Callie's Friday Noos - UPDATED

UPDATES BELOW

Today's a big day for Callie. I didn't want to 'ruin' Pixie's Gotcha Day yesterday by adding this as a new post for the day when holding off until today didn't seem to make much difference, but yesterday was kind of a bittersweet day. Happy because of Pixie, sad because of Callie.

She wasn't doing very well at all, still not really eating Wednesday night or yesterday morning, plus she had an incision that opened up on her right arm where she'd been shaved for her IVs and stuff, so I decided to drop her back off at Dr. Vet's yesterday morning; since they're closed half the day on Fridays, I thought it would be best to do it Thursday when she could be there with them there the full day if needed. Well, Dr. Vet himself called me just a couple of hours later and said that she was doing so not well, that if it was okay with me, he was calling Dr. Surgeon Vet's office to see how soon they could fit her in, as he felt that was really the best thing for her at this point. Of course, I said absolutely. Good news is, they could fit her in today (Friday).

I just got back to the office after taking Callie in and talking with Dr. Surgeon Vet. He agreed that based on all the information he had available to him, surgery seems the best solution. What exactly will be done is -- say it with me, kitties! -- up in the air. It just depends on what they see once they get in there, and whether the "easy" ("easy" being relative) fix works or whether they have to move to Plan B. But they'll know while they're in there if Plan A will appear to be the right option, so it wouldn't be a case of trying Plan A, close her up, see if it works and if not, go back in later for Plan B. Risks and complications are possible with either option, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.

So Miss Callie Boo will be having surgery today.

I'm being Pollyanna today and I know there will be no risks and no complications and everything will go just great and she'll be good as new in no time! Cross your paws that I'm right, hey?

UPDATE 12:30pm

Just talked with Dr. Surgeon Vet. Please please please ramp up those emergency purrs. Callie went through 1-1/2 hours of surgery, they had to go to Plan B. Her biliary tract was bloated 4 times as big as it should be due to the blockage, they don't know if it's infection-related or cancer/tumor and won't be able to tell until they get test results back (not something they can determine by eye), so they had to re-route her gallbladder directly to another portion of the drainage system, essentially. There are other risks associated with that. Her liver was bright yellow due to jaundice, not a good thing. And they may have to give her blood to keep her going, which apparently is very rare in cat surgery. And they had no 'known-to-be-clean' blood on hand. He has his own personal cat there today and is willing to get some from his cat for her if it turns out to be needed.

She's very sick, very unstable. The next few hours are critical.

UPDATE 1:00pm

Talked to Dr. Surgeon Vet again. Callie definitely needed blood, but they found some 'clean' blood at one of the other clinics in their building so are giving her that now. He said that his gut feeling (um, no pun intended), based on how she's acting/reacting, is that the blockage is going to end up being due to cancer, but that's just his feeling, no test results are back this quick (and he didn't say and I didn't think to ask how long it takes to get them back, I don't think they do that onsite). But I also didn't bother asking yet what we do if it is. It's too soon right now to ask 'what if' in that case -- just keeping herself alive the next 2-3 hours is taking everything she has right now to worry about anything else.

They've done all they can. It's up to her body to do what it needs to do this afternoon to keep going. Come on, baby, you can do it!!

Saturday Stuff

We know the bloggie has been kind of Bugsy-centric the past 10 days or so, but with all the stuff surrounding his surgery, it's kind of inevitable, we suppose. And so here we are with another Bugsy Report.

Bugsy went to the v-e-t today to have the stitches removed - yay! Dr. V-e-t said that Bugsy is healing fine and should have little, if any, scar after the final scabs fall off.

The stitches are gone, but there are still some scabs and the furs will have to grow back:

There's a touch of potential bad news, though. The test results came back, and the tumor was something called a "diffuse iris melanoma" -- basically, the bad kind. Statistics say there's a 63% chance of some other cancer showing up within 3 years. So the next step is to go to a v-e-t oncologist, and see what she has to say about things, whether there are any preventative steps to take these days, what to watch for, get a baseline status of where he is now and presumably make sure there's nothing already visible, etc. And in the meantime, try not to panic.

Resting after the arduous v-e-t visit:

If nothing else, at least The Mommy no longer has to question whether or not it was the right thing to have the eye removed 'just in case'... Oh, and the other thing the v-e-t said for the first time today is that it was very likely Bugsy really didn't have much vision left in that eye, we always thought it was purely speculative as to whether he'd lost any vision or not.

So, until the oncologist visit gets set up and happens, we'll just try not to worry about what can't be controlled, and let Bugsy get back to "normal"...like playing with toys.

This post and photo session are interrupted by the discovery of the strap on the flashy box thing...

Hope everyone's having a good weekend so far!

