New Cat City

Moving Foward

2011-02-24T16:16:00.002-05:00

Its sad to say that while Avram and I have enjoyed keeping this blog, life moves too fast for us to keep detailed posts up about the boys and share all their wonderful antics and adventures. But fear not we are not disappearing into the ether, we are just changing the format just a little bit. Instead of updating the blog, we will be updating the boys very own facebook fan page where everyone who wants to can keep up to date with their daily doings :)

We hope to see you there :)
~Liz

Litter for a Cause

2010-09-24T11:43:00.003-04:00

World's Best Cat Litter (the only litter we use and recommend to everyone with a cat) sent us an email spotlighting a very wonderful program where cat litter is being donated to help shelters in Los Angeles provide for their feline charges. I'm happy to spread the word and ask that everyone spread the word and click on the graphic above or go to the facebook page and vote. Every time you vote more litter is donated so please spread the word and vote often!

Update on Arthur

2010-09-21T17:21:00.004-04:00

I took Arthur in for his 6 month check up today. Dr. Plotnick was happy to report that Arthur is the picture of health. There are no lingering effects or even signs that earlier this year he was so ill. The only thing of slight concern is that Arthur now weighs 16lbs 6oz and the Dr would be happier if Arthur was closer to the low 15 range. So we need to work on getting him a bit more active and a bit less food.

He got blood drawn to do some blood work to just make sure that all his levels are where they should be and his yearly shots while he was at it. As always there is tons of love and praise for how handsome he is. And of course I cant say enough good things about the staff at Manhattan Cat Specialists they have been a blessing to us and give such excellent care to our boys and mental reassurance to us that our boys are well taken care of :)

Next week its Beowulf's turn for a check up.

UPDATE:: The Doctor called with Arthur's blood results and he is one perfectly healthy kitty :)

Recent Photos of the Boys

2010-04-03T20:02:00.006-04:00

First of all, Liz and I want to thank everyone who has sent kind wishes, thoughts, and prayers to us, both through this blog and elsewhere. Your support has meant a lot to us and to our boys and it really helped us through this ordeal.

With all the hubub about our boys' health, we haven't posted all the pictures we'd like to share with you. So here are some of our favorites from the last couple of weeks. We hope you enjoy looking at them almost as much as we enjoyed being there to take them. The pic of above was just shot a few minutes ago.

This pic of Beowulf exploring an Amazon.com box really doesn't tell the whole story. He hung out in the box for a couple of hours before we finally had to throw it out.

This one is a couple of weeks old, taken when Arthur still had his feeding tube but was getting better. He loves to lie down in the laundry basket.

More snuggling, from another day. What you probably can't see here is that the boys are touching paws. They do this a lot.

Arthur just relaxing.

The Well Traveled Cat

2010-04-02T13:30:00.002-04:00

As of today Dr. Plotnick has pronounced Arthur fully recovered. He still has a small scab on his neck from the feeding tube, but he sees no reason for further concern or treatment for Arthur's illness. He's happy, active and while not eating tons he seems to be back to eating his normal amount and maintaining his weight without the tube :)

Beowulf's test results came back showing him to be perfectly healthy in every way. Now we dont have to go back to the vet for 6 months for Beowulf and 2 months for Arthur so he can get his shots.

So no more weekly trips across town to the vet for Arthur, his days traveling around the city by cab are over.

Beowulf Checks Out

2010-04-01T14:20:00.002-04:00

So today Beowulf went in for his annual check up and his shots. This was his first time at the new vets office so we were a bit on edge with what Dr. Plotnick would have to say and how he would react to the long trip to the office.

As per usual he wasn't happy with leaving the house in his carrier, but he was well behaved and purred up a storm for the Dr and his tech. They were impressed with his sweet demeanor and his ability to purr while getting poked, prodded and having his blood and urine drawn and getting his shots.

So tomorrow we'll find out the results of his blood work, and get a healthy baseline for his records. According to Dr. Plotnick, Beowulf is as healthy as any cat can be. Hes 14.5 lbs and as we've always known handsome and lovable.

Once we got home he got some treats to reward him for being a good boy, but he didn't think it was enough and nagged me until I finally gave in and went into the bedroom with him to lay on the bed and rub and groom him :)

Tube is Out, But Concerns Remain

2010-03-27T17:51:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, we took Arthur to his vet Dr. Plotnick and we came into the appointment with concerns about Arthur's eating. As I mentioned in my most recent post, Arthur has been eating on his own, but not the 250 calories per day we had been aiming for so he was still getting a tube feeding or two every day.

We went into the appointment assuming that his feeding tube was going to be staying in for the foreseeable future and that we were going to have to keep shooting for normalcy. However, Dr. Plotnick was persistent in his belief that we should remove Arthur's feeding tube right away. He told us that, now that Arthur's liver has returned to normal, if Arthur eats every day but eats less calories he's not in immediate danger of going back into fatty liver syndrome. He also said he believes that the presence of the feeding tube itself might be holding Arthur back from eating as much as he should.

He said we don't need to obsessively count Arthur's calories as long as we see him eating consistently. We have a follow-up appointment next Friday to see how Arthur's weight and health do in his first week without the tube. If it's a problem, we can always move back to force feeding with a new tube or a syringe.

So we made the leap. The tube is out and, though Arthur has a bandage around his neck while the hole heals up (about 36 hours), he is now tube-free and we can see that he is much much happier. He was affectionate throughout this ordeal, but he is even more affectionate now. The picture above shows him snuggling on the ottoman between our feet. When we took this shot, we were sitting watching a movie and he came up and sat on Liz's lap and kneaded her and then sat on mine and then settled between our feet.

He has been eating, but the usual nibble here and there. However, to be honest, the amount he is eating might be equivalent to what he was eating before he got sick. It's hard to say because he always snuck into the kitchen and grabbed some kibble when nobody was looking rather than eating huge amounts right when we put food down (like his brother does). We have seen him going into the kitchen late at night to grab more food.

We are cautiously optimistic that he has turned the corner and will be eating enough on his own. As usual, Dr. Plotnick has made us feel really confident in what we are doing. He is an amazing veterinarian, we have a ton of faith in him, and we believe we can't really go wrong. He's done as much for our mental health as for Arthur's physical health.

If you've read about our saga with the old vet, you know that the old vet had said at one point that we shouldn't worry about how much Arthur was eating and we wrote that off as bad advice when Arthur's condition worsened. However, as Dr. P pointed out, there's a big difference between that time and this one. When the old vet told us we shouldn't be concerned about Arthur's food in-take, he was in the throes of intense liver disease. Now his liver is normal and Dr. P tells us that he will not go back into fatty liver if he has a few days where he is eating less than we would like.

However, you'll forgive us for still being a bit obsessive about how much Arthur is eating and still watching him closely. Hopefully he starts eating a bit more in front of us.

Another side effect of the tube removal is that, once we remove the bandage tonight, Liz will start sleeping in the bedroom again. She has been sleeping on the living room couch every night for the last month so she could keep an eye on Arthur at night and make sure his brother didn't wrestle him and pull the feeding tube out. With no more tube, we can both go back to sleeping in the bedroom.

Tons of Frustration as Arthur is Eating Less

2010-03-25T11:03:00.002-04:00

As you may have read, Arthur's liver numbers came back normal last week. And indeed he looks much healthier and acts much healthier. He's been very active and assertive, even trying to wrestle his brother (which we break up, because of fear it will dislodge the feeding tube). He even nags us for food, but then when we go in the kitchen and give it to him, he eats maybe two licks or just rubs our feet.

On a good day, he's eating maybe 100 to 125 of the 250 calories he needs on his own, but the past couple of days have not necessarily been good days. This morning I spent about two hours trying to cajole him into eating, after he woke me up and begged for food.

Here's how it went:

1. 7 a.m.: Arthur knocks on the bedroom door and wakes me up (Liz is asleep in the living room where she sleeps to watch the boys at night). I get up and open up a can of Solid Gold Tuna for Arthur and dump some dry food for Beowulf. Arthur runs over the bowl and starts eating, but after a few licks, he tries to follow me back to the bedroom. I leave the food out for an hour, but he doesn't go back.

2. 8 a.m.: I go back into the kitchen weigh the food bowl (it's like .5 ounces lighter than it was so maybe he got 15 calories). I then put down dry food for Arthur. I make him follow me in and put tuna flakes on top of the kibble. He eats the flakes, but none of the kibble. I try this several times. Each time he follows me back to the bedroom rather than staying in the kitchen and eating. I sit on the kitchen floor with him for a while. He still won't eat.

3. 9:30 a.m. I tell Liz Arthur needs his full 83 calorie tube feeding again. The same thing happened yesterday and last night for his night feeding.

Good News

2010-03-19T19:26:00.002-04:00

I got one of the best phone calls of my life this morning. If he'd been there in person I would have embarrassed myself and him by hugging and kissing him. Who is this "him" you ask? Why our vet, and he called bright and early this morning to give me the results of Arthur's blood work and urine analysis.

::Drum Roll::

Our baby boy is almost good as new :) His liver values are back to normal and everything from his bloodwork to his physical examination say that he's just about ready to have the tube removed and put all this behind him IF he starts eating again on his own.

So our new mission is to get him to eat on his own. At the Dr's suggestion we will be skipping some of his tube feeding times in the hopes that he will be hungry enough to eat his food. This afternoon I skipped his feeding and removed all available food that he could snack on. I gave him a new cat nip toy I bought and waited. Around 5pm he started bugging me and when I put down a can of Solid Gold Tuna he devoured most of it. Now this could be a result of the appetite stimulant we gave him yesterday, or actual hunger but if he can keep this up we can be sure he's recovered and ready to have his tube removed :)

Check up Results

2010-03-18T15:14:00.002-04:00

Took Arthur in today for another weekly checkup with the vet. Hes now 14 lbs up from 13.6 last week and the Dr is very pleased with his overall demeanor and the fact he has little to no yellow color anymore. Even the low grade fever he's been running the last few visits is gone and by all accounts Arthur is doing well.

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that he still isn't eating much on his own. The Dr is still puzzled over this and gave us an appetite stimulant to use as needed to try and help Arthur eat more by mouth and less by tube. He took some urine and blood samples to do tests and will call us tomorrow with the results.

While the last few weeks have been stressful and trying in the extreme we are beyond happy with the new vet and the level of care he has been getting. These weekly visits are a benchmark of how much Arthur is improving and gives us a chance to get answers to questions and suggestions for what we can do differently or improve on in regards to his care.

We cant thank all of you enough for you support, ideas and suggestions during this time. It means a lot to us and we cant begin express our appreciation :)

Arthur Eating Very Little With a Side of Frustration

2010-03-17T21:30:00.003-04:00

Arthur appears to be doing better in a lot of outward ways. He's much friskier, has gained weight, and he doesn't look jaundiced anymore. Last week when we saw him, the vet was encouraged. That said, getting him to eat is a huge challenge and he seems to be making zero progress in terms of his appetite.

The strange thing is that he is very interested in being fed. Around scheduled feeding times (for him and his brother), he will become very assertive and follow us around meowing and trying to lead us into the kitchen. As we dispense food into the bowl, he gets so excited that he tries to scale the counter to get to it. But then we put the bowl down for him and he rubs his face against the rim of the bowl and lies down. If we walk away from the kitchen, he follows us. If we stay in the kitchen, he starts rubbing his face on our feet and being his affectionate self, but is more interested in us than in eating.

We have managed to cajole him into eating a bit by sitting on the floor with him and repeatedly waving bonito flakes in front of his nose and then dropping them in the bowl. Sometimes he'll eat a few pieces or licks of food out of our hands. We might have to sit there stroking him and encouraging him for 20-30 minutes to get him to eat maybe half an ounce of food. What are we doing wrong? What haven't we tried?

Arthur Eating a Bit, But Very Difficult to Measure How Much

2010-03-14T16:22:00.004-04:00

What a weekend it has been! I won't bore you with my non-cat life, but I had to take a business trip to Philadelphia this weekend while Liz stayed home with the boys. I tried to get home Saturday night, but the weather was a disaster. I bought an Amtrak ticket for a train at Philadelphia's 30th street station at 7:30 pm on Saturday and was stuck on the train (and another they made us change to) for over 10 hours, getting home at 6 a.m. I am wiped and so is Liz from caring for the boys by herself while waiting for me to get home. Meanwhile, I have a ton of work to do for Monday morning.

Anyhow, Arthur's still eating in small fits and starts, but here's the rub: he really wants dry food rather than wet! I feel like all of the feeding sins we committed with Arthur and Beowulf are coming back to haunt us.

For those unfamiliar with our whole cat life, I'll list the sins:

Feeding Mostly Dry Food: We used to feed wet food a lot, honest! For the time Arthur and Beowulf were kittens until they were about 3 years old, our feeding schedule was to open up a 3 oz can of wet food in the morning, wait 30 min for them to eat (or not eat) some, then put down a couple of 1/4 cup scoops of dry food that would sit there all day for them, and then do the same can + dry food routine in the evening.

Where did we go wrong? Over time, they slowly stopped having any interest at all in the wet food so we were basically throwing out a couple of cans of food a day. We tried every type of canned food you can imagine: Wellness, Merrick, Weruva, California Natural, Newman's Own, Spot's Stew, Blue Buffalo, Abady, Felidae, Eagle Pack, Evolve, Wysong, Fromm, Innova, Nature's Variety, and many more. We tried THEM ALL, almost every flavor. The only food they would sometimes eat was Solid Gold Blended tuna.

I suppose we could have refused to feed them dry food at all, but our worry was that they would just stop eating and end up sick (like Arthur is now).

So after a while, we cut back on the wet food cans they were refusing to eat and we started to just feed dry food, but a high-quality, high-protein type. We alternated between Solid Gold Indigo Moon and California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice. Solid Gold Tuna cans became a once-a-week treat.
Free Feeding: So the other problem, even with the dry food, was that they never ate it all at once. Arthur and Beowulf would eat a little bit of their portion and then leave some. We would let it sit in the bowls as they would come back again and again at random throughout the day to eat.

In Beowulf's case, we would always see him eat a good portion of his food at the time we put it in the bowl, but in Arthur's case, he would often eat later when nobody was watching. In fact, if we walked into the kitchen while he was eating, he might stop what he was doing and want to rub up against us instead of eating.
Feeding on-demand: We have a rough schedule of feeding at 7 am and 7 pm (give or take an hour), but throughout the evening, Beowulf frequently demands fresh food. How does he demand it? He'll start meowing at us very loudly and the more we ignore him, the more wild he gets. He'll start jumping on the dining room table he knows he's not allowed on and he'll escalate to attempting to knock over a lamp. The way to silence him? Go in the kitchen and dispense food for him.

The problem here: We completely LOST TRACK of how much Beowulf was eating and Arthur was eating. A lot of dry food was/is actually wasted b/c they don't eat it all and demand we give "fresh from the bag" food

The strange thing about Beowulf's behavior is that there might be plenty of food in the bowl, but he wants me (primarily me, not Liz) to come into the kitchen and dispense fresh kibble for him straight from the bag. The bowl could be filled up, but he only wants the freshly dispensed kibble. One exception: sometimes, all he wants is for me to follow him into the kitchen (where the bowls are) and watch him eat the kibble that is already there. The key element,I guess, is my watching.

