sj I'm glad the tests came out fine.

My previous kitty Dean had all kinds of food related issues, couldn't eat poultry or grains and I settled on Natural Balance Green Pea and Salmon. for him.

I have Penny on Blue Buffalo Freedom Adult Grain Free Cat Food - Chicken. She seems to do well on it. I had to switch her briefly off of it and it was a mistake. It's more expensive but she goes through less food.

So I'm home from work early. Again. I started feeling manic and noticed I was starting to vibrate and had trouble keeping my temper in check.

I've been thinking off and on about taking a leave of absence from work. First because of the whole Coughing That Would Not Stop. And now it's My Life is Stressful and Therapy is Working but Making Me More Stressed. With a side of Relationship Stress thrown in.

It's too much to deal with. Pretty much every day I've had to fight the urge to do something self destructive that will sabotage my job or the relationship or even just act out when I'm public. I can't keep doing this.

I talked to R, the assistant manager today about it. He saw me Saturday he knew what was going on, I told him I could feel it starting again - at home I'm okay I dont' have all the sensory stuff going on pushing me along and if I need to yell or cry or break out into song I can.

Work not so much. R is very very understanding, his wife has bipolar disorder. We talked about it. I'm going to work tomorrow, I have WEd-Fri off. i'm going to talk to my therapist and then let him know on Friday. This would be unpaid but I have some PTO time I could use for this. I fI do the leave he'll put in for hte max time and then I can come back early and they'll work with my schedule to give me the flexibility I need.

Then he distracted me with talk of World of Warcraft and offered to give me a hug if I needed it. Which I did. And he gave me some personal contact info.

I can't juggle all of this at once and I need a break from something before I break and this is the only responsible thing I can think of.

I'm so glad that R is so understanding, askye. You deserve support that IS support.

What WS said, askye. You deserve good support and you're being very responsible.

That wonderful news, sj.

askye, I'm glad you've got such an understanding boss. I hope the time off helps reset your baseline for you.

Burrell, I have only found this, but you may well find it useful -Royal Canin, seems reasonable quality, possibly even good enough to start your cat on sooner rather than later. [link]

I think I tried one of those as well, WS. Thanks

Oh, Andi, you have no idea how happy I am to see all your information about kitty doctoring. Makes things go so much better when our little friends have trouble.

My info about cats with early stage renal disease is that the subQ fluid therapy prolongs lives. Forget about starving them trying to make them eat food they don't like. Obligate carnivores don't need grain filling or the cheap stuff.

With a prescription, you can order a case of the saline bags at Costco for about $25, the needles and drip lines from Foster and Smith. Much Much cheaper than getting those supplies from the vet.

I hope the good news keeps on coming, sj.

I am research girl, and I want to know everything. One of my favorite things about Kaiser is that most test results are online and can even be graphed.

Sadly it seems my adventures with the hummingbird family have come to an end. There has been little hummer activity at Chez Katie over the weekend. Occasionally I see one swooping over the roof next door but none at close hand.

Sad because it is over; ecstatic that I had a week in which I could walk right up to a wild baby bird and see it all unafraid curiosity, willing to lean over and poke my finger with its little white tongue hard enough that I actually could feel it. Amazing isn't strong enough to describe it.

Funny that the birds were not especially frightened by the cats and were sitting on the same dangerously low branch only a few hours after the captured-by-Pearl incident. They have a long lasting fear and distrust of me now that is more appropriate for their chances of survival than thinking they are pets, but still, I miss my little buddy zooming over my head in the morning.

Aw. Maybe they'll remember your place as being a good place to raise families, Katerina Bee, and come back for future generations. Thanks for sharing their progress with us!