more pictures

Some beautiful pictures of the conservatory, the flowers and the Biltmore Inn where my brother and his new wife stayed.  We stayed in a hotel across town ; ). The estate is massive with the estate house, the Winery, the Inn and even another small Inn.  Then there are little houses on the property where the caretakers stay.  This requires 24/7 upkeep. The amount of thought and manicuring that takes place - it's hard to imagine.  Everything is spotless and beautiful. Puts my place to shame.......cuz I haven't dusted in ages and it sometimes takes me days to get my laundry finished and folded.

Sunshine!

Sunshine is taking a trip to the Keys! As I am writing, her wonderful foster mom Kathi is taking her down to Florida to meet her new potential family. A vet from a small practice in far south florida somewhere between Small Key and some other place I can't remember was surfing petfinder and found our girl. Completely by accident she used her old NC zip code and it was love at first sight. So off they went after all the i's were dotted. Her foster mom is going to spend a few days down there soaking up the sun while Sunshine gets to meet and spend a little time with the new family. Here's hoping that it all works out and Sunshine will be in the Sunshine STATE!

Frank

Frank is now in a foster to adopt home. He's really improved and his potential family has taken him home (actually they took him home over a week ago, I'm just tardy). So far he is doing well. He has almost finished all of his meds for his skin and his ataxia seems to be improving a lot. Maybe it's just building strength or there could have been some underlying health issue that we never figured out. At any rate, when he's done with his meds we will take one last look and either put him on more or go ahead and give the adoption the green light. He's a great boy. We are so happy we've found a good match for him.

cat foods?

I have some real questions about cat foods and how to get my cats on a diet that helps with allergies. I switched the cats to Blue Buffalo Sensitive Skin and my allergy cat has adjusted just fine to it but the kitten who is healthy - she's sick. She is still active and bright eyed but her stools are just soo loose. Force feeding her pet pectin is causing us some real stress (and minor injuries).  Torti's can be such bitches!  So I have tried to put her back on Avoderm and that's just a miserable fiasco trying to keep the cats from eating each other's food.

Cosmo's ears are starting to get dirty again and his acne appears gone but just barely. Maybe the blue buffalo is not the best choice but I just don't know what to do! Thank God the dog is so much easier. She eats the Avoderm and her coat is just fab.  I could kick myself for not putting her on that sooner.

WOW & home

Wow, just home from a trip to Asheville to see my brother get married.  What a lovely place! It is very very swanky. While there for the reception, they had requested a vegetarian meal for me but the head waiter noticed that I didn't eat the cheese on my appetizer and switched out my meal for a vegan meal instead. Kudos to noticing the small things, his attention to detail was just marvelous. The chef made me a nice grilled portobello mushroom with fingerling potatoes. I was really impressed and thought they overall did a very good job with everything from start to finish. The attention to detail was very nice. I'd recommend going there with a loved one for a nice tour of the grounds. I didn't ask about their fining agents and none of the meals in the bistro are vegan so maybe eat in town at one of the hippy joints : )

What I would not recommend is a three day whirlwind trip with the parents including a shared hotel stay and a total of 12 hours on the road. Streaming CNBC/Fox News in the hotel room and I'm lucky there were no sharp implements with which to slit my wrists. No murder/suicide and a day later I am almost back to sanity.

New Post

Geesh, I haven't posted in a while so thought I'd put up a nice update just in case anyone is really interested in what's going on in the world of my nutty pets.. We've figured out that at 9 years of age that Cosmo is developing allergies. That's the cause of the acne, dirty ears and the eye discharge. So when we did our vet check we took bloodwork just in case and then he got a shot of depomedrol (steroid). The improvement was dramatic. We also put him on derm caps but I'm not sure if he will stay on them long term. Cosmo has always had a bit of a sensitive stomach and I think they give him a little diarrhea. Of course it is hard to tell exactly as I switched his food too. I put both of the cats on Blue Buffalo sensitive skin formula. It had the best nutritional label I could find in petsmart and wasn't full of a lot of grains and fillers. It is mostly meat and is supposed to have the omega fatty acids that will help his allergies.

It is a much richer food than they are used to and I think it will just take a few weeks to adjust. His blood values were perfect, not one single value was off and he looks like a much younger cat. Teeth in great shape - because I only feed hard food.

I also bought them a cat tree so they could exercise a bit more and they seem to be really enjoying the climb.

AVSAB Position Statement on the Use of Dominance Theory in Behavior Modification of Animals

AVSAB Position Statement on the Use of Dominance Theory in Behavior Modification of Animals

http://www.pbrc.net/misc/avsab_ps.pdf

A good read. If you have time check it out. The benefits of positive training and the downfall of alpha rolling. Not all dogs that misbehave are doing so because they are challenging authority.