He's Lucky the one I rescued. Have a couple other cats (no I'm not gay) and there were some initial territorial issues that are smoothing themselves out (a spray water bottle helps).
I've never had the pleasure of breaking a bone but I've come close. I'm at the age when I seem to be more accident prone like I can't go a few days without biting my lip or tongue while eating. Put me in a home.
Pulled a hamstring playing tennis at 50- actually needed crutches for a few days. Fell 50 feet out of a cottonwood when I was a kid, hit every branch on the way down. Figured I was a gonner, never broke a thing.
I broke my ankle Halloween 2000 falling in the driveway. I knew it was broken but I had no insurance (this is a true story) because I had just started a new job and I had to wait the 90 days before my insurance kicked in. I ew if I went to the ER it would be a preexisting condition so I just ace wrapped it and took a lot of Tylenol. I worked and drove and everything else, and yeah, it hurt like f&*(^k. My insurance kicked in come January and I went to the orthopaedist on January 23. I had a 96% ligament tear and to make it worse the bone fragment 1"x1" was lodged in the torn part, so every time I took a step it ground on the ligament and made everything worse. The original plan was to wire the fragment back in but they had to take it out. The doctor (Kevin Scully Atlantic Orthopaedics Wilmington) was horrified by the entire thing and cussed me out in no uncertain terms for the amount of damage I did post-accident by not having it addressed. He also said I have a pathological pain tolerance because in his opinion I should not even have been able to stand much less anything else. Anyway I had to have a bigass surgery to fix it. The insurance covered it, but had I gone at the time I broke it, nothing of it would have been covered. This is an absolutely true story.
Sometimes you can fall in a "good" way. My Dad one time went to the store to get the paper and walking back fell because of a crack or upraised portion of the sidewalk and broke his knee. The knee however was fractured in such a way that it healed on its own. He went to the doctor anyway because of the pain but the doctor pretty much didn't even have to do much, just give it time he said and sure enough it healed up on its own.
Incidentally if you see two cats in a fight, really going at it, tussling and all, rolling around on the ground it's obvious you can't break it up yourself w/o getting scratched even if you're wearing work gloves so the best thing to do in such a case is get the garden hose out. Worked for me a few weeks ago and one of the cats was dirty anyway and got cleaned off.
So get this: the dog (she is almost 16, deaf and at a point in her life that she seriously does not care what you think of the things she does) has taken being spoiled to a whole new level. Every single night she wakes me up between 130 and 2 wanting to go out. She doesn't want to go out to pee; she wants to go out because she knows she gets a cookie when she comes in. So I stagger through the house (medicated), let her out and in 30 seconds no bull she is back and wanting the cookie (which she gets). In another hour she will wake me up again. This time I will let her out but I will not give her a cookie. In retaliation she will pee on the carpet at the end of the hall. She will go through this again a third time at 400 when Scott is ready to leave for work. Needless to say we have a carpet steamer that gets used on a daily basis. This is all very concerning because we're going on vacation starting this weekend and she will only have a babysitter a few times a day and we are worried about the carpet. So I went and bought puppy pads and put them down at the end of the hall where she likes to pee (taped them down with packing tape so they don't slide/she can't dig them up to get under them). So far, she hasn't peed on them or anywhere else. WTF?
Used to be if you hollered at her she would look all guilty and stuff and then go hide under the bed. I don't know if it's because she can't hear anymore, but when you yell at her now she just looks at you right in the eye and you just know she's thinking, 'I am so not impressed by you.'
Some folks attribute political leanings to felines- "Dogs are Statists and cats are Libertarians. Submitted by crietmann on Mon, 10/07/2013 - 23:43 Maybe it's just mine, but dogs are eager to please their masters while cats do whatever the @#$%& they want."
