10 Things: 2013

10 Steps to Park Guell (Fast-Pass Top to Bottom Style)

1:06 AM

On our recent trip to Barcelona, a Trip Advisor contributor recommended going to Park Guell from top to bottom as opposed from the bottom to the top. We drove past Park Guell on the hop-on, hop-off tour bus and the steep uphill walk looked like pure misery. I could totally see myself complaining the entire time if I went that way. I'm a...

10 Files That I Can't Live Without!

5:26 AM

I am a little O.C.D. and love my lists and documents! Here are my favorites! 1.) LIFE TIMELINE My boss gave me this idea, that I thought I'd share. She keeps a timeline of events through her life. She uses a spreadsheet on her hard drive. I keep my timeline stored in Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) so that I can access /...

10 Best of 2012

1:17 PM

So much has happened in 2012! Here are my peaks! 1. DJs & Concerts DJ Scene I've been a DJ Jelly fan since 2001. Joy and I first heard DJ Scene's awesomeness when we were in Las Vegas in 2009 when he was playing a set at Studio 54. We weren't expecting much but were blown away by his ability to read and...

Sparkles (or as my mom calls her, "Farko")

1:07 PM

I've had Sparkles, my stray kitty, for over 7 years. She has been a staple of our yard. She's outlived all of Patrick's male stray cats. She's just so sweet and I'm so lucky that out of all of the houses on our street she chose to adopt us. Patrick built her a cat house over Christmas to help her weather the cold KC winter since she's much older. He insulated it with foam blocks and added hay that he stole from Cody (his parent's adopted outdoor dog).

Today, I had a spay surgery scheduled for Sparkles, at the KC Spay and Neuter clinic. $15 for Feline fixes in February! I was scared to do a low-budget surgery, but Sue has experience with them and really liked them.

When I arrived this morning, I was greeted by Ramona (Nina's former co-owner of Fabu). She said she started working at the clinic last fall.

While doing the paperwork, they almost didn't take Sparkles bc of her age (over 7 years old). I had to wait for 40 minutes while we went back and forth with whether or not they would do the surgery. They shaved her while I was there, then they found another tiny incision on her left side. They said that Sparkles is real sweet and that cats normally put up a fight when getting shaved. Then they gave me the choice to go ahead and do the spay surgery or not. After reluctance, I chose to go ahead. She always looks pregnant.
Sparkles uterus was severely infected and full of pus and they found a cyst full of pus attached to her bladder. They said her uterus should be the size of a dime and that it was the size of a softball. The cyst was also the size of a softball. It was a little difficult for them to remove the cyst bc they didn’t want to ruin her bladder function. They said when they cut open the cyst that dark green pus just ran out everywhere. They said it was so bad that they couldn't believe it wasn't protruding externally through her vulva yet. Barf!

That little pre-existing incision is actually a pellet that has healed over. Nice neighborhood, another cat of mine that was shot. With a normal spay, they completely remove the uterus an ovaries. They removed her uterus, her right ovary, and the cyst on her bladder. Her left ovary was missing. They think the pellet may have damaged and disintegrated her left ovary. Sparkles will have to be put on 2 types of heavy antibiotics for 2 weeks, which means 2 weeks in my house. I have to keep her inside for atleast 10 days so that she doesn’t get the incision site wet.

The morning after surgery she hopped into bed with me (with her little lampshade around her neck) and we cuddled for an hour or so. When I got up I smelled what I thought was urine or cat spray. Come to find out, there was urine all over my body pillow. I threw the pillow away and she sat next to me in Patrick’s chair while I worked from home. I kept smelling urine and noticed there was pee all over Patrick’s office chair. I know from my other cats that this isn’t typical behavior after a spay / neuter. Upon a more thorough inspection, she was actually slowly leaking urine (as opposed to purposefully going pee). I freaked out bc I don’t want a cat who has no control over their pee. I called the clinic back to see if I should take her to a vet and they said that leaking is to be expected since the doctor had to remove a cyst from her bladder. They said it would take a while for her to start to build her bladder muscles up again. We’ve been keeping her quarantined in the bathroom so that she doesn’t ruin any soft surfaces (rugs, couches, chairs, bed). She’s much better now, and I haven’t noticed any leaks for over a day, but I’m going to keep her in the bathroom until I know absolutely for sure that there won’t be any accidents.

I'm really glad that she not only survived the surgery, but that they also stumbled upon the infection and that she's was able to home to me again, even if she's going to be out of the hunting business for a while! :O)

Here's a pic of Sparkles helping LeAnn, last summer, paint a chalkboard for Kimbra's baby shower.

10 Steps to Park Guell (Fast-Pass Top to Bottom Style)

10 Files That I Can't Live Without!

10 Best of 2012

Sparkles (or as my mom calls her, "Farko")

About me

Follow Us

Press

Labels

recent posts

#Fall #Leaves

#PortOfLosAngeles #California

#SoCal #Flora

@oceanandsea and #gulf

Warm waters, soft sand, and awesome shells. #PassAGrille #Beach #StPetersburg #Florida

FireSky

Blog Archive

Popular Posts

Like us on Facebook

Flickr Images