Back in August 2010 I wrote about the ordeal that we went through with our cat Snoopy and his close call with life threatening bladder stones. I would love to say that was the end of the story and that Snoopy lived happily ever after, but unfortunately our little "snooper trooper" had to ensure some more problems after that. I didn’t want to write about these latest developments until we reached some degree of stability.

After his bladder stones were removed, we had a few happy months of reprieve where everything seemed like it was back to normal. He recovered nicely and had just finished growing back all the fur on his tummy that they needed to shave off for the operation. However in October I began to notice that Snoopy was feeling slimmer than usual. I didn’t think anything of it.

As we were approaching our print deadline for the November edition, Steve was in the kitchen as Snoopy was getting excited peering through the window at some birds eating from the feeder outside. The birds took off, and as he hopped down from his vantage point he abruptly sat down in a very strange position, as if he had hurt himself. He got up and walked a few feet out into the living room before he collapsed onto his side. Steve picked him up to make sure he was alright and he seemed to be unconscious, but within seconds made a guttural growling sound as he woke up again. He seemed fine afterward, so naively we thought he might have hurt his back leg when he jumped down, and possibly passed out from the pain.

Nevertheless it was very strange, so we kept a close eye on him over the next 24 hours. He did seem to be developing something of a limp to his walk, but it was more than that. Soon it seemed like his whole body was drooping; though he was still able to move around, he couldn’t even lift his head to look up at us – he could only turn it sideways awkwardly. We decided it was time to bring him to the vet, and so we put out some treats to distract the other cats who were circling us as we were trying to hurry things together. Surprisingly, Snoopy growled at the other two cats so that he could have all of the treats to himself – he normally wouldn’t touch this brand.

The vet had far worse news for us than a sprained leg. Snoopy was experiencing kidney failure, and his blood values showed a severe concentration of sodium, urea and creatine, with a low red blood cell count and a deficiency in potassium that explained his muscular problems. At these levels, the vets only gave him a few days to live. He had lost a great deal of weight and was down to only 3.2kg. We made the decision to leave Snoopy overnight so that they could try to stabilize him by flushing his system, with the hopes that this would help prolong his life a little while longer. I don’t know how I managed to make the drive home, but once there Steve and I broke down completely. It was crushing.

An ultrasound revealed that Snoopy had two deformed kidneys that were damaged even further by the kidney stones lodged inside. We had been informed prior, that the occurrence of bladder stones also likely meant kidney stones were present, but are typically inoperable – or at least, not operable locally.

After the first day at the vet Snoopy began to show some improvement, so we kept him there longer and visited with him every evening. After 3 days his progress levelled off with his kidney values still at dangerous levels. So at this point, with no other reasonable options available to us, we made the decision to bring him home with us so that he could spend however much time he had left in the place he was most comfortable. We even made plans to put up the Christmas tree and celebrate early for him.

Steve was insistent on doing everything we could to take the strain off Snoopy’s kidneys, and so we went home with special soft cat food and equipment to inject fluids, both to help keep Snoopy well hydrated. I booked 2 days off work so that I could spend time with Snoopy, but sadly for the first day our attention was divided because of the imminent press deadline for the November edition. However, we set up a blanket on my desk where Snoopy could sit, along with his food and water, so that I could keep a close eye on him while I was working. Just having him home was a huge weight off our shoulders.

We interacted with Snoopy a lot as we worked through the night, pushing him to eat and drink and giving him lots of hugs and kisses. He seemed just as happy to be home - very perky and alert, and affectionate to the extreme (even though he still had to turn his head sideways to look at us). Steve got an idea and did some research on the internet to confirm that bananas are not harmful to cats, and so he began mixing some in with Snoopy’s soft food to try and boost his potassium levels. In one night, he seemed to be getting stronger, but we didn’t get our hopes up.

The next day we had to do Snoopy’s subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fluid injection ourselves for the first time. The vet had sent us home with an IV bag of special fluids, and the somewhat large needles used to inject them into the patch of loose skin between his shoulder blades. We set up in our bathroom so that the IV bag hung from our shower curtain rail, and I perched on the toilet to hold Snoopy while Steve did the injection. Almost predictably, I passed out, and Steve ended up holding both Snoopy and myself in place until the full dosage of fluids percolated inward. These injections leave Snoopy with a large "camel hump" of water on his back that, due to gravity, seems to slowly shift around his body and settle as what we affectionately referred to as "bitch tits" at the front, prior to his body absorbing it.

Snoopy continued to get stronger day by day. By the end of the week he was able to lift his head again. His energy started coming back to him, which he happily demonstrated for us by dashing around the house and playing with his toys. After we ran through his first IV bag and had to return to the vet for more, we brought him in with us so that they could re-check his kidney values. The vets were completely shocked at the night and day difference from his last visit, just in his appearance. His kidney values had come back down to reasonable levels, though granted still a little higher than ideal. He had started gaining weight back, and Steve happily shared our "secret" about putting banana in his food. As we continued to bring him in regularly to check on his progress, Snoopy became something of a legend amongst the ladies who worked at that clinic. He was already known for his affectionate personality from his past overnight stays, however they now referred to him as the "miracle cat" or the "banana cat".