Adopted a kitten a few years back. He had been left in a small box in the WalMart parking lot out in the sun. Had an eye infection. Vet couldn't fix it, said take him to the University (Washington State U). Their diagnosis was dire- viral FIP test positive. They gave him a couple of months. But they began eye treatments...lots of them, like every month until he knew every grad student in the building. However, after a few months and considerable cash, the lady Doc thought it would be best to remove the infected eye. Photographs of which appear in some veterianarian ophthamology journal. Tough kitten, never complained about all the eye drops, ointments and liquid down the throat. So tough, he is still going strong 5 years later. Beat the Dr's odds....and he sends her a Christmas card every year. For some reason, he likes to play hide and seek, fetch toys and sneak into the basement, which is verboten. Hides there until I drag him out from under some cabinet and verbally abuse him...which causes delighted purring. Cats are hard to figure.
Eye infections seem rather common among cats. Lucky had an eye infection but my sister still had a tube of ointment for just that purpose and now he's better. She got it over the Internet btw and so I saved money on a vet bill. What would Judge Judy say?
Some vets are offering 'hospice care' for pets. Not sure if it is included in pet insurance or pet medicare. As for the 'death panels' it still consists of you and your pet and the vet. Odd, so many people have a terminally ill pet painlessly euthanized, but think humans are a different animal and should suffer much longer. Odd.
Yeah, Michael Schiavo liked to stretch things out. Euthanasia, I catch your drift but the fear among the public and it's not ill-founded is the principle that voluntary euthanasia always leads to involuntary euthanasia. You wanna keep ole Dad alive but the hospital board disagrees. I'm also put off by the right-to-die movement's whole fetish with death over living, philosophically it strikes me as being nihilistic or something but I do get your point.
As for pets I've never actually taken a pet to the vet to get euthanized but that doesn't mean I judge those who do. The thing with some cats when their time comes is it's so damn drawn out esp. when they succumb to the feline leukemia if they have that. It's a slow starvation thing, kidneys failing and everything and perfectly healthy and robust cats just wither away and go under the couch and finally breathe their last breath. Very sad. What bothers me more though is gassing to death a room full of perfectly healthy beagles at the local animal shelter. I don't judge the workers there who do this but on a kind of existential level how do you like yourself afterwards? It has to haunt you and it's a kind of weird aspect of a career.
Our first cat kept having strokes and couldn't get up. (Neighbor's had the same problem with theirs and a couple of dogs shredded it on their front porch). So, the Mrs. Took him in and held him while he passed away...BB is a bit sentimental for that, but she grew up on a farm). Next cat cat lasted 14 years, got towards the end, escaped one night and went to meet her demise with the coyote bunch south of here. Dunno, there can be a sort of human-pet bond that approaches the human-human bond. Regarding animal shelters, a lot of them are trying to neuter wild dogs and feral cats: more expensive than euthanasia, but more animal-friendly.
Getting back to Schiavo let's say you take your pet in to get euthanized is the vet gonna slowly starve and dehydrate your cat or dog over the course of 14 days?
TS was an example of ethical retrogression. I think it's confused in your own head. I'm flipping your point above around, in too many cases we're far more humane to animals then we are to actual people unless you're down with the forced dieting-to-death thing.
There's been alot of deer being hit lately along the Saw Mill in the Hastings/Ardsley area and along 9A by Mt. Hope. IMO roadkill and deerkill by vehice in general is generally caused by people driving too fast. Of course it can happen otherwise and is sometimes unavoidable. Everybody's in a hurry but is it worth having a banged up car because you're late for an app't or just wanna get laid?
At the dentist last week, my hygienist said her car had been laid up for a month. She collided with 2 mule deer on the way to work in the morning fog and dark. She, her husband and her twins live way the heck up in a hollow in the foothills (redoing a turn of the century farmstead. She said a cougar took 15 lambs last Spring and this week a lone black wolf has been hanging around. [was tempted to tell her, could be worse...she could have to commute in Yonkers]
According to ornithological insiders, numbers of Snowy Owls are moving down into NY and environs this Winter: lemming shortage way up yonder. If you should spot an all white bird with 5 ft wingspan and large yellow eyes, snap a photo and check off your birding book (and keep the kitties inside).
