#morkie – Pet Momma

Volunteering Update

Puck says TGIF! He’s bit tired today, who knows why. Our son got a new kitten and he is home for the weekend with his cat and the new kitten. Strangely, my two cats are so excited to see their friend Martin, that they haven’t really paid any attention to the new kitten. It’s been a nice and uneventful introduction.

Here’s Martin and the yet-unnamed girl kitten. She’s tiny and sweet.

Cali is doing so much better! She’s still eating the Dr. Harvey’s food that I mentioned in a previous post. I think we have found a winner! I’ve cut her pain meds down to once a day, and I’m slowly backing off of them all together. We took her hiking last weekend and she did great! I was a little nervous about her over doing it, so I did pick her up and carry her a couple of times, but that was more me than her. We hiked about 2 miles, and she came home and slept well, but it didn’t seem to bother her leg any more than usual.

I enjoyed pulling out my old baby sling for her, and it worked great!

My foster friend Kanga the cockatoo, now hates me. I’ve volunteered at the shelter to take care of the parrots a few times since I had to bring him back, and he just ignores me. He won’t dance or interact with me at all. This week, he just went to the back of his cage and wouldn’t even take a treat when I offered it. I think it’s really me that he is upset with. Parrots are so smart. I see videos of him dancing and playing with our volunteers and staff members. Sorry I had to bring you back Kanga, you were just too loud for our house!

I have been making progress with some of the other birds at the shelter. There is one macaw left and he is huge! No denying that I’m a bit intimidated by him. He has tried to step up on to my arm a few times in past visits and I just wasn’t comfortable with it. That beak is huge!

This week I got brave and let him step up. He was great! We walked across the room and got a treat which I gave him as soon as he stepped back on to his cage. I picked him up again a little while later and we went and sat in a chair. I talked to him and scratched his head for a bit. He’s heavy! I had to rest my arm on my knee so that I could hold him up after a while. He got another treat when he stepped back on his cage. It was all very uneventful, in a good way. It’s such a cool opportunity to be able to spend quality time with these big birds!

I also made friends with an Amazon parrot. He won’t step up for me, but he is taking treats from my hand now, definite progress.

I’m really going to miss these birds when they all get adopted! Of course, I’ll be very happy when they all have permanent homes, but I have really enjoyed the experience of working with them and having a foster parrot.

New for me, I started training as a Lobby Greeter at the shelter this week. I think I’m going to love this position. I meet people as they come in to the shelter and help point them in the right direction for whatever animal they are looking for. While I was there this week, I saw two dogs, a cat, and a bunny get adopted! So rewarding to see excited people and happy animals leaving the shelter!

The dragon realized there is sunshine on the cat bed next to her cage, so I let her come out and hang there while I worked the other day, she loved it! She spent some time in the actual cat bed, then wandered over to stare at me for a bit. The cats aren’t sure they like sharing their bed, but they can share for a short time in the afternoon once in a while. Once it warms up outside, I’ll bring the dragon outside for some real sunshine. She even has a little harness and leash!

Have a great weekend. I’m hoping to get Cali out for another short hike, and also hoping the cat introductions continue to go peacefully. Comment and let me know what you are up to this weekend.

Cali Update

I think I posted about Cali hurting her leg about a month ago? If not, Cali basically did the dog-equivalent of tearing her ACL. She is not a candidate for surgery because of her age, kidney issues, and heart murmur. We’ve been managing her with pain medicines, but she is still limping and not getting around very well. The vet switched her to another pain med last week and that is helping a bit. On Monday, she is going to start laser treatments. Hopefully that will help accelerate the healing process. I’ve done laser treatments myself for stubborn muscle issues and found them helpful, so hopefully they hope Cali!

We had beautiful, sunny weather today, so I couldn’t resist taking Cali for a walk. She seemed to want to go, so we took it slow and didn’t go far. We walked roughly a block, and she still seemed to want to go, so we walked just a little more and then she stopped and looked at me, so we turned around. She seemed to enjoy the slow pace and getting out to sniff! I had some yard chores to do, and she happily stayed outside with me for a while to smell everything in the yard, and to rest in the sunshine.

