MEWSLETTER 29: July 31, 2004

by Pauline Dewberry

Hi Everyone and I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined us since the last MEWSLETTER. I hope you like your new look MEWSLETTER.

It would seem that the gremlins were busy again in May and some of you didn’t receive your MEWSLETTER while some of you received two copies – I sent out the second copy for those who hadn’t received the first copy. I’m sorry for any mix-ups and I don’t know what caused the missing MEWSLETTERs in the first place. I have now changed my email provider so I’m hoping that we don’t have a repeat of this problem.

I’m repeating last month’s quiz because I’m sure that some of you would have entered had you received the MEWSLETTER – please bear with me on this – and for those who have already submitted the answers – don’t worry, you will still be mentioned in the list of winners next month when I reveal the answers.

Gremlins were also busy at work on the website as some of the more frequent visitors among you may have discovered. I won’t bore you with all the problems but it’s taken me several weeks to rebuild the site and replace all the lost content. There are still some missing articles and these will be added back in the coming weeks, but I wanted to get a MEWSLETTER out to you as it was the end of the month yesterday and you didn’t receive a MEWSLETTER at the end of June.

QUIZ

1. What is the name of President Bush's cat?
2. What is auto grooming?
3. What is the gestation period for a cat?
4. What specific amino acid does a cat need to stay alive?
5. Which rare breed of cat won the Supreme Cat Show in 2003?

UPDATE ON GARFIELD’S HEALTH

Well you may remember that Garfield was going to have surgery on 1st June for the removal of the tumour in his mouth and the removal of any bad teeth that Kevin, our vet, might find. He removed 6 teeth and descaled the remaining few of plaque and tartar.

I brought Garfield home later that evening, still rather woozy from the effects of the anaesthetic. As he hadn’t eaten since before 9 pm the previous evening he was, naturally, starving, but I was totally amazed that he went straight to a bowl of dried food! Bless him, his legs were all splayed out as he hungrily ate – as he had stitches, I thought to myself ‘surely that has to hurt his gums’ – but he carried on regardless, food being the most important thing on his mind.

I cooked some fish for him, which all the others ate too, happily being the beneficiaries of Garfield’s misfortunes. Laura Dumm has drawn a fantastic picture of Garfield as a winner and you can see it on the Home Page.

Over the weeks since his surgery, he has been backwards and forwards to see Kevin for check ups on his blood glucose levels to monitor his insulin and now he is back to one injection of half unit a day – which is good news.
So many of you wrote to me at that time, and continue to write to me, saying that Garfield is in your prayers – and I do thank you so much for your love and concern that you’ve shown for his recovery. I’m a strong believer in prayer and I regularly pray with him, imagining a brilliant white light (like a laser) travelling throughout his body touching the areas which need healing.

Here in the UK we’ve suddenly had some very hot weather, after a dismally wet and almost wintery June. Ricky has taken to spending as much time outside as he possibly can and often sleeps in the little cat kennel. But one day when I looked out for him, I couldn’t see him anywhere.

I went up to the top of my back garden to look over the gate, which opens onto an alleyway. The alleyway is overgrown now with brambles, weeds and people have taken to throwing their garden rubbish out into it, making it difficult to walk along. I looked opposite to where an overhanging branch of some unknown tree had met with an opportunist-climbing weed and the two had married, becoming a fusion of dangling leaves and climbing flowers. It had formed a kind of cave or den and I noticed what I thought was an orange cushion slung into its depths. In calling out ‘Ricky’ the cushion moved and emerged from the den, blinking in the morning sunshine! It was Ricky! He had found yet another hiding place!

He has also graduated from his rectangular plant trough to a wider square one and he spends a lot of time with his bellybits spreading out from corner to corner! You can see a picture of him enjoying his new sleeping position here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/kittendiaries18.htm

All the other cats are remarkably well and most of them spend the day indoors - out of the sun’s rays. Only Garfield alternates between lying on the sun bed and the little kennel. When he gets truly fed up, he comes indoors and upstairs to the sofa bed. Timmy has taken it upon himself to look after Garfield, and is to be found only a few inches away from him, whether on the sofa bed, or underneath it which is another favourite place for Garfield to rest.

IN THE MEWS

Ollie has written the last of his diaries as he’s 2 today, (1st August) and as he rightly says, he is not a kitten any more. He may contribute from time to time in the future and as he gets fan mail, he may have a letters’ page in time to come.

