The Stinky Report

Well, after parting with even more indispensable income, his latest lab results show +4 blood in his urine. Or as Cesar Millan pronounces it, urEEEN. He's gained a pound, though, so that's good. His urine is being cultured to find out what the heck is wrong in there. I let him out this morning, knowing he had a vet appointment, and he came back just in time. What a cat... He's still the best snuggler/hugger guy ever, and his farts are less numerous, but still quite odiferously brutal.

I still cannot come up with a better name for him... My wonderful right-hand guy drew this cartoon, I do not find it very flattering, so of course, I better post it! Stinky does NOT aim his butt upwards! His butt is NOT up beside my armpit, when we sit at my desk! He's happily purring & kneading his little clawless paws on my lap, often with his two front paws on the desk, or half of his body gets draped across the desk, or he drapes his ENTIRE body across the desk, at which point he is gently picked up, I get a few hugs, and he is deposited in his bed on my other desk, where he will stay. For a while...

Okay, Okay!

I've looked hard for my old sense of humour, but I just cannot find it anywhere. I'm going to try on a new one. Maybe it will fit, maybe not, you never do know what will make people laugh.
Or at least, SOME people. Slightly disturbed people. GooD people.

I have to do another apology, which is how I tend to go through life anyway. Oh, sorry, let me help you with that. Oh, sorry, let's let you get ahead of me in line. Want to cut me off in traffic? No worries, I will stay out of your way.
SoRRRRy. I am about to get grumpy. It's much better than sorry. Really.

The clouds are peering in, in frozen old Toronot, land of the "get me out of here" people. The grumps is a common malady at this time of year. We've been cold, wet, colder, frozen, frozen and solidified, crystallized and I still can't believe that Mrs. Reinert of retired racehorse today fame isn't shrieking about the cold, every.single.day. I admire people who don't constantly whine about the weather. Living with a retarded retired farmer makes you appreciate the little things..

Why anyone actually chooses to move north is beyond me. If you can, stay south! Trust me on this, okay? Only if you are BORN here are you allowed to stay here for years at a time. Otherwise, why would you want to? My BIL moved MY family BACK here, after being born here, and then moving to Vancouver burban land. GUESS where I vacationed, 3 (maybe it was four) times in the decade they lived there?? BIL is an odd duck though, so that explains it:) Born to be in the city, ya know?
:)

I haven't gone to see the new older shorter sister/BIL family house yet, it's entirely the wrong direction when I leave work. I leave Toronto, as soon as I possibly can, after work. My older smaller sister SAID she was moving to the burbs. The northern burbs, I can handle. Where was the location of their new house?? The depths, the bowels, nay, the very pancreas of Toronto, that's where! So, they've been here since last fall. I've had several requests/pleas/demands to change my "get the hell out of the city" routine. Soon, I keep saying. In the summer. Maybe.

Some things just do not make me feel guilty anymore. Older sister is still shorter, and since I can make her laugh, I'm golden anyway.
That's the wonderful thing about family that loves you, right? No matter how much of an arsehole you are, they still love you. They still get you. Mostly;)

OH, but I can still bitch about stuff, right? Here's something that caught my ire today. Here's quality horse-equipment advertising.

Or am I behind the times again, and too-tight throatlatches are normal? Ah, well, what can you expect, a  hardware store selling $22.00 headstalls. Fit don't count, anyway. I think the bit's too tight/high too. But again, since I don't consume these products, what the heck can I say?? SOMEone needs to do posts on fitting tack. Not ugly tack, not pink tack, not plaid tack. FITTING TACK. It's the MOST important part, fcs!

For Fern, because she's amazing.  And she will give me Johnnie;)
Hey, if I show up, what else could you say? I'm kidding, btw, Fern.
maybe.

HyperThyroidism and a Cautionary Thought...

Hey, guess what!
The "feral" de-clawed, neutered emaciated boy-cat that showed up on our shop door step is hyperthyroid. Cost me $400.00 to find that out. He'll have to be on medication for the rest of his days. Just like me. I was diagnosed as hyperthyroid just over a decade ago, after I had unexplained problems with heart palpitations. Mr. Stinky, as he's been christened by my co-workers, in honour of his um, farts, has started to look less like a stick, and more like a cat.

Don't get me wrong, the diagnosis was helpful, since I now know why Mr. Stinky hasn't gained any weight, although he's been getting as much food as he'll eat, every day. This will save me $$ in canned cat food, which Mr. Stinky had insisted was the only food he would eat. Turns out he'll eat other food too:)
Now, if you came into my shop, and saw this cat, would you think I was abusing him, judging by his condition? I really wonder how many cases of emaciation are disorders of the thyroid. To find out takes a blood test, big $$.