I’m also trying yet another new food for Cali, Dr. Harvey’s food. Basically it is a dry mix that I will add protein, water, and oil to and mix up fresh to create a new meal for Cali. There is a special low-protein recipe to help her kidney issues, and I’ve also ordered a kidney supplement from them that I’ll try with her. I emailed them to ask what proteins they recommend for kidney dogs, and they told me they will help me customize a diet for her, so I’m waiting for a call from them. Cali hates all the low protein prescription foods I’ve been trying for her, and they are all expensive. Really hoping that this mix might be the answer for her. I’ve mixed up a batch from the sample bag I just got for her to try for dinner. Fingers crossed that she likes it!

Mixing it up was super easy, I just mixed one day’s worth to try it, but I could mix up to 3 days at a time and store it in the fridge. You mix the dry product from the bag with hot water and let it sit for about ten minutes. It’s kinda like making hot oatmeal, and I think there are even oats in this mix! Next I stirred that, and today I added hard boiled eggs as protein since I had them. I think lean chicken and turkey are going to be better alternatives with Cali’s kidney issues, but this was an easy way to try it. I mixed in the eggs, and added a teaspoon of oil, easy. Now it’s in the fridge and ready for Cali’s dinner!

As a quick Kanga/foster bird update, I got her a new toy. She LOVES to destroy wood! Here’s the toy before and after about 10 minutes.

Kanga wastes no time destructing wood! I just ordered a new six pack of perches since he eats through them pretty quickly. The current one is short, but wide and it has been lasting a bit longer. Overall, K is doing great. He doesn’t always want head scratches, so I’m trying to give him treats and reward him when he hangs out near me and doesn’t run into his cage to hide when I approach. Moving slowly to not overwhelm him, but making some progress. We’ve also been having dance parties every morning. I’ve tried some different songs, but I have to say that Levitating is still his favorite!

Weekend With Cali

It’s been tough dealing with Cali, trying to keep her from doing too much, carrying her around, medicating her, and constantly checking on her. This morning I woke up to her barking at 6:30AM and had to go find her. She made her way downstairs (I’m going to have to gate the stairs from now on), had an accident, and couldn’t get back up to the bedroom. I wish she had just woken me up to put her out!

Today, I have to give a huge thank you to Treat Planet. I discovered their treats in a local pet store recently, and reached out about getting some more products to review. They sent me an amazing variety of treats, and it has been a life saver with Cali being injured.

The chew sticks, bars, jerky and Yumm Sticks have been great for keeping Cali occupied while she can’t really move around.

This Etta Says bacon flavored chew kept Cali busy all day yesterday. I like that there were no messy crumbles, no stains on her bedding, no odor, and she worked on it all day and there is still about a third of it left.

The Etta Says brand focuses on meat-based treats and unique chews. They are easy to digest, and thankfully they aren’t smelly!

I’ll be writing more about Treat Planet in the coming weeks, but wanted to thank them for their perfect timing on these treats for Cali! I’ll be writing about some of their other brands in the coming weeks. Overall, they have 5 different brands with different focuses, surely something for every type of canine.

Do you have a favorite brand of treats? What do you look for in a treat? Let me know!

Happy New Year!

Lots of updates coming in later this week!

Cali got a new treat. It’s from Treat Planet. I hadn’t heard of this brand before, and the treat was literally an impulse purchase at my local pet store yesterday. I had no idea it would be such a huge hit! I got the Etta Says Crunchy Chicken and Chia chew bar. I’ll write up more about it later this week.

Today is a big day for Logan the cat. I start navigating her diabetes journey. She was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago and we’ve been waiting for test results to confirm and then making a treatment plan. We’ve decided to try a new Medicine called Bexacat. It’s an insulin-free treatment option. I picked up the medicine yesterday and will start the first dose today. Logan will need to have blood work done on Tuesday to make sure things are going OK. I’m finding it’s an interesting an involved path dealing with a diabetic cat. I’ll be sharing it all here and would love comments, questions and feedback from anyone else dealing with a diabetic cat. More on that later this week as well.

Bean and Puck

Bean and Puck enjoyed the holidays, and now they have been taste-testing a new creamy cat treat for me from Catit. This is another treat that seems to be a big hit in our house right now. More on that soon!

Wena the bearded dragon LOVES our new kitchen sink. Not sure if it is the color, size, material, whatever, but she is so happy bathing in it. She’s been pretty picky about her food lately, but I found a trick online that suggested baby food veggies for picky dragons, and it is working well. She had some purple carrot baby food with her breakfast today.

Cali isn’t a big fan of the cold. She’s spending as much time as she can snuggled up in blankets.

