Aw, hope your cat is feeling better . It's good that the bump is now gone. I hope he heals quickly.

My cat is going to be 19 in January, and she really doesn't show signs of age yet either (knock on wood). Well, there is one thing - she seems to be deaf now but I'm not sure that she really realizes it. We just have to wave our hands in front of her to get her attention, and she's not always good at getting out of the way when we're walking (she's black and likes to sit in the middle of a dark room or doorway). She does sleep a lot but she's still pretty active when she's awake, still jumping around and playing and all that.

Thanks guys! I'm ok with the 5mil bracket too.

content warning: sad non christmassy things below.

I hope your cat feels better seerow. It can be hard nursing a cat through grossish things but hopefully your kitty will heal super quick. My cat Nancy died september 5th this year of stomach cancer. She still felt like a baby to me - she was 14 and all our other cats have lived to 19+. I loved her so much I'm having a very hard time getting over it honestly, even though it's been three months I catch myself crying for her most days. she was my little shadow and I feel her absence all the time. so just treasure every moment you have, I guess. I still wish I could wake up and find the whole year since her diagnosis in may was a bad dream. With Nance and my Grandma the whole year has been spent with a terminal diagnosis sitting in the background, it's been horrendous.

Hope your kitty mends up okay ! Hah, be thankful he likes to sit on you though. :P Our baby is not a lap cat by any measure; he'd rather hop off and curl up an arm's length away from you. He still gets plenty of reluctant cuddles, of course, and he's learnt to tolerate it.

And sorry to hear about your kitty . :( I can only imagine how tough it is, I know if we ever lost Trifle it would feel so empty. I hope it gets easier for you with time, but I know it's never that simple. As you said, it's all about treasuring those moments and memories.

He started licking at his wound late yesterday and tore the scab off boo. For the most part though he's been behaving himself. Overall looks like it's healing quite nicely though yay.

On the way to the vet he hangs loose in my car on a halter (he hates being crated) and I turned on the heated seats since it was cold out. Omg he freaking LOVED it. So today I went out and bought him a heating pad and he's been on it for two hours. Just got off a few minutes ago when the timer kicked it off hah. Such a happy kitty.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/dogvet/media/730bbd46-6ce5-4684-90cc-99dec6ab8c79.png.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/dogvet/730bbd46-6ce5-4684-90cc-99dec6ab8c79.png[/IMG][/URL] And of course I had to put it in a box to get him interested in it in the first place :P

Unfortunately I got his blood work results back and his kidney levels continue to decline. He's got high phosphorus levels and that needs to be curtailed quickly. I really really do not want to put him on Science Diet or prescription food as that stuff is pretty much crap. So I ordered some phosphate binders that will be here shortly and hopefully that will manage. He gets to go back in a month to get another check-up.

My two cats hear just fine but they don't bother to get out of the way either :P "Ohh hey, you're coming through here? Yeah well I'm sitting here, go around me human."

I'm sorry to hear you're year has been so crappy. I can't imagine going through the pain of losing your lifelong pet then illness in the family. My heart goes out to you.

Omg he's so cute! Does he have CKD? Both Sid and Nancy are/were kidney cats - Nancy died from unrelated causes, Sid is still doing well about 2 years post diagnosis. We put both of them on a prescription diet initially but they wouldn't eat, and really the most important thing for kidney cats is to keep their weight and hydration levels up. Now we use a phosphate binder called renalzin in their normal food and the results have been fantastic. Before Nancy's cancer she was showing near normal levels of everything, and Sid is doing nearly as well. We also have water bowls in all his regular haunts around the house because drinking enough is so important. There's a website called tanya's crf site which can be scary as it talks about cats who are seriously ill as well as the early stages but it's been a goldmine of useful information for me. If you have any qs about cats with kidney probs let me know, I practically got a vetinary qualification on the subject after nancy was diagnosed.

Armani is just in the first stages of ckd.

The phosphate binder I bought is aluminum hydroxide based. I wanted to get the Renalzin but it is very very hard to find in the US :( Aluminum hydroxide used to be the most common type until a scare about aluminum toxicity (never found in cats, but not too many studies on it) but the vet and I both agreed that we should give it a try first. It's much better at binding with the phosphorus than the calcium based ones and we want to get his levels down quickly.

I've been to Tanya's and actually used it quite a bit when the vet first started talking about the ckd, the charts are really hadny. Sadly unless you go prescription there aren't really any quality wet foods that have low phosphorous counts. Unfortunate really.

Haha awwww he looks so content on the heat pad! That's such a great idea, I love it. :D

Gave my first real attempt at Luminaire tree decorating this year in a lull of boredom at work. I'm relatively pleased with how its turned out! I've always wanted to do a space and sweets themed tree for whatever reason and this year was the first that I've had the patience to do it. The new interface is a godsend! So much less painful.

I've got the rest of the week off work so planning to get all my Christmas shopping - real and virtual! - done this week. Arghhh. I'm so eternally useless with these things and I can tell I'm actually gonna be scrambling at the last minute heh.

. . . :🤦: Missed a day of Melody's Cottage. AGAIN. Sixth year they've had an achievement for it and this is my fourth fail. I was online, even! :P

{eta} Hey, at least I got a forum point out of this! That makes... three. Three forum points, lol.

Remember to get your presents in ASAP for the Secret Santa :) Wednesday is the deadline.

My group have all submitted, so thanks for that! :D I'll probably hand out tomorrow morning while I'm at work to make the most of my time grumble grumble working Christmas Eve grumble.

I have everyone's now as well. Mine won't go out until later in the day, probably about 7pm. Working all morning.

Hey guys! I've started sending out the Secret Santa gifts now. :) Just a heads up in case you want to save any suspicious packages until tomorrow!

Edit: Everything sent! Now to get on with my real wrapping... noooooo!!!

Alright everyone should now have their gifts :D Merry Christmas to everyone!

To whomever was my SS thank you for all the presents. I love the variety, a little bit of something for all my collections and collecting :)

Edit: Ohh, I bought for:

I just creeped on to open my presents. Thanks so much to my Santa! Loved all my stickers and the wears are beautiful, too. Thank you so much! And a very merry Christmas to everyone here! <3

And I just found out... I missed the 23rd December for Melody, too. D: And I was around all day too, boo. I'm just going to quietly seethe here, first time I've missed it baaah.

Woo, back on after the downtime! XD How'd everyone's holiday go?

And thank you so much to my Secret Santa!! <3 I love all the cute, little deers and pretty feathers that popped out for Seiji and Yumi!

I bought for:

Hope everyone had a happy holiday! Looks like I missed all the downtime yesterday. Can't wait for the trees to open... I still have people haven't gotten things for (I'm lazy, ok?!).

Thanks to my SS for all the awesome sweet thing for my galleries! ^_^ So many yummy things to sort through!

I bought for:

Thank you to my SS as well! All the lovely pirate goodies <3

Just crept on to open my SS! WOW thank you so much, you horrific price bracket cheater, you. Everything was amazing. I feel woefully inadequate with my gifts now, but I also don't know how to hide spoilers, so someone will have to tell me before I can reveal myself (or i'll do it once everyone's posted)

Thanks so much Secret Santa. I loved my gifts!

I bought for

Thank you to my SS, I put a lot of new flowers in Nylvers treasure chest and have even tried to use the wardrobe again with my new goodies. (It is a lot less glitchy, so I managed to make a new avatar)