We took him to San Francisco for the day. Beautiful, sunny weather. Great for walking around.
Spendy day though.. $95 for dinner, $50 in parking, $23 for ice cream at Ghirardelli...


Enjoying getting back to a low/ no spend weekend.
Raining some more this weekend so I'm just getting cozy with a good book.

Well that was fast!

It's the kind of thing where you don't know if it will sell in a week or take months. This type of trailer, in good condition like ours, is in pretty high demand, so I had a positive feeling about it selling eventually. When I posted it I was thinking, "I hope the right person will see this right away."
Turns out that's what happened.

The buyer offered $4400 cash, which I accepted.

The ranch owner, B, took care of the transaction for us since we live 3+ hours away.
She set up the time to meet the buyer.
She also had to cart air to where the trailer was parked in order to fill the tires enough to tow it out. Turns out one of the tires had a leak, so B's husband changed the tire using the spare on the trailer.

B also checked all the cash bills with her counterfeit marking pen and wrote a very detailed bill of sale.
(I told her I picked the right person for the job - she was more thorough than I would have been. )

I had told B previously that we would give her $100 for her help selling the trailer. Given the extra effort B and her hubby had to put in (changing the tire especially!) my DH feels we should pay them a little more and I don't disagree. She is thrilled with getting *just* the $100.

Would you pay any extra? What do you think is fair?

DS seemed to be feeling fine and then he spiked a fever while he was down for a nap Sunday.

This is very scary for us because last year he had a seizure when his fever spiked.

It seems likely that he might have had a fever seizure while in his room for nap. I didn't see it, but he seemed "off" when I came in to see why he was crying. DH and I cooled him with a washcloth and dosed him up with meds and he was better.

He is doing okay now. Has a low grade fever (still giving Advil/Tylenol), little runny nose and a cough.

Monday I stayed home in the morning and DH came home early so I worked in the afternoon.

Today I stayed home.

Then our daycare lady, GB, called me and she won't be able to watch him tomorrow because she is sick.
She sounded terrible.

So now I'm taking tomorrow off from work. It is fine - extra fine actually because it is slow at work.

I will take Wednesday as a paid sick day; otherwise my paycheck is going to look pretty sad.

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In other news:
I had a call on our horse trailer this morning.
She is headed out to the ranch now to see it. Sounds like a sure thing.. still keep your fingers crossed though..

Just finished posting our horse trailer for sale on CL.
It is a very nice trailer and part of me wants to keep it. We looked long and hard to find it and get a good deal. We made a family road trip to pick it up in Oregon - so I suppose I have a bit of emotional attachment.

The logical part of me says that is silly!
It is a depreciating asset.
It has just been sitting for several years where we board our horse. It doesn't cost us anything to keep, but there isn't any benefit either.

Logic wins again.

I listed it for $4800 in order to negotiate a sales price of no less than $4000. (Roof money for us.)
I have offered the ranch owner $100 after it sells as compensation for her time to show it to potential buyers.

What I am hoping for is that people getting their tax refunds will be a position to make a large purchase like this.

Cross your fingers for us.

We are so dry here in California this winter. It is so bad - we had one day of rain in December and the news keeps showing how the reservoirs are at their lowest point in like ever?!

Not much snow pack up in the mountains either.

So, while nearly the entire country is in full-blown, hard hitting winter we keep seeing the sun. We have been below freezing overnight, but into the 60s during the day - drastic temp changes.

This is the type of weather/time of year that makes for nice beach days. Sunday morning we drove out for some play time with friends. You might remember that we bought a county park pass in September, so there wasn't any fee. It is 28 miles from our house and a very enjoyable drive. I figure it costs us under $10 for gas. We pack food from home so we aren't too tempted to go to one of the several seafood restaurants along the coast.

This is the sandcastle the kids were working on.. they tore it down before they finished it.





Here is Cleo!




Hope all our SA friends are keeping warm and safe out there in the *Artic Vortex*.
If you head this way bring some of your snow with you!

We have been enjoying a mild October so far.
It has been cold at night - mid 30s to low 40s, but the days have been sunny and warm. It is 75F right now.

This might be the last mild weekend for awhile so the kids and I headed out to the beach. Once again I was feeling pretty lucky we live so close to the Pacific Ocean. It takes us about 35 minutes to drive out and the road is a nice trip. Pastoral - cows, sheep, horses.