She also really likes the new candy cane pajamas she got for Christmas! Because I seem to have more than my share of pet issues these days, have I shared about Cali’s bump? She has a growth on her neck that the vet says is benign and nothing more than an annoyance, but it’s growing. It’s about the size of a dime and raised off her skin. She tends to scratch at it at times, and there is concern that eventually she will end up with an infection. We have tried to freeze it off twice, but it didn’t help. Surgery is the only removal option now, and I’m not sure I want to put my 14 year old dog with a heart murmur and kidney issues through surgery even if it is minor. For now, I’m keeping an eye on the lump and hoping it doesn’t get worse.

Thankfully Hector D. Byrd is thriving. She’s really my buddy. Someone would think I’m crazy listening to my house all day. Working at home, I find myself constantly chatting with her. She’s such great company!

Check back for all kinds of updates soon, and have a great weekend!

Way too long!

With one very cuddled up Puck to welcome you back to the blog, here’s a quick update with a promise of more to follow. I have been terrible about posting and hope to get back to it on a more regular basis next year.

Cali is getting older. She’s 14 now and starting to have some kidney issues. We found out because she had a couple of back to back infections. The vet has prescribed some medication and a prescription diet. She HATES the prescription diet. The food is all low protein, so it is basically a bowl of rice. I’ve tried mixing in pumpkin, different baby food veggies, veggie broth, etc. She’s not having it. She’s losing weight and I’m not sure what to do about it. She seemed to like the Just Food for Dogs prescription kidney food at first, but she isn’t eating it very well anymore. I just ordered a bunch of Royal Canin renal health food, and she is eating that a little better. I’m nervous about her losing weight. A pound or two is a lot when your total body weight is only 11 pounds!

Logan the cat is also having kidney issues. She’s also on a prescription diet, but thankfully she is eating her food without issue. She is still having issues controlling her bladder, so she is still confined, but she is doing well and seems very content.

Bean is still just Bean. He’s happily keeping an eye on the Christmas tree for us.

I’ve had puppy fever really bad. I signed up to foster for a shelter thinking that it might help to ease my puppy wanting, but so far there haven’t really been any fosters available. There was one, but she was a very active adult dog, and without a fenced in yard I was worried about what it would be to take her in. I was told she wasn’t the easiest and maybe not the best choice for a first foster, and not wanting me first experience to be a super challenging one. I passed.

There was an adorable little dog on Facebook the other day that I came very close to applying for, but after ordering more prescription food for Cali, I decided maybe I should let the medical issues settle in a bit here before I actually do take on another dog.

Hector D. Byrd is doing great. She was pissed at me for a bit because we were doing some remodeling and we had to move her cage upstairs and out of the way for a few weeks. She’s back in her usual spot now and much happier. I’m happier too, I like having her near my work area.

Wishing everyone and their feathered, furred, scaled babies the very happiest of holidays! Hoping to be back more regularly next year!

Puck and Martin doing a little bird watching

Eufy Fountain and Catlink Update

Happy Hiking Dog! Cali may be little, but she loves hiking through the woods. I was so thankful the weather warmed up a bit last weekend and we got out for a nice hike. Now I just need to find time to give her a Spring haircut!

Before I talk about my new eufy pet fountain, an update on the Catlink boxes now that they are a regular part of my life. I LOVE THEM! They aren’t cheap, but they are worth every single penny we spent on them. Scooping litter boxes has become (mostly) a thing of the past. If I didn’t have a sick cat*, I wouldn’t be scooping boxes at all!

We have two Catlink boxes now, one upstairs in our laundry room, and one all the way downstairs under the staircase. I check the boxes once a day, honestly, sometimes every other day. I check to make sure there aren’t any clumps stuck to the top of the box, if there are, I just scrape it off with a litter scoop, and push the button to run the clean cycle, so easy! Once every 5 days or so, I check the bottom compartment to make sure it isn’t too full. When it gets full, I remove the bag, close it up tight, throw it away, and add a new bag. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes. One of the Catlink boxes will tell me when the bottom is full, but I’ve found if I wait for it to tell me, it’s actually a bit over full. Easier to check it every few days and change as needed. All of the cats have adapted to the Catlink boxes. I will say that the “optional” step really isn’t optional. It makes a huge difference. Not only does it make the box much more accessible for the cats, but it also helps keep any litter mess in check. Speaking of litter, cheap, scoopable, clay litter is all I’m using, most often TidyCat. The Catlink needs a litter with a little weight. TidyCat is cheap and readily available.

