New Family Member: Meet Allegra

Author's Life| 21 Comments

The Conscious Cat has a new family member!  Amber and I are excited to welcome Allegra into our hearts and into our home.  Well, right now I might be a little more excited than Amber, but so far, things have been going really well.  Amber is watching the newcomer from a cautious distance, and if she comes too close for comfort, she lets Allegra know who’s in charge.

I found Allegra on Facebook on the page of a local veterinary hospital. When I contacted the page administrator for more information, I was told that she was seven months old and “very very sweet, loves cats, loves dogs, loves people, loves life!”    I knew I had to meet this little girl.  The first time I met her, I spent about an hour in an exam room with her.  She was your typical ADHD kitten – discovering and exploring everything, whether it was a stethoscope hanging from a hook on the wall or a syringe cap on the floor.  She didn’t pay all that much attention to me, but I started to fall in love with her anyway.  However, I didn’t want to make a hasty decision.  I had only just begun to even think about bringing another cat into our lives.  I didn’t know whether I wanted a kitten or an adult cat.  So I went home, slept on it, thought about it – and I just couldn’t get Allegra out of my mind.  I went back to see her again the next morning.  And that’s when I just knew.   She was meant to come home with us.

Her background, as far as I know it, is this:  she was rescued from a county shelter in Maryland, and fostered by two different foster moms.  Her most recent foster mom described her as a “total love bug lap kitty” who loved to follow her everywhere.

I brought her home yesterday morning.   And so a new chapter in our lives begins.  Allegra spent most of yesterday exploring her new home.  She was particularly fascinated by windows – something she hadn’t been able to enjoy for the last ten days when she lived at the animal hospital.  Everything seemed to delight her – bumble bees flying by, leaves blowing in the wind, squirrels rushing by outside.  It’s so much fun watching her discover her world.

Amber is not so sure this was a good idea just yet.  I’m sure you’ll hear all about it from Amber herself soon.  And you never know, Allegra might eventually want to contribute to The Conscious Cat, too, once she adjusts to her new home and new life.

Adventures in Veterinary Medicine: Diesel

Adventures in Veterinary Medicine| 10 Comments

In this installment in our Adventures in Veterinary Medicine series, meet Diesel.  Diesel was brought into the animal hospital by a client who had found him by the side of the road, barely breathing and clearly in pain.   His long black and white coat was matted, and he was covered in gasoline and motor oil.  The fumes coming off of him were enough to warrant wearing a gas mask – and yes, you guessed it, that’s how he got his name.  Veterinary clinic staff members sometimes have a warped sense of humor when it comes to naming strays.

When our veterinarian examined him, it turned out that he had a broken pelvis, and multiple contusions.   They gave him pain medication, and then the staff went to work with a mild detergent, washing the gas and oil off of him.  Diesel was patient and didn’t resist any of these treatments, he simply seemed relieved that his ordeal by the side of the road was over.  He was set up in a cage with a soft blanket, plenty of food and a warming lamp.  Once his fur had dried from the bath he was given, he got a gentle brushing.  The cat underneath all that gasoline and motor oil was a beauty.  He was a bit emaciated and had clearly been living outdoors fending for himself, but he had a loving and affectionate disposition, which made us believe that at some point, he may have been someone’s pet.   His wonderful personality  got him plenty of attention, petting, and being fussed over by everyone on the staff while he was recuperating.  The type of pelvic fracture he had did not require surgery, he simply needed to be kept quiet to allow the bones to heal naturally, and he received supportive care during his recovery.  No owner came forward to claim him during this time, so after a couple of weeks, he went to Casey’s House – coincidentally, the same private rescue group where Buckley came from.  Given Diesel’s personality, we didn’t think it would take long for him to be adopted.

A few days after he went to Casey’s House, Diesel began to develop some disturbing neurological symptoms, so he was brought back to our animal hospital for observation and care.   Since he initially came to the hospital covered in gasoline and motor oil, there was certainly the possibility that absorbing these toxic chemicals through his skin could have caused these symptoms.  However, since his vaccine history was unknown and he had clearly been a stray, rabies could not be ruled out.

Rabies is zoonotic, which means it can be transmitted from animals to humans.  The only way rabies can be diagnosed with 100% certainty is through a dFA test on the animal’s brain tissue, and for this, the animal has to be euthanized.   The thought of euthanizing a beautiful cat like Diesel without being sure that he really had rabies was emotionally challenging for all of us, but we also had to think of the risk to the humans who had come into contact with him.  Rabies is transmitted by the saliva of an infected animal, and contact with even a minor skin wound on a human can present a risk.  Rabies, once contracted, is always fatal if prophylactic injections are not started within 24-48 hours after infection.  Our hospital had a policy that only staff who was vaccinated against rabies could handle the occasional injured wildlife that was brought into our clinic, but we had not enforced this policy for stray cats, even though in hindsight, we should have.  Almost everyone on our staff had at some point petted and touched Diesel, whether they had been vaccinated or not.