On our last trip we purchased a twelve month county park pass, so the only cost today was a bit of fuel for the Pathfinder.


Cleo at the beach this morning.
She is a big girl now!

When it comes to Flea Control for your pets.

I think we could all come up with many other things that you should not skimp on, but this is forefront in my mind right now.

If you don't know, haven't read my info or my blog before let me say I am a veterinary nurse (RVT) and I work in a single doctor practice. (I have really interesting cases sometimes and I really should blog more about work, but that is for another time.)

Yesterday we had two separate clients bring in their elderly cats. One cat was an indoor only cat and the other was indoor with access to the outside. Both cats were being seen because they haven't been doing so well.

They were both COVERED in fleas.
Crawling all over these poor, old cats were nasty, bloodsucking fleas.

In my opinion impossible to miss. You could part the hair and see the fleas walking around. The cats' fur full of "flea dirt" - flea poop looks like specks of dirt.

Most young cats can groom off almost all their fleas. Not that they should have to do that, use flea preventatives and they are so much better for it. Many people will say they don't see fleas and that is a big reason why. But, an old cat (or dog) don't groom themselves as well as when they were younger and can get overwhelmed with fleas. Fleas suck blood and with a ton of fleas feeding on a pet it can cause anemia among other things.

The owner of the indoor/outdoor cat has been "using some drops she picked up *somewhere*".
She seemed surprised that they weren't working. (Really?! Do you ever pet or look at your cat?)
Her old kitty was very dehydrated and anemic. Not to mention how miserably uncomfortable I can only imagine she was.

The indoor only cat: "Shouldn't have fleas! She is an indoor cat!"
The cat was seriously covered with fleas. It doesn't matter to the flea where the cat lives.
Actually, inside is even better for the flea - nice temperature controlled environment.
Unfortunately, that kitty was in bad shape due to other problems and was euthanized. It made me feel so sad that the cat had to spend her last days/weeks/months being eaten on by fleas.

As the days heat up flea populations will climb. Please don't be cheap. Use the "good stuff" and use it every month. Indoor or outdoor. Look online so you can educate yourself about what flea dirt looks like. It dissolves to blood when wetted. You can find flea dirt much more easily than finding a flea - unless your pet is severely infested.

The "good stuff" in my opinion and what I use is:
Revolution or Advantage for cats.
Comfortis, Advantage or Advantix for dogs.
Capstar (for cats and K9s) can be used for a quick kill and is great to use in combo with above products to get an infestation under control.

So to conclude, this is an area where I say money well spent when you buy the right product.

What item or service do you feel is worth the "premium price"?

The days have just been flying by here. We have been having beautiful weather and the seeds we planted in the garden two weeks ago have sprouted up. When they get a bit taller I will take a picture to share.

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The chicks are much bigger now. They have almost all their feathers so no more fluffy downy fuzz. We let them out in the backyard every afternoon and they are so fun to watch. Once they are a little larger I will move the dog crate that is their home out to the coop and they can start acclimating to nights outside.

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I received two more referrals on my Ting account - $50 more credit.
A big Thank You to the folks using my referral code (if you’re reading this.)
I am so very happy I switched to Ting. Great service and excellent value.

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Last week I changed my withholdings from 2 to 4 so I could squeeze a little more money into my weekly paycheck.

Then this past Wednesday my boss gave us each a brief review and a $1/hour raise. Yay!

Now I’m worried with the raise I might not be withholding enough. What I will do is give it a few months then do a year-end-mock-up and see where we stand tax wise.

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The plan for this weekend is relax, relax, relax. Our calendar is full for the next two weeks once May starts, so we've got to rest up.

We plan to have BBQ dinners tonight and tomorrow, so no "real" cooking to do and I love BBQ'd food.

I have the day off today. My boss is out of town so he opted to just have the office closed.
I am happy to have a day to do what I want, but it doesn't feel long enough.

I started by going to the grocery store this morning after dropping DD off at school. It was $176.
The total before discounts was $250, so I saved 30% which is what I average in savings when I grocery shop. I feel like that is typical, but maybe not. I could do better by using more coupons.
What percentage do you save on average?

After putting all the groceries away and clearing out the freezer (with DS's help) we worked in the garden.

