Update on Kilo

Our new family member Kilo, who adopted us a few days before Thanksgiving, is doing great and living a happy, healthy, fun-filled life as a kitten should. His beginning was rather rough as I mentioned in my previous post, but you wouldn't know it now! He recovered very quickly from his surgeries. 

He is really smart and acclimated himself to our home, our other pets and our routine in no time once he was feeling better. He knows his name, the names of our other pets and the word hungry. He has adjusted to having three legs just fine; in fact, seeing him fly by, you wouldn't even notice he was missing a leg until he stops and is still for a moment. He runs and plays just like any other kitten.

He got to know our dog Duke first. The first couple of weeks we had Kilo, he stayed in his cat condo which was next to one of Duke's beds. Duke kept him company and watched over him every day. Kilo would often talk to Duke. The first opportunity Kilo had to get out of his condo for awhile, he went straight to Duke, who was sound asleep on his bed, and smelled his nose. Then he ran back into his condo, which was his safe place. It was so cute. Once he was allowed out of his condo during the daytime, he would sleep in a bed next to Duke's. He tried snuggling up with Duke on his bed, but that was a little too much for Duke. Though Duke is enjoying having a little brother kitten and often gives him kisses, snuggling together is pushing it!

Duke and Kilo

Kilo has been wonderful about giving our other two cats, Chloe and Dusty, their space and taking it slow in gaining their affection. He has been real respectful of their boundaries, unlike the other male kittens we have had. He is winning them over. Though Chloe would only hiss at him for the first few weeks, she will sometimes play with him and enjoys watching his silly antics.

And although a bit jealous at times, Dusty has been seen playing with him, watching him play, and they sleep in close proximity to each other during the day.

He is a real sweet and affectionate kitten and has brought a lot of love and laughter into our lives. Kilo is a good example of how resilient animals are. We can learn a lot from them.

Great Resources for Choosing Healthier Pet Foods!

As a long time advocate for feeding pets a more nutritious diet, I am so happy to share with you these great resources to help with the deciphering of pet food labels so it's easier to choose healthier pet foods! 

The non-profit Cornucopia Institute, through research and investigations on agricultural and food issues, provides needed information to family farmers, consumers and other stakeholders in the good food movement and to the media. They support economic justice for the family-scale farming community – partnered with consumers – backing ecologically produced local, organic and authentic food.

They came out with a new report Decoding Pet Food: Adulteration, Toxic Ingredients, and the Best Choices for Your Companion Animals, and an accompanying buying guide.The report details how pet food quality varies significantly among brands and all too often includes unnecessary chemical additives. Even if you don't care to read the whole report, I highly recommend reading Section II - Ingredients to Avoid. This will help you better understand the pet food buying guide, a helpful resource made available to us for free! Check it out!

Click here to read what Susan Thixton of TruthAboutPetFood.com, PetsumerReport.com and author of Buyer Beware, says about the new extensive report put out by the Cornucopia Institute on the current conditions of pet food. 

Susan Thixton is another great resource to help you in choosing healthier pet foods. She has put out her own (new) 2016 List of Pet Foods she would trust to feed her own pets. This list and PetsumerReport.com, are what support the work of TruthAboutPetFood.com. So for a donation as little as $10, you can get Susan's 2016 List of Pet Foods, which I also highly recommend. Susan is our pet food advocate and crusader, and she is (and has been) doing great work on behalf of all pets and pet food consumers. I've written about her before here and here.


These resources are much needed tools in helping pet food consumers decode pet food labels and marketing tactics. Cornucopia Institute and Susan Thixton have done the research for you and created simple and easy to understand lists of the best pet foods and why. 

A Thanksgiving Present

The Saturday before Thanksgiving I took our dog Duke for his usual walk and when we got back home, an eight to ten week old black and white kitten appeared on our front porch. He was trying to rub on our eighteen year old cat Chloe, who was on the front porch waiting for our return. Chloe of course, didn't want anything to do with this kitten. My husband and I were scratching our heads wondering where this lone tiny kitten came from. 


The kitten came fairly close because it was very hungry. My husband fed it some can food right away and it devoured the food. Once his belly was full, he wasn't willing to come so close to us again. We noticed he was holding up his right front paw and not using that leg at all. Within half an hour we made a cat house out of a cardboard box complete with soft bedding and set it on the front porch with food and water in front of it. At least for the night he can sleep in a safe place and keep warm, which is what he did. We will have to earn his trust enough to catch him.

The following day the kitten disappeared for awhile but came back to eat and eventually settled in another large cardboard box we had sitting in the driveway, up against the garage. We set up the large cat condo cage that we had stored in the shed. The same one we used when we rescued our cat Emma (who has since passed away) and then Dusty (who is now eight) as well as the foster cats we had for a few months several years ago. This cat condo has come in handy!

Once everything was set up and ready, we held the box closed while the kitten was still inside and carried it in the house and proceeded to transfer him into the cat condo, but he escaped out a hole and ran into another room, ending up in the corner under a piece of furniture. We managed to gently get him into a box again and then delivered him to his new condo. We were trying to be extra gentle as we could tell he was injured and we weren't sure how serious it was.

It only took a day to litter box train him and not much longer for him to accept our pets so we could handle him enough to pick him up. Then off to the vet we went! My husband and I decided we would take care of and keep the kitten.

