Jane & Jack & Karre the Emperor
Member Since 2009
Before I get into the LL Highlights and the Overview and, of course, the photos, I want to thank all those of you who were kind enough to send me messages of support while I was away from the board. It means to the world to me. I'm so grateful to be able to be here and participate in this incredible community. Thank all of you very, very much!
It's good to be back posting a condo again! Of course, this one might turn out to be a tad on the long side - you know, compared to the teeny tiny super-short Caturday Condos I *normally* post - so be prepared for some extra reading! :lol: I too spent the better part of yesterday reading and reading and then reading some more, with a bit of reading thrown in here and there - it's crazy how quickly one falls behind after just one extra week, and how much excitement there is to catch up on! It's been a fortnight since Karre's last Caturday Condo - from the 15th of September 2012.
Onwards, now, to a few of the LL Highlights that jumped out at me during my reading session
I'll pre-empt them by pointing out yet again that there will most likely be important events, condos, developments etc. that are not mentioned this week. There are so many of you delightful beans and kitties, that to name each one each week would basically entail copying several pages of LL-threads. But, as I've said before: I rotate as best I can, so if you're not named this week, you'll probably be named next week. There is nothing personal whatsoever in this selection, and I know all of you understand this. It takes a couple of *days* to set up these overviews and summaries, so please bear with me.Also: Thank all of you who have been posting your wonderful support for Karre's condos, and who've been so generous with your praise and compliments! You all are in my heart and thoughts throughout the week, and I am so grateful for all your kind words and posts and messages.
First off, a few of the threads posted to refresh some of the theory and general knowledge we beans apply here in LL-TR. There was the Counting Cycles Thread, posted by Jill/Alex and last bumped up for our benefit by Julie/Punkin - Thank you, ladies! There was the Suggestions for Advice Givers Thread, posted by Janet/Binky - Thank you, Janet, for an excellent thread to keep in mind before giving input anywhere on the board! There's the Roll Call for Lantus/Levemir Cats and Beans, posted and managed by Kathy/Kitty - Thank you, Kathy, for a wonderful resource for oldtimers and newbies alike to get a sense of what's going on all over LL and especially in its spreadsheets via the Master Lantus/Lev SS. Another fantastic resource is the Tech Forum FAQ and Tips Thread, posted by Joanna/Bix - Thank you, Joanna, for an incredibly useful summary of all those tech issues that come up time and time again, and how to solve them! Dr. Lisa Pierson posted the New Food Charts Thread including the New Carbs Etc. Percentages - Thank you so much, Dr. Pierson, for all the amazing work you do! Marje/Gracie have been busy posting some fantastic threads, too: one is the Dosing with Calipers Thread with some great photos, and another is the phenomenal Primer on Pancreatitis - Thank you so much, Marje, for yet again posting two great threads well worth their bookmark status! And thank you for the WCR and SS Importance Thread, too, Marje - and Thank you, Wendy/Tiggy, for bumping it back up most recently. All of you: Thank you for posting these kind of threads, and for bumping them back up when you see them get buried! Wonderful work all round!
Alongside these great threads, there are always a number of condos I end up permanently bookmarking, because I personally learned something from them or found myself reminded of something important that I'd let slip off my radar. One is Lisa/Leo's 14th September 2012 Condo, which contains some excellent summaries on travelling with diabetic cats, including a link to Patti/Merlin's essay on the topic (Thanks, Ella!), great tips from Wendy/Neko and others - thanks, everyone, for putting together such great info on such a stressful topic that has us beans worried now and then! Chris/Tucker started a lively discussion of OTJ Kitties and their BGs and the difficulties of assessing what they mean, with some great contributions from Camille/Cyclone, Sienne/Gabby, Anne/Muffin and others. In fact, Anne/Muffin's 25th September 2012 Condo takes the OTJ-topic further from a different perspective - a kitty returning from the Falls - and excellent input from Jill/Alex and others. Carl/Bob supplied an awesome summary of some key issues, including meter variance and its ever-elusive importance, in Hosanna/Martha's 22nd September 2012 Condo - thanks, Carl, for always being ready to pitch in, and thanks, Hosanna, for keeping on asking great questions and making sure you understand the answers! Alexa/Reuben went through a few more dramatic cycles - Reuben is one drama-loving Meeeeezer :mrgreen: - and in the one on the 25th September 2012, I had to be reminded of the difference between a true dropping number and a second dip - great lesson for me, thank you, Marje, and thank goodness you can't attach wet noodles on your ipad :lol: Angela/Blackie posted a wonderful reminder that The TR Protocol Really Does Work even if it takes a while - thank very much, Angela!
