Bye bye sweetheart kittycat Mischa

A week and a half ago my cat Mischa suddenly fell ill. Within two days she got so ill that I rushed her off to the vet. She was even throwing up water she had just been drinking. He checked her blood, suspecting her kidneys. When the lab results came back (in 15 minutes) her kidneys appeared to be not doing much. So I left her in the vet's good care, so they could keep her on an infuse to flush her kidneys and get her some meds to counteract her nausea. If all went well (there was still a chance for that) she would start eating soon, and that would be a good sign. However, she didn't and she wouldn't even get up when I visited her the next day (she did purr at me though *heart*). I crossed my fingers but the next day the lab results confirmed what we saw: she got worse. So I had to let her go...

Mischa has always been very sweet to me and always seemed very grateful. Purring as soon as I looked at her and she noticed, that sort of cat. Not very demanding, actually quite easy going for me.

----------------
Here starts the nice part, with kitty movies and all.

She came to me early June 2004. In my neighbourhood there were a couple of strays, and I think she wasn't even a year old. There's some instances over here where you can register found cats and their info was put up there by me. No one ever came for any of them, and the pond refused to collect them unless I brought them over. One day I noticed one of them was growing a belly... she wasn't even an adult herself yet...

She looked in bad condition, she was gross and smelly and I was worried about her, so I let her in to have some cat nibs. You see how dirty and skinny she was, apart from the big belly. Strangely enough the other two didn't mind her coming into the house. A few hours after this picture was taken, (or the next day, I don't remember exactly) I came home to a big splash of strange liquid in the middle of the living room. Yikes! Apparently she got in my house and her water broke... I always kept a small window open so my own two, Jesse and Azra, could get in and out, and she must have gotten in that way.

When I looked outside she immediately came and entered the house as if it was hers. I set up a box and she delivered 5 kittens that evening! I really don't want to think of what would have happened if she delivered them outside, since some people just threw out their dogs of their house if they had to go, instead of walking them. During delivery she was quite restless but strangely enough calmed down when I petted her. Silly cat! I put a little collar on her in case she left her babies with me and decided to walk off. 

She never left though! Mischa was a very good mother and was ok with strangers coming close and touching her babies (so they would be socialized, some of the future owners visited).

Here I'm holding one of her kittens, a blue semi long haired as I found out later. Another one was a tabby and then three black and whites (all short haired), a total of 3 boys and 2 girls.

I've taken plenty of pictures of my cats, the pictures in between then up until a year ago are on a hard disc I have no access to unfortunately (at the moment).
At some point, after the kittens went to their new homes her opinion of my boys stayed low and she let them know on plenty of occasions that she was the Queen of the house (I think I was allowed to be Countess). I thought she would leave again since she was a stray, but she turned out to be more homely than the boys. She was very fond of me, which I mistook for being a social cat. After all, she didn't show any strange behaviour towards humans when she had her babies. But I was wrong... she turned out to be scared of others besides me. So I got to keep all her purrs to myself, ha!

Here she is at my window meowing at me to let her in, like she always did.

On the couch with her friends minions Osiris and Azra. My sweet baby Jesse (white short haired) had died and she saw another white monster coming into the house: Osiris. If they were bowing deep enough she let them wash her.

Osiris was so playful and hung around her neck all the time, which she let him, though I could see she made plans to show him through the room as soon as he got a bit older. I was surprised she stayed patient with him for as long as she did, he was terribly annoying with her, but she only fought him off when he was over half a year.

She even helped me with sewing! The little big sweetheart. Goodbye my Mischa, I miss you.

Celeriac Chips

Since upping my vegetable intake I'm always on the lookout for new recipes with lots of veggies. I have never been that fond of the green stuff, so I want to try out as many different ways to prepare them as possible to avoid boredom. The fresh and slightly nutty taste of celeriac (Dutch: selderijknol) goes so well in soups and salads that even I love this! When I found this recipe I simply had to try. It's in season over here right now so there's plenty available in the shops.

The original recipe (there's several roaming the internet, mine is from Vegetalion) just uses celeriac, oil, salt, curry powder and an oven. Just to be sure they would be well cooked I blanched the chips in boiling water for a minute (and 30 mins on 180C, that's slightly over 350F was enough, cooking time may vary with your oven). As you can see I used a bit too much oil, so keep in mind you don't need that much oil.

Click for Vegetalion's recipe

As you can see the fries on the left have a different colour than the fries on the right. That's because I used paprika powder on those (I omitted curry powder for my batch). Those were even better than the fries au naturel. For some more variety I'll be experimenting with rosemary and other herbs as well.

Mine were meant as a side dish for dinner. They never made it though, they were devoured as soon as they came out of the oven. Resistance is futile!

Going paleo

What is paleo? Paleo stands for the paleolithic diet, or caveman diet. It's based on the theory of how we have been eating ages ago, before massive agriculture. No dairy, grains (nor gluten), refined sugar, nightshades and legumes. Yes (organic) vegetables, grass fed meat, fish, seafood, roots, mushrooms and nuts.

Here's a very impressive TEDx talk by Dr. Terry Wahls

Why do I go paleo? I've been suffering from severe health problems for years, many visits to several doctors, a couple of diagnoses and medications later I'm still sick. Oh, the meds are working, they're just not covering it all. Some things improved, some got worse. I've tried loads of stuff: exercise, up my intake of veggies and letting go of ready made meals, supplements, etc (and of course still doing the things that worked!) I've read up on several diets and tried some. So why am I going for this specific diet? Well, because of the success stories and personal experience (thank you Emi for all the info!) of other people with auto-immune diseases. Especially with the auto-immune protocol version of the paleolithic diet.

Knowing myself I need a transfer period, so transferring into the "regular" diet is the first step. What helps me getting into the groove is collecting lots of recipes and read other people's blogs.

The Paleo Mom
Autoimmune-Paleo
Autoimmune Paleo and You
Long Haired at Heart
Elana's pantry

Pinterest is perfect for saving my collection of recipes!

If you have tips/tricks or anything that helps you staying on the diet of your choice, please share what works for you in the comments below!

Winter White

Snow.... that calls for pictures! The thing I like about snow is how it looks and how children are happy having fun sleighing and building snowmen. Not so much how I can't get to the store on my bike and have to walk.

The cats don't stay outside for long (one didn't even want to go outside), Azra was playing and jumping around. By the time I got my camera he wanted in already.

Ozzie "Prince of Lightness" stayed outside a bit longer. He was curious and smart about how he stepped into my footsteps and where he sunk his paws into the snow by himself, he went back following his own steps. His plumed ears and fluffy tail makes him look like he's dressed up for winter. His pink little nose even more pink than usual *heart*.