Unlike Beowulf, Arthur rarely asks for food on his own, even when he is healthy. When he was healthy, he would follow Beowulf into the kitchen when I do a scheduled (morning or evening) feeding and he might have a few bites of kibble then or he might just walk away and come back later to eat when nobody was looking.

So what's happening now? I think Arthur wants a return to normalcy, the normalcy where he sneaks in there and eats dry food and we have no idea how much or little he is eating. That's not good.

When we first got the tube put in the other week, he had no interest in the dry food we left for his brother and we got him to eat an ounce here and there of wet food (usually Solid Gold Tuna). Now, he is opposed to the wet food (won't eat it) and is sneaking in and grabbing some kibble and eating it, but we're having a hard time measuring the calories and knowing how much he ate versus how much Beowulf ate and, considering we never knew the exact amount they were fed, now we're really confused.

I tried on-schedule feeding Arthur 1/4 cup of dry food (an ounce) today and he was very interested in eating it, but in the end, had maybe 1/8 of an ounce of food, not enough to count against his tube feeding. And for him to eat that, I had to drop some bonito flakes in the bowl.

The irony of all this is that Arthur is now becoming assertive about leading us into the kitchen and "asking" for food, but in the end, he is primarily rubbing his cheeks on the bowl and rolling over for a belly rub (for some reason, he has always liked to be petted and rubbed in front of the food bowls). So the tube feeding continues, but we're confused.

I don't want either of the boys to stay on an all-dry, free-feeding diet, but I don't want to do anything that discourages Arthur (or even Beowulf) from eating. Advice please.

Arthur's Mouth Checks Out, But He Still Won't Eat

2010-03-11T20:43:00.006-05:00

It feels like we're living with an anorexic food connoisseur. Arthur has a great interest in food and being fed, but doesn't touch anything we give him now. He actually is nagging us for food and circling the food bowls and rubbing his mouth against the bowls, but no matter what food we put in there, he won't touch it.

I actually think the amount of food he is eating now is less than before we put the tube in. Perhaps he is less naturally hungry, because he is getting nourishment from us. But we're very concerned.

Today, we took him back to our excellent new vet, Manhattan Cat Specialists, for a scheduled check-in / check-up. The doctor said that Arthur definitely looks better than he did last Friday. He is much less jaundiced and he has gained weight. The doctor also noticed that he is friskier and generally acts more like a healthy cat.

That said, Arthur still had a low-grade fever when they took his temperature at the doctor's office today. They said maybe he gets a little warmer from stress so they asked us to take his temp at home later in the week and get back to them.

The vet did check out Arthur's mouth at our request and said that his teeth and gums look fine. The vets going theory is that Arthur isn't eating because he is nauseous so he gave us anti-nausea medicine. We fed to Arthur today, but he still isn't eating on his own. However, he does seem to be making his nauseous face much less and he sat still for his feedings.

What We're Fighting For

2010-03-09T22:04:00.003-05:00

I've written a lot of posts lately without pictures so I thought I'd share this one I just snapped of Arthur and Beowulf holding hands while they rest in our bed.

Liz and I can't tell you all how much it means to us to have read all your well wishes for Arthur and for us. Some of you have said Arthur is lucky to have us as cat parents, but really we're the lucky ones. I hope this picture gives you a sense of why I say that.

On a side note, Arthur is feeling a bit more frisky and hence is getting harder to tube feed. However, his appetite for self-feeding is still very small, with him eating maybe an ounce or half an ounce of food the couple of times we've tried to feed him today. One small thing I noticed: he takes a long time (maybe 3 to 5 minutes) to eat a very small amount of food and food often falls out of his mouth.

The original vet said his teeth are ok, but I have to wonder if he is having trouble chewing and swallowing his food.

Falling Into a Routine

2010-03-08T23:30:00.004-05:00

So, for better or worse, we are working our way into a feeding tube routine. We are now feeding Arthur three times per day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening.

For the morning and evening feedings, we offer him canned food first. Sometimes, he'll eat an ounce or two of the canned food, but not nearly enough to meet his calorie requirements. So we'll wait 30 minutes to an hour and tube feed him again.

It's kinda discouraging to see him walking away from the food he could eat himself, but it's a huge relief that we have the tube to help us through that. The weekend before we had the tube in, we were freaking out trying to get him to eat. Now, we just put the food down for him and walk away. If he doesn't eat it, we don't sit on the floor begging him to do it, because we know he'll be nourished.

We are still really paranoid about leaving him unsupervised even overnight. Our normal routine when he was well was to go into our bedroom when we were ready to sleep and leave the door open. The boys would then wander in and out of the bedroom at will for a while after we went to bed. However, ultimately, every night we had to kick them out of the room and close the door, because at some point around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., at least one of them would get frisky and start doing all kinds of wild things like ripping tissues out of the tissue boxes or trying to scale the TV set.

So for several hours each night, we normally sleep with the door closed and let the boys run wild in the living room. Then we get up and feed them sometime around 7:30 a.m. (or earlier if I need to use the bathroom).

However, right now, we don't feel like we can give them those few hours alone in the living room while we are in the bedroom with the door closed. So Liz has slept out in the living room every night since Arthur came home with the tube while I sleep in the bedroom. Liz is able to deal with the lack of sleep, which is a blessing because she can keep an eye on Arthur.

One of these nights, Liz will come and sleep in the bedroom with me again, but for now, we're glad she can keep a closer eye on our sick boy.

Follow Arthur's Feedings in Real-Time. Help Us Streamline

2010-03-07T15:07:00.005-05:00

This is a micro level of info that you probably won't find interesting, but since my wife and I have created a google doc spreadsheet to track the combination of Arthur's tube feedings and self-feeings, I thought I'd share it:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tnEd9ZQhmqSPnyHUplyqbKA&gid=0

We are trying to figure out how to make this more efficient. It is very time-consuming. Please send tips! Four times a day, we do this now at every feeding:

I. First offering Arthur a bowl of canned food, which we have weighed and calorie counted.

II. Driving his brother Beowful out of the room and locking him in the bedrooom (we have a 1 bedroom apt so not much room here), but we don't want to hurt Beowulf's feelings so we lock him in with dry food (he won't usually eat wet). We have to isolate Arthur from Beowulf during feedings b/c Arthur won't eat in his presence and, if Beowulf should eat from the same bowl, we won't know how many calories Arthur got.

III. Wait about 30 min or so to make sure Arthur is really done eating, while dealing with angry screams from Beowulf to let him out of the bedroom or while letting him out and watching him to make sure he stays in the livingroom.

IV.Prepare the syringes with food and medicine while deducting the amount of calories Arthur ate (he is usually eating an ounce of food out of a 3 oz can - so maybe 25 to 30 calories, which lets us deduct a fair amount from his syringe)

V. Find Arthur, lay him down in his bed, try to get him relaxed. Inject 5 ml of water into tube to flush it. Then his regular feeding 25 to 45 ml depending on how many calories we deduct.

We are feeding him at the rate of 2 lines on the syringe (2 ml) per minute so just the syringe feeding alone is taking like 15 to 20 minutes, after prepping the syringe (5 min), and giving him the original food and waiting for him to eat it (30 min). The whole process is easily an hour or more and that's 4 times a day.

Deducting Calories for Self Feeding, a Math Challenge. Are We Passing the Test?

2010-03-06T13:19:00.002-05:00

If you have a moment, I have a big question I need help with. We have been instructed by everyone (new vet, old vet, hospital vet) to try to feed Arthur normally before each tube feeding. This is good, but making the situation very very tricky, because he is eating on his own, but not an equivalent amount of calories to the tube so we're having to do some math to try to figure out how many tube calories to deduct based on what he consumed.

Here's how we're doing it. If you have any ideas, please tell us how we can do it easier and better. About an hour before each tube feeding, we offer Arthur a can of wet food we think he'll like. Before we give him the bowl, we weigh both the empty bowl and the bowl with the food in it (strangely the same empty bowl seems to vary at between 2 1/8 and 2 5/8 ounces). We sit with him in front of the bowl stroking him and encouraging him to eat. Usually, he actually DOES EAT for a good 5 min, but I guess he is not putting a lot in his mouth at once, because when we go back to weigh the bowl, maybe it ends up being .5 ounces or 1 ounce less than it was before.

We leave the food out for a good hour and sometimes he goes back for more. This morning, for example, we had a bowl of solid golid tuna out for him for an hour. When it first went down, he ate like .5 ounces (not enough), but when I came to take it away an hour later, he ran into the kitchen and stuck his head in and ate about another ounce. We don't know if we did the right thing, but we skipped his morning tube feeding, because we know that the 3 oz can of solid gold tuna has 100 calories (we actually had to call solid gold to ask) and so we figure he ate about half or 50 calories in that sitting. That's a bit less than his tube feeding of 64 calories, but we spotted him the 14 calories this time.

Are we doing this right? Even if we are, it's driving us nuts. Leaving food down, sitting on the floor and nudging him toward the bowl, hoping he eats enough and then trying to deduct the calories from his next tube feeding. Also, we're not sure if our digital scale is accurate enough to really get this down to the ounce. For example, at one point, I weighed the bowl after he had eaten a noticeable amount, and the weight came out higher than before I put it down.

We would love to just stick to the convenience of tube-only feeding, but we want Arthur to eat on his own and, somewhat uniquely for a cat with Fatty Liver Disease, he actually has an appetite and leads us into the kitchen to give him food.

Arthur Still Very Sick, But We Feel a Little Better Due to New Vet

2010-03-06T02:40:00.004-05:00

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who has been commenting on these posts and replying to my questions on various forums. I'm sorry that I haven't had time to respond to everyone personally, but I want you to know that Liz and I are really inspired and encouraged by your comments, well wishes, and prayers and I think they are making a huge difference in our health and Arthur's! Please keep them coming!

The photo above was taken on Liz's camera phone a few minutes ago. That's a sleepy, unkempt me tube feeding Arthur while Beowulf sleeps next to him and leans his head on my feeding arm to support me and his brother. That's the kind of being Beowulf is; he is always there to heal and support me, Liz, and his brother, always there to lean on you, purr, and make you feel better. Don't believe the glowing eyes in the shot!

This afternoon we had our first appointment with our new vet, Dr. Plotnick of Manhattan Cat Specialists. I deliberately avoided naming him in the prior post before where I said I had made an appointment with a new vet, because I didn't want to name names until I had actually had my appointment and met him. Now, I definitely have a strong opinion. Dr. Plotnick and his entire staff are incredible and, after our visit, Liz and I felt like we had a new lease on life for ourselves, not just Arthur.

Dr. Plotnick spent a long time with us, answering every one of our questions and putting our minds very much at ease about the feeding tube and what could happen with it. Where the vet hospital had put the fear of God into us about the tube popping out at any moment and Arthur neednig to be rushed into the hospital for emergency treatment, Dr. Plotnick explained that, even if the tube came out, we would simply put a band aid over the open hole in Arthur's neck and then bring him in the next day.

On a side note, his staff also rewrapped the tube and repositioned it so it isn't bumping into everything now. Strangely, the hospital had used a really long tube which complicated things.

He and his team explained to us that we did not need to stay up 24/7 watching Arthur to make sure he does not pull the tube loose. That may sound like a very minor thing to say, but to us, it's a lifesaver.

I could spend a much longer post -- and perhaps I will at some point-- talking about everything that is right with Dr. Plotnick and Manhattan Cat Specialists, because they are just amazing. But right now I'm going to selfishly go to bed in a few minutes and enjoy some of the lost sleep Dr. Plotnick has given back to me.

But before I sign off this post, here's an update on the most important thing, Arthur's health. The doctor agrees with the diagnosis that Arthur has fatty liver disease. However, he did discover (something our old vet did not) that Arthur has a fever. He believes the fever is evidence of some kind of underlying infection, but none of the prior tests done by the hospital or our old vet were able to detect an infection.

The old vet / hospital did put him on the Enrofloxacin antibiotic because they suspected some kind of infection, but they never could tell what it was. Without doing further tests -- which he does not recommend at this time -- our new doctor cannot tell what the infection is. However, he prescribed an additional antibiotic that should fight other types of infection so, even though we don't know the exact infection, we're hopefully fighting it. We're also getting another liver med that is going to help with the bile flow (I forget the name, but I can share that later).

Dr. Plotnick told us not to retest the liver values too frequently; he said this whole process is going to take several weeks and that we shouldn't even test Arthur's blood again for three weeks. What a difference from the hospital and other vet who wanted to retest his liver values today and then possibly rush him into exploratory surgery if we didn't see improvement or if the number didn't at least hold steady. Dr. Plotnick told us that liver values may go up and down throughout treating this disease and you can't just keep looking at them every day or even every week.

Despite the fact that we don't need a new blood test for a while, we are going to bring Arthur over to MCS weekly until his next test, just because Liz and I want the staff to check his tube, take his temp, and look at his weight, just to see if there's any trouble with those things. Finally, we have a plan and next steps for Arthur that don't involve rushing him to the hospital or setting frightening deadlines like "if he doesn't get better soon, we might want to cut him open."

Oh, and on another note, Dr. Plotnick did tell us what he normally does / would have done if we had been his patients when this all started. He said he would have done a single procedure where
he did a sonogram-guided liver biopsy and inserted a feeding tube at the same time. Apparently, a sonogram-guided biopsy is a better way to get results than the myriad of aspirate biopsies and separate sonograms that were conducted by the hospital and our old vet. It also sounds like it would have been thousands of dollars cheaper.

Before I go to bed, which I must, I have one open question here. What do I say to our old vet? She actually, without prompting, called today and left me a voicemail message asking us to come in for the next liver test (the same one we're not doing for 3 weeks) and to pick up some medication (cream-based antibiotics) she had ordered last week that we no longer need. I suppose Liz or I need to call her back and tell her, but I'm not looking forward to it. I think I will just say that we've chosen a more "full service" vet and leave it at that. The thousands of dollars that she got us to spend on a haphazard patchwork of tests and emergency hospitalizations are gone and I can't see anyway to get them back, though I hope our pet insurance will reimburse us some of it. The potentially dangerous advice that she gave us by saying "as long as he eats, he'll be ok" is water under the bridge now.

There's probably no point in arguing and I guess I should thank her for detecting Arthur's illness in the first place, though I'm sure another vet would have also and would have handled it a lot better. What would you say?

Can the "Crisis" Come to an End?

2010-03-05T13:39:00.005-05:00

We'll be seeing our new vet at 4:30 pm today and we have many questions for him. The most important of these is: how much can we relax?

Yesterday when I spoke to him, I asked the new vet if it was a good idea to switch doctors in the middle of "a crisis" like this. He said "what crisis? He's on a feeding tube. You know what to do. This is not a crisis."

"It is for us," I corrected him.

