Where or where are my pictures?

Anybody know what could be going on with blogger here? It took me forever to get my pics uploaded and now they're all gone! Aaaahhh!

Another Games Night

Had a games afternoon/evening with our friends Steve and Justine, and Blair (Kim had marking to do:(. We started off the evening with a rousing game of Klondike. How cool to play an old game based on where you live-this one courtesy of Blair. We also played Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Justine's new fave: Jeopardy (I was Alex and Scott kicked butt). We ended our evening of games and margaritas with Puerto Rico, a wicked game with no chance involved at all, only strategy. I highly recommend it.

So, obviously Blogger is suddenly letting me post pics again. Hopefully it lasts. I'm back to my Biology now. Talk to you all soon. Thanks for visiting.

Our Max

Our newest pic of Max, laying on his towel on the bathroom floor where he spends most of his time these days. Yesterday morning we had our first diabetes emergency: Max hypoed. What that means is that his blood glucose levels were coming down and he registered a fairly low-though still not 'normal' BG before his insulin shot so I gave him a slightly reduced dose. A little later his BG number dropped below normal into the danger zone. See, diabetic cats are diagnosed as having abnormally high BG levels (hyperglycemic) because their cells are not taking in the glucose they need and this results in organ damage over time. So they're given insulin to bring those numbers down but insulin works very well and if their number drops too low (hypoglycemic) they can have seizures and die. Max did not have any seizures nor did he die as I have been researching feline diabetes a ton and so knew what to do. We gave him honey and extra food continuously-we also had the support of the Feline Diabetes Message board which has diabetic cat owners on from all over day and night to give advice when needed and just to generally support each other in their time of need as taking care of a diabetic, especially one that can't "tell" you how they're feeling is a very stressful and trying experience. These people totally talked us through Max's hypo episode which lasted hours and was very scary. He is fine now though his numbers are a little higher than they have been this past week from all the extra food he ate yesterday (including the big no no for diabetic cats: dry food-high in glucose and can assist in bringing the cat out of the hypo episode). We've gone back to square one at the advice of the good people on the FDMB. He will now get 1 IU of insulin at shot time (1/3 of the usual dose) and more food at shot time and less food at snack. Finding the right balance to fix his BG is called the "sugardance". We danced like mad yesterday. And our vet is away in Florida (going to diabetes conferences and such!) and we have no er clinic here for our pets so we managed a full out emergency by ourselves and got through it just fine. Good for us.

I promise not to make this a web site about Max's diabetes but it's a load off to share our journey with others. Thanks for listening. And for those of you who have cats that you cherish as we do please, please here this: dry cat food is killing our cats in the same way that modern food choices are making our children diabetic. It has too much carb for a carnivore. Switch to lower carb wet food like Fancy Feast. Love your cat that much and he'll live a longer, healthier, happier life.

Khan and Milo staying warm by the Woodstove

Khan was actually sleeping until I pulled out the camera.

Here's Oreo...finally!

Our new friend Oreo. Honey couldn't stay-she'd never be happy here and is indeed very happy to be back with her friends. Oreo is an 8 month old Border Collie/Husky. Her eyes are blue despite the evil red they seem in the pic. She fits in wonderfully and we already love her.

A Moose Last week on the drive home from Whitehorse

Walking the Dogs in Whitehorse

Mule Deer in Whitehorse Last weekend

Max's Diabetes

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. It's over a little too soon, if you ask me. It's been wonderful having Moe here, that's for sure, but today we must return her to Whitehorse to catch a plane to Vancouver. Very sad. We'll miss her tonnes.

It's been a bit of a crazy holiday for us. For those of you that don't know: when we returned from picking Moe up two days before Christmas Max (one of our beloved cats) could hardly walk. He's been sick for awhile: peeing everywhere in big floods, living in the bathroom-we honestly thought he was rebelling against the new kitty litter but he was bad off that day we returned so we rushed him off to our vet. Turns out Max is diabetic. A result of a life lived overweight. I guess most owners put their cats down when they find this out as it is a rather expensive and time consuming proposition to get your cats blood glucose regulated. But we love Max and so out came the Visa card. We've learned how to hometest and give insulin shots, we record everything, and are messing with his food trying to get him well again. He is so grateful it makes me cry. When you get everything together to test and give him the shot he gets excited. He lets you rub his ears (to warm them so you can prick them to test his blood) and then comes into your lap and waits patiently while you do the test and give the shot....all because he knows he's gonna get his Fancy Feast when you're done. And since we always have to do this at the same times am and pm he starts asking for it about an hour before. He seeks you out and meows and meows. It's pretty cute. The sad part is, like so many undiagnosed diabetic cats (he's likely been somewhat diabetic for years), he's developed neuropathy which affects his hind legs (and perhaps his tail, too). He walks on his hocks now. Sad. But we're going to try to get a supplement we heard about in Whitehorse called Methyl-B12 which may help his legs. Since we have to go to Whitehorse for a couple of days I've trained our friend Justine to do the test and the shot. She's running the Humane Society these days and so obviously has a love for animals and our learning experience can be hers too.

Moral of the story: don't overfeed your cat. Fat=Health problems. Low carb diets are best for cats, too. They're carnivores after all.

Anyways, this has kept us hopping this Christmas season. Please think positive thoughts for Max while he's in this hard time. We leave this afternoon and will return on Saturday. Talk to you all soon.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday! We sure did. Very relaxing anyways. Here are a bunch of pics taken over the past week. Hope you enjoy.

Aren't I hot in a balaclava and helmet?

Well, maybe hot isn't really the right word. In fact, with the wind chill factor that high up I was damned cold.

What we did for Xmas Vacation

We went out on the skidoo several times. It's really nice to go just before 4 so you can catch the sunset from the top of the second dome, just like this pic. What you see is in the valley is the mighty Yukon river-nearly the same view that we see from our place but this is from much higher up.

Moe and Echo Go Sledding

and ran the skidoo into a ditch. Scott had to enlist help to go pull it out. A learning experience for all. (Moe said she never had so much fun)

A non-traditional xmas dinner

Sushi and fondue was a hit for Christmas dinner. If you're wondering about the drinks, they're Pina Coladas with raspberries. Yummy.