Thank You

Karen Jo:  First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for the huge outpouring of sympathy and comfort.  It does my heart good and helps with my grief enormously.  I will come around and thank each of you separately, but it will take a while.

Spyro:  Mom caught me just waking up from a nap in my ham-mick.  Mom says that after Herman's Gotcha Day she is going to rename this blog Spyro's Spytower.  What do you think of that?  I like it.

Karen Jo:  The URL will remain the same, just the blog name will change.

Spyro:  Mom isn't putting out as much food.

Karen Jo:  I figured out how Herman managed to gain weight on his diet.  I was putting out a half-cup of dry food for each of you and it all disappeared.  This morning I noticed that the two of you didn't eat all the dry food.  Herman was eating more than his fair share.  Today I put out one-third-cup of dry food each for you and that seems about right, at least for now.

Spyro:  I miss Herman.  I went around and really sniffed the places that he used to nap.  I know what happened to him and that he won't be back, but I wanted to smell him again.  I used his litter box just a little.

Karen Jo:  I scrubbed out Herman's litter box and put in all new litter.  It needed it anyway.

Oja:  Surprise!  I am back in my room.  I found this great pile of stuff to nap on.

Karen Jo:  The once-forbidden room was my parents bedroom.  When Mom died, I picked up all the stuff connected with her last illness and just dumped it all in that room, along with anything else I needed a place for.  When I finally cleaned it up, I took all the wraps and shawls and dumped them on the couch in Oja's room, thinking that the kitties might like them.  Herman discovered it about a week and a half ago, then Oja found it and last night Spyro tried it out.

Oja:  Last night in bed I had Mom all to myself all night.  It was great.

Karen Jo:  I didn't even need to call out, "Bedtime!"  Oja was already on the bed, just waiting for me.  She curled up next to me, a little closer to my head than Herman did, and waited for her petting.  We had a great time together.  Spyro slept in the rocking chair next to the bed, as usual.  Also as usual, when I woke up they were both down by my feet.  No kitty woke me up at dawn for breakfast.  I think maybe Spyro will take over that job or maybe they don't really care what time they get breakfast, as long as they get it.

Spyro:  Mom locked me up in the human litter box room.

Karen Jo:  I have to lock up Spyro when I take out the trash because I can't both carry the trash and keep him from running out the door.  I didn't have the heart to lock him up in Oja's room, as I usually do.  Maybe I'm just being silly, but I just couldn't do it.

Spyro:  It's OK.  I have my litter box and water in the human litter box room.  I can play footsie with Oja under the door, too.

Karen Jo:  Spyro loves to drink water out of a glass, so I keep a plastic glass with water in it on the sink for him.  Thanks again, everybody and a special thank you to Anne of Zoolatry for the lovely graphic of Herman. I put it up on my sidebar, but you have to scroll down a bit to see it.

Thank You So Very Much

Karen Jo: Thank you all so very much for all your purrs and prayers for Herman. I am sorry that I am so late in acknowledging Purrs for Herman Day, but Sunday and Monday are my busiest days at work and I often come home too tired to do anything more than look after Herman and go to bed. On top of that, I forgot my thyroid pill on Monday, so it was really wet noodle time when I got home. I want to especially thank Brian for coming up with the idea and to KC for the beautiful graphic. I appreciate it more than I can say. Your good wishes, purrs and prayers seem to be working, because Herman is doing much better.


Thank you very much to Zoolatry for this wonderful collage. Ann also sent me a beautiful watercolor rendition of Herman, which I will post tomorrow. Now I better let Herman have his say.

After I started refusing to have anything to do with those new treats with the pills inside, Mom got tricky again. First she tried squirting something in my mouth with this white bulb thing, but I managed to spit quite a bit of it out.

Karen Jo: I tried a baby aspirator, because I could draw up some diluted baby food inside, then open the plug in the end of the bulb to put the crushed pills inside. The trouble was that I got too much liquid that way and Herman could just force a lot of it out with his tongue.

When that didn't work, she started syringing stuff inside my mouth. It tastes better than the last time she did that, but it is still really yucky.

Karen Jo: I found that I could draw up 2 to 2 1/2 ml of the baby food mixture, squirt that into a small bottle, add the crushed pills, mix it all together really well and draw almost all of it back into the syringe. Herman accepts the syringe, as he is used to getting his Interferon that way and the Interferon doesn't taste bad. Even with the baby food, the pill mixture still tastes bad, but so far he is accepting it without too much fuss. I give him a treat right afterward, to kill the bad taste in his mouth.

I like getting treats and often ask Mom for them. I am still eating very well. I am not cleaning up my Stinky Goodness dishes now, but I am eating more kitten chow. I do that from time to time -- switch from eating mostly Stinky Goodness with a little crunchy food on the side to eating mostly crunchy food with some Stinky Goodness thrown in. I ate half a bowl of my kitten chow yesterday. I am feeling much better and things are beginning to interest me more. Mom was talking to someone I couldn't see and rustling some papers on the table, so I jumped up and helped her rustle the papers by stepping all over them, especially the one she was reading from. That was fun. We got open windows today and I jumped up on my platform to watch the birds for a while. I hadn't done that for a week. While Mom was brushing me tonight, I batted at her hair.

Karen Jo: I was amazed to see the bottom of your kitten chow bowl when I got up this morning to feed you breakfast. You haven't eaten that much dry food in a very long time. I am really glad that you are eating your kitten chow, because that has extra protein and calories that you really need. Your Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck dry food came in today, but you would rather rub up against the sack than eat the food that came in it.

I checked it out, but it didn't smell as good as my kitten chow, so I didn't eat it.

Karen Jo: You didn't even taste it.

I might later on. You never know what I will like.

Karen Jo: That's for sure. I dumped your I/D dry onto a saucer to give to the ravens because you hadn't touched it in weeks and you suddenly jumped up on the counter and started eating it while I was washing your bowl to put your duck and pea in it.

I love messing with your head. I found a tasty bit of something else on the counter, too.

Karen Jo: That was a piece of ham fat that I was going to give to the ravens. You didn't seem to like the ham itself much, but you ate up the fat quickly enough. I love how much you are eating. While I was petting you today, I noticed that you didn't feel so bony, so I got out the scales and weighed myself, then picked you up and weighed both of us. I think you have actually gained about a pound. That made me so happy that I decided to celebrate with a steak, but you didn't want the bits I gave you.

You did leave them on my dish. Maybe I'll eat them later, like I did with the chicken liver. Those chicken liver treats Daisy told us about sound really yummy. Will you get me some?

Karen Jo: I will certainly look for them. If I can't find them at out local store, I bet I can find them online. Thanks again, everyone. Things are looking up and I think that Herman's poop is getting a little thicker.