The Korat is a native of Thailand, and has been revered in that country for centuries. Their bluish-silver color exemplifies the exalted stature they demand, so it is no wonder they are considered a symbol of good fortune by the Thais.

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Cat Breed of the Week: Korat originally appeared on About.com Cats on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 at 10:07:57.

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Introducing handsome Ricky, third Cat of the Week for June, 2013. Like all the other Cat Pictures of the Week for June, Ricky is an adopted shelter cat.

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Cat Picture of the Week: Ricky originally appeared on About.com Cats on Monday, June 17th, 2013 at 11:59:40.

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I was blessed for over 50 years by living with a man whose love for cats was infectious. My children all inherited that passion for cats, and since his passing in 2008, our son, Lance has taken over as the cat dad in our home. Although you'll see the phrase everywhere nowadays, I believe I was the first one to coin the phrase, "Real Men Love Cats," many years ago. I don't really care that others use it now; it's a message that should be shouted from the rooftops, to help dispel the old fallacy that "real men love dogs. Only women and sissies love cats." What kind of guy, then, is this man who loves cats?

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Happy Fathers Day, Cat Dads! originally appeared on About.com Cats on Saturday, June 15th, 2013 at 11:46:05.

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That most cats go crazy over catnip is no secret.

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Who Put the Nip in Catnip? originally appeared on About.com Cats on Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at 03:13:35.

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I announced back in early May, that my cat Billy has feline diabetes. Today is the first of a ongoing series of articles on the Care of a Diabetic Cat, in the hopes it will help other cat caregivers with newly-diagnosed cats.

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Cat caregivers sometimes complain about "behavior problems," when there are physical reasons for some of those problems. One example is a cats excessive vocalization: loud meowing or crying, sometimes accompanied by other attention-seeking behavior. Because causes for these behaviors can be either physical or emotional, or both, you need to do some homework on possible causes, so you can help your cat with his distress.

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Attention Seeking Behavior in Cats originally appeared on About.com Cats on Wednesday, June 12th, 2013 at 03:00:00.

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Chris Piwowarski is a shelter volunteer, and naturally adopted Chloe, our Cat Picture of the Week, from a shelter after losing her 13 year old cat in 2008.

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Cat Picture of the Week: Chloe originally appeared on About.com Cats on Tuesday, June 11th, 2013 at 16:18:10.

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Depending on the registry, the Javanese has a cornucopia of relationships. All registries consider the Javanese to be part of the Balinese breed, with some color differences. There's even a link to the Siamese along the line.

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Cat Breed of the Week: Javanese originally appeared on About.com Cats on Tuesday, June 11th, 2013 at 00:05:00.

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The Japanese Bobtail did indeed originate in Japan, and has been beloved in that country for centuries. In fact, the popular Maneki Neko (beckoning cat) is a ceramic image of the Japanese Bobtail.

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Cat Breed of the Week: Japanese Bobtail originally appeared on About.com Cats on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 at 10:56:08.

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It is tragic that with today's technology, only a very small percentage of pet cats who end up in animal shelters are returned to their owners. If all pet cats carried identification, such as a microchip, the odds of their return would be overwhelmingly reversed.

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Microchips for Cats originally appeared on About.com Cats on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 at 03:08:09.

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I was looking at old pictures and kind of miss the blog. Then I went to make a post and it was all messed up with google account and the email address I don't have anymore. Anyway I am trying a post and maybe I will do this again.

I was snoozing in the sunshine and Mama kept taking photos.  You can see by my ears that I am a little bit annoyed but I knew if I hid my pretty little face she would eventually go away and I could nap.

Well it worked.  She did.  She wasn’t happy with the pictures though so then she started doctoring them up.  Aren’t I pretty enough all on my own Mama?

My friends Calle, Halle and Sukki said that I could be their little brother.  I think I will do that.  What do you think?  I like them because they are very pretty.   Chey is laughing cause she says I look like them.  She says I must be a pretty boy.

She doesn’t know how tough I am.  I should go sit on her head.

Dear friends,I am sad to have to tell you that Aloysius passed away on Friday, September 9, 2011. He had been healthy up until this summer, but then was diagnosed with kidney failure. Still, he survived for a few weeks, and was able to prowl about and chase chipmunks in his garden. We miss him very much. I know he would have loved to have heard the greetings that he has already received today,

I'm sorry to be absent from the blog world. It got to be a chore and I needed a break.

We've been really busy the last few months. We moved out of the waterfront house and into the foreclosure. We are hoping to sell the big house soon, it's been really hard with 2 bills for everything!

