FDA 'detains' Chinese fish

This is the headline from today's print edition of USA Today.

So I asked Joe: "What? Are they keeping them in a giant holding tank?"

Yuck yuck. Ok, so it's bad, but for an early morning attempt at a joke, I thought it was rather witty!

Sick kitty

Kitty was supposed to go home this evening, but after a trip to the vet left her with a low-grade fever, she'll be staying with us for two more nights. She had her recheck appointment this morning and received the first of a series of regular cat vaccinations. She reacted to it and slept all afternoon - not like her at all. So I took her back to the vet where they checked her temperature and found she was running a fever. They have her some fluids and sent her home to recoup. I'll take her back tomorrow morning to make sure she's better and on Friday she'll head to her new home.



She's been asleep on the couch like this for 2 hours now. She finally started purring though, so that's a good sign! I knew she really wasn't feeling well when she slept on my lap all the way to and from the vet's office today. Poor kitty.

Indi is sulking because she got in trouble for poking her head into the kitty's crate and slurping up some of the baby food we've been feeding her. Bad Indi.

Fun with Lil' Kitty!

Here are some new pictures of our little house guest. Indi has spent the last few days in a state of "what the heck IS it?" and runs around like a crazy dog, panting, wagging her tail and being generally squirmy when the kitten is out. Of course, the kitten did pounce on her tail and on her ears before we got to cut her sharp claws!

Lil' Kitty is doing much better and definitely shows signs of being a spunky cat! She'll go to the vet on Wednesday for a follow-up and then will be given to her new owners by the end of the week. I'll be sad to see her go as it's been fun having her with us, but am glad we found her and were able to find a good home for her.

Meet the kitty

This morning, while nearing our house on our morning walk, Indi and I spotted a teeny tiny kitten running out from beneath a dumpster. It didn't have much fight in it, as it ran away and then promptly huddled on a driveway. I took Indi home, then got Joe and the two of us drove over with a box for the kitten. Again, not much fight.

After a trip to the vet's office, the kitten is now home with us while I try to nurse it back to health. She's about 5 weeks old, has some parasites (and deworming medication to go with those!), has a low blood count so is cold and just not in the greatest of health, but tested negative for the fatal cat diseases, which would have meant euthanasia.

After some warm rest atop a hot water bottle, all snuggled in little towels, two cans of baby food and some sleep, the little kitten is look much better. She's still skin and bones, but hopefully in a few days she'll start looking a little fuller. At the moment she is going to a coworker of one of our friends, but not until she passes her next vet's appointment next week and appears to be on the mend.

For now, Indi is getting some good practice at how it might be when the real baby arrives... although right now I think she's way more curious about the little ball of fur in the box than jealous of it!

Racing for the cure in 1hr 10min!

Ok, so there wasn't much racing in our group (all but three of us opted for the 5K walk!) but there was much fun and friendship while we walked the Race for the Cure today.

A group of neighbor girls met up this morning at 6:30 and carpooled over to the campus at Meredith College (the site for Raleigh's Race for the Cure) and at 8am we started the 5K (+/- 3miles). Despite the size of the crowd, we managed to finish the walk in just over an hour, a lot sooner than I had anticipated! I usually walk 2.5 miles in about 30 minutes, and was expecting this walk to take about 2 hours, given the slow pace and the large crowd, but shortly after we started walking, the crowd thinned out a bit so we were able to pick up the pace.

While it was hot outside, the sun was behind cloud cover for most of the walk, making it a lot more enjoyable (considering it's in the 90s and very sunny now!).

Alicia, the friend we were walking for (who found out she had breast cancer about a month ago and recently had a double masectomy), also walked with her young daughter. She is in the photos wearing the pink t-shirt to our blue t-shirts.

Among the walkers were several young children and 2 other pregnant ladies - one was unable to walk but cheered us on and took photos for us as we crossed the finish line; another, 8.5 months pregnant, walked while pushing her young son in a jogger! Gotta keep up my daily walks...

Spirits were high and everyone had a great time - especially gathering the many freebies to be had after the race: drinks, candy bar, samples of Panera bread (yummy!), chips (yummy!), buy-one-get-one-free coupons to Panera (can you see where my brain is these days... in my stomach!).

Hopefully there will be more photos as more become available.

Thank you to all who supported me and donated! It was a great morning for such a great cause!

Watch out for Indi's paw!

On our walk around the lake this morning, I spotted a rather large, hairy black spider walking towards us. Indi was apparently oblivious as she stepped right on it! The spider wobbled a bit, leaving behind some "spider juice" before he moved along on his way. This spider was big - I'd say larger than a silver dollar in total size (including the legs). A quick search online told me it was a trapdoor spider and is in fact related to the tarantula.

From the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service: Trap door spiders live in a small tunnel in the ground covered by a silken trap door. There they wait until prey passes by. At that time they spring from their hidding place and drag the prey down into the tunnel. They are closely related to tarantulas and may live for several years.

Happiness is...

...guacamole live and chicken tortilla soup! Joe and I were on our way to Panera for lunch yesterday and were driving towards it from a different direction. All of a sudden, On the Border appeared before my eyes! The nearest one, until now, was in Cary, about a 40 minute drive depending on the time of day. Now, guacamole and chicken tortilla soup are only 15 minutes away! Woohoo!