For the past 10 days, Liz and I have been in "crisis mode" 24-7 with Arthur. If it wasn't rushing him to the vet and hospital for tests and then worrying about him when he was at both of those places overnight, it has been monitoring and caring for him at home.

After he got home from the hospital last Thursday, we spent hours every day and night watching him to see if he ate and then cajoling him to eat and sometimes spending hours sitting on the kitchen floor with him, petting him, and begging him to have a few more licks from the bowl.

Now that we have the feeding tube inserted, we have more concerns. Will the tube pop out when we're not looking? Will he got caught on something he tried to rub against? Will his brother, who has been very sweet, decide he's ready for a play fight? Since he came home with the tube, Liz has stayed up all night every night watching him to make sure nothing happened to the tube. During the day, she has caught a few naps between feedings during the day, when both Arthur and Beowulf seem more sedate. The lack of sleep, food, and leaving the house is taking a MAJOR toll on her health. It's no picnic for me either.

In the mornings and at night, we try to feed him regular food and then hang our hopes on his every lick and bite or lack thereof. We watch his mood and behavior as we're watching him. Is he looking better or worse? Could he be getting worse, despite our best efforts? Does he need a biopsy? What would that mean?

I would love for the new vet to tell us "listen, you really can relax. I'd like to see him reposition the feeding tube so it doesn't seem like it's about to get caught on something, to give us some reassurance about Arthur's progress, and to give us some advice we can use. We're willing to stay up all night monitoring him every night, but it is taking its toll on us in a huge way.

Trying Out a New Vet Tomorrow

2010-03-04T21:35:00.003-05:00

Here's the latest update. My friend and world-class cat sitter Leslie Kaufman recommended that I speak with her vet. She told her vet I would call him and I did and I was very impressed with his knowledge and straightforward answers to my questions. Based on our conversation, I've decided to take Arthur to see him tomorrow and, unless the visit goes poorly (in terms of our interactions with him and his staff), he will be our new vet from now on. I was very impressed with him over the phone, where talked to me free of charge for 35 minutes! That's more advice and info than we got out of the hospital doctors after spending thousands with them.

Leslie's vet actually did not say anything that would directly contradict or criticize the work of my current doctor or the hospital doctor. He said he didn't think I needed a second opinion or to come see him. However, the conversation we had revealed a few things to me:

Our current vet outsources services Leslie's vet can provide in-office: Every single one of the expensive tests and procedures we just put Arthur through at the hospital could have been done at significantly lower cost in the vet's office. However, our current vet apparently isn't capable for whatever reason of doing much in her office so her reaction to any kind of illness is to refer people over to NYVS, which is New York's most expensive hospital.

Imagine if your human doctor had to refer you to the hospital emergency room any time you came in with something more severe than a head cold. It would be very expensive, because the hospital emergency room is much pricier than the doctor's office.

We can't put an exact number on how much the tests, IV, feeding tubes, etc, would have cost us at a vet's office, but it sounds like the whole thing would have cost less than half of what we paid so far, conceivably far less than half. If for no other reason than to save money on any future procedures or tests, we have to switch vets to someone who is capable of doing more in their own office.

In addition, I now understand (though I don't think it's cool) why the hospital doctor keeps trying to punt me back to the vet for answers and the vet keeps trying to punt me back to the hospital for treatments and answers. The hospital relies on the vets for referrals; they are an emergency and special care facility and they do not want to be someone's primary point of contact. They want to supplement what the vet is doing. Unfortunately, if the vet is like ours and keeps punting us back, it seems like nobody is taking charge of the care.
Don't panic about the feeding tube! The vet hospital told Liz that, if Arthur throws up, we need to rush him over to the hospital for emergency care, because he may dislodge his feeding tube. Leslie's vet told me that is not the case and we don't need to panic. Liz and I were freaking out thinking that if we even found a tiny puddle of vomit on the floor and thought it might be from Arthur that we would have to rush him for emergency surgery (at huge cost and trauma). We hear that's not the case.
Don't expect overnight results: The hospital told us to take Arthur in for another liver enzyme test tomorrow and expect to see improvement less than 48 hours after he started on his feeding tube. Leslie's vet said we shouldn't expect to see any significant change in Liver enzyme results for a week or more.

So I feel a bit better and I look forward to meeting the new vet in person.

Liz successfully tube-fed Arthur twice so far today. He is supposed to get 4 feedings today. We were able to skip the morning feeding b/c he ate half a 3 oz can of Merrick Cowboy Cookout food. The evening feeding is coming soon. Hopefully, he will once again eat of his own accord.

Arthur Home With Tube In. More Vet Impressions

2010-03-03T21:27:00.004-05:00

So I came home from class tonight (really felt like I couldn't miss class two weeks in a row) and Liz had picked Arthur up from the vet already and gotten instructions. He is feeling groggy from the anesthesia. Liz was told to keep an eye on Arthur all night tonight to make sure he doesn't fall asleep with his head in the water or food bowl and presumably to make sure he doesn't disturb the tube.

The picture above shows Arthur practically passed out in front of the bowl. He did actually eat a 1/3 to 1/2 of the bowl before he laid down again. What concerns me about this tube is the placement. Any time he rubs his head against anything (which he does all the time), he is jostling the tube. Did the vet put it in the wrong place?

He is supposed to get 4 meals a day for a total of 250 calories for the next few days. He is supposed to get his liver values checked again on Friday and hopefully we will see improvement. As I said in an earlier post, the hospital wants to do a biopsy if he doesn't improve, though Friday is not necessarily a firm deadline for improvement.

I am VERY concerned about the tube. On the one hand, I think it's necessary to help him consume enough calories. On the other, I think they positioned it very precariously on his neck. If it comes loose, if he vomits, if he bleeds, if anything happens at all, he has to be rushed to the hospital again.

Call me a nattering naybob of negativity but I'm concerned that the hospital doesn't care about helping Arthur at all. For over $5,000 in medical expenses, not only have they failed to make him better, but his liver numbers actually went up. And they don't seem even remotely interested in answering questions or providing us with the information we need to help him.

This morning, I brought a printed listed of questions to the hospital. I waited patiently for the doctor to come over and explain the procedure. Then I started asking her questions. She said "it sounds like you put a lot of thought into this, let me take your paper so I can properly answer your questions when you come in later."

When Liz came in later, she did not get to speak to the doctor, but to a vet tech instead. The vet tech handed her back the paper. You can see in the picture below how seriously she took our questions.

If you click the image, I believe it will enlarge so you can see my Qs and her As or lack there of. The first question, "how much food does Arthur need to eat each day?" is one that she would not explicitly answer for us last week and which our regular vet would not answer either, until the feeding tube was put in today and they finally said "250 calories."

Was asking about required food intake too much to ask? If we had known about that 250 calorie number over the weekend, we might have been able to act upon that information, feed him high-calorie feed and prevent him from getting worse. Instead, I was shooed away by both the vet and the hospital doctor, both of them annoyed by my questions and telling me things like "if he eats at all, you shouldn't worry" or "I can't really tell you how much your cat needs to eat" or "don't believe things you read on the Internet about how much a cat with fatty liver disease needs to eat."

Anyhow, right now, we can only pray that the feeding tube works, that Arthur gets better, and that we can move on from this.

Biopsy Or Not?

2010-03-03T16:28:00.002-05:00

So, my wife just got a call from the hospital; Arthur came through the feeding tube surgery ok, though for good measure they are going to charge us for an additional blood test (we don't know how much yet) b/c they tested his blood clotting to see if he would bleed too much. That means the feeding tube procedure all by itself will have cost well over $1,100.

Liz will be picking up Arthur in a couple of hours and will receive food and instructions at that time. However, they already told her that we need to get his liver test redone in just 2 days. If the test does not show significant improvement on Friday (less than 48 hours from now!), they are saying they would like to do a liver biopsy.

A liver biopsy would involve cutting him open at very significant cost (if a feeding tube is $1,100, and a couple of blood tests is $3,200, what do you think open chest surgery is - $10,000?) so unfortunately I think the hospital is "rooting" for this outcome. The biopsy would, we guess, determine whether he has cancer or not, but if he does, it doesn't sound like much can be done.

My question: Is less than 48 hours enough time to see the kind of improvement they are looking for? If the test numbers come back the same or worse on Friday, should I go along with their biopsy, ask for more time, or go for a second opinion somewhere that has no association with this hospital?

While we wait, vet questions.

2010-03-03T15:20:00.002-05:00

At this moment, Arthur is at the hospital, presumably about to or already undergoing his feeding tube surgery. We're waiting to hear from them and haven't yet. In the mean time, I have a question, which I posted elsewhere earlier, but thought I would share here as well.

As I said earlier, I am not 100% happy with my vet right now, though Liz still does so the opinions expressed here are mine alone.

Questions:

1. Should I start shopping around for a new vet right now or wait until Arthur hopefully recovers?

2. If I do shop around for a new vet, here are the choices I have narrowed down to. Remember that I live in Manhattan.

What do you think of each (my apologies if any of these people find this post on Google and see me talking about them)

Choice #1: The Manhattan Cat Specialists (http://www.manhattancats.com/). This one is recommended highly by my cat sitter Leslie, who has used them for years. She says she can get me a free phone call with the head vet, Dr. Plotnick, just to take my questions and decide whether I want to use them.

A few negatives here:

A. They are very far from my apartment (long, expensive cab ride)
B. They work with the same overpriced hospital (NY Veterinary Services) that my current vet has been tossing us to. The bad side of that is that I'm not a huge fan of NYVS and their extreme charges. The good side, right now, is that it would be an easy transition at the moment, because Dr. Plotnick has a relationship with NYVS so he could easily consult with the doctors there on what they saw and did to Arthur. If I talk to Plotnick, I will ask him whether he performs some of his own surgeries rather than constantly turfing people to the hospital like my current vet. If he can do things like add/remove a feeding tube in his office, maybe his relationship with the NYVS isn't that problematic.
C. Practice will probably be as expensive or more than I'm paying now.

Positives:

A. My cat sitter knows all the city vets and picked this one.
B. Dr. Plotnick sounds good (http://www.catchannel.com/experts/arnold_plotnick/default.

Choice #2: ASPCA Burgh Memorial Hospital (http://www.aspca.org/aspca-nyc/berg-memorial-animal-hospital.html). A friend of Franny's recommended I call their head of vet medicine, Dr. Murray. Dr. Murray does not see new patients anymore, but I ended up talking to her administrator for like an hour and the administrator advised me to seek a second opinion and to demand my current vet give me more info.

Pros:
* ASPCA is known for being affordable
* Michelle, the administrator I spoke to, seemed to geniunely care a whole lot about Arthur, calling me about 3 times throughout the day even though I'm not a client (yet) and paid her nothing.

Cons:
* I don't know a lot about the doctors there
* They have some very poor ratings on Yelp and other online comment services, these talk about long wait times and more of a public clinic atmosphere
* Also, very far from my house.

Choice #3: The Cat Practice (http://www.thecatpractice.com/). I actually don't know much about this place, except that I found it online and it has really strong user reviews. It's also only about 15 blocks from my apartment, which is still a cab ride but a short one.

Pros:
* Close to home
* Good reputation (at least as I've seen online)
* Web site makes it sound good

Cons:
* Allegedly expensive
* They don't know me and I don't know them at all. I have an "in" with the other two vets.

Choice #4: Stick with my current vet. Current vet is located walking distance from my house and does not charge exorbitant prices, except that she is constantly trying to pawn us off on the hospital for procedures / tests I wonder if she could have done in her office. My wife likes her, but I am losing confidence in her after she A.) was slow in returning some phone calls, B.) Would not give us a straight answer about Arthur's diet or condition and C.) Thought he was fine until I had to ask her nicely to conduct a blood test that she didn't think was necessary.

Pros:

Close to home
Knows our case very well
Seems like a nice enough person
Her own services are not overpriced, when she's not sending us to the hospital

Cons:
In my opinion (but not Liz's), she exercised poor judgment in a number of areas:

a. She would not give us a straight answer about arthur's food in-take, saying only "if he eats even a tiny amount, that's ok." And when I said I had heard / read different, she said "don't trust the Internet."
b. If we listened to her, Arthur might be a lot worse right now, because she said he was getting better, until we forced her to do a test.
c. She seems to want to refer us back to the hospital whenever possible. Couldn't another vet be performing some of the needed procedures/tests - the sonogram, tissue tests, and feeding tube insert -- in his/her own office at less cost? When we asked her if she could refer us to a less-expensive hospital, the only option she offered was to not insert the feeding tube and "see what happens."

SO MY QUESTIONS ARE:

A. Should I switch now or wait until Arthur is better?
B. If I do switch, who to?

Please Pray for Arthur (an Update)

2010-03-02T19:56:00.003-05:00

I don't want to spend too much time rehashing everything that has happened to Arthur (and us) over the past week, but I'll point to a forum thread on About.com where I've been discussing the whole thing under the user name geekinchief23.

Here is where we stand right now. Arthur came home from the hospital last Thursday (2/25) with some prescriptions and an order to get back to eating. As you may know by now, he has fatty liver disease, a condition which is curable if the cat gets the right amount of food into them fast neough.

Over the weekend, we got Arthur to eat and he has eaten a bit every day, but we were concerned that he was not eating enough. By our count, he is a 13.5 pound cat and has been eating maybe 2-3 ounces of food per day, if that. However, his behavior has improved, though he is traumatized by being force fed the beyatryl antibiotic pill every day (he'll get a skin solution for it soon). My wife Liz and I have been whipping out a can of his favorite food, Solid Gold Blended Tuna, maybe 3 times a night and maybe one of those 3 times, he will actually want to eat and will eat maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of a 3 oz can. In between he will have maybe 5 to 10 pieces of kibble, though a lot of the kibble crumbs are falling out of his mouth.

So my wife Liz and Iwere concerned: Was he eating enough? Unfortunately, nobody would give us a straight answer about how much he was supposed to be eating. We called the internal medicine specialist who saw him at the hospital (which nearly wiped out our savings by conducting $3k worth of tests) and they said "we can't really tell you how much is enough. Don't worry about it."

We talked to our own regular Vet who said "if he's eating anything at all, he will be fine." Call us worry warts, but neither of those answers inspired confidence in us. Today, we took him into the vet and where normally Liz goes by herself b/c I'm at work, I left work for the afternoon so I could go with her. I talked to the doctor and demanded some answers about the amount of food he should be eating.

Again, she reiterated her extremely vague response. "If he's eating at all, I wouldn't worry," she said. I said "he's eating about 2 ounces of food a day. Isn't that too little?" She said "maybe that's normal for him."

She weighed Arthur and indeed he had gained weight since his last weighing. He was now 13.5 pounds where he had weighed in at 13.2 when we brought him in the day before. She said "I think he's doing great, but if you really want and it would make you feel better, I'll run a blood test on him now while you wait to check his liver values again." I said, "yes, please run the test."

Liz and I sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes and then the doctor came out with a sad look on her face. She said that his liver values had taken a significant turn for the worse. Where his liver number had been 4.2 when he left the hospital, it is now 7.0 (higher is worse).

She said to us: "Hmm, maybe he isn't eating enough. I called the hospital and they suggest putting in a feeding tube." A feeding tube is something we had been asking about and suggesting ourselves (against both the hospital's and her objections) since he was diagnosed.

So tomorrow, he is going back to the hospital and will get a feeding tube installed, probably at an exorbitant price that will really hurt us. We are praying that he will now be ok, but of course, the hospital and vet are not inspiring confidence with their vague and incorrect answers.

We thought about taking him to another vet and we were considering an appt with one at the ASPCA, but right now I feel like I don't want to start over with a new doctor while his condition is declining like this. If we get the feeding tube in and he starts to improve, maybe then we can take him to some place that doesn't know him or maybe this is just a lesson-learned that we need better people to care for him and Beowulf in the future.

I will tell you candidly that this illness has been very very hard on Liz and I. We are not eating or sleeping. We have constant stomach aches. We are distracted and we're not ashamed to admit that, even though we are not religious people, we are doing a lot of praying lately. Please send your best wishes, positive thoughts, and prayers, not to us but to Arthur. He's going to need them.

Arthur is Home!

2010-02-25T17:01:00.002-05:00

Just brought our fur baby home. He is a sick kitty, at the moment the diagnosis is Heptatic Lipidosis otherwise known as Fatty Liver. They are still waiting on some test results to check for Pancreatitis and will call us with those results.
The important thing right now is get him to eat and the doctors and we felt that he would do better at home and would eat better in his normal home enviornment rather than in the hospital where he was too scared to eat.
Its a positive sign to me that as soon as I let him out of the carrier, he wandered around for a bit, greeted his brother then went right into the kitchen to eat.

We'll update you further as his condition improves :)

Arthur is Sick!

2010-02-23T16:17:00.000-05:00

It breaks my heart to have to say this. But our poor baby Arthur is at the vet's office sick.

It started last week when Avram noticed that Arthur wasn't eating much. At first we thought that he was just not in the mood, or for some reason had lost his taste for the kibble. We watched him like a hawk and he wasn't eating much but everything else seemed normal with him.
Still concerned we took him to the Vet yesterday since its time for his annual exam and shots anyway. The Dr was a little worried and took some blood and promised to call in the morning with results
Early this morning we got the news, the results show a possible liver problem and they wanted him to come in for an Ultrasound. I rushed him right over and while they did get a partial ultrasound, he had food in his stomach and they couldn't get a clear look at everything. From what she did see there appeared to be "sludge" in his gall bladder and bladder and his liver appeared "shiny" they were still wanting to look at his pancreas so they asked me to leave him with them till the afternoon when they could do another ultrasound after all the food had left his stomach.

This afternoon the Vet called and explained that they wanted to keep him over night. They were putting him on IV fluids and giving him antibiotics and had sent some more stuff to the lab for tests so we can isolate exactly what the problem was. Physical examination doesn't show any problems so the hope is we caught this early and they can treat it. So until the morning when we get the results and know more of what the issue is and what we can do we have to wait and miss our baby boy.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to our fur baby for a rapid recovery.

New Careers?

2009-12-11T11:32:00.002-05:00

I think the boys have a new career path in mind. Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving my purse open on the bedroom floor. I walked into the bedroom to find that Arthur had removed some tissues from my purse and was shredding them. Beowulf had removed my wallet from my purse and had pulled a receipt from it and was in the midst of shredding it.

Think I can hire them out as professional shredders? Get companies to give me their sensitive documents so the boys can shred them?

Of course the whole going into my wallet thing has been put into prospective this morning as I found Beowulf tearing open an envelope on Avram's end table. Ironically it wasn’t just any envelope it was from the pet insurance company, a reminder that we have to renew the policy we have for the boys.

I think I need to check my wallet and make sure he didn’t take my credit card and is now booting up the laptop and paying his insurance online.

Still Here

2009-11-11T11:48:00.003-05:00

Yes we're still here and all are healthy and doing well, we just have been busy with real life and our cuddle boys havent been up to too much more than cuddling, giving us lots of love and purrs and in their own quiet way celebrating the end of baseball season and the crazy human shouting and cheering at the television.

Reflections

2009-09-23T00:17:00.003-04:00

Recently a good friend had her dear kitty companion pass on and that made me so sad. Our boys have passed their 5th birthday now, and while they are healthy, happy, and getting into as much "trouble" as always it made me pause to think.

I know there was life before Arthur and Beowulf came into our lives but they are like dim memories. Its like our life really began when we brought home two furry purr machines that have given us much love, laughter and joy in our lives and I look foward to having many more years with our fur-babies. If you have your own fur-baby feline or canine, give them a good long cuddle and remember that time passes all too quickly. I know I'll be giving our boys a good long cuddle tonight :)

The Real Reason We've Been So Silent :)

2009-08-20T20:23:00.002-04:00

Too Much time spent in bed cuddling. Don't let those lazy looks fool you :) they are adept at "nagging" and manuvering things so they get their way.

Kitties learn new tricks

2009-04-24T18:16:00.002-04:00

Yes we've been a long time between posts but well we've been too busy cuddling to post :) See our boys have learned a new trick or two. Sure Arthur is the master of the flirt, teasing you into the bedroom and onto the bed where he will ensnare you with belly rubs and purrs until hours are lost and you dont know how.

Beowulf has masterd the purrbush (another type of ambush) he'll wait till you go into the bedroom and corner you there on the bed curl up and begin the loudest purrs and make you feel guilty for leaving him and before you know it hours are lost and you don't know how you let yourself get caught, again.

Well the newest trick they've learned is how to get us to bed. The actual time varies but we know when they are starting to get us ready for bed. They will begin with meows and when they have our attention a not so sublte heading to the bedroom. This will persist until we finally give in and go into the bedroom. But not just go in there and then leave. This is their signal that it is time for their humans to go to bed. The "nagging" does not end and escalates until we have done our pre bedtime preparations, climbed into bed and shut the lights off. Then and only then do they cease the nagging and curl up in the bed happy now that we can all go to bed :)

Random Shots

2009-03-14T21:53:00.003-04:00

Sometimes time just slips by us and before we know it there is dust collecting on this blog once again. But that doesnt mean many cute and endearing things havent been happening around the house. Here are some shots of the boys doing many of the things that make us love them so much.

Arthur napping in one of the desk chairs

Beowulf found a cuddly place to "hide"

Sweet kitty dreams for Arthur.

Suppertime! Beowulf mistook our dinner time for his.

What Happens When the Lights Go Out

2009-01-04T01:26:00.004-05:00

Liz took these pictures the other night, with only the light from the TV on and using a low light setting on the camera. I was completely asleep and not aware I was being photographed. This is the kind of thing that happens every night (not the photography, but the pose).

The Best Christmas Present Ever

2008-12-24T10:51:00.005-05:00

Whew! The vet called this morning to let us know the biopsy came out negative. Arthur will be fine. Liz was so nervous when she saw the vet's number on caller ID this morning, she almost didn't answer.

The good news is that we just have to take him back in a week to have his stitches removed. Meanwhile, he has to wear this silly looking collar to make sure he doesn't try to groom the stitched area.

The collar makes him look like a renaissance king, a court jester, or a patient at the dentist's office. He's a little upset at the indignity of it, but he'll be ok, as long as he doesn't pull it off and his brother doesn't try to groom that area.

We've been keeping a close eye on the boys to try to stop them from wrestling, which they do at least twice a day, but I'm not sure what will happen when I leave them alone for a few hours to attend Christmas dinner at Liz's parents' house. I'd stay here to watch the boys, but Liz would kill me.

Health Scare: Could Arthur Have Cancer?

2008-12-21T13:19:00.006-05:00

My biggest nightmare is that one of my boys will develop a serious illness so I'm always on the look out for something abnormal in their appearance or behavior. This morning, I was petting Arthur when I felt a bump on the lower portion of his back. Every time in the past I've felt something odd on one of our boys, I'd call Liz over and she'd determine that whatever I'd felt was just a tuft of matted fur and that I was just paranoid.

However, today, we discovered that Arthur has a raised brown bump - it looks like a large mole - on his back, and I don't think it was there before. We're going to call the vet tomorrow and try to get the next available appointment, but I don't know if the holidays are going to mean the vet is out of the office a bit. I am very nervous and upset and it's hard to put it out of my mind and think about other things. Losing one of my boys is the worst thing I can possibly imagine. I hope it's just a harmless mole like people get, but I don't think it was there before. Has anyone experienced this?

UPDATE 12/22/08 2:15 PM
Just took Arthur to the Vet. They are keeping him for a little while to do a biopsy so they can send it for tests to determine if its harmless or not. Will be going back at 4PM to pick him up then have to wait two days for the test results.

UPDATE 12/22/08 4:20 PM
Returned home with Arthur. He is soo not happy with me right now but he doesnt seem to have suffered ill from today's adventure. He has a soft collar around his neck to keep him from messing with the stiches from where the biopsy was done. He has a small shaved section that we need to keep protected from him and his brother messing with the stiches. Other than that its a 48 hour wait to see what the lab results say and a kitty who is not happy over being forced out in this cold weather to have all this done to him.

Kitty in a Basket

2008-12-02T00:30:00.003-05:00

Both boys love sitting in the laundry basket on top of piles of clothes. They like it so much that Liz leaves the other-wise clean comforter in the basket sometimes so Arthur can use it as a bed.

Don't Blame Me If My Clothing Has Fur

2008-11-29T23:50:00.003-05:00

Liz gets a bit upset when she puts clean clothing down on the bed and the boys lie down on top of it, depositing a healthy coating of fur. Oddly enough, if I don't have a special occasion like a big meeting or conference, I don't mind if there's a little fur on my clothes. I'll find a strand or two of orange and white hair on my pants throughout the day and it'll remind me that my boys are waiting for me at home. How weird is that?

Closets, Drawers, Wherever

2008-11-29T23:33:00.003-05:00

Liz was putting away laundry the other day and opened one of the drawers in her armoire. We had our back turned for only a moment when Beowulf found himself a new nest.

Wrestling Over the Laundry

2008-11-29T01:06:00.003-05:00

Allowing the boys into the bedroom has also meant allowing them to mess with the laundry we keep in there. Sometimes, we'll find them napping on top of a pile of dirty clothes or, in this case, wrestling over the clothes we were about to wash.

Why I Got No Work Done Today

2008-11-28T23:28:00.004-05:00

Now that Beowulf and Arthur are allowed in the bedroom, they spend a lot of their time lying on the bed, tempting otherwise diligent humans to take afternoon naps with them.

Today, I had the day off from work and had all the best intentions. I was going to spend the day working on some programming projects I've been meaning to do for our site (the job, which I started last year around this time, has been keeping me very busy), but instead I walked into the bedroom, saw this, and just had to lie down with my boys.

Grey Eye Kittie Needs a home.

2008-09-24T11:09:00.002-04:00

I'm a sucker for a cute kittie face at any age and given my choice i would adopt every cat I could to give them a good loving home. But space and finances dont allow for us being able to adopt a billion cats :).

If anyone in the New York area is looking to adopt a cute bundle of love, I was directed to this blog http://greyeyekitten.blogspot.com/ and hope that this cutie finds a loving home soon.

Something Sad and Disturbing

2008-09-19T11:41:00.002-04:00

Avram brought this to my attention and like him I agree we should spread the word about this. I dont know how many of our readers are in the New York Area so many may never have heard about this situation so I will outline it for you.

Joseph Petcka an actor is currently on trial for animal cruelty because he killed his girlfriend's cat Norman. The 7 pound cat was beaten to death by this person. And now while the trial is ongoing a NY Post writer Andrea Peyser has been writing articles blasting the trial as a waste of time and money and in one instance even claims that the cat deserved to be beaten to death.

A blog detailing the situation is also calling for people to contact the NY Post and make their displeasure at this writer known. You can see the post at this link.

As an animal lover and a cat mommy I'm deeply disturbed by the while thing and hope that others will join us in making our displeasure known. Like the poster of the blog says"I urge you to contact the NYP…but by all means, be respectful, do not threaten, do not do or say anything stupid, do not act like a jerk yourself, behave appropriately, but let them know this is outrageous:" They will take more serious intelligent well thought out correspondence than ranting hate mail.

The Final Frontier

2008-08-19T15:39:00.003-04:00

For 4 years Avram and I have spent considerable time and effort keeping the bedroom off limits to Arthur and Beowulf. At first it was because we weren’t sure how Avram’s allergies would handle living with cats full time. Then it was because everything Avram felt was too dangerous or too suspect to be around the cats was kept in the bedroom making it an “unsafe” place for them to be.

Sure there were times when one or the other would slip into the room and the fur would fly as we had to work to find them and escort them out of the room. The bedroom was the last unconquered frontier of the apartment for them.

Well yesterday they finally were able to break through that barrier and not only were given free access to the bedroom they spent the night locked in with us. No we haven’t flipped our lids or taken leave of our senses. We had a leak in the kitchen and the repair involved two very large ugly holes being made in the kitchen wall. And as is usually the case the work couldn’t be completed in one day and while the holes were covered with cardboard and taped down there were still plenty of temptations and dangers for the boys to be left unsupervised over night.

We didn’t like the idea of caging them for the night since that would mean they would have no access to food, water or their litter box. So the choice was made to allow the boys into the bedroom. Again today while they were finishing up the work they boys were given free access to the room and as these pictures show they took full advantage of the rare pleasure of having the bedroom open to them.

Cleaning Or a New Playtime Activity?

2008-08-08T15:02:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures but I hope my descriptions are vivid enough for all of you to get the picture and share in the laugh.

So on Monday I woke up and was bitten by the cleaning bug. I started by gathering up all the assorted cat toys around the apartment and piling them up on the bookshelf while the cats stirred themselves from their morning nap and watched me curiously. As I got deeper into the cleaning the boys began to move around.

First Beowulf perched on the edge of Avram’s desk and watched fascinated as I used the swifter duster to begin dusting. While I was busy singing along with the radio and dusting, Arthur was moving into position on top of the entertainment center. As I reached up to dust higher he pounced, batting at the duster. I swung it away from him only to have Beowulf reach out to bat at it from his position on the desk.

And so the game was afoot. I tried to dust and they chased, trying to bat at the duster. Once the dusting was done I began vacuuming which as normal sent them off cowering from the mean old vacuum. But as I moved the couch to vacuum behind it they grew bolder. And before I knew it the hose was under constant attack as I tried to clean the furniture. Running attacks where one or the other would charge in and then run out again.

Finally tiring of the game they watched as the last of the vacuuming was done. When the swifter floor cleaner came out, they were well rested and ready to begin a game of chase as they chased the swifter cleaner as it caught up the remaining particles the vacuum left behind. The best part of the fun came when I got out the mop and they had fun chasing that around until they realized, they were walking through water then fled to higher ground.

