An Update on rescue kitty, Little Boy Blu

A update on Little Boy Blu!

Poor Little Boy Blue just keeps having more problems with his ugly cat bite abscess. We took him to the vet Sunday night a week ago, they lance and drained it and said it would look bad with a huge scab and when the scab came off we should see healthy pink tissue. Well, that happened but it seemed, we were seeing a lot more that we should be, his muscle was showing along with his bone showing scarcely covered by tissue.

IT started last night when I heard someone throwing up and I saw Blak upchucking and it continued for about 6-8 times all over the room. I was following him as as fast as I could with paper towels and trying to get it away from Blu and Emma wanting to look or eat it. YUK!

As it cleaned it up I thought I saw something really gross and yes I did. IT wasn't much throw up, I was mainly yellow bile, but it had a l-o-n-g- worm in it that almost looked like spaghetti. Well, I decided to save the paper towels in a zip lock bag and it was around 7PM. The vets were closed, well, except for our good vet across town. So, we got both cats in crates and Emma and trucked off to the Vet in a terrible rainstorm. we got over four inches of rain form Tropical Storm Ida that came ashore near Pensacola Beach, yesterday morning. It had rained all day long and just continued all day.

Well, we got there about 45 minutes later and we were about the only one's there. We got right in and they looked at Blak and took him off to weigh him, 12 lbs and do some labs. Meanwhile they returned to look at Blu and his leg just opened everyone's eyes that this would was was worse than was imagined at first when it was so big and black from the dead skin 9 days ago..
The Doctor took him back for sutures and had to put him to sleep. He was such a good boy and he had been the first time in also. But, what was it weird is when they get our chart, the doctors and the staff (and there is large staff) always remember Emma. Our Emma! She does get attention everywhere she goes. She was there when she was spayed and just for routine shots. and they remember her from all the animals they see.

Well, Back to Little Boy Blu, he has a transparent collar he HAS to wear for 10 days at least or until the stitch can come out in 10-15 days depending how they look. She said she does not like to stitch an abscess, but in this case it had to be done. He was so groggy when he came back to us and he tried to get the thing off his head as expected. So I left him in his crate all night long so he would not hurt himself.
He is now laying under my feet like normal and I am just thankful to have him home and healing. Black was also sent back home with some medicine for the next few days for the worm. It has kind of disappeared in the paper towel when I tried to show them and I also had a stool sample with me so I came equipped. Blu also got some medicine for the worm and she said Emma would be covered because she gets Sentinel every month for her heartworm RX and it is good for worms also or at least this kind. They believe it to be a round worm.
So, we have another pharmacy set up at home just like when Bob was getting his IV. I will have to get a basket to put in it to keep it all together so we can keep the schedule as required. Some RX AM and PM and some three days apart. A lot to remember!
I am just thankful for my animals and I do believe taking Luke back was the proper thing and he is not on their adoptable list so maybe he did find a wonderful home last while on his good behavior I hope at Pet Smart. I don't think keeping him away from Blu would be an easy thing to do now and Blu definitely does not need that trauma.

Poppies for Remembrance

In Flanders Fields
Lieut-Col John McCrae, 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


The red poppy has been part of Remembrance Day services since the early 1920's, and is now worn on other commemorative occasions, including ANZAC Day. During the First World War the battlefields were literally churned by high explosive shells, creating a surreal landscape of mud, entangled barbed wire and water filled craters.

When given a brief chance to recover, and especially after the 1918 Armistice, the first flowers to bloom were the red poppies. In 1915, Canadian Brigade Surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918), was so moved by the sight of the fields of poppies stretching across the Ypres battlefield that he put pen to paper and wrote his moving poem,
"In Flanders Fields."




I have mostly heard today called Veteran's Day and I honor all men and women who have or are serving our country to defend what make me be a free person. Birmingham has a Large Veteran's Day Parade downtown and I have only seen it a couple of times. When we worked downtown you got caught up in traffic from all the closed streets as they were filled with Army Tanks and School Bands. So, we just stood around and watched the parade. I love a parade, I always have!

I know my father served in Korea in the 1940's, but he never spoke much of it. It got my husband and I thinking, I don't know if my grandfathers' served or not. I really don't know. I always heard of my Mother's father working at a bread bakery and I believe that was his only job he ever had. He just always worked there. My other grandfather was killed when I was 6 years old. I remember coming home for lunch from first grade and being told about his trucking accident. I did not return to school that day. It was truly sadness that day and I do remember that we were very close.