Work is busy for both of us, and we feel blessed to be working.

The cats and Sissy are all doing good. Sissy had her birthday on Friday.
She is a wonderful little dog and my constant little companion.



I miss everyone here, maybe I can get back to blogging when things calm down a little.
Heck, it's been so long that I doubt anyone will even see this post. :)

Its sad to say that while Avram and I have enjoyed keeping this blog, life moves too fast for us to keep detailed posts up about the boys and share all their wonderful antics and adventures. But fear not we are not disappearing into the ether, we are just changing the format just a little bit. Instead of updating the blog, we will be updating the boys very own facebook fan page where everyone who wants to can keep up to date with their daily doings :)

We hope to see you there :)
~Liz

Sissy's litter mates Shang and Chih will be on Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl today at 2pm Central. The show was filmed in October.

Somehow my blog was set to translate to Hindi, how that happened I do not know.

Here is Sissy at the beach, she loves the beach

Still chinese!
Here is Sissy with Santa.
She is so much fun and the cats sort of like her too.

Ok so those of you on facebook know we are getting a very special new family member.
I wanted to blog here but this thing is not working so maybe I will make a new blog or bring back Rico's don't really know what to do.
I have FB and Twitter now if anyone is on those.
I am not happy with blogspot...PJ:(

Ok so my blog is still doing the chines thing and I am about to give up.
Look for me at Facebook....:(

UPDATE:: The Doctor called with Arthur's blood results and he is one perfectly healthy kitty :)

I've been ruling the house here for eight years now, and I have never stopped learning how to surprise my humans. Most recently, I learned how to get over the fence. All I have to do is get up in that tree, and I can go catting around down the block.I was able to get up there--despite the fact that my previous human had me declawed. I used the lawn furniture as a ladder.But now they've moved

So I am trying to post to this blog and my title turns to Chinese or something, what the Hell?

The tomatoes should not be much longer.
*drool*

We had enough flooring left from the big house to
do my office and I went with a soft green for the walls

This our tiny house guest Bella.
She goes to her forever home today....sniff

First of all, Liz and I want to thank everyone who has sent kind wishes, thoughts, and prayers to us, both through this blog and elsewhere. Your support has meant a lot to us and to our boys and it really helped us through this ordeal.
This one is a couple of weeks old, taken when Arthur still had his feeding tube but was getting better. He loves to lie down in the laundry basket.

As of today Dr. Plotnick has pronounced Arthur fully recovered. He still has a small scab on his neck from the feeding tube, but he sees no reason for further concern or treatment for Arthur's illness. He's happy, active and while not eating tons he seems to be back to eating his normal amount and maintaining his weight without the tube :)

Beowulf's test results came back showing him to be perfectly healthy in every way. Now we dont have to go back to the vet for 6 months for Beowulf and 2 months for Arthur so he can get his shots.

So no more weekly trips across town to the vet for Arthur, his days traveling around the city by cab are over.

So today Beowulf went in for his annual check up and his shots. This was his first time at the new vets office so we were a bit on edge with what Dr. Plotnick would have to say and how he would react to the long trip to the office.

As per usual he wasn't happy with leaving the house in his carrier, but he was well behaved and purred up a storm for the Dr and his tech. They were impressed with his sweet demeanor and his ability to purr while getting poked, prodded and having his blood and urine drawn and getting his shots.

So tomorrow we'll find out the results of his blood work, and get a healthy baseline for his records. According to Dr. Plotnick, Beowulf is as healthy as any cat can be. Hes 14.5 lbs and as we've always known handsome and lovable.

Once we got home he got some treats to reward him for being a good boy, but he didn't think it was enough and nagged me until I finally gave in and went into the bedroom with him to lay on the bed and rub and groom him :)

Charlie was somewhat underwhelmed with his birthday toys

As was Sawyer

Yesterday, we took Arthur to his vet Dr. Plotnick and we came into the appointment with concerns about Arthur's eating. As I mentioned in my most recent post, Arthur has been eating on his own, but not the 250 calories per day we had been aiming for so he was still getting a tube feeding or two every day.

As you may have read, Arthur's liver numbers came back normal last week. And indeed he looks much healthier and acts much healthier. He's been very active and assertive, even trying to wrestle his brother (which we break up, because of fear it will dislodge the feeding tube). He even nags us for food, but then when we go in the kitchen and give it to him, he eats maybe two licks or just rubs our feet.

It just make sense in this econmy and at this life stage to be living in a paid off home.

We are closing tomorrow!

