Thimble and Colby have passed the nine pound mark. They aren't even five months old yet. It's hard to remember that they are still babies despite their size.
And then sometimes it's not hard at all, when they act silly and crazy.
They've graduated to having their before-bedtime play session in the living room instead of the nursery. The pink room (that's the nursery) is just too small now for them to run full-out, and Colby, who never has the best judgement at the best of times, was bowling himself into the furniture and the walls. He never seemed fazed but it sounded quite painful, the sudden thump as he tried to stop, went head over heels, and catapulted (ha ha) himself into the wooden storage bin structure.
So I got out the big-cat wand toys, the ones where I stand instead of sitting because the wand is longer and the string down to the toy is longer, and played with them with that. I have some from when Pippin was a kitten that have glittery streamers at the end, and that was the first one I played with in the living room.
They absolutely adored it. Colby still managed to run into the walls but at least not quite as often, and I learned to keep the toy end far away from the fireplace hearth (which is four bricks high and made out of bricks, so it's the least forgiving thing in the house to run into).
Sometimes they will run after it in tandem, as if they are racing in harness. Most of the time that sort of thing rapidly deteriorates as one goes faster than the other, or one decides to make a sharp turn without warning the other first. Sometimes that ends up with two kittens in a pile and sometimes it doesn't. Even if it does, they just untangle themselves and go after the toy again. This is apparently not the time for playfights.
I don't have video or pictures. It's very difficult to take video or pictures when you're in the center of the action and you're having to keep the toy ahead of the cats.
And that plural means all three cats, because Apricot participates too, more than he did in the pink room. He doesn't usually run after it full-blast like they do, but if the toy just so happens to come by him he will reach out a paw and trap it. Apricot doesn't like being run into by the kittens and knocked over.
Plus, he also knows that after the kittens get put in the nursery for the night, I will continue playing with him by himself with the same wand toy. And then he runs after it and makes flying leaps and acts just like the kittens only for a shorter amount of time. I think there might also be dignity involved--he doesn't want to do these crazy play moves in front of the kittens. He has his grownup position to think about, after all. So he waits until we're alone.
The kittens, despite my efforts to not create situations for high-flying acrobatics, sometimes indulge in them anyway. A wand toy naturally goes up at the end of its flight, and they'll leap after it, snatching it out of the air sometimes, and sometimes missing it.
I've seen them do in-air twists and flips and stuff that would make an Olympic high-diver or gymnast turn green with envy. Of course, the kittens don't always stick the landings, either ...
And last night, the 27th of February (mark your calendars, people!) Colby objected to being put in the nursery for the night for the first time. After I kissed them goodnight he ran out of the room, giving me a deliberate look to make sure I saw him leave. Thimble followed but more on the fact that I walked after Colby and he didn't want to be left alone.
Luckily, Thimble also followed me back into the nursery when I had Colby in my arms, on the same basis of not wanting to be left alone. Because I can't carry both of them at the same time anymore, even with Thimble over my shoulder (I tried, the day before, actually).
Perhaps Colby wasn't done playing. Last night we played with Apricot's Bird wand toy. It was the second time I'd gotten that one out.
You should have seen the look on Apricot's face the first time I got it out with the kittens in the room. It was like he was saying to himself, "Oh boy, you guys are going to love this one!" combined with "Cool, I know how to play with this one!" And he did have more runs and jump-catches with it than he normally does around the kittens, and after I tucked them into their room for the night, he really went to town with it.
That toy just flies better than the other wand toys I have. It has four feathers and they are bigger than my old wand toy with two, and the wand seems to be more flexible. Last night Colby managed to "break" it twice. Once the stretchy string came off the end of the feathers, and I had to tie it (it originally comes attached with apparently not-so-strong glue) and then the other end came loose and I had to tie that one. It took Apricot months to do the same thing (pull the ends loose, not the part where they get tied back on. Obviously.)
Colby likes to bite down on the feathers and he obviously can bite very hard. Thimble manages the same thing but not quite as often. Colby also loves the toy to the point where he growls at the others and wants to keep it all to himself. He still hasn't put together the fact that the toy gets pulled away from him when he growls more often than when he doesn't, but he's in the middle of play and his brain isn't exactly occupied with cause and effect at that point, just instinctive attack and kill.
The Bird flies to the top of the cat tree in the middle of the room but not the one in the corner, not after the first time where Colby fell off it and hit his back against the brick edge of the hearth. He was up and after the toy instantly, and even when I checked him over later seemed to have taken no harm from the fall and more importantly, the impact, but I decided I wasn't going to risk him breaking his spine just for a toy.
The feathers might go over on the far side of that cat tree, away from the hearth, and up to the first level, which can be reached by standing on the hind legs and grabbing with the front legs, but that is as far as I will take it now.
At one point poor Apricot apparently needed to pee and didn't want to go all the way to the bedroom to do it, so he went into the litter box's box in the living room. I didn't realize he was in there, and the feathers were going round and round and Colby lost traction and went head over heels, thump into the side of the box. Apricot's head poked out the entrance like a jack-in-the-box on its side, and although I managed not to laugh, I felt very guilty about the impulse!
It's a good thing you can get replacement feathers (and I have a box of them) because apparently, even non-destructive Maine Coons are rather hard on their toys just because of the size thing. And they do like variety in their toys, something that I find challenging to accommodate due to my love of routine. But I'm trying to vary the wand toys each night--at least, not use the same one two nights in a row. The rabbit on a stick toy that they were so fond of is now on too short of a wand for adequate play.
Well, they don't mind scrambling over me to get to the toy, but I rather do. They're getting a bit heavy for that, plus, even though it's during play and they really have no concept of where they are, I don't want to encourage launching off of me. It was bad enough when a fourteen pound Pippin launched off my lap (my oof would be audible); I don't really want to find out what happens when a twenty-five pound cat with adult musculature and strength does the same thing.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Apricot's New Job
Apricot has appointed himself Guardian of the House Against Sleet Monsters. I find this both touching and hilarious, since he's still terrified of humans.
But I'm a human and he's not terrified of me, right? Well, despite the way the kittens interact with me, he's still convinced I'm a large deformed cat, so I get a pass when it comes to being scared of humans.
Anyway, I learned about his new job during the ice day of the previous post. Well, I only put the pieces together afterwards.
That night, Monday night, when it was actively sleeting, Apricot paid special attention to the kittens being put in the nursery for the night. He watched more carefully than usual as I shut the door, as if to make sure they were both in that room. I didn't think much of it, since sometimes he pays more attention to this than others.
Then, when I was in bed going to sleep, with the covers pulled up and my eyes closed, he came up on the bed, walked up to my head, watched me for a few minutes, and then left without ever doing anything else (no commentary, no contact). I thought this was a bit strange but maybe he wanted reassurance due to the sleet. Now I think he was making sure I was safe in my bed, just as he made sure the kittens were safe in theirs.
The next day I couldn't even get out my door with any traction, so I stayed home and watched from indoors a world encased in ice. The cats all enjoyed it, of course, but I did notice Apricot seemed to be sleeping even more than usual.
That night, Apricot did the same thing with regards to the kittens being put to bed and then visiting me, making sure I was safe in bed. When I came home from work the next day, he again seemed more tired than his usual state. Not enough to be alarmed about, but enough that I noticed.
But that was the last time. And it took me a few days more to realize what must have happened. I've seen him do something similar with the outdoor cats who come to visit. He must have prowled the house all night, making sure the sleet monster was not getting in. It did sound amazingly like some large animal scratching at the base of the house and at the windows, all the way around, as if we were surrounded by a pack of them.
He did it the following night too, to make sure they weren't coming back.
My sweet baby Apricot is taking on responsibility! He also seems to have decided that Thimble, no matter how much he brags, is just a kitten and really shouldn't be in charge. I have seen him washing Thimble, despite Thimble's best efforts to turn it into a playfight session. Apricot simply puts a paw over Thimble's back and continues washing his head and face. And Thimble seems to enjoy being able to let someone else take care of him, if only for a little while.
But I'm a human and he's not terrified of me, right? Well, despite the way the kittens interact with me, he's still convinced I'm a large deformed cat, so I get a pass when it comes to being scared of humans.
Anyway, I learned about his new job during the ice day of the previous post. Well, I only put the pieces together afterwards.
That night, Monday night, when it was actively sleeting, Apricot paid special attention to the kittens being put in the nursery for the night. He watched more carefully than usual as I shut the door, as if to make sure they were both in that room. I didn't think much of it, since sometimes he pays more attention to this than others.
Then, when I was in bed going to sleep, with the covers pulled up and my eyes closed, he came up on the bed, walked up to my head, watched me for a few minutes, and then left without ever doing anything else (no commentary, no contact). I thought this was a bit strange but maybe he wanted reassurance due to the sleet. Now I think he was making sure I was safe in my bed, just as he made sure the kittens were safe in theirs.
The next day I couldn't even get out my door with any traction, so I stayed home and watched from indoors a world encased in ice. The cats all enjoyed it, of course, but I did notice Apricot seemed to be sleeping even more than usual.
That night, Apricot did the same thing with regards to the kittens being put to bed and then visiting me, making sure I was safe in bed. When I came home from work the next day, he again seemed more tired than his usual state. Not enough to be alarmed about, but enough that I noticed.
But that was the last time. And it took me a few days more to realize what must have happened. I've seen him do something similar with the outdoor cats who come to visit. He must have prowled the house all night, making sure the sleet monster was not getting in. It did sound amazingly like some large animal scratching at the base of the house and at the windows, all the way around, as if we were surrounded by a pack of them.
He did it the following night too, to make sure they weren't coming back.
