Glad Byron is eating, bummed for no Dx.

After showering i put some tea tree oil on my blistering painful rash. That hurt. Then some calendula gel, which felt like heaven. Fingers crossed that work has decent cortisone cream/anithistamines in the first aid kit. It is likely, i'm generally impressed with how well stocked it is (even if the bandaids are the cheapest crappiest kind money can buy. at least they are plentiful.)

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling a lot better about it now. Doc said that his xray showed a bit of an enlarged heart but nothing else, and his labs are better than most cats half his age. Really?? I think this:

Maybe it was all a ploy to get to eat baby food?! That wily dread Byron.

Still, relieved. I know he has already had a long, happy life, but I'm not ready for him to go yet.

My parents' dog is currently out-stubborning them in the matter of wet food vs. dry food. When she gets sick, she gets wet food, and then resists going back to the dry stuff.

I am in NJ and slowly going crazy. This morning, my mom decided that we should do something together as a family, and we needed to get out of the house. All my suggestions for things go do were shot down, so we ended up driving around and going to garage sales. And this afternoon, we're supposed to be going to see Larry Crowne, but I think I'm going to skip that, since I really have no interest in that movie at all.

I have succumbed to my cat's insistence on wet food. I really can't have her losing more weight.

Good for you Byron.

Darby went on a 3 day hunger strike after I made the mistake of giving her that awful Beneful stuff once. Would not go back to her regular, and after three days I finally cracked and got her expensive healthfoody stuff that I have still yet to get her off of.

OTOH I think I've gotten the cat to shut up and eat happily by moving her away from the pricy stuff and back to plain old Purina.

that awful Beneful stuff

Froot loops for dogs. Srsly.

Yay for good healthy Byron.

Froot loops for dogs.

Yes, and with much the same effect as on any four year old. Overeating, hyperactivity, GI distress and tantrums.

Yes, and with much the same effect as on any four year old. Overeating, hyperactivity, GI distress and tantrums.

Exactly.

Roughly one third of the ingredients are some form of sugar. Just trash.

An acupuncturist friend, who is super healthy himself was feeding his dog (a good friend of Bartleby's) that rubbish. When I asked him why he actually said, "There are vegetables on the label!" Never read the label.

I would have understood if it was a financial thing but no...just not paying attention.

Jumping into conversations already past, re: getting rid of photos of exes. I don't rid of anything that keeps my memories. I'm very aware that someday my memory may disappear and photos will be all that's left of what once happened to me. Anyone who thinks I'm keeping pictures of any ex in a shoebox because I still lurve him/her, doesn't understand me at all and I will say so. Anyone who throws away/deletes anything of mine will find himself single as soon as I find out about it. That's super-controlling behavior and I've had enough of that for one lifetime. I've already gotten rid of (almost) all the sexy pictures of exes, not that there were many, because mostly those are memories I don't want. (Except for the photo of M.L. bare-chested and holding a riding crop with a sultry look on his face, because it's hilarious.) Sometimes I get rid of things an ex has given me, sometimes not, depends on how I feel about the item in question. If I like it for itself, I keep it; if it reminds me painfully of the ex, I Goodwill it.

My folks were also the type to be critical and "concerned" no matter what. Back in my early twenties, I recall I was "getting a little heavy" until I told my mom I'd lost some weight and then her reaction was, "Well, don't lose TOO much." Grr argh. (She's probably mad that I even remember that. Sorry, Mom, but you were kinda nuts sometimes.)

my spicy carrot slaw.

Could you share the recipe for this? I've been hankering for a carrot slaw, oddly enough, to the point where I would actually make it myself. St.W sounds like he likes carrots, all right.

(Someone, tell me where the "X likes carrots" thing came from. I have no clue, and can only guess that it means "X is mighty fine and also quite happy at the moment".)

Vortex and Scrappy's DH, glad you got unscary diagnoses! Vortex, I have been told that drinking lots of water helps by keeping blood volume up. This may be hooey, I dunno. Scrappy, Magellan's sells compression socks for travelers that look like normal socks.

Continuing kitty~ma for Byron. I was frantic when Leo seemed to be ill and the vets couldn't find anything wrong. I fed him the kitty probiotics someone here recommended and he got better. There may or may not be a causal connection there. I did finally figure out that the soft runny stools I was so worried about were caused by me indulgently feeding him too much soft food. I also figured out that his allergy symptoms (runny eyes, itching, head shaking as if his ears were wonky) followed my feeding him salmon. A cat allergic to salmon, I'd never have thought it. As for dry food, both my kitties like "junk food" - if it has corn in it, they like it, and I don't like feeding it to them, so we argue.