Well, at almost a year old now, it looks like our little Flowerbelle has topped out at a whopping 4 pounds - something. Maybe she's up to 8 - 10 ounces.
(Don't we wish ALL of our kitties were Flowerbelle-sized? Geez - we'd fit in our cozy home so much better, LOL!)
Her eye is doing pretty well, though only when she consistently receives all the medication. We've tried weaning her off of it, but to no avail. We're giving it another month and then we'll see. If it won't stabilize without medication 9 times times a day, we'll probably have to have it removed. We've worked so hard to keep it - I think Gary would really be upset. Not devastated, because he's prepared for the possibility, but definitely upset. I'm the one handling the medication, and, quite honestly, at this point I think I'd feel relieved. Selfish, I know, but she does NOT like getting any of her meds.
The EGC (allergy problem causing skin irritation on her neck) is under control with prednisone. Doc wants to stick with it at least a few more weeks and then try to wean her off of that - we'll see how it goes.
The herpes virus (which is causing the problems with her eye) worked through her system too far before caught and medicated to prevent the terrible sinus/upper respiratory problem she will apparently almost always have. Doc says by the time she passes, the virus will have eaten away all of the turbinates in her sinuses (not painful for her).
The sad news is that our little darling will very likely live a shorter life than if she'd been rescued even just a week or two earlier. But the happy news is that she is SUCH a joy.
Gary calls her a terror - but she really doesn't do any damage. She loves to chew on papers. But between us, instead of just printing out new reports to take into work he takes the ones she's chewed on. So the big goof thinks it's cute and just likes to complain.
She is the most kitten like cat we've ever experienced. It is impossible to get mad at her for anything, because she's always so darn cute doing everything! Because of her bad eye, she turns and twists her head around in the funniest ways, and because of her deafness she always reaches out her front paw and waves it around in - depending upon the circumstance - the cutest, most endearing, or insanely entertaining way. She has a terrible sense of balance and little sense of "the edge" of things. She's constantly falling, jumping and missing the target, just flopping over to lie down and rolling off the edge of the couch, chair, bed (fortunately not the taller places on the cat tree!). She never hurts herself, never acts like her dignity was in the least bit affected, and is fearless and just tries again. (God forbid any of the other cats falls off of anything - they act like someone insulted them and stalk off, LOL!)
She sleeps on her own sheepskin bed right next to ours at the same height. But I almost always wake up with her curled up under my chin. Or if I'm on my tummy, she'll be asleep on my back.
She's still a complete purr monster. Other than when asleep, involved in play (which is a lot!) - or intensely involved with being on Window Patrol, she is almost always purring. Well... she does stop for a few seconds while I wrestle in eye drops, eye cream or a pill. But we even seem to have worked out getting the meds in. Or maybe I've just gotten a lot better at it with all this experience, LOL!
She is our sunshine, our joy, and a constant source of entertainment. It never fails that no matter how mad Gary gets because of work, no matter what kind of insane bad mood he's in because he's been sleep deprived for days - she'll do something cute and he'll immediately relax, smile and just be happy to be alive again. Even sleeping she's cute!
...although I've realized that she's got that same funny mouth structure that MaeMae does, and it makes her look very frumpy in straight-on photos because of how the shadows work. But from the side, she always looks like she's smiling.
Like I wrote to a friend the other day: Lazlo's my favorite because he's my first kitty (though he's "ours" Laz took to me first really). But Spooky (who has totally come out of her shell the past few weeks!!!!!) is my favorite because she is SUCH a lover now. Tuxedo is Gary's favorite because of everything they went through together and the incredible bond they have. But Sheldon is Gary's favorite because he's Gary's first kitty (see comments about Laz
) - and he's such a character, our alpha boy. And Flowerbelle is our favorite because she is SO DARN CUTE (and loving).
BTW - Sheldon and Flowerbelle are incredible to watch. He is like the total protective older brother. The wrestle, they play hunt & seek, he constantly bathes her - despite her protestations. He tackles her (with all of his long, tall, thin 14 poungs!), holds her down, and cleans her. He cleans her bad eye (which is CONTSTANTLY weeping), he cleans her neck - and Flowerbelle is just so funny, lying on her back, legs flailing around trying to push him off - but her little legs are too short to really get at him. At some point we really have to invest in a digital moving picture kind of thing and I have to figure out how to get something like that up on the web.
