The Humane Society@tallyollyopia, today when I was at CostCo I priced cashews: $19.99 for a big 2.5 pound jar. Just make sure you don't accidentally get the no-salt-added variety.
The Humane Society, or the ASPCA (they're two different organizations)?
Yep, you got that right.
segelkatt , welcome back! Take care of yourself, and if the doctor and therapists all say that you need to gain some weight then you probably need to gain some weight.
Margret
It sure seemed that way to me. Obviously I cannot speak for all Humane Society locations but to the one closest to me, ferals do not count at all. When DD and I were training to be cat cuddlers, they gave us a folder containing papers with rules and such. There was one in there regarding how they handle ferals. I wish I had kept it. They put them down immediately and their attitude about it was very, "oh well- no big deal- it's just a feral". As I said earlier though, this was back in 2012 and it's entirely possible that this has changed since then but I doubt it.
I felt so bad for him. Remus was a little sneezy so he went too. They both got examinations as well as FIV tests (because the shelter they came from doesnt do that anymore apparently 
) . Both were negative though, thankfully.
I hope you are totally recovered from being so sick! 
Be careful with rapid weight loss for your kitties. It can lead to liver failure. Be sure to talk to your vet about it first.get better soon
I didn't tell Jon about the wittle kitty out in IL yet. I did get some more clutter cleaned up, cleaned carpets, washed the kitchen floor, got some meat cooked up.
I am still mulling over the kitten I want..by the time I go out to get her she will be 5 or 6 months old which is perfect in my book. I really hope I get the stuff done I need to get done-to get my house once and for all decluttered. I try to do an hour a day. Next Wed night going to take the bagged up clothes in the master bedroom to the thrift store in Barrington. I still have one more closet of clothes to purge. It's easy to purge clothes..books are heavier..now if they could make ebooks as cheap as paperbacks=that would make life so much easier.
I got an email from an exworker who has kittens..I took one of his cats many years ago..she was 10 I think when I got her. Henrietta. A maine coon look alike-small. 8lbs. She loved Jon. Spread out on top of his chest. Slept on top of our frig. Climbed up on the cabinets. For an old girl she was quite sprung to get up that high. She didn't like Floey. Pumps ignored her.
She passed away New Years morning in my arms-we just went to er vet and they told me to put her down-I couldn't do it..I thought she had asthma..she was panting. Very ill. Her chest xray was horrible. I had xrays done on her when I got her that first week-the vet said he doesn't know how she's alive-it was white cloudy-no black-but she wasn't showing symptoms..she was living in a dirty nasty basement-those people are morons when it comes to home cleanliness-the cat had no cat box or food or water-he said take her home-I know you will take better care of her-blamed it on the wife..typical nonsense...
so I still can't stand to think she suffered from my lack of knowledge. I will never let a cat die at home again. She was panting all day and by midnight I couldn't stand it-took her in, Jon said don't put her down=but neither of us understood how bad it really was. I honestly thought it was asthma and thought we could put her on an inhaler..wow was I dumb. The vet must have been so mad at me. I called up an hour later crying that she died in my arms and wish I listened. Jon was in tears when this happened..I screamed and was so upset..it was horrible. I never ever want this to happen to anyone else...now I pay too much attention to their breathing and worry..but at least I learned..I only hope I don't have to live through that again...
I had flashbacks for months after..in fact I am still shedding a few tears at how horrible her life ended when she already suffered enough before I got her. But she was happy with us. Loved laying on the deck in the sunshine. Loved not having beasty dogs annoying her. That was my first senior cat I had and I was hooked afterwards.
I still have a hard time with this..so after that I never trusted myself again. But I am slowly coming around. To understanding what it means when people say you have to live experiences in order to understand.
