Then They Get Old

Posted on June 9, 2011 by jenn

Oh Indy.

Indy is 16 years old now. He has been through so much. Pneumonia, a three month stint of anorexia complete with feeding tubes, and cholangeohepatitis. That last one is recent, and there are former blog posts all about it. He has also been through several moves, Matt moving in, cats moving in, fosters in and out and the loss of his first feline companion. Through it all, he has been a rock. He is a strong cat. He is very vocal and he is the leader of the cat army. Cat groups are not really determined by alpha, or top cat. Some believe they form a hierarchy. I don’t really think mine do. If they do, it’s Indy at the top and everyone else at the bottom. He has taught all the others that they accept each other and be nice. He breaks up fights. When Blossom tries to test his authority, he literally takes her down – body slams her. He never hurts her. He just says that he won’t tolerate her foolishness.

But now? Sigh. He has to admit to being old. Sometimes, Blossom gets away with that foolishness! He won’t stop her. When he was diagnosed with the cholangeohepatitis, he was also diagnosed with a small bit of arthritis. I guess that happens to the best of us. But in January, when we took him in to the vet for his usual 6-month senior comprehensive physical and blood work veterinary visit, as all senior pets should have ,we found out that he had developed hyperthyroidism – and that his liver enzymes were once again elevated. UGH.

Well the good news in this is that hyperthyroidism is completely curable. I’ve always said that if my cats have to have one of the big three cat diseases – kidney failure, hyperthyroid, diabetes – I would choose hyperthyroid, because there is a cure. It is called radio-iodine treatment, and it is one shot, given subcutaneously, just like a vaccination. There are downsides to the treatment which are a three day hospital stay (which can happen to your cat for any number of reasons anyway), and either having to save the fecal matter in a plastic bag for a few weeks before disposal or flushing (I chose the former). There is also a slight risk of kidney damage, or that if the hyperthyroid is severe enough, the one treatment won’t be enough, and it would need replaced. And it is an expensive upfront cost of $1,200. But the upside trumps all of that – it IS a cure (even if you need the second round).

Left on its own, hyperthyroid eventually wears down the other organs, liver, kidneys and heart, and it wears them down faster than if they would on their own. So you definitely want to treat it in some way. Other treatments are surgery, although that is not done very often these days, and treatment with methimazole. There are pros and cons to methimazole, and it can control and slow down, but not cure the condition. One of the big downsides however, is the fact that the medication itslef can be harmful to the liver. And as you just read, Indy was already compromised.

Eleven years ago, when our Joey was only ten years old and diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, we opted for the radio-iodine treatment, which back then was a brand new treatment. His T4 levels were very high – 22 (normal .4 to 4) - and it was expected that he would need to have it done twice – and he didn’t. He never had a recurrence and never had any health issues until he was 16 years old old and developed kidney disease, which he had until he finally died at nearly 21 years old of heart disease.

Believing that getting the thyroid function back to normal and hoping that the thyroid was causing the liver values to be off, and having such a positive previous experience, we scheduled Indy for his radio-iodine treatment and waited. We took him in two months later for his follow-up blood tests. His thyroid was totally normal again, as expected. It wasn’t that high, so we didn’t expect a different result. His liver values did drop as well, although not back into the normal ranges quite yet and we were hopeful that they would continue to drop. A few weeks after treatment, he started to give us difficulties with eating as well. He just wouldn’t eat much – his treats always. But a few times, he ignored those and he also refused bacon. Bacon. Uh-oh. To the vet he went. To our dismay, kidney values were elevated. We force fed him a few meals, gave him fluids and in a few days he was feeling like his old self. I continued him on fluids, and made an appointment to take him back to the vet in one month. That appointment was this past Monday, June 6th.

