Seamus and the flying monkeys

12 Fact Tag vlog 2 through 12

Seamuskitty 12 Fact tag 1

Leave my tail alone!!

Jingle Bell on a Quilt

Three month old Bengal Boy Kittens Ace and King

I know I am overly concerned with the health of my Bengal kittens I can't help it. They are already much bigger than Mariah was when she was 4 1/2 months old. Ace and King are only 3 months old. This video just shows how excited I am that they are thriving!!

Seamus and the little pests!

Make sure to click "watch in high quality" once on youtube!

Seamus-Ace-King 0002

Seamus-Ace-King

No layoff for Seamuskitty!

Layoffs-Who will be voted off the island?

A Study in Elvis

Turkey Vlog 2008

Kittens come home 11-22-08

And their names are....

New hair color and kitten names

Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

Mariah lost video

This is footage I never made a video of. I had to use it. This is my last video I will make of Mariah.

Seamus folds laundry!

Bengal cat Mariah plays with toys re-edited

Elvis enjoys time with Dad

Bengal Cat Woodland Bing Bing and Babies 11-2-08

This is video from our trip to see the kittens. I fell in love with the kitten as he played with his mommy's tail on the chair!

Which Bengal kitten?

FYI--We are taking both kittens! They are BOYS!

Julie and Dean go to see Bengal kittens

Our youtube debut!

Video Catch up--Kittens!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8cFMgn2hbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dQbsjApgrM

Thanks everyone

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who have expressed sympathy for the loss of Mariah and Shelby this week. It is just amazing how many people loved them like they were their own kitties because they have seen the videos on my youtube channel.

So to my friends on youtube, bengalchatter, bengaltalk, bengals-L and facebook---THANK YOU!

And to my friends from church and work---THANK YOU!

And to my family--THANK YOU!

And to Missy Strayer of Woodlandbengals.com--THANK YOU!

We love you all. We got through the week because of your support and now we are going on.

I miss Shelby and Mariah

I have been writing notes and messages to all the people who have expressed sympathy to me & Dean. These are some of the thoughts I've had.

I wrote this to my friend Chrissine Rios of exoticleopard.com Chrissine is trying to help me get another little Bengal to go with the one I will be getting from woodlandbengals.com.

I still feel Mariah's spirit with me. She was that special cat just for me that set off a whole series of events. I feel Shelby too. She was so quiet and sweet. I keep seeing her in my peripheral vision. She was so much a part of the house. I keep stepping over her in the dark even though she isn't there.

I wrote the following to Bengal Circus on bengalchatter.com

I am not that strong but I am trying to be strong. I cry at specific times: When I'm in the shower and when I get into bed. Mariah used to sit behind the shower curtain and poke me while I took a shower. Every once in a while she would slide right into the tub and get soaked. So I always think of her in there. She also loved to sleep with me. She always wanted to be tucked under my chin & she'd knead my neck (ouch!). Seamus would try to curl up with me and Mariah would head butt him right out of the way every time. And if Seamus got there before she did, Mariah would sink her little teeth in Seamus' rear end or his neck until he gave up and went away!
Shelby would join us in the morning. She would quietly curl up at about my waist and let out little squeeks when I would scratch her back. She would roar like a cougar at Seamus though. They were territorial about me and the kitten.
So I cry in the shower and and in my bed. But I must bathe and sleep. And for now, cry...sometimes.

I don't want to sleep. But I am so tired.

Two fresh little graves

This is unfathomable. Who would ever believe that it would happen this way. We now have two fresh little graves in the back yard.

I told Dean that sometimes everything in your life has to collapse so you can build it back up again the way it needs to be. Sometimes change is gradual and other times, like now, its drastic.

We will build our cat family back up again. I spoke to Missy Strayer-the Bengal breeder from whom we got Mariah (Woodland Bengals) & she has kittens now or we can wait for a kitten from a litter coming a little later.

Look at woodlandbengals.com and check out the girl named Athena and the boy called George of the Jungle. They are being bred now.

And--and this is really unbelievable, Richard Norton--whose cats are famous on youtube-- has offered me a kitten for free if I pay for the shipping. After all the vet bills the idea of paying anything for anything is scary.

But just look at them:
http://home.no.net/rhnorton/kattunger.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JGToWKqvpk

Its hard to imagine getting another cat right now but honestly how can someone hurt when they are holding a kitten?

Why Shelby now?

Through something totally unrelated to Mariah's illness, we have lost Shelby this morning. She was perfectly fine asleep next to Dean when he heard her make a strange sound. She raised her head for a moment then dropped it. She was dead of what the vet presumes was an undiagnosed cardio myopathy.

She had a heart attack and died instantly.

