Remembering Krista

tarasgirl06

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It's a cross country (running) t-shirt from high school. Was too big for me back then and still too big for me. But it's light-weight and not binding. Perfect for June 11 weather (or June 12 weather when you see tomorrow's shot. 😹 )
Comfortable is best -- especially in the heat, which I loathe and don't tolerate well. When I was in the Mojave, the one restaurant in our community (that I know of) had an anniversary and they passed out T-shirts to all of the customers! They were all XXL so everyone could wear them, I guess. Anyway, I'll never give up that T-shirt as there are so many memories of going there, and it makes a great sleep shirt.
 

JulietteTruong

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daftcat75

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Oof, I have a similar styled unit, but I have been too lazy to install it since moving to CA. Last summer, there were some really brutally hot days. I don’t know if I can tolerate it again this year...
There’s only a few each year up here. But those are sweaty sleepless nights without a little help. And we’ve been getting more of them each year thanks to climate change. 🤦🏼‍♂️😿🥵
 

JulietteTruong

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There’s only a few each year up here. But those are sweaty sleepless nights without a little help. And we’ve been getting more of them each year thanks to climate change. 🤦🏼‍♂️😿🥵
I can try and cope with the heat, though I’m awful at handling extreme heat. I worry when it comes to cats. I’m always on my sister about leaving the AC on when it’s those crazy hot days while she’s at work, since she’s on an upper floor. But she’s worried about the utility bill.
 

Beholder

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There’s only a few each year up here. But those are sweaty sleepless nights without a little help. And we’ve been getting more of them each year thanks to climate change. 🤦🏼‍♂️😿🥵
I can try and cope with the heat, though I’m awful at handling extreme heat. I worry when it comes to cats. I’m always on my sister about leaving the AC on when it’s those crazy hot days while she’s at work, since she’s on an upper floor. But she’s worried about the utility bill.
I have the same thing too! Where I live it never used to get this hot so no apartments have AC's. Now it's starting to get to 90 in the very humid summers (which is crazy for Santa Barbara) so our portable AC has been a lifesaver. Still better than 115 where I'm originally from in Norcal though!
 

tarasgirl06

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IDK why I keep getting knocked off your posts! I am following you. But anyway. Adorable Krista!
My cats have always loved floor tiles, shower tiles, sinks and tubs when it gets really hot. Another thing I used to do when it got really hot was wring out cool water-soaked washcloth and rub them down. I saw this recommended somewhere. I use a spray bottle on myself at night when it's too hot to sleep. Only temporary, I know, but it does help.
I've been seeing ads for these small portable AC units. So I just searched, and found THIS: 2021's Best Portable Air Coolers They are evap coolers. I have one that we used up in the barn compound. Of course, this house having been built in 1937, does not have the grounded outlets except in a couple of areas where they're essential and my folks had them put in. SO...I can't use the cooler, which is a big clunky thing with double tanks. It worked well in the Mojave due to the dry, dry heat. Probably the Bay Area wouldn't support an evap cooler very well.
 

daftcat75

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The small box with the blue lid on the floor is one of those small evap fans. I placed one down at Krista level if she really needed it.
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If you are close enough to one of these, like on the edge of the desk, it does provide some relief. But it is no match for an entire room. Much less one as big as my living room/bedroom.
 

daftcat75

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Also June 14, 2019:
This is how awkward it is to vent this beast out the sliding door. It only came with a window vent piece. So the box goes beneath the window vent and a yoga towel (in some other picture) hangs down to meet the top of the window vent. I bought three separate door kits off eBay. They were all junk from China that didn’t fit the hose correct and weren’t tall enough for the door despite being sold as sliding door vents. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I keep meaning to go to Home Depot to see if they can cut me a length of particle board to fit in the door and then drill out a hole for the hose. But Covid and I don’t like big stores or lots of people. So I stick it out and the heat passes quickly enough. We don’t get more than a few days of extreme heat at a time.
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daftcat75

