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Rose Stebbins is an amazing interior decorator. She has designed the headboard for my bed (which is padded and oh so comfy for leaning against to read at night) all the decorative pillows that adorn...
Rose Stebbins is an amazing interior decorator. She has designed the headboard for my bed (which is padded and oh so comfy for leaning against to read at night) all the decorative pillows that adorn my house and all of my window treatments. Whenever I come up with an idea, she always improves on it. She has amazing taste and makes fantastic fabric selections. People ooh and aah over her creations in my home all the time. She also does a lot of seat covers for yachts (now..this I don't know about, not being a yacht owner, but I have seen pictures and they are amazing). She also does the installation, which is a big help so that I don't mess up my walls. Hire Rose if you are thinking of adding some pizzazz to your home. She's great!
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If you are lucky enough to live in the Shoreline area, you can save your pet much stress by hiring Dr. Alexa Allen to come to your home to check out your pet. Dr. Allen is an amazing veterinarian...
If you are lucky enough to live in the Shoreline area, you can save your pet much stress by hiring Dr. Alexa Allen to come to your home to check out your pet. Dr. Allen is an amazing veterinarian and way more affordable than you might think! A typical visit to Cat's Exclusive used to cost us around $300. A typical visit from Dr. Allen typically costs less than $100. She is super smart, doesn't waste your money on unnecessary testing and it's way easier (especially if you have a cat or multiple pets) to have her come to you. One day last month I had her do a test on one of my cats and she was able to get the testing back overnight. The same test took Cat's Exclusive 7 days to get back. Our cat was sick and we got tired of waiting for CE to call us back, so we asked Alexa to come draw blood and do the same panel, and she got the results back to us on the next day~~which happened to be a Saturday! CE called us the following Monday with the same test. When we had one kitten who was refusing to use the litter box and was completely constipated, she had the simple idea to do a K-Y jelly enema to stimulate a bowel movement. 5 minutes later our cat was no longer constipated. It cost nothing to do this procedure. 10 years ago, we had the same thing happen to a different cat, and it cost over $400 at Cat's Exclusive to do what they called an evacuation. Dr. Allen has simple no-nonsense ideas about what excellent veterinary care looks like, and if she is stumped by something, she will not rest until she has found the answer. She has done a lot of research for free for us because she didn't know the answer to something like "Is it OK to give a 6 month old kitten COQ10?" CE would never have entertained such a question. Dr. Allen does only have a small range of coverage...so if you are lucky enough to live in the Shoreline area, hire Dr. Allen. You will be very happy that you did.
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After our dying 1 year old grand champion Abyssinian was sent away by an inexperienced vet at Cat's Exclusive who took a "let's wait and see" approach (thanks a lot, "Doctor" Fliegel of CE) 7 hours...
After our dying 1 year old grand champion Abyssinian was sent away by an inexperienced vet at Cat's Exclusive who took a "let's wait and see" approach (thanks a lot, "Doctor" Fliegel of CE) 7 hours later, it was clear to us that he was dying, so we called our vet who makes house calls, Dr. Alexa Allen (please see my very positive review of her) and she accompanied us to ACCES. Luckily for us, it was a slow night for them, and although we were not allowed into the treatment room, Dr. Allen was. She gave us a very animated description of what was going on behind the scenes while we waited and worried. Never less than 5, usually 7 people were all working on Qaalee at once, doing everything they possibly could to save him. After about an hour, Dr. Julie March brought us into a room and went over Qaalee's condition after they had stabilized him. Dr, March was so smart, so compassionate and so caring, we were just blown away. She told us to go home (after a brief visit with Qaalee) and try to sleep and that she would call us with an update at 6am, when her shift ended. At 6am on the nose, she called to give us an update and to say that she had been spending the last hour updating Dr. Miles on Qaalee's condition, and that our cat was in the best hands he could possibly be in. At about 2 pm, Dr. Miles called to give us the very sad news: Qaalee was "clinically dead"...that he has already lost one kidney the other was shutting down and the brain was gone. They has him alive on a respirator and he was in a coma, but said that we should get down there right away to say goodbye. It was really sad that when Qaalee heard our voices, he awoke from his coma and started crying to be taken home. When we called for help, Dr. Miles was in the room immediately and put Qaalee out of his suffering.
