Thursday, September 4, 2008

Forever Loved




Mom here.

Texas went to the bridge last night. It was incredibly sad, but peaceful. We put him on his harness instead of in the carrier, and he actually enjoyed looking out the window on the way to the vet. He hadn't eaten all day though, nor could he really walk, so we knew it was time.

I can't believe he is gone. I keep expecting to hear him scratching at the door, or meowing about something. I miss him terribly. But he is free of this evil disease, and I am thankful for that. His blog here will remaing untouched. Feel free to visit me at my blog, I'll start posting there once I heal. And with such a great cat gone from my life, healing might take quite a while. Thanks everyone, for all you have done. We love you.

One last thing.
You all may remember Petey, who passed earlier this year. Well, on Petey's blog are links to some societies that are trying to cure this awful disease. If you would like to make a donation in Texas' or Petey's memory, the links are on Petey's site, and also here below.

Winn Feline Foundation – Winn is a non-profit organization established in 1968 that supports studies about cat health. Projects funded by Winn have provided information that is used every day in veterinary medicine to treat cat diseases. When donating, you can specify that it go for cancer research, or another disease, if you wish.

The CSU Animal Cancer Center – The mission of the Robert H. and Mary G. Flint Animal Cancer Center is to improve prevention and treatment of cancer in animals and humans. The Center focuses on the thoughtful, innovative, caring, and careful study of the causes and treatment of the disease in animals.

Love,
Kat, Brian, and Angel Texas

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

It's time for me to get my wings...

Mom was getting those names done while I sat at home with Daddy. Mom was stuck at work, but fortunately had a lot of free time at work between waiting for calls. When Mom came home, Dad said it is indeed my time to go. So, I will be going to the vet now, where I will be helped to the bridge to get my wings.

Thanks all for reading about me, and being such good friends. Please take care of my mom and dad. Mom and Dad will be sending me off with tons and tons of kisses to give to all your friends and family at the bridge.

Here are some more pictures for you to remember me by. I love you all.




Quick update on FPF winners

Just thought you'd like to know Mom finished adding the names and links for the other contestants from Friday now, in case you wanted to know the names and bloggies for some of the other cats (and dog hehe).
You can see it here.

How to find my mom...

Just wanted you guys to know, once I'm gone, if you want to say hi to my mom, you can email her at ravenkatie at gmail dot com, or you can go to her bloggy here.
She doesn't use the blog much usually, but we've made lots of friends on this blog, and she wants to keep in touch with all of you when I'm gone. That blog is also where she will link to the blog of her new cat or cats, when she gets them.
OK, now, go scroll down and look at the cute pictures of me!

-Texas

Some Pictures of Me!

Mom was really hopeful I didn't have to go to the bridge since I was so happy, but my walking gets worse every day, and this morning I'm not too bothered about my breakfast either. She really hopes I can make it another day, but she knows she may well have to take me to be helped this evening.
In the meantime, I'm constantly being bombarded with the flashy box. Here are some pictures of me.



Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Questions and Answers

Since I don't have much time left- it seems likely although not certain I will be helped to the bridge tomorrow evening-I wanted to answer some questions. See, sometimes people get to my blog by searching on cat health questions. Well, me and Mom aren't betternarians, so you should always double check with a betternarian, but here are our best answers to some of the questions that have brought beans and cats to my blog.


1. "cat help smell of vet fighting scared of other cat". We guess the question there is something like how do you prevent two scared cats from fighting? Well, a product called FeliWay, which is very expensive, managed to keep me calm when I was at the bored place, and it seems to help in multi-cat households.

2. how to handle a fractious cat
WITH GLOVES AND GOGGLES! Seriously, when bathing me, Dad has giant thick hawk-tamer type gloves, and these "SteemPunk" goggles he made. He uses them for woodcutting, and also for bathing me!!


3.my cat hematocrit was 19, what should i do?
Well, if you know that your cat's hematocrit is 19, odds are a vet told you, and they should have further instructions on what to do. But this means that your cat is anemic. The minimum hematocrit for a cat to not be anemic is 28-30%. Around 15% or so, vets usually want to do a transfusion. So, 19 isn't a great place to be, but if your cat is being monitored by a vet, this should be treatable. Anemia can be caused by kidney issues, cancer, chronic illness, and many other things. I think even severe stress can cause anemia in a kitty. Again, please talk to your betternarian for details.

4. Although not specific, we saw searches indicating people have concerns about the cost of chemo drugs. It varies greatly depending on where you live, your vet, what protocol and cancer your cat has, and also other factors. For instance, I am so fractious I needed to be anestatized in a box before each treatment. If you get the IV anestesia, or don't need any at all, this can save your bean up to about $200.00 a treatment! Treatments are often done weekly initially, and then bi-weekly after a few months, but again, it depends on the treatment. Mom spent around $500.00 a treatment on me, but it depended greatly on how many tests and medicines I needed, and how anestitized I was. Some cats don't get nauseus and anemic like I did, and the medicines to treat those issues probably totaled to around 50.00 more dollars a month. So it varies quite widely from cat to cat, even with the same protocol, cancer, and vet office.

I hope these answers were helpful. Please, please, talk to your betternarian for more information.