The only negative about the automatic boxes, and I think this is true of Catlink or any of the other brands, is that they are large. I’m very lucky I was able to find space for them where they aren’t in the way.

One more word of advice on the Catlink box, for reliability, attach it to a UPS/battery back up unit. They don’t deal well with power flickers. We lose power a few times a year usually, and often before the power goes out, we get flickers. Unfortunately, the Catlink box doesn’t deal well with the flickers and it sometimes stops working. We were having to reset the box with every power flicker, but that problem has been solved by plugging the boxes into a battery backup.

Another product I’m super excited about is the eufy pet water fountain P940. I’ve been using this fountain for a couple of months now, enjoying the simplicity of it. It’s easy to clean, and easy to use.

The eufy fountain is super simple to put together. It’s got a water basin, a tube for the water fountain, a filter and filter base, a stainless steel drinking surface, and the fountain spout.

It’s super simple to set up, just stack the pieces together and it’s good to go. The filter should definitely be rinsed before use so that there isn’t extra charcoal in the drinking water.

The tiny dot in the center of the white base is actually an LED light. If it’s red, the water level is too low and it’s time to refill. The water tank and everything on top of it easily lift off the base to refill. I pick it up, remove the spout, drinking tray, and filter tray, rinse everything and refill. Once a week, I do a more through wash of the whole thing before I refill it. With three cats and a small dog in the house, I am refilling every day, so I do wish the water storage was a bit bigger, but it works.

The unit plugs into an AC outlet, so there aren’t any batteries to worry about. For me this works out great, but if you don’t have an outlet near where you want to keep the fountain, it might be an issue.

Following are some visual from the box so you can see the setup diagrams:

And features:

Overall I’ve been really happy with this eufy fountain. I like that there is a stainless surface for the pets to drink from, so they aren’t drinking directly from plastic. I have had issues in the past with one of the cats breaking out on his face and chin, and the vet said it could be from a bacteria that gets into plastic surfaces, so now I only use metal food and water dishes. Refilling and cleaning are easy and quick. The filters are available to purchase on Amazon, or directly from the eufy website.

If there is one thing I would fix, I’d like a larger water capacity. Filling the fountain every day is fine, but it would be nice to have a large enough capacity to fill every other day. For most people, the capacity would probably be fine, but when we have four cats and the dog in the house, it takes more refilling than normal.

Martin is here visiting again, and he approves of the Catlink litter box and the eufy fountain! Anyone else use a pet fountain? What type do you use? What features are your favorites? Leave a comment and let me know or just say Hello!

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*The reason I still have one litter box to scoop is that Logan, my old lady cat, is still living in her cat condo. She is lose for a few hours every day and uses the Catlink box, but she also has a regular box in her condo.

Super Quick Update

Bean and Cali went to the vet today. Bean for his annual check up. He’s all good, weighed in at his almost 16 lbs, and got his rabies shot.

Cali got her Cytopoint injection to help with her itchiness.

Mostly we talked about Logan. We’ve decided to try her on medication to try and help her anxiety. I don’t love the idea of medicating, but I hate the idea of having our couch peed on all the time even more.

We’ll start her on meds next week after my weekend trip when I’m home to monitor her for a while. Fingers crossed it helps!

Anyone else have cats with litter box issues? How did you solve it? Leave a comment.

All Around the World

May has been a super busy month around here. I’ve traveled to the other side of the country, and hit several different countries as well. Traveling always reminds me how small the world really is, and how similar people are. We all want the same things, happiness, comfort, and peace. We all love our families (and pets!)

I was away from my pets quite a bit in May. Thankfully I have great pet sitters for everyone, so even though I get very nervous leaving them, they are all happy and content. Everyone needs extra attention now that we are back home, especially the cats!

Hector gave me a scare this trip. I got a text from my sitter that she had tried to fly and landed badly. She was favoring one foot, and the sitter wasn’t sure what to do. I told him to leave her in her cage and keep an eye on her. I’d seen this happen before and she was fine after a short time and thankfully the same thing happened this time, but I was very happy to get home a couple of days later to check on her.