Anyway, here are a few recent pics:
Her eye is doing pretty well, though only when she consistently receives all the medication. We've tried weaning her off of it, but to no avail. We're giving it another month and then we'll see. If it won't stabilize without medication 9 times times a day, we'll probably have to have it removed. We've worked so hard to keep it - I think Gary would really be upset. Not devastated, because he's prepared for the possibility, but definitely upset. I'm the one handling the medication, and, quite honestly, at this point I think I'd feel relieved. Selfish, I know, but she does NOT like getting any of her meds.
The EGC (allergy problem causing skin irritation on her neck) is under control with prednisone. Doc wants to stick with it at least a few more weeks and then try to wean her off of that - we'll see how it goes.
The herpes virus (which is causing the problems with her eye) worked through her system too far before caught and medicated to prevent the terrible sinus/upper respiratory problem she will apparently almost always have. Doc says by the time she passes, the virus will have eaten away all of the turbinates in her sinuses (not painful for her).
The sad news is that our little darling will very likely live a shorter life than if she'd been rescued even just a week or two earlier. But the happy news is that she is SUCH a joy.
Gary calls her a terror - but she really doesn't do any damage. She loves to chew on papers. But between us, instead of just printing out new reports to take into work he takes the ones she's chewed on. So the big goof thinks it's cute and just likes to complain.
She is the most kitten like cat we've ever experienced. It is impossible to get mad at her for anything, because she's always so darn cute doing everything! Because of her bad eye, she turns and twists her head around in the funniest ways, and because of her deafness she always reaches out her front paw and waves it around in - depending upon the circumstance - the cutest, most endearing, or insanely entertaining way. She has a terrible sense of balance and little sense of "the edge" of things. She's constantly falling, jumping and missing the target, just flopping over to lie down and rolling off the edge of the couch, chair, bed (fortunately not the taller places on the cat tree!). She never hurts herself, never acts like her dignity was in the least bit affected, and is fearless and just tries again. (God forbid any of the other cats falls off of anything - they act like someone insulted them and stalk off, LOL!)
She sleeps on her own sheepskin bed right next to ours at the same height. But I almost always wake up with her curled up under my chin. Or if I'm on my tummy, she'll be asleep on my back.
She's still a complete purr monster. Other than when asleep, involved in play (which is a lot!) - or intensely involved with being on Window Patrol, she is almost always purring. Well... she does stop for a few seconds while I wrestle in eye drops, eye cream or a pill. But we even seem to have worked out getting the meds in. Or maybe I've just gotten a lot better at it with all this experience, LOL!
She is our sunshine, our joy, and a constant source of entertainment. It never fails that no matter how mad Gary gets because of work, no matter what kind of insane bad mood he's in because he's been sleep deprived for days - she'll do something cute and he'll immediately relax, smile and just be happy to be alive again. Even sleeping she's cute!
...although I've realized that she's got that same funny mouth structure that MaeMae does, and it makes her look very frumpy in straight-on photos because of how the shadows work. But from the side, she always looks like she's smiling.
Like I wrote to a friend the other day: Lazlo's my favorite because he's my first kitty (though he's "ours" Laz took to me first really). But Spooky (who has totally come out of her shell the past few weeks!!!!!) is my favorite because she is SUCH a lover now. Tuxedo is Gary's favorite because of everything they went through together and the incredible bond they have. But Sheldon is Gary's favorite because he's Gary's first kitty (see comments about Laz
BTW - Sheldon and Flowerbelle are incredible to watch. He is like the total protective older brother. The wrestle, they play hunt & seek, he constantly bathes her - despite her protestations. He tackles her (with all of his long, tall, thin 14 poungs!), holds her down, and cleans her. He cleans her bad eye (which is CONTSTANTLY weeping), he cleans her neck - and Flowerbelle is just so funny, lying on her back, legs flailing around trying to push him off - but her little legs are too short to really get at him. At some point we really have to invest in a digital moving picture kind of thing and I have to figure out how to get something like that up on the web.
Anyway, here are a few recent pics:
