Loving Fall

I love this season. I can put on my snuggly sweaters and it gives me a good reason to cuddle a lot more! We have hardly turned on our heat so we are not the only ones who are snuggling....


Coodie actually has both paws wrapped around Gussie as he snoozes.And now Gussie has his head on Coodie. They slept like this for hours on their snuggly bed. Ahhhh, to be snuggly and warm....

Boothbay Harbor

We just love visiting the coast and the best time to go is just before summer or just after summer when there are less people! As posted before, we headed to our yearly spot in Ogunquit Labor Day weekend and then during the first weekend in October, we headed to Boothbay Harbor with my parents. Although we arrived in the midst of a torrential downpour, the rest of the weekend was beautiful - perfect fall weather. We went for a hike on the first morning through Ovens Mouth. We brought our packed lunch and had a perfect day for a hike.In the afternoon, we headed into downtown Boothbay for some shopping and Ryan met up with a bear who was quite dapper in his fishing vest.This was the view from our hotel rooms at the Ocean Point Inn in East Boothbay. It had a great restaurant to boot.Mom, Ryan and Dad on our oceanside walk the morning we left. Thanks mom and dad for another fun trip!

Birthday Trip 2010!

Now that our big boy Coodie is feeling a lot better, I want to go back to Labor Day weekend and my birthday trip to Ogunquit! We have taken this trip almost every year we have been together because my birthday used to fall on the holiday weekend but in the past 2 years, it has been the week before. That's okay, though. It just means my birthday celebration last longer...I'm all about dragging it out.

This year, we found a new favorite place for dinner. Oarweed is a restaurant on Perkins Cove with a direct view of the water. We were told they had one of the best lobster rolls (which was more of a lobster sandwich) in town and Ryan was really craving one so we headed over there. I can't stomach shellfish although I have tried (an allergy perhaps?) but I do enjoy fresh fish so I was also happy with my broiled haddock. We had a seat outside overlooking the ocean and a nice walk back to the hotel along Marginal Way in the dark....very dark but pretty cool listening to the waves crash.

The view from Marginal Way during the day.

We also went swimming...brrrrr. I have extremely sensitive skin and eczema so the salt water is like heaven even though it felt like dipping in a large vat of ice.

We also found a new tapas bar called "Tapas and Tinis"...yum! Above, I am pictured with my Lemonade Stand martini Ryan's delish rum punch. Below is the tapas we ordered of homemade pita chips and guacamole.

I so love the ocean so we also spent a lot of time walking along the beach, through town and along Marginal Way. After dinner one night, we stopped in to the bakery and picked up some cookies and milk and had our treats on the adirondack chairs overlooking the water (the photo above was the view).... ahhhhhh... Can I go back now? Thanks for another relaxing and fun trip, babe!

Not so relieved....

Apparently I was a bit premature on my last post titled "Relief". Yesterday afternoon, Coodie started yowling and hissing and his belly was sensitive to the touch. We remembered the signs and took him directly to the emergency vet center. Since Coodie's regular vet is not open on the weekends, we have to take him to the animal er.


The signs we remember were from back in April when he had a bladder stone that blocked his urinary tract which also blocked him from urinating. When this happened, he was hospitalized for 2 nights while he was sedated and catheterized. He was sent home with special prescription food which was to help in avoiding future stones.


Fast forward to a few weeks ago when he was ill from a stomach bug....our big guy was x-rayed. They found out that he still had the bladder stone from April and when out vet started reading the records, we found out that the doctor at the emergency vet clinic pushed the stone back into his bladder so it has been bouncing around for the past 5 months just waiting to find it's way back to his urethra.


There we were (yesterday) at the er again with a new doctor. She states..."if this were my cat, I would want the stone out of there..." Heck, yes we do and we did! We had NO idea that the stone was pushed back in and were under the assumption that it had been removed back in April. This new vet had a more natural, holistic and preventative approach and it is so unfortunate we had not met her months or even years ago.


She was able to push the stone back in to his bladder, cut into his bladder and remove it. The stone is now on it's way to the midwest somewhere to be analyzed. Once we find out what type of stone it is, we can figure out what the game plan is for the remaining stones in his kidney (yes, he has them there as well but they are not nearly as dangerous as the one was in his bladder).



Coodie's shaved belly and incision area.

So, we have Coodie back home with a fully shaved belly with a 6cm incision. He is a little drugged but otherwise doing very well happily sitting by the back slider. We just really feel so bad that he has been through so much lately and this last bout may have been the original vet's fault... which is not a good feeling. We are hopeful that his prognosis will be excellent once we get the stone results back and he will have a long and happy life with us as he is such an important member of our family.
Coodie eating (above) with his IV bandage still on his front right leg. Below, he is sitting in his favorite spot upon his return from the ER - by the back slider watching the birds. He is a little drugged up but doing quite well considering!

Relief

I am fully convinced that relief is one of the best feelings you can have and the amazing thing is that I am feeling this right now and of course this comes with a story....


...oh, and it's about Coodie who is the namesake of the blog and our very dear 4 year old orange cat who looks like a miniature lion and we love very, very much.


