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Irina the Belgian Marshmallow

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I last blogged. Horrible!

2019 ended up being crazy busy but hugely productive for me. After Rhea passed away at the end of 2018 I fell into a bad depression. She’d been with me for so much of my adult life, from New York to California to Arizona, and losing her hit me hard. I think because of that, I threw myself into volunteer work with the Arizona Animal Welfare League and SPCA, which drew me into volunteer work as a District Leader with the Humane Society of the United States. I also volunteered with the therapy dog program at the Phoenix Public Library. I absolutely love all of my volunteer roles. I also finished and published my next romance novel in the Infectious Rhythm series, Tremor. And I worked hard on getting my business plan together for opening the bookstore. So, throwing myself into my work has been a good thing. Hopefully I will accomplish as much in 2020, and hopefully that will include getting this bookstore off the ground!

But the biggest part of my year was taken up with a new dog I adopted.

Photo of Irina from Dogtopia, South Chandler.

After Rhea passed, I felt like Sofia, my chihuahua mix, who’d been Rhea’s bestie, took it hard too. For months afterward, she’d look around for her. I used to always ask her to find Rhea since Rhea was fond of hiding in cupboards, behind shoeboxes in the closet, or behind or underneath furniture, etc. And Sofia with her superb sniffer was always able to find her. Sofia knew she was gone but still sniffed around anyway. After Rhea’s scent had finally disappeared for good, Sofia would sit at the side porch window, where Rhea always tried to get out.

Katusha, our other cat, took it hard too. She didn’t eat a thing for two weeks, and began nearly living in the closet, clearly depressed.

I couldn’t really bear the thought of getting another cat. I felt like it might confuse and upset Katusha, and Sofia, being a terrier, is so hard to train to get along with cats. So I started keeping an eye out at the shelter for a dog that I thought would get along with Sofia and Katusha and would fit well into our family.

One day this rat terrier / chihuahua mix, Lucy, came in. She looked exactly like Sofia but was brown and was the same age and playfulness level of Sofia. And I knew she got along with cats. I called and told the shelter I was coming with my dog so they could have a meet and greet. My drive was only about 45 minutes but by the time I got there, Lucy had already been adopted. I knew that was likely to happen since Lucy was so cute, and I had other dogs in mind in case it did – all of them small since that was the kind of dog I was used to and the kind I felt would get along best with Kat and Sof.

Unbelievably, every single dog in that row failed their cat test with flying colors! I was so annoyed. “You people practically are cats!” I called down the row, throwing up my arms.

The adoption counselor suggested I leave Sofia in her room and walk around to see if there was anyone I might like to try from one of the larger dog rooms, since I was already there. I knew there were two labs in the back and I had some experience with labs and thought they might be good fit for us, so decided to give it a try. There was one yellow lab, five years old (can’t remember his name) sitting in a large kennel with this one-year-old Shepherd-looking person. The lab was lying down and looked up at me with tired eyes, while the Shepherd bounced all around pawing at the gate as if asking me to give her a walk. They were both brand new to the shelter and I hadn’t handled either of them yet. I thought I’d give the lab a try, but I distinctly remember looking at the Shepherd, named Irii, and thinking, “Sorry but no way; you’re way too high-energy for me!” Yeah, famous last words…

I returned to the counselor and gave her my sheet with the name of the labs. She looked at my application and said both were way too active for my lifestyle. She said I needed a dog the behaviorists had labelled “weekend athlete,” since that’s the time I’d mainly be giving the dog to exercise since I worked long hours during the week.

She looked at her list of “weekend athletes.” She found two, both cattle dogs: Jerry, and Irii. I recognized the latter name and thought she must be mistaken.

“Are you sure the cards aren’t mixed up and it’s the five-year-old lab who’s the more mellow one?” I asked. She shook her head. “Nope, Irii is the weekend athlete.”

First we tried Jerry but he growled at Sofia, which didn’t sit well with me. Sofia does tend to be possessive with me, so I knew I needed a dog who would just let her be the princess chi she was used to being and not demand my attention too much. So we decided to try Irii.

I laughed when they brought her into the yard, because, sure enough, it was the one I thought – the crazy bouncing Shepherd mix, which a behaviorist had labeled mellow enough to be content with few walks during the week. Unbelievably, she calmed down once in the big, open yard. She ran around a bit, sniffed Sofia, made easy friends with her, then sniffed me. When Sofia made it clear I was her mommy and she was number one, Irii backed right off. She was scared when going into the cattery so we didn’t get a good take on whether she would get along with cats. But she didn’t seem to NOT like them. The counselor told me she was a transfer from a rural shelter in Northern Arizona, and had likely been a stray, likely in the Navajo Nation. So she might be shy around me and other humans but would appreciate a dog friend.

