Recently in Pets Category

I woke-up this morning and went for a run - only my second run of the week, as I've been trying to take it easy after the race last weekend. It's my hope that by relaxing and recovering for a while that my legs will "mend" and feel better than they have over the past two months or so.

So, I did an easy 4.5-miler this morning; the weather was perfect - low 60s, no humidity, no wind, and lots of sunshine... all at 6:30am... it was gorgeous. When I returned from the run, I fed the cats, brushed my teeth and got ready to take a shower. As I was getting ready to hop into the shower, it dawned on me that Mack wasn't anywhere to be found - normally she's "first in line" for food.

I started to panic - had she somehow snuck outside? Was she sick or injured and hiding somewhere? Was she in a closet? So I ran around the apartment, opening all of the closet doors, checking in the bedroom closet, looking under the bed and couch, all the while calling for her. I looked out on the deck, ran down to the garage, and was really getting nervous when I heard a faint, "meow" coming from somewhere - it sounded like the bathroom... I checked the tub - nope. I looked behind the toilet - nope.

"Meow," I heard it again - it sounded like it was coming from next door??? And then I opened the cabinet under the sink and found this:

Ugh! I must have left the cabinet open earlier in the morning and she must have crawled in to explore. Truth be told, as soon as I found her, I closed the cabinet door, ran to get my phone so I could take a picture, and then took the picture - so, it was a bit "staged," but the story remains the same. What a crazy cat... she's more or less fearless (the complete opposite of 'ole scaredy pants Shiloh). I had to coax her out of the cabinet - I have a feeling she would've stayed in there for a few hours if given the chance.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful - work was "business as usual." I left a tad early to get a haircut, and then arrived back to the apartment at around 5:15 or so. I fed the cats their dinner, and took a few minutes to relax on the couch. I looked over and thought this would make a good picture:

Just after taking the picture, I noticed that it was nice and shady out on the deck and the temperature showed 80F, so I grabbed a Siggi's Skyr plain yogurt, added 1 Tbsp of McCanns Irish Steel Cut Oats, mixed them together and went outside to enjoy the nice weather. I sat on the deck for a solid hour, just watching traffic and relaxing - it was quite nice, to say the least.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been "resting" my legs a bit this week, so I only ran twice (for a total of 8 miles), rode once (19 miles), and swam twice (maybe 1500m). I've also been focusing on my diet - I think the key is going to be watching my glycemic load - keeping the blood sugar level and steady. So, I've been researching low-glycemic load foods, while trying to not go completely "low carb."

Imagine my surprise when I learned that black beans offer an ideal low-glycemic load solution. Yep - 1 cup of cooked black beans provides 227 calories, 15g of protein, 15g of fiber, a glycemic load index of about 10 (which is low), and a nice mix of complex carbs (no sugars).

I've not been a black bean fan in the past, but I figured I'd find a recipe and give them a shot. After some searching, I found a recipe for "cuban black beans" that looked simple to make and didn't include any extra items like oil, corn, rice, and so on.

I made the beans on Wednesday night, tried them last night and fell in love. I had them tonight, along with a grilled chicken breast (with 2 tsp of salsa), a broccoli veggie mix, and a tomato. Here's dinner:

463 calories, 3g fat, 52g carbs, 12g sugar, 17g fiber, 51g protein. The majority of the sugar came from the broccoli mix - 6g, followed by the tomato with 4g. Thankfully the sugars in those are relatively low-impact as well, so no spikes. :-)

Dinner was tasty, but I couldn't help but think how deliciously wonderful a fish fry would've been instead... but alas, I've been eating terribly for most of the summer and I really need to get back on the wagon. Next weekend is the Taste of Madison... argh - guess I won't be going to that, either. :-(

Tomorrow's supposed to be a lot warmer, so I'll be getting up early to ride and run. I'm not sure what else I'll do tomorrow - maybe go see a movie or something?

No fish fry reviews - sorry. The 'ole waistline needs a serious break from that Friday night ritual, so I've been actively avoiding that temptation.

I did however attend a Mallards baseball game last weekend with my friend Dan and his family and we had a blast. Dan and Tara purchased some awesome seats that were located literally behind home plate:

Not a bad seat for $7!

The game quickly became a lop-sided trouncing as the Mallards went ahead of their opponents (from LaCrosse) in the second inning to the tune of 9-1... So, we had to find other sources of entertainment and the most obvious option was to watch and shout along with a Mallards staple: The Beefstick Guy.

He sells a variety of items, but as he climbs up and down the stairs and makes his way through the seats and bleachers he shouts, "Peanuts, sunflower seeds, caramel corn," (and then with heavy emphasis on the "EE" and with the crowd of 7,000 people joining him) "bEEEEEEEEEEEfsticks!"

