Tributes and Sweet People

It's been a busy weekend!  I love it when I am accomplishing stuff. but it's nice to relax and give our nervous system a rest.  I have been saving up my shout outs. :)

I have to mention my neighbour tonight. She gave me a very nice gift from the heart, she brought me a box from Willow Tree, and in it was a statue of a angel holding a little grey cat. The wings of the angel are metal, and it's an original Willow Tree figure hand carved by Susan Lordi called "With Affection I love our friendship!".

I thought this was a very thoughtful token and she included a nice card, saying as she thought it was something to remember my cat by.  How sweet and I already thought she was nice before that but I was truly touched.  Now I put it on the mantle and it is so perfectly cute.  I have also purchased a Willow Tree figure with meaning to it, to give to someone else and I do love these works of art ny Willow Tree.

I picked up Kiki's paw imprints not long ago from McKnight Veterinary Clinic. I hung up the hand painted clay oval with his imprints on a small wall by the front door,  but decided to put it away in my keepsake tote later one.  I chose the option to match the paint to the colour his fur as they said they can match the white.  Does that sound strange?   They provide the fur that they cut off, quite a bit in a bag.  I was surprised. It was super sad to see.  Tears ran down my cheeks once I was in the car on the way home, but they did a nice job and I have something more to remember Kiki by.

After Kiki passed awat, a vendor I work with AllBobbleheads.com, from work offered to make a custom bobble head of my cat in tribute too, at no cost.  It takes about 9 -12 weeks, It was a gracious offer but it didn't pan out. I sent him 2 good pictures of Kiki and didn't hear back.  Too bad, as I thought it would be neat to see what they came up with to capture a view of my cat's personality, but again it was a nice thought.

There have been many people showing me support through this, and I really appreciate them too.  Since losing my cat Kiki, was and still is difficult for me it sure was nice to have a great colleague or two, who were there for me.  Some people I barely know but there are many actual animal lovers out there who know what I went through!  I mean to say, some pet owners are not really the best representatives of animal lovers.  I still have not put Kiki's things away, just into some boxes and given some things that can be used to a lady I knew who has a cat.  I thought the teeth wipes and some other toiletries for cats should be used before they dry out or expire.

Lately, it's just been hard and I am sometimes lazy and partly because I am still upset over Kiki's passing.  No one can tell others to get over it in a week or a month, if you have spent a long time with a pet.  I will work through it on my own time and terms.  Well, it's late but some milk and cookies are in order.  Kiki would approve especially the milk part. 

Have a great week!

                                                 

                                               Look at his little face. lol He was a cool kitty.
                                        

R.I.P. Kiki Bear

I am finally coming around to speaking about it and update you guys.  It's been the worst summer and the most sad one and I did end up losing my beloved cat Kiki Bear.  I posted you about his paw infection and what was going on in the past.

Well, my cat passed away on July 24th, after issues with his health.  I am not sure why as the paw infection was clearing up and then the vet said the paw should be healing quicker.  So she had to give Kiki Convenia, which is an injectable antibiotic.  She administered it to him after other antibiotics seemed to be resistant or not working.  However, once injected, Convenia is in the system and does not break down fast in fact it is believed to have killed some pets.  I had no idea and listened to the vet and I could have asked more questions or asked for more time to look into this drug myself.  I did not and accepted the care for Kiki.

If you look it up, Convenia can result in adverse affects in older cats.  I did not receive the support I
think that I needed from the vet when "shit was hitting the fan", as they didn't want to see him on an emergency when he was not breathing after the shot had been given to him.  It was literally that evening after the injectable shot took place, that he started to get weaker and have troubles eating, but I thought it was hot and put a fan on him.  Since we had left the vets office, I thought he might need time to relax as Kiki would get worked up easily when leaving the house.  He was a cat afterall and not all cats are comfortable moving or leaving their homes and they tend to get sketchy about it.  By Saturday, he seemed to be more tired and by Sunday he was heaving and having more troubles.  I was worried and I called a  24 hour emergency veterinarian hospital, and was hoping they could give me second opinion.  I took him there the next day after work, since I needed to make some more sales to afford more care for him.  So once at the emergency clinic, they needed to put him on oxygen and then it was too late.  He didn't make it onto oxygen.

