Category: dingoRUE

While we were on the island to visit my grandparents in Port Alberni we took a quick trip up the east coast of Vancouver Island and stopped off at Horne Lake, where my aunt has a gorgeous brand new cabin on the edge of the lake and Campbell River, where my grandparents used to live, where most of my dads family currently lives and where I used to spend every summer vacation.

We snapped lots of pictures of Cameron Lake just outside Port Alberni, watched a bear walking beside the river in Port Alberni, enjoyed the view from the Pier in Campbell River, took in the results of the Campbell River wood carving competition and enjoyed the utter silence of Horne Lake.

Vancouver Island Pictures:
(click image to view gallery)

Chrys and I got back from Port Alberni yesterday. If you read my entry a few entries back you’d know that we had to make a hasty run to Port Alberni to visit my grandmother in the hospital. She has been in and out of the hospital for several months now as she has a very nasty disease known as COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease which is essentially a combination of chronis bronchitis and chronic emphysema that causes blockages in the airways and lungs. It’s not a friendly disease at all and it almost always results in death or causes death via lowering the immunity to things like Phnemonia.

My grandmother has smoked fo years and years and years and has had emphysema for years, so it’s no surprise she got this but it’s hard to deal with. I’ve had a really special relationship with my grandmother all my life and she’s been more of a mother to me that me real mother has, so it’s hard to see her slowly dieing.

When we got to the island she had been stuck in her bed for 14 days and had not got out of the bed at all during that time. The Dr’s found a blockage in her lung and were convinced it was a cancerous tumor (she’s had cancer 4 times already), her lung was collapses and highly infected with phnemonia, so things were not looking good at all. Luckily they determined the blockage wasn’t cancer, were able to blow it out of the airway and now her lung is slowly reinflating and she’s taking in anti-biotics to kill of the phnemonia and fluid built up in and around her lungs. She took her first walk the day we showed up, a bunch more walks the next day and thankfully was let out of the hospital the day after (Fri). Things are certainly getting better, she’s not out of the woods by any means or doing great, but she’s out of the hospital (which she despises) and home again, which is where she needs to be and needs to stay.

I can’t believe she made it through this one to be entirely honest, I thought she was going to be gone for sure. I’m really happy she got through it, but it’s hard to get to excited when you know in the back of your head the end is getting closer and closer and can come at anytime now.

I’m just happy I have her for a little longer.

Learn more about COPD @ lungusa.org

We’re back! Everything went surprisingly well and we have a new kitty at home.

I’ll update more later when I’m not tired and a football game isn’t on. 🙂

My grandmother has been in very rough shape for the past few months now and has been in and out of the hospital many times. Well, she was readmitted to the hopsital again last week and it doesn’t sound like she’s going to pull out of this one. Chrys and I will be leaving for Port Alberni tomorrow stay with my grandpa and visit my grandma in the hospital so we can try and help out and make everything as good as possible.

I don’t like admitting to this, I love my grandmother a great deal, second only to Chrys, and I think this is going to be the last time I get to see her alive. It’s really hard to think about. We’ve been through and done so much together in our life. She’d been more a mother to me than my own mother and it’s going to be really hard letting her go, but at this point, I do realize it’s for the better. She’s suffering and has no quality of life, it’s hard to let her go, but it’s time.

Chrys and I will be at the island tomorrow until sat without any internet access, and I’m not sure if I’ll be up to blogging on or saturday, I’ll have to see how everything goes. I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, basically.

I’ll see you all later this week.

We are ready to rock for captain kitty. We’re probably picking him up Wednesday during the day. The adoption centre is only open 12 – 3 of all stupid hours, so I have to take a half day at work to go pick up the kitty. We went out today and picked up the last few things we needed to get prepped.

Kitty Supplies:

• Litter Box – CHECK
• Litter – CHECK
• Poop Scooper – CHECK
• Liter Box Liners – CHECK
• 4 Bags of Senior Cat Food – CHECK (it was on sale for like, $2 and it’s usually $11)
• Kitty Food Scoop – CHECK
• Kitty Brush – CHECK
• Food and Water Dish – CHECK
• Cat Carrier – CHECK
• Cat Collar – CHECK
• Toys – CHECK
• Scratching Post/Cat Tree – CHECK
• Nature’s Miracle Cleaning Stuff – CHECK

I think that’s everything. If not, we’ve got all the basics and then some ready for him, now all we need is him. We’re still deciding on a name too. His name at the West Vancouver SPCA is Felix, which I like, but he doesn’t respond too. If we got a male cat I wanted to call it Napolean, but he doesn’t fit a Napolean. The one floating around chrys and I’s minds right now is Rube. She likes Higgins too, but I’m not a big fan of that. This is harder then naming a kid. We already have kids names picked out for whenever that day, years and years down the road, should come. 🙂

Um, so yeah, we’re all set for Mr. Kitty. I just hope he doesn’t freak out to much on the trip home. We have to bring him home on the bus cause we don’t have a car or drive, so it’s going to mean 30 mins or so of bussing hell for poor mr kitty. He should be okay once we get him home and he gets to sniff everything and get settled in. Everything is all setup and just waiting for him to be here, so hopefully all goes well.

