Journal of a Perennial Optimist (again)

Yvonne Smith

Yvonne Smith

Greeter
Staff member
In my journal, I will be continuing on with my thoughts about life, stories about what the cats (and the Possum) are up to, and maybe even what the weather is like here in Huntsville, Alabama, where we live.
Now that my son and his wife have moved back to north Idaho, and my daughter is still living in the Netherlands, I don’t have any family living close to me anymore, and I miss that. Even though we didn’t see each other often, it was still nice knowing that my son was a few miles away, living in my daughter’s house. He got a great job offer from a place in Idaho where they were living before, and they were very happy to be moving back home again.

My daughter is coming home over her Christmas leave because her job is closed down between Christmas and NewYear’s Day, so she will be here about 2 weeks altogether. She will have her house all to herself this visit. She really loves living in the Netherlands, and enjoyed her job there, so even though she is a long ways away, I am glad that she is where she is the happiest.

This last week, I had my vision test, and they said that there is no glaucoma, and just a trace of cataracts, which is what they have been saying for at least the last 10 years; so the cataracts must not be progressing, which is excellent.
My insurance covers the eye exam as well as new glasses, so they are making those for me , and I should have them next week or so. One pair is for distance vision, like reading signposts when we are in the car, and the other pair will be reading glasses, but corrected for my astigmatism. She said I should be able to see much better once I have the new glasses, and I am excited about that !

We are changing our Medicare advantage plan from Devoted Health back to Humana. We really like Devoted, but they dropped their vision coverage down to only $100, which will not cover a pair of glasses, and the Humana vision benefit is more. Plus, we will get the Go365 rewards for exercise again, and those gift cards really are nice.
 
We have a strange thing happening with one of the cats. Kitten Little, who showed up in the summer of 2024, had kittens before we realized that she was even old enough to have to worry about that happening, and so young that she didn’t have much milk for the babies, and I ended up bottle feeding them to supplement her milk supply.

That all went well, and we were going to take her to get spayed so she didn’t get pregnant again, but when she weaned the kittens, something went wrong with her.
She changed from a sweet cat to almost feral, and growled and even attacked her kittens, and didn’t even want Bobby or I to touch her. Then she disappeared and we thought something had happened to her.

After that, she has been coming up on the porch to eat, but not friendly, and we can see that she has wounds on her neck where something got her. Sometimes, she will look at me and there is just a feral cat that is afraid of humans looking at me, and no recognition at all.
Then, I can talk to her, and see her face change, as she realizes who I am and that she is my kitty that I love, and she will come to be petted, but then suddenly growl and hiss and claw and run away frantically.

I have been at my wits end trying to understand what happened to her and what to do about it. I don’t know if it is her mind or her body that is broken, or both.
Anyway, Bobby and I devised a plan and captured her tonight.
She came up on the porch for food and i talked to her enough that she knew it was me, and then she walked into the crate where her food was and Bobby shut the door.
Now, we have her in the house, in the crate, and will work on making a larger area for her and try to get her to let us treat her wounds on her neck.

She is not panicked, she remembers that she was in this house before, and has just settled down in the crate, and actually seems relaxed. I think she knows she is safe here, and I have been talking to her.
The kittens came over to lie beside her. She was growling at them, but has now seemed to realize that they are not a danger to her either. She settled down enough to lie down and seems to be resting and not worrying about everything.
Hopefully, we can bring her around enough to where she is again the sweet kitty that she has always been. Once she is friendly again, it will be safe to take her and get her spayed like we were going to do before.

IMG_1235.jpeg
 
Yvonne Smith said:
We have a strange thing happening with one of the cats. Kitten Little, who showed up in the summer of 2024, had kittens before we realized that she was even old enough to have to worry about that happening, and so young that she didn’t have much milk for the babies, and I ended up bottle feeding them to supplement her milk supply.

That all went well, and we were going to take her to get spayed so she didn’t get pregnant again, but when she weaned the kittens, something went wrong with her.
She changed from a sweet cat to almost feral, and growled and even attacked her kittens, and didn’t even want Bobby or I to touch her. Then she disappeared and we thought something had happened to her.

After that, she has been coming up on the porch to eat, but not friendly, and we can see that she has wounds on her neck where something got her. Sometimes, she will look at me and there is just a feral cat that is afraid of humans looking at me, and no recognition at all.
Then, I can talk to her, and see her face change, as she realizes who I am and that she is my kitty that I love, and she will come to be petted, but then suddenly growl and hiss and claw and run away frantically.

I have been at my wits end trying to understand what happened to her and what to do about it. I don’t know if it is her mind or her body that is broken, or both.
Anyway, Bobby and I devised a plan and captured her tonight.
She came up on the porch for food and i talked to her enough that she knew it was me, and then she walked into the crate where her food was and Bobby shut the door.
Now, we have her in the house, in the crate, and will work on making a larger area for her and try to get her to let us treat her wounds on her neck.

