Sunday Selfie: Merlin

Merlin here!  Since this week is my special week (my 9th Gotcha Day is on December 22nd), I have a Sunday Selfie for you this week!

Since we have a bunch of snow on the ground, I am staying warm under my nice, fleece blanket.

Be sure to join us for my Gotcha Day celebration on December 22nd!

10 Months Since Merlin's Cancer Diagnosis!

Merlin here!  I know it has been a sad week, with many friends making their trip to the Rainbow Bridge, but I have some positive news!  I also have some Christmas selfies, for Sunday Selfies with The Cat On My Head.

It has now been 10 months since I was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma of the GI tract and spleen, and given 1 to 3 months to live.  I have now outlived my most optimistic prognosis by 7 months!  So we are celebrating another milestone and are very happy that I am still doing well!

We did have a scare, back in early November, where there was one day when I didn't eat, drink, or use the litterbox, and I just lay wherever I was put, whether my mom or dad's lap, or my bed, or in front of the fireplace.  Fortunately, after eating some yogourt that night, the next day I was eating and drinking when food or water was placed in front of me, and then using the litterbox, and I started getting stronger again each day.  A week later I was back to my normal self, eating and drinking normally, having nice, solid stools with no blood or mucus, chasing my sister around like a crazy cat, playing with my toys, and jumping back up on the counters!  I'm still acting completely normal!  You would never know that I have cancer, besides one or two times a week when there is blood or mucus in my stool.

I'm still on steroids (prednisolone), so I have a huge appetite, and continue to be a solid Sphynx with lots of muscle.  So I haven't lost any weight, which is really good!

Right now we are taking it one day at a time, and just enjoying every moment we have together.  We do hope that I make it to my 9th Gotcha Day, which will be coming up just before Christmas:  December 22nd!  It would be a wonderful Christmas present if I'm still here for my Gotcha Day and Christmas.  Right now it looks like I will be, but you never know.  Hopefully I won't have another bad day like I did at the beginning of November for a while yet!

I am so thankful for all the purrs, prayers, and positive thoughts that so many friends have sent my way.  We greatly appreciate them!  We are so thankful to have such wonderful support.

Love to all of you.

Merlin

Sunday Selfie: Dragonheart

Dragonheart here!  In honour of my Tenth Gotcha Day, that was celebrated on Friday, here is my Sunday Selfie for this week.  I know I'm looking off to one side, but I don't like having the flashy box flash in my eyes!

Be sure to comment on Friday's post.  We are holding a comment-a-thon to raise money for the OVC Pet Trust!

Sunday Selfies: Cone of Shame

This week for Sunday Selfies with the Kitties Blue, we have a sad selfie of Devi wearing the cone of shame.  Poor Devi has to wear it for two weeks until her stitches from her skin biopsies dissolve.

Devi

Thanks again for all your purrs, prayers, and positive thoughts.  We may not get around to visiting our friends much over the next two weeks, as it is both crunch-time for our mom with regards to her graduate program (she needs to have everything finished by August 19th), and because both our mom and our dad need to get the house ready for painting, cleaning, and staging starting August 22nd, before putting it on the market on August 30th in preparation of our big move in the Fall.

Sunday Selfies

Hello everyone!  This week for Sunday Selfies with the Kitties Blue we have some phone selfies.  So the quality isn't as great as we would hope.  As always, you can click to view larger if you like.

Devi

Dragonheart

Merlin

Thanks again to everyone for their purrs, prayers, and positive thoughts.  We have started transitioning to the new food, and Merlin and Dragonheart seem to enjoy it.  Devi, the one who needs to eat it, doesn't like it as much, but hopefully she will come around.  Dragonheart seems to no longer be in pain since starting the painkillers.  Merlin is still doing great.  You can visit his facebook page to hear him purr.

Sunday Selfies: Router Edition

So, when our mom is working on her research at the computer, we all like to take turns hanging out on the router, especially when there's no sun shining through the windows.  So this week, for our Sunday Selfies with the Kitties Blue, we are featuring our router selfies.

Devi

Merlin

Dragonheart

Sunday Selfies: Dragonheart

Dragonheart here again!  Here is my selfie for The Kitties Blue Sunday Selfies blog hop!  You can see my wrinkles and my ear tufts!  For those who were curious: Devi and I have ear tufts, Merlin does not.  That's probably because Merlin has the least amount of peach fuzz, and Devi has the most.

Dragonheart - click to view larger

Be sure to come back tomorrow to help me celebrate a very special day!  We will also have a comment-a-thon to raise money for SOAR - Sphynx Open Arms Rescue!  So you want to come and comment tomorrow, and make sure you invite all your friends to comment as well!  See you tomorrow!

Sunday Selfies: Merlin

Merlin here again!  Thank you to everyone who commented on my post yesterday, and thank you all for your continued purrs, prayers, and positive thoughts.  We are cherishing every day that I have with my family!

This week for Sunday Selfies with the Kitties Blue you get to enjoy another photo of me.  I'm sure there will be photos of Devi and Dragonheart soon, but they are far less adept at taking selfies than I am, so I'm the focus today!

Merlin

Sunday Selfies: Dragonheart

Dragonheart here!

Our mom was pretty busy with her research projects this week, so didn't get around to taking many selfies of us.  Additionally, our humans went to see A Chorus Line in Stratford yesterday, so they weren't around to take photos of us on one of their days off.  Then today they had the audacity to give us all baths!  We know that baths are important to keep us Sphynx healthy (because we have no fur, the oil that our skin secretes accumulates and can cause problems, whereas with furred cats, the oil is simply distributed through the fur), but that doesn't mean we enjoy being bathed.

