She is doing really well post-surgery, and getting pretty bored in her kennel.

Hanging out in the bedroom was a nice change of pace, and she enjoyed exploring the room.

Then she finally settled down in the very corner of the bed, and declared that her “nest.”

Let’s recap the current in-the-house situation, shall we?

Simon is taking the madness in stride, as long as he can perch right on top of me, a safe distance from any feathered family.

In other news, I work in a short building between two tall buildings. Right now the two tall buildings are having a post-it war of sorts. On Monday, I plan to join in with a colorful display of Space Invaders.

Lastly, we’re rescuing two muscovy ducks on Saturday, if all goes well. There were three muscovies dumped at a park and one has already been killed by a predator. Another is injured but both are apparently friendly and hopefully easy to catch. So we’ll have some new kids around here for a bit, if we can catch them.

That should add a little more fun to the madness here, don’t you think?

Lester was soooo happy to be home from the vet and see his buddy Flapper. They chatted for nearly 1/2 hour. Lester’s prognosis is not good. His legs are not likely fix-a-ble and he does have nerve damage. He also still has parasites so he’s still on medication for that as well as antibiotics for his legs and previous dog-bite wounds.

For now, Lester has a good quality of life. He likes his playpen and his mirror and he likes his buddy Flapper. Flapper also likes him and they are good company for each other. He is eating well and seems content. So he will stay with us for as long as he is happy and has a good quality of life. And he’ll go back to the vet in 2 weeks for another check-up. NOTE: We don’t need donations for Lester, as his care is paid for by the Seattle Animal Shelter right now.

In other news, Chewy was featured in a book last year. I do not support people farming animals, but this book wanted to use one of my photos of Chewy and so we said they could. Since Chewy passed away unexpectedly, I bought the book so I could have it as a keepsake.

Chewy is featured in the book in his tuxedo, and his caption says, “Chewy, pictured right, is kept as a much-loved pet, its owners keeping a lively pictorial blog of its exploits on flickr.com.” I thought it would be good for some people to see that ducks are more than just agricultural or ornamental objects. And Chewy always did look very handsome in his tuxedo.

We worked from home today so we could get Lester to the vet, and as you can see, George was happy to hang out with us. Flapper sat on some blankets inside the house and looked out at the chickens and O’Malley, Petunia & George. George was very curious about the house but too shy to step inside.

Lastly, Simon is doing pretty well these days. He has adjusted to having not one, but TWO ducks living inside HIS house, even though it can be exhausting at times.

That’s all the news for today. Thanks and quacks.

So I went out alone. It’s a beautiful night.

He has been on heart meds for two days now and they do perk him up a bit. The first night they perked him up TOO MUCH! But last night was better, and they actually make it easier for him to stand up, so that is great. He can stand and preen better, and he seems to have a bit more energy. He is also eating good. It is nice to have some borrowed time with him, and I appreciate every minute of it.

The weather is cold for Seattle today and tomorrow, so the other feathered kids are locked in their night pens. It’s going to get down to 25 degrees tonight, brrr!

The chickens have their heat lamp, so they think they are at a tanning salon. They tried to order some mai tais but they couldn’t show proper ID so I turned them down.

George is still sweet as ever, and his foot looks great. We’re giving his forever sanctuary some time to get some repairs done to their waterfowl areas, and then we’ll talk to them about when is best to deliver George. He’ll still have one last vet visit to get the all clear, but he’s pretty good.

Simon is also getting old and feeble. He sits funny like this sometimes now. I think it is because his back legs hurt a bit. His back legs are weak, which is one of the symptoms of diabetes in cats. He has been on insulin for about two weeks now and we’re working out the right dosages. His biggest problem this week is that the wet food he loved was discontinued. So he has tried 10+ different foods and does not want any of them. He only wants his beloved discontinued prescription-only, limited ingredient food (which incidentally was a food he refused to eat for a long time, until one day he decided it was his only favorite). Being a cat is a tough job.

That’s the update from this motley crew for today. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year, and we thank everyone for their continued support.

Flapper will be sleeping in the play pen in the house when the weather is cold to see if it helps his arthritis at all. When all the feathered kids went to their pens for the night, I picked up Flapper and brought him inside to his play pen. He ate his dinner, turned around and fell asleep. He is such a calm, happy-go-lucky kid. He didn’t mind the play pen at all and has been sleeping soundly for hours now.

In other news, Simon might have diabetes. The vet said he does for sure, but after a week of giving him insulin twice a day I did a blood sugar test 6-hours after his insulin and it was too low. That means he’s getting too much insulin. So now we have to cut back and test more. He is doing just fine with it all thankfully, and we should have time to check him closely over the holidays to get a really good picture of his overall blood sugar patterns. Until then, he just sits on me and stares at me until I get up and feed him, and that works well for him (but not so great for me).

Sweet dreams, everyone.

