Diapers for pets...

Jasper, the multi-million dollar cat. We love him dearly, with all his wacky health issues, huge medical bills, and his quirky behaviors. It's hard not to love him - he's been a part of our family since he was smaller than the palm of my hand. Abandoned in a dumpster, he needed to be bottle-fed since he was separated from his mom. Bottle feeding creates a unique bond between pet and owner.

With all his quirks, he is our El Baño gato. He spends 99% of his time in the bathroom. Why? He gets stressed out from the other cats in the house and will pee anywhere but the litter box. If he does manage to pee in a box, he stands up and pees right over the sides onto the wall or floor. Secluded, he uses the litter box correctly 95% of the time.

From the safety of his room, watching the world

He loves being secluded. He has a screen door through which he can see the goings-on of all the other cats and humans in the house or not. If he wants to be in quiet, he hangs out in the back of the bathroom on his tower or in one of his beds in the room. If he wants to be where the action is, he has a huge bed by the door so he can chill and be comfy. The bathroom is a high-traffic area in our house, so he's always getting visitors and pets.

Jasper watching the kittens playing froma safe spot.

After his last stint of not eating for 24+ hours, I decided to give him time with the general population. Most times, there are no issues. We've unfortunately had a few instances where he peed somewhere he wasn't supposed to. This means he gets no time to hang with the general population for a while. When I first decided to let him out, I considered the idea of diapers for him. This would mean no messes to deal with, and I can just throw them in the wash as needed. Gene said no way; he thought it would be more trouble than it's worth. I'm still on the fence about it, as I truly do not know if that would make him less likely to want to use the litter boxes. However, if it means he can stay a healthy weight and we have no pee accidents when he has free rein, it's worth a shot!

Drop me a line - should I try the diapers or not? Have you used them before - a success or a fail? Check back to see if we went with the diapers or not!

Till our tails crosss,

Mel

#purrfectdozen #jasper #milliondollarcat #catlife #diapersforcats #feline #quirkycats

Is Making Money Blogging Realistic for the Average Person?

When I decided to bite the bullet and start my blog site, I did literally no research. I had tossed the idea around for a hot minute; a few people said I should write about my pets and the experiences/knowledge I have gained. That marinated in my head for several months. Next thing I know, I've paid for a premium site that I can design and change as I see fit, sell merchandise, and actually write my blog posts.

All seems simple enough, right? Mostly yes—it's simple. Write, proofread, publish, repeat multiple times. I figured one post a week is a good amount. Wrong—they say to be successful and even potentially make money, 3-6 posts a week are needed. Get a routine of scheduled posts. Say what??! More than one post a week? I have missed even getting that done. The best-laid plans go awry in my life. Set a day to focus on writing my blog, doing my bookkeeping, and anything else that needs to be done from a desk. That's been my "plan" for more than a year now, and it has yet to happen. I generally don't work on Fridays—that's the day for me to focus on this stuff. Somehow things happen, and I don't always get to sit down as planned. That's not to say that I am not getting things done—just not what I need to get done.

I have entered the phase of my life where I have multiple pots simmering very close to boiling over. So I shuffle them around as best I can and hope for the best. So far, it's working, sort of. I've been making sure my invoices are done, I'm getting paid, taking care of the house, the cats, and generally being a productive person. What falls to the wayside: anything that requires me to physically sit at my desk for more than 10 minutes. It's hard. I don't like to sit still unless I'm reading or sleeping.

I've been reading bits and pieces about how long it takes to make money blogging. 8+ months, $500 a month. That's a long time and not a lot of money. Yikes! What was I thinking? Truly, I have no idea. Other than that, I have lots of cats, lots of knowledge, and I want to share that. There is definitely more money in it; the more I invest time in it, the more I get back. For now, this falls under a hobby that I hope to eventually make money with.

So here I am, with no true blog followers (yep, I can see how many people have read/clicked on each blog I post!). I'm looking at all my friends who say they will read the blogs but don't. I get it, we are all busy with other things that grab our attention and time. We have to choose wisely where we spend our time. It doesn't matter that most of my blog posts are no more than a 4-minute read. I'm hoping that next year this changes and I get more followers. My almost New Year's resolution (since I'm deciding in mid-March) is to actively write a new blog post every week and be ready to gear up to having 2 blogs posted each week. Focus, focus, focus! I can do it.