On another note-a happier one= something really neat happens every morning. I pick up Pumps to carry to the kitchen to give her pred/dasquin and I let honeybee sniff her foot as I am holding Pumps-and Honeybee always gives her foot 4 good licks. I am hoping if I can do this every morning as part of a routine that Pumps will start to trust Honeybee. She doesn't shake. Doesn't growl. She tenses up as if expecting the cat to bite her because in the past Honeybee licks her tail then chomps on it like the brat that she is. So yesterday I saw them touching noses on the couch. I hope they will get along better. And if we add a kitten I think Pumps will feel better knowing that Honeybee will leave her alone...let's hope this kitten gets along with them....because I really want Honeybee to have a friend. I think Honeybee is now 6..I thought she was 4 but we got her in 2013. and here it is 2017. So I don't know how old Honeybee really is but she still plays and horses around like a kitten..she looks the same to me..Pumpkin is looking longer in face like they get when they get into the high senior years but her fur is still soft and sweet looking-still nice body condition except for weight-
Oh speaking of weight=I have now measured out 2/3 cup of dry and told Jon that's all they get for the day. There's two dishes-so each dish gets half of that in the morning and half at night-in a month I will just fill it once a day but for now-they don't get mad as long as there's a few pieces of food in the dish...neither will eat wet food..I know people will say I need to feed wet...sadly they bury it and turn the bowl upside down.....and I wrote a book again.
thank you. Not feeling the greatest yet, still quite weak but I did manage to wash my bedding (pillows and 2 skinny down comforters) as I found that I apparently had wet them during the two days and nights that I slept through and then kicked them off the bed. When I picked them up today (nothing got picked up while I was so sick) I saw these stains, smelled them and oh phew, I knew they had to get washed asap. I've washed them before and knew that as long as they were thoroughly dry they would be ok.@segalkatt - I'm glad to see you back again.
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@tallyollyopia, today when I was at CostCo I priced cashews: $19.99 for a big 2.5 pound jar. Just make sure you don't accidentally get the no-salt-added variety.
The Humane Society, or the ASPCA (they're two different organizations)?
Yep, you got that right.
Margret
What a gorgeous girl! I can see how she got her name. Her markings are unique. She looks like she's a sweetheart, too.
My husband got a UTI after getting bitten by Darwin (he didn't mean to bite. He was just focused on a strange cat and Robert picked him up). He was in the hospital for three days from the bite infection. About two weeks later he got the UTI and like you, didn't want to eat. Like you said, things just didn't taste good and it was too much of an effort to eat. He lost nearly 40 pounds as he developed severe depression and anxiety attacks. It's been a really tough row to hoe, but the doctor put him on Paxil, which stimulated his appetite. Now he's eating pretty normally. The meds are helping a lot with the depression and anxiety. We still have a long way to go, but he's stopped losing weight.
segelkatt
, antibiotics can do strange things to your sense of taste (in my experience). You may want to take some probiotics for a while.The "No kill" cat shelter near us is not run by any national organization that I know of, and the reason I put "No kill" in quotes is that they themselves dispute that designation. They will euthanize cats, for the same reasons that we would: basically, if a cat is a threat to itself or others or if it's too sick to have a good quality of life and is incurable.
It sounds like Midway is grieving, and adjusting to the household changes. Montressor is more worrisome. As someone else has already suggested, keep a record of what's going on with him, because it sounds likely that there's a physical cause and you should probably plan to get him to the vet once you have the money to do so. The likeliest explanation is that he's begun suffering from some arthritis, but a vet should be able to tell for sure. You'll want to note whether he's limping when walking and whether he still gets the occasional bout of zoomies.
In San Diego there is the most marvelous shelter run by the Humane Society. Every animal has not a cage but a real room according to its size with real furniture (chair, pet bed, small table). I saw a huge dog in a room with glass all around on 2 sides which must have measured 8 by 10 ft, the dog could look down two different corridors. Some cat rooms had several cats and kittens in it, again with glass from floor to ceiling. New cats had their own quarters. The shelter was built specifically to the Humane Society's specifications and it is huge. There are meeting rooms, educational displays, a gift shop with things for animal and human uses etc and plenty of room outside where dogs can run or be walked and socialize with other dogs. They are strictly "no kill" and no animal will be put to sleep unless there is no hope for it and the animal is in pain and has no quality of life. A volunteer or other animal-loving person will be there holding it. This is the way that shelters should be set up but I realize that few places have the money to do so.
