Untitled 301

Untitled 301.  Pastel.  Approx. 9" x 12".   

Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

------

Please forgive the blog neglect lately.  My sleep disorder always gets worse in the early spring; instead of just being my normal extreme night owl self, it gets even worse and I'm almost exactly opposite of what my schedule should be in terms of day vs. night awakeness. It's been hard, and is truly interfering in my life.

And I had a very big scare with Rumi and his chronic malabsorption issue. In spite of the steroids, he suddenly lost more weight (he's been underweight for quite a while, a few years or so). He seemed weak, tired, didn't want to eat, didn't want to drink much, just wanted to sleep. His eyes seemed to be so far away. His happy, vibrant, social, loud, confident personality was gone. He didn't make a single sound for 2 days, which for noisy little Rumi, was a giant shock to me. Suddenly, the apartment was unbearably silent.

I knew we were probably dealing with the same chronic mystery condition as always, but it had suddenly taken a severe nose-dive. The vet advised me to quadruple his steroid dosage. He was at his lowest adult weight ever. 

He kept losing weight in spite of the steroids. The vet taught me how to give him B12 injections.

Anyway, during the two awful days when he wouldn't eat or move around much and his eyes were so distant, I was pretty sure I was going to have to put him down the next day. I of course don't want him, or any animal, to suffer, and Rumi's prognosis has never been optimistic. My goal with him is to help him any way I can for as long as he is happy and doesn't seem to be suffering. 

I had a talk with him between my tears those days and told him it was all about him: if his body wasn't working right and wasn't able to let him be happy or feel good anymore, then the vet and I would help him be free of it.  If he rallied, then the vet and I would support his body for as long as he was still happy and had his normal exuberant personality.

Well, through some kind of miraculous juju or who knows what, Rumi woke up the next day with his normal personality intact, eyes here in the present world again, eating, drinking, and doing his famous talking.

I'm grateful to still have him.  His weight over the last week or so (since he rallied) is mostly stable. It's just a day-at-a-time thing, and I'm so glad he's able to stay in this world with me, happily, for a while longer.

I've been typing all this (slowly) because he's tucked under my chin right now and I'm typing around him and can't fully see my laptop screen, but oh well. He's here and that is making me smile.

Gadjo is having a bout of his chronic health issue too. His FHS suddenly got really bad, and doubling his steroid dosage has helped some, but not enough. So now he is supposed to be trying a med, but I'm unable to pill him, so gonna have to try the med in different forms until I can figure out how to get it into him. He is also now officially underweight, I think because he has to burn so many calories because he can't rest well or sleep as much as he should because the FHS keeps him awake and running around while he's having his twitch attacks.

Presumably because Rumi and Gadjo both have not been feeling well, they have suddenly stopped sleeping and cuddling together. This is unprecedented, and makes me sad.  I've had to order another heated cat bed for Gadjo, since Rumi seems to have claimed the one that they were always curled up together in.  I know they're both stressed from not feeling well, but I'm sure that not being cuddled up together all the time must be adding even more stress, because this non-togetherness has never happened before with these two best buddies. 

Mojito has been having arthritis issues lately too. He's been to a lot of (expensive) physical therapy and is on some meds that he'll likely stay on for the rest of his life. It's so hard for me to believe it, but he's a senior dog now. If I calculated right, he has just turned 9 years old! Apparently, that earns him the right to use Rumi as a pillow...

So Mojito's arthritis issues have been causing him to constantly lick one front wrist and one back foot, because they're achy. This always leaves a wet saliva spot on the couch when he gets up. The other day he left the sweetest spot! I kid you not. I couldn't believe my eyes:

And now, for our grand finale, a very impressive feat: Gadjo and Rumi's sweetness has made them internet-famous! They hit the big time when the mega site Cute Overload featured them during their Feb.14 edition this year.

http://cuteoverload.com/2015/02/14/24-hours-of-cute-happy-valentines-day-410am-pt/

(Unfortunately, they got the link to my blog wrong--it just got fixed today), so I'm pretty sure I missed out on a couple of million new fans for all my animolecules! Oh well. At least Rumi + Gadjo made it to internet stardom! They deserve their fame.)
-------

FYI: My website jalapfaff.com is still defunct.  It's a long, boring saga you don't want to hear. But there is hope that eventually, with enough time, work, bewilderment, frustration, and cursing, it shall rise again like a phoenix.

Untitled 273

Untitled 273.  Pastel.  Approx. 9" x 12".  Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

-----

The orange members of the family.

------

It's been quite an eventful week or so.

During a period of record-setting cold (e.g., -12F at nights, around 5F during the days), a gas line malfunctioned in the area, and 7200 people, including me, were without heat or hot water for about 40 hours.  I ran my oven and three space heaters continuously and all those kept it at about 55F in the house. We're all really hoping we are going to get a break on our electric bills this month (it's the same company for the gas and the electric.)  

For one of those 40 hours, the power went out as well. The experience was really unbelievable in that kind of non-stop cold.

