LostWoods Blog

For all of you who posted comments about Buzzy’s impending motherhood, she says thanks. She also says that lisa-mom is not nice at all and should let her do anything she wants now that she’s expecting kittens. That would include getting the wet food all to herself and being allowed to eat it on the high shelf away from everyone else, not having to put up with being combed (even if she is shedding like crazy because she’s pregnant), being allowed to pick on all the other girls in the house — because she is, after all, the only one who is pregnant — and being given full access to the hippo room without anyone else going in there. She is a pregnant QoE and can do whatever strikes her fancy at the moment.

Dawnflower, Natane, and Kali have born the brunt of Buzzy’s less than nice behavior. She also swatted Charlie, Bug, and Spaz in the past day or so. The only one safe is the real QoE, whom Buzz knows better than to try to intimidate. Buzz is probably just glad that Grandma Shira declares a moratorium on whacking on the girls when they are pregnant or nursing.

On to other cats… I’d bought a inexpensive new fleece donut bed for Rand down in Bozeman last week because the bed I’d put in the kennel got wet when he knocked over his water dish. I brought it in the house when we got home and put it on the floor in my bedroom thinking he might want to sleep in it there. No, Rand doesn’t much like the new bed. But both Bug and Spaz do. Bug is especially fond of it. This morning she was lying in it and I could not see any of the bed at all, just Bug with her fur all spread out covering the bed. She looked funny, but very happy.

Rand is doing great. (Did I say that before? Probably…) He was still having some drainage from his incision on Saturday, but I didn’t have to clean him up at all this morning. I’ll take him by the vet’s office today after work to have the tube removed and have Dr Jennifer take a quick look at the incision. Rand has been even more playful than usual the last couple days. He’s always a bit of a wild man, chasing through the house and wrestling with the other cats. But now he has taken to attacking shoe laces and pouncing on all kinds of things. I think his head tilt is a little better, too.

One of Rand’s habits that has been quite endearing (when I get over being woke up early in the morning for it) is how he comes to bed and insists on being petted, then eventually (he likes to be petted a LOT!) settles down beside me with his head on my side or chest. Since most of the cats, when they cuddle, have a favorite position they lie in, I hadn’t really thought about how Rand would always put the left side of his head on me. That is the side where the polyp was. Early this morning he came to bed — as usual — and demanded attention — as usual. What wasn’t usual was what he did next. Instead of snuggling up next to me with his head on me, he curled up with his head on my pillow and his front paws stretched out to touch me. I got to thinking… by then I was wide awake and paying attention… that maybe the reason he always rested his head on me was the warmth of my body made his ear feel better. And now that the polyp is gone, he doesn’t need that. I guess I’ll see how it goes. If he quits sleeping with his head on me, I’m sticking to that explanation!

Speaking of a cat who sleeps with us all the time and who likes to sleep with her paws on me… the cat who is currently referred to as “you little slut”… Babies will be arriving at LostWoods around April 6th.

“What?!” you ask?

It’s like this… a certain little cat who was supposed to be waiting for her intended to arrive from Colorado in the next month or so decided she did not want to wait. Instead, she seduced a younger man — an innocent, just turned 7 month old kitten named Charlie. I stopped them and kept them away from each other, but alas, the deed had been done and babies are on the way. Buzzy is going to be a mama.

I’m not all that happy about this. Oh, it’s not a terrible thing — just not what I’d planned. And I am excited about having kittens again — it seems like a long time since the Melons were born. (okay, almost 8 months, but it seems like forever!) It will be interesting to see if Basia carries the gene for solid. If so, we could have a calico in the litter. I’d like that. And Charlie has really nice size and boning, plus a sweet, sweet personality. If he passes those things onto his children, that would be wonderful. But it is still disappointing because I was so looking forward to the kittens out of McCoy and Basia. Sigh…

And speaking of McCoy… Smackadoo went to a show this past weekend and got one final as Best LH and Best AB Champion. He now needs a mere 8 points to be a Grand Champion in CFA. Go, McCoy! He still needs to come visit Kefira, but we’ll probably wait until April or so for that. Kefira will just have to wait. And now that Charlie has been neutered, I don’t have to worry about HER seducing the younger man. Thank goodness!