My husband Bob remembers riding the Greyhound Bus with his grandfather to his parents and brother's graveside in Lebonan, Mo form Springfield and he is now buried in the Springfield, Mo. National Cemetary. My father also is buried in Springfield, Mo. but with a war stone at the opposite end of his headstone.

Backtrack this week

This has been an especially hard week for us as I said I limped along through the Festival. Well, I hurt my left foot again last week while chasing a dog I wanted to adopt who was very strong and two years old. I so badly wanted to get Emma a friend to play with and I saw this Golden Retriever, well partly, a few weeks ago at Petsmart when we were in getting some cat food and a cat pole for Blak and Blu.

Well, they adore their new cat pole but I had been haunted by this dog who was up for adoption from Sanctuary Shelter in Alabaster, Al. where we live. When I clicked every day at http://theanimalrescuesite.com for my daily click and then went to vote for Tears Shelter in Birmingham I saw the Sanctuary Shelter and the dog they called "LUKE" was always still available for adoption. It just hurt my heart to know this dog had no place to call home like Emma when we found her. I told my daughter about his dog and got their number is case we followed through but we just hoped each day he would be adopted by someone and have what he needed.

Well, not to be! Finally last week I gave in and went to get him. He is a very active dog who needed a place to run and play. He was originally adopted by a family who went on vacation and he got out of their yard to be found by someone. They found him to be micro-chipped and called the owner who said to just keep him! What? how can anyone do this?? SO, Sanctuary took him in to find a good home.

He is a beautiful dog and weighs 68 lbs to Emma's 70 lbs, a good fit. I went to get him while Bob was getting a new tire rim for the truck so I had my car and a big pillow in the backseat while Emma rode in the front like she loves to see everyone and what is going on. When I pulled in the driveway they met us with Luke on a leash and I got Emma out on her leash. They played and had fun along with a couple of other dogs for adoption and that are owned by the two sisters who run this shelter.

Her daughter walked the dogs and there were also a couple of cats walking around. Both Emma and Luke were acknowledging the cats by turning their heads to watch them and we noticed that. Ok, I go sign the papers to adopt Luke and he hops in the back seat like Ok, we are ready! The daughters giggled at how fast he jumped in and I told them not to cry to long as we left that we would be back to visit. The leash he had on was theirs' and I would return it as soon as I got him one like it. It is made of nylon but has choke capacities, but not a metal choker.

We don't live far and when we got home my plan to take Emma in the house and then return for Luke after the cats Blak and Blu went away in the bedrooms while he came in and I could slowly introduce them.

Well, he charged out if the car the minute I opened the door and I had him and Emma on Leads but they were pulling me with them, it even pulled me out of my sandals.
It was getting dark and I thought Oh No, what if he gets away from me in the dark and I have already lost him even before I get to my own house. Well, I lost the lead and picked it back up a few times while trying to get them both under control. I finally let Emma go with her leash as I knew what she would do and not go far. AS I was trying to control Luke by now in my neighbor's yard, Bob comes home and has me in his headlights. He parks the car in our driveway and by them I had them both home so we went inside. They barreled in the front door and I got them out the back door to our fenced in backyard.

I was a mess, one of my shoe's was still outside by my car where they had pulled me out of it and the cats had gone running to hide. I got a flashlight to go find it and it was actually between my house and our neighbor's. The dogs were running around outside and ok in the back yard. That night we did not want to yet bring Luke in the house and I was told he was used to being in a crate at night outside. SO he slept on the porch by the back door and was still there sleeping when I woke the next morning. when Emma got up I let her outside and they ran and played all day. They just wore each other out playing and I decided to work outside that day as I had flowers to plant and a couple of pampas grass plants I had got for $1.00 at Lowe's. I could not pass those up and Bob loves them. I puttered around all day and when I noticed my foot hurting on the left side Bob mentioned if I had hurt it chasing the dogs the night before.

I knew it hurt but never even thought about the wild and crazy chase the night before. Yes, but, Oh No!, the memories of my foot pain! They were terrible as in 2003 that is what started my neuropathy eventually after I had a Chemotherapy performed on that foot. I just limped around hoping it would get better, but when we brought the dogs in the house, it was terror with Luke chasing the cats.