My sweet baby Apricot is taking on responsibility! He also seems to have decided that Thimble, no matter how much he brags, is just a kitten and really shouldn't be in charge. I have seen him washing Thimble, despite Thimble's best efforts to turn it into a playfight session. Apricot simply puts a paw over Thimble's back and continues washing his head and face. And Thimble seems to enjoy being able to let someone else take care of him, if only for a little while.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Ice Day
Last night it sleeted all night. The cats were all highly suspicious of the sleet tap-tap-tapping on the windows and scratching at the base of the house. I seemed unconcerned but I'm just a human, what do I know of this creature trying to get in from all sides?
This morning, the ice was so thick that when I went for my morning walk ... or attempted to ... I got only one foot out the door. I had no traction whatsoever.
So I went back to bed (after letting my boss know that I wouldn't be into work today). Well, I sort of went back to bed. I went back to bed with two kittens, and although we look peaceful in the picture, most of the time was taken up by having to remove my fingers (and occasionally my nose) from Thimble and Colby's attempts to wash them.
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| An ice day nap. |
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| Colby's never seen ice before. |
Chuck and Dawn Come to Visit
Sunday during my morning ... rest ... in the nursery room, we suddenly heard the elephant humidifier in the bedroom go nuts. The fan went from nearly silent to sounding like it was grinding wheat into flour. Everyone was quite alarmed. My initial solution was to turn it off.
Later that morning I took the humidifier apart and figured out it was the cooling fan. That humidifier's insides are awfully complicated. There's circuit boards and everything. Anyway, the fan was a computer's fan, and my brother does computer work, so I called their house. I was a little confused because when it wasn't attached to the base, the fan didn't make noise. But when it was attached, it made the horrible grinding noise.
It's made that noise before, but turning it off and back on always made the noise go away. This time that didn't help. And while it seemed like the fan was the problem, maybe it was the attachment points? I'm not very good with diagnosing mechanical type issues. Which is why I called them.
My sister-in-law answered. She also does computer work with my brother, so she said it was likely the fan's bearing was wearing out. And that they would be in town later in the day and could drop by and look at it.
Perfect. I'd been trying to figure out a time for them to come visit Colby and Thimble anyway, but between me trying to get sick and the kittens actually managing it, I hadn't found a good time. Sunday afternoon seemed as good as any, and I'd get a solid diagnosis of my humidifier problems and what to do to fix it.
When they showed up, they had a new computer fan and the things to attach the fan in place of the old one. Okay, that was really cool. I'd rather expected to have to order one off the internet and put it together (put the humidifier together with the fan, not that the fan comes disassembled!) myself.
So my brother did that, and the humidifier now works like a charm again. It's a little higher pitched because this fan runs a little stronger than the old one, and it has taken me a while to get used to the sound, but because it's a constant white noise type of sound, it won't take long. I think it's louder but it could just be the higher pitch, as I perceive higher pitched noises as louder than the same decibel-level lower pitch.
And they played with Colby and Thimble. Apricot, of course, disappeared under the couch the minute I turned the house alarm off to let them in the door. He's figured out that if I make the alarm make those noises, it means another human is coming in, and now he won't even stay to see who's coming through the door, just disappears on general principles.
And they played some more with Colby and Thimble. My brother and his wife have so much energy is baffles me. They played with the kittens for more than an hour. The braided rug bed came into it when I mentioned that the kittens like to flip it over on themselves and then play footsie underneath it.
So my brother traps Thimble underneath and was toy-taunting him, trying to get the paws to come out. At one point Colby was reaching underneath from one side and Thimble was reaching out for a toy on the other side, and it looked like long-cat, because their paws are both white. Unfortunately I messed up with the phone and didn't get that picture.
But here are some of the braided rug bed playtime:
After my brother and my sister-in-law left, we all just sort of crashed. And the kittens slept like logs till bedtime!
Later that morning I took the humidifier apart and figured out it was the cooling fan. That humidifier's insides are awfully complicated. There's circuit boards and everything. Anyway, the fan was a computer's fan, and my brother does computer work, so I called their house. I was a little confused because when it wasn't attached to the base, the fan didn't make noise. But when it was attached, it made the horrible grinding noise.
It's made that noise before, but turning it off and back on always made the noise go away. This time that didn't help. And while it seemed like the fan was the problem, maybe it was the attachment points? I'm not very good with diagnosing mechanical type issues. Which is why I called them.
My sister-in-law answered. She also does computer work with my brother, so she said it was likely the fan's bearing was wearing out. And that they would be in town later in the day and could drop by and look at it.
Perfect. I'd been trying to figure out a time for them to come visit Colby and Thimble anyway, but between me trying to get sick and the kittens actually managing it, I hadn't found a good time. Sunday afternoon seemed as good as any, and I'd get a solid diagnosis of my humidifier problems and what to do to fix it.
When they showed up, they had a new computer fan and the things to attach the fan in place of the old one. Okay, that was really cool. I'd rather expected to have to order one off the internet and put it together (put the humidifier together with the fan, not that the fan comes disassembled!) myself.
So my brother did that, and the humidifier now works like a charm again. It's a little higher pitched because this fan runs a little stronger than the old one, and it has taken me a while to get used to the sound, but because it's a constant white noise type of sound, it won't take long. I think it's louder but it could just be the higher pitch, as I perceive higher pitched noises as louder than the same decibel-level lower pitch.
And they played with Colby and Thimble. Apricot, of course, disappeared under the couch the minute I turned the house alarm off to let them in the door. He's figured out that if I make the alarm make those noises, it means another human is coming in, and now he won't even stay to see who's coming through the door, just disappears on general principles.
And they played some more with Colby and Thimble. My brother and his wife have so much energy is baffles me. They played with the kittens for more than an hour. The braided rug bed came into it when I mentioned that the kittens like to flip it over on themselves and then play footsie underneath it.
So my brother traps Thimble underneath and was toy-taunting him, trying to get the paws to come out. At one point Colby was reaching underneath from one side and Thimble was reaching out for a toy on the other side, and it looked like long-cat, because their paws are both white. Unfortunately I messed up with the phone and didn't get that picture.
But here are some of the braided rug bed playtime:
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| Thimble's paws |
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| Thimble's paws and a nose. Colby watches from afar. |
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| Thimble emerges, too taunted to stay under anymore. He wants that toy! |
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| But he likes being under the bed, too ... |
After my brother and my sister-in-law left, we all just sort of crashed. And the kittens slept like logs till bedtime!
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| Although they did move around-- they didn't sleep here the whole time. Yin-yang kittens! |
Apricot and Thimble Hanging Out Together
Apricot really loves his baby brothers.
Here he is washing Thimble. Thimble was objecting and Apricot was washing him anyway. (Serves Thimble right--he does that to the other two all the time.)
And here I was in the nursery on the daybed taking a nap on Sunday morning (or rather, taking a rest ... it's hard to actually sleep with everyone around) and Apricot and Thimble settled in on the cat tree for a little while.
Here he is washing Thimble. Thimble was objecting and Apricot was washing him anyway. (Serves Thimble right--he does that to the other two all the time.)
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| You will be washed! |
And here I was in the nursery on the daybed taking a nap on Sunday morning (or rather, taking a rest ... it's hard to actually sleep with everyone around) and Apricot and Thimble settled in on the cat tree for a little while.
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| The angle is the camera's (my) fault. The cat tree isn't actually tilted! |
How to Give a Cat Liquid Medicine
Since Colby was showing symptoms too, my vet wanted to test his poop for parasites as well. I didn't have to bring Colby in, just some of his poop.
When I had Pizza and Tiger, one of the most frustrating things about it was we couldn't tell whose was whose, so unless you had the actual cat, you couldn't do the fecal test. We usually ended up assuming that what one had, the other one had.
I never thought I'd be so grateful for Colby and Thimble's fascination with pooping in front of me. They love having human company while they are in the litter box and will often make one of their rare vocalization mews to get me to come and watch. I was liking this because, since it smells, this enables me to scoop it immediately into the pail with the lid, and then the litter smells much less. Now I was liking it because when the vet said that, in our phone conversation last Thursday, I could say, "I can do that! But it'll have to be tomorrow because they poop in the morning."
Friday morning, sure enough, Colby goes in front of me, I scoop it up, and instead of putting it in the litter pail, put it in another plastic bag I had ready. Then it got triple sealed in three separate ziploc bags and put in the trunk of my car. I was very glad it was cold all day Friday. I really didn't want my car smelling like a litter box and I couldn't get to the vet's until after my job finished for the day.
Well, the test came back positive. There's a bit of an issue with the identification of the parasite egg that was found, (a second opinion said "that's impossible, those parasites aren't around here"), but I'm figuring, a parasite egg is a parasite egg. We have to treat for parasites.
It finally occurred to me where it could have come from. When I walk in the morning, it's dark. If I stepped in some dried dog poop (because rude people walk their dogs and leave the poop on the road or sidewalk like they expect someone else to clean up after them) and I didn't smell it or feel it because it was dried, then when I got home, they might have investigated my shoes to the point of ingesting an egg from a parasite in there. I know I've found my walking shoes on the side instead of on the base of the shoe sometimes. Gross, but the only possibility that makes any sense to me.
Anyway, the antiparasitic is a liquid in a syringe without a needle. I have five days worth to give them and the last day is today.
Now I might be an expert in giving pills to cats who are semi-willing to cooperate. But I'd never done liquids before (except for once which was a total disaster).
Poor Colby, Friday afternoon, was the one that gave me one of my tips for you. Don't put more into the cat's mouth than they can swallow in one swallow. That was my only incidence of a cat "slinging" it everywhere, as the vet put it. And the slinging it everywhere is unpleasant because then I have to clean it all up, and it's a thin white liquid that dries almost instantly and has to be scraped up off a solid surface and, well, there's still some areas of the carpeted box that are lighter than others. Luckily my carpet (that's on the floor) was the same color as the medicine so you can't really tell where it's stained.
