Meow?

So my 15 year old kitty got sick with hyperthyroidism (and later died of complications from cancer.) In hindsight, I was able to keep her healthier and buy her another 6 months by making homemade food. I’m posting the recipes here.

Chicken Divan
1 large can of white meat chicken with juice
1/2 large bag of frozen chopped broccoli
1 Tbsp Benefiber
Steam broccoli.Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend until almost smooth consistency.

Tuna & Carrots (I know this sounds totally gross, but I swear, she liked it.)
1 large can of tuna in spring water
1/2 bag of frozen baby carrots
1 Tbsp Benefiber
Steam carrots.Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend until almost smooth consistency.

Storing and Serving
I use little 3 oz. “dixie” cups - fill them up and cover with tin foil. Keep two in refrigerator, freeze the rest. 2 servings per cup. As you empty one cup, pull another from freezer to refrigerator to thaw.

I didn’t follow this part completely - here’s what my vet said:
- 80:20 ratio of meat:vegetable
- Add one Tbsp of fish oil, flaxseed oil, or olive oil
- Calcium supplement - 500 mg tablet
- Vitamin/mineral supplement (such as 1 tablet Flintstones brand without iron) to include niacin
- Taurine supplement - 500 mg &/or clam juice
- Change tuna to some other kind of fish

High Anxiety

I subscribe to the "Buddhism Connect" Newsletter. Sometimes I get more out of it than others. I thought this was great:

A student says:

I have been reflecting on anxiety quite a bit, as it seems to be a form of suffering or unsatisfactoriness that I am particularly prone to solidfying in my life. I think I see it as a form of clinging, a profound fear of change. Instead of accepting the inevitability of change I become obsessed with the form that change will take and try to run scenarios through my mind, hoping to be able to avert or somehow control change.

Lama Shenpen responds:

That is a good description of how we are most of the time at some level or other, sometimes in more obvious ways than others. It is always the same kind of thing. It is called samsara!

The student continues:

I try to take a sort of pre-emptive strike against the possibility of suffering, which of course just leads to suffering in the form of anxiety.

Lama Shenpen replies:

Sometimes taking pre-emptive action is helpful, but the problem is that we then get attached to the result of the pre-emptive action instead of realising that it might help and it might not and that we are not attached to the result. The anxiety is being attached to a particular outcome. If we just think things through and decide to take a particular form of pre-emptive action and then relax, we get best of both worlds. We don’t just passively suffer unnecessarily nor do we add to our suffering by worrying.

There is a Tibetan proverb that I think might come from Shantideva that says something like:

If I can do something about a problem then I just need to do it and there is no need to worry. If I there is nothing I can do about a problem there is nothing to be done and so no point in worrying.

Of course we often find ourselves in the position of not being sure whether there is anything that can be done or not. That feels the worst possible scenario. I find for this kind of situation it helps to think that if I don’t know if there is anything that can be done about it or not then there is something to be done and that is to pursue the next possible avenue of investigation. And since I can only do one thing at once, if I am pursuing one line of investigation there is nothing to be done about the 100 other options that suggest themselves to me as things to worry about.

I don’t always live up to this - but it always helps me when I remember it.

--- By Lama Shenpen Hookham