The good news from that visit is that he pretty much maintained his weight. But the results of his blood work are not very good. His BUN value increased, although the creatinine, which is the more important factor, only went up to 2.8 from 2.6, so hopefully, the BUN was only a result of dehydration. His liver values started rising again as well. So now he is on the Joey regimen: fluids 3x a week and bi-weekly acupuncture. We will add liver meridians in, and are going to try calciferol, which is a vitamin D derivative which is showing promise in treating cats with kidney failure. On his next visit, I’ll talk more with the vet about supporting the liver, but poor Indy is already on a daily vitamin that he takes once a day, another kidney support supplement, glucosamine treats and then the calciferol liquid coming soon (I’m getting it compounded and I hope I can get it made in bacon flavor – that is his favorite).

So this was a depressing post. Go back and read the kitten post! Or check out cute overload! Or some LOL cats.

Kitten-y Goodness!

Posted on June 9, 2011 by jenn

When we bought this house, one of the things I was most excited about was having a space to foster kittens. There was a design flaw with the room, where a little kitten could get into the furnace room and get stuck behind the furnace. A friend of mine found me a simple solution (a $20 bi-fold door from Construction Junction) to make the room safe, and then all I needed was a quick trip to the pet store and some kittens!

I had intended to blog about the kittens during their stay. And all of their milestones and antics. But somehow, the six weeks flew by. I was also given four sweet little boy kittens who were practically perfect and only needed to learn how to not pee on the carpeting, and that sitting on a human’s head and eating their hair was not a good hobby. And to grow. They needed to grow. Last week, I took my boys to the shelter. Three remain waiting for their forever homes, while Zach got a home the very next day. The rest of this post will (mostly) speak for itself.

Here is OLIVER (he was my favorite):

He is the little black one – a day or so after I brought him home, still had his little blue eyes

When I discovered he was going to have green eyes, I squealed with delight.

So Tired!

He was the cuddliest one

Introducing Zach

It took Zach a while to catch on to the whole self-cleaning thing.

This is Ray the day I brought him home. He refused to pose for me.

And Henry pretending he is a pilot

Why is he still at the shelter?????

Project Food Part II: Happy Herbivore

Posted on April 26, 2011 by jenn

Well, I didn’t cook new things nearly as much as I wanted to, but I did try a few things, so here is my review below.

Butternut Squash Soup:

Being a fan of squash and soup, I figured I could not lose with this recipe. And I was right. I really liked it. And the combination of sweet and spicy was a great touch. I do not have a photograph of this soup, as I totally forgot to take one, but imagine a butternut squash all mashed up. Yep, that is what it will look like.

Veggie Quinoa and Bean Croquettes:

I make a lot of stews, soups, and one pot mixes. So I thought I would step out of my comfort zone for the rest of the month. First up were these croquettes.

They are easy and fun to make. First you get all your fixings, then you get to play with your food. Er… mash it all up with your hands and then form them into balls. Cook and then you’ll have a bunch that look something like this, without the blur:

The book suggests putting marinara over them, but I did not. Also, depending on size, according to the author, you should get 24 for the whole batch. I made 15 croquettes, enough to fill up my cookie sheet and baked them. I then used the rest of the mix and made them into balls and froze them for meatball subs in the future.

Black Bean Burgers and Easy Mac & Cheese:

This was my very first attempt to try a homemade black bean burger. It was not hard at all, and they were really tasty. Just like every other homemade burger, it was mushy and fell apart. That makes me wonder what keeps the packaged ones from falling apart. Maybe I just don’t want to know. I would make these again.

I must admit that I have never, ever liked ANY vegan macaroni and cheese that I’ve tried to make. I don’t like vegan cheese either, except for Daiya. This recipe does not use Daiya, so I was going into it knowing that I was probably not going to like it. And yep, that was true. I did not really like it that much. I ate a little of it, but it just didn’t get any better tasting. But I will say – it WAS the BEST recipe I’ve tried and I’ve tried several. The consistency was RIGHT ON. I think the key to liking vegan mac & cheese is to not eat cheese for a long time, then you can appreciate these homemade recipes. But I am not vegan, and I do eat cheese sometimes. And while I don’t want my veggie meat to taste like animal meat, I somehow expect the cheese to. Please do not hold my vegan cheese prejudice against the recipe. :)

And lastly, I stepped WAY WAY OVER my comfort zone and actually tried baking.

