Ugh. Associates are already being stupid.

Hope everything went (or is going) well, msbelle! And that mac's calmness continues.

I managed my first early wake up today pretty well. I'm trying to train myself to get up earlier because next Sunday is the Disney marathon (which I'm going to do as much of as I can) and we have to be at the race start at like 4 a.m. yikes! So, up by 6ish and either walking or going to yoga every morning this week for me.

I have only fed my cats food bought at the vet, but I am a little skeptical that it's any better than grocery store food. A lot of them are made by the same contractor which came out in the melamine incident two years ago. That said, they still get the Hills prescription brand. W/d, which is for weight control, and T/D which is for tartar control. (My cats have never had a tartar problem, or required a cleaning.)

Sparky, thanks! I'll probably reply from home tonight.

2008 keeps on giving. I got (rightfully) called out for something I totally forgot to do before I left for vacation. Now, given what that week was like, even if I remembered, I probably wouldn't have gotten it done (there was a lot of stuff in a similar vein that got jettisoned that week.) But ahrg. I hate stupid mistakes like that.

The current trend in cat food is lower-carb, even in the dry food, which makes sense to me logically, but I am semi-unconvinced it matters that much for a house cat.

My cats are thriving on Science Diet, fwiw, but they're eating the expensive CD (for Chumley's kidney stones) that I get at the vet's for like $32/10lbs. You can get cheaper SD at any pet store.

I'm the one who's been pimping Snapea Crisps that I get at TJ's for $1.49/bag ($1.99 at Whole Food$ !!!) They are really quite wonderful and I'm going to see if there are any TJs in this area of PA that I could cruise by while I'm down here.

Mom is up, but feeling weak as ever, so it's time to make like the Medical Hulk.

Where are you, Theodosia? I know there's a TJ's near the King of Prussia Mall. I need to hit it up next time I'm at my parents'.

are there any hivemind recs. on cat food?

Ours pretty much enjoy whatever is put in front of them. Though what's put in front of them is usually Science Diet. The only tip I can give is, cats tend to prefer the familiar. So if you're going to change its diet from what it's used to, go gradually for a while with half old and half new.

In the "file away for the future" category, NCSU has a major vet hospital. One of the few places in the country that does feline kidney transplants.

Thanks, y'all. It sounds like there are several good options out there. And Fred, thanks for letting me know about NCSU's vet hospital. They did a hip replacement on my roommate's dog about 10 years ago, and they were very nice and easy to work with. Good people.

We ended up going to Philadelphia for Teddy's transplant (it's closer to DC), so I can't vouch for NCSU's treatment. And they were just starting transplants when we had Teddy's done a little over a year ago. But so few hospitals do kidney transplants at all that just doing the operation means they're major.