About 3 or 4 weeks ago Coodie started having diarrhea (did I also mention this story contains items about his stool?) on a pretty regular basis and I noticed there was also some blood in there. We took him to the vet and they quickly diagnosed and cured his swollen anal glands by expressing the fluid out of them. We were sent home with some probiotic supplements to add to his food...but, he wouldn't eat his food if it was in there. So, his diarrhea continued and this past weekend he started throwing up and stopped eating. Monday morning, I took him to the vet. They quickly warned me that Coodie was in a bit of a danger zone...cats that don't eat for 3 days or more (Cood was on day 2.5) are in risk of getting fatty liver disease which sounds bad but the reality is VERY bad. The vet tech then put him on the scale. Wow, he had lost 2 pounds in 11 days...for a 13.5 pound cat, that is pretty significant. I choked back tears while I learned that I needed to leave Coodie at the vet for x-rays, a urinalysis and blood tests.




Coodie at the vet feeling pretty yucky.


That afternoon I worked from home and was worried sick. I called Ryan and cried on his voicemail....I then called my mom and sobbed openly (I am not proud of myself for losing control but it is what it is...). The receptionist called a few hours later and asked me to come back to the office for a "discharge appointment" at 4:30. Luckily, Ryan had come home and was able to join me.


When we arrived, they only had information on his x-rays. They informed us that poor Coodie had no food in his stomach or his intestines and the lining of both was very thick, indicating severe irritation and until they got the blood results back, we would not know exactly why. The other thing we learned - which had nothing to do with his diarrhea and nausea - was that he had a bladder stone and several kidney stones. This meant our kitty could not properly process calcium and was in danger of having ANOTHER blocked urinary tract. This issue last occurred in April of this year and cost Coodie 2 nights of hospitalization and his mama and papa quite the vet bill (well worth every penny for his health!).

The most immediate issue was his weight loss and the immediate need to get nutrients into his body. We were sent home with antibiotics in pill form to feed him every 12 hours and very high calorie food that we needed to force feed him with a syringe.

We fed him like this for 2 days when we started to see his eyes sparkle a bit and his spunk come back and finally he was eating on his own...yippee!!! Then, came the ultimate...a solid poo in the litter box. Yes! Ryan and I were high fiving and dancing around the house. Our top cat was back! Even better was that it appeared to be a stomach bug and all of his tests came back normal. We still have to keep an eye out for a blocked urinary tract but we now know what to look for if that happens (no pee in the box, a full bladder and a grouchy Cood). The food he is now on will start to dissolve these stones and soon we will be completely out of the woods.


For now, I am so happy to see the happy boy greeting me at the door at the end of the day... along with my two other guys - really, what could be better?

Cousins BBQ

My sister-in-law, Allison had a great idea to have a BBQ with some of Ryan's local cousins last weekend and we had such a great time. It is so rare that we see each other unless someone is getting married and since we are all now married and starting to have kiddos (well...everyone except Ryan and I!) we don't ever see one another. So, last Sunday, we headed to Allison and Mark's and got to catch up with Ryan's cousins Heather with her family and Lindsy with her family. I think we will try to make this a regular gig!

The ladies above...Lindsy, Heather, me and the hostess Allison.

The guys below...Mike, Mark, Ryan and host Mark.

The little ladies...Ella, Chelsea, Phoebe and Olivia. Chelsea did a great job taking care of the little ones.Hunter eating his s'more.Allison's and my birthday are both in August so our mother-in-law, Donna, called and ordered and arranged for Ryan to pick up a special surprise from Frederick's Pastries for our dessert....super YUM!The kids table.

Phoebe pretty excited that Chelsea gave her some of her old toys.Mark playing Bag-O.Mark and Cody the dog.Ella enjoying her cake!Tired Olivia.

Mike and Olivia.

Thanks to Mark, Allison, Chelsea and Hunter for hosting us!

Coodie and Guster

Since we don't have human kids yet, our cats suffice as our main subject in a lot of our photos...a fact that we take a lot of ribbing for! Let's just say, they are our "starter cats". I was sorting through some photos and found a whole bunch of the cats that don't necessarily fit into a blog entry about a holiday, vacation or most of the things I blog about. They are too cute not to share and heck, who doesn't like some cute cat photos to help brighten the day?

They like to sleep a whole lot and we love to see what strange positions they have contorted their little bodies into.

Like most cats, they really like boxes a lot. In fact, when we try to break them down to take them out, they will often sit inside or on top of the box in protest.Depending on their mood, they also dislike us working when they would like to play. Gussie even laid across Ryan's laptop at one point. Apparently the incessant beeping of the keys didn't bug him as much as it bugged us!

Gus really likes it where it is warm whereas Coodie seems to like the cool basement. I had just turned around to start the dishes after cooking breakfast and he quickly scurried up to cuddle on the still warm stovetop.

I've done posts on Coodie's visits to the vet before so here is Gus' first visit. He made himself right at home and completely charmed all the ladies there by cuddling right up to them as they tried to give him vaccines and take his temperature. He has very little anxiety about hanging out with new friends.Of course, we like to get in the shots as well....They are both a lot of fun to have around and there is nothing like coming home at the end of a long day and having these fuzzy guys run toward you to say hello! I know I have said it before but it always bears repeating....animals truly are food for the soul.