Trixie is pretty good about keeping her claws retracted when she plays, the thing you have to worry about is when she’s snuggling all up in your face, if she’s excited she finds it hard to resist nipping your nose.
Tag: couch
Sam the Spot Stealer
Leave an empty seat behind, an empty seat you may not find.
A Sense of Smell
Ellie in 2013 on high alert after my wife opened the refrigerator door. She’d wait and see what you took out of the fridge before deciding if she should get up, she’d come running if you pulled out the cheese and meat drawer but stay where she was for vegetables.
Still Sick
Sam in early 2008 enjoying his freedom in the house at large after we adopted him and kept him in isolation with Emma for a couple of weeks. He’s had diarrhea the past month and we got the first clue as to why from a fecal sample, he doesn’t have nearly as much healthy bacteria as he should despite taking probiotics the past month. He’s going to start some antibiotics soon if he doesn’t improve, as he may have some bad bacteria that’s keeping the good bacteria from thriving. If there’s a silver lining to getting laid off a month ago, in addition to being able to take Ellie on long walks each morning, it’s that I’ve been here to take Sam to the vet and get his medicines and give him second chances at eating when he’s not feeling well. He actually put on a little weight this month, not what you’d expect from someone with his condition, so the good news is he’s getting the nutrients from his food. After what we went through with Emma, that’s a big relief.
But I’ll be a lot happier when we know what is going on.
Don’t I Deserve a Treat Just for Being Sweet Ol’ Ellie?
One of Ellie’s great joys in life is eating. She was a little overweight when we got her and while she has been at a good weight for many years now, we still keep her on her diet food as it lets her eat a larger volume of food. We have a variety of low-calorie treats to give her, they were useful on her walks in the early days as we trained her but now I dispense them liberally when she does the things she’s long since learned to do, just because it makes her so happy.
But I love, love, love how we’ll be sitting on the couch and she’ll start arching her eyebrows towards the closet with the treats, her subtle little way of asking for a treat.
Philosophy II
“I don’t think I can face going to work tomorrow.”
“Good news, pup! You get to stay home and sleep all day, just like every other day.”
“That’s nice.”
I’m Not Tired …
… what makes you think I’m tired? Let’s play!
Finally Some Good News
After a trying week that followed several trying months, Sam has staged a turnaround. He’s responded well to the medicines he’s been taking (fluids, anti-nausea, appetite stimulant, and motility enhancer to speed the movement of fluid through his digestive system). We started him off on baby food, which he hadn’t eaten much of a couple of days earlier but now he was able to eat, and slowly eased him back to a more normal eating schedule and his regular food. Sam is back to eating his normal meals (just more slowly than before), his energy levels have improved dramatically, and his sweet demeanor seems to be returning to normal as well. Thankfully we didn’t have to resort to force feeding him with a syringe, but we would have had to if he hadn’t started eating on his own, there’s a serious liver condition cats can get if they go too long without getting enough calories.
Which is not to say he’s out of the woods, we don’t know yet if he’s actually getting better or if the medicines are treating his symptoms but the underlying disease is still present. I’m hopeful that he is actually getting better and this may have been a stress reaction after Emma’s death. In less than two years the poor little fellow went from being the youngest of three cats to the oldest of two. He loved having his big sisters look out for him and took a great deal of comfort from them. He wasn’t nearly as close to Emma as he was his best friend Scout, but they were friends and grew up together (we adopted them on the same day), so perhaps it all just overwhelmed him one day.
We have a follow-up phone call with the vet today so we’ll see if she wants to try taking him off the medications.
It’s the first time we’ve had to give him pills and while I didn’t expect it to be easy, I was caught off guard by how much it freaked him out. Granted he’s had a difficult week but he bit me hard in my hand, twice, and eventually it took my wife and I to get pills down his throat, one holding him tightly wrapped up in a blanket or towel while the other worked the pill shooter. My wife picked up some Pill Pockets to try, little pockets of food you can put the pills in, and I was shocked that he ate them right away. I was surprised because none of our previous cats would touch them but as long as he’s eating, he went from being by far the hardest cat we’ve ever had to give medicine to, to the easiest.
It was hard to reconcile when I gave him his pill at midnight last night, that twenty-four hours earlier I was standing in that exact spot, bleeding and in pain, and Sam was as freaked out as I’ve ever seen him, and now he not only took his pill with no effort, but seemed thankful for the extra treat. They may not have worked with our other cats, but you’ll forgive me if at the moment those little pill pockets seem like humanity’s greatest invention.
I took this picture of him last summer, normally he likes to curl up on my wife or I but perhaps because of the heat in our non-airconditioned house he curled up beside me. This pose, one of my favorites of his, I call the bunny rabbit.
Not Bad News
After not eating or drinking much yesterday, Sam spent the day at the emergency vet getting an ultrasound and some medications. The news from the ultrasound isn’t so much good news as it isn’t bad news. There’s no blockage in his intestines so he won’t need a risky surgery, which we’re thankful for. Based on the amount of food in his stomach and intestines, given that he hadn’t eaten since the previous evening, they think the food may be moving too slowly through his digestive tract. We’re trying some medicines to see if they help, and although we haven’t seen any improvement yet, he’s still a little agitated from the day. We’ll see how he does tomorrow, we have an appointment with our regular vet in the afternoon.
They mentioned that the appetite stimulant they gave him can cause excitability, and given the howling and cage rattling I heard from the cat carrier behind my seat as I drove home, I thought for a moment I had our beloved Templeton back there. Sam reminds me of Templeton too when he steals my spot. If he’s been curled up in my lap and I get up, he can’t resist moving over to my thoughtfully pre-warmed seat. Unlike Templeton, though, he doesn’t try to trick me into giving him the spot, he only takes it when the opportunity presents itself.
Sam in the Darkness
A sleepy Sam on the loveseat in my darkened office.
Boolie 