Live Forever or Die Trying

Well I would have had my background check back today, but Anne Cox, from BWW HR department, called and verified my driver’s license number, which I had typed incorrectly! =(

It will be a few more days before I get word back on that which pushes everything back a few days. I just want to get started asap so I can finally say I have a job.

I want one in my home!

After all the stress of last week with the kitten it is nice to have an adrenaline high for a positive reason! Here is a neat little list of my day:

• First I got into a cleaning frenzy which is the only exercise I willing participate in which leads to its own adrenaline high. Last night we got a Dirt Devil hand held carpet shampooer and today I went to town with it! It works really well, so well in fact, that the spots I cleaned are brighter than the surrounding carpet. So now instead of dirty spots in the carpet, we have an off-colored carpet with clean spots lol! I also windexed all the glass surfaces until they were free of drink condensation rings and food spots. This was followed by a general putting away of things that don’t belong in the living room, and tonight I scrubbed the kitchen until all was white. A super clean house makes me feel good, but I have to be careful because my OCD can easily go into overdrive which leaves me feeling like I am never done. It kinda got that way but I was saved by the second bullet point
• Second, a few of my neighbors came over; Melissa from upstairs and Jessica from I-don’t-know-where to see the kittens. Melissa wants the runt and Jessica wants the gray one. The are both trying to convince their respective boyfriends of having the little ones. When they came over both went crazy over how clean the house was, which was my saving grace. As in, they thought it was good enough so I should too. They have both been over twice in the last week to play with the kittens and Jessica has each time borrowed the gray one to take home for an hour at a time in hopes of making her boyfriend fall in love with it like she has. It makes me so happy to know that I can find homes for these little guys and gal. And thus far, the interested parties are animal lovers like I am so I am sure they will be in capable hands. I really don’t want to fork them over to a shelter so they can go to homes I don’t personally get to approve.
• Next, Runty McRuntface news. He is 100% back to normal! He is rough housing with his brothers and sister like nothing ever happened and is very greedy with the bottle; not that any other kitten tries to take it from him. He is the only one yet to learn how to drink out of a bowl or eat solid food like his litter mates. In a few days he should be caught up with the others, but being the runt does mean he will be slightly behind. He his growing, but the largest kitty is over twice his size now, but I think that comes more from the big one just growing really fast! Speaking of the big one, he has diarrhea and it is not fun wiping down is butt and paws, but I do it with love! I am sure it is nothing serious and if it does not clear up soon, I will get him checked out. Next week, I plan to take them all to the mobile vet for de-worm, de-flea, and their shots. I am sure that whom ever takes the kitties will reimburse me some if not all of the cost, which should be a total of $60 or so, which is not that bad considering our current positive financial situation, which leads me to my last bullet point:
• I did our taxes today and we are getting over $4,000 back, only $300 less than we paid in! We have not decided what to spend it on, but I am sure the bulk will go towards our 20k consolidation loan (it has VERY low interest until November and if we get it paid off by then, we will have saved thousands of dollars AND will be out of debt!). It would be nice to use some of it on fun items/experiences. I want to trade in our car and get a hot pink Honda Element, but it is probably wise to go for a while without any car notes (the last 1k was paid off with the consolidation loan and now we 100% own our first car!). It would also be nice to go back to Tulum Mexico. I really do think about the wonderful time we had there every day. It was such a magical place for me, and I think Dean enjoyed it too. That would cost about 2k total for the whole trip, including food, but if I start a new job soon, that would not be in the cards. Since we probably won’t get to go this year, I know we will make it next year because life is lining up quite nicely, which leads me to the closing bullet point:
• Life is shaping up! Our dept is managed, I am well on my way to a good paying job, and just having those little furry critters around makes me smile till my face hurts! For the last few years I though Dean and I would not be close to thinking about buying/building a home until we were well into our 30s, but that is changing fast. If things keep going as they are, abd I get that nice paying job, we could be looking to buy in as soon as a year. Just the thought of that makes me happy, even if it takes a little longer than that (depending on the market and such). We have even poked around a little and like a place in Plano called Legacy Town Center, which is a business, retail and residential community. Think New York or San Francisco where ground level is retail and the upper stories are residential with the whole place surrounded by town homes. It is only one of 2 true communities in Texas with the other being Addison Circle. The 3 story town homes are absolutely gorgeous and go up in value every day. Since they began building the value had gone up about 100k and a few people are buying multiple ones to resale at a profit. They start at 300k or 2k a month for the mortgage payment, but if we have no debt and make almost 100k a year it would be a good investment. Heck, even fiscally conservative wade agreed that it is something worth looking into!