One thing I did right - choosing my topic for blogs. Pet blogs are in the top 10 most-read blogs. So now, to get people to my blog. (Help a girl out and share my site with everyone you know!) There are over 90 million households that have pets - that is a pretty large amount - yet not surprising. I know more people with pets than I do who don't have pets. In 2020, pet owners spent over $103 billion on their pets. Again - not surprising. Pet care is not cheap; food, just like for humans, is not cheap and is going up. Not to mention the enrichment of toys and treats. My #purrfectdozen crew has two toy boxes filled with toys, a basket of meds, and a small pile of clothes/costumes.

So, is writing a blog worth it? I'll have to revisit that in a year when I've managed to post more than one blog a week. Fingers crossed it's worth it!

That being said, I guess it's high time for me to review some pet products and ask the #purrfectdozen crew to start doing things people want to read about!

If you have a pet item you'd like me to test and review, drop it in the comments or send an email. For cat-related items, I'll use my herd of 11 cats. For dog-related items, I'll use the upcoming pet sitting I have scheduled with my favorite pups!

Till our tails cross again,

Mel

#purrfectdozen #reviews #blogger #catlife #felines

Vet Merry-go Round - Clara's ride!

So, I wrote about the lovely merry-go-round of vet visits that happens in my house. They get jealous when one of them has to go to the vet, and I end up making 2-3 more unexpected vet visits. Clara was the last unexpected vet visit. It went mostly well. She behaved, which is always nice. Her annual visit and shots are now up to date. Her ears were the reason we went to the vet to begin with. Double ear infection. I could have made some serious money if I bet on that being the diagnosis.

I would have lost if I had to say there's a reason she keeps getting the double ear infection. The upside to finding a reason - there's a cure! Which is great, because these double ear infections cost me about $250 each time she gets them. My budget cannot afford that routinely. While checking out her ears, we noticed she has a polyp in her left ear. It's completely blocking her ear canal. So it has created the perfect environment to be a breeding ground for infections as well as being impossible to clean at home or at the vet's office, landing us with ear infections!

So, like anything medical, we are presented with a few options:

A. Let the polyp be, treat the ear infection, do our best to keep her ears clean, and hope for the best.

B. Let our vet attempt to remove the polyp, clean her ear, and hope that it doesn't come back, as they sometimes can. Especially since the way the vet takes it off, there's no guarantee it won't come back. They will remove it by doing a Polyp Traction, which is done with General Anesthesia, and basically, they just pull the polyp out of her ear.

C. Go to a specialist, have them remove it at double or triple the cost of our vet removing it. The major difference? The specialist has a higher success rate of it not coming back. They would do a Ventral Bulla Osteotomy. The big difference is that she is put under completely and they go in surgically through her chin/neck area to remove the polyp.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Making these decisions for our pets is always hard. They can't tell us their feelings; we have to judge what would be best all around for them and us (more so financially), but what will have the best results, recovery, recurrence, etc. Ultimately, in the long run, it would be cheaper to have the polyp removed. Polyps in the ear canal mean chronic ear infections. We are halfway to the cost of surgery with only two ear infections to date. I decided to let our vet remove the polyp. The ballpark figure is $800 - $1200 for them to do it. Weighing the risk of it coming back - she's an older cat (17+), so if it does come back, hopefully, it won't be for a while, and we won't need to do this again. The upside to our vet doing this surgery is that Clara is comfortable with them, knows them, and they are close.

Had we decided to take the specialist route, it would mean a visit to check her out, then going back for the surgery, plus a follow-up. Additionally, the cost would be $2,000+.

So, fingers crossed, I made the right decision. She goes for bloodwork and then back the next day for the surgery. They will keep her most of the day after it's done to observe her, and then she comes home. Say a prayer, and cross your fingers it goes smoothly.

Till our Tail cross,

Mel

#purrfectdozen #vetvisits #cats #feline #medicalprocedure