Thankful For This Morning
I am thankful for this morning
simple, quiet, common,
and all the memories created
those I can list
and those I can’t express.
Today will become yesterday
these memories will sustain as we travel
a path we would not choose but cannot leave.
This moment is everything.
So this was my Thanksgiving post and all I needed was a photo of the three of them but it was drizzling and I couldn’t keep them together, so I never wrote the post! It’s been a few days, but I’m glad I have the time to post again, and Giuseppe has shown some improvements with some treatments.
But I also had an article due to PetConnections Magazine this week, my quarterly Kitty Korner installment. It was actually due last week and I’d completely missed the deadline thinking it was this Friday. The editor emailed me Monday to ask if I had an article and I told her had one planned and mistook the deadline. She gave me an extension to this past Friday, understanding what I’m dealing with here. It was to be written from one of the webinars I’d watched and I was waiting for the link to the recording to watch it again, but I still haven’t received the recording. I had to choose another topic at the last minute, one where I wouldn’t be able to do too much research in a couple of days and wouldn’t be able to get quotes from any references because of the holiday.
Here they are from November 16, pretty much what a lot of days looked like in the past week.
Then Giuseppe had his second seizure on Tuesday morning. Darn it was hard to come up with a topic! My mind is swirling with symptoms and medications and when things happened and getting work done in time to pay for vet visits and it’s been difficult to keep my focus. Normally I’d write an article about what’s happening here if it’s a health issue of interest, but I don’t know enough about what’s happening. So I chose another topic and drafted an article on Thanksgiving, and decided I’d finish it and send Friday morning and post here with pictures of my pies and a nice sunny morning photo of the three of them.
Mr. Sunshine was happy to test my pies so here’s a photo of that. Seems he likes the pecan pie. He sampled the pumpkin—homegrown pumpkin, homemade pie, including crust, all good.
But Giuseppe had been exhaustingly pacing around between meals and confinement times in the bathroom, and since he’d had that second seizure on Tuesday morning I was watching closely for another, and knowing that this very activity, constantly walking the same routine even when bumping into things, me, the other cats, this could also be seizure activity. Gabapentin wasn’t making any difference, though it’s a classic anti-seizure med. Ingrid had done another reiki treatment and he still seemed scattered and confused, no change. I couldn’t sit around and wait. I ran him to Rivers Veterinary Urgent Care again, and they decided it was time for a referral to a neurology specialist. Finally, possibly more definitive answers, maybe a plan. MedVet had a wait time of six to eight hours, so I went home to finish the article and monitor Giuseppe, then go later when their line of pets waiting had diminished. But when I called later and mentioned the referral, the receptionist told me their neurology specialist was on maternity leave for the next two months. So, too late to call anyone for another referral, I had to wait for the next morning, so I went home and finished making my Thanksgiving dinner that I’d cooked the day before, ate more pie, and monitored Giuseppe while I cleaned up the kitchen.
I updated Dr. Elgersma again about the referral and she suggested trying CBD with Giuseppe. I could pick some up from her on Saturday. I actually tried to write my post, but I couldn’t even stay awake to edit my photos.
We had sun on Saturday, so I finally got my sunny morning photo and called Rivers for the new neurology referrals. And while it was not raining and daylight enough to get things done outdoors, I had to unpack my car, still packed from the previous weekend. I don’t like driving around with my view partially blocked, and the mileage in my Flex is bad enough (I knew that when I bought it) that I don’t need to carry an extra hundred pounds or so. This time I could put my tent and all the tables and fixtures away for the winter, which meant pulling a lot of things out of my shed—dog crates for fostering and cat traps and trapping supplies, supplies for making winter shelters, boxes of canning jars from the basement and so on—and fit everything back in there when I was done. I could finally take out the defunct printers and monitors I had stashed in the shed and basement and in my studio because Staples takes them at no charge to recycle, so they went into the back of my car.
