I love my little cat!

I've had a rough last few days. Those of you that know me, know that I love animals with everything that I am. I become an overall happier person when I have animals around me...a characteristic that Michael finds a little strange but has accepted :) On Wednesday when I was treating my animals for fleas/ticks I accidently grabbed the wrong tube of treatment for Bailey and applied Advantix (Piglet's medicine) to her. Most of you probably don't know, but Advantix is lethal for cats--even a very small quantity. I realized, halfway through the application, my mistake and quickly put her in the sink to wash it off. I called the veterinarian and they had me wash her again, but with Dawn dishwashing soap, more thoroughly. I also had to rush her to the vet in case she started having seizures or spasms. This medicine has a certain chemical in it that feline's bodies cannot process and will kill them if it goes untreated immediately. The vet called the Bayer hotline (manufacturer of the product) and they said that we did all we could do. She stayed at the vet all day, but then when I picked her up she started acting very strangely at home. I had to take her back to the vet, where they again said she was fine. About 2 hours later her breathing became extremely shallow and she started turning circles in her carrier. As I became a basketcase, my friend Nancy drove me and Bailey to the emergency vet clinic. They had actually seen multiple cases of this and confirmed that we had done everything we could do as far as saving her life...and that she was going to be okay. It was just going to take time to get out of her system and in the meantime she was going to be very uncomfortable. They gave her a shot of valium and a water "hump" so she didn't get dehydrated. She was finally able to get some sleep, but was unable to stay asleep unless I was rubbing her back (her skin felt as though it was "crawling")...which means I got zero sleep that night. Small price to pay for the agony I had caused her. After another strange morning, her skin stopped crawling enough so that she could fall asleep on her own. She has been sleeping lots and showing tremendous improvements as the hours pass. I want to know why this product can even be sold to households that have a cat! There should be some serious regulations on who is allowed to buy this product. As much as I love my animals and would do anything for them, I still made a mistake and it almost cost my cat her life. Needless to say, I will never be buying this product again and I'm very grateful that God took care of my little cat when she was in so much pain. Oh yes, it made me even more pissed off that the Marine Corp made Michael deploy again.

Here's a picture taken a few weeks ago when Bailey was acting silly:

I wrote something...ha ha

Hey, Sweetie I just wanted to write something down on your blog, b/c you said that I wouldn't do it. You have been doing a great job with this new blog. It is way better than the website. I wish that you would put more pics of you up though. It is kind of loooking like shrine o' me right now. I love you, and keep up the good work.

Michael

"The Deck"

This is the deck that Michael and friends have been building. I'm not really sure why they think they needed a deck...but they sure did! Maybe it was a good way to get out some frustrations from having to deal with the IA all day?!

The really tall guy is about 6'9"!! They affectionately call him "Mongo".

This is Sara's husband, Mat, showing off the finished deck.

Here is Michael in his "dish-dash" again, this time with his roomie Lt Entwistle. It looks to me like they're a little too comfortable with Michael being dressed like this...

This is my friend Sara and I at our work Christmas party. Our husbands worked together when they were state-side and are also working together on the MTT team currently in Iraq. It's nice to have someone so close who is in the same position as I am during the holidays and can relate! We're both tired of them being gone, however, and think they should come home now. :)

'Double Secret' Best Friends

Bailey and Piglet like to pretend that they hate each other...but when I find them like this I can only concur that they are best friends on the DL!!

I caught them this morning snuggling on the electric blanket--when Piglet is on the blanket you know its cold outside! It's been below 50 degrees all day (that is really cold for Jax.)!

Local Treasure

I was emailed this and cracked up when I saw it. I get to see "Radio" every so often when I go to/from work. Enjoy our local treasure!

Pics from the Sandbox

After all the nagging during the last deployment of getting hardly any pictures, Michael has been awesome about sending home some neat snapshots that he's been able to see this time around. The pictures below are at one of Saddam's old palaces that has been converted into a headquarters-type area (?) I don't get told specifics...its the military.

This is the dish-dash (I have absolutely no idea how to correctly spell that since it is Arabic), but that is how it sounds, that Michael was given by his Lt Col counterpart on base. I told him that he should get a lot of use out of it over there b/c it kind of weirds me out to see him in it. I guess it will make for good stories whenever we decide to have kids!

This is just a really late picture of the "Dining In" that 1/6 held in July, since the guys were not going to be here for the Marine Corp Ball in November. You can kind of tell that, my friend Sara's husband, Mat is holding up the Major on the far left. There were way too many martinis, shots and mixed drinks consumed at the "get together" at our house beforehand! Michael thrives on being the Battalion Bartender!! :)

Let's Begin!

I've come over to the dark side of blogging. We'll see how much better I am about keeping this up-to-date than I was about my "website". The whole uploading of pictures and taking 3 hours to update the site was just too much work! Plus, this one is free!! Whoop! I have quite a few pictures of Michael since he left a few months ago. Some are quite funny and since I'm lazy and didn't forward any of them on, maybe I'll actually get around to doing it on here. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that my workplace doesn't block this site from our internet access! If I can access it there I'll be in a much better position to "blog-away!"

These pics are from the night Michael left for Iraq:

and these are from the end of October in Iraq:

I sure do miss him. I miss him all the time and its going to be a tough Christmas without my "magic legs" here. Stay safe Peanut!