daily dose of dogs (aka cats with your coffee)

Little Break

Taking a short break from blogging.  Hope all is well in your world!

Surprise!

Last week I did a special Thursday post about Andrea’s beautiful kitty sofa bed and her commissioned work – all to benefit Winnie’s Wish!  The announcement had been made as to who won the raffle.

 

 

The next morning I saw a comment that Andrea left on that post.  Here’s what it said:   I'm thrilled with how well the raffle for that bed went! There is more to that story, too, but it won’t be revealed until next week! Oh boy is even Chrystal gonna be surprised!   So I really didn’t know what any of that meant.  But I was having a very busy couple of days and I figured I would write to Andrea soon and ask what she was talking about.  Then on Friday when I got home from being at my parents’ house, there was a package waiting for me.  I opened it   . . .

 

I think I nearly had a stroke.  I was totally shocked.  Even after reading Andrea’s comment, I did not one single time think of something like this.  That beautiful Fancy Crocheted Velvet Sofa was somehow in my house.  Also inside the package were two of Andrea’s round crocheted kitty beds. 

 

And there was a letter.  Here (in part) is what the letter said:

Dear Chrystal, As you know, June C won the Fancy Crocheted Velvet Sofa in the raffle.  When I informed her that she won, she said – Yay! Send it to Chrystal!   

Then Andrea went on to say that the sofa was for MY own personal cats.  The money from the raffle went to the Wishers, but the prize was to go to MY cats so that both groups got something.  Andrea said that she thought this was a great idea and that she was going to add TWO of her round crocheted beds for the Wishers!  She said that way everybody got something.   Andrea even copied & pasted from what June had written:

Chrystal deserves all the happiness that her heart can hold! I thought giving her the sofa for her personal cats was important so people clearly understand there are two cat groups close to her heart and one actually lives in her home.

HOW SWEET!!

I wrote to both June and Andrea and told them that I had secretly coveted the Fancy Crocheted Velvet Sofa.  I knew I'd never have one but I thought it was absolutely beautiful.  Then Andrea did the drawing and paypal'd the raffle money to me.  Getting that money for the Wishers was such a gift!  I told June - Without your explicit directions, this sofa bed would have gone to the Wishers.  Anything that is donated goes automatically to the Wishers.  Anything my own personal cats get is purchased by me with my own money.  I never mix the two.  My Winnie's Wish cathouse is a big roomy three-room house for the Wishers.  I get the occasional paypal gift or Wish List donation, and there are the big things like Andrea's auctions.  Obviously, with over 30 kitties to care for, tons of my own money goes to caring for the Wishers.  Every bit of help I get is so needed and so appreciated.    Then we also have several of our own cats.  These are cats who, for one reason or another, have ended up living in our home with us.  I consider these cats just like anybody else would.  They are mine so I am responsible to pay for everything they need out of my own money.  So when I receive donations - funds or items - for the Wishers, it goes for the Wishers only.  That's why getting this sofa bed with your explicit instructions that it be for MY OWN cats is so exciting.  It's so much fun to have such a beautiful bed in my home for my own kitties.  I then thanked June for her long-time support and for the very special gift of the sofa!

Now this beautiful (secretly coveted) sofa bed is in my family room.  Several cats have tried it out, but most haven't stayed when I've gotten up to snap a picture.  Evers, on the other hand, had no problem with me getting his picture (several times actually).  And Trudi was so sound asleep that she never knew I took the pic.

 

 

 

 

June – THANK YOU.

Andrea – THANK YOU.

And again to everyone who helps Winnie’s Wish by bidding at Andrea’s auctions, having her do commissioned work, and by buying raffle tickets for this sofa – THANK YOU.

 

Andrea’s Help & Talent

This is the first chance I’ve had to mention Andrea’s Raffle to benefit Winnie’s Wish.  Andrea made a beautiful fancy cat bed and sold tickets to make money for the Wishers.   Here is a picture of that bed.

 

Amazing!  I have said many times on this blog that I am in awe of Andrea’s talent.  This luscious bed is gorgeous and Andrea did SUCH a wonderful thing by selling tickets to win this bed and gifting that money to the kitties of Winnie’s Wish.  Of course, just as I always say with Andrea’s auctions – without the participation of all of you fantastic folks these things wouldn’t be successful.  Ticket sales were GREAT and Andrea raised $470 for Winnie’s Wish (and then she and Greg rounded up).  THANK YOU Andrea and thank you to all who participated!

And that’s not all.  Andrea always puts many of her handcrafted items in her auctions.  But what you might not know is that she also does commissioned work.  Just recently, she did some work for a person who asked specifically for some things Andrea makes.  With the money, she sent supplies to Winnie’s Wish.  Andrea and husband Greg “round up” and always kick in some of their own money.  It was wonderful to have supplies delivered here from Andrea and Greg.   I want to advertise some of the items that Andrea makes for people who ask for them during times when there is not an auction to shop at.

