Paws for A Cause Kick Off!!

I'm kicking off my week of Paws with a Cause with a story about my baby, Rusty.

I got Rusty after my first cat passed away. I love my first cat, but I'm one of those people who needs a cat in the house. I do.

DH had been away for work and Mr Man, the first cat, passed away from kidney failure. It was the worst Monday of my life at that point. He was a present from DH to keep me 'safe'. I loved him. Still do.

But he'd passed. I wasn't sure I wanted to get another cat, but I missed the little guy. So BIL told me--he was almost as crushed as DH and I, and he helped me bury Mr. Man--he'd take me to the APL to "get you another kitty".

We went that Friday. I wanted to look a while. I wanted to choose carefully. Turns out, this one chose me.  I walked past his cage and he pawed at me. Stuck his paw right out and tapped me. BIL took him out and his friend in the cage tried to come along. In hindsight, I should've gotten both of them, but I didn't. I picked him. Or rather, he picked me. He looked a lot like Mr. Man, but had some goofy name I didn't like. DIL wanted me to call him, Mr Man Jr. Nope. That wouldn't work, either.

I took him home and knew exactly what I'd name him. Rusty, after my favorite NASCAR driver. I have no idea if he liked it, but he loved being called Ruster Duster. He loved to crawl into the cupboards and was right there when we'd work on home improvements. He played fetch and used the night time hours to sing or play Marco Polo... one of the two, but he was noisy.

My favorite story about Rusty? We'd moved from a small house to the bigger house. Well, we brought the cats with us when we moved, but first we brought them over to get them used to the house. Rusty got loose. Not out in the yard loose, but loose in the house. I freaked out. COMPLETELY freaked out. I thought, goodness, he jumped off the balcony... did he run into the woods.... Couldn't find him anywhere. I went home. DH stayed at the new house. Still no Rusty. We put out food and waited. Turns out, he'd crawled into one of the heating ducts and hid. DH found him when he came out to eat the food. I was never so happy as when DH called to tell me he'd found Rusty.

Sadly, Rusty passed away a couple of years ago on DH's birthday. He'd been having issues with his tummy and used my couch (Don't have the couch now) for a potty box. Turns out, he had stomach cancer. I sat with him through all the IV treatments and the pills. He dropped to less than 5 pounds and his fur looked worse for wear, but I loved him. I held him when he passed and I'm glad DH was there with me. I drove home and DH buried him. He was my baby and I loved him very much. I'll never have another Rusty, but I'm grateful for the time we did have.

Paws With A Cause® enhances the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs. 

PAWS® increases awareness of the rights and roles of Assistance Dog teams through education and advocacy.  Founded in 1979, Paws With A Cause is dedicated to helping its clients who are challenged by many disabilities, such as Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Seizure Disorders, and Hearing Disorders to name just some.  Each of our dogs are trained to meet the specific needs of our clients. Tasks may include opening and closing doors, picking up objects, pulling a wheelchair, turning lights on and off, and alerting a person to particular sounds like a telephone, doorbell, smoke detector and many others. Our dogs change lives by enhancing the independence of our clients. By just opening a door, a dog opens up the world for a person with a disability and your donations will go to making that happen.  PAWS thanks you so much for your donation and allowing us to open more doors.

 

Paws With A Cause

4646 South Division

Wayland, MI 49348

How to donate:

1. Go to https://www.everribbon.com/PawswithaCause

2. Click on "Make a Donation"
3. Enter a amount you wish to donate. Everibbon will add a small fee to your donation for processing. My fee for donating $5.00 was .49 cents. So keep this in mind when deciding your donation amount. You will receive 1 entry into the giveaway for every $1 you donate.  
4. In the box that says "on the behalf of" please put your name. This is the name that will be listed on the everibbon website so put a name you do not mind being visible to everyone. Do not check the box to make a anonymous donation because I will not be able to track your donation to enter you into the giveaways.
5. Next it will ask you for your credit or debit card information. 
6. Then it will ask for your email address to send you a receipt. This is so that you can submit it for tax purposes.
7. Ta Da! Your all done making your donation. Now you need to contact Danielle to enter the giveaway.
8. Please email Danielle at RomanceBookJunkiesDanielle@Yahoo.com with the name you used to donate your money. For example the name I used to donate on behalf of was Romance Book Junkies. Do not send me your name off your credit or debit card because I will not be able to see this. Along with the name you used please tell me how much you donated and if you live in the US or are International.
9. Your all done. Thank you for donating! 