To see a pic of Ollie passing the ‘drinking water out of a glass’ test and Ricky balancing on the two big garden tubs drinking his choice of water source, click here:
http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/kittendiaries15.htm

To read June’s diary entry please click here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/kittendiaries17.htm

and to read July’s final entry, please click here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/kittendiaries18.htm

I have included two more chapters of Frankie Weiss and her magic by Dan Weiss that I know you’ll all enjoy and you can read them here:
http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/frankieweissmagic6a.htm

http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/frankieweissmagic7a.htm

Take an abused and neglected dog and show it some kindness, respect and praise – and what do you get? You get Beau – a beautiful dog that couldn’t believe he’d landed on all four paws in Gary LittleBear’s life. To read this wonderful story click here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/tipperary.htm

Gary has a wonderful way of writing and more of his stories will appear in the coming months. For those of you who subscribe to ‘Petwarmers’ you may recognise his work.

Speaking of landing on all four paws, have you ever wondered how a cat manages to right itself when falling?? Then go here and see the amazing sequence: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/landingonallfours.htm

I receive many emails from people who experience behavioural or toileting problems with their cats. In almost ALL cases the cat has been declawed. I invite you to read this article on the truth about declawing and hopefully, further cats can be spared from this inhumane and barbaric torture: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/declawtruth.htm

There are alternatives to having a cat declawed as Sabrina Ralston found out when she tried ‘Soft Claws’. Read her account here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/declawornotdeclaw.htm

Cats have a strange way of invading our lives, our thoughts and emotions and you can see evidence of this in three great poems I received. The pain of loss manifests itself in many ways and we all respond by various coping mechanisms. I’ve written poems or articles when I’ve lost a cat and the third of our poems is a tribute to a cat that was run over and killed.

Writing something as a tribute to your lost cat can really help the grieving process and even if you don’t submit them for publication, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the act of writing words down definitely helps at a time when, sometimes, other people (who aren’t perhaps cat lovers) fail to understand just how you are feeling and can’t empathise with that great ache deep within the pit of your stomach. You can read them in the PURRFECT POETRY section: click here http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/catwithnosmell.htm

http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/themorningritual.htm

http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/justamemory.htm

If you’d like to write a little verse or two about your cats, or just an observation on cats, then submit it in the usual way at the ‘contact us’ link.

Don’t forget if you do want someone to talk to over the loss of your pet, please contact me at the ‘contact us’ link.

Can you catch cat flu from your cats? Actually, no, you can’t, but it was a coincidence when I went down with flu at the same time as all my cats did some years ago. Read here for humorous look at Timmy sneezing all over the computer screen, all over me and in my dinner! http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/zoonosestimmysneezes.htm

If your cats are outdoor cats remember to regularly use flea control and if you go out to work and they are left outside for any length of time, please remember to leave water and shelter for them, so that they won’t get sunstroke. In case you missed the articles on heatstroke, you can read them here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/catcareinthesun.htm

 and http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/warningsignsheatstroke.htm

Well, I think that about wraps it up for now. I hope that you all have a good summer and I look forward to receiving your stories and poems for inclusion in the CAT CHAT and PURRFECT POETRY sections; funny stories and quotations for the A’MEWS’MENT ARCADE and PAWS FOR THOUGHT sections and your feedback on things in general.

Get well wishes to Hart Dowd who has been in hospital for a number of weeks now and to Bridget Haggerty who has also been very ill. I haven’t received an update on her health so I don’t know if she is out of hospital yet – but both of you are in prayers for a speedy recovery. And thanks to God for the recovery of PUSS PUSS, the beloved cat of Shannon, who wrote to tell me that Puss Puss almost died when she had an infection. Thankfully she didn’t – and we give thanks for her recovery.

Remember. those of you with AOL will have to copy and paste the links into your browser!

Take care, until the next MEWSLETTER, have a PURRFECT month!

All good wishes

Pauline - Editor
Garfield - Assistant Editor and Chief Technical Consultant
Billy and Timmy - Home Affairs and Wild Life Advisors
Sam - Ethnic Minority Affairs Advisor
Ricky - Building Bridges Advisor
Ollie - Chief Mischief Maker and General 'Butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth' Advisor

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