please think of my little girl

Last night my little girl cat Pesto (she's 7- the black cat in the picture) suffered an unexpected and extremely severe seizure. She basically ran up and down a few flights of stairs and then collapsed in the living room, slobbering and convulsing and screaming. It was a horrifying noise, I thought it was a three-way cat fight or something. This is a cat who has never even had to take medication, who has always been as healthy as can be. We rushed her to the emergency vet clinic where they gave her valium, which put her into a resting state.

Blood tests didn't reveal anything, same with blood sugar test. She is awake and moving around this morning, even purred and talked the vet techs tell me, but we still don't know what happened and why she seizured so violently and prolongedly. She will be examined by an internalist today, with more tests to see if she has epilepsy, a tumour, a virus, or whatever. There's a good chance they won't even get the answer.

I am so frightened for my little girl. The vet is supposed to call soon and let us know when we can see her again. She must be so scared, she really doesn't like anyone except us. Her brothers are very concerned and agitated. I don't know what's going to happen and I'm so afraid of what decisions may have to be made. I love her so much, she's the first animal we adopted, six and a half years ago. She's the sweetest, most loving little girl. We are both very broken up about this.

Please send positive thoughts to us and our baby girl.

Tippy gets a treat!

Tippy's grandma Judy sent her a treat only a bunny could love... fresh grass in a wood crate! Tippy had a great time snacking on it.

someone baked me a birthday cake!

and was it ever yummy!

Our friend Scott baked this for my birthday. It's a chocolate cake with chocolate all over the top and a peanut butter layer too. It also has coffee flavouring in it. It was so good we each had two pieces!

squirrels and cupcakes

I love squirrels. This little guy was just in my back yard. Fortunately since our cordo corp doesn't use pesticides, we have an abundance of squirrels at our place, almost entirely black squirrels. We used to have more grey squirrels and once I saw a red squirrel.



Last night we went to a little vegan pot luck with two other couples we know. I was put in charge of dessert! I couldn't decided between cupcakes and cinnamon buns, so I made both... and with only one exception, everyone had one of each! The cupcakes I made were a modified version of the low-fat vanilla cupcakes in VCTOTW... basically I modified them to make them low-fat chocolate! Then I toppped them with the peanut buttercream icing. They were great. The icing is possibly among the most delicious and decadent things I have ever eaten in my life. I kept "accidentally" getting it on my hands so I could eat it off!

most people don't have a clue

This is a few years old, but I thought it was interesting given the recent spate of food poisonings in N. America. Most people I have encountered don't seem to have a clue, and since many of the more publicized recent outbreaks have occurred with vegetables, people are even more confused. Of course they don't realize most of their vegetables are grown in manure generated through factory farming.

[b]Chicken and beef may be infected with feces [/b]
- health notes - Brief Article
Nutrition Health Review, Summer, 2002

A new study shows that 84 percent of adults have no idea that the primary source of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, and other foodborne pathogens on poultry and meat is animal feces. The survey of 1,000 men and women was completed during July 2001 by Opinion Research Corporation International on behalf of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Foodborne illnesses are at epidemic levels in the United States; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are at least 76 million cases each year, usually from consumption of animal products.

"Our findings show the vast majority of Americans do not understand there are feces on in meat and poultry," says PCRM staff attorney Mindy Kursban. "In fact, there's a major disconnect in the public consciousness between the foodborne illnesses that sicken so many of us and their originating cause--animal excrement."

Survey respondents answered the following question: "When Salmonella and other disease-causing bacteria are found on meat and poultry, which of the following do you think BEST describes where these bacteria originally came from?"

The answers were as follows:

* They came from animal blood 10 percent
* They came from dirty hands 19 percent
* They are naturally present
in the meat 17 percent
* They are naturally present
in the animal's skin 9 percent
* They came from animal feces 16 percent
* They came from dirty air in a
slaughter house 15 percent
* Did not know/None of the above 13 percent

Statistically, respondents with college degrees, a household income equal to or greater than $50,000, or a metropolitan area residence were more likely to know that feces are the originating source of disease-causing bacteria.

PCRM proposes that all poultry and meat products carry a biohazard label (shown above). Such a procedure would be similar to how medical waste is treated.

Jerk seitan

Another good recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I like this one better than the ethiopian seitan and peppers, but Todd likes that one better.