Colby is always the one these sorts of things happen to. I don't know why. I usually give Thimble anything new first. I did this time, and gave him multiple squirts from the syringe, which worked fine, but for some reason, with Colby, I thought he could handle the entire syringe at a time. Perhaps because he was fussing more about having it (the syringe) in the front corner of his mouth.
Colby's also the one that I missed the throat when I put the pill in and got it stuck in the back corner of his mouth, and it partially dissolved which meant he really tasted it, and did not like it. If I'm going to trip over someone, it's usually Colby. If a cat is going to misjudge a jump or a run-and-pounce and slam into a wall, it's usually Colby.
I feel for him. I'm kind of like that in my life.
So I've done four doses for each cat now, which makes eight, and I think I've got a system down.
The initial preparation is exactly the same as for giving them a pill. After you've opened their mouths with the open button, then you stick the syringe so the tip is between the teeth in the front corner and depress the plunger so you're squirting the liquid into the opposite back corner. Yes, try to aim for the throat, but actually not directly down it. They need a chance to make their swallow mechanism work properly. Otherwise--well, imagine if you got liquid squirted directly into your throat ... half the time it might go into your lungs if you weren't prepared.
And thanks to Colby, I know don't do it all at once. You're going to have to, for a normal sized cat and a 2 ml dose, squirt two or three times to get it all down. Unfortunately, this means you have to open their mouths that many times too, because to let them have a chance to swallow (and they will), you have to let them close their mouths. (How easy is it for you to swallow with your mouth open?)
Thimble is fairly patient with this, but Colby feels like putting up with having his mouth forceably opened once is quite enough and he gets increasingly more difficult the more I do it. So he generally gets his dose in two squirts whereas Thimble, the bigger cat, gets his in three.
So you remove the syringe from their mouth and watch while they swallow and make faces and in general express that this doesn't really taste good and did you have to do that. This liquid the vet says probably doesn't taste bad, exactly, it just doesn't taste like much of anything. Which, since it's white and dries so fast, probably means it tastes chalky. Yuck. I apologize quite profusely (and give treats) after it's all down in their tummies, because this to me, seems way worse than the pills. The pills are a swallow and it's over, and if I did it right, they didn't even taste it.
The liquid is going to be tasted simply because they have to manipulate it with their tongues to be able to swallow it. Nasty. I know that most vets think liquids are easier to give to a cat because I have to make sure that I say, "does it come in pill form?" or I will always get a default liquid. I don't see why, though. Pills are so much quicker and simpler and less stress all around.
They gave me liquid antibiotics for Pippin after his surgery, and I had to go back and get it in pill form because neither of us could handle it. So honestly I was a little nervous about this antiparasitical in liquid form for Colby and Thimble, but it seems to be going much better this time.
When I had Pizza and Tiger, one of the most frustrating things about it was we couldn't tell whose was whose, so unless you had the actual cat, you couldn't do the fecal test. We usually ended up assuming that what one had, the other one had.
I never thought I'd be so grateful for Colby and Thimble's fascination with pooping in front of me. They love having human company while they are in the litter box and will often make one of their rare vocalization mews to get me to come and watch. I was liking this because, since it smells, this enables me to scoop it immediately into the pail with the lid, and then the litter smells much less. Now I was liking it because when the vet said that, in our phone conversation last Thursday, I could say, "I can do that! But it'll have to be tomorrow because they poop in the morning."
Friday morning, sure enough, Colby goes in front of me, I scoop it up, and instead of putting it in the litter pail, put it in another plastic bag I had ready. Then it got triple sealed in three separate ziploc bags and put in the trunk of my car. I was very glad it was cold all day Friday. I really didn't want my car smelling like a litter box and I couldn't get to the vet's until after my job finished for the day.
Well, the test came back positive. There's a bit of an issue with the identification of the parasite egg that was found, (a second opinion said "that's impossible, those parasites aren't around here"), but I'm figuring, a parasite egg is a parasite egg. We have to treat for parasites.
It finally occurred to me where it could have come from. When I walk in the morning, it's dark. If I stepped in some dried dog poop (because rude people walk their dogs and leave the poop on the road or sidewalk like they expect someone else to clean up after them) and I didn't smell it or feel it because it was dried, then when I got home, they might have investigated my shoes to the point of ingesting an egg from a parasite in there. I know I've found my walking shoes on the side instead of on the base of the shoe sometimes. Gross, but the only possibility that makes any sense to me.
Anyway, the antiparasitic is a liquid in a syringe without a needle. I have five days worth to give them and the last day is today.
Now I might be an expert in giving pills to cats who are semi-willing to cooperate. But I'd never done liquids before (except for once which was a total disaster).
Poor Colby, Friday afternoon, was the one that gave me one of my tips for you. Don't put more into the cat's mouth than they can swallow in one swallow. That was my only incidence of a cat "slinging" it everywhere, as the vet put it. And the slinging it everywhere is unpleasant because then I have to clean it all up, and it's a thin white liquid that dries almost instantly and has to be scraped up off a solid surface and, well, there's still some areas of the carpeted box that are lighter than others. Luckily my carpet (that's on the floor) was the same color as the medicine so you can't really tell where it's stained.
Colby is always the one these sorts of things happen to. I don't know why. I usually give Thimble anything new first. I did this time, and gave him multiple squirts from the syringe, which worked fine, but for some reason, with Colby, I thought he could handle the entire syringe at a time. Perhaps because he was fussing more about having it (the syringe) in the front corner of his mouth.
Colby's also the one that I missed the throat when I put the pill in and got it stuck in the back corner of his mouth, and it partially dissolved which meant he really tasted it, and did not like it. If I'm going to trip over someone, it's usually Colby. If a cat is going to misjudge a jump or a run-and-pounce and slam into a wall, it's usually Colby.
I feel for him. I'm kind of like that in my life.
So I've done four doses for each cat now, which makes eight, and I think I've got a system down.
The initial preparation is exactly the same as for giving them a pill. After you've opened their mouths with the open button, then you stick the syringe so the tip is between the teeth in the front corner and depress the plunger so you're squirting the liquid into the opposite back corner. Yes, try to aim for the throat, but actually not directly down it. They need a chance to make their swallow mechanism work properly. Otherwise--well, imagine if you got liquid squirted directly into your throat ... half the time it might go into your lungs if you weren't prepared.
And thanks to Colby, I know don't do it all at once. You're going to have to, for a normal sized cat and a 2 ml dose, squirt two or three times to get it all down. Unfortunately, this means you have to open their mouths that many times too, because to let them have a chance to swallow (and they will), you have to let them close their mouths. (How easy is it for you to swallow with your mouth open?)
Thimble is fairly patient with this, but Colby feels like putting up with having his mouth forceably opened once is quite enough and he gets increasingly more difficult the more I do it. So he generally gets his dose in two squirts whereas Thimble, the bigger cat, gets his in three.
So you remove the syringe from their mouth and watch while they swallow and make faces and in general express that this doesn't really taste good and did you have to do that. This liquid the vet says probably doesn't taste bad, exactly, it just doesn't taste like much of anything. Which, since it's white and dries so fast, probably means it tastes chalky. Yuck. I apologize quite profusely (and give treats) after it's all down in their tummies, because this to me, seems way worse than the pills. The pills are a swallow and it's over, and if I did it right, they didn't even taste it.
The liquid is going to be tasted simply because they have to manipulate it with their tongues to be able to swallow it. Nasty. I know that most vets think liquids are easier to give to a cat because I have to make sure that I say, "does it come in pill form?" or I will always get a default liquid. I don't see why, though. Pills are so much quicker and simpler and less stress all around.
They gave me liquid antibiotics for Pippin after his surgery, and I had to go back and get it in pill form because neither of us could handle it. So honestly I was a little nervous about this antiparasitical in liquid form for Colby and Thimble, but it seems to be going much better this time.
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| On Saturday. No, they aren't hiding from me. I opened the drawer to put laundry away and they expressed a desire to explore it. |
Colby Just Has to Share Everything
From the Friday I started giving Thimble his antibiotics to the next Wednesday, Colby was extremely jealous that Thimble was getting treats and he wasn't. He was so jealous that he was pawing at the pill bottle, saying, "give me some so I can get treats!"
Well, Colby got his dearest wish. Thimble's symptoms started with soft poop, then a desire to poop and nothing happening, acting tender around his tummy area and then becoming vocally distressed in the litter box (which is when I took him to the vet). So when Colby began the same pattern, and I saw him try to go and nothing happen and he got very puzzled about that, I called the vet and told her and asked if I really had to bring Colby in too or if I could just come get antibiotics for him. And also could I have more for Thimble.
That was because although Thimble's symptoms had all cleared up, they'd done so only one pill before the end on Thursday morning (the 12th). Now when you take antibiotics, your symptoms should be gone about halfway through the antibiotic course. If I stopped Thimble's pills, the remaining bacteria, now a population too small to affect him, would simply multiply till he "got sick" again. I needed a few more days to kill them all off.
Thursday I stopped in and got the pills for both cats, and Thursday night Colby got his first pill.
He wasn't nearly as impressed with it as he thought he was going to be. He was far more dramatic about taking it, rearing up on his hind legs to pull away from my hands into the corner farther. (This obviously doesn't work, but he tried. And then once the pill was down his throat and he'd swallowed a few times I let him go while I got the treats out.
Thimble always stayed on the box with me, waiting for his treats. Colby, in drama queen style, jumped off of the box with great indignation and was about to stalk off when he heard the treat bag rattle as I pulled the ziploc apart. That made him stop in his tracks but he wasn't going to admit it, so he crouched on the carpet in a sulking mode.