Dean is absolutely shattered. The other cats are not aware yet. I am numb. I can't really absorb it and am trying not to become detached. This has happened. There is a reason that we don't understand. A plan is in place that we are just a part of.

These are two unrelated events. A not quite five month old kitten dies of a horrible disease on Monday and an eight year old seemingly healthy cat dies instantly on Wednesday. What is happening to us?

Seamus and Elvis are loving us right now. Seamus knows I am sad and is rubbing me and sitting in my lap. Elvis just looks at us with his intelligent eyes. He has been with Shelby for her whole life. They are like bookends. One without the other doesn't make any sense. And I hope he can function without her.

We love you Shelby.

Good-bye Mariah.

My poor little Bengal kitten has left the earth. After many tests, examinations, discussions and hours and hours of observation, we had to put Mariah to sleep.

Her symptoms were horrific--I don't think I can list them here. I might be able to some day but not right now. She had almost all the symptoms of FIP. She probably had a predisposition for FIP to mutate into a deadly form.

She wanted to live. We could tell. But it kept knocking her down, over and over again. Now she is at rest.

I feel like she is resting in my heart. Its hard to explain but this kitty was my little love. I think she changed me.

I can't write much more now. I am exhausted

But allow me to thank everyone for loving Mariah.

Mariah is suffering

Mariah's symptoms have worsened. We picked her up at the Emergency Vet hospital this morning and her fever was back. We took her to the regular vet and he ran more blood tests. She is at home but she is unable to walk or even sit up without falling.

All the vets have said she probably has FIP--the "dry" kind--that is her belly isn't swollen. If she is that sick at least she isn't dealing with the discomfort of a belly filled with fluid. But she is suffering. If it is FIP she will not live.

Basically any infection or disease that causes neurological symptoms like this is almost always fatal according to what I am reading. There are treatments that we will discuss with the vets and then we will decide how to proceed. I have never believed in putting an animal through painful procedures if there is little hope of restoring it to complete health. The vet plainly states that FIP is fatal.

When we took her to the first vet yesterday he put the possibility that she would die right on the table. I guess it was good that I started to prepare right away.

The breeder--Missy Strayer of Woodland Bengals has been extremely supportive through this ordeal. She loves the Bengal kittens that she raises and is happy when they thrive and sad when they don't. She has generously offered to give us another kitten if Mariah doesn't survive.

This is not because Mariah was defective--the virus can mutate in any cat. There is no way to predict or prevent this from happening. The vet made it clear that it was no one's fault. She made that offer because she is kind. I believe this is breaking her heart too.

I am preparing myself for the worst. But I am still praying for her to be healed. If that is not to be, then my prayer is that Dean & I get through this.

Where there's life, there's hope

When I called the vet tonight I was told that Mariah's fever had dropped and her neurological symptoms (ataxia) and eye discoloration had cleared. They were really surprised by this. They were also equally amazed that she was eating and drinking and purring!

Just this morning the vet offered no hope--none. Her fever had not dropped. But some time during the day she improved.

I am going to pick her up in the morning and bring her to the regular vet. I am going to continue to pray that she gets better. And somehow, we will bring home a healthy cat. We want her to LIVE AND BE HEALTHY!!

We may lose Mariah

Mariah, our precious almost five month old Bengal kitten, is at the emergency vet. She is extremely ill with what could be Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). The vet is not certain yet but if she has FIP, she will die.

I am in shock. I am sick with worry and grief. I am trying to have trust in God that all of this is eventually going to work out somehow. Some day I will be able to smile and feel good. But today I am weak with sadness, dread and confusion.

And if she has FIP, that means all of the other cats in the house could also be infected. If she has FIP then Shelby, Seamus and Elvis have been exposed. It is possible that we could lose all four cats. That would be the absolute worst possibility.

But she might not have it. She has been extremely sleepy and lethargic. Unsteady. She fell down a few times. The vet calls that ataxia. She has had a fever even though I gave her clavamox. The iris of one eye is darker than the other presumably from blood. I am not sure. The blood tests were inconclusive but the emergency vet will not give us any hope.

She is at the vet for the rest of the weekend. We will take her to the regular vet on Monday and they will look at all of the tests they gave her in the last month and a half to see if they missed anything.

At this point we can't determine what is going to happen because we don't know what is wrong with her. So we wait. And I am supposed to carry on.

Carry on? This is happening when I have so many work and church commitments that I would be stressed out without this anxiety. So I am praying and trying to find ways to remember that there is still joy in the world. I am trying to remember that everything, no matter how horrendous, eventually passes and turns into something good.

I am trying to use all of the teachings from the Bible that I have learned in church and Sunday School to get through this.

We love Mariah. She has touched us. We pray that she will be healed and will come home to us. We pray that she will be a part of our family for many years to come. We pray that all of our cats will be healthy. We pray that someday we will understand why this happened and accept it.