Well that about sums it up and now it is time to wind down with a well deserved bath with Dean!

Sounds fun!

TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TO FALL DURING THE MORNING HOURS… WITH ALL AREAS IN THE ICE STORM WARNING NEAR OR BELOW FREEZING BY THIS AFTERNOON. RAIN WILL CHANGE TO FREEZING RAIN AND PERSIST THROUGH SUNDAY AS AN UPPER LEVEL LOW APPROACHES THE AREA. ICE ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO INITIALLY OCCUR ON ELEVATED SURFACES SUCH AS TREES… POWER LINES…AND BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES…BUT WILL EVENTUALLY BEGIN TO ACCUMULATE ON SURFACE ROADS. SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY…WITH ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF ONE-HALF INCH TO ONE INCH OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE.

A MAJOR ICE STORM IS LIKELY. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION. PREPARE FOR EXTENDED POWER OUTAGES FROM DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES. HAVE NON- PERISHABLE FOOD AND BOTTLED WATER ON HAND. DO NOT TRAVEL UNLESS IT IS AN ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL…KEEP AN EXTRA BLANKET… FLASHLIGHT…FOOD…AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE YOU BECOME STRANDED.

Oh, and the kitten is getting better and better! He is even starting to play more!

I did not go to sleep until 7am this morning, which means I was up for 24 hours. The kitten had its last seizure at 5:30pm and just slept until I went to bed. I was too scared to go to sleep so I just stared at it breathing for hours until I just could not stay up.

At 6:30 I woke Dean up to take a vigil while I took a much needed shower. The kitten ate twice over the night and has a healthy appetite which is a great sign! After the shower, Dean and I both went to bed with the kitten in a warm safe kitty cube turned with the door facing up. It has worked great as a seizure hole for Runty McRuntface since it is all plush insides and made out of foam.

I only slept 3 and a half hours and then got up to check on the kittens; they need to be fed about every 4 hours. Dean decided to take a sick day and help me out with the kitties since I am going to have to go back to bed sometime, but I won’t sleep unless someone is watching Runty. I refuse to give the seizures the chance to hurt him when he might already be doomed.

He has been a lot more active today after his 12 hour coma like sleep. He is not running around, but he is up and about and has tried to get involved in his litter mate’s play. I keep an eye on him to make sure they are not too rough, since they are almost twice his size!

This morning I did some research on kitten seizures and this is what I found:

The most common causes of seizures in young kittens are feline leukemia virus (FeLV), feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) [what the vet suggested], congenital portosystemic shunts (blood vessels that bypass the liver, causing it to function poorly) [what I suspect it is], toxoplasmosis, parasites leading to toxin release or poor nutritional condition (cuterebra larvae, roundworms, hookworms) [also a possibility], hydrocephalus, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), lymphosarcoma (cancer) and cryptococcus infection of the nasal passages invading the brain.

It is a little unusual for cats with congenital liver shunts to grow normally (they are often smaller than littermates or other cats of the same age). Bile acid testing would be helpful in eliminating the possibility of this problem (or finding it). Bile acids are stable in serum for some time so it would be possible to mail these samples to a lab that does them, if the test is not possible in your area. Cats with copper colored irises (the part of the eye that determines the color) are supposed to be more likely to have this condition but it definitely can occur in cats with any color iris.

I have more hope now, and the longer he goes without having a seizure, the more hope I have. I know he will probably never be 100% clear of he woods, but that does not mean he can’t have a happy normal life while he is here.