Category Archives: Uncategorized

Chris Goes Back to the Vet Again

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Early this week, perhaps Sunday, my wife and I came home and saw puke all over the kitchen table. There was a mixed bouquet of flowers on the table and I saw some green specs in the puke so I assumed someone was chewing on the flowers and got sick. I immediatly threw away the flowers but I probably should have photographed them first to determine if any were toxic to cats.

It wasn’t long before we realized it was Chris who was puking because he continued to puke bile the rest of the day. He seemed otherwise okay and he was eating and drinking so I decided to just keep an eye on him.

Throughout the week he would give me cause for concern but then he would be extremely annoying which made me happy because that was normal behavior for him. By Friday he was still puking occasionally and I was concerned because we are leaving for St. Augustine this morning for a few days for my wife’s birthday and I didn’t want to have to worry about him while I was away, so I called the vet and scheduled an appointment for Friday afternoon.

When we got to the vet, the vet tech took him into the other room to weigh him. He was still a student and had a lot to learn about handling cats. When he brought him back he told me he weighed 19.5 pounds which is one pound less then his last vet visit.

When the vet came it to check on Chris, he resisted and had a death grip on the edge of the table. The vet tech could not move his paws away so I had to step in to help. The tech then tried to hold him down after the vet was done checking his stomach, which I didn’t understand. I stepped in and said, “Hold on!” I then looked at the vet and said, “Can I take him?” With a nod from the vet I picked him up and put him on my lap.

The story of the flowers came up and the vet said toxic plants could have affected his kidney and liver. I asked if it would still affect him so many days later and he said it could. He wanted to get a blood test to be sure and so they took Chris back in the other room for a very long time.

When they returned, the vet said they were able to give him a shot for nausea but were not able to get a blood sample because Chris was being extremely uncooperative. So we left without knowing anything for sure.

I was told to keep an eye on him for loss of appetite and lethargy. So far he seems okay. We talked about him with our neighbor who will be watching the cats while we are away. We also gave her a credit card and emergency vet information just in case. Hopefully nothing will happen while we are gone, or even after we return. I don’t like worrying about Chris and it is especially hard knowing we will be away during a troubling time.

Patches Has a New Name

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On my last post I talked about Patches who was abandoned at one of my wife’s apartment complexes and then taken in by a resident who helps out there. I visited them yesterday and learned that he is doing very well and they both seem happy with each other.

I tried to get a good photo of Patches but he was too busy playing. I should also remember to call him by his new name “Patch” because “Patches” does not sound manly enough.

Whatever name he goes by I am just glad he is doing well. His new gaurdian calls him “respectful.” I’m not entirely clear what that means but I think it is a way of calling him a good boy.

Cat Left Behind with no Food or Water

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My wife is vice president for a company that owns several apartment communities in Florida, Virginia and West Virginia. A small, 20-unit apartment in Tampa used to be part of a group of three apartment complexes but two of them sold last month leaving it with no full-time staff to watch over it. Instead, a resident helps out by keeping it clean and by doing light maintenance when needed and the manager comes by once a week to check on it.

While the manager was there on Thursday morning, she checked on an apartment that someone had recently moved out of and found a cat left behind with no food or water. It is scary to think what would have happened if she didn’t show up until Monday.

The resident that helps out said he recognized the cat and knew his name was Patches. He agreed to keep him in his apartment until they could figure out what to do with him.

His finances were tight and couldn’t really afford to keep a pet but agreed to do that after Rose told him she would keep him supplied with food and litter. This would come from her, not the company.

So as we were out for breakfast Thursday morning, Rose got online and ordered wet and dry food, treats, litter, a litter box, a scoop and some catnip toys, which all arrived the next day except for the toys.

It seems like Patches’ new guardian has become exited about having Patches as a companion and I think Patches has found a better home then the one he left. Anyone who is coldhearted enough to leave a cat behind like that must be horrible to live with.

