This week has been a bit hellacious.  I woke up Monday morning to find two puddles of blood by the back door where Suki usually sleeps, and Suki was no where to be seen.  I whistled and called for her but she didn’t come.  Toby and I started looking for her.  We found that a bear had broken into the fenced chicken coop area and emptied the barrel of scratch (I hadn’t yet cleaned up since we got rid of the chickens last week).  The bear also broke into the compost bin on the other side of the house from the coop.  About 10 feet from the front door was a few clumps of Suki’s fur.  Our neighbors came up with their dog to sniff around, and we all searched for hours, with no sign of her.  I thought she was gone.  I figured she had fought with the bear and then went off into the woods to die.  My only hope was that she died quickly, without much pain.  I was fidgety all morning, trying to keep my hands busy while my mind spiraled with thoughts of my poor, sweet dog.

Mid-day, a neighbor who lives way down the hill (and who we’ve only talked with once in the past 5 years) drove up to our house and said they found our dog in the woods by their house.  She was alive, but injured.  Toby went down there and wrapped her up in a blanket to get her in the car.   I didn’t even look at her injuries, I just drove straight to the vet’s.

The vet was fabulous, saw to her immediately, and even let me come in the back for the procedures.  Her left hind leg was badly injured.  Either the claw or the jaws of the bear had gotten a good swipe at her.  There was a lot of bruising and some very deep punctures.  Drains were placed to help keep the fluid flowing out (and not building up under the skin), and the vet stitched up what she could.  Once she was stable, I brought her home.

For the first two days, she wouldn’t pee, though she was walking well considering her injuries.  For the first 3 days, she wouldn’t eat.  I had to force feed her by putting liquid food in a syringe and squirting it in her mouth.  Today, she has begun eating well and is peeing on her own.  Her drains were taken out yesterday and her wounds have begun to heal, though there is still a lot of bruising.  Her stitches will remain for another week.  She is on lots of meds and herbs, but I am truly amazed at the strength of my sweet, old Suki.  She never complains.  My sweet Suki is an 11 year old Akita (that’s like 90 in human years for an Akita), and yet she will defend her home and her family against a full sized black bear!  What an amazing protector!!! From now on, she will have more loving, more treats, and more snuggles!!!

On a bit of a side note, Suki was diagnosed with heart worm 4 months ago.  I was very surprised, because we aren’t supposed to have that much in our area.  But, apparently I was wrong.  I’ve been using herbs for her instead of the very harsh meds that are available through the vet right now.  I’m happy to say that they did a heart worm test when she was at the vet this week and she is heart worm negative now!!!  The herbs did their job.  Now, she just needs to work on healing that leg and living to a happy, spoiled old age.

There are a couple of pictures to follow, but they aren’t for the squeamish.  So, be warned.

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… is doing very well.  He’s back to his normal super snuggly self!  Yay!

My sweet cat Max is at the vet for a reaction to Sergeant’s Gold flea drops. He’s never had flea problems because he’s an indoor cat. But yesterday I noticed a bunch of fleas on him. I ran out to get something because he was starting to pull his hair out and scratch like crazy. I wish I’d listened to my gut and not used it… the ingredients seem so toxic. But I said, “I’m sure he’ll be fine. Lots of people use this stuff.” Well, this morning he was having a neurotoxic reaction with muscle spasms and shaking! The vet thinks he’ll be okay, but it will take a day or two for him to recover. She said she’s seen reactions like this before, fairly frequently!!  Why is crap like this on the market????!!!  Poor Max is on Valium and muscle relaxants while he waits it out!!
DON”T USE SERGEANT”S FLEA AND TICK PRODUCTS!!!

Wow… this just isn’t a good time for us as far as our animals go.

Poor Suki tore her ACL on Monday and needs major surgery.  She was just running around the land and must have taken a wrong step.  It’s just like a torn ACL in humans.  Since she is an 85 pound Akita, really the only viable option for her is to get TPLO surgery (If she were a smaller or much less active dog, she could have “suture” surgery, but it doesn’t work as well on larger dogs)  This is going to run us $2500+ (AHHH! there goes the savings!) but it will get her a new knee basically.   She’s 9 years old, yes, but she’s very active and healthy and if we did nothing she would go down hill very fast, probably tear the other ACL (because she is now putting more weight on that leg), and lose the use of both back legs!

This has made me think more about my decision to try to rehome the cats.  It seems like if I can spend that much on surgery for my dog, then I should be able to do more for my cats.  I know, I know, I’m so fickel!  It’s just it’s permanent!  If I get rid of them they are gone for good and that’s that!  I love my cats, it’s just that they are driving me crazy right now!  Maybe they need more toys… Maybe some outdoor time… Maybe a pet therapist (maybe I need a therapist!)

Anyway, Suki is scheduled for a consult with an orthopoedic surgeon next week.  Poor Suki!

Please don’t send hate mail…. please don’t tell me what a horrible, unfeeling cat mother I am… I know that once you adopt an animal you are promising them a ‘forever’ home… but life brings changes and I feel that this decision is to enhance the lives of my cats!