So I decided to give it a try and do a weekend “slumber party.” The counselors put her in a dog carrier in the back of my Prius. I kept seeing her head bouncing all around with her curious eyes looking this way and that in the in the rear view mirror the whole ride home. I kept thinking, “Who is this German Shepherd you have in your car?” Cattle dog, Shepherd – made no difference to me – I had no experience with dogs like this. “What are you doing?” I wondered.

Once at home, she sniffed all around the living room, then found a corner and curled up. She spent most of the weekend there. She wasn’t very scared of me, but seemed overall not very confident in her surroundings. Which made perfect sense since she just got there. I led her into my bedroom, where I was keeping Katusha. When I carefully introduced them, Katusha got scared and hissed at her, and she whimpered and ran away, which I was told was a good response for a dog: meant she didn’t have a crazy prey drive and would respect boundaries.

I took a bunch of photos of her and posted them on Facebook and Instagram and everyone of course said she was beautiful and hoped I’d keep her. When I went back to the shelter to formalize the adoption I was still a little unsure. We hadn’t really bonded yet and I still didn’t know much about large breeds other than labs. But somehow I just felt right about it, like it would work out and would be an experience to boot. The behaviorist gave me the numbers of a couple of trainers to call and invited me to sign up for group classes at the shelter. I did both right away. I named her Irina, only slightly changing the name the shelter gave her but to something I connected with. (Dance background, Russian ballet and ballroom dancers and all 🙂 )

I adopted Irina on March 15, so it’s been nearly a year. And it’s been a very a wild ride. The behaviorists were right in that she definitely is mellow, especially given her age and breed. (I later found out through Wisdom Panel that she is a mix but mostly Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd.) I can take her for a short walk and let her run around the backyard a few times and she will be quiet the rest of the day. If she goes to daycare during the day while I’m at work, she’ll sleep in the car on the ride home, then all night in her kennel. She’s very easygoing with children and has never exhibited any aggression whatsoever to anyone. At every daycare she’s gone to, the employees all tell me she’s very mellow, often lounges around all day, and is extremely gentle with the other dogs and with all the humans.

Dogtopia dog of the week!

BUT. Having said all that… it wasn’t easy on me at the beginning. Initially, Irina suffered separation anxiety, which I now know is a common young Shepherd trait. When I left her at home for only minutes, she knocked down the gate I’d set up and tore apart the bedroom, tearing up books, the blinds, the door, everything she could find. I tried to keep her in a large kennel, but she escaped by tearing apart the latch. The trainer directed me to buy locks to latch her in more securely. That worked. But it didn’t make her separation anxiety better. She kept me up all night barking and crying in her kennel. I couldn’t let her sleep with us because she wasn’t getting along with Katusha. So I went out and slept on the couch, for months. After she was here a few weeks and became more comfortable, she started acting out toward the cat. Katusha was scared of her and continued to hiss, but Irina started barking back. I’ve gone through three at home trainers trying to get her to get along with Katusha.

Irina’s gotten out of her harness in the car and unlatched seat belts. Basically, high intelligence and emotion are a difficult mix, and I know now it takes an experienced handler to deal with them. One of my friends who used to run a white Shepherd rescue has helped a lot. But at first she begged me to take Irina back to the shelter because she thought I was simply in way over my head with such a dog. Two of the three professional trainers I hired told me the same. For some reason, I just wasn’t going to give up, even though, with all the trainers and daily daycare, I was spending thousands of dollars I really didn’t have. It’s taken me the better part of a year to really figure out how to handle her and and I’m still learning. Everyday.

My fuzzy sock!

I love this dog dearly and I’m so thankful she came into my life. She’s made a wonderful companion for Sofia and I’ve learned so much about dogs, and about myself. I’ve become a lot more social and made other dog guardian friends I otherwise never would have. We are still learning to live together though. She and Katusha are not entirely friends yet, and I can’t walk Irina and Sofia together because Irina gets too crazy when she’s with her sister – it becomes a competition of who can go faster or something and my shoulders nearly get ripped out of their sockets. I’m still learning to keep her from door dashing and bashing down the patio door. And I’m trying to alternate days between leaving her at home – her separation anxiety is almost gone – and going to daycare since I can’t afford daycare every single day. We still have a ways to go, but not anywhere near as long as the distance we’ve come. And I know now that I can do it.