George wasn’t so sure he wanted to step out of his carrier at the vet’s office. He knows now that it’s not his favorite place. The first stop was on the scale, where we learned George has gained weight! He may have been a little underweight when he was dumped in a park, or he might be getting a little too much food while cooped up here at Hotel Flapper. Either way, he now weighs 7.28kg or 16lbs! When he first arrived he weighed 6.06kg or 13.35lbs, and that was only five weeks ago!

The extra weight won’t be great for George’s foot, so we’ll have to watch the treats and make sure he doesn’t gain much more weight. The good news is that George’s foot is looking much better. When he first arrived, the bumble infection was really deep. It was cleaned out and bandaged, and cleaned out and bandaged, and bandaged again. Today the vets picked at the remaining scab a bit and found that it is healing really well from the inside out, and it is really shallow now. It was bandaged yet again, and George will only have to keep the bandage on for a few days. Then he just has to spend most his time on super soft 4″ of wood shavings and limit his play time. We’ll keep his foot clean with chlorhexadine and novalsan until what’s left of the scab finally heals, and then he’ll be set to go to the sanctuary!

In other news, Simon was at the vet this past Tuesday. He is at least 14-years-old now (hard to say exactly since he’s a rescue) and he just didn’t seem to be acting right. It turns out he has diabetes, so now he’ll get insulin twice a day and hopefully we can manage it pretty easily for him. I was not going to intervene in Simon’s aging with drugs and shots like I have in the past with cats. I had decided that he was going to have a natural decline and not hang around extra time for my benefit. But the insulin is very easy and doesn’t hurt him and he should do well on it. Also, he’s diabetic because he’s fat, and that’s my fault. He has always been a big guy, but he really gained weight when Hodjee and Meelee (his play buddies) passed away in the past two years. So we’ll keep you posted on how furry guy is doing.

In the meantime, enjoy this short video of a… holiday-spirit-filled neighbor’s holiday lights.

Then it was snuggle time.

Everybody else just milled about, waiting for snuggle time to end so treat time could begin.

Janet was particularly eager for treats.

Petunia preferred to share my cookie instead of eating duck treats like grapes and tomatoes.

Olivia was very interested in cookies too. I think she already had breakfast though. You can see a little bit of egg yolk on top of her head. That means someone laid an egg and then the chickens ate it. I think it’s Janet’s egg.

“Hand over the cookie and no one gets hurt.”

Chewy asked if he could have his treats in his pool.

So while he swam around…

I hand-fed him peas.

Janet was ready for a 2nd round of treats by then.

So while Flapper settled in for a morning nap in the sunshine, I got Janet some grapes.

After the ducks and clucks were settled, Simon sat on my foot stool and watched the little birdies in the trees. He thinks he’s sneaky, but it’s tough to hide all 20lbs of his furriness.

Here’s hoping we all have a good week.

Quacks and clucks,

Tiff and the crew.

Get that toy, Simon!

Simon likes to get the toy and shove it onto the floor.

“Get it?”
Then my job is to fetch it and bring it back to him. Wait a minute… that seems backwards.

And he’s off to chuck it onto the floor again!

It’s good to see Simon feeling better. When he’s not chasing his toys, he hangs out outside with me and catches bugs. Here he is sniffing his paws after coming back inside.
“Smell like spider.”

In other news, Flapper had friends in town this past weekend. Janis & Todd, who adopted Eddie the duck from us a few years ago, came to town to say hello.

O’Malley is still molting, so that means he’s still a crankasaurus, but lovable as well.

Olivia is doing well, and I think she might want to move in with Janet and Olly Astro soon. In the evenings, she sometimes heads into their night pen with them before going over to her own. This would be great if she decided to roost with Olly & Janet. They could keep each other warm in the winter, and it would also free up a night pen for us to use for other rescues as they come and go.

We’ll keep you posted on her decision. Until then, have a great week.

Quacks and clucks,

Tiff, Simon & the flock

Unfortunately, he startled me, which made me jump, which made him jump. He was standing ON my face when he jumped.

This was the result. I guess I’m glad he wasn’t standing near my eyes.

For the rest of Sunday, Simon got worse and worse. He threw up more, and I realized he didn’t really eat Saturday dinner. This meant he wasn’t eating at all. By Sunday night, he seemed in pain. He went to the basement and refused to come back upstairs.

That is always a bad sign.

So today he went to the vet.

He brought the vet a gift of poo. I thought it was a very nice gesture, considering he was being poked and prodded. I raised him right.

Tonight Simon is feeling a little bit better, or at least grateful to be home from the vet’s office. He is a snuggle monster. He has some fluids, some anti-nausea medication and some pain medication. Tomorrow we will get the results of his blood and urine samples. I’m hoping it was just a minor attack that seems pretty common with cats his age. If he continues to improve, that’s pretty likely.

Turn up the volume to hear why I wear ear plugs at night. Last night, when Simon slept in the basement because he wasn’t feeling well, I slept without ear plugs. I never thought I’d miss those ear plugs but I did.

Simon has shared my pillow for nearly 13 years. I know he won’t live forever, but I hope he shares my pillow for a long, long time.