She is not panicked, she remembers that she was in this house before, and has just settled down in the crate, and actually seems relaxed. I think she knows she is safe here, and I have been talking to her.
The kittens came over to lie beside her. She was growling at them, but has now seemed to realize that they are not a danger to her either. She settled down enough to lie down and seems to be resting and not worrying about everything.
Hopefully, we can bring her around enough to where she is again the sweet kitty that she has always been. Once she is friendly again, it will be safe to take her and get her spayed like we were going to do before.

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We had a similar experience with one cat after she was spayed. We blame it either on a reaction to anesthesia, or some bad experience during surgery or the stay at the vets. Never had a problem with males or with dogs of either sex, and only one of our several cats went through this. She was never the same cat again.
 
That is terrible, @Don Alaska !
Having Kitten Little spayed can hardly make her worse than she is right now, but we can’t even think about taking her to the vet at this point, until she has gotten to where she can be touched by a person again.
She is not trying to get out of the crate.
Bobby brought in the largest crate we have and connected the two of them, so now she can have the litter box, plus she has a place to sleep, food, and water; so she has everything she needs.
Now, she can just rest and get better, hopefully.
She seems exhausted and maybe relieved to be inside and safe, and is definitely not panicked that we caught her and brought her inside, so that is a good start.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
That is terrible, @Don Alaska !
Having Kitten Little spayed can hardly make her worse than she is right now, but we can’t even think about taking her to the vet at this point, until she has gotten to where she can be touched by a person again.
She is not trying to get out of the crate.
Bobby brought in the largest crate we have and connected the two of them, so now she can have the litter box, plus she has a place to sleep, food, and water; so she has everything she needs.
Now, she can just rest and get better, hopefully.
She seems exhausted and maybe relieved to be inside and safe, and is definitely not panicked that we caught her and brought her inside, so that is a good start.
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I hope everything works out for her and you @Yvonne Smith
 
I think she might be doing better this morning. I checked on her during the night, and she was meowing and happy to see me. She ate food, drank water, and used the litter box.
She wanted to be petted, and even purred when I was petting her through the crate.

Now, she really wants to be outside and free, but then she would escape out the door and we would be back to her being lost and hurt again, so she is going to have to stay confined for a while.
I am hoping to bring her out today and put ointment on her hurt neck and clean the litter box. At least she is not hissing and growling, but the kittens are still in their room asleep and not out here where their mommy is at.

Spoke too soon about the hissing. Hissing now at Poodle, so she is definitely not ready to come out of the crate yet.
 
The “intervention” is progressing.
The kittens love seeing their mother again, so they like being as close to her crate as possible, purring loudly, as she sits there and hisses and growls at them. Eventually, she sees that it is not doing any good, so she just munches a few more bites of kibble and mutters to herself as she sits there.
I fed her some canned food from a long handled tea spoon, and she ate that as the kittens watched. Anytime the front door opens, she meows because she wants to go outside, but overall, she seems to have resigned herself to the idea that she is staying right where she is at.

I think that she knows she is safe, warm, and dry here, even if she doesn’t like not being able to go outside. We have cold weather down to the single digits in the forecast, so right here is the best place for her.
I am thinking about getting her a harness and leash, so I can maybe bring her out into the house and not have her bolting out the door when it opens.
 
This morning, Kitten Little was meowing at me and leaning in to the side of her crate for me to pet her and purring. She said that she was just the best little house cat and would really like to come out and be loose in the house (and have her litter box cleaned).
The kittens were still sleeping in their room, so we let her come out, and she was happy to have me pick her up and hold and pet her. Then we let her ramble around the house while we changed her bedding, cleaned the litter box, and put in fresh food and water for her.
She went to the door and wanted out, but seemed to not be persistent about that, and settled in to just being loose in the house again.

After a while, she went back in the crate to eat her breakfast, and has been in there since. I think she is glad to know that living in a crate is a temporary thing while she gets well, and not a forever thing in her life. I mixed some healing salve for her and put that on her neck to help those wounds heal, too.
Tonight, we will let her loose overnight, since the kittens are sleeping in their room at night, and we will not be opening and closing a door where she might escape outside.