This ended up being a far longer post than I meant! I meant only to explain why I’ve been absent for nearly a year from this blog. I guess what I really wanted to say is that, as I said, I’ve been doing a lot of shelter volunteer work and I hear shelter people all the time expressing so much anger at people who return their dogs. And I know how stressful it is to have another animal dropped off that you have to care for and find a home for. And I definitely have absolutely NO patience or respect for the person who dumps his dog because he’s a long distance runner and the dog is too old to keep up with him, so he wants to exchange this dog for a younger one. Believe me, we would NEVER adopt to that degree of loser. But there is a big difference between that kind of person and a person who tries very, very, very hard and simply doesn’t have what it takes to continue on with the dog they adopted. I could never have brought Irina back like some of my trainers suggested. She’s brought so much joy and experience to my life and and I’ve grown immensely because of her. And I’m pretty sure she’s happy here with her two sisters (even though one is still hissing at her – but what is life without a challenge?!), and her two-story house with the fun stairs and the big backyard. She is one of my three dearest friends and I love her beyond words. But, that doesn’t mean that every dog is for every person. There is absolutely nothing wrong with re-homing an animal if it’s going to be better for everyone involved, including that animal.

My two cents. Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough. I will be posting more of my own animals’ updates, and definitely more books that I’ve read. In the top photo, Irina is posing with a picture of a book I just finished reading by Debbie Burns, who is now one of my favorite romance authors. Her first series is called Rescue Me, and all the books involve dogs who bring their humans together. Sweetness! Okay, more to come! I promise!

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Sofia and Rhea

Sofia sitting at the back patio door.
“Mom,” Sofia says to me. “I sense Rhea out back. All the times you wouldn’t let her out because you were scared she would get hurt by the owls and coyotes and fast cars on the nearby freeway, and she wanted to go out so badly. Well, now she is free to roam wherever she wants, and she can’t get hurt. She is out there, but we can’t see her. She often comes to the patio to watch over us. Just thought I would tell you since I know how much you miss her.”
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Sweet Rhea

Rhea atop our fridge in West Hollywood, around 2014

Rhea passed away from her cancer November 29, almost a month ago now, and I’ve been quite heartbroken. She moved cross-country with me, and lived with me in five different apartments, and finally a house. She’d been with me through a tumultuous time in my life.

I adopted her from the ASPCA in New York in March, 2011. I’d been unemployed for nearly two years during the recession, and within a week of adopting her, I got my first post-recession job. Cats had always been good luck for me. The day I adopted my first cat in adulthood, Najma, I found out I’d passed the New Jersey bar exam, the first bar I took. The ASPCA told me Rhea was rescued from a hoarder, who had upwards of 70 cats! I hope that was in upstate somewhere and not in a New York City apartment. Anyway, the second I saw her in the shelter I knew she was the cat for me, the way she made eye contact immediately, and purred when I touched her. But it was clear she wasn’t used to people. She hid immediately when I got her home and didn’t come out from under the futon for nearly a week. I felt badly when I had to go back to work right after bringing her home, but I think nothing could have suited her better than to have a whole apartment all to herself.

Sitting in the bay window overlooking 71st Street, between Columbus and Central Park West.

She really loved our upper west side apartment. And so she should: it was a veritable cat gymnasium. She’d fly up the stairs to the bedroom loft, run to the corner, and jump onto the fireplace mantle. She loved sitting on that mantle and peeking out between the bars of the loft.

But when my lease renewed in October that year, I was tired of New York – all the noise, the lack of space, the lack of money – and decided to try Los Angeles.

Rhea was the best traveler ever. Especially for a cat. We flew from New York to Phoenix, without a peep out of her. Once we landed and I sat her carrier atop my suitcase, I peeked in to see her looking about in wonder, taking everything in. “This is the absolutely coolest experience ever,” she seemed to say.

In Phoenix, where I’m from, my cousin helped me buy a car – my first, having lived in New York City for the past 18 years, basically since becoming an adult. We drove to Los Angeles, with, again, not a peep out of Rhea. It turns out, she loved car rides and plane rides – it meant we were going off on an adventure!