Yes, it was a horrific thing to go through. Yes, we wish the idiot at Cat's Exclusive hadn't sent Qaalee away without doing any diagnostic testing. But the entire staff at ACCES was just amazing. We got a beautiful sympathy card from them and they kept us updated as to how the necropsy was coming along (it took nearly a month to get all the testing done) and then, finally we got his ashes.
Do we hope that we will never need to go to ACCES again? Yes. Are we glad that such a fine animal hospital is near our house that has excellent vets with fantastic bedside manners? Yes.
I would also like to say that the head of the clinic spent nearly an hour going over the autopsy notes with me on the phone because I couldn't understand much of it. That was very kind of her. Thank you Dr. Davidoff.
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My husband and I bought one female Chausie (an Abyssinian hybrid of the Aby and the Asian Leopard Cat) and one purebred male Abyssinian whom we named Tashya and T-Bone. These kittens were...
My husband and I bought one female Chausie (an Abyssinian hybrid of the Aby and the Asian Leopard Cat) and one purebred male Abyssinian whom we named Tashya and T-Bone. These kittens were approximately 4 months old when we agreed to purchase them from Carol Ashkew of Soaring Eagle/Abicatz Cattery in British Columbia, Canada. My husband and I have been Aby owners since 1990, and we had two established Aby kittens from another breeder who were approximately 10 months old when (what we call) The T-Twins arrived on December 5, 2007. We call them the T-Twins, although they are not related. Carol had 3 queens (the name of a mother cat) give birth in a four-week period of time. Carol also raises Bengal kittens. My understanding of her cattery (I have not visited) is that she has 12 breeding cats and can have anywhere from 12 to 25 cats/kittens at any one time. It is also my understanding that she raises the newborns in what Carol calls a "Cat Shed" which is heated and provides the birthing mothers privacy from the rest of the cattery. So, just that should have been a red flag for me because I prefer kittens that are raised "underfoot", meaning that they live in the same environment as the person raising the cats, but I was taken in by her beautiful kittens, and she seemed very competent. Unfortunately, I now know better. If we as consumers of purebred kittens all band together and stop buying kittens and cats from Carol Ashkew, we will be able to put her where she belongs: out of business.
When Tashya and T-Bone arrived, they had a light sneeze. But even before this, I had planned on doing proper integration buy keeping the new babies be in a spare bedroom for a couple of days and having them checked out before introducing them to the older cats and the rest of the house. Our vet saw the T Twins the day after they arrived, and saw nothing out of the ordinary, and gave us the green light to go ahead and integrate the two sets of cats. The slight upper repertory issue (the sneezing) is very common in young kittens, especially when under stress, which these kittens had been. The day before they arrived at our house, they were taken from their mothers, taken on a 5 hour car trip, spent the night in a place that was unknown to them and then rode on a plane from Spokane to Seattle (where we live) and then had to endure their first night in their new home. Kittens are extremely resilient and purebred kittens go through this sort of thing all the time. Tashya has no whiskers, whatsoever, and after they arrived and I called Carol to ask about that, she told me that the mother of Tashya (named Topaz) was just an over-zealous groomer, and her whiskers have grown in just fine, now. But she and T-Bone are both going to die of FIP, which is caused by the Corona virus and acts very much like AIDS acts in humans: the virus attacks their most vulnerable area. So T-Bone is dying of non-regenerative anemia and Tashya is going blind from cataracts and neither kitten is expected to live very long. Looking back at pictures of Tashya in Carol's online files, I can see something funny in her eyes, but I thought it was simply the flash bouncing off the retnia. Now that I have been educated, it is easy to spot the cataracts in those photos.
Carol has it in her contract that if the kittens are diagnosed with FIP that she will take them back and refund our money. She refused to take them back, so my husband and I are being forced to spend money on their health, keeping them alive and having our hearts broken instead of enjoying their kittenhood. We are trying everything we can think of to keep them alive, and I have had to get quite an education on FIP in the last few weeks. It's not a pretty disease. Sure, we could just put them down and get on with our lives. But we love T-Bone and Tashya and are fighting for their survival. There are a very small amount of cats who have gone into remission from FIP, but T-Bone has not put on any weight since he arrived here 7 weeks ago. In fact, he has lost an ounce. All his energy is going into keeping him alive, and he has what is called "failure to thrive" which is classic FIP. Tashya is not a candidate for cataract surgery (which is $1800) because the FIP may cause the cataracts to grow right back and she may not even be healthy enough to survive the operation. Plus, it makes no sense to do an expensive surgery like that on a kitten who will probably not live. Tashya is putting on weight and growing larger like a 6 month old kitten is supposed to do. Like I said, FIP affects every cat differently.