I got one of the best phone calls of my life this morning. If he'd been there in person I would have embarrassed myself and him by hugging and kissing him. Who is this "him" you ask? Why our vet, and he called bright and early this morning to give me the results of Arthur's blood work and urine analysis.

::Drum Roll::

Our baby boy is almost good as new :) His liver values are back to normal and everything from his bloodwork to his physical examination say that he's just about ready to have the tube removed and put all this behind him IF he starts eating again on his own.

So our new mission is to get him to eat on his own. At the Dr's suggestion we will be skipping some of his tube feeding times in the hopes that he will be hungry enough to eat his food. This afternoon I skipped his feeding and removed all available food that he could snack on. I gave him a new cat nip toy I bought and waited. Around 5pm he started bugging me and when I put down a can of Solid Gold Tuna he devoured most of it. Now this could be a result of the appetite stimulant we gave him yesterday, or actual hunger but if he can keep this up we can be sure he's recovered and ready to have his tube removed :)

Took Arthur in today for another weekly checkup with the vet. Hes now 14 lbs up from 13.6 last week and the Dr is very pleased with his overall demeanor and the fact he has little to no yellow color anymore. Even the low grade fever he's been running the last few visits is gone and by all accounts Arthur is doing well.

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that he still isn't eating much on his own. The Dr is still puzzled over this and gave us an appetite stimulant to use as needed to try and help Arthur eat more by mouth and less by tube. He took some urine and blood samples to do tests and will call us tomorrow with the results.

While the last few weeks have been stressful and trying in the extreme we are beyond happy with the new vet and the level of care he has been getting. These weekly visits are a benchmark of how much Arthur is improving and gives us a chance to get answers to questions and suggestions for what we can do differently or improve on in regards to his care.

We cant thank all of you enough for you support, ideas and suggestions during this time. It means a lot to us and we cant begin express our appreciation :)

Arthur appears to be doing better in a lot of outward ways. He's much friskier, has gained weight, and he doesn't look jaundiced anymore. Last week when we saw him, the vet was encouraged. That said, getting him to eat is a huge challenge and he seems to be making zero progress in terms of his appetite.

What a weekend it has been! I won't bore you with my non-cat life, but I had to take a business trip to Philadelphia this weekend while Liz stayed home with the boys. I tried to get home Saturday night, but the weather was a disaster. I bought an Amtrak ticket for a train at Philadelphia's 30th street station at 7:30 pm on Saturday and was stuck on the train (and another they made us change to) for over 10 hours, getting home at 6 a.m. I am wiped and so is Liz from caring for the boys by herself while waiting for me to get home. Meanwhile, I have a ton of work to do for Monday morning.

My human picked up a back issue of Vanity Fair because she wanted to read a piece called "Addicted to Cute." Doesn't she know that I am the king of cuteness?I am the cutest thing since sliced mousie paws.I am the cutest kitty ever to loll on the dining room table.Cuter than a cupcake, thanks very much.But if you're making cupcakes, make mine with tuna, won't you?It's my birthday, and I'll be cute

So, for better or worse, we are working our way into a feeding tube routine. We are now feeding Arthur three times per day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening.

This is a micro level of info that you probably won't find interesting, but since my wife and I have created a google doc spreadsheet to track the combination of Arthur's tube feedings and self-feeings, I thought I'd share it:

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who has been commenting on these posts and replying to my questions on various forums. I'm sorry that I haven't had time to respond to everyone personally, but I want you to know that Liz and I are really inspired and encouraged by your comments, well wishes, and prayers and I think they are making a huge difference in our health and Arthur's! Please keep them coming!

The photo above was taken on Liz's camera phone a few minutes ago. That's a sleepy, unkempt me tube feeding Arthur while Beowulf sleeps next to him and leans his head on my feeding arm to support me and his brother. That's the kind of being Beowulf is; he is always there to heal and support me, Liz, and his brother, always there to lean on you, purr, and make you feel better. Don't believe the glowing eyes in the shot!

This afternoon we had our first appointment with our new vet, Dr. Plotnick of Manhattan Cat Specialists. I deliberately avoided naming him in the prior post before where I said I had made an appointment with a new vet, because I didn't want to name names until I had actually had my appointment and met him. Now, I definitely have a strong opinion. Dr. Plotnick and his entire staff are incredible and, after our visit, Liz and I felt like we had a new lease on life for ourselves, not just Arthur.