Going through my full mailbox when I got home, I found an email about a free 30 day perfect pet class. It’s by Zak George, a trainer I had watched before. I dug into it a little bit and it does seem to be totally free. It is affiliated with Pupford so there is some advertising to wade through, but it hasn’t been bad so far. Cali is 9 years old, definitely to a puppy, but she does have some annoying habits. I thought it might be fun to give it a try and share my results here. My goals would be simply to get Cali listening better. For example, she knows to come when call, but sometimes just ignores me, not a safe habit. She also barks, a lot, and if I could lessen that, it would make her a much nicer resident. If nothing else, a month of training will be a good refresher for both of us.

Sh*t Show – or My Pooper Scooper Review!

No one enjoys dealing with poop. It’s just part of life, and dog owners know it’s just something you have to deal with.

I’ve tried to teach Cali to poop in the woods, but apparently that’s just for bears, and she’s not into it. She likes a nice patch of grass, usually right in a path where we want to walk around in our yard.

So I scoop the poop, because poop happens. I’ve been using a connected scooper thing that I guess I should have taken a picture of, because I’m not finding pictures online. My old one was pretty beat up and dirty so I thought I’d spare everyone the pictures. It was just two wooden handles attached to a rake and a flat scoop. You separate the handles, use the rake to push the poop unto the flat part, then you can hold it closed with one hand and bring it to wherever you need to dump it.

I just bought this scooper set to try something a little different. I thought having two pieces might be a nice change, and I really like it. Instead of fighting to make sure the pieces line up properly to scoop like I used to have to do with the old one, now I just put down the little scoop part and use the rake to push the poop into the scoop and carry it off to be dumped.

Cali is little, so she doesn’t make giant poops. I’m not sure this little set would work all that well for a Great Dane, but for a little Morkie it works great. I can even pick up a couple of piles at once with it.

The surface is non-stick or lovely slick coating that rinses clean very easily. The rake part clips to the scoop part so they are easy to store together. Another bonus is that the scoop part has a flat bottom, so it sits nicely near the wall.

The unit went together easily. Each part was well marked and they just screw together. I saw some reviews that people said the parts kept coming unscrewed, but I’ve used mine about a dozen times now, and haven’t had any problems.

I can’t say that this new scooper has made me enjoy cleaning up the yard, but on a nice Spring day when the sun is out, it definitely isn’t the worst chore.

Doggy Stick Review and Hector Story!

It’s always amazing to me to find connections to Hector D. Byrd’s past. Last week I received a message on Facebook from someone who had been a Hector fan back in her Ambrosia Software days. He was such a fan that he named the family’s cat after Hector! After reading an article that reminded him about Hector, he googled and found the Petmomma.co Facebook page and was happy to see that Hector is still thriving. I feel so lucky to have this girl in my life and it is always special to hear from others who have been impacted by Hector in the past! Any other Ambrosia software fans out there?

Cali girl has been lucky enough to test out Doggy Sticks recently, and we’ve both been super happy with the results.

We have two Doggie Sticks, Moisturizer and Prevent Itchiness.

Cali has skin allergies and is often itchy. We’ve been using Cytopoint injections recently with good results, but she still has itchy paws, especially in winter. I’ve been using the stick on her paws whenever I see her chewing on them, and she instantly stops. The stick is super easy to apply, just pull off the top and twist up the stick. I hold her paw in my hand and rub the stick on her paws, easy as that. I use my hands to rub it in a little, but I haven’t noticed any issues with the product getting on floors or carpets, it sinks right into her skin. I really like that the stick doesn’t have any strong odors.

According to the company, the formulas are handmade each day. Ingredients are natural: “The original moisturizer is made with organic, sweet almond oil and bamboo. The itch-free formula is made with coconut oil and a specialized bamboo mix for anti-itch that also recovers the skin.”

The key seems to be the bamboo used in both formulas, the company says it is a great natural anti-fungal solution. Original formula treats dry skin with bamboo as well as Vitamins E and A. The Anti-Itch formula also uses Coconut oil.

With its all natural ingredients, Doggy Sticks can be used as needed. For Cali, I sometimes used it morning and night when her itchiness was really bad, but other times I didn’t need to use it every day.

I know with road salt I end up washing Cali’s paws quite a bit in winter, and I’m excited to have the Moisturizer Doggy Stick to help combat winter dryness and cracking. I’m guessing it will also be handy to keep her paws dry and comfortable in summer. The Anti Itch stick will be something I always keep on hand for her. It’s so nice to be able to give her some relief when she is chewing at her paws.

You can find Doggy Sticks at Doggy Stick.com . The regular formula is currently selling for $5.99 and the Itchiness formula for $8.99.