Cosmo

Back to crazy Cosmo and our struggles for the past several months with his acne.  I thought it was the bowls. That Zelda was a messy eater and her spit bothered him so I changed bowls to shallow dishes.  I've never used plastic since that can cause acne in some cats.  I've trimmed his chin hair so that it's really short and I can clean it.  I clean it almost every other day.  Generally it isn't as dirty but like most acne, it is red and there is some pus occasionally.  

I have also noticed that he has a little bit of red eye discharge. So I put him back on flea prevention. That seemed to be a tell tail sign that he had a flea.  All of that with the new combination of dirty ears makes me think that it is/was stress.

He could also be depressed.  The new cat has required more attention and is more demanding than he is. She is also getting bigger and may be asserting herself some more.  I just dont' know.  So I went and bought some Feliway plugin and a water additive called "calm down".  I dont know if it has worked but I have only had it going for two days.

He initially seemed a bit playful that night with her and a little more affectionate to me.  But I'm also trying to make sure my attention is going to all of the animals.

Still waiting to see if my depressed crazy cat gets better.

More holiday entertaining

To the previous menu, I forgot to add a selection of cut fruit and a dark chocolate fondue. You could also add little pasta cups of vegan tuna or chicken salad.  And you can make some cowboy caviar - delicious!)

Vegan potato salad with veganaise and better than sour cream.

Whole Foods carries some nice Vegan wines.  I hear as well that kendall jackson and yellow tail whites are vegan but neither winery has confirmed for me.

Holiday entertaining

Holiday entertaining isn't so difficult and time consuming as you might thing.  And making Vegan options is easier and easier every year. There are tons of items you can offer to your vegan friends or take yourself (as I do) to parties that may not be as veg friendly.

Trader Joe's has some edamame dumplings called vegetable sumai (spelling?).  You would have to like Quiche as they are of that consistency, a little spongy.  Good though

Nates Meatless Meatballs!  They come in Savory Mushroom and Zesty Italian. The Zesty Italian is better for party meatballs. Take some Heinz Chili Sauce and some Grape Jelly and you've got a nice sauce.

Hummus is always a favorite, you can get roasted red pepper, sun dried tomatoes, original, garlic and Trader Joe's even has some layered hummus or some edamame hummus

Vegan fudge is super easy to make with coco powder, powdered sugar, vanilla, earth balance and a little rice mellow.

Ghiradelli (sp?) brownie mix is vegan and you can just skip the egg.  If you add applesauce to it (about 1/4 C), it will have a slightly cakier taste and be appropriate for cupcakes.   You can add a little Duncan Hines Classic Vanilla frosting to top it off

Don't forget the mixed nuts along with the chips and salsa and/or brushetta and you've got a nice party going.  You can also make Chex mix with earth balance or soy butter and it will be vegan.

Pillsbury cresent rolls and pizza dough are vegan so you can make little pizza's for your guests too.  Tiny finger sandwhiches with cucumber and veganaise : )

it's all good!

Happy New Year!

This is my third blog that I maintain.  I actually had 4 but I have inactivated one so that I can get a fresh start on new things.  There was lots of turmoil and personal introspection that I'd like to distance myself from in the coming year.  I also would like to share my journey into trying to become vegan. I've been almost vegan for 2 years now and continue to try and improve myself.  Things worth doing are worth doing well.

New Years Day

It's new years day and I slept late, a good start to the new year.  I bathed my cat (wow, that was not fun) and now I'm googling to see if Petsmart is open today. I've decided my cat is stressed out and that's the reason he has some acne on his chin and dirty ears. Nothing else has really changed in the house except for the addition of Zelda - the new kitten- and that is probably stressful for him. Especially now that she is older and starting to assert her role in the home.  That's the only thing I can think of since I've changed the bowls to shallow dishes and swap them out. I've never used plastic (since plastic can be irritating to sensitive skin).  He never goes outside to get dirty but he has always been a sensitive boy.

It's taken me a few weeks to come to this conclusion and a bit of reading about acne on the internet.  I've shaved his chin with a clipper and been washing it with mild soap. I think it is a reaction to stress and I'm off to buy some Feliway plug ins and/or the feliway spray.  I'll post again in a few weeks if it worked.