When this cat started losing weight, did his owners worry that someone would call the SPCA on them? Why would owners of a de-clawed neutered sweet hearted tabby dump him behind a metal-working industrial area? Because of his farts? Or was the cat simply lost? We'll never know, he isn't microchipped. Mr. Stinky would love to find a new home, he's really not an ideal sign shop companion, as most of my customers might start remarking on the increase of hairs in their shipments. I'm having a great time though, it's been years sincde a cat gave me several daily hugs.

Flip and Blaze are so bored and annoyed with me, I haven't been taking them to hell I mean work for a while. And I come home STINKING of cat, every work day. Flip in particular has started haranguing me as soon as I get home, and she's really working those guilt strings I was born with.

Seeing as how I have a B.Sc. degree, as well as living with the disease myself, I have a smitchen of knowledge about hyperthyroidism. I've been doing some more reading about it. I have a baaaad feeling that our food industry have (through lack of foresight years ago) caused many of our current problems with our thyroids/immune systems/chromosomes. Also, do not forget, plastics have also been shown to negatively impact our thyroids. 

This is from the "Merck Veterinary Manual", 1973. Listen to this.
"The discovery that thyroxine or thyroactive substances, such as dessicated thyroid and thyroprotein, influence milk production, growth rate, reproduction and, in chickens, egg production and feathering, has led to considerable experimental use of these materials. Thyroid administration during the decline phase of milk production in cattle has been shown to increase both milk and butterfat production."

Now, I am SURE our milk and egg producers did not do anything that would affect our health. Yeah, right. Here's a hormone that will increase something that normally decreases! More profit, less cost, YAY!

Another gem from Merck "Antibiotics have been used in poultry feeds since 1950 as a means of increasing growth rate and improving feed efficiency. They are still effective for this purpose and are used at a level of 2 to 10 mg/kg of feed depending on the antibiotic used. However, in some countries regulations now restrict this usage for certain antibiotics, and care should be taken to comply."

Space requirements in egg-strain birds, by floor area for a full grown bird? One to one and a half square feet. To stand in, forever, until the bird croaks. This was 1973. I betcha a thousand bucks that space requirement is now halved, but I'll go look it up before I confirm it. Less for the animal is always more for us. Not all of us, I am making my sweeping proclamatons/generalizations again. Our technology has allowed us to thrive. At what future cost, is now upon us, whether we listen or not.

Now, I know this sounds ridiculous, and to most maybe it is, but I still feel, in my bones, that how we've improved/increased/accelerated our food, has also diminished/decreased/slowed down our own abilities to be healthy, on our own. In GENERAL, I'm talking. Don't shoot me, eh, Paige;)

Take my wonder dog Flip. Flip's mom's owner gave the bitch antibiotics, during the pregnancy, why, I don't know. Several of the pups in the litter were born with severe cleft palates, and had to be euthed. Flip has an inverted hoo-hoo, one functioning kidney, a bad tummy and the worst set of hips my vet had seen for years.

Oh, crap. Never mind. It's just, I've been gestalting a lot of information over the years, and it's really weird how many of my worry-wart forebodings are being read about. The word antibiotic means "against life". A great article in Discover magazine describes our inner globs of life, which are so important to us, but are waiting to kill us if we lose our ability to co-exist with them. Dirt isn't as bad as we think it is. Hey, it's not dirty unless you get sick from it. Fecal implants can actually save lives. Ayup, they can. So there, all you dirt-o-phobes!

I will end this incomprehensible post with weird pictures I've taken lately.

Scary plants, huh? You should have seen Blaze bouncing the lines of cabbages, hilarious. I video-ed, but it's 73 freakin' MB. My life is ticking by too fast to wait for that size of file on not-highest-speed.

We were on dial-up for awhile, wow, was that fun! Not. Thanks to my ISP, for frying your own modem, by blasting it with too high a signal. Is that why my ears are ringing?
Do you think they would tell me? Me either...

Be careful out there.

OH, and sorry for the overly dramatic title of the last post. I could read all kinds of bad court rulings into those words the CRA was spouting. Courts have ruled? What? When? Who could possibly say that a charity dedicated to preventing cruelty couldn't advocate against that cruelty, without the risk of being considered a non-charity?
And since when is it okay to NOT stop cruelty, if the person being cruel is benefiting from the cruelty? Doesn't that mean dog-fights are actually legal, because it is a benefit to the fighters?
What? Never mind, it is Canada speak. And I'm easily confused these days.
Apparently.

The Legalization of Animal Cruelty in Canada

You can be charitable, only if it benefits humans.

Dang, it's scary stuff. I haven't finished reading it yet, and I need to formulate a careful letter to our government before March 31st, gotta get crackin'. Canadians, please read it, please send in your comments. I think it's important.

It explains so much of what is happening, in a way. An Animal Welfare Charity cannot advocate against cruelty to animals, if that cruelty is beneficial to humans.
Opens up so many doors, doesn't it?
And yes, I get that it's "only" about taxes, and non-profit status.


Strange days, indeed. I'll be back. I may write the letter here, first, get some input before I press send.