Photo Friday | Pet Adoptions

Last Friday on my social media, I celebrated my cat Milo's five-year adoption anniversary. It's mind-boggling to think that I adopted my first pet five years ago already.

After Dax's health scare two years ago, Milo went to stay at my parents' house, which eventually turned into his new permanent home. (Dax and Milo very much like this arrangement, as do my parents!)

I still love to take a trip down memory lane, looking at pictures of Milo when he was just a kitten. Some of my favorites will always be the ones from when we took Milo on his first bike ride. Coincidentally, Facebook's On This Day feature reminded me that this bike ride was five years ago today!

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Photo Friday | Gift Guide for Pets

After I finished my third and final gift guide for children earlier this week, I realized that there was one gift I guide I should add: for all the furry friends in our lives.

Don't tell me your pet doesn't have a stocking and get presents each Christmas. 😊

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Photo Friday | Happy Easter Weekend

Don't you always appreciate a Friday off of work? Especially in springtime, it feels so nice to have a day away from the usual routines.

Keeping it short and sweet, I'll let my two little favorites wish you all a happy Easter weekend! They love getting treats in these secondhand plastic eggs, in baskets my parents and I have had for years.

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An Update on Dax

I'll take a little departure from green blogging today to share an update on our fur baby, Dax.

Dax is the sweetest, most loyal 10-year old Russian Blue. He was adopted as a baby by my fiance, and in our past four years together, he's stolen my heart (and my lap). He's the calm big brother to Milo's insanity. He was also known for being a little chunky...18 pounds over the summer and 16 pounds in November. The weekend after Christmas, we realized something was wrong, as he wasn't eating or drinking anything and had lost three pounds in a month. After a couple days of monitoring him at home, with no improvement, we made a vet appointment while preparing ourselves for the worst.

 
The diagnosis was liver failure. The vet said it hadn't progressed so far where it couldn't be overcome, and he recommended we insert a feeding tube that would allow Dax to get the nutrients he needed to kickstart his liver to function properly again. If we decided against the tube, Dax would have had about 30 days left.

So, on the second to last day of 2015, we made the tough decision to go for the feeding tube with the hope that it would give him many more years with us, and committed to the work of giving Dax prescription food and medication four times a day. Although at first he slept most of the time, within a few days, we could see Dax's energy and personality creep back in.

The past two and a half months have been a small roller coaster. He had his good days, and he had his bad days. And so did we. We were thrilled when Dax slowly began eating on his own again. We were nervous when he would throw up. We were concerned when he stopped eating his hard food. (It was the flavor we tried that he just didn't like.) So when we switched back to his favorite flavor and watched him eat and eat and eat, we got optimistic. We slowly weaned him off of the tube feedings and made sure he was all set on his own.

 

Just over a week ago, we decided it was finally time to remove the tube. After two months, it was actually weird to see him without a small orange plastic straw sticking out of his neck bandage. We left the bandage on to ensure the wound healed, and finally, at long last, we removed it this weekend. I'm sure he is thrilled that he can feel air on his neck again!

Dax is now back to normal, save for some fur that still hasn't fully grown back from his tube-insertion shave, and his new slim-and-trim weight. And while he seems to have even more energy than he did before, he still loves to snuggle on the couch and in bed.

I might be breathing a sigh of relief, but I know that we will never feel "in the clear" with Dax for the rest of his life. I'm so hopeful and optimistic that he lives strong for another few years, but we're always going to be monitoring him in the back of our minds, making sure that he is healthy. We know now that seemingly little symptoms can mean something serious.

And I also know that I'll never take his cuddles or meows for granted again. Dax is truly part of our little family. May he crowd my lap while I write many more blog posts over the years.

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Making a Paperless List and Checking It Twice

It's already the week of Christmas, and although we've attended multiple parties and I've done most of my shopping, it doesn't feel like we're in the final stretch.

Plus, it's somewhat depressing that our most Christmas-like weather happened last Friday and Saturday, and it's forecasted to be 81 and rainy this Friday. Will not make global warming comment, will not make global warming comment...

But we sit each evening by the LED light of our Christmas tree, I am slowly catching up on my Christmas movies, and the cats are helping me wrap gifts.