We have four raised beds. I plant in two of them and DD and DH each have one of their own. This morning I "turned" the dirt in my beds and planted sugar-snap peas, purple carrots, spinach and a purple bell pepper in one box. The second box got a tomato plant, crookneck squash, two zucchini and a lemon cucumber.

The chicks are at least three times bigger than when we brought them home, but are still tiny compared to our adult hens. The chicks are still living in our bathroom. This weekend I think it will be time to move them to the more spacious dog crate. The crate will be in either DD's bedroom or in the livingroom.

Later this afternoon DH and I are meeting with a health insurance salesman about HSAs. The salesman is someone who is in DH's boss' business networking group. I am kinda *meh* about the whole thing. It is good to get information and I really like that my DH is making the effort to learn about financial things. Still, I'd rather be doing something else this afternoon.

Afterwards, DD must finish her final draft of her big report assignment.

Then a 4H meeting.

Then I can relax???

The biggest plan for DH and myself this month is improved eating. DH wants to drop some pounds for a physical test for his fire department and the life insurance we hope to get started this summer. I want to get serious because I have not started to work on my weight loss goal yet. If I wait any longer we'll be half way through the year. Worse even - I gained three pounds in March. Time to make an effort.

We are cutting way back in the sugar department. We eat healthy foods mostly, but I love fats and sugar. (I have the hugest sweet tooth! Seriously! I have dessert almost every night.)
SO, I am dropping breads, cakes, cookies, pie, etc. In addition to reducing my dairy to a tiny amount. So no cheese, ice cream, half & half, etc..

Monday and Tuesday we had oatmeal with fresh strawberries for breakfast. I made myself a big batch of quinoa and black bean salad that I have been eating for lunch in addition to nuts and fruit. Last night I made an awesome spinach salad with leftover Easter ham.

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I am cat sitting again for a few days this week and earning $140. I'll be doing it again for the same cats in a few weeks I think for the same number of days.

I was surprised that their owner didn't leave me a check so I am not sure if she forgot or if she is planning on writing one check for both weeks. You can be sure I'm going to ask!

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We have four baby chicks. Young hens to "freshen" our flock of four older ladies.

I paid $14 for the chicks and $7 for their feed. We had the additional supplies (dishes, heat lamp) from raising chicks a few years ago.

They are about 11 days old now.
We have them in a brooder box under the heat lamp in me and DH's bathroom. I love that our family has the opportunity to raise animals. It is the type of thing I want my kids to remember years later and smile about.

Three days old:


Black Australorp chicks.


Golden (Red) Sex-Link chicks.

Last night I met my DH at the shoe store and he picked out two pairs of shoes (work and gym) and the total came to $71. I had a $10 coupon from taking a survey on a previous visit and if I want I can earn another $10 coupon by taking the survey for last night's visit.

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Tomorrow I start taking care of two elderly kitties for two weeks. I will make just over $500. This will all go to a cc payment. I wish I could make this much extra money more often. I have thought of making up a flier or business cards for pet sitting, but I don't know how much I can realistically take on with family and work responsibilities. However, making a chunk of cash like this makes me think...

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I signed myself up with a data collection company who wants information about the flea and heartworm preventative products we use at work. (How many units we have in stock, order and sell each month.)
I will get a check for $20 each month I provide the data sheets. It should only take me about 15 minutes to put the info together each month.

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Can't believe it is almost February! Wow, where did January go??

So we ended 2012 with $4008 in our EF.
By the middle of this month we will be down to $200.

The breakdown:
- $2356 for DS's ER visit (ER, doctor, ambulance)
- $ 248 for DD's first pair of eye glasses
- $ 647 for annual auto insurance policy
- $ 250 for root canal
- $ 338 for equine vet and disposal truck

The silver lining is we have that money, so it's not going on a cc or being borrowed.
That takes a little bit of the sting of wiping out the EF. (Just a little..)

Great news: DH had his final exam tonight for his EMT class and he passed the class with a B+. He had an A average all semester, but the final test tonight was really tough and brought his average down. Still, plenty good enough IMO! Now he has to schedule and sit for the national board exam to actually become an EMT again.

Okay news: I am getting my root canal tomorrow. Our OOP will be about $200. I'm not nervous, but I will be happy to get it over with.

