"Fun" medical week

Do you ever have one of those weeks where it feels like the only time you are sitting down is when you're driving? Last week was one of those weeks!

Tuesday was normal; we had our homeschool meet-up at the library then went down to the park. We had Mal's dental stuff scheduled for Thursday, and I'd had to change a dental appointment of mine to later the same day, so Nana and Pappy agreed to come down and spend a few hours with Mal as he woke up, shook off the anesthesia, and got used to his new mouth stuff.

However, Wednesday afternoon, just as I was getting ready to take Mal to a different homeschool meet-up, D came in complaining of severe abdominal pain. This was the third time it's happened, way beyond just a stomach-ache, and the general physician had told D to go to urgent care/ER next time. So I took D to our in-network E/R but had to drop off and drive over to the transmission garage where our bigger car had been for a week.

The transmission was out and needed to be replaced, but the replacement would cost a couple of thousands of dollars more than I paid for the vehicle several years ago, so we were donating it to our local NPR station. We'd left it at the garage because James noted that if Mal had to watch the car get hooked up to a tow truck and driven off from our driveway, he'd have a breakdown. The tow company was coming to get the vehicle at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, so I had to get the title to the transmission place before they got there.

D had several tests run, was given some pain meds, and a couple of prescriptions, as well as a referral to a G/I. We had to pick up groceries on the way home, so it ended up being the whole day. 

Thursday, we had to be in Bastrop (which is an hour away with no traffic, so arrival at 8:15 AM was a slog through rush "hour" Austin) super early. Mal was fine until we actually headed back to the room, and he managed to put up a very good fight against four adults: James, the dental hygienist, the anesthesiologist, and me. His physical strength almost matches his strong will, so it took a while for him to nod off. 

Two baby teeth pulled, two missing caps replaced (and nerve treatments for those two teeth, since they'd been exposed for two and three years), two existing caps removed and replaced, one new cap on a baby tooth, two small holes (no obvious dental caries yet) on 6-year molars packed with white filling, and dental sealant on remaining molars. Whew!

Mal actually woke up in the office after the procedure. He was loopy, but aware. When he went under anesthesia at the age of 4, he just slept for five or so hours afterwards. 

We got him out to the car, and his biggest complaint, besides that it felt like everything was spinning, was that we'd reclined him in the front seat, and he's not supposed to be in the front seat.

Waking up (kind of) on the way home

We got home about the same time that Nana and Pappy got here. I fed them lunch, then had to go to my appointment for the second half of my deep cleaning. It was very anticlimactic compared to Mal's morning, and he was awake and himself the entire time his grandparents were here.

Friday morning, we had a kind of last-minute trip to the vet for Carol, who we realized during the week was using the bath mat as a replacement litter box. The vet determined that she likely has a UTI and put her on antibiotics. D had the idea that maybe Carol doesn't like our Modkat top-entry litter boxes (blasphemy!), so I bought her a *shudder* open litter box (it does have some privacy panels, but the front is easy-entry) and... D was right. Between the meds (which James and D are administering like pros), the new litter box, and an investment in puppy training pads, things have gotten substantially less frustrating for everyone. Well, maybe except for the medication administration, which Carol does not appreciate at all.

Friday afternoon, Mal had his bi-weekly play date at Urban Air. While we were there, a severe storm moved through the area, so that was dramatic. Fortunately, I don't think there was any damage, and, as always, we can use the rain.

Saturday, I was determined not to go ANYWHERE. Mal was "bored" but I loved it, and he ended up thinking of a lot of stuff to play. Sunday, we had our morning play date at McDonald's with his friend, Ryan, then stayed home the rest of the time. It was super awesome not to have any unpleasant surprises or medical appointments. 