The reason I believe that Carol is an extremely unethical breeder is because she broke our contract with us. The contract states that we will have "lifetime support" from her, and now she will not accept any phone calls from me and has cut off all communication with me and has been badmouthing me to people I know.
When I first told her about the diagnosis, she went crazy, telling me that our house was toxic and making the kittens sick, that they caught FIP from my older cats (not true, they are both FIP negative), that I have had dead cats in my house before (yes, this is true...my last Abyssinian lived to be 17...which is pretty damn old for a purebred as they are typically expected to live for 15 years) that she and only she could cure them (but wouldn't tell me what her secret was) and when my husband and finally agreed to return the kittens to her a couple of days later she refused to take them back.
After a long struggle to get her to keep to our contract, she FINALLY agreed to send back my money, but she "accidentally" hit the wrong button on her VISA machine and re-sold the $1200 kittens to me! My VISA company called me because they thought it might be a fraudulent charge (it was) and I had to cut up that card. It will take me hours and hours of my extremely precious time to correct all of that, because that VISA card is tied to all my monthly automatic bills and is on every account from my gardening service, to Amazon.com to my Internet provider to my netflix account...basically EVERYTHING! I have been barraged with calls saying my card doesn't work anymore and had to live without my VISA card for about 10 days while they were sending me a new one. Just that headache alone is enough to make me say that Carol is completely incompetent, possibly crazy. I even posed as another potential buyer with a new screen name and point blank asked her if she has ever had a kitten come up sick after a sale, and she lied and said no!
Another reason to boycott Abicatz/Soaring Eagle (aside from her being difficult to work with, being underhanded, selling sick cats, lying to people about her cattery, breaking contracts, trying to steal money from us, blaming everything and everybody except herself) is because she doesn't take her kittens to a real veterinarian! When I asked for Tashya and T-Bone's prior health records, she said "There aren't very many as I do most things myself'"!!! I got physically sick when I heard her say this. Two vets have told me that she needs to spay her Toms and Queens that produced the unhealthy kittens, but she will never do that. And if you ever have the misfortune to speak to her, she will tell you that she has been breeding cats for 20 years (she's only been breeding for 5) and that never once in all those years has one single kitten ever come up sick. The woman is unstable, a liar and a contract-breaker, and I'm being nice and not using stronger words because I want this to be published as potential cat buyers need to be aware of this crazy Carol Ashkew of Soaring Eagle/Abicatz.
Tashya and T-Bone are absolutely adorable, and my family is sick over the fact that they will die, and Tashya will go blind before she dies. My husband and I have been married for 22 years, and we both agree that this is the most stressful experience we have ever been through. Plus, we are pouring money into these kittens trying to keep them alive, healthy and safe. Of course, Carol would never think to help out with veterinary bills...she told me that her vet told her not to refund our money, but that she was going to do it "out of the kindness of her heart"! She only finally refunded our money because we had to threaten to sue her, and plus there is the issue of her trying to steal money from us by re-charging us for the kittens! She also claimed that she never got one single email from me outlining the horrendous experience we were going through until I threatened to sue, and the most interesting thing about that is she replied on an email that she claims she never got.
Please...stay far, far, far away from this woman.
If you are interested in a purebred Abyssinian, Chausie or a Bengal, please do not buy from Carol. Like I stated above, if we, as consumers band together and stop buying cats from her, she will be forced out of business.
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Carol may have some "private cheffing" experience, but they are a low-end catering service with high-end prices who really don't deliver. Their owner, Carol, is smarmy, rude and doesn't really...
Carol may have some "private cheffing" experience, but they are a low-end catering service with high-end prices who really don't deliver. Their owner, Carol, is smarmy, rude and doesn't really understand food. She is hoping for clients who don't understand good food, or even what the word "natural" means. MSG is "natural" in China. So why not here? Not only will you get awful, super expensive delivery service, you may get to work with Carol....the world's snobbiest "natural gourmet (tm)" ! Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding....YOU WIN!!!! (S)He whoever shall order food from them will end up with a tummy ache, a financial disaster, a woman who does not honor gift certificates (I'm pretty sure there is a law against that Carol, dahlink....but we'll see. I'll be checking into that in the morning)
All I can say about her is stay away, stay away, stay away.