She seems like she is getting used to the kittens now, too, and she doesn’t mind Poodle being beside her at all. I think maybe she enjoys his company. She is right beside my chair, so I am talking with her when I am sitting there in the chair.
The kittens come up and see how close they can lie beside her crate without her being growly, and she seems not to be as upset by them as she was before, so it seems like progress is being made.
My plan is to see about getting her spayed, and healing from that, and hoping that she is then friendlier with the kittens again.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
In my journal, I will be continuing on with my thoughts about life, stories about what the cats (and the Possum) are up to, and maybe even what the weather is like here in Huntsville, Alabama, where we live.
Now that my son and his wife have moved back to north Idaho, and my daughter is still living in the Netherlands, I don’t have any family living close to me anymore, and I miss that. Even though we didn’t see each other often, it was still nice knowing that my son was a few miles away, living in my daughter’s house. He got a great job offer from a place in Idaho where they were living before, and they were very happy to be moving back home again.

My daughter is coming home over her Christmas leave because her job is closed down between Christmas and NewYear’s Day, so she will be here about 2 weeks altogether. She will have her house all to herself this visit. She really loves living in the Netherlands, and enjoyed her job there, so even though she is a long ways away, I am glad that she is where she is the happiest.

This last week, I had my vision test, and they said that there is no glaucoma, and just a trace of cataracts, which is what they have been saying for at least the last 10 years; so the cataracts must not be progressing, which is excellent.
My insurance covers the eye exam as well as new glasses, so they are making those for me , and I should have them next week or so. One pair is for distance vision, like reading signposts when we are in the car, and the other pair will be reading glasses, but corrected for my astigmatism. She said I should be able to see much better once I have the new glasses, and I am excited about that !

We are changing our Medicare advantage plan from Devoted Health back to Humana. We really like Devoted, but they dropped their vision coverage down to only $100, which will not cover a pair of glasses, and the Humana vision benefit is more. Plus, we will get the Go365 rewards for exercise again, and those gift cards really are nice.
Click to expand...
I find that I can keep cataracts at bay with vitamin c and a low carb diet, (hard at this time of year);)
 
Today, we had Kitten Little loose in the house for several hours first thing in the morning, while the kitten were still all sleeping in their room. She wandered around the house a little and then put her paws up on me and asked to come up on my lap.
We sat in my recliner and she purred and slept while I knitted socks. Poodle curled up on her bed, which was right beside my chair, since Kitten Little was on my lap and he could not be in his regular preferred place to sleep.

Later, we put her back in her cleaned house, fresh water and food, and Bobby let the kittens in, because by then they had all gone outside and in the yard to do their morning chores, and were ready to come inside and warm up their tootsie-toes.
She grumbled, but nowhere near as much as before, then laid down in her bed and went to sleep; so she is not hyper-vigilant about the kittens anymore.
She may never return to thinking of them as her kittens, but if she will accept them as other cats who also live here, and are not dangerous to her, then that will work for me.

I have been having yogurt and granola for breakfast sometimes, and I really enjoy it as a meal anytime of day. I think I am going to make my own granola again, since it is expensive to buy, and the oatmeal is cheap, and I have lots of it stored away.
So, today, my plan is to make granola with my fresh apples, and also make a quart of yogurt to go with it.

The weather is still freezing cold here, but we don’t have to go anywhere today. If it is better tomorrow, we will go to Kroger like we have been doing, and then to the chiropractor. If it is too cold, we will stay home.
 
Shirley Martin said:
Yvonne, I wonder why she rejected the kittens. Good for you helping them out.
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We have no idea what caused this, @Shirley Martin . Up until she decided to wean the kittens (at around 3 months) she adored those babies, and spent all her time with them.
Once she started keeping them away and not nursing, then she just kept getting more determined to keep them away, and eventually was hissing and clawing if they even came on the porch when she was there, and then she would run off and we would not see her for several days.

At night, I am letting her loose in the house overnight, since no one is going in and out the front door where she might escape, and the kittens are sleeping in their room for the night and can’t get to where she is at.
She wants to sit on my lap and be held and petted, which is a good sign, and she is not hissing and growling as much at the kittens now, but she is definitely not wanting to be friends with them either.
She seems to be content being in the house, so I think she is probably feeling safer and more loved than she was when she was hiding out wherever she was hiding at.

My daughter should be flying back to Huntsville in the morning, and she will be here until just after New Year’s Day, and I am looking forward to seeing her and spending Christmas together.
She works with the Dutch government doing the simulation training for the Chinook Helicoptors, and she really enjoys her job as well as living in the Netherlands.
 
We seem to be getting into a regular rhythm with the cats now. In the daytime, when Bobby is going in and out of the front door, and the kittens are also coming in and going out, Mommy Kitty is in her own space, which I have named “her apartment”.
She is content to be there, and goes into the back part, which is beside my recliner chair, and more private for her, and she sleeps most of the time there. She comes out when she wants to socialize or use her bathroom, or eat and drink.

She still hates the kittens, hissing and growling anytime they get too close to her space.
Nevertheless, the kittens don’t seem to mind, and they love their Mommy anyway, and still get as close to her as it is safe to do, and sleep in a kitten pile close to where she is at most of the time.
She has gotten used to this, it seems like.