Like every massive, groundbreaking, gamechanging, paradigm shifting event goes off without problems (even big problems). Right?
ReplyDeleteDoes pet insurance cover birth control?
ReplyDeleteIt sure does but not Viagra or Cialis as male dogs and cats don't need that.
ReplyDeleteIs that your pet cat?
DeleteIf so, same markings as mine..probably 2nd cousins.
He's Lucky the one I rescued. Have a couple other cats (no I'm not gay) and there were some initial territorial issues that are smoothing themselves out (a spray water bottle helps).
ReplyDeleteOh, you mean you launched a new system and there were issues that needed to be worked out? (snark)
ReplyDeleteI broke my toe on Friday, btw.
ReplyDeleteDid you get it x-rayed? Kicking the tires on your truck again?
DeleteNo, no films, no point, nothing they can do for it anyway. I have it taped up. I ran into a table leg.... heard it snap.
DeleteI've never had the pleasure of breaking a bone but I've come close. I'm at the age when I seem to be more accident prone like I can't go a few days without biting my lip or tongue while eating. Put me in a home.
ReplyDeletePulled a hamstring playing tennis at 50- actually needed crutches for a few days. Fell 50 feet out of a cottonwood when I was a kid, hit every branch on the way down. Figured I was a gonner, never broke a thing.
DeleteI broke my ankle Halloween 2000 falling in the driveway. I knew it was broken but I had no insurance (this is a true story) because I had just started a new job and I had to wait the 90 days before my insurance kicked in. I ew if I went to the ER it would be a preexisting condition so I just ace wrapped it and took a lot of Tylenol. I worked and drove and everything else, and yeah, it hurt like f&*(^k. My insurance kicked in come January and I went to the orthopaedist on January 23. I had a 96% ligament tear and to make it worse the bone fragment 1"x1" was lodged in the torn part, so every time I took a step it ground on the ligament and made everything worse. The original plan was to wire the fragment back in but they had to take it out. The doctor (Kevin Scully Atlantic Orthopaedics Wilmington) was horrified by the entire thing and cussed me out in no uncertain terms for the amount of damage I did post-accident by not having it addressed. He also said I have a pathological pain tolerance because in his opinion I should not even have been able to stand much less anything else. Anyway I had to have a bigass surgery to fix it. The insurance covered it, but had I gone at the time I broke it, nothing of it would have been covered. This is an absolutely true story.
DeleteSometimes you can fall in a "good" way. My Dad one time went to the store to get the paper and walking back fell because of a crack or upraised portion of the sidewalk and broke his knee. The knee however was fractured in such a way that it healed on its own. He went to the doctor anyway because of the pain but the doctor pretty much didn't even have to do much, just give it time he said and sure enough it healed up on its own.
DeleteIncidentally if you see two cats in a fight, really going at it, tussling and all, rolling around on the ground it's obvious you can't break it up yourself w/o getting scratched even if you're wearing work gloves so the best thing to do in such a case is get the garden hose out. Worked for me a few weeks ago and one of the cats was dirty anyway and got cleaned off.
ReplyDeleteFelines seem odd about water; they universally detest getting sprayed, but
Deletesome will sit in the sink drinking running water, if mine is typical.
I think it's easier to give a dog a bath than a cat and even the dog's not easy but after awhile he just sits there resigned to it.
ReplyDeleteLou Reed just died but Keith Richards is still living. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteReed was a year older than Richards..and a year for a rock star is a long
Deletedrug befuddled time. BTW, both those youngsters were born after me...
Keith Richards, isn't he awesome? Just the fact that he IS still living is enough to make him awesome (but there are dozens of reasons he's awesome).
ReplyDeleteI agree, he's a walking PSA against drug abuse.
