It seems whenever I briefly get off my chair, one cat or another is lying on it when I return. Usually I’m too nice to kick them off so I replace that chair with a less comfortable one. Then I lose that one.
This morning I woke up to the soft blue glow of our living room television.
This happens about twice a month and I can’t figure out how they do it because I have trouble turning the beast on.
It has a weird quirk and can only be turned off by the remote control, not on. To turn it on, one must find the far right button in a row of flat buttons that cannot be felt nor seen in low light. Once the button is found, a simple touch won’t work. I find myself pressing firmly on it for a couple of seconds before it decides to work.
The real mystery here is, if these cats are smart enough to figure out how to turn on this very difficult TV. Why not turn on the cable box? That one is easy.
My wife got up early Saturday morning to use the bathroom, which is just outside our bedroom door. In our house, this is usually okay before around 3:30 a.m. After that time, the cats congregate outside our bedroom door in anticipation of breakfast or early morning attention. On this morning, Rose missed the cut-off time by about fifteen minutes and all the cats poured into the bedroom. By 4:00 a.m., Chris was such an annoying pain that we both decided to get up.
I made coffee and cleaned the litter boxes and then noticed Puck get into the box to pee. About two minutes later I noticed him in the box peeing again and I watched him this time. I felt like a voyeur but I needed to see if he was having a problem peeing. Sure enough, the litter was dry but he still felt the need to bury it. I then watched him go in and out of the box several more times within the next ten to fifteen minutes. That is when we decided he needed to see the vet right away. We learned how dangerous the problem could be when Frankie had that problem.
We have two vets that we go to. Our preferred vet is about a fifteen minute drive from our house and our secondary vet is almost the same distance that Frankie takes me on our walks. We decided to go to the closer vet because they opened a half hour earlier than the other vet and I didn’t want to wait.
I brought in the carrier and everyone but Puck was interested in it.
I was able to get through to someone at the vet’s office at 7:50 and she told me to bring Puck in right away, so I put him in him in his carrier for the short drive over there.
We were at the vet’s door right after they opened. We only waited a short time before they put us in an exam room.
Once in the room, I opened Puck’s carrier but he did not want to come out.
I didn’t want a stranger to come in and traumatize Puck by pulling him out of his carrier so I took off the top.
I then thought he would feel safer on my lap so I picked him up and put him there. I was wrong. He immediately got off my lap and hid behind the carrier so no stranger could walk in and find him.
When the vet tech came in, she picked up Puck and brought him into the back room. For some reason, this vet’s office likes doing most of their examinations out of sight of the pet parents. I think they are performing secret experiments back there.
After some time, the vet came in and said that Puck had a bladder infection but he was not blocked, which was good. His course of treatment was fluids along with… wait for it… steroids and antibiotics.
Those of you who have read a lot of my recent posts understand the joke. It seems every time I go to the vet I make a comment about how I could be a vet if I only had steroids and antibiotics because all problems are solved using those two drugs. In fact, I’ve talked about it so much that I decided to compile a list of posts where I mention both drugs in the same post.
Wow, that is a common topic. Maybe I should think of something else to write about.
Anyway, getting back to the story, when the vet tech finally brought Puck back, he was wrapped in a towel and had a strange mask on his face. At first I thought is was something like the cone of shame and was hoping that they didn’t expect me to make Puck wear this thing at home. It was then that I saw that not only was his mouth covered but so were his eyes. It was then that I realized I was wrong. They were not conducting secret experiments in the back room, they were filming Fifty Shades of Black.
I wish I had time to take a picture of Puck with that mask but by the time the shock wore off the tech was removing it from his face. She said it was to keep him calm but I have never heard of a vet using a mask in that way before.
After further research, I found something similar on Amazon. It is a cat muzzle and it is used for difficult cats to keep them from biting. I have never known Puck to be a difficult cat or a biter so maybe it it’s true and can calm a scared cat. I wonder if it would work on Floki so we can trim his nails.