We're checking off the list of holiday parties, and they've been some of the most fun times yet this month. Whether it's an extra long work lunch, a nice dress kind of party, or a backyard bonfire, I've been enjoying spending time with some of our favorite people.

(PS: That beer? Is pretty amazing.)

I am attempting to sit back and enjoy the season, thought I'm not always successful. There are always a thousand reasons to be stressed out, but that's not what you look back on years from now. The majority of my gifts may not be wrapped yet, but that's okay.

The gift below was for my office gift exchange, and is wrapped in decorative kraft paper and adorned with a burlap bow, from ribbon I had left over from a craft project. I loved that the gift I picked out was in a bag and stuffed with reused tissue paper, newspaper, bubble wrap and plastic bags, and the gift itself was packed in reused cardboard. I saved the tissue paper, gift bag and plastic bags and tossed everything else into the recycling bin.

 

Milo very much enjoyed helping us put up snowflake lights in the front window, and he made sure all the little lights were twinkling.

He and Dax, however, did not enjoy indulging my plan for them to dress up as Cousin Eddie for an Instagram photo contest! Even when I tried bribing them with their favorite treats.

 

There are only four more sleeps until Christmas. Let's all take a deep breath and enjoy this week! Put on music while you wrap your gifts, put on your favorite holiday movie for a repeat viewing, or eat a holiday dessert.

I hope it's cold wherever you are, but if you're in south Louisiana, suffering in the rain and humidity, just throw on your finest Christmas t-shirt!

What are you most ready for this week?

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Photo Friday | Re-Mews-able Bags

Dax and Milo wanted to drop in today and give you all a reminder to use cloth bags when you go shopping! And a reminder to buy them treats while you're shopping. Tuna flavor, please.

They'll personally check the bags to make sure you didn't leave anything in there.

And maybe if you have any spare cardboard boxes to recycle, they would like a few new options to sit in and chew on.


Hey, I just type what they tell me to. 😊

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a better bed for your furry friend

If you have a pet that has their own bed, unlike my spoiled child Milo who sleeps in my arms or anywhere within six inches of me, you know that pet beds can get expensive fast.

Did you know that it's easy to make upcycled pet beds for cheap, with items you probably already have?

It's this week's installment of...

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pets can be green too

I welcomed this adorable little rescue, originally Han Solo and now Milo, home this past weekend. Without getting too mushy, he's pretty awesome and cute and entertaining. And a lot of my preparation has involved finding eco-friendly supplies for him.

It looks like he's already excited about being my little feline treehugger. And at the rate he's exploring, he could literally hug a tree with his little claws. He's already figured out how to climb the curtains.

When shopping for supplies, I made sure to find things made with recycled or sustainable materials. It involved taking some time to just do research and check out the different options, instead of simply picking the cheapest things at the store.

The litter box is made of 95% pre-consumer recycled plastic and is from PetSmart. The litter scoop is odor and stain resistant and is made from plant materials and colored with soy-based ink. It's also biodegradable. It's from Amazon. And the litter scoop holder is a plastic container I salvaged from work that I haven't yet crafted into something pretty!

The litter itself is made of pine trees, which is better for the environment than regular clay litter. It's also chemical-free, and has a great natural woodsy smell. It's found at PetSmart.

The food bowl is made of bamboo, rice, water and starch. It's by Planet Petco and is a part of 1% For the Planet. The water bowl is made of bamboo fibers and is from Amazon.

His scratch board is made of recycled cardboard and is refillable for when he's scratched the life out of this one. It's from PetSmart. The door hanger scratcher is from Wal-Mart (I know, and I'm sorry), and is made of natural twine and recycled carpet fibers. It's also currently too high off the floor for the baby to reach. But I'm sure it won't be long before he can!

His collar is made of recycled pillowcase material and recycled plastic and is from anniessweatshop on Etsy. It hasn't come in yet, but he better like it when it does!

His blankets and bath towels are a hand-me-down gift from his grandmother. (Thanks Mom!) It helps to remember what your parents have in storage at home and take advantage of it when you need something!

It's good to know that even the main pet stores carry eco-friendly alternatives. And if there's something they don't care, it's easy to find online. Milo is starting off his life at his new home by caring for the environment, even if he doesn't know it.

And to wrap up, here's a special message from Mr. Eco Feline Cajun himself: 
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