Dr. Plotnick spent a long time with us, answering every one of our questions and putting our minds very much at ease about the feeding tube and what could happen with it. Where the vet hospital had put the fear of God into us about the tube popping out at any moment and Arthur neednig to be rushed into the hospital for emergency treatment, Dr. Plotnick explained that, even if the tube came out, we would simply put a band aid over the open hole in Arthur's neck and then bring him in the next day.

On a side note, his staff also rewrapped the tube and repositioned it so it isn't bumping into everything now. Strangely, the hospital had used a really long tube which complicated things.

He and his team explained to us that we did not need to stay up 24/7 watching Arthur to make sure he does not pull the tube loose. That may sound like a very minor thing to say, but to us, it's a lifesaver.

I could spend a much longer post -- and perhaps I will at some point-- talking about everything that is right with Dr. Plotnick and Manhattan Cat Specialists, because they are just amazing. But right now I'm going to selfishly go to bed in a few minutes and enjoy some of the lost sleep Dr. Plotnick has given back to me.

But before I sign off this post, here's an update on the most important thing, Arthur's health. The doctor agrees with the diagnosis that Arthur has fatty liver disease. However, he did discover (something our old vet did not) that Arthur has a fever. He believes the fever is evidence of some kind of underlying infection, but none of the prior tests done by the hospital or our old vet were able to detect an infection.

The old vet / hospital did put him on the Enrofloxacin antibiotic because they suspected some kind of infection, but they never could tell what it was. Without doing further tests -- which he does not recommend at this time -- our new doctor cannot tell what the infection is. However, he prescribed an additional antibiotic that should fight other types of infection so, even though we don't know the exact infection, we're hopefully fighting it. We're also getting another liver med that is going to help with the bile flow (I forget the name, but I can share that later).

Dr. Plotnick told us not to retest the liver values too frequently; he said this whole process is going to take several weeks and that we shouldn't even test Arthur's blood again for three weeks. What a difference from the hospital and other vet who wanted to retest his liver values today and then possibly rush him into exploratory surgery if we didn't see improvement or if the number didn't at least hold steady. Dr. Plotnick told us that liver values may go up and down throughout treating this disease and you can't just keep looking at them every day or even every week.

Despite the fact that we don't need a new blood test for a while, we are going to bring Arthur over to MCS weekly until his next test, just because Liz and I want the staff to check his tube, take his temp, and look at his weight, just to see if there's any trouble with those things. Finally, we have a plan and next steps for Arthur that don't involve rushing him to the hospital or setting frightening deadlines like "if he doesn't get better soon, we might want to cut him open."

Oh, and on another note, Dr. Plotnick did tell us what he normally does / would have done if we had been his patients when this all started. He said he would have done a single procedure where
he did a sonogram-guided liver biopsy and inserted a feeding tube at the same time. Apparently, a sonogram-guided biopsy is a better way to get results than the myriad of aspirate biopsies and separate sonograms that were conducted by the hospital and our old vet. It also sounds like it would have been thousands of dollars cheaper.

Before I go to bed, which I must, I have one open question here. What do I say to our old vet? She actually, without prompting, called today and left me a voicemail message asking us to come in for the next liver test (the same one we're not doing for 3 weeks) and to pick up some medication (cream-based antibiotics) she had ordered last week that we no longer need. I suppose Liz or I need to call her back and tell her, but I'm not looking forward to it. I think I will just say that we've chosen a more "full service" vet and leave it at that. The thousands of dollars that she got us to spend on a haphazard patchwork of tests and emergency hospitalizations are gone and I can't see anyway to get them back, though I hope our pet insurance will reimburse us some of it. The potentially dangerous advice that she gave us by saying "as long as he eats, he'll be ok" is water under the bridge now.

There's probably no point in arguing and I guess I should thank her for detecting Arthur's illness in the first place, though I'm sure another vet would have also and would have handled it a lot better. What would you say?

We'll be seeing our new vet at 4:30 pm today and we have many questions for him. The most important of these is: how much can we relax?

The dining area is moving along and we are working
into the living area now

Here's the latest update. My friend and world-class cat sitter Leslie Kaufman recommended that I speak with her vet. She told her vet I would call him and I did and I was very impressed with his knowledge and straightforward answers to my questions. Based on our conversation, I've decided to take Arthur to see him tomorrow and, unless the visit goes poorly (in terms of our interactions with him and his staff), he will be our new vet from now on. I was very impressed with him over the phone, where talked to me free of charge for 35 minutes! That's more advice and info than we got out of the hospital doctors after spending thousands with them.