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Do not EVEN consider going to this extremely expensive, vastly overrated "Dinner Club". First of all, they aren't a club. Second, their food is effing awful. Tiny, microscopic portions, crazy...
Do not EVEN consider going to this extremely expensive, vastly overrated "Dinner Club". First of all, they aren't a club. Second, their food is effing awful. Tiny, microscopic portions, crazy expensive drinks, it's loud, terrible, hateful service and they don't even honor a reservation when you make one. I made one 2 weeks ago for a special evening. They were closed when we arrived. Then began the "blame game": "Who did you speak to? What was her name? Why did she book you on a night that we aren't open?"
And I am supposed to know the answers to ANY of those questions?
The place is expensive, pretentious....all that glitters in NOT gold.
Go just about ANYWHERE else! I'm begging you!
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Good Shoreline restaurants are hard to find. Alas, this place that dares to have a Hollywood theme and serves sushi on Aurora is, at best laughable. At worst, it's food poisioning waiting to happen....
Good Shoreline restaurants are hard to find. Alas, this place that dares to have a Hollywood theme and serves sushi on Aurora is, at best laughable. At worst, it's food poisioning waiting to happen. I got some take out tonight...and I should have taken a quick whiff of the yellowtail. When I got it home, it stunk. I would not feed this garbage to my cats, because I love them and wouldn't want them to die of food poisioning. Even they, when allowed a sniff before I threw it out, turned thier tails and walked away. Eat anywhere...anywhere else besides this terrible resturant.
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I saw Dr. John Baumeister, D.O. last year and was just recently looking over my records. Very rarely have I run across a doctor this unfriendly, so rude and unhelpful and judgmental. He was way...
I saw Dr. John Baumeister, D.O. last year and was just recently looking over my records. Very rarely have I run across a doctor this unfriendly, so rude and unhelpful and judgmental. He was way more interested in reaching over his lovely assistant's chest typing in information than he was in helping my painful condition. Both my husband and I were completely appalled at his "bedside manner" and when I reported his highly suspect and unusual dealings we had in his office and the way I was dismissed as "someone beyond his help", my regular doctor apologized and apologized saying that he had heard similar experiences from other people he sent to him and he was so sorry for having me treated in this manner. It was one of the most distressing medical visits in my life. One doctor that the public needs to be informed of is this guy.....Please Beware for Dr. John Baumeister!
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I need gardening assistance because I am super busy and I love my flower and veggie gardens, but I can't mangae everything by myself. I found a wonderful woman named Michaela O'Bryan at Spiral...
I need gardening assistance because I am super busy and I love my flower and veggie gardens, but I can't mangae everything by myself. I found a wonderful woman named Michaela O'Bryan at Spiral Mountain Gardening Service. She will do whatever I ask: weed, plant, run to the nursery, prune, help diagnose problems. She even knows how to identify edible weeds to use in salads! She is a lovely person and I completely trust her to do as I ask and not pull up my new seedlings that don't look like much. She's dependable and smart. I have learned a lot from her and she is reasonably priced. She rocks!
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We have a tiny monster. He is way cute, is way little (5.5 pounds) and is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. And he's sick. The medicine he needs doesn't come in tuna flavor, so what's a person to do? Call Rachele...
We have a tiny monster. He is way cute, is way little (5.5 pounds) and is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. And he's sick. The medicine he needs doesn't come in tuna flavor, so what's a person to do? Call Rachele Berger! (North Seattle, Edmonds...that area). For a reasonable fee, she comes twice daily until the pills run out and gives Quizzer his medicine. If I try to pill the kitty I get scratches and he's mad at me for hours. Rachel is a professional vet tech, so I really don't mind if Quizzer is mad at her and it breaks my heart if he is mad at me, so in pops Rachele to the rescue! She can also come in and just play, clean the litter box and feed if you are gone, give insulin injections, subcutaneous fluids and all types of oral medication. Rachele also does dog duty: walking and training. She's compassionate and dependable. Thank you Rachele!
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