Think this one will work?

Yesterday’s weather was very spring-like. Beautiful blue sky, warm sun, and just the slightest breeze. Nothing like the gray skies, wind, and chilly rain that we’ve seen so far this year. We got out and worked in the yard a bit, getting rid of leaves that didn’t get cleaned up in the fall. They are everywhere! We made some good progress. At least our front yard (after professional clean-up) is now prepared and ready for the grass to start growing. Just when that will be, I don’t know. I snapped some pictures of the only things showing signs of life in my yard.

This tree in the front yard is always the first to show signs of budding. I don’t know what kind of tree it is but I will soon since I finally bought a tree identification book.

These bushes are planted along the front of the house. I don’t really like them but I don’t know what I would put in their place either. When it flowers (which is has decided is now) it’s kind of pretty. I think it’s called a Chinese-something-or-other.

The forsythia bush in the back flower bed has a bud or two waiting to pop.

The wild onions that proliferate our back yard are growing like crazy. I should put them in a salad or something. They are flavorful. (Note: that’s Alex enjoying the yard behind them.)

The daffodils are making progress over my photo of two weeks ago, but not much.

And that’s about the extent of spring in my yard. Today it’s back to being gray and sullen outside. By noon it’s supposed to be raining. I know it’s not the way the saying really goes but I’m hoping that all our March showers will bring April flowers. I’m not complaining, truly I’m not. I’m just tired of Winter and more than ready for Spring.

Some of you may be wondering how Sailor is doing since his diagnosis of lymphoma and his resulting chemotherapy. It’s been kind of an up and down journey so far. The first protocol which he had started the last time I wrote had to be abandoned after his nodes doubled in one week after the third treatment. It was very discouraging for us since this is the protocol that 80% of dogs respond well to. Not so for Sailor. Although he tolerated the chemo extremely well and was not at all ill from the treatments, it obviously was not working.

We started a new protocol five weeks ago. Instead of having a treatment every week this particular protocol is given three weeks apart. It had a 50/50 chance of putting his cancer into remission. After the first treatment his nodes decreased by about 2/3 during the first week and they stayed down for the next two weeks. On his second treatment our vet was discouraged that the nodes were still not normal; hence no remission. She was skeptical that the second treatment would have much effect. We went ahead with the same protocol anyway and made an appointment to have him checked in two weeks time instead of leaving it the full three weeks. Her thinking behind this was that if it was not working and his nodes increased in size again, we shouldn’t wait another week before switching to a different protocol.

Today was his two week appointment. I had been monitoring his nodes during that time and could not really tell any difference in them. Some days they would feel slightly smaller but it was not enough to be certain of. The vet confirmed that they were approximately the same size that they were two weeks ago with no changes. This is not the greatest news, but neither is it the worst. Her term was “partial remission.” Hey, I never thought I’d be glad to hear those two words, but I am. He has even gained weight. This might just be due to my giving him extra protein in the form of cooked meats added to his kibble which is supposed to be good for fighting cancer. I’ve cut back on the amount of kibble and give him at least 4 oz. of fresh meat at every meal.

Sailor doesn’t know he’s sick. He gobbles his food, has a high energy level, his coat shines, his eyes sparkle. He groans and moans when I hug him in his little Sailor-talk. We can’t ask for anything more right now than his quality of life.

We went in today fully expecting to switch protocols and start a new one, but we were all in agreement that we should continue with this one until it isn’t working anymore. So, no chemo today but we will go back in next week for our normal three week treatment. We are keeping our paws crossed that his nodes continue to behave! He will never be “cured” of this cancer but for now we are managing to keep the monster at bay.

You don’t mind if we go back and visit Mexico again, do you? I still have things to share with you.

After we left our all-inclusive luxury resort we headed down the Mayan Riviera to Tulum. Our destination was an eco-friendly cabana-style hotel: La Zebra. We were supposed to leave early afternoon and arrive before dark, but it didn’t work out that way. We found ourselves driving in very unfamiliar territory in the dark. After a harrowing drive down a pothole-filled road, passing hotel after hotel without any lighted signs, the brightly-lit neon sign of La Zebra was a welcome sight. It wasn’t obvious where to check in, but we followed a sandy path illuminated only by candle sconces and eventually figured it out. We were soon settled in our little cabana: Number 6.