I tossed him a treat, since he wasn't coming back up on the box with me.
He was sulking and wouldn't be tempted out of his sulk by just any old treat and ooh, that did smell good, perhaps he could make an exception just this once...
As he sniffed at it and decided that yes, it was okay to come out of his sulk enough to eat it, Thimble decided he'd taken entirely too long and didn't want it after all, and stuck his nose in to see if he could have the treat.
For the first time, I saw a serious hiss and swat. Colby put claws out and swatted at Thimble (deliberately not making contact--this was a warning, not a full fight). This was his and did Thimble have any idea what he went through to get that treat?! No way was he giving it up! He scarfed it down to make sure Thimble couldn't get it.
I'd been giving Thimble two treats with each pill, so I held out another one to Colby. Since he'd just had it demonstrated to him what happens if you wait, he came over and took it out of my hand. He didn't eat it out of my hand; he picked it up in his teeth, dropped it on the ground, and then ate it.
He stayed miffed at me for about half an hour, until I decided that was enough miff and scooped him up and cuddled him into a better mood.
Well, Colby got his dearest wish. Thimble's symptoms started with soft poop, then a desire to poop and nothing happening, acting tender around his tummy area and then becoming vocally distressed in the litter box (which is when I took him to the vet). So when Colby began the same pattern, and I saw him try to go and nothing happen and he got very puzzled about that, I called the vet and told her and asked if I really had to bring Colby in too or if I could just come get antibiotics for him. And also could I have more for Thimble.
That was because although Thimble's symptoms had all cleared up, they'd done so only one pill before the end on Thursday morning (the 12th). Now when you take antibiotics, your symptoms should be gone about halfway through the antibiotic course. If I stopped Thimble's pills, the remaining bacteria, now a population too small to affect him, would simply multiply till he "got sick" again. I needed a few more days to kill them all off.
Thursday I stopped in and got the pills for both cats, and Thursday night Colby got his first pill.
He wasn't nearly as impressed with it as he thought he was going to be. He was far more dramatic about taking it, rearing up on his hind legs to pull away from my hands into the corner farther. (This obviously doesn't work, but he tried. And then once the pill was down his throat and he'd swallowed a few times I let him go while I got the treats out.
Thimble always stayed on the box with me, waiting for his treats. Colby, in drama queen style, jumped off of the box with great indignation and was about to stalk off when he heard the treat bag rattle as I pulled the ziploc apart. That made him stop in his tracks but he wasn't going to admit it, so he crouched on the carpet in a sulking mode.
I tossed him a treat, since he wasn't coming back up on the box with me.
He was sulking and wouldn't be tempted out of his sulk by just any old treat and ooh, that did smell good, perhaps he could make an exception just this once...
As he sniffed at it and decided that yes, it was okay to come out of his sulk enough to eat it, Thimble decided he'd taken entirely too long and didn't want it after all, and stuck his nose in to see if he could have the treat.
For the first time, I saw a serious hiss and swat. Colby put claws out and swatted at Thimble (deliberately not making contact--this was a warning, not a full fight). This was his and did Thimble have any idea what he went through to get that treat?! No way was he giving it up! He scarfed it down to make sure Thimble couldn't get it.
I'd been giving Thimble two treats with each pill, so I held out another one to Colby. Since he'd just had it demonstrated to him what happens if you wait, he came over and took it out of my hand. He didn't eat it out of my hand; he picked it up in his teeth, dropped it on the ground, and then ate it.
He stayed miffed at me for about half an hour, until I decided that was enough miff and scooped him up and cuddled him into a better mood.
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| Colby was watching me fold laundry. This was actually back on the 7th, before Colby started getting pills too. |
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Apricot Likes His Baby Brothers
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| Waiting for Colby and Thimble |
In the morning, Apricot comes to say hello to me, but he knows that at some point during the morning chores, I will be letting Thimble and Colby out of the pink room, which I am going to call the nursery (since they will be allowed the run of the house at night when they grow up).
This is where Apricot goes in the morning then. He waits patiently outside the nursery door for me to open it so he can get his little brothers back for the day!
Colby and Thimble Help With the New Microwave
My microwave, original to the house, started making popcorn noises whenever I ran it at full power for more than five minutes. After some half-hearted searching on the internet, I discovered accidentally while reading an article for something else that noises like popcorn popping when there isn't any in your microwave mean that your microwave is slowly dying.
It finally occurred to me that instead of viewing this as annoying, I should be grateful, because at least I didn't put my supper in to warm and have the microwave just quit on me, leaving me with a cold supper and a dead microwave.
My microwave is a "countertop" microwave but it's on a shelf above the counter, so I was space-limited. Finally I found one that sort of kind of matched the old one in size and also in the way it worked with the buttons on the front. I've encountered microwaves that are exactly the opposite of what I'm used to, and it's difficult. With mine, you put in the time and then, if you want to change the power, you put in the power. Some do it the other way around, and once you get used to one way, you generally screw it up constantly if you switch. Sure I'd get used to it eventually, but I didn't want the hassle.
So my microwave arrived on a Monday night, and I was so tired from work and everything else (been fighting off a cold or having severe allergies, not sure which) that I didn't unpack it until Saturday, last Saturday the 7th.
And I got helped! It's been a long time since I had a cat to help me when I did things like that. Colby and Thimble both gathered around and had great fun interacting with all the stuff.
At one point I was cleaning out the inside of the old one while it was on the floor, in case I wanted to donate it (it still warmed up food, after all; you just couldn't cook with it). I had kittens trying to get inside of it. I did not take pictures of that, since I'd probably get hate-mail from people taking it out of context! But it was fun to have to keep sweeping persistent pushy fur out of the way so I could wipe the microwave down.
In the end I decided not to donate the old microwave. I put it in the box the new one came in ... and now the box is a permanent part of the kitchen because the cardboard flaps on the top are chew toys. They sit on one side and chomp at the other side. As teething season is rapidly approaching, I want them to have as many allowable chew toys as possible!
It finally occurred to me that instead of viewing this as annoying, I should be grateful, because at least I didn't put my supper in to warm and have the microwave just quit on me, leaving me with a cold supper and a dead microwave.
My microwave is a "countertop" microwave but it's on a shelf above the counter, so I was space-limited. Finally I found one that sort of kind of matched the old one in size and also in the way it worked with the buttons on the front. I've encountered microwaves that are exactly the opposite of what I'm used to, and it's difficult. With mine, you put in the time and then, if you want to change the power, you put in the power. Some do it the other way around, and once you get used to one way, you generally screw it up constantly if you switch. Sure I'd get used to it eventually, but I didn't want the hassle.
So my microwave arrived on a Monday night, and I was so tired from work and everything else (been fighting off a cold or having severe allergies, not sure which) that I didn't unpack it until Saturday, last Saturday the 7th.
And I got helped! It's been a long time since I had a cat to help me when I did things like that. Colby and Thimble both gathered around and had great fun interacting with all the stuff.
At one point I was cleaning out the inside of the old one while it was on the floor, in case I wanted to donate it (it still warmed up food, after all; you just couldn't cook with it). I had kittens trying to get inside of it. I did not take pictures of that, since I'd probably get hate-mail from people taking it out of context! But it was fun to have to keep sweeping persistent pushy fur out of the way so I could wipe the microwave down.
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| Colby's sitting on the old microwave, contemplating jumping in the box the new one came out of. |
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| Thimble sitting on the tray from the old microwave, investigating the smell. |
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| He actually sat there for some time. It was like a cat trap! |
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| No cats (obviously) just the completed installation. I'm proud of this because things like this are difficult for me to do. And it was heavy to lift up there! |
Oh, are you wondering where Apricot is during all this? He came to the kitchen door opening, observed the general chaos, and retreated to a safe calm spot in the living room, where he stayed the whole time.
How to Give a Cat a Pill
Last Friday night, the 6th of February, Thimble got his first pill.
Now I have lots of experience giving cats pills. Pippin had to have a pill every day for his entire life, since his diagnosis at the age of three with cardiomyopathy. I would give him the pill and then give him a treat. Since I forget about giving treats at random times, that was the only time he got treats. He would actually remind me if I forgot to give him his pill, although his reminders were along the lines of, "I would like my treat please. You forgot it. You can keep forgetting the pill part, though." (Never worked; you remind me of the one, I remember the other, too.)
Here's how I give a cat a pill, in this case, Thimble.
I put him on the litter box's box in the living room so he was in the corner between the window and the boxes of drawers at the side. Then I sat down on the box with my legs at an angle so I was in the way if he tried to leave.
If you have a more cranky cat than Thimble, you'll need to do more than that to confine your cat for the initial pill giving, but for a trusting kitten who has never been afraid or mistreated, this was fine.
Now a cat's mouth has those long sharp teeth at the corners called, funnily enough, canines. Right behind the canines there is a small gap in the teeth. If you push gently on this gap with your finger, it wedges the mouth open and is much, much easier than trying to pull a cat's mouth open from the front. It baffles me that most vets don't seem to know that cats have an "open button" for their mouths, although, granted, you can't open it as far as you can from the front, and since vets are trying to examine the teeth, perhaps that is why they do it the hard way.
So I take the pill in my right hand between my thumb and forefinger, and use my middle finger to press the "open button" on Thimble's mouth. The other hand is holding his head steady, just cupping the side of his head so he can't lean away from the pressure on his mouth. As soon as his mouth comes open, I drop the pill down his throat.
At the same time I'm opening his mouth, I'm also tilting his head back slightly to give gravity a chance at the pill as well. You can't tilt their head back completely vertical because it becomes difficult to swallow (you try it on yourself sometime), but an angle does help matters.