Rand is doing great. There is still some drainage through his drain tube, which is why it’s there. I cleaned it up lst night and again this morning. He wasn’t terribly excited about holding still for it, but he didn’t make much of a fuss either. He spent last night in our bedroom and was as loving as ever — pestering me for snuggles and pets every couple hours. He does have a couple mats on his back legs that showed up yesterday, but I’m just going to let them go for a few days because I don’t want to argue with him about it. Yes, he’ll try to avoid having me comb his back legs and between his back legs. Those boy cats, even neutered boy cats, are rather sensitive about that. At least mine all are.

As the title of this post says, nothing much is going on with us. The same mayhem and silliness as always. Cats killing household items and clothes. Cats sneaking into the hippo room, thinking they are really getting away with something. Cats snuggling with Ken-dad while he pretends to dislike them. You know, the usual!

I drove down to Bozeman and picked Rand up about 11:00 this morning. He was awake and doing fine — except that he was objecting rather loudly to being in the carrier and the in the kennel all the way home in the car. He has a tube in the incision to drain the “gunk” (very scientific term) but is not on antibiotics or pain meds because Dr Albrecht thought he was responding well and not showing signs of being distressed. I’ll be watching to make sure his eye blink reflex remains acceptable (a possible short term complication) and if he is having issues, he’ll get ointment in the eye until it’s better. The drain comes out on Monday — luckily he pays absolutely no attention to it, so he doesn’t have to wear an Elizabethan collar. He gets the stitches out in about 10 days – 2 weeks and I’ll have Dr Jennifer take a good look at the ear at the same time.

Rand is thrilled to be home. I brought him upstairs with me and sat on the bed with him for awhile. Oh, how he purred! His motor was definitely running full throttle with pleasure at being home and snuggling with lisa-mom. He probably won’t be quite so thrilled with me when I have Ken hold onto him so I can clean his fur and the end of the drain tube. It’s not that it will be painful, but he won’t want me messing with it or us holding him still. He is quite ready to go about things as if he hadn’t had major surgery yesterday. (That’s what my receipt called it — major surgery.) It’s just amazing to watch him acting like nothing had happened at all.

I’ll post more updates in the next few days so you’ll all know how he does, but everything looks good right now.

Just got off the phone with Dr Albrecht. They did end up doing the ventral bulla osteotomy — the polyp was not originating behind the soft palate — but while the ear drum was ruptured in the surgery, it will more than likely grow back and Rand will retain his hearing. He did fine with the anesthetic and the surgery overall and as Dr A finished up with a last look using the otoscope, he was already starting to wake up. He is now in their heated and closely monitored recovery suite. They’ll give me a call again later on to let me know how he’s doing. Looks like he’ll be good to come home tomorrow, unless something unexpected comes up. They do have a drain in the incision, so he’ll come home with that and we’ll do the follow up care at my vet’s office here in Helena. (Bozeman is about 98 miles from here.) 

For anyone curious about the surgery, here’s a link with some info: http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/ventral%20bulla.htm

And I just have to add this picture to the story. After I wrote the earlier post today and sent email to a few people about Rand, Deb O’Shaughnessy sent this photo of Shane (one of Keegan’s babies) leading the rest of the AZWegies kitties in prayer for their cousin. I love it!

I don’t have much time to write this morning, but I know many of you have asked about and wondered how Rand is doing. So…

I took him to Bozeman yesterday afternoon for a consult with the surgeon. After discussing things for about an hour, Rand stayed and I came home. He will have surgery about 11:00 (MST) or so today and they will call me when he’s done. There’s a slight chance that the surgery will not be as involved as I originally expected and that he’d be allowed to come home yet this evening. But the more likely scenario is he’ll spend another night at the clinic and I’ll pick him up tomorrow.