We found an apartment in L.A. but it wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks, so we stayed with a variety of friends and relatives, and then lived for a week in a pet-friendly motel in west Phoenix.

We lived in Burbank for a year before relocating to fabulous West Hollywood, where we had a living room with a huge balcony and a bedroom with a splendid floor-to-ceiling window. “My cat’s going to love this place!” I exclaimed to the landlord, upon seeing it. He shot me a bemused look and said, “Sure.” Yes, I’m the crazy lady who thinks of her animals first. Well, I knew I’d love it there too, of course.

Our fab WeHo digs, overlooking Larabee Street, between Sunset and Santa Monica.

And, yes, when we later moved to Arizona, I chose my first house based on what I knew Rhea would like 🙂

After five years in L.A., I’d finally had enough of the traffic. I think living in New York for so long and from a young age had a permanent effect on my ability to drive without major anxiety. And know I wasn’t alone – my New York friend who’d moved to L.A. years before I did had to drive with a mouth guard so she wouldn’t destroy her teeth by grinding. When Uber became a thing, she took it everywhere. But I couldn’t afford to do that. I had to use my own car to get myself from place to place. As much as I loved West Hollywood, I had to work, and my jobs were either in Century City or downtown L.A., which meant I had to get in my car and risk a nervous breakdown everyday. I still miss L.A. – especially West Hollywood. If ever self-driving cars become affordable and become the norm – which, believe me, will happen long before any serious additions to the Metro system will – I really may move back.

While in L.A., we added to our family, adopting first a kitten, Katusha, then a puppy, Sofia, both from the L.A. County shelter. That apartment was the biggest I’d ever lived in, so there was plenty of space for more. Still, at first, Rhea was not too happy to have to share any of her space with another, but it only took about two weeks before she and Katusha got along.

Playful Katusha, and poor Rhea 🙂
And soon they were fine sharing space, especially the big window overlooking the deck. So many birds, squirrels, so much life out there!

Adjusting to a new dog took quite a bit longer than a new kitten, especially since Sofia, being part rat terrier (I think) just wanted to chase the cats all the time! Sofia wrote a blog post about learning to live with cats here. But Rhea was the first to accept Sofia and break the ice. One day she decided she wouldn’t be scared and run away; instead she’d chase Sofia and grab at her leash. The trainer had taught me to let Sofia run around the house with her leash on staying close behind to grab it if she got out of control. Well, Rhea was so excited by that snaky leash, she pounced on it, totally ignoring that it was attached to the big, bad dog 🙂 It took Katusha a bit longer to adjust, but that was the beginning of a very happy, three-way friendship. 

I missed New York but wasn’t sure whether I was ready to go back, especially now that I had three animals, and rents had gone up substantially since I’d left while the rate of pay for the legal work I was doing had stayed the same. I was used to Arizona (or so I’d thought; I hadn’t lived there in 23 years so not quite sure what I thought I knew), and knew there was work there, plus cheaper housing. So, I packed up the family and went.

Rhea always loved moves – the trips, and the packing boxes 🙂

We rented a condo for a few months until I found a house I wanted to buy. The house was a ways out of town, but I loved it the second I saw it, because the main living area reminded me of our old place in New York. It was two floors, but the living room area was open, so there’s a cathedral roof, and a big, two-floor room, with a balcony! Another kitty gymnasium!

Rhea on the bookcase which she accessed via the balcony.

And I was right. The first thing Rhea did when I unpacked her and the others, was run up the stairs, and peek out through the bars of the living room balcony. After we set up the furniture, she became fond of using the balcony to get access to the bookcase, where she’d perch for hours.

She loved the house. We had a big back yard with grass and trees, which drew plenty of birds and cottontail rabbits, and two big patio windows to watch it all through.

Rhea exploring the backyard with a harness.

I felt badly always letting Sofia go out back, so I bought a harness and let Rhea explore the backyard as well.

Rhea sunning at the back patio door with one of our favorite books.

She loved that window, such a sun kitty she was.

About a year and a half after we moved I discovered a bump on Rhea’s head. Sofia liked to play with her and would wrap her teeth around Rhea’s ear, so I thought it was maybe an infected abscess. But the doctor did tests and found it to be cancer. She referred me to an oncologist, and they both convinced me to opt for stereotactic radiosurgery, a relatively new form of radiation for animals. I’ve written about all of that in other posts, here and here.

Soon after her three-day radiation treatment, she was back to her old self, getting into everything in the house and sitting atop her old perch.

