Iams Dry Cat Food Recall

In my newspaper today, July 26,2010 the following appears:

P&G is recalling two lots of Iams renal dry cat food because it could be contaminated with salmonella the company said Sunday. The products are available by prescription through veterinary clinics. No illnesses have been reported but an FDA &%^ysis identified positive results on two lots of Iams Veterinary Formulas Feline Renal 5.5 lbs: numbers 01384174B4 0 19014 21405 1 and 01384174B2 0 19014 21405 1. Codes are found in the lower right corner on the back of the bag.

Anyone owning the food should throw it out. Pets can become infected and people handling the food can become infected with salmonella if they do not wash their hands.

Customers seeking more information or a refund may call P&G at 833-894-4458.

http://media.iams.com/iams/en_US/data_root...ll_message.html

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That's all the paper said. Protecting our precious ones is always paramount.

R.i.p. Keeper, Little Guy, Little Girl

Keeper and Little Guy (twins) and Little Girl were born on May 28, 1991 in our backyard.

R.I.P.
Keeper May 28, 1991 - January 2002 Little Guy May 28, 1991 - September 2007
Little Girl May 28, 1991 - June 2006


I hope where you are there is lots of Birthday cake and kitty presents. It was a joy to have you as part of our life. We hope you know you are in our thoughts each and every day.

We miss you and love you,
"Mom" and "Dad"

My Boy Is Gone Forever

My beautiful long-haired black cat (my boy) is gone forever. I had to make an instant decision on 9/10 to put him down. The vet said his chest was full of fluid and his gums were blue from very little oxygen. He had struggled to come from the back of our home to the front room to lie down on one side with his mouth open. It was so scary. He got up and moved a couple of feet and did it again. I thought he had died. We rushed him to the vet and he was put on oxygen. The fact he was 16 years old, had lost weight over the past few weeks...well, the vet guessed at a cancer somewhere in his body and what they would have had to do to help him survive maybe 4 weeks, or maybe the next day it would be another emergency to drain his chest. That draining causes a lot of pain. I couldn't let him suffer but I didn't want to let him go either. So the instant decision to put him down. Now I can't stop crying everyday. He was so gentle and sweet. I miss him so.

I thought how I had told the vet that purring seemed to choke him up; she said she never heard of that. I said he sits with his tongue hanging out a little. She didn't know what that meant. I saw a picture on the Internet of a cat who was having trouble breathing and his tongue looked just like my boy's. Maybe if the vet understood breathing problems she might have been able to do something before something horrible went wrong all of a sudden and his chest filled with so much fluid, he could not breathe hardly at all. I didn't know when I scooped him up, it would be the last time I would hold him.

I have had dogs and cats all my life and believed that when one goes it may be God's way of making a home available for one that needs it. 16 years is the longest I ever had an animal and it was wonderful. This cat was the last to go of 3 kittens originally born in our yard and he was my favorite.

Grief is easier to bear when there is at least one other animal at home, at least for me. Thanks for listening. I needed to talk.

I read all everyone's stories and I feel for all of you. We love them so much, that's why there is so much pain. But I wouldn't have not had them to avoid the pain that comes in the future. It is never never easy. I don't know how to bottle my grief.
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This is some of what I first posted about my boy …about 8 weeks after his death. The pain is still here. Sometimes I think the reason we can comfort others is we are still living our pain everyday. And our pain “talks” to their pain. Through encouraging them, we are encouraging ourselves. And I thank the many wonderful friends I have met here for their words of encouragement. And your many thank-yous really do help ease the pain that is never-ending. I learned not to bottle my grief....but to try and channel it. It seems ironic to think that maybe we learn about life…..from death.

What Ifs

In our world of loss...so many times...so many of us have the same thoughts when dealing with a decision that is so final for our loved ones.

I think most of us have seen on TV the miracle of the plane that landed in the Hudson River recently with the ending of the survival of all 155 souls aboard. I just read part of an interview with the Captain who made that landing, Captain Sullenberger, and I was surprised to read this part:

"Sullenberger took control of the plane from his first officer and glided it to safety. He said that in the aftermath of the emergency landing, he lay awake at night SECOND GUESSING his performance, even though all 155 people on board survived. He said he initially had trouble forgiving himself because he thought he could have done something different in that "critical situation". "The first few nights were the worse," Sullenberger said, "when the WHAT IFS started."

"He said he no longer regrets his actions that day, calling his decision to land in the river "the only viable alternative" to trying to return to LaGuardia Airport or landing at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey."

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I never would have thought this man would have had all of this torturing his mind ..after what he did saved 155 lives. We deal with a decision that affects our loved ones lives and it is our loss that makes us think of the "what ifs", etc. (I capitalized the above words in his article because those were the ones I see and we all think so often here.)

Reading this article made me realize how these questions come up no matter if the result of the decision is happy or sad. It kinds of reinforces it when we say and accept.....we made the right decision at the time and we really have to fight the what ifs..that we see comes more naturally than we could ever imagine. We use them when we suffer a loss and yet this man went through the same mind torturing process AFTER knowing the result of his decision was...no losses at all.

Hope this helps us all realize the what ifs do nothing for our grief and can make it worse and that's why we must fight those thoughts every time they come into our mind.

Peace and healing to all of us,
Judy

Another Microchip Success Story

This was a story I read in a recent newspaper about a cat in California who was found:

Title: Cat back home after more than 13 years

A Santa Rosa, Calif couple recently had an unexpected reunion with an old housemate. Their pet cat who went missing more than 13 years ago.

George, who was last seen by Melinda Merman and Frank Walburg in 1995, was turned in to an animal hospital after the manager of a mobile home park trapped the sickly feline.

A microchip implanted in George allowed him to be traced back to his owners.

END OF STORY


What an amazing boy. I hope he was not too "sickly". But the owners must be in total amazement.

It is nice to read of these success stories. I know my new boy that I adopted from my local SPCA is microchipped and the first thing I did was make sure the information on his microchip would always bring him home to me..if he managed to get out.

Anyway, when my neighbor's cat disappeared and the local Animal Control told her they do not check for microchips..they just euthanize new animals...that was so sad and maddening to hear that I am glad to read here about successful microchip returns.

Judy