I was very comfortable with the surgeon, the clinic, and the staff. Rand is in good hands, although I’m extremely impatient waiting for his surgery to be done. I’ll post an update later when I know more, although if I do need to pick him up this evening, I’ll pretty much jump in my car and head down there after I get off the phone with them, so it might not be until later tonight before I post.

Now that Christmas is over and the Christmas socks put away, Kali has had to branch out. With the assistance of her darling son, Charlie, she is now killing:

• Ken’s socks
• Jeremy’s socks
• My underwear
• My slippers
• Hand towels
• Spoons
• My pajamas

Most of these she steals from the laundry basket in our bedroom.  And she is very proud of everything she kills. We hear her carrying on all the way from the bedroom (which is at the opposite end of the house from the stairs) until she arrives in the living room with her prey. It would be really funny except I get tired of picking up clothing all over the house! My slippers I found by the back door this evening. Perhaps she thought I might want to wear them outside and was just trying to be helpful? As I’ve said time and again, she is a special cat. LOL!

Rand goes down to the surgeon in Bozeman next Tuesday. We have an appointment for a consult and unless the surgeon has concerns about being able to do the surgery after he examines Rand and his records, Rand will spend the night and have surgery the next day. He’ll stay over night again and I’ll pick him up on the 19th. When he is all healed up and given clean bill of health, he’ll be headed off to his new home in Virginia.

Natane and Charlie also have dates with the vet this week. Natane will be spayed and Charlie will be neutered. I had considered off and on keeping Natane as a breeding cat, but she has not lived up to my hopes in terms of size or coat. She’s not a better cat than her mother, Kefira.  On the other hand, her eyes are spectacular and her silver coloring is wonderful. But in this economy, I have no need of four breeding females. So I’ll continue to try to find the perfect home for her once she’s spayed. And Charlie — well, he’s sweet and handsome and a great kitten. But I really don’t need him for breeding! Hopefully, the right home for him will come along one of these days, too.

Some new pictures of grown up kittens sent by their owners. First, a few shots of Darby and Sheridan from the Montana Kids litter. They are almost three years old now. Wow! Time flies!

And next, a couple pictures of Odin Kyrith from the New Companions litter. He is almost four! In the first picture he is helping his Kaye-mom and Bill-dad with their taxes. In the second he’s taking a nap on the new couch after all his hard work. (I hope Kaye doesn’t mind that I edited the pic to focus more on Odin Kyrith than the couch!)

I just realised I still haven’t posted the pictures of Magic that Melissa took in Portland a couple weekends ago. I need to resize them and get that done. Maybe tomorrow as I’m probably taking off work early — trying to avoid having to be paid overtime. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed these pictures. And a BIG thank you to their owners for sharing new pictures with me. (and you!)

This fundraiser announcement below is from the NFC-HCM group. Please consider supporting this fundraiser by purchasing one or more raffle tickets. The prize packages are wonderful and even if you don’t win, the proceeeds go to an awesome cause.  

Some info about why this research is so important… Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a fatal disease in cats.  While milder cases can be treated by use of drugs and produce a long life in an affected cat, many times owners don’t even know their cat has the disease until the cat dies or the disease has progressed to more serious stages. Researchers think most cases of HCM are hereditary, so identifying cats with HCM is important in reducing the incidence of the disease. So more and more breeders are having their cats tested by use of echocardiograms. (I am one of those breeders, although not everybody at my house has been tested yet.) The test costs $100 and up, depending on where it’s done and by whom. The low end is usually at an HCM clinic conducted at a cat show. The test is done by a technician and the results reviewed by a cardiologist. The number of tests done in a day and having a tech do them makes them much more affordable. However, if you take your cat to a cardiologist, you may pay $400-500 per echo. (again, depending on where you go.) Needless to say, even at $100 per cat it’s not a trivial expense when you have a number of cats, but that’s part of being a breeder. (and people wonder why pedigreed animals cost so much!)