A short while after settling in our stomachs told us it was time to eat, so we walked the sand path to the cantina-style restaurant on the hotel grounds. The open-air room was already bustling with people. We soon realized that they drew many people from nearby hotels that did not have eateries on their grounds. And after we had finished a delicious meal we knew why! What could be more relaxing that enjoying an authentic Mexican repast with the music of the waves crashing against the beach in the background?  Here is what it looked like in daylight.

Since we arrived in the dark we really had no idea what our cabana looked like on the outside. We couldn’t tell much from the dim light emitted by the sconces that lit the pathways, and our room key with a small flashlight attached didn’t help overly much either. Ours was one of nine little cabanas tucked into the palms in a row (the bright blue one). I liked how ours had a palm tree growing through the thatch on the porch.

Inside it was a work of art; from paintings on the walls to the beautiful stone work in the bathroom. Take a look.

There were other works of art scattered all around the grounds. Lovely carved ladies held lanterns and posed by menu boards.

Carved wooden heads rested in the soft sand.

Sand was everywhere. On our porch there was a foot bath for rinsing off our feet before entering the cabana, allowing us to track in as little sand as possible. We quickly “went native” and abandoned any thoughts of wearing shoes again while on the hotel grounds and simply went barefoot—everywhere. Even in the cantina. Everyone else did. When we left my feet rebelled against putting on shoes again after being so liberated.

Paradise did have a few downfalls. Being “eco-friendly” meant our hotel had a limited supply of electricity. No hair dryers were allowed. We did have 24-hour electric which is rare on this stretch of beach since they have to generate what they use. Sitting in the cantina you could hook up with wireless internet service. The big downfall was the toilet paper. You were not allowed to put any paper whatsoever in the toilets because of their septic tank system. This is not fun! Each cabana had their own hot water system fueled by a small propane tank. Wouldn’t you know that when we got up on Monday to take our showers before leaving for the airport our propane bottle was empty. No hot water = no shower. In such a sand-filled environment we had to leave feeling gritty and sticky. No one was up at that hour of the morning to help us.

Unfortunately our time at La Zebra was very short. Arriving on Saturday evening, we only had Sunday for enjoying and exploring before we had to head back early in the morning on Monday to catch our flight. Originally we were to spend several days there, but due to conflicting business meetings for Rick it just didn’t work out. So, with such a short amount of time we had to choose between just relaxing on the beach or exploring the Mayan ruins at Tulum, which are the only ruins situated on the Caribbean Sea.

Since the weather was iffy and overcast, we chose to see the ruins in the morning and come back and relax around La Zebra in the afternoon. In my next post I will share photos of the ruins, but for now I will include some beach shots taken that afternoon around the hotel.

I wish we could have spent an entire day relaxing around the beach and the hotel. The food was absolutely wonderful. One dish, a fish soup, was prepared table-side by tossing a very hot rock into a large bowl and letting the heat from the rock cook the soup.

We agreed that next time we would do the hotels the other way around. First the rather primitive environment of a hotel like La Zebra, followed by the pampering luxury of a hotel like Dreams Cancun. All in all, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera are places I could return to over and over again.

You might think eBay is a funny name for a cat and I guess I’d have to agree with you. Unless, of course, you know how she came by her name which I am about to tell you. So sit back and I’ll tell you a tale (or is that tail?) of a kitten that was meant to be ours.

We were into buying older Jane Wooster Scott corkboard puzzles on eBay when I came across a puzzle for sale that showed two calico cats in the photo along with the puzzle. They were the same kind of calico (mostly white with a “cape” on their backs) that was like my cat Patches that I had lost many years ago. I have always wanted another one marked the same way, so I wrote to the woman selling the puzzle and asked if she had the mother of the cats. I figured it was a long shot, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

She wrote back saying that no, she did not have the mother but got them as kittens from a farm near where she lived. After a few email conversations went on back and forth with her I learned that while she lived in Iowa her son lived in Denver, a mere 50 miles away from me. (Remember we were living in Colorado then.)  She offered to go by the farm next time she was down that way and see if they had any calicos. Within a few days she emailed me to tell me that the farm did indeed have a few calicos. All the cats were feral and most of them giving birth in the chicken coops and living in not the best of conditions.

She sent photos of an older kitten (maybe about six months) and one that looked to be about four weeks old. We had reservations about taking a cat that had been feral for six months and trying to adapt it to our six-dog-two-cat-household. The kitten seemed a better bet. She then proceeded to tell me that she was driving out to visit her son within a few weeks and offered to bring the kitten to us! We figured the kitten would be old enough by then to leave its mother, so we chose the 4-week-old-ish kitten over the older one.