It's important, especially if the pill tastes bad, which this one does (I was told--I didn't try one), to attempt to get the first contact between pill and cat mouth to be behind the "hill" that the tongue makes. If you get it on the tongue, or against the back of the mouth on either side of the throat, then they have to move it around to get it into swallowing position, and that's harder (on both of you).
Once the pill is in Thimble's mouth, then I let his mouth close (all I have to do is take my finger out of the side) and try to keep it closed so he can't spit the pill out. Mostly this involves gently holding his chin up against the rest of his head (cats usually won't open their mouths by lifting the top of the head; they do it by dropping their jaw, so you don't have to worry about the other direction of opening, so to speak).
Stroking their throat from chin to chest stimulates swallowing. So does blowing on their nose. I'd always heard that and it never worked, but I finally figured out with Thimble what my problem was. You're not blowing a candle out. Instead it's a soft huff of air, rather as though you're letting them smell what you just had to eat. (You know, you've eaten something a cat would find interesting, like tuna, and you're on the couch petting the cat and all the sudden they get a whiff from your mouth and they plant their noses right at your lips, wanting you to breathe on them so they can smell it better? That kind of huff.)
And it really does make them swallow. Kind of cool, since the throat stroking doesn't always work.
A really clever cat can manage to not-swallow their pill throughout all this, but keep it tucked in their mouth like a squirrel with a nut and then spit it out later when you're not looking.
However, this is where the treats come in. Once you have the cat fairly calmed down and the pill theoretically swallowed, you give the cat treats. This both rewards them for putting up with the pill (no matter how badly they might have behaved--it's not a reward for good behavior, it's a reward for putting up with you shoving a pill down their throat) and it ensures that they swallow whatever was in their mouth ... just in case they were trying the spit-it-out-later trick.
Thimble was rather surprised at the first pill, and so didn't react. The second one, Saturday morning, went a little rougher, but he knew he was getting a treat afterwards, so he didn't protest as much as he could have.
Something I hadn't realized would also be a motivator ... Thimble was the only one getting treats. The other two were on the box with us, seeing what in the world I was doing that I was giving just Thimble a treat (or two). And Thimble quite enjoyed being the only one receiving goodies.
By Sunday night, he reminded me of his pill time, because he wanted the treats ... and the chance to say na-na-na-na-na to the others. This was actually really good because on Sunday night my on-again off-again sore throat was on in quite a severe way, and I had forgotten!
Thimble is quite used to taking his pills now, and will actually leap up on the box when I get the treat bag and pill bottle out of the drawer next to it, and wait for me to give it to him. He has also figured out that if he doesn't try to close his mouth but instead gives me half a second to actually line up the pill with the back of his throat, he won't taste it as much.
Because you see, for all that this sounds simple, it's really quite a challenge for me because of my clumsiness. Pippin, too, figured out that if he didn't try to rush things, it actually didn't take nearly as long.
Of course, then I got to see how Colby did ...
Now I have lots of experience giving cats pills. Pippin had to have a pill every day for his entire life, since his diagnosis at the age of three with cardiomyopathy. I would give him the pill and then give him a treat. Since I forget about giving treats at random times, that was the only time he got treats. He would actually remind me if I forgot to give him his pill, although his reminders were along the lines of, "I would like my treat please. You forgot it. You can keep forgetting the pill part, though." (Never worked; you remind me of the one, I remember the other, too.)
Here's how I give a cat a pill, in this case, Thimble.
I put him on the litter box's box in the living room so he was in the corner between the window and the boxes of drawers at the side. Then I sat down on the box with my legs at an angle so I was in the way if he tried to leave.
If you have a more cranky cat than Thimble, you'll need to do more than that to confine your cat for the initial pill giving, but for a trusting kitten who has never been afraid or mistreated, this was fine.
Now a cat's mouth has those long sharp teeth at the corners called, funnily enough, canines. Right behind the canines there is a small gap in the teeth. If you push gently on this gap with your finger, it wedges the mouth open and is much, much easier than trying to pull a cat's mouth open from the front. It baffles me that most vets don't seem to know that cats have an "open button" for their mouths, although, granted, you can't open it as far as you can from the front, and since vets are trying to examine the teeth, perhaps that is why they do it the hard way.
So I take the pill in my right hand between my thumb and forefinger, and use my middle finger to press the "open button" on Thimble's mouth. The other hand is holding his head steady, just cupping the side of his head so he can't lean away from the pressure on his mouth. As soon as his mouth comes open, I drop the pill down his throat.
At the same time I'm opening his mouth, I'm also tilting his head back slightly to give gravity a chance at the pill as well. You can't tilt their head back completely vertical because it becomes difficult to swallow (you try it on yourself sometime), but an angle does help matters.
It's important, especially if the pill tastes bad, which this one does (I was told--I didn't try one), to attempt to get the first contact between pill and cat mouth to be behind the "hill" that the tongue makes. If you get it on the tongue, or against the back of the mouth on either side of the throat, then they have to move it around to get it into swallowing position, and that's harder (on both of you).
Once the pill is in Thimble's mouth, then I let his mouth close (all I have to do is take my finger out of the side) and try to keep it closed so he can't spit the pill out. Mostly this involves gently holding his chin up against the rest of his head (cats usually won't open their mouths by lifting the top of the head; they do it by dropping their jaw, so you don't have to worry about the other direction of opening, so to speak).
Stroking their throat from chin to chest stimulates swallowing. So does blowing on their nose. I'd always heard that and it never worked, but I finally figured out with Thimble what my problem was. You're not blowing a candle out. Instead it's a soft huff of air, rather as though you're letting them smell what you just had to eat. (You know, you've eaten something a cat would find interesting, like tuna, and you're on the couch petting the cat and all the sudden they get a whiff from your mouth and they plant their noses right at your lips, wanting you to breathe on them so they can smell it better? That kind of huff.)
And it really does make them swallow. Kind of cool, since the throat stroking doesn't always work.
A really clever cat can manage to not-swallow their pill throughout all this, but keep it tucked in their mouth like a squirrel with a nut and then spit it out later when you're not looking.
However, this is where the treats come in. Once you have the cat fairly calmed down and the pill theoretically swallowed, you give the cat treats. This both rewards them for putting up with the pill (no matter how badly they might have behaved--it's not a reward for good behavior, it's a reward for putting up with you shoving a pill down their throat) and it ensures that they swallow whatever was in their mouth ... just in case they were trying the spit-it-out-later trick.
Thimble was rather surprised at the first pill, and so didn't react. The second one, Saturday morning, went a little rougher, but he knew he was getting a treat afterwards, so he didn't protest as much as he could have.
Something I hadn't realized would also be a motivator ... Thimble was the only one getting treats. The other two were on the box with us, seeing what in the world I was doing that I was giving just Thimble a treat (or two). And Thimble quite enjoyed being the only one receiving goodies.
By Sunday night, he reminded me of his pill time, because he wanted the treats ... and the chance to say na-na-na-na-na to the others. This was actually really good because on Sunday night my on-again off-again sore throat was on in quite a severe way, and I had forgotten!
Thimble is quite used to taking his pills now, and will actually leap up on the box when I get the treat bag and pill bottle out of the drawer next to it, and wait for me to give it to him. He has also figured out that if he doesn't try to close his mouth but instead gives me half a second to actually line up the pill with the back of his throat, he won't taste it as much.
Because you see, for all that this sounds simple, it's really quite a challenge for me because of my clumsiness. Pippin, too, figured out that if he didn't try to rush things, it actually didn't take nearly as long.
Of course, then I got to see how Colby did ...
Friday, February 6, 2015
Thimble Gives Me a Scare
I can't remember if I mentioned the rattle mouse skeleton before. A few weeks ago when I was vacuuming I found a black plastic thing that rattled, and upon further investigation, held the remnants of orange fur to the seam where the glue was strongest. That was all that was left of the orange rattle mouse.
Now Ginger had pointed out to me that kittens by this age would have been eating mice and other prey whole, so their digestive systems can handle whole feathers and hide and things like that. So while I kept an eye on Thimble, I didn't think much of it when his poop started going all floppy again--just figured the orange fur was passing through.
He started acting like he had a hairball, though. He would wheeze and sometimes dry heave after drinking. So I asked what Ginger recommended for hairball medicine. I remembered giving hairball medicine to Pizza and Tiger, and what a struggle that had been. It was malt-flavored (who thinks cats like malt?) and you had to smear it on their paws and if you had a bump of it, they'd fling it off the paw.
Well, there is a better version out there, called Lax'aire, that most all of her cats adore and will eat directly out of the tube. Unfortunately, the company who makes it transferred the formula to a different company, and that company is having manufacturing difficulties getting the formula to work. It's not available right now and won't be till April ... or later.
But it's made from petroleum jelly, cod liver oil, peptonized iron, and a palatable base. I don't know what the iron is for and I can't get the base, but the first two ingredients are the most important ones anyway, as they are the lubricant and laxative, respectively. And you can buy those.
So I finally got around to going to a store that had them (Walgreens, to my surprise) and then when I got home I mixed some up. Just in time, as Thimble went to the litter box three times in my view, tried to poop, and had nothing happen, much to his confusion. Once he even half-heartedly covered the place he'd prepared to receive the poop, as if to say, "well, I know I'm supposed to be doing this, but there's nothing there, so really why am I bothering?"
If you decide to try this mixture, I can recommend that you transfer both the jelly and the cod liver oil into a bowl much larger than the contents, since the cod liver oil has a tendency to splash when you first start trying to mix them. I emptied half the petroleum jelly and then tried to mix it in the jelly container ... I did succeed in getting the attention of all three cats.