The day after coming home from stereotactic radiosurgery.
In the stroller, being carted around south Chandler.

And she still loved her outdoor stroller rides. I bought the stroller after her diagnosis. I’d always wanted to take her out more, since she loved the outdoors so much, and worried she wouldn’t be able to do that much longer. So, we tried to make up for lost time.

Everything went well for about a month, and then her hair started falling out, which I expected. But what I didn’t expect was all the radiation burns. They spread all across her head and ears. I put a cone around her neck so she wouldn’t scratch them and risk infection but she was so depressed wearing that cone, I soon took it off. The burns got infected anyway, and we went through several rounds of antibiotics, painkillers, and steroids. The tumor had initially shrunk but the skin around her radiation burns began to swell. The doctor didn’t know if the tumor had returned or whether there was just swelling from the infection. I was beside myself because the burns looked awful. Initially, she got better after her initial rounds of painkillers, but the infection wouldn’t heel and the swelling increased. It began to seep into her ear and the ear closed up, which soon made her lose her balance.

It was all so awful and I just kept trying to get those burns to heal. Finally, on the morning of November 29th, Sofia woke me up unusually early, sticking, as she usually does, her big wet nose into my eye lids. I looked at the time – 3:00 a.m. – and yelled at her to use her wee wee pads if she had to go to the bathroom so early. Of course after I got up two hours later I realized what the problem was. Rhea was sitting in a box my mom had set up for her when she visited a couple weeks back. Her head was leaning all the way to the side, and when she got up to walk, one side of her body just wouldn’t work. It was like she’d had a stroke. I realized then her loss of balance wasn’t the infection spreading into her ear; it was neurological. I called the oncologist as soon as he opened and he told me to bring her to emergency room connected with his clinic. When I got her there he said the tumor had grown substantially since the radiation and was now affecting her brain. We’d done all we could, he said.

So, it was about five months from the time I first noticed the tumor until she passed away, and about three months from the time she’d had the radiation. I may have prolonged her life for, at most, a month, with the stereotactic radiosurgery, and, honestly, I’m not sure I would put another animal through it. I feel like she suffered a lot from those burns, and I’m not sure that month was worth it in terms of the pain. I don’t know. I’m not God. So who am I to say what treatment or lifesaving support is worth it and what is not? The vet had told me the therapy had not been performed much on cats, only on dogs, so maybe medicine will improve. I’m sure it will.

The first couple weeks were very hard because I kept expecting her to rub up against my leg in the kitchen in anticipation of food, or sitting down at my feet while I wrote. She never was much of a touchy-feely cat. She didn’t like being held, or even petted much. I think that was because of the hoarding situation she grew up in and her early distrust of humans. But she showed her love in her own way. She’d follow me around the house. Everywhere I was, I’d look up and she’d be curled up somewhere close by. She always sat at my feet when I wrote. She always sat in the rocking chair in the living room when I watched TV.

I’ve had animals die before and I thought this would be easier since I had two others. But it wasn’t. It was just the same. Katusha didn’t eat for a week, and whenever I said I missed Rhea, which I said often, Sofia would run around looking for her. That was always a favorite game for Sofia and me, especially toward the end when I needed to give Rhea her medication and she’d hide from me. I’d say, “Where’s Rhea?” And Sofia would run all around the house, banging open cupboards and looking through closets until we found her. After a while, Sofia would look at me strangely when I said Rhea’s name. Initially she’d start to look around then, realizing Rhea’s scent was gone, would run to the patio window and look out. It makes sense that, since the last time she saw Rhea, Rhea was going outside in her carrier. So she must still be out there. Someday she’ll come back.

I have the urn holding her ashes on top of the bookcase where she used to sit. Someday I’ll get a cool cat urn, but for now the polished wood the crematorium gave me is fine. What I didn’t expect was the pawprint they included. I didn’t order it, so they must have just included it for free. But it’s beautiful, and it really made me cry.

As soon as I’m finished with revisions to my middle-grade mystery, I am going to return to a cat cafe cozy I was writing. The main cat in that novel is based on Najma, who passed away over thirteen years ago from a heart condition. Now, I’m creating a role for a cat based on Rhea as well. My animals never really die 🙂

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Update on Rhea

I last wrote about Rhea’s experience with stereotactic radiosurgery about two weeks after she had finished treatment. She was doing well then, which of course thrilled me because I had no idea what to expect.