Of course the worse tragedy of the day for them came when I removed all the bedding and covers from the cage, gave them a good vacuum along with their beds and then off to the laundry they went where they got washed and dried and once again put into their places. After much suspicious sniffing, they opted to lay on the floor rather than sully themselves with now clean items in their cage or clean beds.

So once Avram came home from work they couldn’t wait to run to him and set up a loud meow chorus as they began telling him all about the excitement of the day and the indignity of having all their scent and hair washed away from their possessions. Now days later they still wont use the beds but they have begun to give the cage some use again. And of course their toys have made their way from the neat little pile on the bookshelf to a random scatter around the living room ready to trip up the unwary. (A spiked shaky ball is not easy to avoid in the dark). Hopefully they wont be so eager to “help” the next time I go into a cleaning frenzy. Or at least Daddy will be home to document their efforts.

I think Its Supper Time!

2008-07-01T20:01:00.002-04:00

So just a brief rundown of the latest activities with the boys.

This week they are definitely getting their patience tested as my 13 and 10 year old nieces liven things up around the apartment. They definitely aren’t used to that much activity around the house. But so far they seem to be handling it fine and have learned to give them a wide berth when the fooling around gets particularly vigorous.

Arthur has been having a bit of trouble with hairballs and vomiting lately. So we’re working on getting them a hair ball formula and increasing their grooming to help with that. On the food front not much has changed. The boys are still being very picky over eating wet food.

Our latest tactic involves taking away their dry food early in the afternoon and no food until its time for their wet food. This has had mixed results but on the advice from our local holistic pet store we are heating up their wet food for 10-15 seconds in the microwave before feeding it to them.

According to the pet store it mimics the heat of a fresh kill for them and they would be more likely to eat it. They have been eating more wet food than in the past but the jury is still out on whether it’s a result of their kibble being taken away and they are that hungry or if the warming up of the food helps or even if it’s a combination of both. Of course there are still some wet foods that get a brief sniff and then an instant demand for something else and perhaps a second sniff and taste after a liberal application of tuna flakes. Still we’ll keep on trying different combinations until we find what works for the boys.

Has anyone else tried this heating the food method?

A New Voice

2008-06-30T23:55:00.002-04:00

Hello Faithful readers. After a long silence I'm here to say that in typical Avram fashion he has become lost in his work and barely has time to surface for some purrapy much less blogging. So I've decided to end the long silence and report on the fun and antics of our fur boys. So keep an eye out there will be much more to come

How's Your Cat Relationship?

2007-11-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

This past week, Liz and I celebrated three years since we adopted Arthur and Beowulf. Not a day goes by when we do not realize how lucky we are to have them in our lives. They are a constant source of love and support for us.

They comfort us on our worst days and amuse us on our best days. Sure, sometimes they do things which try our patience, but don't all of our loved ones?

When I talk to people who don't have cats, I find that I've become a cat advocate. I tend to think that other people would be a lot happier if they had cats to come home to. The other day, a friend was telling me about how her daughter keeps dating the wrong kind of man, because she's looking for acceptance. I said "can't she just get a pair of cats? They'll boost her self confidence and she won't need to rush into a bad relationship."

I could be totally wrong here, but I wonder if certain tough periods in my life might have been a little easier if I had had cats at the time. Maybe being an awkward teen would have been a little better if I came home to purrs. Maybe going through some tough breakups with girlfriends would have been easier. Maybe there are times in my life when I would have had more confidence if I knew I was getting the kind of unconditional love you can only get from an animal companion.

On the other hand, millions of people have cats and it looks like many of them are not experiencing the same kind of relationshp with their cats that I have with mine.

Just yesterday, I was talking to a friend who adopted a cat a few months ago. I asked him how it's going and he said "my cat is just not friendly. She keeps to herself and only interacts with us when she needs something." If I had that kind of cold relationship with my boys, I would not be a cat advocate at all. I'd probably feel like the whole relationship was a waste.

To be fair, I don't have all the facts. My friend lives far away and I've never seen him interact with a cat nor have I met his "cold" cat. But what I wonder is this. Is his cat non-social, because he isn't raising her right, because she was born that way, or maybe because she's the only cat in the household?

Perhaps it is better to ask "why is my cat relationship such a good one?" Is it because:

Arthur and Beowulf are just special guys who are particularly friendly and sweet?
They were born in a shelter and I adopted them at an early age (10 weeks) so they've always known human kindness and never wanted for anything?
They have each other so they are never lonely?
Liz and I have put a fair amount of effort into building the relationship?

What makes one person's cat relationship a life-altering experience and another person's cat relationship cold and distant? Why are my cats important, active members of the family while other people's cats become part of the house, like pieces of furniture? Is it the cats or the people?

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Purrs Set to Stun

2007-11-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

Ever sit down with your cat and realize that, just by touching his or her body, a wave of relaxation rolls through your entire body and you can't help but fall asleep within minutes?

Liz and I have this "problem." We'll sit down on the couch, one or both of the boys will come over and sit next to or on us, and we'll drift off to sleep for a long time. Liz refers to this effect as the "purr ray." I refer to it as a purr drug, because the feeling is so addictive and it knocks you out like a strong drink.

On weekends and nights when I know I have time, I'll go over to the couch and wait for Arthur or Beowulf to come. The downside is, after they arrive, hours will disappear. Liz got these compromising pictures of me strung out on purr.

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Beowulf Rings "Dinner Bell" for Service

2007-09-29T13:08:00.000-04:00

It's hard for us humans to train cats, but it's not as hard for them to train us! Beowulf has trained me to come when called and to give him more kibble.

He will go into the kitchen, stand on top of the litterbox and meow at the top of his lungs. If I don't respond to his meowing in short order, he will start banging the litter scoop, which sits tightly in between the litterbox and the garbage can. We call this "ringing the dinner bell" for service. If I don't respond to his banging of the scoop, he'll swat the scoop onto the floor, causing me to go into the kitchen, pick it up, and throw him more kibble while I'm there.

He'll do this even when he has plenty of kibble in the bowl, so maybe it's not about kibble but about attention. I'm not sure. A few times he has called when he wants fresh water or the litterbox to be cleaned, but usually it's for kibble.

I'd like to get him to stop this practice, but I'm not sure how. I could move the scoop, but I'm not sure where I'd put it and frankly, if it weren't the scoop, he'd find another way of calling for service. Maybe I should just accept the call.

Wet Food - They Just Won't Eat It

2007-09-28T17:20:00.000-04:00

Our food situation is terrible right now. I have always fed the boys a mix of wet and dry food and they have always been very picky about which wet foods they would eat. It has gotten to the point where there is only one wet food they will even sniff and that's Solid Gold Blended Tuna.

Before the pet food recall, I used to feed the boys Nutro packet food and they would lick up the juice from it. Now I wouldn't even consider feeding them Nutro packet food.

I hear that it is bad to feed cats tuna on a frequent basis so I'm at the point where I don't give them wet food every day. They won't touch any other wet food I've given them and I've tried so many great brands. I tried every flavor of Weruva, tried all kinds of Merrick, Abady, Spot's Stew, etc. If you name it and it's a decent brand, I've tried it. They won't even touch other brands of tuna!

I've tried adding all kinds of flavoring and condiments to the wet food we have. On the advice of a guy at the pet store, I bought a box of Liv-a-Littles and crumbled them up into the wet food without success. I tried mixing tuna flakes into the wet food and Beowulf just picked out the flakes and left the food. I bought a bottle of Grizzly Salmon Oil and sprayed it on the food. I tried mixing Solid Gold Tuna with other canned foods, but that didn't work either. I'm at an impasse.

As for dry food, I had to give up on Orijen. I liked Orijen's nutritional info a lot, but Arthur wouldn't eat it so right now all the boys are eating is California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice. What can I do to get them to eat something else? Or should I just be happy that they have dry food they like?

Comfort During a Tough Time

2007-09-28T14:20:00.000-04:00

The past couple of months were a tough time of going on interviews and waiting by phones and email, but I have a new job now, not working for cats, but working for people at the Parks Department. As I sat around the house on pins and needles for several weeks, my boys did everything they could to help me relax.

Beowulf was particularly helpful. Every morning I'd get up and he'd follow me around until I sat down at my desk to check my email. He'd jump up on the desk before I could even move the mouse and he'd sit in front of the keyboard until I let him rest his chin on my arm for a few minutes. After feeling his purr for a few minutes, I was much more relaxed and able to face whatever I had going on each day -- interviews, phone calls, or just waiting by the inbox and phone for news.

Will Work for Cats?

2007-08-01T00:30:00.000-04:00

I've been a terrible blogger lately and I could give you a littany of excuses, but excuses aren't very interesting. Nonetheless, for those interested:

I found a new job and it took up a ton of time
I planned my wedding and that took up a ton of time.
When I had time to blog, I decided to spend it cuddling with the boys themselves

Now, things are a little different. I am, unfortunately, now between jobs and have some time to reassess what I want to do with this whole Web and cat thing.

Honestly, I wish I could make a career out of it in some way. I've thought about starting an online cat store or cat information site that could get some traffic. However, I don't think I have the stomach to start a business.

Hey, if anyone has any ideas or leads for me -- maybe a job doing Web work for an animal agency or company -- please drop me a line or feel free to pass my online resume around.

Big Day Goes Purrfectly

2007-06-29T08:39:00.001-04:00

My new wife Liz and I just returned from our honeymoon in Greece late last night, and are still trying to beat the jet lag and rest up for work on Monday. That said, I wanted to say that the wedding itself went really well and was very cat-centric, thanks to ideas we got from commenters on this blog.

As you can see from the pictures below, we had a cat cake topper (Liz's mom added the veil and bow tie to the existing models) and we placed a sign near the bar that invited our guests to order special signature drinks, either an Arthurtini (Appletini) or a Beowulf Iced Tea (many thanks to jancola for this idea). We also left notes on each table, informing our guests that we were donating money to Bidawee (the shelter where we adopted our boys) in lieu of giving party favors.

BTW, if you are interested in seeing some non-cat-related pictures from our wedding, my cousin Naomi has posted some pictures she took of the cermemony and reception.

Liz and I cut the cake.

The cat topper close-up. Unfortunately, it was too large and heavy to actually put on the cake.

This placard was placed on the bar and reads:

Our favorite humans are getting married. We would love to be there to help them celebrate the special day, but we have a prior engagement as you can see.

So please have a drink on us.

Order a Beowulf Iced Tea or an Arthurtini and raise your glass to Avram and Liz, our most devoted ear scratchers and belly rubbers.

Love, Arthur and Beowulf

Before I go off to take a long nap myself, I just wanted to give a shout-out and high praise to my cat sitters, Leslie Kaufman of On All Fours Cat Sitting and her assistant Holly. They visited twice a day while we were gone and really did a great job of caring for our boys. I'd recommend them to anyone in New York City who needs a cat sitter.

Big Day Finally Arrives

2007-06-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

The level of work and stress from both my new job and wedding planning has really kept me away from this blog, but now the day has finally arrived. Our Big Cat Wedding is taking place tomorrow.

Unfortunately, we can't have the boys attend our wedding, but they will be there in spirit. As I said in a prior post, we are giving a donation to Bideawee in lieu of party favors, we got a pair of cats as our wedding cake topper, and our guests will be invited to order one of two signature drinks, a Beowulf Iced Tea or an Arthurtini.

This is an exciting time, but also a stressful one, not only because of the wedding but also because of the honeymoon, which is going to be the first time that Liz and I are really away from the boys for any period of time. My cousin is staying over here for part of the time and a professional cat-sitter is coming over a few times a day for another part of the time, but I am still very nervous and a little wracked with guilt over going away for a few days.

Hopefully the boys will be fine, but will they be angry at us for leaving them?

New Food, New Water, Old Problems

2007-04-23T22:02:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I started my boys on two new things:

Orijen: My Orijen finally arrived and the results are mixed. Beowulf gobbles down the Orijen just like he gobbled down the California Natural and the Wellness before it. However, Arthur won't eat Orijen, and he won't eat other kibble if it's sitting in the same bowl as the Orijen. I even tried putting tuna flakes or other treats in the bowl and he'll eat these without touching the kibble.

I am concerned because this means that Arthur is not eating kibble right now. I don't want him to starve, but I do want him to learn to eat the Orijen. At what point should I give up? If I put the Orijen in one bowl and California Natural in the other, Beowulf will probably try to eat them both, because he usually eats kibble as soon as its put down, while Arthur comes back and eats at his leisure.

When it comes to wet food, however, Beowulf is very picky and won't eat most of the wet foods I feed.

Fresh Flow Waterer: I got a Fresh Flow waterer and set it up yesterday. I have yet to see the boys drink from it, although I have seen that the water level went down over night and some crud got into the bowl. This means that either the water evaporated or the boys drank from it. Because I didn't want the boys to dehydrate, I kept their regular water bowl filled also and I have seen them drink out of that

Both situations are frustrating, because I'm trying to move to healthier food and healthier water and I'm not sure how to make them catch on. Any ideas?

Natural Balance Dry Now Recalled

2007-04-17T23:06:00.000-04:00

Is no brand trustworthy? I sang the praises of Natural Balance food just a few posts ago, and now it turns out their food is contaminated too.

It's a good thing I bought California Natural dry food this weekend, rather than Natural Balance, which I almost bought. Let's hope California Natural is not next. Funny thing is that I very nearly bought Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea dry cat food on Saturday.

Ironically, the reason I found the venison and green pea formula attractive is this statement on Natural Balance's site:

No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors, Colors, or Bleached Ingredients. Does not contain Corn, Soy, Wheat, Rice, Eggs, Dairy Products or Sunflower Oil.

I must be an idiot because I thought that no soy, wheat, or rice meant just that. However, Natural Balance's recall press release states:

We believe the source of the melamine is a rice protein concentrate.

How can something which claims to have "no rice," contain a rice protein concentrate? Does that sound wrong to anyone?

The boys took to the California Natural dry food right away. My Orijen is coming in the mail on Thursday, and I pray that it's everything it's cracked up to be.

A Weekend Morning with Beowulf

2007-04-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

My new job is stess-packed. It's exciting, but there is so much to do every day and so little time to do it. I look at my weekends as a time to decompress, but also a time to work on some of the work projects I can't do in the office, because I'm constantly shuttling from meeting to meeting.

Of course, sometimes I'll sit down on the couch for a minute and a minute will turn into three or four hours after Beowulf comes over and sits with me. It's hard to get up and easy to fall asleep in a situation like this.

Taste-Testing Some Dry Foods

2007-04-14T01:38:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to all of you who have contributed your comments and advice on my dry food dilemma.

Here's what I'm doing right now:

Ordered Some Orijen: Thanks so much to the anonymous commenter who turned me on to Only4Pets.com, a small etailer who sells Orijen cat food online. I just ordered a 5.5 pound bag for my boys to try. With UPS shipping, my order came to $25.

No doubt, this is a calculated risk. I've never heard of only4pets before so I don't know how quick and reliable they are, but I was able to pay using PayPal, something I prefer over giving my credit card information directly to an unknown site.