And I did succeed eventually in getting it mixed up. Just a little more sloppily than I had intended. Since I was doing this on the floor in the pink room, I got a bit of cod liver oil on the carpet. It doesn't smell as bad or as intense as I thought it would, even the straight oil doesn't, so this wasn't the disaster it sounds like!
The two kittens eagerly ate it off my fingers. (The next night I put it on a plate and they ate off of that, but Tuesday my fingers were already messy from the mixing, so I thought, whatever, here, have some.) The next morning showed evidence in the litter box that it had worked like a charm, for both cats.
Apricot won't eat off human fingers. Even if it's tuna juice. He would love to in some cases, but I'd learned he simply won't lick your fingers, so, although I offered him a finger covered in goo (so as to include him and make him see I wasn't deliberately giving it only to the kittens), he refused to have any.
The instructions for Lax'aire say two nights and then weekly. I was going to stop with Wednesday night, but then Thursday Thimble meowed once while trying to make a poop in the litter box. He didn't sound completely distressed, but by the time I woke up Friday, today, I decided for his health and my peace of mind, we had to go to the vet.
Friday: I came home around 12 so I didn't have to rush in, grab Thimble, and leave for our appointment at 1 pm. Thimble had previously meowed in the cat carrier during a car trip. He didn't do it much, but I thought I would try something different since he'd also never been in the carrier by himself, either.
I wore the tan cat bag carrier and put Thimble in it. Not only did he not meow at all in the car, but by the time we went home, he climbed into the carrier from the vet table all by himself. I had to help sift the back feet in, though, as he didn't quite get them inside. The top is an elasticized band that you can have open or mostly closed or anywhere in between, so the edges shift from the time a cat's front end goes in to the time the back end tries.
When we were waiting in line to make a left turn off a busy highway, the cars going straight were speeding by at a very fast pace. Thimble watched them and was absolutely fascinated. His head was doing that tennis match thing, back and forth, back and forth, zoom, zoom.
If he wasn't watching cars, though, he was looking up at my face, seeking reassurance and strength there. I'm glad he feels that way about me. Apricot simply hides and I can't reassure him or help him. It was good to be able to get Thimble to feel better about the situation by simply being there for him.
At the vet's office, he had an xray of his tummy and a fecal exam. The xray showed no blockages, so he has passed the rattle mouse fur all the way through. And the fecal exam showed no parasites, which is also good. However, it's not a positive that it's negative because in some cases it could still be positive.
(Did you follow that last sentence?)
Anyway, the vet gave him some anti-parasite liquid (orally) and then I have to give him five days of antibiotics, twice a day. The anti-parasite is just in case there is some, after all. She, the vet, wanted to give him a back-of-the-neck treatment that covers more parasites, but I would have had to keep Thimble away from Colby and Apricot for two hours.
Yeah, that wasn't happening. Plus, without proof positive that parasites were the problem, I didn't want to give him one of those skin-soak-through treatments. I've never had good luck with them; my cats have always reacted badly to them.
The antibiotics are because his colon is inflamed. She said that could be because of a bacterial infection; a parasitical infection, or one of those two that has come and gone, because once it gets inflamed, it has a tendency to be self-perpetuating. And she said that the antibiotic has some anti-inflammatory qualities as well, which should help.
I haven't given him the first pill yet ... this should be interesting. I've never had to give him a pill--he's only been with me a month and a half, after all.
When we got home, Colby and Apricot investigated him thoroughly, sniff sniff sniff all over, and then agreed that he was undamaged and I was off the hook since I'd brought him back as promised. I got out a brand-new rabbit Spider toy (it's made of rabbit fur and has pipe-cleaner legs and they love these toys).
So they spent the next hour playing quite hard, and then they crashed and slept, which is what they are doing now.
During the playtime I found what had happened to the other three rattle mice I hadn't been able to account for. Apparently, much to my surprise, you can stuff toys under my fridge. There was a veritable cornucopia of toys under there. I found this because Thimble stuffed the Spider under there while I was watching, and then wanted me to get it back.
I don't have a yardstick, the tool of choice for under-the-fridge toy-fishing expeditions. I do, however, have a plant stake. It is a long piece of metal, round and painted, with a circle at the top (for the plant to go through, to hold it upright). I used the non-circle end to go fishing and was successful. My phone's "flashlight" function came in handy as well.
Now there is a folded piece of cardboard under the fridge to prevent further fishing expeditions from being necessary. I made sure (I asked my dad) if that was okay for the fridge, but he said as long as it has ventilation around the coils, it's okay. The coils are on the back, not the bottom.
My mother didn't actually say it this time, but I know she was thinking it. "You're no fun!" The cats enjoy watching me go fishing, and the results thereof, although Colby and then Thimble both took turns "helping" me. I had to move paws and tails several times trying to get the toys to come out without instantly being batted back in.
Now Ginger had pointed out to me that kittens by this age would have been eating mice and other prey whole, so their digestive systems can handle whole feathers and hide and things like that. So while I kept an eye on Thimble, I didn't think much of it when his poop started going all floppy again--just figured the orange fur was passing through.
He started acting like he had a hairball, though. He would wheeze and sometimes dry heave after drinking. So I asked what Ginger recommended for hairball medicine. I remembered giving hairball medicine to Pizza and Tiger, and what a struggle that had been. It was malt-flavored (who thinks cats like malt?) and you had to smear it on their paws and if you had a bump of it, they'd fling it off the paw.
Well, there is a better version out there, called Lax'aire, that most all of her cats adore and will eat directly out of the tube. Unfortunately, the company who makes it transferred the formula to a different company, and that company is having manufacturing difficulties getting the formula to work. It's not available right now and won't be till April ... or later.
But it's made from petroleum jelly, cod liver oil, peptonized iron, and a palatable base. I don't know what the iron is for and I can't get the base, but the first two ingredients are the most important ones anyway, as they are the lubricant and laxative, respectively. And you can buy those.
So I finally got around to going to a store that had them (Walgreens, to my surprise) and then when I got home I mixed some up. Just in time, as Thimble went to the litter box three times in my view, tried to poop, and had nothing happen, much to his confusion. Once he even half-heartedly covered the place he'd prepared to receive the poop, as if to say, "well, I know I'm supposed to be doing this, but there's nothing there, so really why am I bothering?"
If you decide to try this mixture, I can recommend that you transfer both the jelly and the cod liver oil into a bowl much larger than the contents, since the cod liver oil has a tendency to splash when you first start trying to mix them. I emptied half the petroleum jelly and then tried to mix it in the jelly container ... I did succeed in getting the attention of all three cats.
And I did succeed eventually in getting it mixed up. Just a little more sloppily than I had intended. Since I was doing this on the floor in the pink room, I got a bit of cod liver oil on the carpet. It doesn't smell as bad or as intense as I thought it would, even the straight oil doesn't, so this wasn't the disaster it sounds like!
The two kittens eagerly ate it off my fingers. (The next night I put it on a plate and they ate off of that, but Tuesday my fingers were already messy from the mixing, so I thought, whatever, here, have some.) The next morning showed evidence in the litter box that it had worked like a charm, for both cats.
Apricot won't eat off human fingers. Even if it's tuna juice. He would love to in some cases, but I'd learned he simply won't lick your fingers, so, although I offered him a finger covered in goo (so as to include him and make him see I wasn't deliberately giving it only to the kittens), he refused to have any.
The instructions for Lax'aire say two nights and then weekly. I was going to stop with Wednesday night, but then Thursday Thimble meowed once while trying to make a poop in the litter box. He didn't sound completely distressed, but by the time I woke up Friday, today, I decided for his health and my peace of mind, we had to go to the vet.
Friday: I came home around 12 so I didn't have to rush in, grab Thimble, and leave for our appointment at 1 pm. Thimble had previously meowed in the cat carrier during a car trip. He didn't do it much, but I thought I would try something different since he'd also never been in the carrier by himself, either.
I wore the tan cat bag carrier and put Thimble in it. Not only did he not meow at all in the car, but by the time we went home, he climbed into the carrier from the vet table all by himself. I had to help sift the back feet in, though, as he didn't quite get them inside. The top is an elasticized band that you can have open or mostly closed or anywhere in between, so the edges shift from the time a cat's front end goes in to the time the back end tries.
When we were waiting in line to make a left turn off a busy highway, the cars going straight were speeding by at a very fast pace. Thimble watched them and was absolutely fascinated. His head was doing that tennis match thing, back and forth, back and forth, zoom, zoom.
If he wasn't watching cars, though, he was looking up at my face, seeking reassurance and strength there. I'm glad he feels that way about me. Apricot simply hides and I can't reassure him or help him. It was good to be able to get Thimble to feel better about the situation by simply being there for him.
At the vet's office, he had an xray of his tummy and a fecal exam. The xray showed no blockages, so he has passed the rattle mouse fur all the way through. And the fecal exam showed no parasites, which is also good. However, it's not a positive that it's negative because in some cases it could still be positive.
(Did you follow that last sentence?)
Anyway, the vet gave him some anti-parasite liquid (orally) and then I have to give him five days of antibiotics, twice a day. The anti-parasite is just in case there is some, after all. She, the vet, wanted to give him a back-of-the-neck treatment that covers more parasites, but I would have had to keep Thimble away from Colby and Apricot for two hours.
Yeah, that wasn't happening. Plus, without proof positive that parasites were the problem, I didn't want to give him one of those skin-soak-through treatments. I've never had good luck with them; my cats have always reacted badly to them.
The antibiotics are because his colon is inflamed. She said that could be because of a bacterial infection; a parasitical infection, or one of those two that has come and gone, because once it gets inflamed, it has a tendency to be self-perpetuating. And she said that the antibiotic has some anti-inflammatory qualities as well, which should help.
