Cats Update

This is Chica.

We figure Chica must be a bit over a year old now. We added her to our family the day before Thanksgiving last fall, which was about Nov 27th, I believe. We figured she wasn’t quite 8 weeks old so she would have been born in early October. 

She wasn’t blessed with a great deal of brains, which is how she was separated from her Mama. Or at least that is my theory  

Since she got herself stranded up a tree two different times, I have not let her go outside alone since last winter.  She does go to the cat habitat, as we refer to it.  She likes to go out there in the mornings after her breakfast  I bring her back in about mid day.   She is stretched out on my lap on the sofa at this very moment.  I’m glad she likes to curl up on my lap  I missed that when Matilda died.  Smudge isn’t a lap cat  

This is Smudge.

Smudge has one interest in life. Eating.  You can’t really tell from these pictures, but Smudgie is about 16 pounds. Chica is about 10 maybe.  Smudge however has the brains enough to know not to get stuck up a tree.  In fact, I highly doubt Smudge has ever been up a tree more than maybe 4 feet in her life  

Smudge, for the record, will be 6 in April.  It is funny how different they are in personalities.

So far I have been blessed to not be reactive to them as far as this alpha gal syndrome allergy goes.  They are mammals, and many alpha gal syndrome people become highly allergic to their own pets. I figure I must be conditioned to them from constant contact.  That is the only thing that makes sense to me. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a...
Read more

Sunset, and more about the Alpha Gal

Image
Oh look. I’ve figured out how to get pictures into a blog post from my phone. Hooray!   Well. This will help me out tremendously because I don’t always have the time, patience, or access to blog from the laptop. Not to mention our internet is horribly spotty. Up and down all day long. Gary says if we weren’t getting it for free we would be looking for a different provider. Hmph! **** At the moment, after midnight on this Friday night waiting on pins and needles for my child to get home from a trip to Springfield with friends, I cannot remember if I have talked about this in here before or not.  But this Alpha Gal Syndrome, while my case is supposedly mild, has morphed my system into some sort of histamine intolerance, or mast cell activation syndrome. This is not uncommon, according to what I read in the various AGS groups on Facebook. In a nutshell it means that every strong smell, from food to household cleaners and soaps, lotions, deodorants…whatever… gives me an allergic r...
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy....
Read more