Monday, Mal met with a speech therapist/feeding specialist to address the fact that he just doesn't want to eat a variety of foods. We'd made the appointment back in October but they're really backed up. It was kind of frustrating -- we had to wait more than half an hour after our appointment time, the session itself was an hour and a half, and she suggested several things that I am unwilling to do as I feel that they interfere with intuitive eating -- and interesting -- Mal has a mild sensory processing disorder, we should get him an electric toothbrush just to desensitize his mouth to new/unique sensations, and that studies have shown that if a child will put a food in their palm, they are likely to eat it.

I feel like we have some good starting points, but will likely not go back. They want one meeting a week, and for a half day, including the 40 minute drive there and home, it's just not worth it. Also, obviously, for any therapy to work, there has to be patient buy-in. It will shock you to know that Mal's just not that into it. Finally, I could tell in the intake paperwork that some of the people they help have a lot bigger issues than Mal does, and I don't want to take up an appointment that could be used by someone who genuinely just won't or can't eat.

Monday night, James and I voted (sorry LISD, but our property taxes are already ridiculously high, and it seems like your schools are pretty impressive without the three new bonds) then went to pick up food we'd ordered from Piroshky Piroshky Bakery in Seattle. Apparently, they have come down to Austin annually for a few years but this was the first I'd heard of it. Holy cow, were those things good.

D has a routine medical appointment later this week, then I think we're done with doctors and dentists for a bit. I hope so. We've blown through our dental insurance this year. Plus, you know, it's my preference that humans and felines in this house feel good and are doing well.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed for a boring week, people! 

Stupid Cat

We have ways of ranking our cats. For instance, Carol is D's favorite. Mal thinks Aish is the cutest, and Carol is in second place. Also, Carol seems like she's the smartest, the most agile, and probably the deadliest. Aish is the most interested and vicious with the laser pointer. Except for the laser dot, though, she also seems to have the worst vision. We tend to agree that Rudy is easily the stupidest. He's also the oldest. 

Lately, Rudy has taken to sleeping like a freaking log lately. Everyone in the house has noticed it. Sometimes, I really pay attention to make sure he's still breathing. Because when he's out, he is OUT.

Today, though, Rudy did something that surprised me, in terms of brain activity.

I was on my way to the restroom when Rudy zipped past me into the room. I told him, "You're not going to like this!" as I locked him in.

He walked around for a few minutes, kind of checking out everything in the room. Then he walked over to the wall and looked up to where I have a beach towel hanging up. He stretched out up the wall and started scratching at it. After a few moments, his claw caught the bottom of the towel and he started pulling. 

Quickly, he had the towel on the ground. Then he made a nest out of it and plopped down.

It's like he knew he was going to be in there for a hot minute, and he wanted to get comfortable. Maybe he's not as dumb as we think he is?

Of... Cats and Men. And Women. And Children. Oh, and Mice, too, I Guess.

This evening, I got out to acquire Malcolm some "potato Pringles." This is just regular, original, unflavored Pringles. He calls them "potato-flavored." Because, you know, it's potato sludge. Which is why they have to be called "crisps" instead of "chips," because the chip lobby didn't like that and made sure there was a law. Whew! We're safe.

Anyhoo... I also went to Petco while I was out, because they generously sent me coupons for the very cat food we use. The coupons were: $5 off a bag of dry food at least 13 pounds, buy two/get one free cans, and $3 off of any variety pack of canned food. I got a 13-pound bag, three cans, one 12-can variety pack, a big box of litter, and 2 3-packs of pinkie mice for D's snake. $10 in coupons... and I still spent $91! Our cats have to have urinary tract food because they're old and Aish specifically has issues with getting infections. The vet said just to feed them all the same thing because they're all going to have problems eventually. What I bought... the wet food will last ONE WEEK. The dry food will last a month or more because they only eat that when they're desperate; we free-feed it and they're rarely motivated since we started feeding them the WAY-more-expensive wet food (which we started for Carol, to help her gain weight... she hasn't but Rudy definitely has).