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June 15, 2020:
Poor girl. Early this morning (like 2am?), she would wake up, stumble off the bed, throw up, and stagger and crawl on her hocks like she didn’t have the strength or the balance. I was freaking out and thought daily steroids finally did it and made her diabetic—that I was watching a hypoglycemic incident. I forced a small amount of corn syrup into her and then got dressed and rushed her to the ER. Blood testing did not reveal a glycemic insufficiency or anything else. She stayed the rest of the night to see the neurologist and receive a CT scan in the morning. Turns out she had such a bad middle ear infection that it was affecting her balance. This is her returning from the overnight and the CT scan. She would go back the next day for the surgery to clean out her middle ear. She handled this episode, like all her other challenges, with grace and strength. I often said, “I hope I’m as tough as her when I reach her age.” 😻
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tarasgirl06

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Just finding these now. So adorable! That gait would have scared me crazy. Our beloved angel Moti had a stroke and was diagnosed with CRF. That started our seven months of sub-Q therapy. She bounced back from the stroke like I couldn't believe! and no unnatural gait. Just a strange stiff neck and she took it easy until that passed. Overnight, she was back up. Cats are just beyond amazing. Little warriors!
Did you ever do the ear massage? With Krista on your lap, you would have tweaked both of her ears softly, at the same time, repeatedly. Elvis loves this.
 

daftcat75

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Just finding these now. So adorable! That gait would have scared me crazy. Our beloved angel Moti had a stroke and was diagnosed with CRF. That started our seven months of sub-Q therapy. She bounced back from the stroke like I couldn't believe! and no unnatural gait. Just a strange stiff neck and she took it easy until that passed. Overnight, she was back up. Cats are just beyond amazing. Little warriors!
Did you ever do the ear massage? With Krista on your lap, you would have tweaked both of her ears softly, at the same time, repeatedly. Elvis loves this.
She actually looks better stumbling out of the carrier than she did the night before when she fell off the bed, barfed, and hugged the floor. This wasn't the first time that an ear issue gave her vestibular disease. But that first time was brought on by an ear cleaning. This was so sudden. Out of the other things it could have been (stroke, brain tumor, brain infection, idiopathic), I was about as relieved as could be about an ear infection and its $4000 surgery to relieve it. Good thing that whole episode was covered by Trupanion! And yes, she was such a little warrior through the whole thing. Everyone at the specialty hospital loved her on recheck visits. It makes me wonder what the vets or techs may have been doing at the other places to rile her up so much.

Because of Krista's recurring ear infections, she had a definite preference over which ear I could touch and which she would twitch out of my fingers, "Wrong ear! Off limits!" And because I'm terrible with left and right, especially when it's not my own, I could never remember which ear it was until she told me. 🤦‍♂️ So no, I mostly left her ears alone. Though when she would climb on top of me ("cat bib"), she'd get scritches at the base of her ears and sometimes an ear between the fingers like in the video above. But usually only one ear. 😾 And then when she was getting transdermal meds, I wouldn't bother with the ear flap on either ear because I didn't want to disturb the medicine. She would get more head scritches and the occasional base of the ear to compensate. Only one ear. I paid enough on the other to finally remember which one to leave alone. Or maybe it was her shaved chin and neck and warrior scar below her jaw that finally marked her ears for me. 😹
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daftcat75

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June 17, 2020:
One of the sweeter moments to come out of this episode. Doc told me to ice her incision site a few times a day for the first couple days. I wasn’t sure she’d take to it. I put the ice pack inside an oven mitt (which conducts cold just fine through the other side of the mitt) and pressed it gently under her chin. She leaned right into it the first couple times.😻
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Then she remembered how to cat and how to refuse treatment. So I would sneak it under her until she got up and left it behind. 😹
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tarasgirl06

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June 17, 2020:
One of the sweeter moments to come out of this episode. Doc told me to ice her incision site a few times a day for the first couple days. I wasn’t sure she’d take to it. I put the ice pack inside an oven mitt (which conducts cold just fine through the other side of the mitt) and pressed it gently under her chin. She leaned right into it the first couple times.😻
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Then she remembered how to cat and how to refuse treatment. So I would sneak it under her until she got up and left it behind. 😹
View attachment 384717
Yeah, when you really think about how a cat's ears are constructed, it's amazing when their ears ARE healthy, considering all of the pollutants and stuff that are in the air/environment of even the cleanest home. Baby Su has one wonky ear. I treat it with ear cleanser Zymox WHEN she'll let me and when she acts like she needs it. It clears up nicely and doesn't reoccur for quite awhile. I've treated a lot of ear mite-y ears over time, too. Who likes stuff in their ears? :angrycat:
 
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