I am devastated and actually at times I still look for him and I just don't believe he is gone.  It's been a month since he passed away, and I have no answers as to his final treatment of the lethal injection of Convenia given to him by the vet.  She sluffed it off as Kiki may have had underlying conditions and that could be right, however, I just don't think that causation by the lethal drug was addressed properly.  In fact, wouldn't a vet want to know more so she doesn't make any misdiagnoses on other's pets in the future?  I try to think about safety and how I failed my cat in that regard, and perhaps he would have lived longer but I hope he was not in pain when he left.  He gave me a kiss and he snuggled to me, as if his way of saying goodbye.  He was everything to me and I tried my best, but who doesn't think back and think about things they could have done for their pets, perhaps better or researched more or known more about what the vet would put into his body.  After all, we should take that same advice for ourselves as well.  I understand he is in heaven now and that puts my mind to ease.

I loved Kiki, one of the greatest pets I have had the honor of spending my time with.  Thank God for him and he and I were together though thick and thin.  I think of how much Kiki did for me, and I for him and how we built a close friendship, often not replaced by any humans that I have met.  When I was tired or sad, he always cheered me up.  At times he also bit my legs, and scratched for what I thought was no reason, but it's just that I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me.  Perhaps he had a toothache or something else.  I guess the point is he made me feel a sense of family and responsibility, so I always tried my best to take care of the both of us.  I felt like he depended on me and that drove me to doing better, at work, at home and everyday in life.  RIP my friend. Thank-you Kiki Bear.  You will be missed and always loved.

-I.A.J.L.G.O.M.- The Food Truck Review

Hey, this post is going to be a quick one, but it is a follow-up to my Calgary YYC Food Trucks post here: YYC Food Trucks

I just wanted to post my food review  of The Perogy Boyz Food Truck meal I ate.  It was now a couple weeks back but totally worth writing this review post.

The food was tasty and they make perogies their passion.  This was my first time ordering from this food truck, they actually did muck up my order but quickly made it right. I ordered the 10 perogies piece meal and I received 6.  Luckily I had noticed that I was shorted.

They served me up another 6 piece, so I actually got 2 more perogies for the money.  I decided to call my boyfriend from his work, which is 5 minutes away so he could sample the eats from this food truck.  He was not really impressed, but that being he is of German and European descent.  No one makes them like Grandma, sorry.  I did order the Californian or basically had salsa like toppings on it, so it was a bit of a change.

Overall, the presentation was nice and I did love the Boylan Root Beer pop they had!  So, here's a little the picture of the eats.  I would overall recommend this meal even if it did cost a little more than a regular fast food place. 

Have a great week!

Pet Corner Monday

Well, The 100th Stampede of Calgary is now over. Too bad it's over and I unfortunately, didn't get down to the Stampede grounds this year.  I did however, check out some of the fireworks even though it has been somewhat of a crazy time for me.  My old cat has been ill and I am going through enough money to start a small business or buy a nice car.  Instead it has all been spent on Kiki,

His paw had been infected from snagging his claw on a blanket and I took him to the vet right away when I noticed it was not getting better.  For some reason the antibiotics were somewhat resistant or so the vet said.  We are finally coming to the end of that antibiotic and hopefully things clear up,  but all the while his poor 1st and 4th digit nails do still bleed.  I keep his paws clean and followed all the prescriptions, and sometimes if he wouldn't let me clean his paw but I make sure to get it done.   I try to do it thoroughly.  I needed to make sure we did everything, on time and consistently, like taking the pills.

So, I was insistent and I didn't let Kiki off the hook on taking any medications or cleanings, but then he was wasn't eating enough with all the medicine.  He seemed like he was listless and throwing up, and not himself.  So I feel like the meds are too harsh and making his overall health worse and tried to talk to the vet about it.

So, the newest detail is that there is protein in Kiki's urine, from the vet's test results.  I don't know how many urine collection this,  and urology that and a lot of terminology later to know it will cost cost me too much money to finally find this out.  It meant there is starting to be mild to moderate kidney failure.  Hundreds of dollars doesn't bother me but it is annoying, and when it started to add up to thousands, I just started to step up my sales at work to afford the bills.  I could not get my cat on medical insurance since he is elderly.  Being he is an 18 year old cat I suppose it's not uncommon and he now has to change his diet to be supportive in his kidney health. 