THEN I went to Randall's for the aforementioned crisps. I got 4 cans (2 plain, 2 flavored, on sale if you bought 4); I also bought two boxes of chocolate for the kiddos for Valentine's Day (I'm not always this early, but Russell Stovers was buy one/get one free) and 3 bars of boutique Christmas soap that had been $8 a bar but was 75% off. So the stuff I got for our family was $23. I feel like we're getting fleeced here.

I also don't think the cats realize how great they have it. They start making a LOT of noise around 8 AM if no one's gotten around to portioning out their wet rations yet. Even though they have food available. It's not the *good* food, and they must complain. It's usually mostly Rudy, and sometimes I can quiet him by opening the door so he can get up on the bed and snuggle. However, lately, Carol has accompanied him in and started banging (that cat-swiping they do when they're marking their territory) on the mirrored closet door.

But I love the people who love these cats, so...

A Day in the Life, Hour by Hour

This morning, I thought it'd be fun to take a picture every hour on the hour during my day. Which worked at 7 and 8. But then I lost track of time, so at 9:18, it changed it to taking a picture during each hour of the day. And then I took the 1 o'clock picture at exactly 2 o'clock and decided that we weren't going to be hugely legalistic about this. I took a picture roughly every hour out of my day. I think it was a pretty typical day. Let's get going, shall we?

7:00 AM on the patio. James was out the door fast, so I didn't even have time to make hum breakfast (but I did make him coffee; that's important!).

8:00 AM outside Mal's window. The rabbits have more than doubled in size since we moved in!

During the 9 o'clock hour, we played at Windmill Run Park while it was still mild (but too humid for me to say "cool" because I was sweaty), and we might have witnessed a drug deal while we played in the van for a few minutes as I was procrastinating putting Mal into the carseat against his will.

10 o'clock hour, and we're on our way home from H-E-B. I was going to take a picture inside the store, but apparently my darling son had shoved my camera up under my seat during the aforementioned play session.

11 is an early nap for the guy on the left, but he's been feeling puny for several days. The guy on the right sleeps most of the time, so no bigs.

Noontime. Post-vacuuming. Carol hates it when I vacuum. Or when the landscapers come. This is her safe place.

Late in the 1 PM timeframe: Play time! Thomas looks a bit surprised to see Raggedy Ann.

2 o'clock hour brings a visit to the clubhouse on the walk home from the mail box. Even though I went to the store for two things, I forgot one of them: caffeine! I just got one 20-ouncer for my morning tomorrow, because I'm getting out at about 10 and will pick up some more after my activity.

3 M&Ms at 3 PM. I put them up on his slide platform to occupy him while I did a couple of things in the kitchen. He grabbed one, did this baby crack move, enjoyed it, and then repeated with each subsequent candy. This is the final piece.

4 PM and a stack of M&M "less unhealthy" brownies I made. The second thing I'd gone to the store to get, I also forgot: Brownie mix. But I was certain I could make brownies out of Bisquick. When no recipe showed up on the internet, I winged it. I used a can of pumpkin puree, 6 tablespoons of cocoa, and the rest of the Bisquick (enough to make a thicky cookie-like dough). Then I added one egg, which made it thick brownie batter consistency. I tasted it, and it tasted like biscuits, so I added 6 tablespoons of sugar. Not enough. I added 6 more, for 12 total tablespoons, and that was perfect, given that I also planned to add a cup or so of M&Ms. I spread the whole thing in a 9 x 12 pan, sprinkled turbinado sugar and M&Ms on top, and baked at 350 for 30 minutes. Very good. Low fat. We all liked them.

It's 5 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? I do. Daphne and I are listening to "Armada" by Ernest Cline, and Mal is crawling around fussing, mostly.