DeleteSo get this: the dog (she is almost 16, deaf and at a point in her life that she seriously does not care what you think of the things she does) has taken being spoiled to a whole new level. Every single night she wakes me up between 130 and 2 wanting to go out. She doesn't want to go out to pee; she wants to go out because she knows she gets a cookie when she comes in. So I stagger through the house (medicated), let her out and in 30 seconds no bull she is back and wanting the cookie (which she gets). In another hour she will wake me up again. This time I will let her out but I will not give her a cookie. In retaliation she will pee on the carpet at the end of the hall. She will go through this again a third time at 400 when Scott is ready to leave for work. Needless to say we have a carpet steamer that gets used on a daily basis. This is all very concerning because we're going on vacation starting this weekend and she will only have a babysitter a few times a day and we are worried about the carpet. So I went and bought puppy pads and put them down at the end of the hall where she likes to pee (taped them down with packing tape so they don't slide/she can't dig them up to get under them). So far, she hasn't peed on them or anywhere else. WTF?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the handy dandy dog year calcuator , she will be needing a walker pretty soon.
DeleteYou can hire Ozzy and his family as dogsitters.
ReplyDeleteUsed to be if you hollered at her she would look all guilty and stuff and then go hide under the bed. I don't know if it's because she can't hear anymore, but when you yell at her now she just looks at you right in the eye and you just know she's thinking, 'I am so not impressed by you.'
ReplyDeleteI really always wanted to join the 'Hare Krishna' group, but i could play the Tambourine.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a funny thing? We so very rarely use tambourines. You may be thinking of an Indian instrument called karatals.
ReplyDeleteIs this a picture of your cat Z?
ReplyDeleteIt is and he's a big one.
ReplyDeleteHe looks nice but i hate fat cats.
ReplyDeleteSome folks attribute political leanings to felines-
ReplyDelete"Dogs are Statists and cats are Libertarians.
Submitted by crietmann on Mon, 10/07/2013 - 23:43
Maybe it's just mine, but dogs are eager to please their masters while cats do whatever the @#$%& they want."
It's so true, cats are so much more independent than dogs unless you're a Judge Judy cat and get put on a leash when you want to go outside.
ReplyDeleteI dunno my labradoodle is pretty independent. He'll come to you but then our cat comes to us as well. They're both pretty affectionate.
ReplyDeleteA cat and a dog together in the same household? Sometimes it works out.
ReplyDeleteYes. And what's more they're both males.
ReplyDeleteHere's a pic of Max the cat.
ReplyDeletehttps://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/960040_10202216022709395_1596345472_n.jpg
And Winston the labradoodle.
https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/486200_4726589850077_209007211_n.jpg
Max is a fairly popular name for a cat esp. tuxedos.
ReplyDeleteAdopted a kitten a few years back. He had been left in a small box in the WalMart
ReplyDeleteparking lot out in the sun. Had an eye infection. Vet couldn't fix it, said take him to
the University (Washington State U). Their diagnosis was dire- viral FIP test positive.
They gave him a couple of months. But they began eye treatments...lots of them,
like every month until he knew every grad student in the building. However, after
a few months and considerable cash, the lady Doc thought it would be best to remove the infected eye. Photographs of which appear in some veterianarian
ophthamology journal. Tough kitten, never complained about all the eye drops, ointments and liquid down the throat. So tough, he is still going strong 5 years later.
Beat the Dr's odds....and he sends her a Christmas card every year. For some reason, he likes to play hide and seek, fetch toys and sneak into the basement,
which is verboten. Hides there until I drag him out from under some cabinet and
verbally abuse him...which causes delighted purring. Cats are hard to figure.
Eye infections seem rather common among cats. Lucky had an eye infection but my sister still had a tube of ointment for just that purpose and now he's better. She got it over the Internet btw and so I saved money on a vet bill. What would Judge Judy say?