Cornbread:

Here is a funny story. I don’t bake. Never, ever. By baking I generally mean sweets and bread. Not savory items. Last time I tried to bake, I attempted zucchini bread. I tried two different recipes and neither had any good taste to them. So what made me want to try this recipe? I don’t know. But it wasn’t smart.

My 10-year old niece could make this recipe. And she would have succeeded much better than I did. And do you know why? She would have known that without having corn meal, it was game over. She wouldn’t have said “Oh I have corn starch, that will work”. She would have said “Mom, we need to go to the store for corn meal”. Or, because she is smarter than me, she might have actually read the recipe a few days earlier when she was going to the store for the things she needed and wrote it down on a list that she took with her. But her Aunt Jenn? Yeah, not so bright. Here is what the cornbread turned out to look like. Normal, right?

The taste was really foul. It was – I can’t even explain it. It was sweet – but well, it tasted like corn starch. So I broke it up and fed it to the water fowl in our backyard. They don’t have tastebuds.

Conclusion/Next Up:

The Happy Herbivore cookbook is a great cookbook. I have made more recipes from it than any other cookbook I’ve ever owned. I know I will continue to make the tofu scramble and several other recipes again. I love that the recipes are so easy and so tasty despite being low-fat. I am not used to cooking low-fat, so I learned how to adjust cooking accordingly. I highly recommend the cookbook and also be sure to check out the recipes on her website.

Next month, I am moving on to Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I’ve had this one for awhile now, ever since it came out, and I’ve made two things from it, both were really good and I have been wanting to get back to cooking from it. One of the reasons for Project Food was to go through my cookbooks and decide if I want to hold on to them, as well as establish a regular healthy cooking habit. Generally, I buy a cookbook, droll all over it while I look through it, make one or two recipes and put it on the shelf. So getting so many from Happy Herbivore was a real treat. And I hope to make as much or more from AFR in May.

However, I am not quite done with Happy Herbivore. I want to re-make the cornbread as soon as I get some corn meal. I also really want to make the nomlette and the PB Cup smoothie (from her website), so I will get back to you on those recipes as well.

Until next time, when I will be back with cuteness or cooking, I can say which yet, cause I don’t know, Happy Eating!

Project Food Part I: Happy Herbivore, Preview

Posted on April 8, 2011 by jenn

I hadn’t made any New Year’s Resolutions for 2011. Instead, I just thought about some of the things I’d like to work on this year. I have been trying to pay attention to my grumpy moods and figure out why I am grumpy and if there were any things that I am not aware of. And, no, not really. Same old stuff. And winter. Winter always makes me grumpy and lazy and depressed. So now that it is April, and supposedly Spring (not that anyone told SW PA about that fact), I thought this would be a good time to work on one of those areas. And I don’t mean exercise. Although I am working on that too! I’ve done more workouts in April so far as I did in March in the same amount of time.

I chose cooking to focus on! And to make it fun, I decided that I would go through a different cookbook each month and make as many things from it as I could. This month, the honor goes to Happy Herbivore, by Lindsay S. Nixon. When I received this cookbook, I dove right in and read it cover to cover, skipping over only the ones that had mushroom in the title. Between what I read, and the things I did already try and meeting the author later in the month, this book clinched the top spot in my favorite cookbooks list. The recipes are all low or non-fat, which is a plus, as I am looking to reduce my weight this year as well.

There are 175 recipes in this book. I will not get through them all. I don’t bake, so that is a chapter there I probably won’t even consider (although you never know). I generally do not cook 3x per day and it is already April 8th, so if I get through 30 recipes, it will be a miracle.