"Friskies" Chicken Dinner is not going to cut it anymore, although that was just the food to stick to for his diabetes health and was good to our price point.  Now, the food prescribed to Kiki is J/D formula, which is $2 per small can, and he should be eating 1 1/2 of those per day.  So now he doesn't eat all of it.  I mix it a bit with the remaining "Friskies" brand that I have to get his system to adjust.  He should be used to eating the new food on it's own soon.

My main reason for writing this post tonight, is that I wanted to let other cat or pet owners know that I am reading a book, and it's called "How to Keep Your Cat Healthy, The Natural Way".  It actually is very interesting, and speaks about canine and feline diets in the wild versus commercial feed.  I will fill you in more if requested, but basically if you feed your pet commercially made food his or her health will start falling apart especially as they age.

It's because they are not eating enough of what they need, especially if you are not finding all the nutrients to give them.  Of course, there are other factors to good health, but say skin problems, are most likely caused by a deficiency, which thus was caused by lack of nutrition.  Cats in the wild eat whole birds or mice, and those little animals ate all kinds of nuts, fruits, greens etc. because a cat won't eat broccoli doesn't mean they don't need some foliage.  So fresh grasses such as cat grass, that I have grown for him is great, but they need it all the time.

Stay tuned for more updates on Kiki and more information that can help you manage your pets health.  I will try to keep up on the updates although in some past posts I may not have if no one expressed interest in a subject.  I am trying to learn more about pet health but also more on my own as well.  Here's a picture of Kiki's shaved paw, about 3 weeks ago. It doesn't look good and it now looks worse.  I hope it gets better.

Have a nice day.

Take it Easy ~ Tortilla Salad with Tortilla Wrap Chips

Happy Monday, and since Canada Day was yesterday, we do get today off in lieu of it being on Sundays.  These are the best kind of Mondays!  And with that being said it is feeling more like summertime.

I wanted to mention a interesting and quick great summertime salad to make, so you can take it easy.
It's filling and delicious, and it's a great way to use up your tortilla wraps before they go bad.
I usually eat flax tortillas, and in my opinion those are best to use for this recipe.

First you can start washing and preparing vegetables for the salad, which you can use what ever you like and then set those all to the side.  Vegans can use only vegetables and non-animal food products and if you are vegetarian you may want to use some shredded cheese with this salad.  If you do eat cheese, it goes well with the tortilla chips that you will make.

Take your tortilla wraps, and cut them into triangles.  I put them all in a pile, and then cut them all half ways and then cut them into half again and so on.  You will end up with circular triangles.

Now, here's the part where you will be careful and that's frying them.  You only need a small amount of oil in a large pot and you should heat that up on medium to medium-high heat.  Turn it down before it's getting too hot at any time.  Put your tortilla triangles into the cooking oil in small batches.  About 5-6 tortilla chips per batch.

Stay there cooking and watch carefully.  They turn brown fast so stay and cook them and do not leave anything unattended.  If you have to go, then take the pot off and turn off the burner.  Watching closely at the first sign of light golden brown  and then flip the tortilla wrap chip carefully, using metal flippers or turners.  NEVER use plastic or anything like that, as it will melt.  Then prepare a plate or I use a metal bake pan, and put that off to the side away from the burner.  Line the pan with clean paper towel.

When you are removing the chips from the oil, also remove the pot of oil, to a burner that is off and hold it with oven mitts on.  Safety tip for the clumsy.  Remove the triangle chips onto the paper towel ed pan.  Finish cooking all the chips until done, in the same way, and removing them in batches. Turn off the burner and cool the oil at back of  the stove on a burner that was not on.

Then prepare your salad the way you like it. I use a mix if salad greens, cucumber and other vegetables on hand.  Then add on top the tortilla chips and add cheese on top.  I use a marble cheese,
since it's a nice balance of both cheddar and mozzarella.  I think sometimes it is easy to make a salad dressing, but if you are in a rush a good dressing to use for this salad is honey mustard dijon.  "Compliments" brand for Sobeys actually makes a low fat, and tasty one.  Serve right away so the tortilla chips are fresh and crisp.

P.S.Sorry, I did start to eat before taking a picture as I was starving! Bon appetite!