In other news, LL'ers have been blessed with new additions to their families! Congratulations to Libby/Doug/Hershey on their new grandson Sammy; Congratulations to Lyresa(Squeaky)/KT on their new great-granddaughter Laila Mae; and Congratulations to Lisa/Leo on their new granddaughter Vivienne! Wonderful news on three happy, healthy, beautiful babies! Blessings to you all! Blessings, also, and comforting hugs and vines to Marje/Gracie and Ella/Rusty/Stu, who have been honouring the anniversaries of their furbabies Teddi Bear and Stu earning their GA-wings...and comfort and hugs to anyone else, on LL or further afield, who is arriving or has arrived at a similar anniversary - I'm thinking, for instance, of Ashley/Sushi, whose grandfather passed away a few days ago. My heart goes out to you all. Those days are hard, and the sorrow can feel overwhelming - we are all here for you and wish you well, and happy days to come, filled with only wonderful memories of those who have gone ahead. Some of our dear LL kitties are facing other illnesses too, aside from FD: Roni/Moonie have had their Hypertension DX, and we wish them success with Moonie's treatment and rejoice with them that it wasn't something even more serious or scary! Lisa/Leo were thinking they might be getting an EPI DX, which thankfully, they did not - they are now considering possibilities like IBS, food allergies, etc. Kathie/Zeus brought up interesting questions about the before-bed spotcheck and its importance - thanks, Kathie! Courtney/Kismet, Karen/Fur Ball, and Jo/Scratchie have had a tricky time encouraging and convincing their DHs to understand *why* we do such crazy-seeming amounts of testing and so on, and to make clear the amazing success rate of the TR Protocol - congratulations to you all for persevering, and Well Done to your hubbies for coming around! Celebratory martinis all round :mrgreen: Janice/Spike checked in for an oldtimer report - great to hear from you guys! Melanie/Racci have had some back luck, with high BGs and some very unfortunate eye trouble, and Racci is due for her senior blood panel - good luck and many healing vines to you ladies!! Kathy/Cleo are up for another dosecrease - good luck with that, you guys! At just over 7 weeks post-SRT, Wendy/Neko are down to a sleek 3.75u - congratulations, ladies! Tracy/Leo, another of our post-SRT kitties, have also checked back in about a week ago, much to our delight - now, they are just past 10 weeks post-SRT and are at 6u - very nice, you guys! (Tracy, in the Master SS Kathy posted, only Leo's Lantus-SS is linked, not the current Lev-SS from April to now.) I've been looking for a Lu/Grayson condo, too - any news? I see Grayson, who is also at 10 weeks post-SRT, is up to a supersized dose of 50u!! Wow!! How are things going for you guys? Shannan/Jean Luc are holding their own beautifully through some very exciting cycles - good job! Tara/Buster are also doing well - great stuff! April/Miss Kitty reminded us that petsitters are tricky and do need extra guidance often, via things like a no-shot BG-number - thanks, April! Deb/Yahtzee are having some beautiful numbers - woohoo! Shai/Pirate Fitz continue charting their own very special TR course - fingers remain crossed for you guys! Rhiannon/Shadow are making it clear that green is their very favourite colour - well done, ladies! Ann/Maggie have a brandnew sexy nekkid extra-kyootness belly fur-do to drive the tomkitties crazy with - Henry is crushing hard! Michelle/Mannie invite everyone to the Harvest Full Moon this night - it's going to be a GREAT double celebratory soirée, can't wait!! Deborah/Shasta are seeing some lovely greens, now if only we can get those yellows and pinks to subside! Mike/BJ are back where they belong, in a sea of greeeen - hooray and here's to you, lads! Jill/Charlie threw a surprise 29 and earned their doscrease to 1.0u, woohoo! Progress! Denise/Shakespeare are alive and kicking - we hope they will soon have a little extra time and post a condo, because we miss them lots! Thank you, Libby, for following that up! Sienne/Gabby will not be around as much this weekend as Sienne is away for a bit - have a great trip, Sienne!