Darn IT news: I bought DD a full length mirror for her bedroom as a Christmas gift. I had it in the back of my SUV and this morning the puppy (the nearly 80lb puppy) jumped on it. Totally my fault. It is shattered right in the middle. Argh! Bright side was it cost $15 from Target. Down side is (1) I have to go back to Target and (2) spend another $15.

Sad news: One of our horses will need to be euthanized soon. We've known for a few months that she has a slow growing tumor in her left sinus. She was a rescue horse from a not-so-great home (not a horrible abusive place, just a somewhat neglectful, we-don't-want-this-responsibility type home). The last eight or so years we have done our best to give her a comfortable, pampered, lazy life. I feel good about that because it's been 100% better than what she had before.

Our "Maxx"..



He was a sweet boy.
The ideal family dog.

It has been a fun and hectic six days. I have pictures to post from the fair and our camping trip, but I wanted to start by showing off our new family member.

We adopted "Cleo" from our local animal control. Her adoption fee was $25. I gave an additional $10 as a donation. She is a six month old German Shepherd. She was surrendered by her owner because they lived in an apartment. We weren't given any other information beyond that.

She is very sweet and attentive. She learns quickly and has excellent manners for a puppy. While camping she was an angel. Our family and friends kept asking if they could take her home.

We have two weddings coming up.

The first one is this weekend. DH's cousin. It's a bit of a drive, but looks to be a fun, low-key family get together. It's a potluck and we are bringing spinach dip and bread. I bought a cute card for $2.50 and I am thinking we'll put a $25 gift card inside. Not sure to what yet???

The next wedding is in the first part of August. One of DH's close friends. Going to be a bit more spent on this one because DH is the best man and DD is the flower girl/junior bridesmaid. SO, DH needs a certain vest, tie and a new white shirt. DD needs a dress. We are planning to get the couple a Lowe's gift card as per their wish list. $25 I think I'll buy it thru PlasticJungle.
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And baby showers coming up too..

My BFF has her baby shower the weekend after the second wedding. It's about a four hour drive from my house. I will probably buy her diapers and maybe a cute clearance outfit.

It's likely that we will combine the drive up for the shower with a family camp trip at one of our fav California State parks. It's only an hour'ish from BFF's house.

A girlfriend in my town is having a low-key shower a few weeks later. Probably buy diapers for her.
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Looking into a local rescue for a possible new canine family member.

"Maxx", our Labrador, is doing okay. He is on once daily prednisone for whatever spinal/nerve issue he has. He moves around almost normally while his is on the meds. Other than stumbling around a little bit, he is his normal self. We still want to try some acupuncture treatments for him.

"Maxx" seems lonely without another dog around and I want our next dog to observe "Maxx's" good habits and behavior. Because we don't know exactly what is wrong with him, or how long he'll be with us, I am starting to look for a second dog now.

I filled up this morning and was shocked (in a good way) to see $3.69/gal. About three weeks ago it was $4.15/gal. I heard on the news the 'experts' are predicting gas prices at or slightly under $3/gallon by the end of the year. **fingers crossed**

$61 to fill up.

What is the gas going for in your area?

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It seems that our Labrador "Maxx" has some neck pain. Hopefully a simple pinched nerve and not a ruptured vertebral disk or worse...

It's just been one health problem after another with our furry family in the last 10 months. I really can't take much more.

Busy here. Not finding much time to be online for anything more than checking email and paying bills.

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Last Thursday we finally had to say goodbye to our Shetland Sheepdog Sasha. Her health really deteriorated pretty quickly starting last Sunday. She had lymphoma. All of us were very sad to have to say goodbye.

Here she is at DD's last sleepover with a pair of glasses on. She was very popular with all the kids because she was smaller and calm.



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I celebrated my birthday by having dinner on the Napa Valley Wine Train. DH and I went to the "Murder Mystery" dinner. A very fun and entertaining experience. The food was quite good. The train and scenery were both fabulous. I had asked for gift certificates for the train for Christmas. We did have to buy an additional gift certificate from Costco to cover the cost for both of us to go. It was a $100 gc for $80. While on the train we also spent on a glass of wine, a glass of champagne, a beer and a special coffee at dessert. We also left a tip for our server making our total out of pocket cost $150. (The total price was $370.)