 

puffy bed

 

 

crocheted bed

 

 

fish taco

 

 

sardines

 

 

toy set

 

 

Andrea has had the title of Number One Fundraiser for Winnie’s Wish.  Looks like she’s gonna keep it!

Andrea – THANK YOU.

 

Wildlife Wednesday - Babies Bring a Smile

A quick note before I start today's post.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind words about Daffy.  I've read all of the comments several times.  It's been almost a week now that she's been gone.  I miss her so much.  But I've been here many many times.  And I will be here many more times.  I know that time heals.  The last month of Daffy's life sure wasn't very good for her.   I am grateful that Daffy is no longer suffering.

And Cynthia - THANK YOU.

Now on to some babies.  Everyone can smile when they look at a baby.

I believe I posted two weeks ago about Older Daughter’s wildlife rescue.  It’s Spring and that means orphaned babies.  This year it’s been squirrels.  I told you about the first two.  A third one came in but only lived a few hours.  Now a fourth little squirrel has made its way to Wild Angels.

 

The first two are doing well!  They are now learning how to eat “squirrel food.”  It won’t be long before they will be weaned off of formula.

 

 

Unfortunately, Older has received some baby bunnies, too.   I won’t write another long post about how hard it is to keep baby bunnies alive.  But I will remind everyone to tell your friends and family – DO NOT remove baby bunnies from their nest.  Mom doesn’t show up for many hours at a time, but she WILL show up.  Bunnies need mother’s milk; formula cannot replace mother’s milk for bunnies.  So unless a person KNOWS that the mom rabbit was killed, the babies should be left in the nest if discovered.  Older first received two little bunnies.  Sadly, one has already died; the other one is not doing well.  Then she received another bunny.  Older was successful last year and kept some baby bunnies alive and they were successfully released.  But more times than not, they do not survive without mother’s milk.  We’ll keep our fingers crossed that these two will make it.

 

the first two; only one survived

 

 

the surviving one with the newest one

 

Spring babies!  Sad that they are orphaned, but luckily there are wildlife rescues like Wild Angels where a few will still get the chance to live their lives.

 

[Note – I don’t usually blog on Thursdays but I will do a post tomorrow about Andrea’s fancy cat bed raffle and also about some of Andrea’s commissioned work for Winnie’s Wish.  Hope you’ll stop by.]

 

 

Daffy

Thank you for all of the kind and supportive comments on last week’s post about Daffy.   We lost her on Thursday.  I posted on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I knew she was worse.  We were down to only one of the anti-vomiting medications; the other one had stopped working altogether.   Unfortunately, Daffy vomited three times in a two-hour period on Wednesday and that was WITH the anti-vomiting medication that had been continuing to work.    I could also hear her breathing – just a small sound that you had to listen closely for.  I decided I would take her in on Thursday to see if maybe she was developing a mild case of pneumonia.  Sometimes even a small amount of aspiration during syringe feeding can cause pneumonia.  I hated to try to add an antibiotic since Daffy couldn’t hold anything down without strong medication.  And honestly, in the back of my mind I was afraid that we might have entered a new stage in her disease.  The diagnosis was histoplasmosis which settles in an area of the body.  In Daffy’s case, it was her gastrointestinal system.  But it can spread to be in multiple systems of the body.  All day Wednesday I kept thinking about the possibility that the disease had now taken her lungs.  She already felt so bad.  It was extremely hard to watch her wasting away.  Even though I was force-feeding her four to five times a day, she was losing weight.  She was lethargic.  And constantly nauseated.  On Wednesday she was vomiting even with the anti-vomiting medication on board.  And now her breathing had changed.  During one of the times we sat together, I asked her if she could show me when it was time to let her go.  I told her that I would keep fighting for as long as I needed to, but that I didn’t want to keep her alive for me.  I asked her to please let me know when she’d had enough.

I got up on Thursday morning and went into her room.  At first I didn’t see her.  Then I found her hiding.  When I talked to her, she got up and tried to walk to me and stumbled.  I noticed her breathing immediately.  She could barely get a breath.  She struggled to breathe, struggled to stay upright, then collapsed onto her side.   The tears started pouring down my face.  As soon as I could, I contacted my vet.  We’d reached the end.

Daffy was an extremely sweet, feral-start, half-grown kitten when she came here.  Her sister Daisy was more outgoing, less feral, and she was adopted.  Daffy’s mother, Fannie, is a Wisher.  Though feral, she is happy living at Winnie’s Wish where she has shelter, food, and water.  Her only request is that I not touch her.   When Daffy’s sister got adopted, I hoped the same for her.  It never happened and eventually she became one of our own.  She was shy and would only come for attention occasionally.  She loved one of the heated beds in our family room.  She loved her supper time.  She was part of our family.  It was hard to lose her because it’s ALWAYS hard.  But it was especially difficult after having spent countless hours with her since the end of February when she became ill.

I had desperately wished for a different outcome.  But I know Daffy is no longer suffering. 

 

when she first came here

 

 

about a year ago (happier times)

 

Daffy – Farewell.