It’s now been a little over two months. A couple of days after we came home from her two-week follow up, right after I wrote the last post, her hair began falling out – which I was expecting – but they exposed some burns on top of her head, where she had the treatment. I took her back to the doctor, and he told me they were indicative of burns from radiation and were to be expected. He gave me a topical steroid and told me to keep a cone over her head so that she couldn’t scratch or lick the burns.

I applied the steroid for a few weeks, but the wound area – some of the burns were open and pus-filled, seemed to keep growing. She also seemed to be depressed and in pain, as she wasn’t her playful self and wasn’t eating like normal. I took her back to him about two weeks ago and he said the burns looked like they were getting infected. So he gave me an antibiotic, a stronger steroid, and some pain medication.

It’s been two weeks since then and she is definitely much better. I can tell she’s no longer in pain – or at least not is as much pain as she was, as she’s running about, getting into things, playing with the dog, and is back to eating normally. She doesn’t like taking her meds, but what animal does 🙂

The burn still looks yucky – for lack of a better term – but it isn’t open and blistery and pus-filled. It now looks like it is scabbed over. Her tumor is still there but I do think it’s still shrinking. The doctor told me sometimes it takes months for it to go away or get down to a small size. He also told me it could come back or never go completely away.

So, I’m happy that she seems to feel better and that the burn area looks improved. But I know this could be a long journey, and that it could still not end well. If the tumor comes back or doesn’t go completely away, I really don’t want to put her through this again, especially since we went through over a month of dealing with open, pus-filled, potentially infected burn marks, and I know she was in pain at points. Not to mention, I don’t have a lot left in my insurance account and the treatments are very expense. So, basically I’m trying to brace myself for the worst while hoping and trying my hardest for the best.

Anyway, I just wanted to record my experiences here in case anyone else has a cat who goes through stereotactic radiosurgery / stereotactic radiation. There hasn’t been a whole lot written about the treatment, and my vet hadn’t had much experience with cats undergoing it – only dogs. So maybe we can benefit from each other’s personal experiences.

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My Cat Rhea’s Experience With Stereotactic Radiosurgery

My cat, Rhea, recently underwent stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). I thought I’d write a post about it since, after the oncology vet recommended it, we tried to research it online but found very little. Especially about SRS and cats.

SRS is a new kind of radiation therapy – well, new to use for animals; it’s been used for humans for some time. Instead of traditional radiation, which isn’t as effective, and can take many multiple treatments, SRS can be administered as little as once, or up to a few times. And, because the vet takes a CT scan of the tumor beforehand, it’s delivered very precisely to the tumor. This means that there’s little chance of the radiation affecting any healthy, non-cancerous tissues. And, every time the animal is given a dose of radiation, s/he has to be anesthetized, which is always risky and can result in complications. So, the fewer treatments an animal has to have, the better.

Of course SRS is costly. Luckily, I had pet insurance that footed a big chunk of the bill. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Rhea developed a tumor or the right side of her head, which grew very quickly. Above is a photo taken shortly after I first noticed it. I thought our dog, Sofia, had just played with her a bit too rough and she had an abscess. I took her to my regular vet who said it wasn’t an infection. She did some tests and it came back positive for cancer. So she referred me to a veterinary oncologist.

By the time I was able to get her in to see the oncologist – about three weeks later – it had grown substantially. It also seemed to be affecting her eyes. He did a full CT scan from her head to her chest and found that, thankfully, it hadn’t spread into her body; it was a sarcoma that was only above the bone on top of her head. The reason her eyes were affected was that it was growing so fast it was pulling the skin back, so she couldn’t close her eyes. This would mean I’d have to give her lots of eye drops, to keep her eyes moist. Anyway, the fact that the tumor was only on the top of her head made it ideal for SRS treatment.

The vet told me she would likely lose some hair on her head and when it grew back, it may be white. He also said some of the skin on the affected area could die. But the tumor was inoperable due to its size and location, and this was our only chance for her to have a full life (Rhea is 10 years old). Chemotherapy didn’t make any sense since it wasn’t metastasizing.

I was really scared! I was so afraid she was going to be in pain. I had several friends and family members who couldn’t eat for a long time after radiation because it burnt their mouths so. But both my regular and specialist vet said animals didn’t experience pain with radiation like humans often did. My regular vet said that’s the course of action she would definitely pursue if it were her pet. But I still worried. One of my friends referred me to a holistic vet and another to an animal communicator. I would have tried both if I had more money and time, but the tumor was getting bigger so quickly, I had no experience with animal communicators and had no idea what to expect and whether to trust one, they weren’t cheap, and my pet insurance plan pre-authorized my claims. So, I just went with it and trusted my oncology and regular vets’ opinions. And I prayed I wasn’t putting my cat through horrible pain.