Here is a preview of the recipes I’ve already tried.

First up: Home Fries and Spicy Collard Greens with Field Roast Italian Sausage

Totally yummy. The only issue we had with it was that we didn’t get the potatoes cooked enough. I don’t know if it was our oven, or some other factor, but of the ones that were cooked all the way through, they were yummy and we enjoyed them. I actually plan to make these for dinner tonight, with a little pre-boiling. The recipe for collards didn’t call for the Field Roast, but I really wanted some protein with my dinner, and the Field Roast sausages are so yum, so I grilled them on my indoor griller and enjoyed.

In fact, I enjoyed the collards so much that I made them again, without the sausage. As you can see, they just look like greens:

Next up: Tofu Scramble

Previous experience with tofu scramble was in restaurants, which was totally yum, and once on my own with a box mix, which wasn’t so great. But since that attempt, I have learned a lot about tofu, so I tried again. The book gives a basic recipe, and mentions options, such as vegan sausage and veggies on hand for add-ins. The above photo is with red peppers, zucchini, and Upton’s seitan chorizo. I really enjoyed this and it became one of my favorite recipes ever. I’ve made it three more times – two with just the tofu and the third with just the chorizo. It doesn’t take long to make, so if you are the type to get up early enough to cook before work, it’s a great option.

And lastly: Aztec Corn Soup

This is what mine looked like. It looks nothing like it is supposed to. This was a disaster – mine, totally, not the author’s. In the book, it was yellow for one thing – it is corn, after all. Also, I mis-read the directions, several times, and put a whole can of black beans into the soup, instead the smaller portion called for in the recipe. It actually tasted pretty good, although a bit more beany than corn-y. I bet that if I had made it right, it would have been even better. That splashy of liquid in the photo is either tobasco or hot sauce, I forget which I used. I made this within a few days of meeting Lindsay and she said that hers was yellow because she used amaranth instead of quinoa. The recipe does say either. I had quinoa on hand, so I used it. Apparently amaranth is a little more yellow in color.

You can find the recipe for Tofu Scramble here:

<a href=”http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/tofu-scramble/”target=blank”>Tofu Scramble </a>

I’ll be back soon with more recipe fun, and some notes about life and feline hyperthyroidism.

ARIA, the Bright

Posted on January 21, 2011 by jenn

We stayed at the Aria hotel on our last visit to Las Vegas, in December 2010. There are lots of choices as to where to stay in Vegas, and with the price of hotels, making an educated decision is always better. We have stayed at a few other hotels on the Strip, varying widely in price/luxury: Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, Planet Hollywood, Caesar’s Palace and Palazzo. They all had positives and negatives, except the Palazzo. I have nothing negative to say about them. Here is the scoop on Aria.

PROS:

*The room is nice and clean, and a comfortable size

*Bed was comfy

*Large screen, HDTV

*Being a newer hotel, it is definitely a lot more navigable than some of the older ones (and MGM), and doesn’t have cheesy theming.

*Also doesn’t have the cigarette smell that the older ones have (yet)

*Guest elevators are near the front door

*24 hour sundry/gift shop

*Easy access to Crystals and the tram to Bellagio/Monte Carlo

*Gelato and patisserie

*Easy access to Planet Hollywood (yummy breakfast buffet)

*Cafe Vettro treated us nicely as we got there between breakfast/lunch and there was nothing on the menu exactly to my specifications, they accommodated me and let me eat “off-menu”. We liked it despite the bad reviews we read, and it’s really pretty.

*There is a pretty fountain outside the main doors.

*We did not gamble here, so we have no opinion on the casino itself, other than looks

CONS:

*Set far off the strip, and while they have a nice easy walkway, it is still a walk to The Strip.

*This also upsets the traffic flow of pedestrians.