I called Sanctuary Shelter and told them my concern about Luke not responding to his name being called and his cat terror along with the fact that I cannot hold him, he is sOOOO strong! We discussed my problem and she said she had renamed him and he did not know his name. Well, that would have been real helpful to have known! Wouldn't he have to have a name to be micro-chipped? She never would tell me any of his past anymore. So, if he did not know his name, I did no have to keep the name Luke, so I re-named him " Dakota" while saying Luke too since that is what he was sort of used to hearing and ignoring. That evening we made a bed for him at the back door on some soft mats I had and an old comforter. He loved it. He slept tight all night till almost 6:30AM when it started getting light the next day. I let Emma out when she got up and they played again. They ran circles around our deck and around the yard. They pulled the stuffing from two squeaky toys to I took the stuffing and squeakers away and all they had to pull with was the cloth.

Barkley, My Grandog came over to spend the night and they played also in the backyard but I grew more concerned as Luke/Dakota nipped at Barkley. Well, Barkley is 10 years and another male so maybe that is why. I was NOT going to have him nipping another dog, NO WAY! IS there more to him I do not know?

Well, we finally decided he had to be returned and he just needed to be the only dog in a family. Gosh, this has been a hard week, so much emotion felt good and bad.
So, I pray he finds a good home that can love him the way he deserves.

My son-in-law had got me a new cane Saturday Morning when we took Barkley home before we went to the Festival Event and I used it to walk with while Bob rode the cart. He can walk but he tires so easily still. He is healing and getting stronger from his surgery and healing with sepsis. We are all getting stronger.

Smiles, Cyndi

Saturday at Moss Rock Festival

We went to this Festival held at The Preserve in Hoover, Alabama on Saturday, November 7, 2009 and Bob rode his scooter and I limped along but I made it the whole way thru to each and every tent of artist's wares. Gosh, We all met so many fun folks, dogs, children, and it could not have been a more delightful day weather wise.

We went last year and can you believe I forgot my camera? I had just taken a few photos with my cell phone camera and this year I used two batteries up on the digital camera. I hate that the slideshow I have prepared is not in the order of the photos as I took them. It scrambled them up for the slideshow. Maybe I should not have made it so large because I could not see all the pages to check for duplicates to get them in the correct order. Anyway, I think you will get a feel for the wonderful art presented at this event. I say to myself: I will be here next year and with a tent! There is so much inspiration to be felt and all the artists' were encouraging to me to just get started. Many of them do not have web-sites, a few have etsy Shoppe's and a few sell locally at the art galleries here in the Birmingham area and over the Southeast.

IM was even standing and talking to a few artist's as they got a Big Sale. I mean $300 to $700 worth of a sale. I saw a lady from New Jersey visiting here with her Mother who got a folk art doll and we named it "Maisey" on the spot as the artist had made her dress a maze of metal squares wired together and she had funky metal hair wire springs. Just adorable! The Mother will Pack and Ship it to her to make it home in good shape. I have seen folks try to carry things in airplanes like this. Grins!

I saw some bottle art with daisies sell at another vendor for a tabletop display, all they have to do is change out the flowers and add water to the bottle vases. Very unique!

We saw beautiful metal fire pits and I spoke up as I always do that these could also be made into beautiful backyard fountains with another layer of metal art. Smiles, he agreed!

I did not have a penny to spend so I apologized to many, I would have loved to have the tiny acorn bird houses. dragonfly pottery, clay bird wreaths, beautiful azure earrings; Oh, So much to see and treasure! I just have to remember..

I told of several folks I have seen on etsy to these artists like a favorite, Cinderella Moments to a girl who makes all paper items, MerriArt(Dame Penniwig) who makes beautiful Colonial earrings, and myself (ByLightOfMoon) I have chenille pumpkins using recycled materials on Etsy.

This whole Festival focuses on Recycle your Household Goods, Reuse and Reduce. The Hoover Fire Department has Plastic Jugs for us to take home, fill with used cooking oil and take them back to the fire department for an exchange to a new jug when full and they recycle the oil into soaps, etc.

The wreaths were all made of recycled natural products, egg cartons, stones, nails, fiber spindles, moss and cactus plants, twigs, metal molds, coke bottles with twine filled with corks, mesh netting, embroidery hoops, and soaps.

This whole Preserve is Surrounded by new Homes with the Preserve in the middle of a rectangle and the artists' tents surrounded it on all four sides so it was a long walk around the whole event with music and food being enjoyed in the middle grassy area. Bob and Emma went to listen and eat while I just strolled around and sharing communication with all I met and I enjoyed making new friends.