My parents watched the kids for us. And the next day they stayed and helped fill our garden boxes with dirt and have BBQ dinner with us. The weather was gorgeous.

Sunday I went kayaking on the Russian River with two girlfriends. Afterwards we went to an early dinner. I had a cat sitting client over the weekend and made $50 which paid for most of my outing. $37 for kayak rental, $5 snack/lunch, $20 for dinner.


This is the last week of school for DD. Wow!
Welcome Summer!

Big ol' post about how much we spend here on our pets.


We have in our household two dogs, one cat, five hens and one duck. We also own two horses who have to live in our old hometown because it's waayy too expensive to board them anywhere near us. When we rented we had a place on three acres and we all lived together. I miss riding and taking care of them. Horses are wonderful mental therapy. Well, really all animals are. I don't understand how some people live without any pets. I know, personal preference and all, but I would not want to live without my furry family.

Course, we would save a ton of money... hmmm.. (Just Kidding)

Seriously, along those lines we do want to try to find one of the horses a new home. We took her in in a sort of rescue situation and I think she would make a good friend to someone. The other, my Arabian gelding, I have had since I was 13 so I want to care for him until he passes. He is 22 now and is in great shape so that could easily be another 10 years.

Alright, this post is about spending so...

Each month it's $300 for board on the horses. (Compared to $550 and up in our area.)
This past month was our yearly vet check and vaccines. $120.
Both horses are barefoot and have great feet so only need trims 2-3 times per year (thankfully). Trims next month will be $30 each.

"Sasha", our sheltie, is still doing great even with the cancer diagnosis last October. Yay! We opted for the conservative chemo treatment. Luckily, because of where I work I can get all my animal's medication at cost. Her chemo pills are $223/50ct bottle. She takes one per day. I don't know how much it would be from a pharmacy. She also needs once monthly blood testing. I buy my boss lunch to cover the cost.

"Maxx", our nine-year-old Labrador, is very healthy, (knock on wood!) but I have noticed him slowing down a bit. A few weeks back I started Adequan injections. This is for joint support and rebuilding. $80 for the first month, then about $10 once monthly. I submitted for a $20 rebate and should be getting in in the next week or so. This treatment would normally cost about $150 to $300 in the first month.

"Munchie", our 12 year old kitty is going to get a blood test next week. I will get this for free! (Average cost $150)

The hens and duck cost about $25 every six weeks, or so, to feed and buy pine shavings for their enclosure.

Another perk of my job - Free dog and cat food! That saves a bunch!

Speaking of work, I see what other people spend on pets so that does put my spending in perspective. More like I am very thankful I save so much by working for a veterinarian!

Boy, how fast three days can fly by!
We had a delicious T-Day dinner at my mom and dad's with my in-laws. My mom is a fabulous cook and baker, so no one went away disappointed or hungry.

We were staying with the in-laws so after dinner we drove there and watched the 49er game. Unfortunately the niners lost.

DH, DD and MIL went to the 10pm sale at WalMart. MIL bought the $188 32" TV at Midnight. DH bought a little food processor/chopper for $2.88 and a few other small items.

Black Friday DH and FIL went off shopping at 6am. They do this every year and it's pretty funny because they are such unlikely Black Friday shoppers. I don't know if you could give me such a good deal that I would be tempted to shop in such craziness. Sure I look thru the ads and if I see something worthwhile I ask DH to try to pick it up. But, rarely is there anything that tempting to me.

DH did buy an early Christmas gift for himself; an iPhone for $100.
I can see the allure, all those "smart phones" do really cool things, I know. But now our monthly cell phone bill is going to be higher. DH and I have already had a "discussion" about that, but the phone is still staying. We very rarely argue about money. I just think having to upgrade the cell plan is a stupid waste; he feels it's very important to his happiness.

Other than the phone, DH did score some good deals on a few needed items (shoes) and on a few Christmas gifts (me and the kids). All the money he spent was cash from a side job he did last weekend. No household money spent for Black Friday. Something to be happy about.

While DH was shopping I drove up to see my grandma with DD, my BFF, my mom and dad. It was a long day. We started out about 8am and came back to the in-laws just after 9pm.