So, Rhea had three days of SRS. I kept her at the hospital throughout because I felt like it was going to be traumatic to have to keep taking her there and back. So, I packed a little bag of food and treats and her eye medication. The man who administered the radiation called me every day with updates on how she did – which was well! When I picked her up, they gave her the little certificate below, signed by all the techs and the radiation administerer, along with the cute cape!

Everyone at AZ Veterinary Oncology was so wonderful, so supportive. I really appreciated all of their help, and that little certificate made me ridiculously happy!

When I got Rhea home, she seemed perfectly fine. She didn’t seem to be in pain at all. She went straight to her food bowl and feasted to her heart’s content, rubbed up against Sofia, then trotted upstairs and jumped from the balcony onto the top of the bookcase, always her favorite perch 🙂

Anyway, it’s been two weeks since the end of her SRS. We just went to the oncologist today for her check-up and he said the tumor has definitely shrunk, which I’d noticed but was afraid it was just wishful thinking on my part!

She honestly has not seemed to be in any pain whatsoever for the past two weeks. She’s been purring, wrapping herself around my feet, sitting at my desk while I work, rubbing up against Sofia, being tolerant toward our other cat, Katusha, (as usual), eating, drinking, pawing open cupboards and closet doors to explore, fitting herself into tiny spaces, making noise in the middle of the night, trying to get outside (I don’t let her, she is an indoor cat; but since she does like to explore the outdoors, I push her around in a little dog stroller 🙂 ) Basically, she’s been her usual self, and with all the purring, she seems perfectly happy. The only thing the doctor noticed is that she’d lost a little weight. I have noticed that some days she doesn’t eat as much as she normally does, although other days she does. So I’ve been trying to buy her her very favorite food, even if it’s not the healthiest 🙂

She has yet to lose any hair, although I suspect that still may be coming. I’m hoping that blasted tumor continues to shrink down to nothing, and never returns. For now, we can only hope she’ll continue her progress. I will keep you posted!

Below, today, enjoying the Arizona sun with Sofia 🙂

 

 

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Happy Adoptaversary, Katusha!

Five years ago today, we added Katusha to our household! She is one of the inspirations behind the My Cat Jeoffry “cat bookstore” because of her penchant for snuggling up next to me in bed or curling up in my lap on the couch and letting me read to her 🙂

I thought maybe kids could learn to read by reading to cats in the store, and cats could learn to become more social by letting people read to them! A help-help situation!

Anyway, we got Katusha from the Los Angeles County Shelter via a wonderful person named Gwendolyn who was her foster mommy. Katusha and her siblings were found on the street somewhere in Northwest L.A. They were tiny and helpless and their mom was nowhere to be found. She was likely out hunting for food. A samaritan brought them to the shelter, but they were too small to fend for themselves, so Gwendolyn, a volunteer, took them in and nursed them until they were ready to be adopted out. I happened to be a friend of a friend of hers on Facebook because I saw her post and went over and met my little sweetheart, then called Cinderella because of her penchant for sleeping in people’s shoes as a tiny kitten!

Big sister, Rhea, was not thrilled with getting a new addition, as she’d been Queen of the House for several years (and, okay, still is!) But she learned to be tolerant of the new little one.

When we got the dog, Sofia, at first there was all manner of chasing and hissing and growling and claws in the face and, uh, crazy times. Rat terriers, I learned, can be difficult to habituate to cats if they didn’t grow up with them (they see them as large rats to be chased).  And Sofia came to us at 9 months. But eventually everyone settled down and now they all get along quite nicely! Actually, each cat now really likes the dog and vice versa, so everyone has a playmate whenever they want one 🙂

 Happiness! Thank you so much, Los Angeles County Animal Shelter, and Gwendolyn!!

 

 

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Our Trip to Yellowstone!

We recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Above is a pic of some adorable baby bison, viewed through a scope. We primarily went to do some quality wolf-watching, after reading a wonderful book by Terry Tempest Williams, which we blogged a bit about here.