6 o'clock, when I answer my question: Can you make steamed dumplings in a rice cooker? Yes, you can. I couldn't find a recipe for what I wanted to do, either, so I made one up. I melted 4 tablespoons of pork fat (from having cooked a roast) in a pan, and grated one cucumber into it. I liberally sprinkled onion and garlic powders. After that got mushy, I added one pound of ground turkey. I cooked it until it released its juices and got pretty watery, then added 2 tablespoons of mint, torn into bits, some soy sauce, and some Worchestershire sauce. Then I cooked it until all of the liquid evaporated and I had a nice dry meat mixture. Then I took some left-over Pillsbury pizza dough, tore it into bits to make balls/flattened into disks, put a heaping tablespoon of meat in the center, pinched the ends, rolled it into a ball again, and cooked over water in the rice cooker for 20-30 minutes. So good.

7 o'clock, when hope springs eternal.

8 PM: Daddy's home!

9 PM, Mal does a final sweep to make sure everything's clean before heading (unwillingly) to bed.

Night, friends!

Review: Modkat Litter Box (after a month of owning three)

When we moved, we bought new litter boxes. We have three. In the Nuthaus, they were in the bathroom, our bedroom, and the unused fireplace (with half a curtain hanging in front of it for privacy and looks). Fortunately, here at Vogelfutter we have been able to move two of them to the bathrooms (one in a closet) and one in the laundry room.

Let me explain what my life looked like during the past few months at the Nuthaus: We had three covered/lidded litter boxes, with swinging doors for the cats' entries. One of our cats thought she had a UTI, and thus behaved as though she did (this is a thing cats can do; like, she was diagnosed with what's basically hypochondria, but cats can actually make themselves really sick, and she was even bleeding a little bit, but there was no physical reason). She was visiting the litter boxes 30+ times per day, often in rapid succession, one after another.

When I woke up, I'd have to sweep the bathroom floor before I could use the restroom, because Mal would want to crawl around and there was litter everywhere. Much of the time when I was... doing my business... I'd have to be REALLY exaggerated in making faces and saying, "Ewww! Don't put your hand in there! It's DIRTY! That's where the cats poop! YUCK!" Unfortunately, this typically backfired, as Mal thought it was hysterical and would reach inside, anyway.

We'd go into Mal's room, and there would be cat litter on the crib mattress, as that's a favorite resting spot for the kittehs. So I'd swipe that off and have to sweep his floor, too.

Later, when Mal bored with playing in his room after diaper change, he'd crawl back to our room to make sure his dad got up in time for work. I'd have to run in there and sweep our room so he wouldn't track through the litter.

Then, during the day, I'd sweep the whole house at least once, and the areas around the litter boxes two or three additional times. And I'd vacuum.

There was litter on the mantel, the coffee table, the bookshelves, and window sills.

It felt like a constant battle, and I was exhausted. I hated the cats. I wanted them to disappear.

Then there was that Mal liked to pull up on the litter boxes, and they were filthy. They all had filters in the top, to keep the smell from getting out, but that meant that there were lots of nooks and crannies where dust and old litter and cat hair could collect. We cleaned them regularly, but they always looked dusty and were dirty. Also, Mal sometimes decided that banging on the top wasn't enough, and he'd reach in, like that punch game on "The Price is Right."

I don't think he ever retrieved a treasure, but it was just a battle to try to keep his hands out of that stuff! (I guess it looks a lot like a sand box with which he *could* play, now that I ponder it.)

So.

Before we moved, we looked at the Modkat Litter Box.

You can see all of the features on the website, so I won't do a repeat here. Also, you might notice that right now the boxes are on sale for the low low price of $171! Now, when we bought them, they were the full $180.

No, we're not suckers.

Yes, we asked ourselves, "Is anything worth spending almost $600 on litter management?"

Then James asked me something, and in the throes of dealing with this, I did not hesitate with an affirmative answer: "Over the next two years, will it be worth it not to have to fight Mal?"

And we went for it.

We've been here just over a month. What do I think?

First, let me tell you what we did:

1) We didn't get black. The black boxes look so sleek, but one of the reviews I read said that even "dust-free" cat litter left dust on the plastic, making it look dirty. I got one red, figuring that if it looked janky, I could move it into the laundry room. Actually, you can see a thin film of dust on it, but it's not too noticeable, and I like how it looks in our bathroom. But white looks the nicest.