Support the West Vancouver SPCA.
Support the Vancouver SPCA.

Chrys and I went to the West Vancouver SPCA today to do some further hunting for the perfect kitty, and we found him! Hit name, at the moment, is Felix and he’s an old feller, but a lovey cat. We walked into the shelter and the cats have 3 seperate indoor sections with all their sleeping spots that all connect to a big courtyard for them to walk around and play in. Chrys and I both really liked the design of this place, much better for the cats, they’re not just stuck in little cages like they are at the Vancouver SPCA.

So, we walked into one of the rooms and Bam! Felix was on us right away, talking with us and giving the rubs and loves. We also found another cat we absolutely loved, a 2 year old Siamese Something X that was in Torti colors, so loving and just gorgeus, but she will be adopted right away with how pretty and love she is, so chrys and I decided to get Felix instead. Felix has been in the West Vancouver SPCA since March, so he’s been there for 6 months, and he’s 11 years old, so he’s and old timer and the chance of many people adopting a kitty that old are pretty slim. We fell in love with him right away though, so we had to get him. It was a really hard choice between him and Roxanne, but Felix’s age actually play to his advantage.

We haven’t brought him home yet cause we have to pay the landlord our pet deposit and he’s a brand new guy and has to wait until Tuesday when he gets shown how to do all this stuff. After we get our pet deposit paid we’ll be ready to go pick him up from the West Vancouver SPCA and bring him to his new home. We bought a litter box yesterday and today we got kitty litter, senior cat food, a kitty carrier and some food and water dishes, so all we need for Felix is a collar, some toys and a scratching post/play area thingy.

I’m so stoked about getting a kitty! I can’t wait! Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Chrys and I did taken some pictures of him at the shelter, though most of them turned out really crappy, but if you’d like to see our new kitty, check out the pictures here.

Chrys and I spent the day out Kitty hunting today.

First stop on the trip was the Vancouver SPCA shelter. They had the kitty there we’ve been looking at online for a long time. Gorgeous cat but we just didn’t click with it. We hung out with a few other kitties and were about to leave, but chrys convinced me to go back and see one I really liked again. His name is Suave and he’s not super mega pretty or anything, but he’s a cute orange kitty and we took him into the private room to have a play with him. He was out of his little house running around, cuddling and playing with chrys and I right away. Completely clicked right away with Suave, he was great and I wanted to take him home really badly. We went to the front desk to get more info on him and it turns out he’s 14 years old. Chrys and I were hoping for a 2 – 6 or so year old cat, so 14 was a tad bit higher then we wanted. It was hard to leave without him cause I love him, but now we’re considering fostering him instead so the Vancouver SPCA can free up a spot for another younger kitty that’s more likely to be adopted. We’re going to give them a call again tomorrow to see if it’s possible to foster him. I sure hope so.

After spending 2 1/2 hrs or more at the Vancouver SPCA we headed into Kits as Chrys was convinced that a Petcetera was supposed to be around Arbutus and Cornwall, so we walked all around the area, found nothing, asked people, they knew nothing, then I finally gave up, called 411 and it turns out the Petcetera we were looking for is at Arbutust and King Edward… which is slightly further away, by around 40 blocks or so. We hopped bus and headed out. Finally got there and they only had 3 kitties left for adoption, 2 that were adopted waiting to get picked up and 3 that were gone and adopted out earlier in the day. Chrys found one she really liked there but it just didn’t click for me, so the Petcetera kitty trip wasn’t a success, though it wasn’t a waste of time either as we got a cool litter box and scooper for when we do get a kitty. So we’re semi-prepared now. 🙂

Tomorro we were going to go to the Vancouver Flea Market, but I changed our minds (hehe) and we’re gonna be doing more kitty hunting. Going to hit the Petcetera on Rupert and Grandview Hwy and possibly the Richmond SPCA, as well as talk to the Vancouver SPCA folks again about fostering Suave.

We’re very close to getting a kitty, within the next 3 weeks at the most we should have a brand new family member, yay!

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