The thought of euthanizing this beautiful cat if there was even a chance that he could recover was devastating.  Thankfully, Diesel made the decision easy for us.  He declined so rapidly, and it was clear that he was suffering, so euthanasia was not only the right thing to do for the humans involved, but also for him.  His rabies test came back positive.  Almost twenty staff members had to undergo a series of rabies vaccinations.

This story will always stick with me not because it was a hospital manager’s worst nightmare – making sure that everyone who came into contact with Diesel was identified and appraised of the risk and the need to get the series of injections, reassuring scared and worried employees, arranging for the health department to schedule the injections for our staff, dealing with the insurance companies involved – but also, because of Diesel.  Even though he had contracted this horrible disease in addition to being hit by a car, at least, thanks to the good Samaritan who brought him to our clinic, he was loved and cared for during the last few weeks of his life, even if it was at a veterinary hospital.   And in the end, he did not have to die alone.

Amber’s Mewsings: Raw Food

Amber's Mewsings| 11 Comments

Since I last talked to all of you, spring has finally arrived here.  What this means for me, since I’m an indoor kitty, is that mom leaves the windows open so I can enjoy the breeze and the spring smells.  My favorite place to do that from is on one of my window perches.  I have two – one in Mom’s office next to her desk, and one in our bedroom.  I spend more time on the one in Mom’s office, because then I can be close to her while she’s working.

In the afternoons, I like to hang out in our living room, because it has lots of sunny spots, especially late afternoon.  I can either sprawl out on the couch, or on the blue rocking chair.  I like to mix it up a bit.

The other thing that’s new in my life is that Mom has been feeding me some different food.  She says it’s called “raw.”  I’m not entirely sure about it yet.   Sometimes I really like it and eat it straight up.  Other times, I just don’t feel like eating it, so Mom mixes it in with my canned food.  She thinks she’s fooling me that way, but please.  Of course I know it’s in there.  I just humor her and eat it that way.  I like to keep her guessing.  The only thing I don’t like is that now, if I don’t finish every last bite on my dish, it disappears after about half an hour.  That’s usually not a problem for me, I’m a pretty quick eater, but I do like to leave a few morsels to enjoy a little bit later as an in between meal snack, and now, that doesn’t seem to be an option any longer.  I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.  Mom has explained to me that she can’t leave the food with the raw meat in it out longer than half an hour, because it starts going bad, but that doesn’t make any sense to me.  How could food ever be bad?

I know she’s making this change because she wants me to be healthy and live for a long time, and I want that, too.  I just wish that it wouldn’t mess with my eating routine.  Humans – always something with them.  What I do like about this change, though, is that Mom keeps trying to introduce different flavors.  So far, I’ve dined on chicken, turkey and rabbit.  I like the turkey and chicken, I’m not sure about the rabbit yet.  It tastes a bit, well, gamey.  I saw her looking at Cornish Game Hen on the computer.  Hmmm – that sounds interesting.  I think I’ll keep giving this new food a chance for a little longer.

Adventures in Veterinary Medicine: Beast

Adventures in Veterinary Medicine| 14 Comments

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I worked in various veterinary clinics for over twelve years, and during those years, I met some pretty amazing cats and dogs.  The memories of some of these animals, as well as the lessons they taught, have stuck with me over the years, and I thought it was time to share some of their stories.  I’m calling the series “Adventures in Veterinary Medicine,” because for me, that’s what my journey in this wonderful profession was – a never-ending adventure.  No two days were ever alike, just like no two animals were ever the same.   In this first installment in our Adventures in Veterinary Medicine series, meet Beast.Continue Reading

Amber’s Mewsings: Blog Anniversary

Amber's Mewsings| 15 Comments

I told Mom that she had to let me blog during our anniversary week celebration – after all, I am the inspurration behind this site!  It’s been such an amazing year for Mom, and also for me, because when Mom is happy, I’m  happy.  I think it’s a bit ironic that the first real post on this site that Mom wrote was titled Amber is on a diet – but I guess I really needed it then, even though I still think that I was only big-boned and fluffy, and didn’t really need to loose any weight.  However, I know Mom wants me to be healthy for a long long time, and I guess being overweight is as bad for kitties as it is for people, so I reluctantly cooperated with the whole diet thing.  (This is where opposable thumbs would come in handy – I’ve figured out how to open the cabinet where Mom keeps my food, but I can’t seem to figure out how to open the cans…)  I’m happy to report that a year later, I’m back to less than 13 pounds, which Mom says is a good weight for me (and our vet, Fern, agrees).  Mom’s been feeding me some really yummy stuff lately – it’s called raw food, and you’ll soon read more here about why it’s so good for kitties.   It sure tastes good!

This past year, I’ve written eighteen posts in my own Amber’s Mewsings category.  I got to write about everything from how much I love to be my Mom’s mewse to what it felt like to be forced to have my teeth cleaned (nothing to love about that!).  I have fun writing my column, and I know it gives Mom a break from having to come up with new stuff to write three times a week, which I guess can be challenging for a human.  I keep telling her to let me blog more, because I have lots more to say!

There are lots of exiting things coming up for our site for this next year.   Mom said she’s going to do something called a teleseminar series – I don’t really know what that means, but she says that it’ll be another way to teach people stuff about cats and their health and their lifestyle.  Sounds good to me.  There’ll also be lots more giveaways – I guess humans love getting stuff for free, and Mom likes to give stuff away that she thinks our readers would enjoy, so look for more of those things.  And most importantly, there’ll be lots more mewsings coming from me!

And don’t forget to enter our anniverary giveaway for the cool gift basket my mom’s friend put together for us!

Amber’s Mewsings: After the Snowstorm

Amber's Mewsings| 9 Comments

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks here!  We got a lot of snow, and I mean a lot!  The photo above shows you what we woke up to Saturday morning – and that was less than half of what we got altogether that day.  Mom was really stressed about things on Saturday.  She woke up at 3am and realized that our power had gone out.  I don’t know what she was so worried about, we were snuggled in bed together and it was nice and toasty, but I could feel her energy going all weird on me and I knew she was scared.    After a while, I realized what she was worried about – it got a little colder than I like to it be in our house.  I guess this power she was so worried about is what makes our house warm.  I wasn’t worried, though – I knew Mom wouldn’t let me get cold.  She put out lots of blankets for me to snuggle in.  I just wished she’d stayed inside to snuggle with me, but instead, she kept going outside to do what she called shoveling.  It looked to me like she was just moving the white stuff around, and I don’t understand why she didn’t just leave it in place, but that’s humans for you.  Whenever Mom came back inside, we snuggled under the blankets together, so I thought it was a pretty decent way to spend a Saturday.

Thankfully, this mysterious power came back on Saturday afternoon and Mom started to relax, not to mention warm up!   Sunday was a gorgeous day, the picture on the left shows you the view out of our living room window on Sunday morning.  Mom says it’s called winter wonderland.  All I can say is it was blinding to look outside and see all this white stuff, with the sun reflecting off of it.  But I was happy to have my sunny spots back and spent the day soaking up warmth and snuggling with Mom.

On Tuesday, Mom started getting worried again – apparently, they were calling for more of that white stuff.  I think Mom was scared that we’d lose the power again.  I hate when Mom worries, and I knew I needed to find a way to help her.  I was getting a little frustrated with Mom, it was like she was forgetting all the lessons my sister Buckley had taught her about not getting caught up in fear and worry.  So I made sure to remind Mom that Buckley wouldn’t like it that she’s already forgotten the lessons, and I think it really  helped Mom.  She even blogged about it (Letting Go of Fear and Worry During the Storm).

So when round two of this snow stuff started, Mom was calm, which made things much more pleasant.  It helped that the power stayed on.  I got a little scared when the wind kicked up big time (Mom said it’s called a blizzard when it does that), but Mom reassured me that everything was going to be fine.  I like how we help each other.  The storm made for some great bird watching.  I have to respect these little birdies, they’re made of tougher stuff than I am.  I’d hate to have to be out in this kind of weather.  I’m so grateful I’m an indoor kitty.

Things are back to normal as far as I’m concerned.  And anything that keeps Mom home with me even more than usual is fine by me.  I do wish they made kitty sunglasses though – it’s just so bright out there!  I think I’ll just take a nap in the sun.

Amber’s Mewsings: Amber and the Laptop

Amber's Mewsings| 5 Comments

It’s about time that I get some computer time!  I tell you, it can be tough being a writer’s cat.  Not only do I have to be my mom’s mewse, but since she’s on the computer on her desk practically all day long most days, it’s hard to get a paw in edgewise.  And when she leaves the house for a while, she turns the computer off!  I haven’t been able to figure out how to open what she calls her laptop, and I hate that thing anyway.  When it’s in her lap, there’s not enough room for me, too, and that’s just wrong.  You can see me giving the thing the evil eye above.  She recently got something she calls a BlackBerry, even though it looks nothing like a berry to me.  I got all excited at first, because I thought maybe I could use that to write on, but I tried typing on it and realized that my paws are too big to work the tiny keys.