Today, Snoopy has returned to his previous weight of 5kg and is back to being super playful, energetic, and affectionate such that one can’t even tell that he is sick. His kidney problems are an ongoing condition that we have to maintain, so we continue to keep him on his special diet (infused with banana) and give him his injections 2 times a week (thankfully we were able to reduce the frequency down from every day, because he can really put up a fight now that he has his strength back).

Having such a close call really put things into perspective. We truly feel like we’ve been given a second chance. Steve and I know his time with us is still limited, and so we have some simple plans to make the most of this. First of all, we spoil him with attention even more – he absolutely eats it up, and continues to find new ways of returning his affection for us. Still being with us for Christmas, of course we got him some new toys that he has really been enjoying. But finally, when the weather gets warm again, I have plans to properly fence our front yard so that he and the other cats can enjoy the outdoors over the summer (more than just on a balcony), without the worry of there being nothing between them and the traffic on 17th Avenue. It’s actually something that I promised them when we moved from our 4th floor rental condo into our own house, and now I have good reason not to delay any further.

It has been one of those much broader life lessons that is often difficult to learn, except in hindsight. We’ve learned it due to this experience and this rare blessing of time. Doing something simple right now to benefit the happiness of our loved ones is better, and indeed more appreciable, than anything we can do for them after they’re gone.

During our monthly press cycle, usually after we submit the files to our printers, the intense stress levels we go through drop off to something more manageable for the remainder of our tasks. When things go smoothly, we post the online edition and then stop by our printers in a day or two to pick up our reserves for restocking and bonus distribution.

However, last month did not go so smoothly. When I got the load of magazines home on Friday and opened up a stack for our office copies, we immediately noticed that our colour pages weren’t on the same quality of glossy paper that we are usually printed on – it seemed like something thinner and much more matte. As we checked through the other bundles, we found some where the ink appeared so faded that the black areas on our cover appeared as a slate gray. We headed right back to the printers to talk to them about this and check the ones that were going to our distributors. Unfortunately, as we discovered, the faded copies were the most prevalent.

The press manager verified that we had been printed on the wrong paper stock, and agreed that the quality of the ink was unacceptable. Since this was their mistake, they agreed to eat the cost of reprinting us, however due to the size of the other jobs that were running on their presses, this could not be done until the following Monday.

This was a dilemma, since some of our bar advertisers had placed ads for things happening the next weekend, and we wanted to ensure copies were available for the current weekend to get them proper exposure.

So despite the printers frowning on us taking away copies of the magazines we were refusing, we dug through until we found enough of the less-faded copies to put out at our critical locations. This meant that at least we would be on the shelves over the weekend, and we explained to these locations what was going on as we put out the temporary copies.

Over the weekend we decided it would be worthwhile to sneak in some last minute changes to the magazine, and once we got the new copies Monday night we replaced what was remaining on the shelves at our critical locations with these fixed copies.

Judging by the lack of comment from the community at large, I don’t think very many people actually noticed – which is good, because it means we succeeded in smoothing over this bump in the road for our readers and advertisers. But I volunteer this information here anyway, to make sure it is known we weren’t aiming to sweep it under the carpet for the sake of maintaining a front of perfection.

In our 7 years dealing with our printers, we have been very happy with the job that they do. We can easily forgive a rare hiccough like this when they are willing to work with us to correct the problem, to the satisfaction of our own customers. Mistakes happen, both here and down the line, and we just have to deal with them. We do so out in the open, for the sake of remaining transparent to our readers and advertisers.

So in the end, despite having to deal with some unexpected adversity we got our February edition out in good time and with no apparent ill effect. Mistakes will always happen, but it’s the manner of responsibility in how we mitigate them that truly matters.

For this column last month, at risk of sounding harsh, I wrote about the tedium of "Drag Time" and its erosive effect on the success and enjoyment of the community in social venues.

If this resonated with you, you are definitely not alone. In our travels, numerous people commended us for addressing this issue. We’ve already seen some event organizers take it to heart and push to start things on time. It doesn’t always happen, but the effort is appreciated.

It doesn’t feel to me like a lot happened in the way of events last month, and yet I’m told we have quite a number of photos to publish.

One event that does stick out in my mind was Straight to Diva, deigned to be the final edition of the annual fundraising tradition. The two straight participants, who I mentioned last month to be Stepfather and Stepson, were joined by a contender from within the LGBT community (Straight-acting to Diva in his case). The competitors performed to a busy bar, to the disbelief of their wives, husband, and friends. In the end, the Stepfather won out, and the final fundraising total was just shy of $3000, with possible additions still pending. This went to Calgary’s HIV Peer Support group, and AIDS Calgary’s HEAT program.

The SHARP Foundation also celebrated a milestone last month – their 20th anniversary! The SHARP Foundation, which operates a number of local AIDS hospices, continues to be at the forefront of what they do. To mark this great achievement, they hosted an appreciation party for those who have contributed their time and effort to help their organization. They also took this opportunity to launch a snazzy new logo.

For those who miss the absence of the Calgary Networking Club, Club Sapien arranged a get-together for LGBT professionals last month with the hopes that someone among them will step forward to continue organizing future events independently. It had a fantastic turnout despite the nasty cold and icy roads, and was a great opportunity to meet and mingle with other business professionals. If this interests you, keep an eye out for future events.

Lastly, congratulations to Woodys, who celebrates their 9th anniversary this coming month.