*The tram to Bellagio/Monte Carlo is practically useless. It’s quicker to walk to the locations outside, than take the tram.

*The buffet is expensive and not really that good. I’ll offer up a disclaimer, that we ate during the special weekend dinner thing, which made the buffet super expensive and reek of fish. However, we did try it at breakfast, which we figured they could get right and, well, no. For the money, walk across the street to PH and eat at their buffet.

GOOD IDEA GONE WRONG:

From their website it says the following:

The most advanced guestroom technology in the world puts total control of your stay at your fingertips, allowing you to customize the lighting, room temperature, and music – transforming your room into a sanctuary of relaxation. Oversized floor-to-ceiling windows fill the room with natural light and provide spectacular views of the Las Vegas Strip or surrounding mountains.

Let me tell you about this technology. :)

What I liked is the push button control of the curtains/drapes. That is not innovative, The Palazzo has that too. I liked the bush button control for privacy or service. I liked the fact that the bathroom had dimmers, so that you could leave just a tiny bit of light so you don’t walk into the walls, but not so much to wake you up. I liked the button by the bed that controlled the bedside light and when you pressed goodnight or whatever it said, it turned off all the lights in the room and closed the curtains.

HOWEVER —

The master control panel for the whole electronic room was a royal pain. It just did not work. The MCP is about the size of an iPad and from there, sitting in bed, you are supposed to be able to control the lights in the whole room, the drapes, the tv and the thermostat.

The thermostat worked, and as far as we could tell, this was the only way to control it, despite there being a wall unit.

The MCP unit’s “Goodnight” function closes the draperies, and dims the light and turns the tv on to a music station. WTF? I’m trying to sleep! And we had to mess around for a good 10 minutes before we could figure out how to turn off the tv. The tv’s remote didn’t work. But once we got the tv off, except for watching Glee, we didn’t turn it back on. Fortunately, the goodnight button next to the bed worked as a goodnight. The MCP needs to call that setting Romance instead of goodnight.

And the result of all this so-called “cool” technology? The room never gets dark. It is too busy glowing! From the MCP and the all the button controls on the wall. I didn’t even need those bathroom dimmer lights. And the curtains didn’t shut all the way and there was no way to pull it tight and there was a big gap at the top. So for those of us who have trouble falling asleep at night with light in our eyes, this is not the place. I even tried wrapping the MCP in towels to dim the glow, when it was obvious you couldn’t turn the damn thing off or unplug it.

This was our view:

It shows you how far it is set back from the strip. At least I could watch the fountain at night.

I think unless you are on one of the top floors, the strip view is minimal, and a mountain view would be better.

So there you go. If you are the kind of person who doesn’t care about the room being bright to sleep, and are the kind who sticks around their resort most of the trip, consider Aria. I don’t think we’ll stay there again.

Vegan MoFo!

Posted on November 18, 2010 by jenn

November is the Vegan Month of Food. I really considered unofficially participating. I’m glad I didn’t, cause as you can see, November is half over, and I am only now going to sit down and write a post.

The details about Vegan MoFo (which I think is a hilarious title, by the way) can be found here:

http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/

But I still wish to celebrate, so I will share some of the tasty food I’ve made in the last few months.

First up is Curried Baby Artichoke Ragout.

Curried Baby Artichoke Ragout

This recipe is taken from Vegetarian Times’ Farmers’ Market Cookbook. I did not alter the recipe in any way, but mine looked nothing like the picture in the book. I think this recipe was delicious.

Next up, from the same cookbook, we have Zucchini-Tomato Gratin.

Zucchini Tomato Gratin

Considering that gratin means cheese, I did alter this. I used nutritional yeast between the stacked layers and put Daiya shredded Mozzarella on top. It tastes so much better than it looks.

I wanted to jazz up my typical beans and greens recipe. Following an idea off the bag of precut kale, I got the idea for adding tomatoes.