I also don't know if the boys will like Orijen, but I'm eager to feed it to them. As we all know, sometimes cats don't like to eat foods we know they should eat. A couple of years ago, I tried feeding them Evo dry and they wouldn't touch it, even though Evo is grain-free and 52% protein!
Buying Another Dry: I'm sure the Orijen I ordered won't arrive for a few days and I'm almost out of kibble. I'm going to go to the pet store this weekend and get another dry, most likely either Natual Balance or California Natural.

Amy, a commenter on my original post, changed my mind about buying California Natural, Innova, and other products made by Natura by letting me know that Natura is dropping Menu Foods. I applaud Natura's effort here and would like to encourage other manufacturers to do the same. I think this actually deserves its own post.

Any thoughts on California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice?

Vet's Estimate: 39,000 Pets Sickened or Killed

2007-04-13T00:36:00.000-04:00

I found this little tidbit via Howl911, the best source for food recall news these days. The Associated Press reports that a major pet hospital chain estimates the number of dogs and cats poisioned is 39,000:

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs that ate the pet food contaminated with melamine developed kidney failure. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

A vet is later quoted saying that this is actually a small percentage.

"On a percentage basis it's not breathtaking, but unfortunately it's a number that, if it was your pet that was affected, it's too high," veterinarian Nancy Zimmerman, Banfield's senior medical adviser, said of the newly estimated incidence rate.

Imagine if 39,000 people all got sick (and thousands of them died) from poisoned food. How do you think that would play?

Finding New Cat Food is Hard to Do

2007-04-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I resolved to not only get my boys off of any food that is manufactured by Menu Foods (already done), but to stop buying food that is manufactured by companies which do business with Menu Foods in any way, shape, or form. I don't want one penny of my money going to support Menu Foods as it tortures laboratory animals while peddling poison to pet parents.

In an ideal world, we'd all stop buying from companies that use Menu Foods and this morally bankrupt company would become financially bankrupt as well. In the real world, 99% of the companies we want to buy food from do some kind of business with Menu Foods. Just check out the list of companies that use Menu Foods (or won't tell you whether they do) at thepetfoodlist.com.

I told you a couple of weeks ago, that Wellness wrote back to me and said that Menu Foods is "one of the best." Their opinion is clearly shared by dozens of other companies.

After getting that unrepentant response from Wellness, I resolved to stop feeding my boys their dry food (they never liked the Wellness wet), even though their dry is great nutritionally and is not made by Menu Foods. I figured that there must be another dry food that is at least as good for the boys but is made by a company that does no business with Menu Foods. It hasn't been easy and, as my current bag of Wellness kibble nears its bottom, I haven't found an alternative brand.

I've been reading thepetlist.com and perusing my options. I don't have many, unless I want my boys' health to take a backseat to my principles. According to the Pet List, all of these great brands -- Wellness, Innova, California Natural, Wysong, and Nature's Variety -- are all made by companies which do business with Menu Foods, even though the dry foods themselves are not made by Menu.

Right now, I have a couple of canned foods I can feed -- Solid Gold and Merrick -- which don't do any business with Menu Foods, but I need a new kibble provider. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Orijen on this blog, but it isn't even available here in New York state or online.

I also want to avoid any brand that contains menadione, otherwise known as Vitamin K3, because there is some contraversy surrounding it.

So here are the choices I've identified so far. I could use your advice:

Natural Balance: I'm considering either their Ultra-Premium Dry or their Venison and Green Pea (which is grain-free). The Natural Balance Company does no business with Menu Foods, but its dry food is packed at a Diamond foods plant. You'll recall that Diamond foods is the company which had an aflatoxin outbreak just last year.
Timberwolf Organics Serengeti Herbal Felid Diet: This sounds really good on paper to me, but I don't know much about the company and it's unclear whether they do business with Menu Foods or not. I've sent them a note inquiring.
Felidae Cat and Kitten Dry: The protein percentage (32%) is 4% lower than I get with Wellness right now. However, they don't do business with Menu Foods and I don't see Vitamin K3 or menadione on their list of ingredients.

What am I missing here? Which should I choose?

Anyone Heard of Orijen Cat Food?

2007-03-31T02:59:00.000-04:00

I was looking at the very long list of fancy cat foods that use Menu Foods and the very small number that don't use Menu Foods.

On the list, I saw a new, rare brand called Orijen. This stuff sounds really good. It's 45% crude protein! I'd have to special order it since it's not even available in New York State yet.

What do you think?

FDA: It's Melamine; New York: Not so Fast

2007-03-31T02:28:00.000-04:00

So the big news on Friday was that the FDA now says that it has detected melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, in the contaminated food. Unfortunately, the FDA and New York State Food Laboratory disagree, because the FDA says it did not detect any aminopterin.

According to the same AP story, New York officials are sticking by their guns:

New York officials stuck to their aminopterin finding and pointed out that it was unlikely that melamine could have poisoned any of the animals thought to have died after eating the contaminated pet food. Melamine is used to make plastic kitchen ware and is used as a fertilizer in Asia.

An FDA official allowed that it wasn't immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit.

So which foreign substance is killing thousands of cats and dogs? Could it be a combination of both? And in practical terms, does it make you feel any better about Menu Foods, knowing that both a rat poison and a plastics chemical have been found in their food?

I guess this news doesn't bother the dozens of pet food companies who continue to use Menu Foods as their manufacturer.

Boys Ok. Now Who Gets the Bill?

2007-03-28T20:28:00.000-04:00

The vet called back this morning to say the boys' blood tests came back ok. They have a clean bill of health, but Arthur's cholesterol was 2 points above normal, though the vet says it's nothing to worry about. Is there anything I should be doing to lower it?

Oh, and who gets the $414 bill for this testing? I think either Nutro or Menu Foods should have to pay for this. We wouldn't have taken them for testing if they hadn't been eating Nutro Natural Choice packets for years. It's their fault. They should pay. Who should I be trying to collect from?

FDA Massively Undercounting Deaths

2007-03-27T23:44:00.000-04:00

Itchmo Seattle has a great article on the undercount of pet deaths from Menu Foods toxin. The official count is 16 deaths, but we actually know that the count is in the thousands. Why is the official count so low? Itchmo explains

“The FDA has provided the following case definition for field investigation/cases: veterinary documented renal failure, necropsy results if animal died, food consumed within 1 week of death (illness), and intact, unopened cans of the food.”

This gives us a hint as to the standard for associating a death with the recall. It requires a practically dispute-proof set of facts – a responsibility for the court of law, not the agency whose duty is to protect us – and gives us an insight into why they are still quoting the party line of 16 deaths. (Remember that Iraqi minister during the war who insisted to the media that Iraq was winning while US tanks were rolling into Baghdad? Yeah, this sounds totally different.)

So imagine that your pet has just died of renal failure after you fed him a packet of Menu Foods toxic brew. In order to get on the FDA's list you need to have:

A Document from Your Vet
A necropsy (pet autopsy) performed to prove the cause of death. This is an expensive procedure and probably gutwretching for the pet parent who just wants to bury or cremate her pet and grieve. Why on earth would you pay hundreds of dollars for a necropsy so you can help the FDA increase its stats?
Unopened cans of the toxic food lying around the house (but what if you had already tossed them or returned them b/c they had been recalled OR what if the can you fed was your last one?)
Some way of proving your pet consumed the food within a week of getting sick.

You can see why it's impossible to add to the FDA's list. Frankly, I'm not even sure how they got those 16 deaths on their tally. Maybe those are all laboratory animals.

Anyway, here are some numbers:

Pet Connection is asking for reports and has received nearly 2,000 reports of pet illness or death. Of course, this is only from people who know about their survey so it's neither here nor there.

Today, the Veterinarians Information Network, an online community of 30,000 vets, claims to have received 471 reports. However, we simply don't know how many vets logged in and reported every case to them.

So how many pets are affected? A lot more than 16!

More Dirty Secrets Revealed

2007-03-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

If a company claims that their food is "unaffected" by the recall and that they don't test on animals, but they use Menu Foods to make some of their products, does that mean that they belong on PETA's "do not test" list?

I'm looking right now Petsitusa's up-to-date list of companies and where their foods come from. There are even more companies that use Menu Foods on here than I ever imagined. What is really disturbing is that some of these companies appear on the "do not test" list even though they do business with a Menu Foods, a company with a reputation for vicious animal testing. Maybe PETA isn't really taking that hard a look at these companies.

For example, both Wysong and Nature's Variety appear on the PETA list, but they also both appear on the list of companies that use Menu Foods to make canned food for them. Is it ok not to test on animals yourself if you do business with a manufacturer that tests?

I feel particularly duped by Wysong. I bought some Wysong Au Jus this past weekend b/c I was under the belief that Wysong didn't use Menu Foods. In fact, according to Petsitusa, the Au Jus is made by Menu Foods. In the garbage it goes! Apparently, you just can't win. It seems like, with a handful of exceptions (Merrick and Blue Buffalo come to mind), everybody uses Menu Foods for something.

Does the pet food industry have no shame?

Vet Visit: Mostly a Success

2007-03-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

Liz took the boys to the vet today at 4. The vet looked at the boys, said they look very healthy, and took blood for a blood test. We'll get results tomorrow afternoon, but he seemed to think that we should expect that everything will be fine.

That said, the vet we saw was not the same guy we've always seen and he seemed to think that the boys need to lose weight, even though the previous vet thought they were a fine weight. At today's checkup, the boys weighed about 14.2 pounds each. At January's annual checkup they weighed 15 pounds and our regular vet said 15 pounds is fine for them as long they don't get heavier. It seems that they've lost weight. Should I be trying to get them to lose more? They don't look fat to me.

That said, I think the boys will lose weight now that they aren't eating Nutro packet food anymore. I think it had some fattening ingredients that they could do without. I also think we need to play da bird with them more often. However, they're not exactly lazy. They chase each other around and wrestle several times a day.

Anyway, we await the blood test results with hope but just a little nervousness.

Partial List of Non-Recalled Foods

2007-03-26T23:32:00.000-04:00

PetsitUsa.com has a list of pet food companies whose foods have not been recalled. For some companies, they list whether Menu Foods makes some of their products. However, they don't list it for all companies and we can't guarantee the accuracy of this list.

Blue Buffalo: We Don't Do Business With Menu Foods

2007-03-26T23:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I noticed that Blue Buffalo had the following ambiguous message on their Web site:

We want to inform all of our friends that BLUE products are NOT part of the national pet food recall.

The message reassures us that their food is not being recalled, but it doesn't say whether they do business with Menu Foods.

I wrote a note to Blue Buffalo, asking them if they use Menu Foods and they wrote me back today with the following response:

Dear Avram,

Thank you for taking the time out to write us. And thank you for your
interest in BLUE. BLUE products have never been produced by Menu Foods
and we are not affiliated with them in any way. In addition, all of our
formulas are gluten free and we do not use wheat in any of our products
either.

Great news! I wrote them back to advise them that they'd help better their own reputation if they simply came out and stated as much on the home page of their Web site.

Companies should be proud to NOT be associated with Menu Foods. Of course, what we still don't know -- and should probably ask -- is what company makes their food and whether that company does animal testing, but until I know otherwise, I give Blue the benefit of the doubt and many kudos for not doing business with scumbags like Menu Foods.

Send Luck, Thoughts, Prayers

2007-03-26T23:07:00.000-04:00

After much procrastination, Liz and I decided on Saturday that we want to take the boys to our vet for testing. Out appointment is for Tuesday at 4 pm ET. Liz is taking the boys while I'm at work.

Arthur and Beowulf have shown no symptoms at all of being poisoned, but my friend Janet Tobiassen DVM, About.com's Guide to Veterinary medicine, left me the a comment I could not ignore:

A simple blood and urine test will yield a lot of information and a hopefully a huge piece of mind! Veterinary experts are now saying that while the initial focus was on acute kidney damage/failure, they are now expecting that there are animals that may experience subclinical chronic failure. Once signs are seen (weight loss, drinking and urinating frequently, etc.) is very difficult to reverse.

Anyway, I think we waited so long because

We had called the same vet the week before and he said not to bother bringing them in unless they showed symptoms. This time, we insisted.
Taking the boys to the vet is very traumatic for them and for us. The very act of leaving the house freaks them out.
I'm actually terrified that somehow they'll break out of their carriers, run down the streets of Manhattan, and never be seen again.
Of course, we're also worried that something negative will come up on the test, but I'm hopeful b/c I've seen no reason to believe they are sick. But what if it turns out that they have some other disease we didn't know about.

So please send good wishes. I didn't want to take them for testing, but after reading some of your comments, we're going to take them.

Oh, and if they make it back ok, I'm going to send the bill for the testing either to Menu Foods or to Nutro Products. It's their fault I need to have the boys tested. Which one should I send it to? Menu Foods made the poisoned product, but Nutro sold it. Who's going to take responsibility?

Powerful Words: "Not Affected" versus "Not Associated"

2007-03-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

Like many pet parents, I want nothing to do with Menu Foods. It's not enough to feed my boys products that weren't recalled or products that weren't produced by Menu Foods. I don't want to support a company that supports Menu Foods.

Over the past several days, I've been scouring the Web, looking for cat food companies that don't do business with Menu Foods. It's not always easy to find out which companies do business with Menu Foods and which companies don't. As a professional wordsmith, I have a tendency to read into the language that people or companies use when they communicate.

Let's look at two pet food company Web sites and how they describe their lack of involvement in the recall. Our first example comes from Old Mother Hubbard's Wellness site, which as of this writing, reads:

Wellness and Old Mother Hubbard products are NOT affected by the recent Menu Foods product recall.

If you click-through to a longer explanation, OMH uses the term "not involved," but they never say that they do with Menu Foods on their site. That said, in an email to me, an OMH rep confirmed that they use Menu Foods and they're proud of it.

Now, let's look at the home page for Natural Balance Foods:

NO Natural Balance® products are producedby ANY company associated
with the Pet Food Recall.

That's a pretty clear statement that Natural Balance Foods does not do business with Menu Foods. I see this statement from Natural Balance about not working with Menu Foods and also their message about animal testing and I want to buy their products:

Natural Balance® was built on the premise of helping animals, and we have never nor would we ever allow any testing that would be considered harmful to an animal. We do not conduct laboratory testing on animals, whatsoever. All of our feeding trials are conducted in the animal's own environment, in conjunction with veterinarians, kennels, breeders and pet owners, to ensure that all Natural Balance® products are extremely palatable, nutritious and the best possible formulation for the health of your pet. Our feeding trials are a positive experience and enjoyable for animals!

I think we have to appreciate that level of honesty and full disclosure from a company like Natural Balance. And I'll also give Old Mother Hubbard, the maker's of Wellness, some credit for owning up to their relationship with Menu Foods. I'll never buy their products again, but at least they were honest with me when I asked them about it.

As of this writing, I have emails out to a couple of pet food companies whose products I use or would like to use, asking them about whether they do business with Menu Foods or not. One of these is Blue Buffalo, makes of Spa Selects, whose Web site, as of this writing, ambiguously states:

We want to inform all of our friends that BLUE products are NOT part of the national pet food recall.