Bugsy on Sunday

Oh hai peoples! Thank you all so much for being so nice to me and The Mommy the last few days. I sure didn't like that surgery thing too much, having to go to the v-e-t place and staying overnight and everything. And I HATE HATE HATE being a conehead! This thing just keeps getting in my way. Yeah yeah, I'm getting used to it, but I still hate it. The Mommy says I only have to wear it a few more days...I guess that's good. Ummm...how many is "a few more"? Is that today? Tomorrow? I wish it was today.

But I am getting around quite well, if a bit slower than usual still. For instance, I still fit just fine on the window perch:


I got on top of the entertainment unit (big ol' TV stand) just fine by myself:


I even made it to the top of the kitchen cabinets, one of my favorite places!


And best of all, the cone doesn't clash with either of the hairy blankies...



So I'll just keep on adjusting, and about the time I've fully adjusted, it'll be time for the cone to come off! Or so The Mommy says. Then I'll really be confused!

Sorry we didn't get around to visiting much the past couple of days, but The Mommy thought it would be better just to hang out and relax and pamper me a lot. Hey, who am I to argue with that kind of plan?? We'll be coming by today though to see what everyone's been up to.

Thanks again to everyone who's been so supportive, I luvs you guys!

Oh oh oh, and thanks so much to Shadow's mom who made this wonderful painting of me with both my eyes! It's beautiful and me and The Mommy love it!!


Bye peoples!

Bugsy the Pirate

The great news is that Bugsy the Pirate is home. As expected, he's a cone-head for the next 5-7 days...and boy does he hate it. We've been home a couple of hours now, and he walks around the house (1) bumping into things with the edge of the cone/collar because he's not used to the extra width (hmmm, should I put a "wide load" sign on him?), and (2) stopping suddenly and backing up, as if he can get the thing to come off that way. Tricking it to come off, yeah, that's the ticket!

Otherwise, he's kinda nervous and anxious in his walking around, not ready to settle down in one place yet. He'll lay down for a few minutes, then get right back up and wander some more. I'm sure he'll settle down for a nap soon enough, though. He did eat a little bit, until Pixie came along for a good sniff of "Eau d' Vet". As you'd expect the other kitties have been cautiously approaching to see just what's different (the smells! the cone! the...hey, dood, where's your eye?!).

Here's a short video I took...if'n it works/posts correctly. This is my first video on a post! Watch out world, a monster may have been created...and I ain't talking about the kitty with the stitches....



And a couple of pictures (don't look if you're squeamish!):



Hopefully things will all settle down here in awhile and Bugsy will get adjusted to the new sight and the (temporary) wide-load cone.

Toodles!

Update on the Bugster

Good news! Bugsy Boy is out of surgery and doing well, according to the vet's office. (Other than that whole "he's now missing an eye" thing, that is... ) He'll be staying with them overnight, and I'll go get him around noon tomorrow -- not the best excuse I ever had for taking off early on a Friday, but at least I'll have the afternoon/evening plus all weekend to stay home and fuss over him after I get him back.

Thank you all so much for your purrs and purrayers and hugs and good wishes, it means more than I can say to have so many kitties (and woofies!) and their beans stop by and comment, or email, to let us know they care. I'll be returning comments and emails when I can, probably tonight, as the darn boss dude wants me to work for some reason while I'm at the office (the nerve!). But I had to at least post a quick update as soon as I could.

Again...thank you!!!

Bugsy's Big Day and LOLCats

Well, today's the day. Bugsy goes in for his surgery to have his right eye removed 'cuz of the tumor in it. I doubt I'll hear anything from the vet until mid-afternoon so I'll be on pins and needles until then. Purrs for my Bugsy Boy would be most appreciated.

Here are a couple of floor's-eye-view photos of the dear boy for you, including a headless shot of me!



And one from the lap:


I'll update on how he's doing when I can...and thanks in advance for all your good wishes.

On a brighter note, we've become LOLcats! Check us out at Wendy's LOL Spot to see Part 2 today, and Part 1 from yesterday. Thanks, Wendy!

and

Thursday Things

We posted a few days ago that Bugsy was going to have his eye removal surgery today; for those that remember that post and may wonder/worry, that has been rescheduled and now won't happen until Aug. 13.

So without that to be concerned about today, we found ourselves a bit at loose ends as to what to post, so we decided to go simple and post Roxy's version of yesterday's "Wordless Wednesday"...



and

Freedom!

Wee-sa free! Yes friends, after many many long endless weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks (The Mommy sez: Uh kids, it's only been three and a half weeks...) of not getting to go outside, we *finally* got to go out again yesterday evening! The Mommy said that Bugsy's incision from his surgery had healed up enough for it to be safe for him to go out, and with a change in the weather pattern, the temperature finally cooled enough so we wouldn't immediately burst into little kitty balls of flame. (The Mommy sez: "Cooler" being a relative term...92 instead of 102 by the time I got home from work. That's practically an arctic cold front in Texas in July!)