You'd think it gets old... but it never does - the whole crowd yells along with him and before you know it, you're joining the crowd. I figured I'd take a picture with his legend:

I also took a picture with Dan; upon review of the photo we promptly noticed two things - one, we're getting old, and two, we got "photo-bombed" by a little kid in the background... classic!

The night quickly came to a close and was capped-off by some fireworks and live music. We weren't able to stay for the music as Dan was there with the entire family (including his nephew who was visiting from New Jersey), so we watched the fireworks for a bit and then called it a night.

In other news, I'm continuing to get the apartment "in order." I got a magnetic knife holder and a few Victorinox Fibrox knives:

And, I finally got around to mounting the TV on the wall... what a difference that made. I'm waiting on one more component to arrive and then I'll be done with the set-up of the living room entertainment pieces (and I'll be able to get the last cardboard box out of the area).

I also bought a "cat sitter" DVD (I'm embarrassed to admit it) to help entertain the cats a bit. At the old apartment, the cats enjoyed watching birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters as they scavenged bird seed from my upstairs neighbor's (aka "Psycho") porch. Here, they don't have that luxury, so I hoped the DVD might be a nice diversion from time to time. Turns out Shiloh loves it:

...Probably the best $5 I've ever spent on a DVD.

And finally, here's one last shot of Shiloh sitting on his favorite toy. I'm not sure why he chose to sit on it like this, but I thought it would make a fun picture.

Received some sad news last night - Lump-Lump, our parakeet, died unexpectedly and apparently of old age. Amy reports that she heard an unusual squawk from the office (where Lumpy lived in his cage) and when she went in to check on him, he was laying on the bottom of the cage, dead.

Poor little guy. I always felt bad keeping a caged bird - never seemed really fair to him, but he apparently enjoyed his cage quite a bit. There would be times where we would take him out and try to get him to "spread his wings" a bit, but he'd always work his way back into the cage - I guess it felt safe and familiar.

For those not familiar with Lumpy's story, he was found in Bentonville - he flew up to someone and landed on them. They brought him to the animal shelter, and Amy and I agreed to foster him for a while. We were supposed to hand him off to a family from Oklahoma, but for one reason or another, we couldn't ever sync our schedules. Then, we discovered that the family's house burned and several of their pets perished in the fire... had we met them when we were supposed to, Lumpy probably would've met a similar fate.

We decided that it was probably a sign to keep Lumpy, so we upgraded his cage and did our best to keep him content. I can still hear him singing - he had a nice "whistley" voice that wasn't annoying or unpleasant - it was just a happy, feel good whistle. He loved his mirror and he was a sucker for bird seed... we tried to feed him healthier options, but he was quite the seed junkie (an exclusive diet of bird seed is actually not real healthy for birds).

Anyway, we had him for around 6-7 years, and while he wasn't actively involved in our day-to-day lives, he certainly was an enjoyable little fella, and I'll definitely miss him. Take care, Lump-Lump.

I'm glad I had my phone near me to grab this picture. Not that I couldn't have gotten up to get the camera... they're zonked out.

Poor Shiloh - he's got a urinary tract infection.

I noticed he had been using the litter box a lot, and was spending a considerable amount of time "sitting" in the litter box. It started on Sunday - he went to the box at least 6 times in an hour, and when I checked the box to see what was going on, it was obvious that he was having trouble urinating. Instead of big clumps of urine, there were six or seven pea-sized marbles of urine. :-(

Urinary tract infections (or "UTI" for short) are usually quite painful for cats and quite stressful, so I knew I had to get him in to the vet first thing on Monday. Blockage of the urinary tract as a result of a UTI can lead to a prompt and painful death; males are more prone to blockage than females. I was nervous all day on Sunday.

The rescue group warned me that Shiloh was difficult to get into a pet carrier, but boyhowdy did I underestimate just how tricky and difficult it really was! After trying to corral him for a solid 20 minutes and getting scratched and bit a few times, I finally trapped him in the bedroom. Big mistake...

He was on the bed - I could tell he was worn out from the chasing - so I went to grab him and must have spooked him something fierce because he immediately emptied his bladder on the bed... which included my new comforter. :-( Got him into the carrier, then promptly doused everything with Nature's Miracle, and threw what I could into the washing machine.

Because he emptied his bladder just minutes before getting to the vet's office, they weren't able to express any urine for testing purposes (to test for stones, crystals, infection, and so on), so we took a best guess that he had a UTI. A quick shot of antibiotics later, and a few hundred bucks lighter, we headed back home. I forgot how expensive vets are when you aren't getting "the shelter discount." ARGH.

Once home, Mack stepped in and took care of Shiloh:

I'm happy to report that he's doing better now. Made some adjustments - he's getting wet food now (Wellness Core) mixed with his dry food (Wellness Core), and then doused with a 1/4 cup of warm water. The extra water from the wet food and dousing should help flush his bladder and keep things tidy. I might also add that the cat food bill is now higher than my own grocery bill - that stuff is pricey!

And speaking of tidy, we made some changes to the litter box scene as well. His foster family used a DIY litter box system that included an unscented clay litter; I was using traditional boxes with scented litter (Fresh Step) - perhaps that was adding to stress, and stress can cause UTIs in cats. So, I figured I would try to make things as "familiar" as possible.

Thanks to the good folks over at catinfo.org, I learned how to build a "proper" litter box - it's quite simple, much less expensive than a store-bought box, and the cats seem to enjoy the extra space and privacy.

Step one: purchase a large Rubbermaid (or similar) tub, with lid. I found this 22-gallon unit at Menards for $10.

...you can see my Trek trainer bike in the background - I found that on Craigslist a while ago for a decent price. I use it in the trainer so that I don't beat-up my Cervelo during the off season.

Step two: cut a decent-sized hole in the tub, near the top. Don't cut through the top lip, as it provides support for the overall structure. Don't cut down too far, otherwise litter may spill out or get kicked out by the cats. I used a utility knife to cut the opening as shown here:

Step three: fill it with litter! I used Dr. Elsey's Ultra Precious Cat litter. A 40-lb bag is $15 at Petsmart, which is a reasonable price for litter. The 40-lb bag perfectly fills the big tub. It's unscented, low dust, and clumps nicely. Note that Dr. Elsey's website has a ton of helpful information for litter box training, clean-ups, and cat assistance (in general).

... I think Mack was excited to see a familiar litter box coming together...

And that's it - put the lid on, and you're all set. Here's the finished product, in place and ready for some customers:

All-in-all, it took about 10 minutes to make this box and the cats seem to enjoy it. I also feel better that it's unscented litter (which is supposed to be better for the cats in general) and that it may help reduce a little stress from Shiloh and Mack's new world.

I'll keep you posted on his condition, but I suspect he'll be back up to 100% in no time.

And finally... look at how my "dumb" stock pick is doing:

If you'll recall, I purchased that stock at $0.11 per share about 14 months ago. It was at $0.81 per share a few weeks ago. Now it's at $1.05; it was up to $1.09 at one point today... sure am glad I bought that stock! Wish I would've bought 100x more than I did, but then again, I'm apparently not too sharp when it comes to this stock stuff...

I'm not sure which title is actually worse - "crazy cat guy" or "fish fry fanatic"? Regardless, the cats are doing really well. They're adjusting to their new surroundings and are providing a ton of entertainment.

Shiloh is "Mr. Daring" - he wants to get into everything, and if there's something going on in the kitchen, he's all over it. It's nearly impossible to prepare a dinner, as I usually have a turkey wrap or something like that, and he has to keep close tabs on my efforts. The other night, he stole a chunk of scrambled egg whites directly out of the frying pan!

He's also started to enjoy hanging out in "sniper mode" as shown here:

He climbs up above the cupboards and waits for the right moment to swoop down and grab something from the counter. While it can be annoying, it's usually too funny for me to hold any type of grudge against the little guy.

Mack and Shiloh have also found a new favorite spot to sleep - it's on my $50 craigslist couch (which, after a gallon or six of Febreze doesn't smell too badly now), as shown here:

They love that spot and will sit there for hours while I ride bike or work on the computer. Sure am glad that I bought them a really nice bed that they never use. :-)

Oh - in other news, I saw my first "good" accident the other day... Wisconsin drivers have this wonderful tendency to "block the box" while attempting to turn left at any intersection.

"Blocking the box" refers to pulling your car into the middle of an intersection and waiting for the opposing traffic to open-up so that you can turn left (across their lanes). It's about the dumbest thing you can do, because you're literally out in no-mans land, blocking the intersection and making things unsafe for everyone.

Well, blocking the box is "the norm" around here - everyone does it all of the time. Wisconsin drivers also love to run red lights - they "sneak through" even after the light has gone from yellow to red.

Combine these two traits, and you're bound for a collision, which is what happened last night. Minivan blocking the box, waiting for traffic, with a Jeep waiting directly behind it (a double-block situation).

Lights turn red, and the van and Jeep both start to accelerate through the rest of the intersection. Bad timing, because a brand new Ford F150 was trying to run the red light as well, and ended-up hitting both the van and the Jeep. I just shook my head, because you could've totally predicted it.

Everyone got out - the van guy yelled at the truck guy; the truck guy yelled at the van guy; the Jeep guy was from another country and was on his cellphone as if nothing happened.

I pulled-in to a parking lot, started to get out and walk to the accident, but by then two cop cars were arriving, and there were two other cars that saw the accident as well. So, I figured it would behoove me to not get involved and just go home... which I did. And along the way, I saw another "blocking-the-box" move... ugh.

Next time I'll rant about how ignorant and inconsiderate the drivers are of pedestrians here.

It's been a few days since I brought home Mack and Shiloh, and I'm pleased to report that all is going extremely well. They're both coming out of their shells and are quite the characters.

Mack is a bit more aloof than Shiloh - she's happy to sit next to me rather than on me, although she does follow me everywhere throughout the apartment. If I get up to grab a soda, she's right by my side. She's so cute - she just sits quietly, waiting for me to finish whatever I'm doing, and will then follow me back to wherever I'm headed.

Here she is standing behind me while in the kitchen. I think I was grabbing a Diet Mt. Dew at the time.

Shiloh on the other hand, is quite outgoing. He walks around "talking" constantly - meowing and "griping" for attention. He's curious about everything - including my cereal from the other morning:

Just in case you're curious, the cereal is Fiber One with Silk Light Vanilla and fresh blueberries. 1/2 cup of Fiber One, 1/4 cup of silk, 1/4 cup of blueberries. Makes an excellent 100 calorie breakfast. I'll sometimes mix the Fiber One and blueberries with vanilla yogurt for an evening snack. Try it - it's awesome.

Spent the day working out. I found the "Insanity" workout DVDs on craigslist and have been working my way through them. Today was "Plyometric Cardio and Max Abs" - about 45 minutes of pretty tough core/aerobic exercise.

I followed that with 2 hours on the bike on the trainer (ick). At least I was distracted from the boredom of the trainer; I watched the "Big & Rob" series on DVD - it's a hilarious show about Rob Dyrdek (a pro skateboarder) and his bodyguard, Big Black. It was on MTV for a while and I never paid any attention to it, but a friend told me more about the show, and based on his description, I had to see the full series. If you can catch a rerun of the series, I suggest you take a look - it's really entertaining.

And then finished the morning with an 8-mile run around the neighborhood. The temperature was in the low 20s, and there was a solid northerly wind... made for a chilly run, but anything is better than the treadmill, so I didn't complain too much.

The rest of the day was rather unexciting... Cleaned the apartment (the cats don't seem to be afraid of the vacuum), did some laundry, made a dinner of egg whites, pico de gallo, some turkey breast, and a flax wrap, and am now sitting on the couch catching up with computer stuff.

Here's Mack, sitting next to me:

And here's Shiloh and me, writing this blog entry together:

Fish fry review to come next!

I adopted two cats from the local animal shelter. Meet Mack and Shiloh.

Mack:

Shiloh:

I was originally planning on adopting a single cat, but these two cats have some special needs. They had been at the shelter since 2008, because both have FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus), which is the equivalent of kitty AIDS. There's no cure, and no real form of treatment - they live with it, and you hope for the best.

FIV cannot be transmitted to people or other non-felines, and it's usually only spread to other cats by way of a deep bite. So, there's relatively little harm in having a cat (or two) with FIV, but for some reason, most people get scared and freak out about it. Most shelters and vets will euthanize cats with FIV because they are more difficult to place into homes than your standard cat might be.

So anyway... I saw Shiloh on Petfinder and really took a liking to him. I saw that he had FIV, but I was familiar with the condition, and knew it wouldn't be a big deal. So, I went and met him, and it turns out that he had a foster sister that he was absolutely in love with. Apparently Shiloh and Mack were best buddies, and would benefit from being placed together in a "forever home."

Shiloh is a bit scared of new people/environments to boot, so I figured that it would probably be best to keep them together, and as a result I came home with two wonderful kitties - one boy (Shiloh) and one girl (Mack). Mack is short for Mackerel - apparently the people who found her fed her Mackerel, and so the name stuck.

Mack is really outgoing - she follows me around everywhere, sleeps on me at night, and seems comfortable with everything. Shiloh is a bit more timid, although he did spend a considerable part of the night sitting on my lap and then laying next to me while in bed. I think he'll warm-up fairly soon.

So, there you have it - Mack and Shiloh, chillin' at the apartment. There'll be plenty of more pictures (and stories) to come, I'm sure. These photos aren't that great - I took some quick pictures while on lunch today. The apartment is a bit cluttered as well - I'll be cleaning/organizing this weekend (after fish fry, of course).