Update

Dansig is home from the vet and holed up in Little Girl's room.

He is on antibiotics for three weeks and another med for a week and a special diet for the rest of his life.  That's why he's in her room, so he won't eat the regular cat food.

It's a good thing he likes the special diet, as i understand most cats don't.  He was always odd that way, refusing to eat canned food or people food or even treats from the time he was a kitten.  It makes perfectly good sense that he would love the diet food that other cats refuse.

Meanwhile, his vet bill came to over $400, and that's with Dr. Bea being very kind to us on it.

If he goes back out with #2 Son to where he can catch frogs and lizards and mice and such, instead of just getting his diet food, he may well end up at the vet again.  Keeping him here, locked up all of the time, is not a very attractive alternative, either.

He may have to live here, and we may have to alter how we feed all of our cats.  This has been tried before, feeding them on a schedule, not letting them have food available all of the time.

Sweetie always sabotages it, because he feels sorry for them, saying "They look so hungry!"   He can't say no and make them stick to a schedule.

So i'm working on a solution, and don't know what to try next.

Any suggestions?

Today is

Annie Oakley Days Festival -- Greenville, OH, US (keeping alive the legacy of "Little Miss Sure Shot" with a shooting contest today as well as a pilgrimage to her grave, then tomorrow starts the Melodrama performances, ugly boot contest, Family Fun Games, and more; through Sunday)

Coldest Day Ever -- the lowest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 *C (-128.6 *F; 184.0 *K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on this day in 1983

Feast of Damo -- Ancient Greek Calendar (keeper of secrets of philosophy; daughter of Greek sages, Pythagoras and Theano, date approximate)

Hemingway Birthday Celebration -- Hemingway Museum, Oak Park, IL, US

Independence Day / National Day -- Belgium(1830)

Kazanskaya -- Russia (Feast of Our Lady of Kazan)

Lakota Sun Dance -- Lakota Native Americans (festival of the sun god Wi, with offerings to Maka (mother earth) and Haokah (father sky), both aspects of Creator Tukaskanskan; dating approximate, as outsiders are usually no longer allowed at these multi-day ceremonies)

Liberation Day -- Guam (1944; from Japan)

Lucaria -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Feast of Clearings", with prayers said as land was cleared for planting)

National Junk Food Day

No Pet Store Puppies Day -- ASPCA sponsored this on this date last year, and while i can't find a confirmation of another campaign, you can still Take The Pledge to not shop at any pet store that sells puppies, because they are almost certainly from puppy mills 

Racial Harmony Day -- Singapore

Sapporo Summer Festival -- Odori Park, Sapporo, Japan (through Aug. 20, the park becomes a beer garden)

Schoelcher Day -- French West Indies; Martinique (Schoelcher worked for abolition)

St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Day (Patron of Brindisi, Italy)

St. Praxedes' Day (Patron of single laywomen)

Touch Hammer's Birthday Bargain Day -- Fairy Calendar

Tug-Of-War Tournament Day -- if you have a problem with someone today, solve it with an old fashioned tug-of-war!


Birthdays Today

Hatty Jones, 1988
Josh Hartnett, 1978
Justin Bartha, 1978
Lance Guest, 1960
Matt Mulhern, 1960
Jon Lovitz, 1957
Michael Connelly, 1956
Robin Williams, 1951
Garry Trudeau, 1949
Cat Stevens, 1948
Kenneth Starr, 1946
Tony Scott, 1944
Edward Herrmann, 1943
Janet Reno, 1938
Norman Jewison, 1926
Don Knotts, 1924
Kay Starr, 1922
Isaac Stern, 1920
Marshall McLuhan, 1911
Ernest Hemingway, 1899
John Joseph "Johnny" Evers, 1881


Today in History

Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, BCE 356
A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt, 365
The first landing of French troops on the coast during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight, 1545
Twenty-four-year-old Scottish physician and explorer Mungo Park became the first European to see the Niger River, the third longest river in Africa, 1796
In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown, 1865
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West, 1873
Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land, driving a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium, 1904
In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100, 1925
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission, 1969
After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed, 1970
The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -82.9*C (-129*F), 1983
The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years, 1997
NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135, 2011