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It's so cold, we had to light California on fire to keep warm.
Freezing at night, foggy in the morning, then hot and sunny during the day. So far all predictions of rain have not panned out. Now they say at the end of the week. We shall see.
I made a lovely meatloaf from homemade pork sausage and elk burger last night. It turned out wonderful. So far today I chopped up some dried cranberries and pecans, which are soaking in some caramel syrup. They will be added to a batch of scones.
Other than cooking and piddling, we batten down the hatches for the inevitable storms. Replanting, apple picking, general clean up.
Last Friday the 13th was not its usual lucky day for our family. Derek’s kitty was diagnosed with Feline Aids. One would think he had lost his entire family. After the initial sobbing, (let’s see you remain dry eyed when a 6 foot something teenage boy bawls uncontrollably over a cat), I became an expert (which means I seemed to know more than the vet) by researching on the web for about an hour. We have discovered much. First off, the Feline Aids Vaccine leaves much to be desired. It is supposed to immunize for two of the five types of Kitty Aids. Our vet said she was actually involved in the vaccine test trials. She said it didn’t seem to work very well, if at all. Now for the horrible part. If your kitty is vaccinated before it is tested (like ours was), she will probably test positive for the virus for a very long time, or forever. That is with the snap test. There is a more expensive blood test ($100), but reviews on its ability to tell the difference between a vaccinated kitty and a FIV positive kitty are mixed. My vet said she would call the testing company and ask questions. To date we have no DEFINITIVE answers. You have to educate yourself, because obviously, veterinarians aren’t real up on things. And they always know more than they tell you. Pretty much exactly like human doctors.
Anyway. From what I have read, the worst thing you can do to an FIV positive kitty is to give them the FIV vaccine. Or perhaps any vaccine. Now, if the kitty was vaccinated, and tests positive with the snap test, it should give a weaker positive reading than an FIV positive kitty. And perhaps the results will lessen with time, so ensuing snap tests, every 6 months to a year are in order. That being said, our kitty gave a VERY strong positive reading. Chances are, she has the virus. We have no false hopes here. Other indications of the disease are pretty much any chronic health problems. Our kitty came to us with weepy, dirty eyes. That has cleared up, for the most part, but she does get watery eyed and sneezes a lot. Allergies? Could be. Could also be kitty herpes. Sigh. The vets’ advice: take her home, take good care of her. Online advice, plenty of nutritional information, and herbal treatments. Thymus support. How to get your kitty to ingest these things (our kitty will eat anything if it comes in vanilla ice cream for instance). There is a book out about FIV, but the biggest endorser of it seems to be the herbal company that the book suggests you purchase herbal concoctions from. Yeah.
Other FIV kitty owner web pages speak of desperate efforts, bone marrow transfusions, interferon. Seems that the biggest killer of FIV positive kitties is wasting, same as their human counterparts. So keeping them fat and healthy is a good thing. The less stress, the better too. Kitties are very sensitive to stress. Lots of loving. Needless to say, our kitty is getting even more (as if that’s possible) spoiled rotten. No one seems to have any for sure answers for anything. Life expectancy predictions range from months to a full life time. So any of you good people out there who have or are experiencing this in their household, do drop me a line and blah blah.
That's me. First the child got a sinus infection. Then I got him medicine. Which made him throw up. ALOT. All last weekend. Then I got the flu. And I missed Pril's visit.
All week it's been horridly hot in the day, and very cold at night. More like Bend weather. I picked tomatoes and apples and green beans and corn. Tons of different squashes. Then I scored about 100 lbs of .50 cent a lb pork. So I made sausage all day. Which, is amazingly easy. No, I will never buy ground meat from the store. EVER. So I have been a busy little duck. Cleaning, transplanting, taking children and animals to the doctor and/or vet.
And the big news on the homefront:
Derek won the bronze in his first forensics meet.
Cow is vacationing in Mehico and we are afraid they might not let him back over the border.
Goat is keeping oddly silent.
Surfer is getting married.
Yes.
Let me repeat that.
SURFER
IS GETTING
MARRIED.
I know.
I just love reading about the crap that they do to our food. More proof that if you don't grow it, you shouldn't eat it. I love the part about where the cereal box contains more nutrition than the cereal. NOW I know what to feed my kids!
Following the same homeworld motif, I have washed all of my living room walls save one. I varnish oiled the part panelled with the wood, the older stuff, not the new looking crap that I hate. I dusted and wiped and put up a few Halloween decorations. A pile of different squashes that I grew. A pile of pie pumpkins that I bought at the Wednesday market last week (didn't grow any of those this year, only so much room for creeping squashees!), couple handfuls of decorative corn from same market, and Mr Fiberoptic cute til you puke ghost man. Almost done with the laundry, bathroom clean. Whee! Once I get my kitchen a bit more user friendly I will be in baking mode again. Til then, I eat the loverly biscuits that my visiting 3rd cousin brought me. Any food that comes from that womans kitchen is DIVINE.
Which of course, means football Sunday. I no longer have the extra braincells necessary to pay attention to football. Sorry.
So the weather around here has been exceedingly HOT and DRY with a couple of days of cotton candy fog. Its very cool when its foggy, then the sun comes out and scorches everything. Like right now. Pril is running around here somewhere. I think she is at the Yurt today. I must find her.
Oh and, I'm glad to see that Science is once again making our most horrible nightmares come true. Thank God someone finally found some living T-Rex tissue.