Ok, but are they made by Menu Foods or not?

The lesson of this recall is that pet parents need to know more than that to feel good about buying pet food. We need to know whether our money is helping Menu Foods. At least this consumer does.

Wellness Rep: Menu Foods is "One of the Best"

2007-03-24T17:58:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I wrote a note to Old Mother Hubbard, the makers of Wellness Cat Food, to ask them why they would use a company like Menu Foods to make their products. Here was their rep's response in its entirety from Wednesday (I didn't notice it amongst my mail until today):

Dear Avram,

We are aware that Menu Foods has initiated a recall. No products made by Wellness & Old Mother Hubbard are affected in any way.

Again, no Wellness, Old Mother Hubbard, or Neura products are part of this recall.

Menu does make some of our foods, although they do not make any of our dry foods.

There are two very important factors in determining the quality of a food. The first is the manufacturer. In this case, Menu Foods is a top notch manufacturer that receives excellent scores for food safety and quality systems. They make a consistent product which is exactly what the company asks for. Frankly, they make product for so many companies because they are one of the best..

The second factor is formula. Ingredient selection can make or break product quality. Certain ingredients can be allergens to certain pets. Other ingredients can be sourced for either their quality or their price. Chicken ingredients, for example, can be sourced at various prices. Low ash chicken, which is better for a cat, can be sourced at a higher price. Those are the types of ingredients we use, because they are of higher quality. So I would not assume all companies are created equal. If you'd like to learn more, please call us. We have much more information where that came from!

(emphasis is mine)

I appreciate OMH's candor here. They clearly chose Menu Foods for a reason and they have no regrets. While I believe their food is high-quality stuff, I'm deeply troubled by their continued support of a company which conducts deadly animal tests, produces poisoned food, and then sits on information which could have saved lives in an attempt to save face.

I'm also concerned by OMH's position on animal testing. Here is an explanatino of the animal testing policy from the OMH Official FAQ:

Q: Why are you not on PETA's "Do Not Test List"?

A: In order to be placed on PETA's "Do Not Test List", we would be required to sign a contract that states that we approve of everything that PETA does and that we cannot alter or change our formulas without informing them first. While we have great admiration and respect for PETA's agenda, upon legal consultation, we were advised that it was not in our company's best interest to sign their contract.

I'm going to try to contact PETA and ask about their requirements for getting on the "Do Not Test List," but on the face of it, this just doesn't sound right to me. If you look at the PETA list, there are plenty of products on it. Are they all running their formulas by PETA on a regular basis?

Is Old Mother Hubbard actively doing bad things to animals? We don't know. Here's what they say in the FAQ:

Q: Why can't you give me the information on the animals that you use to test the food? Are they kept in cages? What about the kennel? Can I contact them?

A: The animals that are used are privately owned and kept in kennels for a period of 4 days for the feeding trials to see how they like our food. For any further information you would need to contact AAFCO.

Let's assume for a second that the privately-owned kennel, which we know nothing about, is incredibly humane. The fact is that Old Mother Hubbard does business with Menu Foods and, as a business partner, is helping Menu Foods stay in business. Menu Foods has a track record of killing dogs and cats, whether through inaction or animal testing.

I am sorry to have to do this, but I think I'm going to have to switch brands. I can't have my money supporting Menu Foods.

Why We Care

2007-03-24T03:32:00.000-04:00

I try to keep politics out of this blog, but I will admit to being staunchly pro-cat in all things. If hear about a cat suffering, I'm concerned. If I read about someone who commits an act of animal cruelty against a cat, I get angry and think there should be tougher laws. If I hear about a food company that does animal testing on cats and then sells poisoned cat food, my blood really boils.

If a cat and a dog are duking it out, I'll always side with the cat. If a cat does something bad, I'll make excuses for him. I hate the movie Cats & Dogs because the cats are villains.

Why am I pro-cat? I don't consider myself a softie or a bleeding heart, but look at the picture below and tell me why I shouldn't be staunchly pro-cat?

This, BTW, is a terrible picture of me, but a great picture of Arthur. Why do I always look scraggly in these pictures? Because these moments tend to happen when I've been sitting around on the couch late at night or on a weekend.

Nutro Excuses

2007-03-24T02:22:00.000-04:00

I visited the Nutro Products site again today and noticed that they have finally put up a decent amount of information about what is going on. It's a shame they didn't put this information up on last Friday night when the news was announced.

Anyway, I found a couple of interesting tidbits in Nutro's Recall FAQ. First, they attempt to answer the question of why they use Menu Foods as a manufacturer in the first place:

Why does Nutro use Menu Foods as a contract manufacturer for production of wet foods?

Canned and foil pouch wet foods are a small part of Nutro's overall production. Our limited volume does not allow Nutro (and a great many other pet food companies), the economy of scale required to own a wet food facility.

We use a contract manufacturer because they provide wet food production capacity and expertise. Contract manufacturers are required to follow strict quality standards in the production of Nutro's wet products. Nutro is implementing additional guidelines that will ensure that the quality control measures used by our co-manufacturers and their suppliers are strengthened so that this deeply troubling situation never happens again.

In another section of the FAQ, Nutro mentions that all of its dry food is self-manufactured. I'm sorry Nutro, but your "economy of scale" story just doesn't make a lot of sense.

How is it that a company like Merrick Petcare can manufacture all of its own canned food, but you can't? Merrick is on a lot of store shelves, but they're more of a boutique brand than Nutro. Nutro cans and packerts sit on the shelves at Petco and Petsmart, the two largest national chains. It's hard to believe that you can't make your own wet food.

Here's another one of the FAQs that caught my eye:

Does that mean that all pet foods contract manufactured by Menu Foods are essentially the same, just branded under different labels?

No. As a contract manufacturer for Nutro, Menu Foods creates Nutro brand products according to our own proprietary recipes using our specified ingredients. These formulas are made exclusively for Nutro. Our recipes and ingredient profiles are the result of years of research and development, and meet the highest quality standards for nutrition and taste. Our foods are different!

If their foods really are different, then why did they end up with the same gluten as everyone else? If the process is so hands-on for Nutro then they should have been paying closer attention to what Menu Foods was doing.

I'm sorry, but Nutro sold the contaminated food under their label, and they are responsible for it. Frankly, I also feel responsible for feeding their product to my boys and for recommending it to so many people. I won't make that mistake again.

Investors to Menu Foods: Keep That Poison Coming!

2007-03-24T01:58:00.000-04:00

You'd think that a food company which has been found with poison in its factory would be in some financial trouble. You'd imagine that, if said company were publicly traded, investors would run away screaming on the day that investigators annouunced that rat poison had been found in its products.

Well, think again, because Menu Food's stock price rose by 30.8 percent on the "good news" that rat poison was found.

This means that somewhere large institutional investors were sitting around their computer terminals reading stories about aminopterin, about class action lawsuits being filed against Menu Foods, and about the company promising to pay veterinary costs for thousands for people. The investors' response: buy, buy, buy!

I'll never understand Wall St. I guess the going theory is that, because a toxic agent has been identified, the company's troubles are over and it's a good time to buy. Nevermind that every dollar you invest is seen as a vote of confidence and a ringing endorsement of company policy. Nevermind that by investing in Menu Foods, you are asking for more of the same.

Menu Foods CEO: I Feel Your Pain

2007-03-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you how glad I was to hear these words coming from Menu Foods CEO Paul Henderson:

"Over the past seven days we have spoken with almost 200,000 consumers. They are scared. Some, like myself, were angry. They demonstrated a level of care and concern that only those of us who are pet owners can understand."

(via Canada.com and the Canadian Press)

And don't worry folks. Menu Foods will also pay your vet bills.

I understand that vet bills can get expensive, but somehow I doubt that this lame attempt at contrition coupled with a vague offer to reimburse expenses is going to cut it with pet parents.

You know what Paul? Since you've shared your pain with us, I feel like I can ask you anything and you'll just open up and share. So tell me:

Who are you angry at?

Are you angry at all the pet parents who complained that your food was making them sick for weeks, possibly as far back as December?

Are you angry at all the consumers who've joined class action litigation against you in Canada, Wisconsin, Washington, and elsewhere.

Are you angry at the laboratory test animals who, rather than simply dying from your poison, should have jumped out of their cages and howled "this tastes like aminopterin?" Maybe they even would have, if they had vocal chords.

Are you angry at the media for revealing the pet food industry's dirty little secret, that so many "trustworthy" brands use a careless, cruel, safety-indifferent company to make their wet food products?

Or are you angry at yourself? Somehow, I doubt it.

Pet Recall: It was Rat Poison (or Was It?)

2007-03-23T23:41:00.000-04:00

By now, you've probably all read the news. Researchers have determined that the affected foods contain a large amount of aminopterin, a drug which is used as a rat poison in China and, at one time, was used to treat leukemia or induce abortions. Bottom line: it's a big-time poison.

At this point, nobody knows for sure where the aminopterin came from and whether it is the only cause of the poisonings.

ABC News reports that the aminopterin might have come from Chinese wheat:

Investigators, meanwhile, are looking into whether the rat poison came into the United States on an ingredient used in the recalled food. ABC News has learned that Menu Foods bought wheat gluten, the only ingredient changed in its plants, from China.

However, the AP (via CNN) quotes two experts who cast doubt on wheat as the source of the aminopterin.

The first, an expert in pest management, doubts that rodenticide could end up in wheat:

Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted.

"It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.

Andre Rosowsky, an expert in aminopterin, tells the AP that the food may have been deliberately tampered with:

Rosowsky speculated that the substance would not show up in pet food "unless somebody put it there."

According to the AP, Menu Foods says their products could not have been tampered with because the poison showed up in foods made at two separate plants. I think that really depends on your definition of "tamper." Perhaps poison ended up in the wheat because someone tampered with the wheat back in China or at some point before it reached the food plants.

Before we start looking for a culprit, another problem remains. We don't really know whether aminopterin is the cause or even a cause of the poisonings. ABC News quotes some skeptical vets:

"Renal failure is not the expected response to these drugs," said Susan Weinstein, executive director of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. She added that most rodent poisons work as severe anticoagulants — meaning they cause the rats that ingest them to bleed to death.

"Whether this particular toxin in this case can create renal failure depends on how this drug works in the body, which may be an entirely different pathway than the anticoagulants," Weinstein said. "Because we aren't yet familiar with this toxin, we can't be confident of the causation link."

Honestly, I hope this is the cause, because otherwise we're back to square one and the poisonings will continue.

According to both the AP and ABC News, Menu Foods continues to manufacture food in both of the affected plants. I guess they couldn't lose a day's profit or a night's sleep over this. For Menu Foods, the grinders of the giant pet food machine have to keep spinning, no matter what the cost in lives.

Support from Arthur

2007-03-23T00:08:00.000-04:00

The past couple of months have been some of the most stressful I've ever had. First I spent a ton of energy searching for, finding, and procuring a new job. Now, I'm working 10-12 hour days, then coming home and working on my home computer until 1 am. I don't even get to go to the gym much anymore.

But, through everything, my boys stick by me, even if they're just sitting on my desk and watching me work on the computer. It means a lot to me that I turn my head and see one or both of them lying in the bed right next to my keyboard and encouraging me while I work.

Here's a picture of Arthur:

Gauging My Vet's Advice

2007-03-22T23:22:00.000-04:00

Ever since I heard the news about the product recall on Friday night, I have been worried that Arthur and Beowulf will become ill. As I mentioned, I fed them Nutro Natural Choice packet food on a regular basis.

That last time they ate Nutro was last Thursday or Wednesday. They have shown no signs of being ill in any way. However, if all Nutro was contaminated for months (perhaps as far back as December), then they were eating contaminated food for months.

My fiancee Liz called our vet on Tuesday and asked if we should take them in for tests. The vet told her not to bother bringing the boys in for a checkup unless they started to show symptoms. They seem fine. OTOH, do you think this food could have long-term negative effects?

Most sources I've read claim that if your pet is ill, he will become ill within a very short period of time after eating the contaminated food. But just now I read an article on ABCnews.com where a leading vet said something a little different.

According to ABC, veterinarian Cathy Langston, of New York's Animal Medical Center said "I'm worried that there are more deaths to come from chronic renal failure over the next several months. It's not over."

Is it "not over" because people with this contaminated food in their pantries will continue feeding it and unknowingly poisoning their pets or because people like me will get an unpleasant surprise several months from now?

I also consulted an online friend who is a vet and told me that I should go with my vet's advice. What do you all think? Am I reading too much into the ABC News quote?

Ditching Wellness (or Maybe Not)?

2007-03-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

The other day, I was patting myself on the back for feeding the boys Wellness dry. Then I find out that Wellness food is made by Menu Foods. To be fair:

No Wellness food is subject to the recall
Menu Foods does not make dry food and I only feed the dry Wellness. I use other brands for wet food.
I have no idea who really manufactures the Wellness dry food. Maybe they use a reputable manufacturer for their dry products.

That said. I'm really disillusioned with the whole Wellness brand after reading that they Wellness uses Menu Foods as a manufacturer. I sent an email to Old Mother Hubbard, makers of the Wellness brand, a few days ago and have received no response. I asked them to explain why they would use a disreputable vendor like Menu Foods, but I received no response.

So now I'm thinking I should switch dry foods. Let's assume for a second that Wellness dry food is a high-quality product with good nutritional properties and my boys love to eat it. However, I feel like I may need to switch brands of dry b/c:

How Can I Trust Them?: If Menu Foods makes Wellness's wet food, how do I know that they use a reliable, trustworthy manufacturer for their kibble? If they would use a careless, greedy, safety-unconscious company like Menu Foods to manufacture some of their products, how can I trust that something similar won't happen to their dry food in the future?
How Can I Support Them?: Every dollar I give to Wellness is being used to help prop up Menu Foods, a company which callously disregards or deliberately destroys the lives of cats and dogs. Remember, that they probably knew enough to recall the poisoned pet food months ago and that they have a horrible reputation for torturing laboratory animals.

So should I ditch Wellness out of concern, out of principle, or both? If I ditch Wellness, would can I switch to that would be as good for the boys and would taste and smell the most like Wellness? And if I did switch, how would I know that the brand I switched to was not just as irresponsible? I can now find a list of which brands use Menu Foods as a manufacturer and which don't, but that doesn't tell me if the companies are any more humane or cautious in their manufacturing processes.

What do you think?

Canadian Press: Complaints Started in December

2007-03-19T23:53:00.000-04:00

According to the Canadian Press (via howl911 and Pet Connection ), Menu Foods started receiving complaints as far back as December:

Starting in December, concerns began filtering back to the company through toll-free customer lines about the "cuts and gravy" style pet food.

Callers complained their animals had fallen ill after eating the food, although no direct link was established.

Of course, AP reports say the company told the FDA that complaints started on February 20th. So the question is this: how long as Menu Foods known it was peddling poison? Was it a month or three months? Either way, they sat on that knowledge for a long time.