That brings me to a question I have been wondering for a long time. Why do people who care so little about animals get pets? Why would someone just abandon a pet that has been part of the family? Why do people get dogs and then leave them tied up in the back yard? Or beat them for behaving like a dog?

Shortly after Rose placed that order for Patches, we left the restaurant and drove through the parking lot until we reached Petsmart where Rose stopped to let people walk by. I turned away for a second but my attention was brought back to the front when Rose beeped the horn. “Did you see that!?” she yelled. “What the hell is wrong with people?”

All I saw was a young man walking a small dog and two other people. As we drove by Rose opened my window and yelled some words at the man that I won’t repeat here. He then yelled unrepeatable words back. When I asked what happened, Rose told me the guy was pulling the dog’s leash so hard that the dog was flying through the air. Again, why get a pet if you care so little about animals?

Sometimes I am embarrassed to be human. My hope is that scientists will find out that these people belong to some subspecies of humans so I don’t have to be related to them.

Another Vet Visit for Chris

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Tuesday was not a great day for medical visits. I went to the dentist that morning and found out I need a root canal. I then found out my crappy dental insurance does not cover specialists.

Later I brought Chris to the vet to have his ears reexamined. You may recall his regular vet recommended surgery for his ear polyps but when we tried to make an appointment for the procedure we were told the surgery was too complex for that office and were referred to another vet. That vet wanted to remove Chris’s ear canals and make him deaf but after I resisted they gave him medication and an appointment to their dermatologist, who we saw Tuesday.

Chris was fascinated by the cat carrier his first nine years with us but now he sees it and runs the other way. When I do get him inside he doesn’t want to get out when we get to the vet. That is also something new because he used to love to explore the vet’s office.

The vet seemed very nice. He took ear swabs and then talked to me about ear polyps. He said there are two types, cancerous and benign. He said he needed to take a biopsy to find out which type Chris has. He said if they are cancerous then he would have to refer me back to the surgeons but if they are benign then there are treatment option. One he mentioned, if my memory is correct, involved freezing them off. He said they show up all the way through the ear canal so he couldn’t get them all but he could get most and then treat with antibiotics when needed.

They took Chris in the back room for the biopsy and returned him 12 days later. Well, maybe not that long but that’s what it seemed like. We then went back to the waiting room to wait for more of the same medication that we got for him last time. A medication that actually seemed to do some good for Chris.

When they called me up to check out I was expecting it to be fairly expensive. My wife was originally going to go with me but backed out so I knew if it was expensive she would blame me. As I waited for the bill I kept thinking “Please be less than $300. Please be less that $300 . . .”

“Your total today is seven hundred and one dollars and ninety cents.”

“What!? Holy crap! Is this a joke?”

It wasn’t a joke and I had to call my wife so she could transfer money to our checking account. I wasn’t looking forward to that call.

She took the news about the same as I did except louder. She also had the luxury of someone to blame. I didn’t have that privledge.

So now I have to wait two weeks for the test result but it seems now that they bled us dry there will be nothing left for Chris’s ears. The frustrating thing is, the original surgery estimate was around $500. Now we have spent almost $1000 and nothing has been done yet.

Meal Time

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I thought I would share one from 2014 for Throwback Thursday. This is after I stopped feeding them raw food and went to just canned for awhile. I have since gone back to raw food. In fact, I used to mix the raw with the canned but now they just get raw.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

Meal time for our cats has become very predictable in our house. They all become very excited when I walk in the kitchen. Puck jumps on the counter along with Chris or Frankie until I take the can out and then whoever is on the counter with Puck jumps down but Puck remains and starts eating as soon as I put the food in the nearest bowl.

Chris takes a few bites from his bowl and then walks away. I then have to move his bowl to where he is, sometimes more than once. After a couple of minutes Puck leaves his bowl, before he finishes, and heads out to look for Chris and his bowl, just in case his food is better. When Puck approaches, Chris just walks away and lets him have it.

This is unusual for Chris, who is so dominant, but I think he is just…

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