Beans and Greens with Tomatoes

That is great northern beans (2 cans), a bunch of kale and a can of diced tomatoes, maybe two. Oh, and veggie broth. So yummy! (Ignore the dirty stove)

Below is probably one of the most delicious things I’ve made in a long time. Vegetarian Chili! The first time I ever tried a chili!

Dr. Fuhrman's Vegetarian Chili

This is adapted from Dr. Fuhrman’s recipe in the book Eat to Live. Although I made plenty of alterations that might make the recipe mine, I do not feel comfortable posting the complete recipe. But I’ll tell you what I changed. I changed the beans because of what I had in the pantry — I had black beans and kidney beans, so I used those instead of pinto. I did not use the celery, I added eggplant. I substituted Match ground “beef” for the TVP (where do I even get that anyway?), and didn’t use the raisins or dates. The recipe says to put over greens, which made no sense to me, until I was almost done cooking it and realized that it was very thick, and I wanted my chili like normal chili, so I threw in some canned tomatoes (low sodium of course). Cans of tomatoes are lifesavers. Always keep them on hand. :) This was incredibly yummy!

How about Green Bean Fries?

Green bean fries

Green Bean Fries

These were incredibly delicious. Recipe here:

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/09/panko-crispy-green-bean-fries-veggie.html

Then, of course, I’ve had a bunch of really good salads from the Giant Eagle salad bar that I took to the zoo for my training.

Salad

This masterpiece was one of the most consumed items at my Labor Day party. It is a variation of Rachael Ray’s salad.

Chickpea Salad

I added cucumbers and used endive instead of celery. I also didn’t include the garlic.

Recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chickpea-salad-recipe/index.html

And one last thing I’ve been enjoying is (vegan) overnight oats. It’s an easy way to eat oatmeal in the morning, and it’s fun to play around with flavors. At night, mix oatmeal with your favorite milk (hopefully plant based) and flax seed. This is to replace yogurt – which I can’t even comprehend. Mix well. Refrigerate overnight. In morning, add toppings and voila! Oatmeal in minutes. It is meant to be eaten cold, but I prefer to heat mine up for up to three minutes in the microwave.

Some favorite variations for toppings — mashed banana, maple syrup or agave, nuts; pumpkin plus previous ingredients; frozen berries and nuts (when put in microwave, the berries add the syrup) or use maple syrup or agave. You can really use whatever you want. The mashed banana and the frozen berries can also go in the previous night. It’s fun to experiment and see what you come up with.

Hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the food. If I do any more vegan cooking that is noteworthy, I’ll be sure to let you know!

The Highs and Lows of Niagara Falls

Posted on October 7, 2010 by jenn

I’m so behind in my blogging, it’s been such a busy time, and mostly just with the day-to-day, so blogging often gets put on the back burner. That is why this entry is from an event that took place last month.

Every year, my husband and I go on a trip for our anniversary. Last year, our 10th anniversary, we went to Kauai. This year? Erie, PA and Niagara Falls, ON, CA.

Our actual anniversary was spent with him at a college football game and me at zoo training, then rushing home to load the car to drive to Erie. What’s in Erie? Nothing really, but there was a marathon the next day and Matt was participating in the half marathon and I, the 5K walk, the next day. Once we got to Erie, we had an exciting dinner at Steak ‘n Shake and then went back to the hotel and rested for the very early and long day the next day. Matt did his half, I walked my 5K and then we headed for the falls.

I’m not going to give you all a play-by-play, that would be boring. But I am going to summarize and tell you what I thought were the high points and the low points.

Food:

We ate mostly at well known eateries. We had the hotel breakfast buffet and it was okay. The view of the falls was nice. Twice we had breakfast at a family restaurant on Clifton Hill. They had good home fries, but it was just okay, edible. Nothing incredible.

The standout was the Secret Garden.

