The Jordy Fund at Red Bubble

Well most of you would know I received some bad news about Jordy last week. If you haven’t read about it, you can here

My Vet also suggested she could give me a referral the the Murdoch University Cancer Care unit for Animals in Perth, if I wanted to see what sort or treatment etc was available for Jordy if I wanted to go down that road as well. I couldn’t not use the referral and have Jordy get worse and put to sleep soon … and always wonder if maybe I could have done more to help. I am sooooooo glad I took him to Perth today!!! I left him there for an hour while the surgeons looked over him and they gave me three options.

1. Leave him be to let the cancer spread to his lungs shortly and just give him a good quality of life until such time that the pain was too much and have him put to sleep (this option was the only hope the Vet had given me!!!)
2. Scrape his tumor and do a course of Chemo to shrink and slow the growth and spread … and monitor him with subsequent checkups and then give him a few extra months before having to make the decision.
3. Remove his eye and the surrounding tissue, check the nasal cavity and use skin from his head to patch the eye and he would almost certainly be free of the cancer (if it hasn’t spread yet) and could live another 2 years or more until he died of old age.

So I am opting for number three of the above … but this is where I want to ask you all a big favour.

The operation is going to cost me $3000, money I don’t have right now. The operation also needs to be done as soon as possible!!! The longer it is left, the more likely the cancer has spread and the chances of this operation working become less.

What I want to ask you all (beg even) is that you support me in giving Jordy the chance to live and die in a few years of natural causes, rather than in about three months if I do nothing … buy buying my work here at Red Bubble. For every cent of Profit I make from today I will be putting in a Fund especially for Jordy’s Operation and I will start a new Journal Entry at Red Bubble called The Jordy Fund where on request, I will paste the product bought, who bought it and how much profit (with a running total) has gone towards Jordy’s Operation. Normally I would save and plan when I needed money for something, but this is very important for me to do ASAP and so your help would be greatly appreciated. And it doesn’t matter if you just buy a card … or a Full sized Framed Print. It ALL means something to me. I appreciate your help so much and so does Jordy.

If Only Tonight We Could Sleep ....... forever.

(Click the lyrics to listen to the song)

if only tonight we could sleep
in a bed made of flowers
if only tonight we could fall
in a deathless spell
if only tonight we could slide
into deep black water
and breathe
and breathe...

then an angel would come
with burning eyes like stars
and bury us deep
in his velvet arms

and the rain would cry
as our faces slipped away
and the rain would cry

don't let it end...

Today I received some sad news. My little Jordy man has Cancer again. :( I am at a point right now where I am very lost. Anyone that knows me well enough, will understand the bond I have with my Three Boys ... but especially so with Jordy ... my little Alien.

When Jordy was about 4 years old, he got skin cancer in his ears. Something a lot of animals with white fur get. Luckily Kim and I got him to the Vet before it had a chance to spread and they cut it out. Since then, Jordy has been my no ears little Alien. The Ironic thing is that when Kim brought him home as a Present ... I said he was the ugliest cat I had ever seen .... he is now the most beautiful thing I have had in my life.

The vet has told me without Chemo, he probably has about 3 months to live ... but that is with pain. :( I can't afford the Chemo for him sadly. :( And even with the Chemo, the cancer is too far spread ... it won't cure him this time ... just prolong his life.

With a heavy heart I now need to make a decision on timing :( At some time soon I need to figure out that Jordy is suffering and allow him to be free of that, so he can forever watch over me. This will be one of the hardest things I will have done. I am going to share the next few months here .... some of this may not be nice, but it will help me too. I am going to miss .... this gorgeous Monkey on My Back so much!!!

Getting Ready

View looking over the top of the Dump Pocket to the control Panel for the Rock Breaker. The Dump Trucks dump to the right of this photo.


So the very first thing that we had to do was to clear all the rubble out of the bottom of the Dump Pocket and get ready to lift the Spider and Mantle free of the Crusher. Usually (in the photo above) the Pocket would be full of Earth and rocks from the Dump Trucks and that Rock Breaker is used to break up the larger boulders. Just out of shot at the bottom is where the crusher sits level with the bottom of the Pocket. The controls for the Rock Breaker are where the right most guy is standing. Not a great job to have, with all the dust and noise!!!


The Photo above shows the hole that goes down inside the crusher (in the middle of the Dump Pocket). Usually the barriers and yellow safety cages wouldn't be there and there would be a Spider sitting on top of the huge lifting lug at the top of the Mantle. This photo was taken looking from the Rock Breaker Controls. The spider (see below) has already been removed and we are now in the process of hooking up the Gantry Crane to lift the 80 or so Tonne of Mantle out. The Crusher extends down into the next level underground and will need to be core drilled around it's base to be removed. It's in three parts and has concave wear plates covering the inside of it. The whole lot needs to come out.

This is the Spider which sits on top of the Mantle to protect the lifting lug and help disperse the Earth and boulders evenly into the crusher.

My Time at Tom Price

Map showing location of Tom Price in WA.

During August of 2006, I spent 35 days in the Iron Ore Mine at Tom Price in the North of WA. I worked as a Trade Assistant up the top of the Mine in the Pit. What our job entailed, was changing out the old rock crusher for a reconditioned one from Japan. The original Primary Crusher had been in place since 1967 or so and it took the full 35 days to remove the old one and replace it with the new one. The Crusher is a mechanism which has a rotating Mantle within a shell, when the Dump Trucks dump their rock into the pit, it falls through the crusher, thus getting crushed. The heaviest part of the Crusher was 80 tonne from memory, that was the Mantle.

This is a rough diagram of the different levels and what things are called so as I post photos it can be used as reference :) :) The rock was dumped in the Dump pocket, crushed thru the crusher and then the conveyors at the bottom took it out for further processing.

The Dump Pocket. This is the very top of the Crusher where the Dump Trucks back into and dump the raw rocks.