Menu Foods: We Knew About this for a Month

2007-03-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

The scumbags at Menu Foods continue to show us why there's a special place reserved in hell for them. Today, the AP reported (via Toronto Star):

Menu Foods told the FDA it received the first complaints of kidney failure and deaths among cats and dogs from pet owners on Feb. 20. It began new tests on Feb. 27.

During those tests, the company fed its product to 40 to 50 dogs and cats and some seven animals – the mix of species was not immediately known – died, Sundlof said. The contamination appeared more deadly to cats than to dogs, he said.

So they knew about this for a month, they took their time acting on the recall, and even better, they tested the poisonous food on dogs and cats in a laboratory, just to see how many would die! As I said yesterday, Menu Foods has a well-established reputation for animal cruelty.

Some of you may not like PETA and I don't agree with everything they do, but I believe their report on Menu Foods and its animal test labs. Apparently PETA had an undercover investigator working in the labs for 9 months. During that time, she witnessed countless acts of cruelty. I'm particularly disturbed by this graph:

A cat used in a Menu Foods study whom PETA’s investigator had befriended had a large cut on his chin. The vet techs told our investigator that this unfortunate cat was “evil,” and instead of treating the cat humanely, they put betadine in a spray bottle and tried to spray the cat in the face from outside the cage, squirting him in the mouth and causing him to salivate profusely. Later, the technicians indicated that the “problem was resolved,” yet the investigator saw that the cut looked much worse and informed the lab’s director of the cat’s condition. Although the vet techs were told to euthanize the cat immediately, he suffered for five more days before the vet techs finally got around to destroying him.

But I think this was the piece de resistance:

Shortly before our investigator quit her job at the lab, the lab director ordered the vet techs to debark all the dogs because he was being disturbed by their desperate cries for attention. A vet tech told our investigator that a researcher in Menu Foods’ New Jersey office gave permission for the dogs’ vocal chords to be cut out.

So it's great to know that their response to finding out that their food was poisoning cats and dogs was to feed the same poisonous food to the animals locked in their lab of horrors.

Why did Menu Foods wait so long to issue it's recall and why did it issue the recall on a Friday night? I think the answer is contained in its press release:

The Fund estimates that based on currently available information, this recall could cost between $30 million and $40 million, which will be financed from a combination of internally generated cash flow and bank credit facilities.

I wonder how many animal's lives that $40 million is worth to "The Fund?" I used to work for a public company where we'd always put out negative news like poor earning reports on Friday nights so that the market had time to "digest" it. Maybe Menu Foods was hoping that by throwing this information out there on a Friday night, it would have more time to reassure nervous investors before markets reopened on Monday morning. Indeed, Menu Foods' stock dropped today by 24% on Monday. How much might it have dropped if this recall was announced at the opening bell or even at 2 pm on Friday?

Nevermind, that every hour Menu Foods delayed releasing this news, someone was feeding a cat a packet of contaminated food. Stores were selling poison in a packet and nobody was the wiser. Then, after releasing the information Friday Night, Menu foods waited until 6 am on Saturday morning to post its list of recalled products. But even then, the list was incomplete. Even more brands were added later on. But of course when you secretly manufacture as many brands of food as "The Fund," it's easy to lose track of exactly where you slung your slop.

Nutro: Same as a Supermarket Brand?

2007-03-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

I've been holding my virtual tongue since I read yesterday that Nutro, makers of Nutro Max and Nutro Natural Choice cat foods, is on the list of brands being recalled by Menu Foods. I can't hold back anymore.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock this weekend, you know that there's a major recall of wet cat and dog foods manufactured by the Menu Foods Inc.

Haven't heard of Menu Foods? That's because they are the not-so-secret manufacturers of North America's lowest-quality pet foods, including over a dozen supermarket housebrands. Until Friday, I'd never heard of them. A quick search for the Menu Foods name reveals that they are infamous among animal rights groups, because of their penchant for cruel animal testing.

Like many of you who read this blog, I think of myself as an obsessive pet parent. I try to feed my boys the highest-quality food that money can buy. I feed the boys Wellness Super5 Mix dry food and a mix of wet foods. Unfortunately, Nutro Natural Choice pouches have been a big part of that mix.

So far the boys have been ok and we have gotten rid of our Nutro pouches, but I'm still worried that symptoms may appear later on or that there may be long-term effects. Nobody really knows what was wrong with the food and I last fed them Nutro on Thursday.

I know that Nutro isn't as good a brand as something like Wellness or Wysong and I know that gravy pouches aren't as good as canned fare, but I fed the boys Nutro Natural Choice Turkey and Giblets, because it was one of the few wet foods they would eat. I thought to myself, "ok, this stuff is not as good as the $1.50 a can stuff, but it is a quality brand and it's the best brand you can get at chain stores like Petco and Petsmart." Boy was I wrong about the "quality" part.

Until this recall, Nutro never mentioned on their site or on their product packaging that their food is actually being churned out in the same factory as world-renowned cat foods like "Price Chopper Housebrand" and "Save-A-Lot." The home page of their site says:

For over 75 years, Nutro has created, tested, and produced the finest pet foods on the market. Our philosophy is simple: we constantly strive to provide better ingredients and better nutrition for better health, no matter what the cost.

Are they really providing "better ingredients" than Price Chopper or Save-a-Lot? The news is sketchy right now and we don't know for sure whether all the brands manufactured in that plant use the same ingredients. The AP (via CNN) reports that "the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier." To me that says one simple thing: Nutro products were made using the same gluten as cheap, low-quality cat foods. If they are using the same gluten as Foodtown supermarket's cat food, how many other ingredients do they have in common?

Is Nutro just putting a fancy package and snazzy name on the same low-grade cat food you get off the supermarket shelf? I've been feeding my boys Nutro products since they were kittens. The entire first year of their lives, Arthur and Beowulf had Nutro Natural Choice dry food every single day. I've been feeding them Nutro canned foods and pouches. Was I actually feeding them slop the whole time?

For those of you who aren't cat food snobs, I submit this analogous question. How would you feel if you were concerned about car safety so you bought a $40,000 Volvo and then years later found out it was manufactured in the same plant, using at least some of the same parts as a Yugo?

Big Changes

2007-02-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

I'll make this quick, because I really need to relax like Arthur is doing in the picture below. The past month has been really hectic, because I went through a series of interviews and then made the difficult decision to leave my job of nine years at About.com and pursue another exciting opportunity.

The boys have been really helpful through all of this. When I was sitting in front of my computer doing extensive preparations before my interview or stressing about my new job, the boys would come sit next to the keyboard and purr for me. I just came home from day two of the new job and I have a lot to learn, but a lot of exciting work ahead of me. When I get home at night and want to relax after a long day, I always turn to the boys.

Turning and Learning

2006-12-20T20:30:00.000-05:00

If my fiancee Liz was not on a trip with our camera, I would have snapped a picture of Arthur tugging at the door knob on the front door last night or Beowulf trying to pull the knob on the hall closet this evening. For the past few days, the two of them have been leading against both the front door and the closet door, meowing up at something, and then reaching their paws up to try to turn the knob.

Fortunately, the front door is always locked and the closet door knob is actually just a handle that can't be turned. However, I'm starting to feel like I did the first time I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey and I saw the scene where the first ape picks up a bone and decides to use it as a weapon. They are trying to learn to turn a door knob. It may not be long before they successfully open another door, the door to the bedroom.

Heavily-Photoshopped Season's Greetings

2006-12-20T13:53:00.000-05:00

This was actually my family's holiday card for last year, but this year we just haven't had time to send one. Anyway, this is kinda corny, but I thought you might get a chuckle from it. We don't have a real Menorah or Christmas tree in our house, because the boys would probably destroy either one.

The Sins of the Father

2006-12-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

To put things mildly, my fiancee Liz hates it when the boys walk on our diningroom table. I'm not as concerned about the table as I am about other surfaces, like the kitchen counter, but I do try to keep them off the table when I see them there, particularly while I'm eating. I certainly don't want them coming up there and tasting messing with my food.

However, on Saturday morning, Beowulf jumped up on the table as I was eating my breakfast and, rather than investigating my food, he just sat there and purred. I have to admit that I couldn't resist petting him while I ate and I even stuck my arm out so he could hold onto it. Liz is going to kill me when she reads this.

And what was Arthur doing while his brother sat on the forbidden table? He was just lying around watching.

My Crazy Million Dollar Idea

2006-12-10T20:04:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, I come up with a wacky idea for a new business and then calm usually sets in and I realize it's not viable. However, I really want some feedback on today's idea: Pet Showers and Pet Registries.

This weekend, my fiancee Liz and I registered for wedding gifts at a couple of stores and it got me thinking. If people have showers for weddings and for new babys, what about new pets? And if people register for wedding gifts and baby gifts, why not create an online pet registry where people can register for gifts for pets they plan to adopt or just adopted. People would be able to throw actual shower parties for their new pets OR they could plan and execute an "online shower" OR they could just plain register so their friends and family can buy gifts they will need to get started with the new cat or dog (leashes, collars, litterboxes, toys, etc).

Forget for a second the myriad ways in which providing an online pet gift registry could turn a profit. Would you register for gifts for a new pet you adopted AND would you buy gifts for a friend's new pet if she registered?

One of My Favorite Things

2006-11-26T12:12:00.000-05:00

Arthur has this great habit of hugging my arm with his whole body. Sometimes when he's lying on my desk chair, I roll him over to the couch and stick my arm out just so he can do this.

Two Years with the Boys

2006-11-26T00:57:00.000-05:00

The boys' two-year adoptiversary was November 13th, just two weeks ago. As always, I observed the occasion by donating money to Bideawee, the shelter we adopted them from.

It's hard to believe so much time has passed, because it seems like only yesterday we brought the boys home. Liz and I still find ourselves amazed at some of the wonderful things they do. We love them more each day. Spending time with our boys never gets old.

Here are a few then and now pictures.

Then:

This is our first picture of the boys, taken on November 13,2004. They were just coming out of the cardboard carriers from the shelter:

Here's a picture of them using their bed on the third day we had them:

Finally, here's a picture of them cuddling with me on the night we brought them home.

Now:

Fleeced

2006-11-26T00:38:00.000-05:00

One sure-fire way to get the boys to come sit with us is to whip out the fleece blanket. They can't resist it and Beowulf loves to hide under it if he can find a spot.

The Purrfect Wedding Cake Topper

2006-11-22T23:25:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to the user who turned me on to the Cool Cats line of figurines by Toni Goffe. I just ordered "the Kiss" as our wedding cake topper. What do you think?

Cats in Snug Spots

2006-11-12T00:51:00.000-05:00

This is probably not a revelation to anyone who has cats, but more and more I'm discovering that the boys like to be in snug spots. This is probably why they like beds that are box-shaped and surround their bodies. It's also why Arthur and Beowulf like to come sleep between my legs when I'm lying on the couch.

Their love of snug spots is probably why they aren't interested in sitting next to me on the couch when I'm sitting by myself, but they will come sit between Liz and I, because they want a warm body on either side of them.

The other day, Beowulf found the ultimate snug spot. He came over when I was lying on the couch and got me to open up a hole between my body and the pillows. He then proceeded to stick his head under my arm. He was so content that the vibration of his purr was like a massage machine on high setting.

Reading with the Boys: A Friday Night Tradition

2006-11-11T01:17:00.000-05:00

I try to spend quality time with the boys every day, but Friday nights lately have become a special time for me to lie on the couch with a book while the boys come to cuddle. Tonight, Arthur decided to sleep between my legs and Beowulf later joined us and leaned on my leg. Without a doubt, this is the most serene feeling.

The One Thing that Scares the Boys

2006-11-05T19:47:00.000-05:00

Not much scares the boys, particularly not much in the way of sound. Loud fireworks on the Fourth of July don't even cause them to wake up from a nap. However, the vacuum cleaner does send both Arthur and Beowulf running for cover. Beowulf tends to hide under the dining room table.

New Chair, New Bed

2006-10-31T23:41:00.000-05:00

We put together our new chair today and the boys immediately took a liking to it. We put a pillow on it for a few minutes and they turned it into a grooming parlor. If they don't destroy it, this chair is going to be their new favorite spot.

Doubly Purrfect

2006-10-29T21:59:00.000-05:00

It's rare, but occasionally both of the boys will come sit with me at once. Beowulf is always the one who will sit on my legs, while Arthur sits on the ottoman. Here's a recent picture, though it's not particularly high-quality.

Chair Chewers

2006-10-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

LIz and I are about to buy her a new desk chair, but we're concerned that the boys will destroy it as they did her previous desk chair.

Back when we first adopted the boys, Liz and I had matching leather desk chairs. Unfortunately, the boys started biting and clawing at the bottom of Liz's chair so that a hole opened up and some stuffing came out. The chair was still usable but we didn't want the boys to eat any filling or loose staples from the bottom of the chair so we gave it to my parents and Liz bought a new chair with a plastic bottom about a year and a half ago.

The chair with the plastic bottom was never very comfortable and recently became so uncomfortable that she needs to put a pillow on the chair to sit comfortably. We went to our local office stores (Staples and Office Depot) and looked at several chairs, but we didn't find any with solid plastic bottoms that were even a little bit comfortable. All the chairs have cloth bottoms with staples used to hold the cloth in place. We already had to replace our dining room chairs with all-wood chairs after the boys kept pulling string off the bottoms. This office chair doesn't have any loose string on its bottom but it does have fabric.

We saw one chair at Staples that's a little bit pricey but incredibly comfortable. Our concern is that we're going to buy this wonderful chair and the boys are going to rip open the bottom of the chair and ruin it. Any ideas as to how we could keep them messing with the underside?

We don't care if they sit on the chair; we just don't want them to start pulling the fabric off the bottom. Any ideas? Our first thought is to spray the bottom of the chair with bitter apple spray, something we have used with limited effectiveness on wires. Has anyone else had the same problem?

Couch Potato Cats

2006-10-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

Last night, I was feeling really tired so I went to lie down on the couch with a book. When I first sat down, it was around 8:30 and Beowulf came and slept on my legs for a little while but he quickly got up and went to sit in my desk chair. I kept trying to get Arthur to come site on the ottoman, but he was too busy running around.

I quickly fell asleep and woke up about an hour later to find Arthur lying down next to me. He spent the next few hours shifting positions while I kept nodding off. At one point he came and sat between me and the couch pillows and rested his head on my chest, something I can't remember him doing before. I had the most relaxing evening I've had in a long time, but I got to read only about two pages of my book.

Blanket Cats

2006-10-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

If Liz wants Beowulf and Arthur to sit on her lap, all she needs to do is whip out the fleece blanket. The other day it was particularly cold in the apartment, because the building hadn't turn the heat on (now they have). So Liz took out the blanket and the boys came running.

Cats Hide in the Cutest Places

2006-10-25T00:22:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, my fiancee Liz and I both joined the local gym and we've been spending several hours a week there. I was getting ready to go to the gym tonight and I put the gym bag down on the diningroom table for a minute while I went to wash my hands for just a minute. When I came back from the bathroom, I saw a pair of eyes peering out from inside the bag.