Warning: Do not try to email Danielle the name and donation amount of another person that is not yourself. If Danielle recieves more than one email with the same persons name and donation amount she will have to ask for your copy of the receipt from everibbon to verify that you are the correct winner. Thank you.

We will have 3 winners for the main giveaway.
We have 2 $65 gift certificates to any online book store.
Also we have a huge box of books and swag from Romance Book Junkies for US residents only.

Good luck to all and thank you for helping make this fundraiser a success.

What A Conversation!

Since Rusty went to the big litter box in the sky, to cope with it, DH and I had a conversation about what he might be doing up there. Now we had a cat before Rusty, named Messiah. He had bad kidneys and died a week before we got Rusty. Anyway, we figure Rusty and Messiah are in heaven trading stories about us over a bag of kitty
nip. It goes something like this:

Messiah: "Horny toads weren't they?"
Rusty: "Damn near knocked me off the bed. Thought they'd get rid of me with their interpretation of an earthquake. I showed them. I stayed put."
M: "Good for you. I thought the dog cured them of that. I guess not."
R: "Ever get really angry with one of them?"
M: "Yeah, Mom got snippy so i cuffed her eye. It bled so bad, but she got over it and still loves me."
R: "Dog got snippy with me so I cuffed her eye. Don't know why they got that overstuffed wiener on legs, but they did."
M: "I see they don't live near them pit bulls. Coco and Sugar... they were so crazy. And they never realized we had the screen in the way."
R: "I never saw them. Nah, we played with the coyotes and the big dog got sprayed by a fox... moron. If she'd used her brain, she'd know that you never chase something that will make you stink."
M: "That little screaming thing got big. When they brought him home, I thought, gee whiz there goes the neighborhood."
R: "Yup, now he's a big screaming thing. But he leaves Legos and crumbs on the floor, so it's all good. Once in a while he leaves ice cream out in his bowl."
M: "Gotta love that ice cream."


But you must realize, I have no idea what they are really saying, but whatever it is, I hope it made you laugh as much as it did me.

Toodles.

A Cruddy Day - RIP Rusty

Normally I don't mind talking about myself, but I keep the personal things under wraps. Today is not one of those days. Now I'm writing this on Wednesday and most of you will probably not read it until Thursday. But today, Wednesday, is a cruddy day.

You might have noticed in my previous posts that I am a cat person. Have been all my life. Why? Because I like to have a kitty snuggled in my lap and purring. Dogs are great and all, but my dogs are too big to stick in your lap (they sorta drape over and loll there).

So why, you might ask, was today cruddy?

We had to put my cat down today.

If you recall, I do have two cats.

Kenny, the fat orange one, is still fat and orange and currently chasing a lady bug.

Rusty, God rest his furry little soul, passed away at noon.

For the past few months, he's been on a downhill skid. This time a year ago, he still played fetch (yes, you'd throw the piece of dog food and he would bring it back to be thrown again). A year ago, he'd run through the house and sing (well, meow at all hours of the night for whoever happened to listen). He'd terrorize the dogs, antagonize Kenny, and beg for moist kitty food at 5 AM.

In October, he stopped eating his wet kitty food and dropped from 8 lbs to 6 lbs. After daily visits to the vet and no progress, I took him off his meds, which only made him puke, and put him on natural kitty food that I made (Thanks, M). That seemed to help cause he wasn't puking and seemed to be getting his steam back.

Right after Christmas, he got worse. He wasn't eating and pooping became a chore. To keep him from using my loveseat as a litter box, we started putting him in the dog crate (it's big enough for a Doberman). He hated it, but I think he also saw it as a little refuge from the dogs, Kenny, and my DS. He'd eat his food and seemed reasonably happy.

Last night, he seemed a bit listless, but I thought, he hasn't been eating, so it'll pass. When I woke up, he was still kinda juts laying there. So I fluffed a blanket next to me on the couch and plopped him there to watch him. Normally cats will shift and get comfortable. Not Rusty. He laid there in the position I put him in for 45 minutes. Not good. I rubbed his head and talked to him. I felt like crap for not doing anything, but I wasn't sure what to do.

When DH woke up, I told him Rusty wasn't really moving. We then took Rust to the vet. Around 12:10 we put him to rest.

Now I realize he was hurting. There was a growth in his belly. I don't know what it was and the vet wasn't sure either. Cancer? Might have been. Dunno. But there are things you'll never forget for the rest of your life. Carrying his poor little body is one of those things.

My regular happy posts will resume tomorrow. Right now I thought I should share my story. It makes me feel a bit better to talk about it, but yep, I'm still upset.

And yep, I'm still a cat person.