My politics

I am certainly not a politician and I have never been very involved politically. I also rarely take part in political discussions nor share my party line with friends and co-workers.  Unfortunately that's changed and I just have to share my views this year.  Not that anyone is going to read it or care what I have to say.  I've been more and more disheartened at the quality of political candidates in the past several elections and had pretty much come to the conclusion of picking the lesser of two evils.  This year is a big evil and I can't not speak up.

I am just appalled at the republican nomination of Sarah Palin. I am disturbed that she was chosen as a "token" on the ticket to try and grab the defecting hillary supporters as if all she needed was a set of boobs to guarantee success. If she had been a man, she never would have received the nomination and I resent that fact.  A woman is just as qualified as a man and her credentials should be just as good to qualify her for the exact same position.  Palin is an evangelical, anti choice, pro-gun, right wing conservative who wants creationism taught in schools.  I am a woman and she is not my candidate for the following reasons:

• Because she required the women in her own town to pay for their own rape kit after being traumatized
• She does not support a women's right to choose even in the case of rape or incest
• She cut funding in Alaska for teen moms and sex education and promotes abstinence only (doesn't work does it?)
• She believes the world was created 6000 years ago
• She believes humans and dinosaurs co-existed
• She has no foreign policy experience
• She is currently being investigated by the Alaska Legislature for alleged abuse of office
• She is consistently anti environment
• She opposed banning ariel bear and wolf hunting and enacted a $150 bounty on each freshly killed wolf (paid for by state funds) 
• She opposed a bill to increase salmon stream protection from mining operations and it was defeated
• She believes we should destroy our natural resources for economic gain such as drilling in the wildlife preserves of Alaska
• She doesn't believe in global warming
• She sued the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species 
• http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/377955_palinenvir07.html (here's a nice article)
• She does not support gay rights or gay marriage, "Pray Away the Gay"
• She only has TWO years of experience in running a state with a tiny population and her only experience previous to that was the mayor of a microscopic town
• Prior to that she was a SPORTS REPORTER!

While I think Obama lacks some experience and I am not sure his answers are clear on issues I hold dear.  His voting record certainly leaves much to be desired and I am not overly enamored by him, however....I will be voting for him in November.  I'm glad the republicans made the leap to put a woman on the ticket, remembering that the democrats have done it before with Geraldine Ferraro.  She's the first woman VP candidate, not Palin.  I think a better choice could have been made and am very disappointed in the small minds. 

Broken Hearted

I put my foster dog Kiki (formerly "Lucky Dog") down on Saturday and it was one of the hardest euthanasia's I've had to do. I was really starting to bond with her and she was a vibrant loving dog. It seems that her confidence was growing faster than her fears were dissapating and that left little options for her rehabilitation and placement. Until this past weekend I had decided I was just going to keep her and give her the best home that I could for as long as I could. She was a loving little dog and had finally started to adjust to the indoors and loved being inside as long as the room did not contain a TV. She was never able to get over her fear of the moving shadows.

I hate her breeder, the person who robbed her of a normal life. The one who simply "forgot" about her and left her where she would get no socialization of any kind and no stimulation outside of her small chain link pen. No stimulation from other animals and no stimulation or interaction with people. She did not know anything that we take for granted as normal for a dog to know. Lack of stimulation during that most impressionable time in puppy hood. It's no wonder she broke down.

I feel like I failed that little dog. I think of her looking up at me with those sparkly dark eyes and a thump of her tail thanking me for bringing her home and it hurts to have done what I did. I wish there had been another way and I can't help feeling like a complete and utter failure for her. She wanted to live, she didn't want to die, the little sparkle in her eye told me so in those moments when she felt safe and could relax. I don't think she was born this way, I think she was made this way by the harsh conditions she had to live in devoid of any stimulation - suffering through the freezing winter, sweltering in a hot summer. She is a product of what was done to her. Rest in Peace Kiki, please forgive me. I won't forget you. I wish the person who intentionally brought you into this world could be held accountable. You weren't an accident, you were intentionally brought into this world and intentionally forgotten about, intentionally unwanted and intentionally discarded. Hopefully one day.