Weighing in at just a kilogram, it was discovered that he had a puncture wound on his right shoulder and it had become abscessed. He had a fever. An x-ray revealed his right front leg was broken in half, below his shoulder. He was also anemic from all the fleas. This little boy was in bad shape. The good news was he tested negative for feline leukemia and FIV. Everything else can be fixed.

Before he could have surgery, we had to clear up the infection and the fever he had from the abscess. So the vet cleaned up his abscess and then wrapped his leg so it was bound to his body and not just hanging there lose and I took him home with antibiotics and pain medicine. We had to make a decision about his leg and we had to make it pretty fast.

We had a choice; we could take him to the veterinary specialists who could do surgery on his leg which would require a pin to put it back together and would cost several thousands of dollars, or we could have the limb amputated by one of our veterinarians for under a thousand (which included neutering too).

I was assured that three-legged cats (and dogs) do just fine and adapt remarkably well -- of which I am well aware. I walk a three-legged dog five days a week and have cared for several three-legged dogs and cats over the years. I know how amazing animals are; how resilient and adaptable they are. It's still a very difficult position to be in -- to have to make such a serious decision about this little kitten who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, right in front of us on our front porch. Especially considering that we already currently have a dog (13) and two cats (18 and 8); and all that we went through with four of our other pets (3 dogs, 1 cat) who all passed away just two years ago in 2013.

Of course the cost and what the kitten would have to endure either way played a big contributing factor in our decision; a decision we thought about carefully. We decided to have his leg removed. He had surgery today and I'm happy to report that all went well and he is doing so good, he tried taking out his stitches already so he has to wear an e-collar. He will be able to come home this evening.

Yesterday was the first day he felt well enough to actually play, since his fever and infection had cleared up. He has not felt good for some time so it was nice to see him acting like a playful kitten for a change. He had been managing well using only three legs, even jumping up on the shelf in his condo. Even though he has been taking pain medication since we got him to the vet, having a broken leg has got to be painful. We don't know how long he had been in this condition when we discovered him or how he was injured. We just know we had to help him. He is so sweet and just loves affection. Now with the surgeries behind us we are glad to begin the healing process so he can be the happy, healthy kitty he was created to be. 

We named our little Thanksgiving present Kilo (key-low). He only weighed a kilogram when we found him. Click here for an update on his progress.

Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.

~His Holiness The Dali Lama

Best and Worst Foods for Pets

It's been five years since my favorite holistic veterinarian posted her list of best to worst pet foods. The pet food industry has changed since then, so here's her new updated list.

Always Learning

With my insatiable appetite for learning and always looking for ways to improve the lives and well-being of the animals, I recently completed two accredited courses; one on Animal Psychology and another one on Pet Nutrition. Another way to expand my knowledge about one of my passions -- the animals!   :)

Dusty's Homegrown Organic Catnip

We still have our garden and are well stocked of our organic catnip. All the lucky cats that have Cozy Critters as their pet sitter get to sample this herbal treat when we visit them. Many of them ask for it as soon as I arrive! They don't forget. They just love Dusty's Premium Organic Catnip! And we love making cats happy! Now available in two sizes -- the regular 1/2 ounce package for $5 or the new mini size package for $1.

We have this and other healthy products available on our Shop Page.

Structured Water: Nature's Gift

Structured Water - Also known as hexagonal, clustered, crystalline, organized, living, the fourth phase, sacred, and holy water.

Almost all the scientific discovery and contributions regarding structured water have stayed under the public's radar and out of mainstream media and the realm of general information. 

For instance, did you know that in the 1990's, three Nobel Prizes were awarded for work relating to structured water mostly involving DNA, intracellular fluids, cellular communication and protein folding? These are discoveries all relating to the critical functions of structured water within living organisms. In fact, Nobel Prize Laureates have known for some time that the structure of our bio-water -- the water within our bodies -- is highly organized and crystalline in nature. This goes for the animals too.

The only problem is the water that is available to us (and our pets), whether from the faucet or a bottle (and it doesn't matter what kind of bottled water), is unorganized or unstructured water, also known as "bulk" water. Not to mention we are bombarded with toxins in our foods, our air, our soil, which also de-structures our bio-water. In order for our bodies to function at their optimum ability and stay healthy, we -- as well as the animals -- require not just any water, but structured water. This is highly organized water at the molecular level.

The great news is in just recent years with the invention of the structuring devices by Natural Action Technologies, structured water is now available conveniently, it's affordable and without any maintenance required -- ever. 

Did you know that all diseases and disorders have one thing in common? There is a loss of structure in the cellular fluids. Our energy system and physical systems -- our glands, chakras, meridians, veins, aura and cells -- all work in tandem , together, through the incredible nature of our water system, which accounts for 99% of the molecules in our body. They must be structured to sustain health.

In a recent (2014) eleven-hour documentary called The Truth About Cancer, The Quest for the Cure Continues, structured water was mentioned several times by several different doctors as THE best water to be consuming. Here is just one of the clips from that documentary where it is talked about:

http://thetruthaboutcancer.com/best-water-to-drink/

You can find out more about this amazing new paradigm in water, plus a list of some of the many benefits, how to purchase a structuring unit, as well as my personal experience with drinking, showering and using structured water for the last two and a half years and how it changed my life, by purchasing my book Structured Water: Nature's Gift by clicking the link below.

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