A special Thank-You also to Dyana and Carl, my early-morning buddies here in LL! Marje and I most often end up doing our hand-offs when it's late for her and early for me, and then Carl and Dyana are usually there while I am too, until Sienne normally checks in when it's afternoon for me. :smile: I LOVE our tag-team system :lol: Thank you to all those of you who've been so ready to help! Chapeau!
And a special CONGRATULATIONS to Dale/Max: After a successful trial, MAX IS OTJ today!!! We're soooo happy for you guys!!
Alright then - on to the African Pride :mrgreen: Everyone is happy and healthy, HOORAY! It's getting to be that time when the baby almonds and baby apricots have major growth spurts, which means that our resident squirrels - also know as thieves of pretty much everything edible in the garden :lol: - gang up and execute raids! A few years ago, the almond tree had a particularly rich bounty, and one afternoon, DH and his mother were standing underneath it, chatting about how they were going to harvest the almonds the very next day. Little did they know that a squirrel scout had been listening in. The sneaky little fellow must have gone straight to his posse to report that it was Time to Go Nuts. The next morning, there was NOT A SINGLE ALMOND left on the tree, and we kept finding almond shells under the trees up in the forest all winter :lol:
Magpie is doing her part to prevent various types of fruit theft: she actually manages to *catch* errant squirrels now and then! She's VERY fast. She gets extra treats from my mother-in-law when she catches anyone who's a persona non grata in this garden - squirrels, moles, what have you :mrgreen: She's never tried to catch the porcupines that come raid the veggies, thank heavens! I always feel sad when she kills a catch - though thankfully, most often she leaves them alive and unhurt, and I just release them.
The boys are good, too: Henry is becoming ever more playful, and has taken to demanding that he be allowed to drink from three different taps each morning when we get up (mine and Jack's in the master bathroom, and the kitchen sink tap when we've made it downstairs to make coffee).
Karre is doing beautifully - excepting those above-120 numbers he insists on throwing at us every few days. Still, his pancreas brings him back down every time, and we assume he spends most of his time sub-120, so we'll just keep watching him and hope he stays happy at the Falls. Luca is currently napping atop the kitty jungle gym, having had the requested little treat of shaved chicken breast. His delightfully pink ears always seem a little pinker still, when he's had treats :smile: He's love in a fur coat. His favourite morning game at present is hiding under the bath mat and pouncing any hapless person or cat who walks past :lol:
The beans, otherwise known as lowly minions, are well, too - busy, but happy. I've had some very bad foot karma, slipping a few times or tripping, on the stairs every time of course for that extra bit of falling fun - now I think I've managed to break a toe (this time, not on the foot I had the two suyrgewries on, to balance things out - nice...Foot-Fate, it seems, is not without an albeit pretty snarky sense of humour). Ah well. It shall be taped and it will heal. Apart from that and a couple of other health blips like a case of the flu, I'm great.
We've had such incredible, beautiful mornings here lately. I love the morning light. It's so gentle. So this week, I thought I'd post a few dawn pictures. Of course, other pictures can and will follow, as requested. And you're all invited to post your own impressions of dawn. Enjoy, and thank you for visiting the Caturday Condo! Open all week
Do keep visiting when you can!
Hugs,
Jane.
and a read.