So, my wife just got a call from the hospital; Arthur came through the feeding tube surgery ok, though for good measure they are going to charge us for an additional blood test (we don't know how much yet) b/c they tested his blood clotting to see if he would bleed too much. That means the feeding tube procedure all by itself will have cost well over $1,100.

At this moment, Arthur is at the hospital, presumably about to or already undergoing his feeding tube surgery. We're waiting to hear from them and haven't yet. In the mean time, I have a question, which I posted elsewhere earlier, but thought I would share here as well.

ByeBye yucky carpet!

Trouble is Paw's assistant

I don't want to spend too much time rehashing everything that has happened to Arthur (and us) over the past week, but I'll point to a forum thread on About.com where I've been discussing the whole thing under the user name geekinchief23.

Here is where we stand right now. Arthur came home from the hospital last Thursday (2/25) with some prescriptions and an order to get back to eating. As you may know by now, he has fatty liver disease, a condition which is curable if the cat gets the right amount of food into them fast neough.

Over the weekend, we got Arthur to eat and he has eaten a bit every day, but we were concerned that he was not eating enough. By our count, he is a 13.5 pound cat and has been eating maybe 2-3 ounces of food per day, if that. However, his behavior has improved, though he is traumatized by being force fed the beyatryl antibiotic pill every day (he'll get a skin solution for it soon). My wife Liz and I have been whipping out a can of his favorite food, Solid Gold Blended Tuna, maybe 3 times a night and maybe one of those 3 times, he will actually want to eat and will eat maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of a 3 oz can. In between he will have maybe 5 to 10 pieces of kibble, though a lot of the kibble crumbs are falling out of his mouth.

So my wife Liz and Iwere concerned: Was he eating enough? Unfortunately, nobody would give us a straight answer about how much he was supposed to be eating. We called the internal medicine specialist who saw him at the hospital (which nearly wiped out our savings by conducting $3k worth of tests) and they said "we can't really tell you how much is enough. Don't worry about it."

We talked to our own regular Vet who said "if he's eating anything at all, he will be fine." Call us worry warts, but neither of those answers inspired confidence in us. Today, we took him into the vet and where normally Liz goes by herself b/c I'm at work, I left work for the afternoon so I could go with her. I talked to the doctor and demanded some answers about the amount of food he should be eating.

Again, she reiterated her extremely vague response. "If he's eating at all, I wouldn't worry," she said. I said "he's eating about 2 ounces of food a day. Isn't that too little?" She said "maybe that's normal for him."

She weighed Arthur and indeed he had gained weight since his last weighing. He was now 13.5 pounds where he had weighed in at 13.2 when we brought him in the day before. She said "I think he's doing great, but if you really want and it would make you feel better, I'll run a blood test on him now while you wait to check his liver values again." I said, "yes, please run the test."

Liz and I sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes and then the doctor came out with a sad look on her face. She said that his liver values had taken a significant turn for the worse. Where his liver number had been 4.2 when he left the hospital, it is now 7.0 (higher is worse).

She said to us: "Hmm, maybe he isn't eating enough. I called the hospital and they suggest putting in a feeding tube." A feeding tube is something we had been asking about and suggesting ourselves (against both the hospital's and her objections) since he was diagnosed.

So tomorrow, he is going back to the hospital and will get a feeding tube installed, probably at an exorbitant price that will really hurt us. We are praying that he will now be ok, but of course, the hospital and vet are not inspiring confidence with their vague and incorrect answers.

We thought about taking him to another vet and we were considering an appt with one at the ASPCA, but right now I feel like I don't want to start over with a new doctor while his condition is declining like this. If we get the feeding tube in and he starts to improve, maybe then we can take him to some place that doesn't know him or maybe this is just a lesson-learned that we need better people to care for him and Beowulf in the future.

I will tell you candidly that this illness has been very very hard on Liz and I. We are not eating or sleeping. We have constant stomach aches. We are distracted and we're not ashamed to admit that, even though we are not religious people, we are doing a lot of praying lately. Please send your best wishes, positive thoughts, and prayers, not to us but to Arthur. He's going to need them.

Just brought our fur baby home. He is a sick kitty, at the moment the diagnosis is Heptatic Lipidosis otherwise known as Fatty Liver. They are still waiting on some test results to check for Pancreatitis and will call us with those results.
The important thing right now is get him to eat and the doctors and we felt that he would do better at home and would eat better in his normal home enviornment rather than in the hospital where he was too scared to eat.
Its a positive sign to me that as soon as I let him out of the carrier, he wandered around for a bit, greeted his brother then went right into the kitchen to eat.

We'll update you further as his condition improves :)