I haven't given him the first pill yet ... this should be interesting. I've never had to give him a pill--he's only been with me a month and a half, after all.
When we got home, Colby and Apricot investigated him thoroughly, sniff sniff sniff all over, and then agreed that he was undamaged and I was off the hook since I'd brought him back as promised. I got out a brand-new rabbit Spider toy (it's made of rabbit fur and has pipe-cleaner legs and they love these toys).
 |
| Right after they decided he was okay. It only occurred to me late in the sniffing that I should take a picture. So I didn't get the actual investigation of Thimble, just the "okay, you're all right" movement. |
So they spent the next hour playing quite hard, and then they crashed and slept, which is what they are doing now.
During the playtime I found what had happened to the other three rattle mice I hadn't been able to account for. Apparently, much to my surprise, you can stuff toys under my fridge. There was a veritable cornucopia of toys under there. I found this because Thimble stuffed the Spider under there while I was watching, and then wanted me to get it back.
I don't have a yardstick, the tool of choice for under-the-fridge toy-fishing expeditions. I do, however, have a plant stake. It is a long piece of metal, round and painted, with a circle at the top (for the plant to go through, to hold it upright). I used the non-circle end to go fishing and was successful. My phone's "flashlight" function came in handy as well.
Now there is a folded piece of cardboard under the fridge to prevent further fishing expeditions from being necessary. I made sure (I asked my dad) if that was okay for the fridge, but he said as long as it has ventilation around the coils, it's okay. The coils are on the back, not the bottom.
My mother didn't actually say it this time, but I know she was thinking it. "You're no fun!" The cats enjoy watching me go fishing, and the results thereof, although Colby and then Thimble both took turns "helping" me. I had to move paws and tails several times trying to get the toys to come out without instantly being batted back in.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Apricot Joins Bedtime Playtime
The nightly routine has developed into the following: I announce we are going to bed and get my bedtime snack, which doesn't take long. Then I walk into the pink bedroom, preceded by and followed by very excited kittens. This is because then I sit in the middle of the room and play with them with a wand toy, running them round and round and back and forth. Apricot recently (like a week or two ago) started coming in and watching this from the sidelines.
Sometimes he ended up retreating back into the hallway, and watching from there, though, because despite my best efforts to keep Colby from running into him, sometimes Colby launches at the toy and overshoots and, while turning, skids into whatever he was originally headed for. Sometimes it's the furniture, but sometimes it was Apricot, who was rather not prepared to have seven pounds (and some) of kitten bowl into him.
Thimble is rather less heedless of his surroundings and slower in his attacks, but even so he was the one who tumbled into Apricot a time or two as well. But despite this, each night Apricot would come along with the three of us and watch from the sidelines.
On the rare occasion that both kittens were taking a short break, I'd run the toy over to Apricot, who would sniff it cautiously.
Thimble and Colby do share the wand toy; one will wait while the other plays. I move the toy back and forth between them, as they indicate they want to slow down and let the other one play. This is usually less than 30 seconds per cat, and requires me to pay attention to their body language, but we're all getting good at it. Often the resting kitten will sit on my legs while watching the other one play, because it's a safe place that doesn't get hurtled into (Apricot hadn't figured that one out, or perhaps he'd observed that the lap was often occupied by a kitten anyway).
Apricot's cautious sniffing of the toy did not count as playing with it, and the kittens wouldn't let him be and would go after the toy, and I'd have to hastily pull it away (and sometimes fail and have a collision occur).
Last night all his careful observations came together, and Apricot tried playing with it the second it arrived in front of him.
Sure enough, both Thimble and Colby held back, allowing him his 30 seconds of playtime before the toy moved on to one of them. I was using the rabbit-on-a-stick wand toy, and Apricot likes that one much better than the furry one with a bell that I often use for the kittens.
So playtime involved all three kitties last night, and it was really quite fun to see them all taking turns and being patient like that.
Now after they are "done" (a time limit determined by me and my arm strength, usually), I put the toy away. The bell toy is in the bookshelf in their room (I may have to move it once they get big enough to get at it), but the rabbit toy is on the big bookshelves in the living room, so with that I have to wrap it up in my hand to "put it away."
Then I kiss the kittens both good night, turn out the light, and Apricot and I leave the room and I shut the door behind us. To my amazement, this actually works. The two stay in the room and don't rush out with us, and Apricot does come out with me without my having to pick him up or anything. I still, each night, expect this to not work as smoothly as it does, and each night it's been working just fine.
(An odd thing happens when I write something like that on the blog--the next time the incident I wrote about occurs, it works quite the opposite way. So we'll see if I jinxed tonight's playtime wrap-up!)
After that, I go out into the living room with Apricot and I get out a grownup wand toy or his ribbon and play with just the two of us for a little while. With the rabbit-on-a-stick, since I had it in my hand anyway and he'd been having fun with it already, I used that last night. He was much appreciative of being able to play exclusively with it and take the time he needed to sniff it and race after it without interfering kittens underfoot.
Then I put the toy away and finish getting myself ready for bed, and last thing before I go to bed I kiss Apricot goodnight. He's been doing more and more hanging out in the bedroom with me while I'm getting ready (changing clothes and whatnot) and fairly consistently he's been coming up on the bed after everything (including his good night kiss and my light going out), and walking up to my head where I'm under the covers, and then walking away again and getting himself a snack back on the floor where his food dish is (I hear the crunching of the food).
I'm not sure ... is he confirming that yes, I'm in bed, so everything's "done" for the day? I don't respond to his presence because I'm not sure what would scare him or not. Perhaps one day he'll curl up and stay.
Sometimes he ended up retreating back into the hallway, and watching from there, though, because despite my best efforts to keep Colby from running into him, sometimes Colby launches at the toy and overshoots and, while turning, skids into whatever he was originally headed for. Sometimes it's the furniture, but sometimes it was Apricot, who was rather not prepared to have seven pounds (and some) of kitten bowl into him.
Thimble is rather less heedless of his surroundings and slower in his attacks, but even so he was the one who tumbled into Apricot a time or two as well. But despite this, each night Apricot would come along with the three of us and watch from the sidelines.
On the rare occasion that both kittens were taking a short break, I'd run the toy over to Apricot, who would sniff it cautiously.
Thimble and Colby do share the wand toy; one will wait while the other plays. I move the toy back and forth between them, as they indicate they want to slow down and let the other one play. This is usually less than 30 seconds per cat, and requires me to pay attention to their body language, but we're all getting good at it. Often the resting kitten will sit on my legs while watching the other one play, because it's a safe place that doesn't get hurtled into (Apricot hadn't figured that one out, or perhaps he'd observed that the lap was often occupied by a kitten anyway).
Apricot's cautious sniffing of the toy did not count as playing with it, and the kittens wouldn't let him be and would go after the toy, and I'd have to hastily pull it away (and sometimes fail and have a collision occur).
Last night all his careful observations came together, and Apricot tried playing with it the second it arrived in front of him.
Sure enough, both Thimble and Colby held back, allowing him his 30 seconds of playtime before the toy moved on to one of them. I was using the rabbit-on-a-stick wand toy, and Apricot likes that one much better than the furry one with a bell that I often use for the kittens.
So playtime involved all three kitties last night, and it was really quite fun to see them all taking turns and being patient like that.
Now after they are "done" (a time limit determined by me and my arm strength, usually), I put the toy away. The bell toy is in the bookshelf in their room (I may have to move it once they get big enough to get at it), but the rabbit toy is on the big bookshelves in the living room, so with that I have to wrap it up in my hand to "put it away."
Then I kiss the kittens both good night, turn out the light, and Apricot and I leave the room and I shut the door behind us. To my amazement, this actually works. The two stay in the room and don't rush out with us, and Apricot does come out with me without my having to pick him up or anything. I still, each night, expect this to not work as smoothly as it does, and each night it's been working just fine.
(An odd thing happens when I write something like that on the blog--the next time the incident I wrote about occurs, it works quite the opposite way. So we'll see if I jinxed tonight's playtime wrap-up!)
After that, I go out into the living room with Apricot and I get out a grownup wand toy or his ribbon and play with just the two of us for a little while. With the rabbit-on-a-stick, since I had it in my hand anyway and he'd been having fun with it already, I used that last night. He was much appreciative of being able to play exclusively with it and take the time he needed to sniff it and race after it without interfering kittens underfoot.
Then I put the toy away and finish getting myself ready for bed, and last thing before I go to bed I kiss Apricot goodnight. He's been doing more and more hanging out in the bedroom with me while I'm getting ready (changing clothes and whatnot) and fairly consistently he's been coming up on the bed after everything (including his good night kiss and my light going out), and walking up to my head where I'm under the covers, and then walking away again and getting himself a snack back on the floor where his food dish is (I hear the crunching of the food).
I'm not sure ... is he confirming that yes, I'm in bed, so everything's "done" for the day? I don't respond to his presence because I'm not sure what would scare him or not. Perhaps one day he'll curl up and stay.
Colby Pees Oddly
So yesterday I was in a hurry to clean the litter boxes because I was late for meeting up with my friends. I could smell that Thimble had pooped, and while I was scooping that, I might as well do the whole box.
Colby always seems fascinated by the scooping process, and often gets in the box and sits on the litter and watches me. When I need to scoop where he's sitting, I'll just keep moving the litter slowly out from under him until he gets fed up with the eroding surface and leaves.
Well, he was doing this, sitting there, in the corner, watching me, but he wasn't leaving.
If I hadn't been in a hurry and been able to put two and two together, I might have realized that there was a very good reason he wasn't leaving. I might even have remembered that I've seen him pee before.