ReplyDeleteSome vets are offering 'hospice care' for pets. Not sure if it is included in pet insurance or pet medicare. As for the 'death panels' it still consists of you and your pet and the vet. Odd, so many people have a terminally ill pet painlessly euthanized, but think humans are a different animal and should suffer much longer. Odd.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Michael Schiavo liked to stretch things out. Euthanasia, I catch your drift but the fear among the public and it's not ill-founded is the principle that voluntary euthanasia always leads to involuntary euthanasia. You wanna keep ole Dad alive but the hospital board disagrees. I'm also put off by the right-to-die movement's whole fetish with death over living, philosophically it strikes me as being nihilistic or something but I do get your point.
ReplyDeleteAs for pets I've never actually taken a pet to the vet to get euthanized but that doesn't mean I judge those who do. The thing with some cats when their time comes is it's so damn drawn out esp. when they succumb to the feline leukemia if they have that. It's a slow starvation thing, kidneys failing and everything and perfectly healthy and robust cats just wither away and go under the couch and finally breathe their last breath. Very sad. What bothers me more though is gassing to death a room full of perfectly healthy beagles at the local animal shelter. I don't judge the workers there who do this but on a kind of existential level how do you like yourself afterwards? It has to haunt you and it's a kind of weird aspect of a career.
ReplyDeleteOur first cat kept having strokes and couldn't get up. (Neighbor's had the same problem with theirs and a couple of dogs shredded it on their front porch). So, the Mrs. Took him in and held him while he passed away...BB
Deleteis a bit sentimental for that, but she grew up on a farm). Next cat cat lasted
14 years, got towards the end, escaped one night and went to meet her
demise with the coyote bunch south of here. Dunno, there can be a sort of
human-pet bond that approaches the human-human bond. Regarding animal shelters, a lot of them are trying to neuter wild dogs and feral cats:
more expensive than euthanasia, but more animal-friendly.
Getting back to Schiavo let's say you take your pet in to get euthanized is the vet gonna slowly starve and dehydrate your cat or dog over the course of 14 days?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it. Nor would the vet keep a pet on life support for 15 years.
DeleteTS was an example of ethical retrogression. I think it's confused in your own head. I'm flipping your point above around, in too many cases we're far more humane to animals then we are to actual people unless you're down with the forced dieting-to-death thing.
DeleteIncidentally the coyote situation has gotten worse in Westchester County. Also abnormally aggressive compared to their usual behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhen they introduced wolves in Yellowstone, the coyote population dropped. You need some Yonkers wolves.
DeleteThere's been alot of deer being hit lately along the Saw Mill in the Hastings/Ardsley area and along 9A by Mt. Hope. IMO roadkill and deerkill by vehice in general is generally caused by people driving too fast. Of course it can happen otherwise and is sometimes unavoidable. Everybody's in a hurry but is it worth having a banged up car because you're late for an app't or just wanna get laid?
ReplyDeleteAt the dentist last week, my hygienist said her car had been laid up for a month. She collided with 2 mule deer on the way to work in the morning
Deletefog and dark. She, her husband and her twins live way the heck up in a hollow in the foothills (redoing a turn of the century farmstead. She said
a cougar took 15 lambs last Spring and this week a lone black wolf has
been hanging around. [was tempted to tell her, could be worse...she
could have to commute in Yonkers]
Has anybody ever hit a Sasquatch?
ReplyDeleteThat would be extremely valuable roadkill.
DeleteMy friend believes every Sasquatch story and tale that comes down the pike. I just listen.
DeleteAccording to ornithological insiders, numbers of Snowy Owls are moving down into NY and environs this Winter: lemming shortage way up yonder. If you should spot
ReplyDeletean all white bird with 5 ft wingspan and large yellow eyes, snap a photo and check off your birding book (and keep the kitties inside).
One of the few truly diurnal owls as I understand it. That is exciting news but before you know it some jerk in a car would kill one.
ReplyDelete