2) We made a commitment to clean out the boxes every day. I just did all three, and it took 3.5 minutes, including the time it took me to get a second bag because the first one was torn. So we're looking at spending half an hour or so a week on scooping out the boxes. BONUS...

3) Since we clean out every day, there aren't huge messes, and we haven't had to dump and refill yet. We top off every week or so, but I bought a 42-pound bag of litter before we moved in, filled each box, and we've been topping off... and we still have about 1/3 of the bag left. I was buying 14-17 pounds of cat litter EVERY WEEK because we were emptying it and starting over every weekend.

4) We use Fresh Step Multi-Cat. I hate clay litter. I love pine litter. However, when we lived in the trailer, we had awful fruit flies with the pine. Apparently, that just happens because there are larvae in it and they hatch and become... icky. We had the corn mix at Nuthaus for a while, and it got everywhere. Same with the really fine and "light" litter. We landed on Fresh Step Multi-Cat because it works best. I seriously think we've tried everything over the past couple of years.

5) We feed the cats a high-quality, no-filler food that cuts down on digestive waste. Better for the cats, easier for us. Probably a wash in the cost department, since they don't eat as much. (But, yes, it hurts spending more per pound on cat food than I do on some - most - of our meat.)

So.

Thursday is my day to sweep and mop all of the hard floors at Vogelfutter. Obviously, I touch-up sweep more regularly, but not necessarily every day. And certainly not multiple times per day. The boxes have cut down on tracking immensely. Like, I don't hate the cats anymore. I don't want to snuggle up with any of them, but I don't actively want them to pack their bags and get out, either. The other people around here seem fond of them.

The boxes take up less floor space than the other boxes we had. Their footprint is smaller, but they are taller, and there is plenty of room for the cats. Also, they are basically square, with no stick-outy parts, like where the lid to the other boxes hinged on, etc.

The boxes are sleek, with no place for dust and litter to collect. If litter gets on the lid, you can either sweep it back into the box with the brush on side of the scoop (each box comes with its own, so you don't have to lug one dirty scoop all over your house), or just open the lid and the litter falls back in. There is no way for the litter to fall off of the lid onto the floor unless maybe you were trying reallllly hard.

Because the boxes are so deep, my toddler cannot reach the litter. This is not to say that he can't see it, and that he can't drop things into the open hole. Oh, yes, he can. But I typically just wait until he's on to something else, remove the offending item, scald it, and am grateful that the child can't grab a handful of doo. Another benefit of cleaning the boxes every day is that whatever ends up in there usually just ends up with some clay granules on it. Nothing too disgusting so far.

Some of the reviews talk about how the boxes don't hold in the smells. I guess they don't, but I've only noticed a smell coming from one of the boxes (in the laundry room) one time since we moved. I'm guessing a cat had just gone, but that's also the most popularly-located box, and the most humid room, so it has a lot standing against it. Personally, I think it's better for the cats because the smell doesn't build up inside. We have one cat who will poop in the floor in front of the box if the odor in the box is not to her liking. That hasn't happened since we moved. (Again, probably also a function of our cleaning every day.)

The boxes have rubber feet, so if your cat is particularly enthusiastic about exiting the box, they're still not going to push it across the floor. Oh, no one else has cats that do that? Hmm. Must be nice.

So, all in all, my take is: Yes, it's freaking ridiculous that the litter boxes cost as much as they do. But we did a lot of research, and there's nothing that matches both the function and the look of these. I mean, you can throw $40 at a Clevercat top-entry box, but it's freaking huge and looks like you just sawed a hole in a storage container. Plus... so many nooks. So many crannies.

In the end, we were fortunate to be able to afford these, and I can tell you that my quality of life as a stay-home mom has improved immeasurably. Love them. Cannot recommend them highly enough.