And then I could finally go and pick up the goods for Giuseppe! Dr. Elgersma also had some calming treats that she recommended and a few others good for the three of them, and a Chinese herb supplement for thyroid-related hypertension. Lots to add to the daily regimen, but no problem. I gave Giuseppe two calming treats and his first dose of CBD, and he relaxed, maintained into the morning. Outdoors first thing then breakfast and another dose, he relaxed even more, seemed to be able to focus on what he was doing and where he was going, and was more responsive to me calling to him indoors and out. He even went up and down stairs, slowly, but without jumping off the edge or stumbling, or getting lost in the basement. Then he slept all afternoon with Mr. Sunshine and Mimi in the kitchen. It’s like we just turned him down to “low.” I did put him in the bathroom for a bit when it looked as if he had to use the litterbox. He did and napped while I got more work done.
So tomorrow I take him to my regular veterinarian for a blood draw for their comprehensive blood tests, then we’ll talk on Tuesday. I’ll send records to Dr. Sudberg at PetWellClinic and get her input. And wait to hear from the specialists and get an appointment sometime soon, I hope.
A nice photo of Giuseppe from November 15, after he’d been diagnosed with reduced vision in his right eye but before he started seizures and wandering.
You can read more about his condition in my most recent update from last Tuesday.
I’m feeling cautiously optimistic
Still not sure where this is going to go, but purrs are welcomed. I have heard from friends whose cats began seizures in their teens and other anti-seizure medications actually did the trick. Others, not so much. But I’m really happy with how quickly the CBD calmed him. I hope that’s a good sign. Still missing my Giuseppe and all his usual habits. Just hope we can make something out of this.
More cost of care…
The two vendor sales totaled about $100, so at least I covered my table fees. I will be selling my gift items at cost to HCMT to give as gifts to volunteers; I’ve been doing this at the end of each year for several years and I’ll probably net more than if I had an open house or any other sale, so I’m looking forward to it. No more vendor events, but I can be home for emergencies.
Looking at the costs for Giuseppe’s bloodwork and also returning to PetWellClinic with Mimi and Mr. Sunshine for updated T4 and full bloodwork for Sunshine will add up.
I will be selling off all my gift items, but you can still order custom items and gift certificates. Please go ahead and visit my website www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net and check those!
I also have a freestanding website for my memorial votives: www.CustomPetMemorialVotives.com .
If you choose, I also have a donation button on this page on this website.
And if you did want to donate another way, my Paypal address is bernadette @ bernadette-k . com and my Venmo is @Bernadette-Kazmarski. And thank you for caring, whether you buy something or donate or not.
Here are some ideas…
As always, if you would like to help me with veterinary costs, I would be so grateful. Right now all this is taking in as much as I’m earning, and then some. In addition to these three, Mimi is due for her annual visit, Morty still needs prescription foods until I can get him back to the veterinarian for his workup so he can be up for adoption, and all of them need to eat. I want to keep them all comfortable in whatever way is best for each cat.
- Consider a Custom Pet Memorial Votive for yourself or a family member or friend. Remember that they don’t actually have to be memorials—a votive with someone’s pet on it while they are very much alive is also a nice custom gift!
- I have one of each of the Tortie Girls block prints and one of Awakening, all are matted and framed.
- And consider even a small portrait of one or more of your fine felines.
If you have any questions, please let me know! And thanks for any help.
Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork
Great Rescues Day Book:
Portraits, Rescue Stories, Holidays and Events, Essential Feline Information, All in One Book
Each month features one of my commissioned portraits of a feline or felines and their rescue story along with a kitty quote on the left page, and on the right page the month name with enough lines for all possible dates, with standard holidays and animal-themed observances and events. Great Rescues also includes a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings including information on finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.
Each book includes also 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.
The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.
Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
Nice post. You amaze me- you save cats, create beautiful art plus make your own crust and grow pumpkins- wow!
THose sweeties were enjoying the fresh smells out there.
They like that most of all! Some mornings we are only out there five minutes, but it’s the best five minutes of the day.
Sending purrayers and Power of the Pw to all of you.
Thank you! It all helps.
hope stuff ternz a round for ewe dood…..for de good, better, best
az all wayz, de manee blessingz oh st francis two ewe
dood…pea ezz…tell mom B ta look in two omega 3’s and all sew valerian root
huh?
Purring for Giuseppe
Thank you so much! I’d love to just be able to find out more. This has all been so difficult.