But I digress.   What I really wanted to talk about is that, despite the frustrations mentioned above, being a writer’s cat is really a very cool job.  For starters, it means that my mom is home with me a lot, and I really like that.  I just like knowing that she’s nearby, even when I’m sleeping.  And she says I’m her mewse, which I guess means that I inspire her writing, which is really nice to know.  I know how happy it makes her to be a writer, and I’m glad that I can contribute to that happiness.  It’s also kind of nice to have her at my beck and call all day long – and I have her so well-trained that she doesn’t even realize that that’s what’s happening.  She thinks it’s her own idea to get up and give me a treat occasionally, and to feed me my dinner in the afternoon rather than making me wait until dinner time.  Okay, so maybe the staring holes in the back of her head approach, whining and weaving myself around her legs, and generally making a pest out of myself after a certain time in the afternoon is a bit obnoxious, but it never fails to work, so why should I stop?!

Another thing I like about being a writer’s cat is that I force my mom to take breaks.  Even though she loves what she does, it’s not healthy for her to do it 24/7 (what an odd expression – how did humans come up with that?  I only have four paws, so I can’t count much beyond four.)  So I make sure that she takes breaks throughout the day by asking for cuddle time, looking so cute that she can’t resist taking my photo, or showing her where my dinner plate is (because , some days, I swear, she forgets what she’s supposed to do with it!).  And after a certain point in the evening, I think she needs to get off her computer and come to bed, so sometimes, I have to lead the way and wait for her in the bedroom.

As you can see, being a writer’s cat is not for the faint-hearted among us felines.  It takes a special cat to be a writer’s companion, but it’s also very rewarding (and I don’t just mean food rewards!).

Amber’s Story

Amber's Mewsings| 25 Comments

One of the questions most frequently asked of me since the release of Buckley’s Story has been why Buckley?  What was so special about this particular cat, rather than any of the other cats who have been part of my life, that inspired me to write a book about her?  You’ll have to read the book to find out how she changed my life in ways I never could have imagined by teaching me universal lessons about opening my heart and living a joyful life.  As the old saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.  In my case, the teacher came in a seven pound feline body.

Inevitably, the second most frequently asked question I get is will you write a book about Amber?  Who knows, some day, she may get her own book.  Those of you who’ve visited this site have gotten to know her in her occasional Mewsings, but not all of you know her story.  So – even though it’s not a book (yet – you never know!), here is her story:

Amber and her five kittens were brought to the Middleburg Animal Hospital in the spring of 2000 by a client who had found the little family in her barn.  Despite being emaciated and scrawny-looking, Amber’s eventual beauty was evident even then.  She is a dark Tortoiseshell color, with an amber-colored heart-shaped spot on top of her head, which became the reason for her name.  Her kittens found new homes in fairly rapid succession.

However, nobody was interested in the beautiful mommy cat.  She spent her days in the big adoption cage in the hospital’s waiting area, but with the constant inflow of homeless kittens that is typical for spring and summer, nobody wanted to adopt an adult cat.  I had recently lost my almost sixteen-year-old soul mate cat Feebee, and the grief over his loss was still very fresh.  I did not think I was ready for another cat, but coming home to an empty house was becoming increasingly difficult.

One weekend in July, I decided to take Amber home, “just for the weekend”.  I wanted to give her a break from the abandoned feral kitten we had placed with her after her own kittens had all found homes.  The kitten was a rambunctious six-week old grey tabby, and Amber was becoming increasingly exasperated with his constant need for attention.  As far as she was concerned, she had done her mommy duty with her own kittens.

After living in a cage for all these months, Amber was initially a little overwhelmed by having access to an entire house, and she spent most of that first weekend near or under my bed.  By Sunday evening, she had relaxed a little and started exploring her new environment.  I liked having her gentle and peaceful energy around the house, and I decided that she could stay a little longer.  Not quite ready to acknowledge that she was home with me to stay, I told everyone that I was “just fostering her”.

Somehow, the flyers advertising that she was available for adoption never got distributed, and she only returned to the animal hospital for regular check ups.

Amber is a gentle, loving cat with a wise old soul.  For the past nine years, her peaceful and solid presence, not to mention her almost constant purr, have been bringing love and affection into my life every day.  She enjoys sleeping in our sunny living room, curling up with me when I sit down to read or to watch television, and watching the birds at the feeder on our deck.

She is a teacher to the core of her being, and she is my writing muse.  There are days when I sit down in front of the computer and stare at the blank screen with no idea of what I’m going to be writing about, but as soon as she comes into the room and curls up on the window perch next to my desk for a long nap, I feel inspired, and the words start flowing.

Animals come into our lives for many reasons.  Some very special animals touch our souls and change us forever.  Amber is one of these special animals.

Sadly, Amber passed away on May 13, 2010, after a sudden, brief illness. I will always miss her.

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