If you are reading this please pray for my kitten, my cats, Dean and me.

Savannah City Hall

More Pictures from Savannah

I went to the Paula Deen restaurant tonight--Lady and Sons tonight. I am stuffed. I hardly ate anything though. I was completely intimidated by the shear size of the chicken pot pie. I took a few stabs at it and gave up. My friends laughed at me! Oh well. It would have been funnier if I had eaten it.

More pictures of Savannah.

These are pictures of the view from the conference room. We were working very hard but it wasn't boring. There were yachts and tugs and ferries and container ships going by! What a view!

Savannah trip

Here are more pictures. Had dinner in a little oyster place on the river.

Miss my Cats!

I am in beautiful Savannah on a trip for work. Hopefully I will see more than the inside of a conference room. I do miss the cats though. Especially Mariah--That sweet thing!

More Bengal cat Mariah pictures

Mariah's Family

RWSGC Bengaland Divinci Domino of Woodlands is Mariah's Great Great Great Grandmother. CH George Of The Jungle is her father. They are very beautiful. Please check them out!!! There is a lot of information at the Bengaland website. That is where Domino came from.

Maria's beautiful rosettes

Mariah is getting so big that I can't pick her up with one hand easily anymore. Up until last week I could just scoop her up with one hand and carry her around. Now I have to hold her against my side if I am trying to carry her with one hand. She is gorgeous! She is also big enough to be on the screened in porch. She can scamper along the railing now.

I don't have a picture of her mother. but there is a picture of her Great Great Great Grandmother on the breeder's webpage. And there is a picture of her father on his breeder's webpage.

Rain Rain go away!

It is raining cats! And its cold! I don't like it & I want to eat pasta and go to sleep.

Where is my time?

Sometimes I think there are only split seconds during the day when I am doing something that I want to do. The rest of my time is spent trying to accomplish impossible tasks dreamed up by someone else.

I can never get anything done that I want to do---that is a given. But the really messed up thing is that I can never get anything done that anyone else wants me to do either.

I am the very picture of frustration. Much of this rant is because of work--yes. But the rest of it has to do with home. There is no time for anything fun. There is just work and exhaustion. There is sleep but not enough.

There are things to clean. I have to clean them. I clean them and they are already dirty by the time I'm done cleaning them. Why bother? And its never good enough. Why is that?

Why is what I do not good enough?

So here is the question: Why bother doing anything? Someone will just tell me I can't do it right anyway.

I am. Does anyone have a problem with that??

Can I have a moment? Can I be for a moment? Can I just be, anymore?

I twist myself into some pretty uncomfortable positions being the obligatory me. Why do that here?

For the next little while, I am going to post about what I want to do and be. I am going to write about myself.

Today I am rebellious.

Anyone out there with me on this?

Follow my indigo sea

Hey! Notice at the bottom of my blog I have added "Follow my indigo sea". Add yourself there and please feel free to comment on my blog. I am trying to be more active here and to include stuff that people are interested in. If you have any questions about me and my extremely interesting life (ironic laugh), please comment on my posts!!

Saturday!!!! Bengal filming day....

I love Saturdays. Its a beautiful day here and I have all day to catch up on the stuff I can't do during the week. I get to clean the house for one thing. I don't like to clean really but I do like the house better when it is clean.

Also, if I clean around here, I can make more videos of the cats for youtube. I like making videos. I admit they are not the best quality right now but I am trying. I had to teach myself the use the camera and the editing software. I wish I could just know how to do it. But like with anything new, you just have to do it til you know how. If I waited for someone to teach me, I would never have filmed the kitten when she was tiny.

We love Mariah. The other cats love Mariah. We are very happy we have her. I will always miss my kitty Indigo. Always. But my heart is healing with the help of this little Bengal kitten.

Please watch the videos on youtube. My channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/seamuskitty

There are lots of other channels that I like listed in my subscriptions. One very good one is http://www.youtube.com/user/RichardNorton it is a bit full of drama but the videos of the Bengal cats are top rate.

More later! Hug your kitties and make sure they know you love them.

More Mariah all the time

I have been doing little more than working and taking care of the kitten. She is growing so fast. I swear she goes to sleep one size and wakes up larger. We love her. More pictures!

Mariah on Youtube

I have been learning to make videos and post them on Youtube. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/user/seamuskitty
Mariah was also the Thursday "guest kitty" on another Youtube channnel. See her at
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiveawesomekitties

Any advice on making videos would be appreciated!

My Bengal's cat family

Mariah and Seamus

Not the best week-Sick Seamus

Last week my poor kitty Seamus got deathly ill. He is better now--let me say that right off because I know how much people love my beige tabby.