While we all had a good time hanging out, eating grass, and rolling around on the concrete and in the dirt, Sassy particularly had fun attacking one bush:


While Pixie was doing the same to the one right next to it:


The weather is supposed to stay cooler for the next several days -- albeit with threats of isolated thunderstorms most days -- so we hope to get some more chances to get out before it gets hot again. And also before Bugsy gets grounded again; his eye surgery is on Thursday, so he'll no doubt be on "no outside" restrictions again after that for awhile, which means so will the rest of us...

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Round-Up

This and that on a lazy weekend...

Bugsy's v-e-t visit went fine yesterday. His staples came out, and while the incision isn't 100% healed, it's about 95% and the doc said the rest will heal up fine on its own with Bugsy being able to keep it clean on his own. I didn't bring up the occasional peeing issue as the regular guy was out and there was a stand-in, so I figured I'd just keep an eye on the Bugster and see how he does (I honestly can't say how often he's peeing outside the box since the surgery as I don't follow him around watching ). As regular bloggie readers may recall, Bugsy's other health issue is the tumor in his right eye which will result in eye removal surgery; that has now been scheduled for July 23. Poor little guy, I hate doing that to him but it's the best way to ensure that if it *is* a cancerous tumor, that nothing spreads to other parts of his body. And the only real way to find out if it's cancerous, is to remove it and send it off for testing. It's the best of bad options, basically.

As for more pleasant things, we received 3 awards from wonderful kitty friends this week! First, on Tuesday Reese gave the blog as a whole what she translated from Spanish or perhaps Portuguese as the "your blog doesn't stink" award, that she received from Eric and Flynn.


It appears the only rules for this one are to link back to who you got it from, and tag 5 others to get the award. So we tag the following kitties:

1. Gandalf and Grayson (and Whitey too!)
2. Ginger Jasper
3. Fin
4. Tuck
5. Noir

Also on Tuesday, Tasha at Mishkat gave to Callie the "Your Blog is a Dream" award, which she received from Jasmim. Then on Saturday, Tristan at Tristan and Crikey's gave Roxy the same award, which she also received from Tasha.


This one's rules are to give 7 beauty tips and pass the award on to 7 bloggers. Rather than do 7 each for Callie and Roxy, we're going to just do 7 total.

Beauty tips:

1. Sleep as much as possible, preferably on your human's lap or at least curled up next to her/him.

2. Be sure to help your human in whatever she/he is doing, whether it's typing on the computer or opening boxes that might contain presents for you. Helping others makes you feel good, and that makes you feel pretty.

3. If your human leaves food out for you all day, be sure to eat plenty of small meals in between naps. Eating small amounts throughout the day rather than snarfing a lot at one time helps keep your weight down!

4. Get outside for a little fresh air, grass, and light exercise if you can, but be sure not to wander off too far where it's not safe, and come in when your human calls for you.

5. If you can't get outside, then lounge in windows or on the floor in spots where the sunlight falls, so you get plenty of Vitamin D to help make your fur shiny.

6. Drink plenty of water and if you live with other kitties, spit at them occasionally just for fun!

7. Last but not least, keep blogging and sharing with others, as it's always good to have other kitties to share your human woes with!

Now, we'd like to share the award with the following friends (it was hard to decide!):

1. Angel and Kirby
2. Eric and Flynn
3. All the kitties at Friends FurEver
4. All the kitties at The Taylor CatSSSSS
5. All the kitties at The Creek Cats
6. MoMo
7. Milo and Alfie

You'll notice there are some mancat-only blogs on the list, we figure even if they think they "don't do beauty" (a silly thing to think but that's boys for ya), they can tell us what they think is beautiful in a girlcat!

So there you have it, the weekend round-up from The Kitty Krew. Enjoy what's left of it, folks!

Callie's Chatter

Hi peoples! It's Tortie Tuesday so here I am in all my tortie goodness, hanging around on the teevee stand thingie.


The window perch is a great place to nap, as well as see what's going on outside when The Mommy won't let us out there to see it on our own.


It's been a little cooler the past couple of days, but we still can't go outside 'cuz Bugsy is still gettin' better from his surgery (and it's not fair if the rest of us go out if he can't).

Speaking of Bugsy, he had a bit of a setback over the weekend. Nothing too major, but The Mommy discovered on Saturday morning that he'd popped his stitches on his belly and she freaked a bit to see a hole in his belly (wouldn't you beans?). So after calling the V-E-T's office, who said to wrap his belly (are they kidding her? YOU beans try wrapping a kitty's belly!) and bring him in on Monday, she kept an eye on him over the weekend to make sure his guts didn't come falling out and back he went yesterday to get his belly stapled rather than stitched this time. Turns out he also has an inner set of stitches on the bladder where the surgery was done, and those are fine and healing well. So even though a hole in his belly isn't really a good thing, it wasn't as bad as The Mommy was imagining. He didn't have to stay overnight so is back home already and laying in The Mommy's lap as she types this for me.

That's all for me for today, Tortie Tuesday. Bye peoples!