Before bedtime at night, after no doors are likely to be opened where she might escape outside, and the kittens are gone to bed in their bedroom, then we let her out for the night and she has the whole house to roam around , hunt for mice, or do whatever she wants. She usually comes and sits on my lap and gets her pets before we go to bed, so she knows she is loved and snuggled.

The only problem is if I get up during the night to go to the bathroom. For some reason, Poodle now seems to think that I am getting up, so he jumps off the bed, and bounces around and wants to be let outside.
Then, Rusty wants out, too, of course, and starts his caterwauling.

So instead of just going back to bed, I have to find the cat, put her away so she does not run out the back door, and then let the dogs out. All of this commotion has usually woken Bobby up as well, so he makes coffee, and there we are, at 2 in the morning, being up and having coffee, instead of getting our beauty sleep.
Of course, when this happens, then Poodle is even more sure that we intended to get up.
It is a catch-22 situation at this point, and I am not sure how to stop it from happening every night.
 
Foxy loves kittens, she really enjoyed the sort time we had Sheba.

I don't like being up all night, I'll lay in the bed till I fall back to sleep, which is most of the time.
 
Tomorrow, we start back on the Humana Advantage plan, and then we are going to go back to the doctor we had before when we were with Humana. We liked him much better than the Indian doctor we have now, so that is a definite plus to changing back.
I ordered a Fitbit Charge and a clip for it, because Humana has the Go365 program that gives us points for exercise and how many steps we take each day.
For some reason, it won’t connect with the Apple Watch or iPhone, but it does connect with the Fitbit fitness trackers; so I will wear the Charge with the clip-on. I only need it to track my steps, everything else is also on the Apple Watch.
I tried wearing both on my wrist, but it is a nuisance, so I ordered the clip for the Fitbit instead.

I think that Miss Kitty is getting used to the other cats being around, but she is still hissing and growling at them. They pretty much don’t worry about it now. We have let her out along with a kitten in the house twice now, and she has growled and grumbled, but no real problems. Next week, I will call and see about scheduling an appointment to get her spayed, and hoping that helps mellow her out a bit.
We can’t keep her like this forever, so if she is not any more agreeable once the weather starts warming up for spring, we will let her be able to go outside and she will have to decide if she is going to come in and out or just be an outside cat again.
 
I applied for a study about fitness trackers, and yesterday I went through the screening meeting, and I was accepted. They had sent me 2 trackers, 2 phones, and a BP cuff by overnight Fedex, so the next part of the meeting was to set everything up and get the program started.
The whole meeting took almost 3 hours.

It is pretty interesting.
I have to wear both watches (one on each wrist) all day, and take my BP morning and night, and everything gets logged into the phones that are paired with the watches.
It is a month long program, so I will be doing this for a while.
I can’t have caffeine for at least an hour before doing the BP measurements, so that meant that I was doing it first thing this morning, bleary-eyed, and my coffee was sitting there waiting for me to get done.

Now, I am done with the morning study tasks and happily slurping down my first cup of coffee for the day……….. SO delicious !
My daughter had brought over some food that she had left over from her visit, and one of the things she brought was the milk that she had.
She bought the expensive grass fed, organic, whole milk, and I can actually taste the difference between that and the cheap Walmart milk that I buy.
Mine is under $3 a gallon and hers was over $6 for a half gallon, so I probably won’t be spending that much on milk, but I was amazed at how much better it tasted, just rich and creamy.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
I applied for a study about fitness trackers, and yesterday I went through the screening meeting, and I was accepted. They had sent me 2 trackers, 2 phones, and a BP cuff by overnight Fedex, so the next part of the meeting was to set everything up and get the program started.
The whole meeting took almost 3 hours.

It is pretty interesting.
I have to wear both watches (one on each wrist) all day, and take my BP morning and night, and everything gets logged into the phones that are paired with the watches.
It is a month long program, so I will be doing this for a while.
I can’t have caffeine for at least an hour before doing the BP measurements, so that meant that I was doing it first thing this morning, bleary-eyed, and my coffee was sitting there waiting for me to get done.

Now, I am done with the morning study tasks and happily slurping down my first cup of coffee for the day……….. SO delicious !
My daughter had brought over some food that she had left over from her visit, and one of the things she brought was the milk that she had.
She bought the expensive grass fed, organic, whole milk, and I can actually taste the difference between that and the cheap Walmart milk that I buy.
Mine is under $3 a gallon and hers was over $6 for a half gallon, so I probably won’t be spending that much on milk, but I was amazed at how much better it tasted, just rich and creamy.
Click to expand...
When I milked cows I could just take a stainless steel jug and dip it in the bulk tank. I LOVED it and I didn't die but it is still illegal for me to do it today.
 
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