He stopped eating and drinking. Tuesday & completely withdrew from everyone. I won't be graphic about the intestinal and stomach issues but lets just say he had some nasty symptoms. We honestly thought he was going to die. He looked that bad. I could feel every bone in his back, when he let me close enough to pat him. I was heart broken.

I have had that cat since 1996 when I took him home from work one day in California. I worked as a Technical Service Representative for Noritsu America Corp. and a call came to our office from the loading dock that a kitten was found by the forklift drivers. I don't know what got into me but I just jumped out of my chair and ran out there.

There was an adorable but very dirty kitten in a cardboard box. The guys had given him some tuna and milk(yuck!) and it was just as cute as can be. I immediately said, "I want him!" I picked up the box and carried him back to my desk.

I rigged up a little pen for him with an large upended milk crate and in threw a spare sweatshirt. He meowed a bit but just fell asleep as peacefully as an angel. He was filthy. His back was covered with black grease and he looked like he was only a month or so old. I suspected he had fleas and other gross parasites as well. He was friendly and had an innocent, sweet expression.

He stayed next to my desk til lunchtime then I took him to the vet and told him to clean him up. The vet just looked at me like I was crazy but said he would do his best. When I went back after work the vet presented me with a clean, beige short haired tabby. He told me the cat was probably 4 months old and weighed 4 lbs. Tiny! He had wormed him, treated him for ear mites, fleas and ticks. The kitten didn't even look like the same animal except that he was still sweet and happy to see me again.

I took the kitty home and put him on the floor in front of my 70 lb. Gordon Setter Jenny. The kitten arched his back and hissed at her. Jenny was fascinated--was not aggressive at all. Jenny was a lovely dog and by the end of the first evening, the new kitty--Seamus was curled up with Jenny in the dog bed. And the rest, is history. 12 years later, Jenny is long gone but Seamus is still with me. More about his adventures with me later. He has lived in 10 different homes with me and has traveled across country. What a cat!

Bengal Cat Mariah Rules the World

Here she is!!!!!

Name that kitty!

Well we finally took the plunge and made an addition to our family. Here is our new Bengal kitten. We got her this afternoon and she is a sweetheart. No name but we love her already. The other cats haven't seen her yet. But they know something is going on. They are curious but they won't get to meet her for a few days. She needs to go to the vet and get used to being away from home.


So far she has been as calm as can be.

We got her from Woodland Bengals. See woodlandbengals.com
Her mother's name is Woodland Divinci Carmeletta and her dat is CH Alexanders George of the Jungle. She was born June 1.

Our first child together.

Seeking Bengal kitten!

I have been very busy looking for a new kitten. I was very sad about Indigo--preoccupied, depressed, obsessed, angry, inconsolable and beyond grief-stricken. The only thing that could get me beyond losing my cat was to think about getting a new cat. It worked.

I have been thinking about Bengal cats for the last month or so. Reading and researching. Dean is happy I have stopped crying. And he is actually looking forward to getting a Bengal too. They are fascinating.

Just go on Youtube and search for Bengal cat and you will find countless videos about Bengals who run on exercise wheels, play in water, leap 7 feet in the air and fetch like a dog. You will also see them walking on a leash and snuggling luxuriously. They are bred from Asian Leopard cats. The Bengal I would buy would be at least 4 generations from the Asian Leopard cat. Completely domesticated but resembling a little leopard. Spots (rosettes) or marbles. Long beautiful tails, slinky, fast, clownish. I want one.

Check out bengalshowcats.com and exoticleopard.com

I will be seeing more cats this weekend. Wish me luck. I need to get a kitten that will be as fantastic as Indigo was. That is not an easy task. But I think that a Bengal will do it. Indigo was probably a Bengal mix. Only a true Bengal will be able to take his place....

Cakes and Bakes made this masterpiece

My Bridesmaids

Here's the Welch's

There is love

The long train

It felt like I was being followed

The fantastic dress

My dress was a big hit.

Wedding-A little drama but no bloodshed.

It went pretty well. It is kind of a blur to me right now. I just want to post pictures and write later!

So four more days

Well its almost the big day. I have been consumed with wedding preparations and haven't kept up with my blog. Why does it take so long to coordinate an event that only lasts an afternoon?
Each wedding is a unique expression of the personality of the bride. The groom has an effect on the wedding planning but he really just sits back and waits til his cue.
It is so emotional for everyone involved because it is a huge life changing event. So all the participants and guests are kind of raw from the thought of it.
I am a bit raw from it. But I am officially declaring that my fun time has begun. I have planned every detail. I have tip toed and plowed through personality-crushing conflicts. I am ready to let it all play out gracefully. I am now going to join Dean and just show up and get married.

Beautiful Shower decor with no raindrops!!

Wedding week started with a wild shower