Grandma is doing better! Hard to see her just laying there in the hospital bed, but she was very talkative with all her visitors. She was really happy we drove up to see her. The doctors plan to release her to an assisted living/rehab facility on Tuesday. She is expected to be there about three weeks before she can return to her home. Hoping and praying it will all go as easy as that.

On Saturday DD and I checked in at the ranch where our horses live. They were great. I miss riding so much. We brought out carrots, apples and crunchy oat horse cookies. I also bought two 50lb bags of senior horse feed. $40. They'll be getting that daily as a special treat, plus they need the additional calories as the weather gets colder.

Saturday evening we drove home. Ahh, so good to sleep in my own bed last night!

Our Thanksgiving trip cost $157. That was for two fill-ups (gas for $3.49/gal) and the horse feed.

Bad: The check engine light came back on in my car. I figure it's just that burnt fuse again? Car is running fine, so???


Worse: I don't even want to say...
One of our dogs, Sasha, has cancer.
Last weekend I could feel her lymph nodes were enlarged. All of them and that's not good. I was hoping it wouldn't be serious because she's been feeling fine, normal. She's 7 years old.

I took her to work and we did a biopsy. The results came back as Lymphoma.

Without treatment the mean life expectancy is two months. With chemo the average life expectancy is one year. We would need to take her to an internal medicine specialist at one of the large referral hospitals. I spoke with one of the oncology specialists at the closest hospital (10 miles) and there are several treatment options. The best option costs upwards of $5k to $8k. **long exhale**

We are all so sad.
Even more so because we just lost a pet.

Bad: The check engine light came back on in my car. I figure it's just that burnt fuse again? Car is running fine, so???


Worse: I don't even want to say...
One of our dogs, Sasha, has cancer.
Last weekend I could feel her lymph nodes were enlarged. All of them and that's not good. I was hoping it wouldn't be serious because she's been feeling fine, normal. She's 7 years old.

I took her to work this week and we did a biopsy. The results came back as Lymphoma.

Without treatment the mean life expectancy is two months. With chemo the average life expectancy is one year. We would need to take her to an internal medicine specialist at one of the large referral hospitals for chemo. I spoke with one of the oncology specialists from the closest hospital (10 miles) and there are several treatment options. The best option costs upwards of $5k to $8k. **long exhale**

We are all so sad.
Even more so because we just lost a pet.

Our kitty passed this afternoon. She had been a part of our family for 11.5 years. There will be a little something missing from our family for quite awhile now.

Losing a pet is so painful, but the joy they bring during their time with us is worth it 100 times over.


(Lots of sleeping in her final days.)



All my love to these angels with fur.

Tried to update on Tuesday morning about my kitty Fuzzy, but as we all know the site was on the fritz. So glad we're all up and running again!

On Friday night we (the family) had noticed Fuzzy seemed to have a 'stuffy nose'. No biggie; a simple upper respiratory infection usually will resolve on it's own just like when we have a cold. But by Sunday afternoon she was lethargic and not eating or drinking. No vomiting or diarrhea. Monday morning she was looking jaundice (yellow skin) and I brought her with me to work. (I am a registered veterinary technician and work in a single doctor small animal general practice. Because of this I am very fortunate to have access to low cost or free care for my animals. Thankfully!)
We ran a comprehensive blood panel, took x-rays and started IV fluids and IV antibiotics. Her x-rays were clear: good. Her blood work however was all over the place like major shutdown and pointed to diabetic ketoacidosis: Seriously sick and life threatening.

I was surprised because I hadn't seen any warning signs for diabetes. I feel guilty that I might have missed something. What my boss (the doctor) is thinking is that she was borderline diabetic and when she slowed her eating and drinking because of the upper respiratory infection (URI) that started the domino effect.

She's been on 24 hour care. If she was a client's pet she would be hospitalized at a 24-hour hospital, but I am able to do what she needs so I take her home each night and bring her to work during the day. She's holding her own. There has been some slight improvement. Her URI cleared up yesterday and her follow-up blood panel showed some better values. I started her on insulin. She is still on IV fluids, antibiotics and I have to syringe feed her because she's not eating on her own. Hopefully she starts eating soon because that's going to be the biggest thing to help her be okay.

One of my kitty girls is sick. Not 100% sure what's going on, but she's coming with me to work tomorrow!

Please say a little prayer or cross your paws for our sweet Fuzzy.