The real kicker, though, is that one test per cat is not enough. Ideally, a breeder would test a breeding cat before breeding them the first time, then test every year for the rest of the cat’s life. You see, HCM can show up later when a cat is three or eight or twelve… The echocardiogram that is done to test the cat only shows what his or her heart looks like today. The healthy cat you added to your breeding program can be the mother or father of kittens that may go on to produce children of their own. Then one day you take your healthy cat in for a repeat echo and discover that he/she now has HCM.

The research that this fundraiser supports is to identify the gene mutation(s) that causes HCM in the Norwegian Forest Cat and develop a DNA test for it (them). The research is being done by Dr Kate Meurs and her team at Washington State University. You may recall me mentioning it when I had some of the cats tested there last summer. They have already found a gene mutation (but unfortunately not the only one) in Maine Coons that causes HCM. They’ve also identified one in Ragdolls. Both of those breeds can now be tested for the mutations. Neither of these are the cause in Norwegian Forest Cats, but Dr Meurs is working on finding the gene mutation in the NFCs. Had any of my cats had an abnormal echo result, the doctors at WSU would have taken blood samples to add to the research pool.   

The beauty of the DNA test is that it is a one time thing. Either the cat has it, or he/she doesn’t. You can test them early — as kittens, even — and make informed decisions about their position in your breeding program. (The implications and ethics of using a known carrier is a subject for another day.) And you know that a cat with the mutation will almost certainly develop the disease, so you can test regularly and get them started on medications to give them as long and healthy a life as possible. 

Now you know why this research is important, so get out your check books or sign on to your Paypal account and buy some raffle tickets! Our cats need you!

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As the group celebrates its 3 year anniversary, we are pleased to launch our 5th fundraiser with an International theme to highlight the increase in worldwide awareness of HCM. We are thrilled to see the increase in HCM screening, and it is inspiring to see so many breeders around the world working together to fight this terrible disease.

A huge thank you for all of the wonderful donations we received from individuals and clubs in the US and Europe!   We are thrilled at the opportunity to offer a wide variety of items and it is all thanks to those mentioned on our website on the “Current Fundraisers” page!

Raffle ticket costs are as follows:
1 for $2
15 for $25
50 for $50

The raffle ends @ 11:59PM on 2/28/2009.  Winners will be chosen by random drawing on 3/1/2009.  The first number drawn will win the grand prize, the second number drawn will win the first basket, and so on until 11 numbers are drawn.  Only one prize will be awarded per person.  If a number is drawn for a previous winner, a new number will be drawn until a new winner is found.  We will notify the winners by email and we’ll also post the winning results on our web site and to the nfc_hcm Yahoo Group list.

Tickets must be purchased via money order, check, or PayPal, and payment must be made in US dollars. PayPal can automatically convert to US dollars from Euros, Japanese Yen, Australian and Canadian dollars, and British Pounds Sterling.  For more information and to register for a FREE PayPal account, go to www.paypal.com   In order to keep costs down we’d prefer to receive PayPal payments funded by PayPal Balance, PayPal Instant Transfer or PayPal eCheck.
To enter the raffle, go to PayPal and use melissa@iwcats.com as the recipient account.  In the PayPal subject, please write NFC HCM 2009 International Raffle.  In the notes section, please let us know the number of raffle tickets you are purchasing along with your complete name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address.  Raffle ticket numbers will be sent to you by Rangashrii Sridharan via e-mail. 

If you have specific questions, please send them to melissa@iwcats.com or voice them on the nfc_hcm@yahoogroups.com e-mail list.  If you wish to enter by check, please let Melissa know and she will send you the payment address.  All monies must be received by 11:59pm on 2/28/2009 to be included in the drawing, so mail your checks early!

Please support this very worthy cause and consider buying tickets for yourself and your friends!

“Breeders against HCM – For the Love of the Breed”
http://www.nfchcm.com