Only the best for Bunny ...

I have a cat named Bunny (and how she came to that moniker is a story for another post) who is now nearly 19 years old (I joke about changing her name to Methuselah). For most of her life she has been hacking up hairballs and until recently nothing I tried helped. I tried the commercial food "specifically formulated" for hairballs, brushing her, hairball goo, etc ... several times each week, if not daily, she would barf up and deposit some nastiness on my floor, or my bed, or in my shoe - well, you get the idea. 

But for the last two weeks this has not happened - and the only change was giving her one tablet/day of "Vet's Best Hairball Relief Digestive Aid" - the ingredients are listed below. The directions say to give 1 tablet twice each day. My wee girl also has horrible constipation for which I have been giving her Miralax (please check with your vet before giving your pet any medication or product, even if it is available over the counter). 

It was $7.95 (for 60 tablets) at the local health food shop where I found it but I found it on Amazon for almost 1/2 that price (though that does not include shipping if you do not have Amazon prime). 

I am most grateful to have found this and only wish I had found it sooner! 

Ingredients (active ingredients):
psyllium seed
marshmallow
slippery elm bark
papaya extract
Allzyme (lactobacillus acidophilus, aspergilus oryzae, bacillus subtiles,
papain, amylase, protease);

Ingredients (inactive ingredients):
apple powder, brewer's yeast, calcium carbonate, chicken (dried),
liver (defatted pork), magnesium stearate, natural flavorings,
yeast (torula).

(no affiliate links in this post)


Feb 7, 2016 - update: 

Of course, the day after I wrote this original post, the Bunster hacked up a hairball! However, after at least 3 weeks of daily use (1 tablet/day) I can say that the Bunner's hairball problem seems to be quite a bit better - not cured, but both the number of hairballs she hacks up and the frequency and size are far, far less than before. At this point I plan to continue using the Miralax until it is gone and then I will increase her dose of Vet's Best Hairball remedy to the recommended two tablets/day (1 am, 1pm) and see how she does with that. I am very pleased with this product and so wish that I had known about it sooner! 

Resources for Bible Reading Plans

This eklektikos appreciates the word of God - the Bible. In this post I'll be sharing some resources that I have come across that I have found helpful. 

One of my favorite on-line sources is here: 
http://biblehub.com/ 

   The GUI (graphical user interface, pronounced goo-ee) is not especially snazzy or
   impressive at first glance. But there is a rich treasure of resources to make use of 
   and explore - Strong's numbers, interlinear bibles with many different translations, 
   Hebrew and Greek, lexicons, commentaries and much more. 

There are millions of bible reading plans out there - one of the most popular is Professor Grant Horner's system. He has divided the Bible into 10 sections and you read 1 chapter from each section every day. It can seem daunting but this gives the reader a great overview of the whole counsel of the word of God. Here are some links for more information: 
https://www.scribd.com/doc/12349985/Professor-Grant-Horners-Bible-Reading-System 
If you would like some bookmarks you can get them here: 
http://nwbingham.com/blog/new-bookmarks-professor-grant-horners-bible-reading-system/ 
     I suggest you simply double-click on the images and then right-click to save them 
     to your computer. There is a hyperlink to a zip file so you can presumably tweak 
     the bookmarks yourself but when I tried that it didn't work. 
Here are links to the pdfs via Googledocs: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0C-5-MEaNN_SUFwUHlqcjNfMzA/view?usp=sharing 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0C-5-MEaNN_eDdheFY1aTNCY0U/view?usp=sharing 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0C-5-MEaNN_Qkt3bVExcXprSFU/view?usp=sharing 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0C-5-MEaNN_bDhxcFNfamcyeE0/view?usp=sharing 

I made up a similar system where I divided the bible into types of writings (Law, History, Prophecy, Psalms, Proverbs, Gospel, Epistle), reading 1 or 2 chapters of each section daily. I am nowhere near as faithful in this as I would like to be. Here is a Googledoc link to bookmarks if you would like to try this: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0C-5-MEaNN_MXdBR0hTRFpOeEU/view?usp=sharing 
Print them out and get them laminated ... 

Here's a link to an article on a bible reading plan app for your phone: 
http://nwbingham.com/blog/the-best-iphone-ipad-app-for-tracking-your-bible-reading/ 
I downloaded it but have not yet spent much time tweaking it to make it my own. I learned of these via Tim Challies email. 

Another great option is to listen to the Bible - John MacArthur's ministry, Grace To You provides a smart phone app with this option. John MacArthur is one of the handful of people who has theology that I trust (I reserve the right to change this opinion if he or anyone else goes off the rails!) Brannon Howse is another person who I think is still trustworthy - you'll find him at Worldview Weekend. I really appreciate his podcast - I especially appreciate that he is exposing the bad theology that has become so very commonplace today (contemplative prayer, the "emergent" church, the social "gospel" among others). 

You can also listen from the web with the English Standard Version (and there is also a smartphone app with this feature as well). 

There are two more things you can do to expose yourself to the text: 

1) Read it out loud to yourself or someone else

2) Write it out by hand - copy the text in a journal or notebook or on a pad of paper. 
     There is benefit in this unlike the use of a keyboard - the keyboard is too abstract, 
     the act of writing something by hand is more concrete, and there is a neural 
     connection, a feedback loop, between our hand and our brain - the brain telling 
     the hand what to do and the hand training the brain as it does what it is told. 
     This also slows us down, and we have to look at the text, repeatedly, as we 
     copy it onto the paper. 

Both of these techniques can be useful ways to interact with the text. Most of us learn by repetition - I know that is true for me. Most of also have one primary mode of learning. I know that for me this is through my eyes - I am a visual learner, almost to a point of handicap. I am much more likely to retain what I see or what I read. Regardless of this, I also know that there is value in using all of my senses to learn - and using more than one sense leads naturally to repetition. The goal being to burn into my head and my heart what.the.text.actually.says. Not what I want it to say, not what others say it says. 

Read it silently
Read it audibly 
Write it
Hear it 

In all of this - listen to The One Who wrote it - the Bible is God's primary way of communicating to us. Each page is about Jesus. Each page is God saying "I LOVE YOU!"
The Gospel, the good news, is found from beginning to end - the good news that we no longer have to be separated from God because of our sin - Jesus was born to die for us, for our sin. He proved Who He is by rising physically, bodily from the grave three days after His death on a cross. It is only by going to Him and exchanging our sin for His sacrifice that we can be saved - be assured of eternal life in heaven rather than hell. 

John 3:16 
1 John 5:11-12  

I'll update this as I find more ...