The day finally arrived and Debi called from Denver to say that they were on their way to our house. When she arrived I rushed out the door to meet my new little kitten. Debi held her out to me and my eyes could not believe what I saw. Whoa ... wait just a minute— this tiny “rat” without any hair and looking more like Yoda than a kitten could not be the beautiful kitten I had been expecting! It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. Ever. We all went inside and Debi started to explain ...

Her husband had gone to the farm to pick up the kitten because Debi couldn’t go. What he (or Debi) didn’t realize is that there were several calico kittens, and he picked the first one he came to. Scooped her right out of the chicken coop she was born in. Only thing was, this particular kitten was probably only about 3 weeks old. She could not even potty herself yet and Debi and her friend had had to stimulate her by wiping her bottom with a wet rag the entire trip from Iowa to Colorado. She was as helpless as ... well, a newborn kitten! I tried not to show my disappointment in not getting a cute, furry, cuddly kitten instead of a rat but it was hard not to.

She was so tiny that I was afraid to let the dogs near her, so I put her in our bedroom in a cozy nest of blankets and closed the door. I checked on her from time to time and she was in a different spot in the room each time. She was having no trouble exploring her new environment. It was obvious that although she was tiny, she was a scrappy little thing!

When Rick got home he couldn’t quite believe it either. She was so ugly that she was kind of cute. She basically had no hair whatsoever, a little pot belly, four scrawny legs, and huge bat ears. We decided to introduce the dogs to her carefully and held her while the dogs inspected her. At first sniff one of our female Bernese, Margaux, jumped up on the bed with us and would not let any of the other dogs come close. She gave out a low growl and the others backed off. She was guarding that kitten like it was one of her own puppies!

Once in the room by herself with the kitten, Margaux took over as her mother. She pottied her and licked her until the poor thing was soaking wet. One swipe of her tongue lifted the kitten off her feet. She rolled over and made her nipples accessible so the kitten could nurse. Poor Margaux, she didn’t have any milk, but having had a litter of pups the year before was no stranger to knowing what to do. Even though the kitten was not getting any nourishment from this activity, it was providing her warmth and succor. (Not to mention the more obvious plus: getting pottied!) It became a ritual that throughout the day I would put them together for monitored bonding time.

eBay climbed all over Margaux and snuggled into her long fur. Here you can see her on Margaux’s back and standing to “nurse.”

Our other female, Mira, was not to be left out of this whole mothering scenario. She had been very jealous when Margaux got to have puppies and she wasn’t going to miss this chance to do her part. While Margaux had failed in the milk department, Mira managed to bring in milk for the kitten. I kid you not. Here they are caught in a nursing moment. Mira kept nursing eBay long after it was necessary. I think it brought them both a great deal of comfort.

Of course, this was not enough to sustain eBay. We fed her formula through a small syringe (bottle feeding did not work),  even getting up in the middle of the night when she woke mewing for food. We kept her in an small airline kennel by the bed so she was safe from being stepped on. I still have fond memories of her waking me up at the crack of dawn, mewing at the top of her tiny kitten lungs and clinging to the door of the kennel.

She began to flourish under the care and attention of our upside-down household. She started to look like a kitten—finally.

She accepted the dogs as she would another of her own feline contingent. Here she is with Sailor, who at the time was only about 7 months old himself.

When I was still feeding her formula via a syringe, it was very messy. She ended up with formula smeared all over her face. The area between her mouth and nose seemed to never come clean. It always looked like I’d missed a spot in cleaning her up. I scrubbed and scrubbed. It still looked dirty. eBay, why didn’t you tell me that the reason it looked dirty was because it was part of your funny pigmentation? Today you can see what I call her “marmalade spots” quite clearly.

She grew into a beautiful, intelligent cat. Here are some candids of her over the years.

She has cute dots on the back of her head. To me it looks like somebody got careless with a paint brush or they couldn’t decide what color she should be.

And, one big black target on her belly and also black splotches on the backs of her legs. Cute, eh?

So now you know the origin of her rather odd name. That’s our eBay and we love her dearly. Just think: if not for an auction on eBay and the kindness of a total “stranger” (thank you Debi!) we would not have her today. She is very special, and after reading her story you can’t help but agree that she was meant to come and live with us from the very beginning.