The Good, the Bad and the Crusty

Who You Callin' Crusty?!?

Dooooooooods...it's me! RUDY! With an early Rudy Report! Anyone have any Twinkies or Fritos they can spare? I'm starving! I need to tell you all what's been up with me lately. First of all, I am FINISHED with that awful, horrid, terrible, stinky, gucky, no-good medicine (Doxycycline). I kicked the Haemobartonellosis in the buttocks and my bloods are A-OK to stop having to take that medicine! I don't know who is happier, me, or Mommy. It's probably a draw. Anywho...
I am still a little picky about eating. Dr. Wendy went to a conference last week and she said she thought about me a lot. One of the speakers gave a lecture about older kitties and IBS and Pancreatitis. Dr. Wendy said that I fit the profile for a lot of what they were talking about. She thought and thought and when she saw me on Friday she spent a lot of time talking to Mommy and said the best thing we can do is to get me interested in eating as much good foods as we can and the best way to do that is to give me some liquid Valium when I turn my nose up at my foods. I started yesterday. All I can say is - IT WORKS!
'Lemme' back up a little bit...since October, I have been very, very sick. And I have lost a LOT of weight. I was eleven + pounds at my wellness check in the summer and during my illness I dropped to a little over seven pounds. I know, I know...we did not share this with all of you because it was just too...well, awful. I'm now up to eight and a half pounds. Progress, right? So, Dr. Wendy wants me to keep bulking up, but I can't eat just anything. It has to be good for my kidneys too. The solution, according to the experts, is to stimulate my appetite through the use of Valium. We did some Valium trials over the last three weeks, but it was with tablets and I did not want to take them. At all. Ever. Not even kinda'. So Dr. Wendy found a pharmacy that will provide us with the liquid version and taking it that way is a little easier on all of us. Yesterday Dr. Wendy gave me a dose while I was getting my Sub Q's at her office and loving up on her kids and the staff. The next thing I knew, I was very, very hungry! Bring on the stinky goodness, 'lemme at those Temptations, you got some Rx dry food? - cool! I'll eat it! Yum! So, I think we've found a solution for the time being. I keep eating, no meds. I get picky, a little Valium. So that's where we are with my health.
Here's something else for the report. It is no secret that I have never liked to groom myself or to be groomed. What can I say, it's just the way I am. So, as a result of my being sick, I look pretty scraggely, rag-a-muffinish, or as Mommy says, crusty! Since I am still such a delicate flower (ha! delicate flower - Mommy's words, not mine!), I cannot be taken to the groomers for a few weeks. We have to watch my stress levels. Kitties, the photo of me that you see is the awful truth, I look like seven miles of bad road. Crusty, skinny and sometimes a little cranky. But, I'm comin' back - trust me kitties, I am on my way.
And last, but not least - I want all of you to know that I can feel the purrs and the prayers and all of your kind thoughts. I'd blame Mommy for being a bad secretary, but she has really spent more time with me and my sibs than she has in front of the computer. She's a good 'rent, so I have to cut her some slack. I hope you kitties will as well.
I send you crusty love from my little corner of O Hi O -
Rudy-Toots
ps - Parker says that in case you were worried, she's still alive and well and eating like an industrial Hoover. Ha!