So today you have a semi-selfie of me, Dragonheart, as our entry for The Kitties Blue Sunday Selfies.

If you want to see some photos of Merlin, you can visit his facebook page.

Sunday Selfie: Happy Father's Day!

Merlin here!  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, both those who are dads to human children, and those who are dads to us cats and other family members.

In honour of Father's Day, here's a selfie of me and my dad for Sunday Selfies with the Kitties blue.

And if you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out my special scrapbook page for my dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Sunday Selfies: Not Quite Perfect

It's Sunday Selfie Time again with the Kitties Blue.  Once again, we don't get it quite right, as we aren't looking at the camera.  Oh well.

Made with My Pet Cat by Clever Monkey Graphics

We hope all our friends are having a great weekend!

Sunday Selfies

Once again it is time for Sunday Selfies with The Cat on my Head.  We weren't very good with our selfies this week.  For a change, Dragonheart was the only one looking into the camera!  So our mom decided to take our photos and make yet another digital scrapbooking page.

Made with Love Is by Ooh La La Scraps

We are very excited that our dad will be home soon!  We can't wait to see him again!

Sunday Selfies

For our selfies this week with The Cat on My Head's Sunday Selfies, we are once again showcasing a digital scrapbook page.

We didn't quite succeed with our selfies this week, as we aren't all looking straight into the camera, but we did our best.

Credits: Kitty Cats by Connie Prince

Dragonheart is back to his old self, which is very good.  He is still on pain medication for a couple of more days, since he had one tooth extracted, but he is happily eating his soft/wet food, so all seems well.

Our daddy is now coming home a week earlier than originally planned, so we are all very happy!  As Merlin is still doing quite well (with the exception of his stools), we are very hopeful he will get to spend some time with daddy!

Sunday Selfies: Another Digital Scrapbook Page

For our selfies this week with The Cat on My Head's Sunday Selfies, we are once again showcasing a digital scrapbook page.

The gang over at Kitty Caperz asked us if we keep our scrapbook pages digital or if we print them out.  We do both.  Our mom makes a lot of pages for various challenges, and after she has so many of them made, she'll pick the best to put into a photo book.  That's why the journalling on the scrapbook pages is frequently from her point of view and not ours!

Credits: Made with Life in Colour by Blue Heart Scraps

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfies: Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the human moms and cat moms out there.

In honour of Mother's Day, for our Sunday Selfies with the Cat on my Head this week, we are presenting our selfies as part of a Happy Mother's Day digital scrapbooking page.

Credits: Spread a Little Happiness by Blue Heart Scraps and Seatrout Scraps

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfies: One, Two, Three

Hello all!  This week we are once again participating in The Cat on My Head's Sunday Selfies blog hop.  We have individual selfies today.  Dragonheart is slowly getting the idea of this selfie thing:  his eyes should be open and he should be looking in the direction of the camera.  He's getting there!

Devi

Merlin

Dragonheart

Happy Sunday all!

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfies: National Pet Parents Day

Since today is National Pet Parents Day, we are presenting our selfies with our humans.  It just so happens they ended up divided by gender:  the ladies are together and so are the gentlemen!  The photo with our dad was taken when he was home on leave in February, so it's the most recent selfie we have with him.

Dragonheart, Merlin, and Dad

Devi and Mom

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfies

Here are our selfies for the week.  Dragonheart decided to keep his eyes open this time!

Devi

Dragonheart

Merlin

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfies

Hello everyone!  This week we have three separate Sunday selfies, all in different poses.  As you can see, Dragonheart did not want to open his eyes.  He's not very fond of having eye drops put in his eyes, but they are helping to clear things up!

Devi

Dragonheart

Merlin

We hope everyone is having a nice weekend.  We are keeping our mom company as she finishes up the last projects and papers for the semester.

Please leave us a comment here!  Thanks!

Sunday Selfie: Two Months with Cancer for Merlin

Merlin here!  I've got one selfie this week (a little ways down), but a bunch more photos and an important milestone to talk about.

It has now been two months since my cancer diagnosis.  When I was diagnosed, the internal medicine veterinarian gave me 1 to 3 months to live.  So I'm two-thirds of the way through that.

I am still doing well. I purr, I play, I eat, I groom, I drink, I use the litterbox, I curl up with my brother and sister, and I pretty much act normal.  If my biopsies hadn't been so definitive (and they managed to get very good biopsies of the enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen, as well as my spleen), it would be hard to believe I have cancer.

I have thrown up a couple of times in the past week, and that always worried my mom, but it doesn't seem to bother me, and my behaviour goes back to normal after.  It's also just a bit of bile, no blood or anything, so it doesn't seem to be serious.

Merlin's selfie for this week

I take my medication every evening like a good boy.  Since starting the medication, my stools have been nice and firm and there's been no blood or mucus in or on them, so that's really good.

Excuse the blurriness, but we wanted to show you that I still like to play!

I haven't lost any weight.  I'm still the solid, muscular boy of the family.

Again, excuse the blurriness, but I'm still jumping after that whirlybird!

So, we continue to be hopeful that I will make it until June, when my dad returns from his deployment overseas.  I really miss my dad.  I'm a daddy's boy, and although mommy is wonderful, my dad is my special human.  I am very proud of my dad and the work he does serving our country, but I do miss him.

Thank you all for your continued supports, purrs, prayers, and positive thoughts.  We all appreciate them very much.

Please leave us a comment here - thank you!