Dusty is Doing Well

Sorry it's been a while since our last post. Dusty's high blood pressure medicine is working and two weeks ago her blood pressure was down to 125. She goes in for a checkup today. Poor sick Ben will have to take her while I do more homework. But hey I'm past the midpoint of class. There are only a few more weeks left.

The Dusty Scare

For those of you who do not know, our 20 year old cat, Dusty, has finally become fully blind. This happened to her last Friday. The vet determined that it was a neurological issue rather than cataracts. Dusty was not only confused and agitated as her pacing revealed, but she was also weak and not her normal spunky self. The vet found that her blood pressure was 255 where 185 or so is the highest limit they like to see. So they prescribed high blood pressure medicine to bring that down. After the emergency vet visit in the morning and missed work we had to leave her at home while we worked in the afternoon.

Friday night we served up "tuna con medication". Early Saturday morning we woke to Dusty's repeated deep yowl--that yowl you hear from an animal who is either so terrified or hurt that your heart aches. We jumped out of bed to find her laying on her side with poofed fur and what looked like she was running as fast as she could. Ben called the hospital to find that they would not be of much help. So I slept on the floor with Dusty after she calmed down from my petting and nussling. An hour later with my hand still on her I awoke to her body convulsing followed by those yowls and running. It was apparently a seizure. I comforted her as she tried desperately to get up and walk on her failing legs for the next half hour or so.

We went back to the vet on Saturday morning to find that they think she may be having mini strokes due to the high blood pressure which would also cause seizures. Her blood pressure is now down to 232.

The vet narrows down her issues to either strokes or a brain tumor. We x-ray her body just in case she has tumors in her body or an enlarged heart. Thankful neither where present. Otherwise, I would have had to decide to put her to sleep on my own that morning as Ben was at the airport heading to Vegas on business. Brain tumors are more expensive to find--around $2,000 for a "cat" scan and MRI (yes, I am still amused at the irony). Even if they found one she is too old for the surgery.

I didn't leave the house all weekend and watched the little girl carefully. She was still very confused and could not find things like the litter pan or her bed. (I'm still working on the smell.) She also drank very little and absolutely refused hard food. Tuna became the treat all weekend since it was the only thing Dusty would eat and eat vigorously. Winnie and Keiko were very excited about this turn of events.

Sunday Dusty seemed to be finding her way around the house better. I can't say I helped much since my mom and I were assembling the new office furniture and had boxes all over the house. Unfortunately, Winnie took to growling and hissing at Dusty. She knows something is wrong.

By Monday Dusty was back to using the litter pan and drinking much more normally. I still had not seen her eat the hard food. So Monday night I picked up the wet version of her special kidney food. She has taken to it just as easily as the tuna. So now she gets the food she should and the other two are still getting tuna treats. I also picked up several new catnip toys and the two youngsters think they are in heaven. (I have to mention that Keiko is currently in my lap purring and trying to immobilize my right arm by laying on it.)

We will keep you updated on the Dusty's next visit to the vet on Saturday.

We are all missing Ben. The furry ones need more petting and I woke up in the morning snuggled up to his pillow. It's funny how that happens. Thankfully Ben will come back home tomorrow from the Consumer Electronics Show to an apparently stable Dusty and ALL four of his girls purring and wanting to snuggle.

Hulu.com

Just testing a new video service that I got access to through work... Hmmm... too bad you can do full screen on their main site just not on the embed page. Thanks for putting up with my testing :)

30 Rock:



Firefly Episode 1:

Christmas with Abraham

All Fun and Games

The last game day was a success for two reasons...Quelf and Rockband...ok, three...our friends...

Pam hiding in her make-shift tent...

Brian, having to keep his arm around the player to his left, keeps an eye on Sava...



Katherine decyfering Scott's assisted drawing...

Everyone else trying to decyfer Scott's assisted drawing...

A tree?

I kind of like the tree this way.

Thanksgiving with Abraham

NEW BABY!!!!! ...soon

At 16 days overdue Angela's water broke at 2 AM this morning. We shall be new a Uncle and Aunt soon!! We'll keep you posted.

2008 Presidential Candidate Calculator

With so many candidates running for president and the media's treatment like the race has been on for a year now I (Melissa) have been left wondering who I really agree with. Attributed to my hippie nature I generally vote Democrat. However, I really wasn't sure who fit my views since the race has been more about who can trash the other candidate than what their vision for America is. So when Aunt Judie sent me the link below I thought this should be interesting.

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html


Appearantly, I really am a Democrat when you look at the results. The list is split in half. The top half of the matches are all Democrat and the bottom are all Republican. However, I was quite surprised that Dennis Kucinich was my closest match. Who the heck is he?! I mean I know the name, but know nothing about him...until now. I guess we agree 77.55% of the time. That is pretty neat. Also who is Mike Gravel? No, really I've never heard of him.

I guess I also have to hope that Fred Thompson doesn't get into office or I will only be happy with one quarter of what he does.




My full results:

Your Top Match
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) 77.55% match You are number 1,380,341 to use the Candidate Calculator.

Your Other Top Matches

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 76.53%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 69.39%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 69.39%

Middle of the Pack

New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 61.22%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 61.22%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 58.16%
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 57.14%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 52.04%
Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 51.02%
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 51.02%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 43.88%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 39.80%
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 29.59%

Bottom of the Barrel

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 26.53%
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (R) - 26.53%
California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) - 24.49%
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) - 22.45%









Ben here, here's my results... I don't care I'm still voting Obama :)

Your Top Match
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) 88.89% match You are number 1,492,379 to use the Candidate Calculator.

bookmark this page:
::

Your Other Top Matches

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 79.86%
New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 59.72%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 56.94%

Middle of the Pack

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 56.94%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 55.56%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 54.17%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 51.39%
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 45.83%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 36.11%
Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 33.33%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 29.17%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 28.47%
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (R) - 22.92%

Bottom of the Barrel

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 14.58%
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 12.50%
California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) - 11.11%
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) - 11.11%

Halloween Hangman

The perfect web game to avoid doing homework with...

http://dedge. com/flash/ hangman/hangman. swf?a=300