And unlike every cat I've ever had, Colby sits on the litter to pee, instead of crouching above it. I knew that some cats did this, but it's still a bizarre behavior and not one I remember that Colby does.
Yes, that's what the poor beleaguered cat was doing. He was trying to pee and there I was, eroding the surface he was peeing into, out from under him! And I still didn't realize there must be a good reason he was being stubborn, so I grabbed his harness and moved him. He must have good reflexes (or been almost done) because he didn't leave a stream of pee behind him, but the poor kitten was much offended, as well he should have been.
So when I realized what I'd done, I had to be even later to my meet-up, because I had to find Colby and apologize profusely. I also apologized when I came back later, but with good-natured kitten behavior, he had already forgiven me.
Poor Colby. I still feel bad about it. Of course, I'll probably remember he pees like that from now on! Nothing like learning the hard way.
Colby always seems fascinated by the scooping process, and often gets in the box and sits on the litter and watches me. When I need to scoop where he's sitting, I'll just keep moving the litter slowly out from under him until he gets fed up with the eroding surface and leaves.
Well, he was doing this, sitting there, in the corner, watching me, but he wasn't leaving.
If I hadn't been in a hurry and been able to put two and two together, I might have realized that there was a very good reason he wasn't leaving. I might even have remembered that I've seen him pee before.
And unlike every cat I've ever had, Colby sits on the litter to pee, instead of crouching above it. I knew that some cats did this, but it's still a bizarre behavior and not one I remember that Colby does.
Yes, that's what the poor beleaguered cat was doing. He was trying to pee and there I was, eroding the surface he was peeing into, out from under him! And I still didn't realize there must be a good reason he was being stubborn, so I grabbed his harness and moved him. He must have good reflexes (or been almost done) because he didn't leave a stream of pee behind him, but the poor kitten was much offended, as well he should have been.
So when I realized what I'd done, I had to be even later to my meet-up, because I had to find Colby and apologize profusely. I also apologized when I came back later, but with good-natured kitten behavior, he had already forgiven me.
Poor Colby. I still feel bad about it. Of course, I'll probably remember he pees like that from now on! Nothing like learning the hard way.
Terrified Tuesday
Last Tuesday I was sitting in the settee after supper, with a kitten or two on my lap or with me. I don't remember specifically where everyone was; Apricot was in the room with us on one of the cat trees. It was dark outside.
All the sudden there came this angry pounding on the door. Not a knocking sound, but pounding, like with a fist. The cats scattered after the second repetition of this. I saw the Rowdy Boys flee into the kitchen, but I didn't see where Apricot went.
I was frightened. The guy just kept pounding on my door, over and over again. I looked out the peep hole in the door to see it was just one man, white, dark haired, and not a teenager or 20s, but with my prosopagnosia, that's all I could remember, if I called the cops and he left before they came.
Even with that handicap, I was about to call 911 because he just wouldn't leave. I even had the phone out. I was terrified of what he would do if I didn't open the door, but I was more scared of what he would do if I did. He finally left right as I got the phone app open. (Yes, I know I can dial it from the password screen. I forgot.)
But I was still afraid. He sounded so angry and demanding, that pounding over and over again. I fully expected a rock to come through the window, a petty retaliation for my not answering the door when he knew quite well I was at home. I'd already turned off all the lights, and I huddled in the middle of the living room, away from all the windows, waiting with my heart in my throat.
Since the noises had stopped, the kittens came out of the living room to see what was up. They both checked in with me, coming up to me and getting petted, and then, to my shock, Apricot came out of the kitchen and came over to me as well. I would have expected him to go hide in one of his normal hiding spots, not in the kitchen with the other two!
As I was still scared they picked up on it, and although no one left the living room, even Apricot, they dispersed away from me. Except for Thimble. Poor 3 month old Thimble came back to me and was reassuring me that it would be okay. I haven't had a cat do that for a very long time; Pippin was like Apricot, and I had to reassure him, not the other way around.
I greatly appreciated Thimble's efforts, which did help make me feel better. But I felt sorry for him, having to be the grownup when he's still such a baby.
Nothing happened, but when I cautiously went into the kitchen, I saw my neighbor's motion sensor light go on. I waited until it went off and then called them, to see if perhaps they had opened the door and found out what the guy wanted (or if I needed to call 911 because they'd opened the door and he'd wanted something bad and they weren't able to answer my call).
Turns out they'd just gotten home from grocery shopping, and the man accosted them in their driveway as they got out of their car! And he wanted them to sign a petition about voting. Like changing what kind of majority is needed to pass a certain kind of vote ... he wasn't clear to my neighbor and of course I got this second hand so I'm really not clear on it.
My neighbor said he told the guy straight-up that going door to door after dark in a street of mostly elderly people was a really stupid idea and he was going to get the cops called on him if he kept it up. Did I mention it was also 39 degrees (F)? What idiot goes door to door after dark when it's that close to freezing?
When I called my dad, he said that someone with a similar sounding petition had come by their place shortly before Christmas, so it sounded legitimate. My neighbor said he thought the guy was legitimate too, just deeply stupid.
I didn't call the police then, because a description from me is worse than useless, but it did occur to me that my phone may be capable of taking a photo through the peep hole, and so next time something like this happens, I can take the person's picture and give that to the cops.
It was a very scary experience for me. I suppose it wouldn't really be that scary for most people, but I'm not most people, and with three anxiety disorders to my name and counting, I get scared easily. (An anxiety disorder should really be called a fear disorder but then people would get it mixed up with phobias.)
But there's two good things that came out of the whole incident. First, Apricot is starting to trust the Rowdy Boys enough to hide with them, instead of by himself. And second, I have a kitten who wants to take care of me, too. I've really missed that. Now I have a cat I have to "be strong" for, and a cat who can "be strong" for me. Kind of completes the circuit, so to speak!
Here is Thimble, from a different day, when I discovered that if you have a sleepy kitten on a heated throw blanket on your lap, and you've turned the blanket on high because you're feeling ill, said kitten may just toast himself into an absolutely blissful state instead of leaving because it's too hot.
All the sudden there came this angry pounding on the door. Not a knocking sound, but pounding, like with a fist. The cats scattered after the second repetition of this. I saw the Rowdy Boys flee into the kitchen, but I didn't see where Apricot went.
I was frightened. The guy just kept pounding on my door, over and over again. I looked out the peep hole in the door to see it was just one man, white, dark haired, and not a teenager or 20s, but with my prosopagnosia, that's all I could remember, if I called the cops and he left before they came.
Even with that handicap, I was about to call 911 because he just wouldn't leave. I even had the phone out. I was terrified of what he would do if I didn't open the door, but I was more scared of what he would do if I did. He finally left right as I got the phone app open. (Yes, I know I can dial it from the password screen. I forgot.)
But I was still afraid. He sounded so angry and demanding, that pounding over and over again. I fully expected a rock to come through the window, a petty retaliation for my not answering the door when he knew quite well I was at home. I'd already turned off all the lights, and I huddled in the middle of the living room, away from all the windows, waiting with my heart in my throat.
Since the noises had stopped, the kittens came out of the living room to see what was up. They both checked in with me, coming up to me and getting petted, and then, to my shock, Apricot came out of the kitchen and came over to me as well. I would have expected him to go hide in one of his normal hiding spots, not in the kitchen with the other two!
As I was still scared they picked up on it, and although no one left the living room, even Apricot, they dispersed away from me. Except for Thimble. Poor 3 month old Thimble came back to me and was reassuring me that it would be okay. I haven't had a cat do that for a very long time; Pippin was like Apricot, and I had to reassure him, not the other way around.
I greatly appreciated Thimble's efforts, which did help make me feel better. But I felt sorry for him, having to be the grownup when he's still such a baby.
Nothing happened, but when I cautiously went into the kitchen, I saw my neighbor's motion sensor light go on. I waited until it went off and then called them, to see if perhaps they had opened the door and found out what the guy wanted (or if I needed to call 911 because they'd opened the door and he'd wanted something bad and they weren't able to answer my call).
Turns out they'd just gotten home from grocery shopping, and the man accosted them in their driveway as they got out of their car! And he wanted them to sign a petition about voting. Like changing what kind of majority is needed to pass a certain kind of vote ... he wasn't clear to my neighbor and of course I got this second hand so I'm really not clear on it.
My neighbor said he told the guy straight-up that going door to door after dark in a street of mostly elderly people was a really stupid idea and he was going to get the cops called on him if he kept it up. Did I mention it was also 39 degrees (F)? What idiot goes door to door after dark when it's that close to freezing?
When I called my dad, he said that someone with a similar sounding petition had come by their place shortly before Christmas, so it sounded legitimate. My neighbor said he thought the guy was legitimate too, just deeply stupid.
I didn't call the police then, because a description from me is worse than useless, but it did occur to me that my phone may be capable of taking a photo through the peep hole, and so next time something like this happens, I can take the person's picture and give that to the cops.
It was a very scary experience for me. I suppose it wouldn't really be that scary for most people, but I'm not most people, and with three anxiety disorders to my name and counting, I get scared easily. (An anxiety disorder should really be called a fear disorder but then people would get it mixed up with phobias.)
But there's two good things that came out of the whole incident. First, Apricot is starting to trust the Rowdy Boys enough to hide with them, instead of by himself. And second, I have a kitten who wants to take care of me, too. I've really missed that. Now I have a cat I have to "be strong" for, and a cat who can "be strong" for me. Kind of completes the circuit, so to speak!
Here is Thimble, from a different day, when I discovered that if you have a sleepy kitten on a heated throw blanket on your lap, and you've turned the blanket on high because you're feeling ill, said kitten may just toast himself into an absolutely blissful state instead of leaving because it's too hot.
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| A Toasted Thimble |
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