After many months of contemplation I have come to the heart breaking conclusion that I need to find my three devons another home.  Very long story short, I’ve had Max (my 11 year old) since he was a baby.  I got him with his brother, Mulligan.  Mully died when they were 5 years old (from a severe rabies vaccination reaction), and a few months after that I gave birth to my first child.  Max was very sad and unhappy.  All he wanted was to be on my lap, or on my head, or on my shoulders, but those places were now taken up with a baby.  We moved a lot in the 4 years to follow and finally decided, last year, that it was time to get Max some playmates.  So, we adopted 2 more devons (a 5 year old mama and her kitten).  They have all become fast friends and love each other, but now I have 3 devons that only want my lap, and guess what… I have a new baby.  Every time I sit down to nurse him there are three cats pushing him aside and trying to get love.  They won’t go to my husband or my daughter for affection, and my arms are always full.  So, for the past year, no one has been happy, and I feel SO guilty.  They follow me around and meow for affection.  I’ve been thinking about it and talking it over with my family for months now, and finally decided that they would be happier in another home with someone who could compeltely dote on them.  I also think it’s important that they go to a family that has had devons or atleast knows and understands their idiosynchcracies.  They are crazy cats… not like a standard aloof cat!  They love attention and want to be with you 24/7, they are talkative, energetic, and require (insist on) your affection.

Like I said, Max is 11 and in good health.  He’s a bit overweight, but he is also big for a devon.  Max has allergies for many standard cat foods, so he gets raw rabbit that I get from the local pet food store.  Isabella is 6 and in great health.  Daisy (the kitten) is 17 months and gets ‘goopy eye’ occassionally.  The vet said it is a type of cat herpes (not conatagious)…. when ever she gets it, I put a little lysine in her food and it goes away.  Otherwise she is also in great health.

I would like them to go to a home together.

Are you someone who could be a devoted and overly affectionate devon parent???  Will you let them sleep on your head and sit on your shoulders?  Will you talk back to them when they meow at you?  Will you mind them being at your feet?   Please email if you think you can give them a good home!

I… just… can’t…. get… close… enough!!!

With two other warm laps in the house, you’d think the cats would learn to move elsewhere as I lose my lap space. But no… they just shove themselves in where ever they can!

Is there anyone on the other side of this thing??

Meow!! I mean ROAR!!!

Oh, please don’t let my mighty fangs scare you! I’m really a very gentle cat!

(Pictures taken by John Narrin, the photographer for the New Life Journal. Their building experts came over on Friday to check out our place. They are doing a review/feature on our place in their April, 2009 edition!!)

What ‘cha eatin’??

OOOOhhhhh, eggs! So, if I lean in a little closer, I can get some, right?

Hey Wait! Isn’t that last bite for me??

You know, if you want me to warm your lap while you eat, you are going to need to move your arm!

We finally got our kitties! We’d been putting it off until we were in the house. There is still a ton of unpacked stuff and clutter that they can get into, but we were ready to have them come home. They are roaming around the house right now, figuring out where everything is. They chortle at each other to keep tabs on where the other cat is. Isabella is a 3 year old black and white devon rex and she is really beautiful. Her coat is so shiny and soft. She has really cool racing strips on her hind legs! She’s a total love, too! She runs at you, head butts you, and rubs against you as hard as she can. And if you put your hand above her, she will grab it with both front paws and rub it with her head. She wasn’t being very photogenic though, so I’ll post more pics later.

Her daughter is about 3 1/2 months old and a little wild child. She’s a tortoiseshell in color and very pretty also! She found a toy that we attached to the door and played with it for ~1 hour tonight. Kaia has decided to call her Crazy McDaisy… Daisy for short. So now we have another Daisy the curly haired cat


Max is not the happiest of cats. He has been cranky and hiding most of the day. When the cats get close to him he growls and hisses. Hopefully they will learn to be friends! He could use a good snuggle friend!

I’m sorry to say that little Rosie died yesterday morning.  We really thought she was going to make it.  After 5 days of eating well we’re not sure what happened.  She may have gotten cold at night, but she was kind of sluggish the day before yesterday, so I don’t know.  We had a little burial for her and Kaia let Rosie have her toy mousie and a little cloth to be buried with.  We’ll miss her… we’d gotten quickly attached to having her little (6 gram) body nuzzled up in our hand to eat and sleep.

Here’s Rosie sleeping in Kaia’s hand after a big meal.

So, I’ve entered Max and Suki in a beauty contest Please go and vote!! Bissell Vacuum Cleaners will have 15 weeks of voting. Each week 5 pets will win (based on appearance, coat, and expression). From the final 75, they will chose one to be their spokes pet (they will get their photo on their new Pet Hair Eraser vacuum). But the really big thing is that the winner also gets $10,000 donated to the pet cause of their choice!! That’s huge! This week, I’ve entered Suki (only I misspelled her name.  There are tons of pictures, so do a search for “sukki” and then click on her picture.  You can only vote once, so don’t click any other pet… just Sukki!!  ). So go and vote for her, and then let me know who you think I should donate the winning $ too!!!