Inside, the decor reminded me of a grandmother’s house. Pick any grandma, it doesn’t matter. I ate the grilled eggplant sandwich and Matt had the chicken fingers and fries. That doesn’t sound spectacular, but it really was good. Even Matt, who wouldn’t touch an eggplant if his life depended on it said “That looks good for what it is”. :) But the ambiance and the fact that they served real, unsweetened brewed iced tea are the reasons to visit.

Here is the cute birdhouse on our table. All the tables had one, and they were all different:

And here is the dining room. There is also outside seating.

Entertainment/Tourist Attractions:

My favorite thing that we did, besides Maid of the Mist boat ride, was the Daredevils exhibit at the IMAX theater. The exhibit had videos, artifacts, reproductions and even the actual vessels from attempts to go over the falls. It was small, and inexpensive. The movie that plays at the IMAX was just okay.

While you are down at this end of town, you will probably want to do the Skylon Tower. And I recommend that. Supposedly you can see all the way to Toronto up there, but we could not be sure that we saw it, even though it was indeed a clear day. However, you should skip the 4D movie that they try to sell you. It’s totally a waste of money and time. The story is contrived, and the effects are designed just to make the seats move and squirt you with water. Has no bearing on the very stupid movie they show you. Plus when you wear the glasses, you feel like you are going blind. Please don’t bother. It’s 20 minutes of your life you can’t get back.

Obviously, since I already mentioned this, the Maid of the Mist boat ride is a must. You will get wet, but it is very much worth it to be there under the falls.

Clifton Hill is the street where all the other touristy things are. The things we did that were fun were the Louis Taussad’s Wax Museum, Guiness Museum, Ripley’s, Galaxy Golf (very challenging), and the shooting “ride” at the Canadian Midway.

Movieland … well, it was so bad it was funny. The theme, movies, is obvious. Inside there were wax figures. Terrible wax figures. A few DID look like who they were supposed to, but for the most part, had they not put name tags on the figures, we would not have been able to identify them. There was what I called the Hall of Crazy Arm Arrangements and Michael Jackson was missing a hand and Meryl Street an arm. Not saying for you not to go, just don’t expect greatness.

And how can I forget? Bird Kingdom! This is walking distance from Clifton Hill, it’s on the road by the falls, past the Rainbow Bridge (you have to walk under it). It is Canada’s aviary. At first, it is a weird place. They have more space then they need, and when you go in, you think “ghetto”. But the small bird room was fun with all the birds walking around. Then you get to the main attraction. The main aviary.

From the Maid of The Mist

Hotel:

We stayed at the Sheraton on the Falls. It was a great hotel convenient to Clifton Hill and this was our view from our window:

The Casino Niagara was attached to the hotel, as was a game room, the Hard Rock, Hershey World and a water park.

We highly recommend this hotel.

Casinos and Miscellaneous facts:

The Fallsview Casino is down by the Skylon Tower and Horsehoe Falls. It is billed as a resort and it is on par with a Las Vegas casino. The Casino Niagara was equally nice. One of the things I noticed in Canada, is that you have to be 19 to get into the casinos and they are non-smoking facilities. Want to smoke? You go into the smoking room. I wish all casinos in the US would be that way.

And if you are there after Labor Day, don’t go to the Dairy Queen looking for chocolate ice cream. Canadians don’t eat it and the stores only carry it for tourists and once tourist season slows down, its out with the chocolate!

And that is it!

Joey: Origins

Posted on October 5, 2010 by jenn

On Sunday, September 19, 2010, our 20.5 year old cat passed away. Being that he was of such an age, he was born before digital cameras were (or at least in widespread use), and therefore, I do not have a digital photo of him. I do have a hard copy somewhere, and when I find it, I’ll be able to post it later. He was definitely the cutest kitten ever (and I’ve seen lots of kittens). So here is a photo of him and Cole, when Cole was a kitten, and making a pest of himself:

I just thought I would share the story of how Joey came to be a part of my life.

