Nine Lives and a Serving of Spaghetti...

I mentioned that our old cat was pretty sick. We took her to the emergency vet Saturday, but chose to bring her home rather than leave her there. I just had this nagging feeling she wasn't going to make it, and I selfishly wanted her with me if she didn't. Sunday was rough. She laid around all day, tried to use the litter box (couldn't), tried to drink some water (I finally squirted water in her mouth with her medication syringe), tried to eat (all she could do was lick the broth from the cat food). We both thought her kidneys were failing, which is pretty common with older cats. This morning we took her to our regular vet. Now this guy is the best! He's kinda weird, but in an endearing sort of way. He's a "large animal" doctor, so has a little different outlook on caring for animals. (No thousand dollar overnight clinic stays "for observation" at his clinic!) We left her at 10:30 AM and both of us came home and sat just waiting for the inevitable call. 3:30, the perky receptionist called, and after telling us the test results, which weren't all that bad, and that she had eaten said we could come get her!! I was shocked and elated!! They brought her to us along with a dish of food. She was pretty much her cranky complainer self, meowing between gobbles of smelly cat food! Now, she does have some issues. She has an infection. But that's treatable Her sugar's elevated, but not so high she needs insulin. Her thyroid is off and her liver and kidney levels are high. As the Dr. explained each symptom to us, he brought out a medication for it, most of which is a natural supplement! (He's big into natural medicine for animals as well as humans!) He said we need to take her (and fat Frankie) completely off the dry food and feed them more canned food! How much more? Well, they currently each get a half can a day. He wants them each to get 2 whole cans a day! Yikes! He said they will gain some weight, but once the effects of the dry food are out of their system, they'll get back down to a normal weight. And if they don't need 2 cans, they won't eat it. They'll be eating closer to their natural state, and animals in nature don't eat more than they need. So we brought her home. Now, she hadn't peed since sometime Friday. She rode home wrapped in a blanket sitting on my lap. Suddenly she yowled and my lap got really warm! LOL! I was mortified and happy at the same time! Her kidneys were working...big time! So now she's curled up in the bean bag, recuperating. I wonder what number life she's on now?



On another note, I'm doing Weight Watchers on-line. Started yesterday. I've done it before. I'm sort of half-a**ed about it and lose a little bit and then finally lose interest. I've made a commitment to really do it this time. So I'm been making menus and following points. Tonight, I asked Chef Gary to make spaghetti. We always have whole wheat, so that's good. Usually he makes a big pot of pasta and we eat that. Nothing else, except maybe bread. He uses this measuring thing that you fit the uncooked spaghetti in to measure 2 servings. Tonight I asked for a salad (no beans or cheese) to go with it. And I bought dressing that is fat free and not creamy. I went to the table armed with a measuring cup and spoons. (I told you I was serious!)After eating the salad with 2 tablespoons of this really good Ken's Steak House Fat Free Raspberry Pecan Dressing, I measured out a serving of spaghetti. One serving - one cup! I was appalled! I'm thinking I used to eat probably 4 cups at a meal! Yikes! No wonder I'm so fat!! I ate the one cup, and was surprised that I was satisfied! It's 2 hours later, and I'm still feeling full. Not overly stuffed, but I don't need a snack! If I keep this up, I'm likely to become one of those people who rants about the American way of eating (which may be tantamount to killing ourselves!) (Gina, are you listening?)