It has now been over a day and I do not see Puck trying to use the box. I suppose that is good but I am never around when he does use the box and I wish he would pee when I can see him so I can confirm he is better.
Update: I forgot to mention that the vet said Puck should be eating only wet food until he is better. He also gave us a syringe to get water in his mouth a few times a day.
I have been wanting to get them off dry food for some time now because it is the primary cause of urinary disease. I feed them wet food twice a day but Chris eats almost none of it so I keep some dry food out so Chris wont starve. I do limit the amount of dry food though and am still trying to figure out how to get Chris to eat the wet so I can eliminate the dry .
Okay Puck, you’re clean. NEXT!
Here is another blast from the past. Our cats always want to “help” with any project we do.
Rose and I have been trying to sell a few things on eBay these last couple of weeks and my job has been to take the photographs. I remembered I had a couple of white boards for matting photographs and thought I would use those for a background. I laid one flat and propped the second one at a 90 degree angle. Once I did that the cats were all over it like I just introduced them to a new kind of catnip.
Of course there was competition and conflict.
After a couple of weeks I needed to take more pictures and I was hoping the novelty would have worn off and they would let me do my work. For a moment, I forgot whose house I was living in.
Normally, all the cats get shut out of our bedroom at night because Chris goes through periods where he will not stop biting my nose or digging his claws into my face and neck. Usually this happens early in the night or around 4 a.m. or both. I often think that I can pick him up and put him closer to the foot of the bed where one or more other cats are resting peacefully. That works for about ten seconds and then he’s back. So now all the cats are deprived of our bed for the actions of one.
I do break this rule occasionally, like last week when my wife went on a business trip for a few days. Chris annoyed me every night but I only was pushed too far one night when I had to kick everyone out and close the door. They all had to leave because there is no litter box in the room.
I don’t remember if this was the indecent that caused their removal but one night while Chris was being especially annoying, I had my arm between me and Chris to try to block the poking and biting. That is when Floki decided to play with Chris’s tail. This always upsets Chris and he started growling and kicking me with his back feet like I was the one fighting with his tail. At one point he really got angry and scratched me pretty good, or would that be “pretty bad?”
I think I need to find Kevlar pajamas for next time I leave my door open at night.
A cat can sleep with one cat one day and another cat the next day and nobody gets jealous. This rule does not apply to humans.
My wife and I recently went to a wedding in Kentucky. We left early Thursday morning and did not return until late Sunday evening. Fortunately, our good friend, Lynn, was able to play cat-sitter for us once again.
All of our cats love her now. Even puck, who is the shyest cat of them all, comes out for Lynn’s attention.
Chris is perfectly happy lying in the sunbeam but…
He likes to cuddle even more.
Frankie is so comfortable with Cat-Sitter Lynn that he just lets it all hang out.
Of course, he likes getting attention too.
Floki, who is almost as shy as Puck, also comes out when Lynn is around.
There is one other thing our cats like almost as much as their sitter; dinner.
Judging from this picture, I’d say Floki is about to steal Frankie’s food, even though his bowl has plenty of food in it.
Last week I took Frankie for a walk and he dropped down and started rolling in the dirt. I assumed he was taking a dust bath and thought it was cute so I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture. Shortly after he stood up I noticed his entire harness was around his waist and he was seconds away from escaping, so I grabbed him and fixed his harness before continuing our walk.
It wasn’t until later, when I looked at the photo, that I realized he was doing his Frankie Houdini act for me.
I thought I would share with you today one of my funnier Photo Friday posts.
I cannot open the laundry room door or any closet door without one or more cats wanting to go inside to perform a thorough investigation. Recently both Chris and Frankie were investigating a closet but I have yet to get their full report.
This is my investigation Chris! Find your own closet.
Calm down Frankie. I just want to smell your face.
Let’s call a temporary truce… Okay, agreed.
Look Frankie! This is where I buried your predecessor. Ha, ha, ha… Just kidding.
I think there might be a secret stash of mice in here. If I only had opposable thumbs.
Okay Frankie, I’m bored. What do you want to investigate now?