It was April, 1990, Easter weekend to be exact. My sister and I were both visiting my mother over the Easter/Spring break.

My first cat, Sallie, had passed away a few months before and her companion (and my sister’s) cat, Puff, was lonely. He was driving my mother crazy and sticking to her like Velcro. I had suggested to my mother that she get Puff a companion, so that he could lavish attention on another feline instead of her. I also recommended she get another male, cause back in those days, in the country, it wasn’t common to neuter your pets. Of course, my mom didn’t listen to me, and kept putting it off.

So this particular day, April 14th, to be exact, my mother had to work at her second job in a candy store at the mall. So my sister and I went along with her to do what you do at a mall. A few doors down from the candy store, which was located in the food court, there was a pet store. This pet store often had kittens from cat owners who couldn’t find homes for their kittens (see above re: neutering). This particular day, my sister and I went in, and saw two little kittens in a cage. There was Joey, in all of his black and white fluff, and another. We fell in LOVE with Joey. So we went to the candy store to tell my mother all about him. We told her that she NEEDED this kitten. That Puff needed the kitten. She refused to go look. She was afraid of falling in love.

So my sister and I huffed out of the store (well, I huffed, I don’t know about her) and walked around and then decided that we would buy the kitten for her. So we returned to the pet store, told the clerk that we wanted to buy the kitten, but that we had to wait until our mother was done working to get him. He had no problem with us doing that. So, we bought the cat, the clerk put a sign on his cage and we went back around the mall.

It was in JC Penney, walking through there, when my sister and I picked out his name. Since it was Easter, we thought it should be after some character from the Bible. We obviously didn’t want to go with Jesus or Pilate. So we went with Joey, after Joseph and the coat of many colors. We figured that if he had a name, Mom would be less mad at us. Oh and she got mad … but it’s not what you think.

A bit later, my sister and I were having a soda and chose a table near my mother’s store. She came out of the store, STOMPED over, and in her indignant mother voice said “Why didn’t you girls MAKE me go look at that kitten? I went to see him and I love him and I would have bought him. But because of YOU GIRLS, I lost him.” We looked at each other, told her “Sorry, we really are, we did try to get you to go there. Who’s minding the store?” So she stomped back over and went back to work, while my sister and I cracked up. As an aside, the thought of my mother stomping cracks me up. In the last few years of her life, she had trouble walking, but 20 years ago, she could stomp. How funny. I barely remember her being 43.

So it was 9:15 and we had 15 minutes to get our cat, so we hurried to the GC Murphy’s bought an Easter basket to put him in, and we went to the pet store and asked for a box. We placed Joey in the basket in the box and waited at a table for my mother to finish closing the store.

When she did, she saw the box and she asked “What is that?” I said “Something we bought” and told her to look in. She saw the kitten, and looked at me strangely, cause she knew I couldn’t have a kitten where I lived, and I said “Happy Easter Mom. His name is Joey”. She broke down and cried.

And I was right, Puff and Joey were instant friends and Puff didn’t bother my mother nearly as much.

I think about how things have changed. Now, buying a pet at a pet store in NOT a good thing. I also didn’t understand cat behavior and while unneutered male/female arrangements will cause kittens, un-neutered male/male will cause spraying. Puff did start spraying. :(

Three years later, my mother had to move, and “had to” (you never have to) give up the cats. Well, there was no way I was giving up Joey! I called around, checked with the no-kill shelter, who explained the waiting list, which was way longer than I had to wait. Nowadays, that shelter has boarding. How wonderful it would have been then … cause I knew I was moving too, but not for a couple of months, and I would be allowed to have the cats.

So I did what any sensible person does. I broke my lease and took the cats. Did I mention one sprayed? I got them both neutered immediately, the spraying stopped, I moved to the house that would let me have cats and for the next 17 years, Joey was my most wonderful companion.

Later this week, I’ll finish the story for you.

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