Little did we know how evasive those wolves could be! They are terrified of humans, after all we’ve done to them, and won’t come anywhere near us. So, you basically have to find them with an extreme magnifying glass called a scope. They won’t even show up in basic binoculars they stay so far away. Made us realize how rare the wolf encounter in the memoir, Romeo, was. Now we want to go to Juneau!

We did see one black bear (no grizzlies), and several moose, elk, pronghorns, coyotes, and many, many, many, many bison! Here are some of our pics:

“Slow down. You’re going too darn fast!” says Mr. Bison.

A moose we spotted one evening. It is darn hard to get good pictures. Our respect for wildlife photographers grew immensely on this visit!

A momma bison and her baby, viewed through a scope.

We didn’t see any grizzlies, but we saw this one brown-colored black bear from far away. He’s lying down, back toward us, right next to the tree in the center of the pic.

Soooo hard to get any real pics of wolves, they stay so far away from us. This is through a massive scope lens. She is lying down about an inch below the tree trunk at the top of the scope. She is lying near the den housing her cubs. We waited over an hour for some action, but the most she did was lift her head and appear to be looking in our direction, from about twenty miles away! Sadly, they’re smart not to come around us. Humans haven’t done too well by wolves. Well, we haven’t acted well toward any of our great American predators.

There were lots of wolf-watchers – people setting up scopes and watching the animals for hours. I would have had no idea what I was looking at without their help. These people are experts. Some are pros, some are just very enthusiastic lovers of the animal, who help the park’s rangers track them. There’s a wonderful Facebook page devoted to the wolves of Yellowstone, of Lamar Valley, where most of them live. It’s called Legend of Lamar Valley and I am now hooked on it!

One thing I learned was how smart ravens are. They basically make friends with the wolves when they are cubs, then help them find food. The wolves in return share their killings with the little birds.

My tour guide felt badly that I didn’t get to see any wolves or grizzlies up close so we went to this wildlife educational center in West Yellowstone,  Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, where they had several. Here are two beauties. So, yep, got to see my wolves after all!

And a grizzly 🙂 This guy is from Alaska, so he’s pretty big, feeding on all that salmon.

This lady loves to climb trees for her food!

After leaving Yellowstone, we went on to Reno for the RT Booklovers Conference. Before the convention, we took a little tour to see some wild mustangs. I noticed their bodies are more solid and their manes are wilder than their non-wild counterparts. But they seemed very friendly!

Wonderful trip and we had a blast! I may go back for a winter wolf-watching expedition. Supposedly they are a little less shy because the park is so much quieter. I don’t know though, since I don’t have a lot of experience with snow. We’ll see!

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Ducklings Rescued from a Drainpipe!

We love our little community 🙂

Someone walking her dog around our neighborhood lake heard some squawking coming from a nearby drainpipe. She and dog walked over to see a duck chirping madly about. She noticed the squawking was coming from a drainpipe and peered down to see some baby ducks stuck inside it. She frantically called for help and several people showed up to form a kind of assembly line, helping the little ducklings all out. It ended up taking hours and the crew worked into the late evening to get all the babies out. Mother Duck was quite happy, needless to say.

The woman worried that the ducklings would fall down the drainpipe again since it had no covering. So she reported it on Nextdoor.com and asked readers to call the HOA and voice our concerns. Well, quite a few people did – including us, of course! A cover was installed over the pipe by the end of the day.

So, first we worked collectively to get our beloved swan rescued, and now the ducklings. We’re so proud of our fellow people here who care so much about all forms of life 🙂

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Happy 10th Birthday to Our Sister, Rhea!

 

Happy 10th birthday to our sweet little Rhea! She was born into a hoarding situation – 70 cats! – in NY until she was rescued by the ASPCA, where we adopted her. She’s been with us for 7 years – in NY, CA, now AZ. She purrs a lot, even when being play-attacked by canine sis, Sofia. So we think she’s very happy 🙂

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THE NAVAJO AND THE ANIMAL PEOPLE

Yesterday we had an outdoors memorial for my friend who passed away, during which a hawk flew overhead. One friend got very excited, saying predatory birds are a good sign according to Navajo custom. I later looked it up and found hawks symbolize a connection to the spirit world. I’ve become interested in Native American religions and their respect toward animals, so when I was at the Heard Museum last night for a member event, I bought this book, The Navajo and the Animal People, by Steve Pavlik. See the hawk in the bottom right corner of the cover 🙂 I will always remember my friend whenever I see one of these beautiful birds.