Rough Start to Leaving Westport

Before leaving Westport, we took a tour of Washington State's boat Lady Washington. She was built in Aberdeen, WA and launched in 1989 as a full-scale reproduction of the original. She is a boat instead of a ship because she only has two masts instead of three masts.  She is a beautiful boat as you can see from our pictures. It is hard to imagine sailing on this boat to China and back. She is a smaller boat, the deck is only 67 feet long. We enjoyed touring and talking to the very informative crew.

Lady Washington's crew member dressed in vintage clothing, bell, and the tiller for steering

The Hawaiian Chieftain accompanies and does reinactment battles with the Lady Washington. We were too late to tour this boat, but we were able to get some pictures from the dock.

In the meantime, our cats have had some minor medical problems. It started with peeing accidents in the middle of the night, always in the same spot on our bed. Trying to find out which one of the four was doing this was almost impossible and the lack of sleep was getting to both of us. Finally, we had a break when Dan found Squirrel standing near a big wet spot. We decided to take him in to the Veterinarian with hopes that he had a urinary tract infection. He did have a minor case, but his doctor did not think it was bad enough to bring on this sudden bad habit.

So, pills in hand and the wallet a little lighter, we took Squirrel home. Compared to pilling any other cat in the world, giving Squirrel a pill is a challenge and an experience all by itself. Did we mention the Lab Tech had to gas Squirrel just to get a urine sample? This cat can contort his body in the most amazing ways. Oh! and the howling and screaming would put a Banshee to shame. Thanks to Squirrel, we are both wearing war wounds. This is not the end of our story though.

That same night, Sandy woke up to the sound of water. She immediately grabbed for the cat in the dark and was surprised she had caught our gentle giant – Dusty. Back to the Vet’s office with three cats this time. Dusty has a full-blown urinary tract infection. Hitch has Struvite Crystals in his urine. Max actually has a clean bill of health.

For the next couple of weeks, we are giving pills twice a day to three cats and a special diet for Hitch for 2 weeks. Of course, Hitch does not like his new diet even though it is canned meat. Dan found out online that cats really love Parmesan Cheese so we tried sprinkling a little on Hitch’s food. He loves the cheese, but leaves behind the meat. You think herding cats is hard? Try feeding four cats with one on a special diet. Sandy spends about fifteen minutes playing musical cats and dishes until the food is gone. Oh fun and joy! We love our kitties and their diet is going through a major change so this never happens again!

Further research on line has led to a decision to stop or severely cut back on dry kibble type cat food, and feed mainly canned meats.  It will cost a bit more, but should lead to healthier cats and potentially much lower vet bills and laundry bills for our bedding.  Just a few links of research on cat foods:  http://www.catinfo.org/ 

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm

Good-bye Westport!