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Thanks for your reply. Yeah, Muffin had her problems exactly a year ago. Took her to one emergency vet who said she had "kidney failure" and had an infection. He said that she would not make it past February (2002). We took her to our vet and he treated her for the kidney infection and although he said there could be a little damage there, she is doing excellent. We feed her special kidney food although she does cheat a little. The vet said that's really no problem as long as she eats SOME of the kidney food to balance things out. She has 90% of her weight back, likes to run around, and even chases the younger cats around. She'll be 16 this year in August. Muffin is special because my aunt asked us (my mother and I) to take care of her a few days before she died of cancer in 1995. Muffin was born in Texas. I know it is a dirty secret that pets will leave us one day (or we leave them), but it is no excuse to write them off at the crack of a bat. We paid $800 to $1000+ for Muffin and would do it again.

We have another cat who will turn 16 in August, Pansy, a green eyed, grey, tan, and white calico. She is doing quite well too, likes to run around a lot. The only issue with he is every three months like clockwork, she gets upper respitory infections due to some allergy. We know every three months, she goes to the vet for medicine.

I sailed for two years in Viet Nam in the Army's navy aboard a 338-foot, 2,000 ton displacement ship functionally similar to a Navy LST. Because of the shortage of dock space, we would often come alongside a Victory ship at anchor. They would offload a portion of their cargo onto our deck, and we would carry it onto the beach at Cam Ranh or any number of landing beaches up and down the coast. On one of these runs, we tied alongside the SS Berkeley Victory (Most Victory ships were named for colleges.) I decided to have a bit of fun at my Mom's expense. I had a photo taken of myself standing alongside her name board. I sent it home with a letter subtitled "Mario Savio Is Alive and Well in Cam Ranh Bay." The scathing letter I received in return was the source of uproarious laughter throughout the crew.