Then, Gadjo decided to have a very severe flare-up of his FHS (Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome), his worst episode ever. It has lasted about a week now (as opposed to his second-worst episode, which was maybe a couple of days; and most of his episodes, which are maybe a few hours). He hasn't been having many problems with FHS at all for a long time now.

I brought him to the vet yesterday and we are going to try various things to bring him relief. Right now we're doing a trial of steroids. Surprisingly (to me), it seems to be helping already.

-----

Mojito is doing great now, by the way! (My animolecules are taking turns lately to drain my energy and wallet, and worry me to death.) He's completely recovered and enjoying playing in the snow--his favorite thing (other than fetching tennis balls in the lake).

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 168

Pastel on UArt, approx. 4" x 5".

-----

Look how big Fennec's gotten (pic below)! I think he probably outweighs Gadjo now. Gadjo is now one year old and Fennec is...I don't remember...6 or 7 months, maybe, and is definitely going to be a big boy. 

Gadjo has turned out to be one of those long, lean, lithe (but overall not very big) Siamese I've seen before (but never had one). When I pick him up he feels almost weightless, like he's build from little bird bones. He likes to be held balanced along one of my forearms/hand, and folds his long slim legs up in a complicated origami, which always makes me laugh.

What beautiful, amazing creatures they are. Not a day goes by without me being utterly in love with cats.

By the way, it's been a while since I mentioned the possibility of Gadjo having FHS (Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome). For a few months there, it seemed he was symptom-free and I had stopped holding my breath and thought perhaps he had escaped the disorder after all. But out of the blue, he had some bad episodes a few weeks ago. Just as I was about to give up and try some meds on him, his episodes began diminishing again and now they are almost nil. He does seem to be a high-strung cat, certainly the most nervous and hyperaware one I've ever had--traits of many Oriental breeds, apparently. In a way, FHS is kind of a magnification of those traits. 

My guess right now is that he does have the disease, but if we are very lucky perhaps he won't have a severe case. If it ever gets bad enough, I will try him on meds, but it would be great if we didn't have to. What worries me most is it usually doesn't develop until a cat is one or two years old or more, and little Gadjo showed symptoms before even turning a year, which makes me fear an especially severe case. My poor darling. I'm just happy when I see he's having a day with no or few symptoms.

Fennec, on the other hand, is your classic laid-back big orange guy. My vet says there is a real tendency for male orange cats to be especially mellow and sweet and easygoing. Fennec certainly seems to be headed to fulfill that destiny. 

I'd only ever had two male orange cats before, two brothers that were not at all laid-back or mellow, but I suspect they were somewhat feral when we got them, and we ended up not keeping them, giving them to a friend (of course we had too many cats anyway [!]), as they were very alpha and had been causing problems with the rest of our cats as they grew up. I had named them Uno and Dos, and unfortunately Uno disappeared from my friend's one night, but Dos is still there and very much cherished.

-----

At the weavers' cooperative, Hyderabad, India.

$115.00 - Untitled 168 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Gadjo update

It seems that Gadjo has either an injury and/or FHS (Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome).

I'm really hoping it's not the latter, but unfortunately, all signs seem to be pointing to that. It's not a common or well-understood condition, and it happens more in male cats and in Oriental breeds. It seems to be a neurological problem in which some combination (a lot of "and/or") of things come together: nerves in the lower back/tail are deformed/too many and/or overly sensitive and/or don't convey impulses in a normal way; possible seizure activity in the brain; a form of feline OCD.

These are the symptoms: "dilated pupils; twitching of the tail; appearing to be annoyed with the tail; biting at the tail, sometimes to the point of mutilation; behavior change from loving to scared and depressed; staring into space; hiding and isolating self; persistent, loud meowing; dashing off madly and aimlessly around the house or yard; visibly rippling, twitching skin on the back just above the tail; finding being touched, especially along the back, sometimes unbearable; compulsive, excessive grooming, sometimes to the point of self-mutilation; sudden, random aggressive behavior; possible seizures and/or intermittent muscle spasms in the thoracolumbar epaxial muscles." It's like invisible monsters are biting him in the back and freaking him out.

I'm especially worried because if it occurs, it usually manifests in cats ages 1 - 4 years. Gadjo's only five months old, which makes me think he's going to have a very severe case of it. Cats can have from very mild to very severe cases. In the worst cases, cats have seizures and can die or become paralyzed from them, and/or they self-mutilate uncontrollably. Episodes can happen every few days, every day, or virtually constantly.

At the moment, the vet still wants to rule out the possibility of a simple injury, and/or an injury which may have set off otherwise normal nerves in his back. So he's on pain meds which, if he has FHS, are suppressing some of the symptoms. But I really have a sinking feeling that he has FHS. I've been doing a lot of reading about it and it sounds exactly like what we've been witnessing.

If he does have it, we'll be trying either antiseizure meds or antianxiety meds. Some cats benefit from one or the other. It's terribly scary and I am so afraid for him and so sad for us, because it seems that starting at one sudden moment a few days ago, his constantly sweet, loving, calm, gentle, bold personality disappeared. He won't even purr.

I want him back.