Friday, October 27, 2017

Creating a plan for moving with cats #chewyinfluncer



The move is going well. We close on the new house on the first and it was looking like we were going to be moving on the one year anniversary of Kit's passing but we have run into yet another snafu. My husband was thinking we would move in a bit sooner but waiting until the eleventh seemed like the right thing to do since we had joked several times over the years that we could never move to someplace warmer while Kit was with us (for those of you keeping track we didn't get the offer until Aprilish). *sigh* I still get emotional thinking of her


But we are moving soon and I am making a plan for the cats. The last time we moved, we packed up the house and then once the movers started taking the boxes to the van I packed up the cats and brought them to the house and set them up in the bathroom with a litter box with litter from their old box, a cat tree, a blanket that I loved that smelled like all of us.

This move is going to go a bit like that but we are going to have to travel two hours and I have a feeling it is going to be much more stressful for them, so I was planning on giving them a treat of something I know they love - canned food.  When Chewy's Influencer program offered me the TikiCat After Dark canned food and the Feliway Comfort Zone I knew that I had to have these things for my 'go bag' of things I am bringing for the cats when we move, including a blanket that smells like all of us, a couple of cat trees and their litter. I also plan on packing up all of their medications and supplements and carrying that in the car with the cats so I don't have to worry about it being lost in the move. I'm also planning on giving them some catnip in case they need a bit of a mental distraction as well. Yes, I am going to have a 'go bag' for my cats.

I like the ingredient list of the TikiCat After Dark foods as they have no plant-based ingredients so I was very happy to talk about this food and I look forward to seeing how much the cats like it. I used Feliway when we moved into Casa de Gato and it seemed to help make the move a little easier for them.

I will be doing a followup one we actually move and how the cats liked the food. I am seriously hoping we still hit our goal of moving on the 11th, but time will tell.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Two-fur for Tuesday



Muffin and Fleurp have taken to hanging out together. No idea why, not that I am complaining it is super adorable.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Muffin's nose


Last week I told you that Muffin had a developed a growth on her nose.


I have found that I am very overreactive when it comes to the cats and decided to wait a few days to see what happened. Obviously, if it got any bigger I would go, or if she developed any other issues, I would go, but I wanted to see what would happen. I knew that the vet would most likely want to take a biopsy of it or at the very least a needle biopsy and I feared that would only make things worse for her. By the time I was ready to take her in regardless, I realized that it was no longer quite so dark in color. I applied a little coconut oil (which I find is very soothing for irritated skin) and gave it another day or so.

By the weekend it looked like this:


There is still something there but it has improved dramatically. I can't begin to guess what happened and why it would be so dark but her fur still white over it.

Skippy appears to have stopped overgrooming. His feet still look horrid but they aren't getting worse. His weight is almost back to normal and I am hopeful. I'm still attempting to find a dose for Jack that allows him to not gain weight and keeps him from peeing outside of the box.. I thought I had it, but a cleanup in aisle 3 last night shows me that I was wrong. *headdesk* Maybe it is just a stress reaction from everything going on, so I'll probably be a bit more aggressive once we have moved and everyone is settled. I just don't think it is good for him to be 14+ pounds (which he is)

Monday, October 16, 2017

A final kittenpillar update



I went out and checked on the chrysalis in my peonies on Wednesday night and it looked like this.


It was going to be very cold Wednesday night so I feared that Toby wouldn't make it, so I didn't report on the fact that you could see the wings.Thursday night Toby looked like this


More cold nights were forecast, so I still worried but come Saturday..


I went and checked on Toby several times and I missed his/her departure (apparently you can tell the gender from the wings so if anyone knows monarchs you'll know if Toby is male or female) I've never looked closely at the chrysalis once it has hatched and it was so interesting to look at.

Unfortunately, Pickle did not make it. Pickle emerged with wings that would not straighten out. I feel more than a little guilty that I took him in and he never knew life outside but I'm trying to not let that get to me. I was trying to help and there was a very good chance that he wouldn't have even been able to form a chrysalis (aka he would have been eaten) if I had left him outside.

I enjoyed this quite a bit and will see what I can do about planting milkweed at my new house next spring.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Oh Nose!!



Oh Nose! Daddy is coming in for a belly rub!!



I didn't say I wanted him to stop...

Monday, October 9, 2017

Fleurp face pretty much sums up my mood



Things over at Casa de Gato have been quite wonky lately.A couple of weeks ago I noticed this


For some reason, Skippy has been over grooming his back feet and had started working on his belly by the time I realized it.  I've tried my best to spend one on one time with him, I've been dosing him with Rescue Remedy in case he was getting paranoid about all of the packing going on (and I've slowed down on that quite a bit). The fur stopped disappearing, but then he started losing weight, nearly half a pound. I had a feeling it might be an issue with all of the fur so I have started plying him with all kinds of hairball treats and giving him extra food and he seems to be on the upswing.

We are still having issues with Jack and his thyroid. I even went so far as to buy the name brand for human thyroid meds and we are still having issues. To give him enough medicine that his body will regulate his weight, his bladder becomes unhappy and he starts to urinate outside of the box. So I am giving him enough to maintain his weight and seriously hoping that is enough.

Fleurp has started licking mirrors. It is the first sign of her anemia. I've been thinking for a while that when she sheds her coat that is somehow interfering with her blood count. Now that her winter coat is coming in and she is losing her summer fur, I'm even more convinced. I can Furminate her but she hates it and usually ends up snapping at me. Hopefully, with some extra iron and a concerted effort to groom her more regularly will keep her on keel. I plan to give her a lion cut in the spring and we'll see first hand if my theory holds out.

My caterpillars are still green and hanging in there. It has been 10 days since the one in the house formed and they can take up to 15 days, so hopefully soon.. I fear that they are both dead though, but that's just because I'm me.

Sadly, it looks like Muffin has developed a growth on her nose.


I really really want it to be a dirt spot but it is raised and it bothers her when I tried to clean it off. She will have to see a vet again.. *sigh* the bump behind her ear has also started growing and she has a tooth that could use some attention. My poor old girl.. (I'm quite worried)

Now, on to the less depressing things. I saved a frog yesterday


and by saved a frog I mean I herded the frog out of the garage and back into the yard. Not a very exciting rescue, but it was fun watching him jump.. He jumped impressively high.

Now, on to the what was that from Friday


Unfortunately, there was no good way to get a perspective image but many of you guessed that I was in quite tight.  A couple of you were close with a molar, but it is actually a wad of tartar that I was able to scrape off one of Twee's teeth. I asked the husband to pick a number between one and eighteen, the number of comments and he picked 12. Greg from Feline Cafe and his Perogi comment that actually made me lol totally wins.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Can you guess what this is?



I will tell you that it is cat related. You are free to make a serious guess or a really insane guess (go ahead, tell me you think it is a cruise liner)

The reason I am doing this is not because it is sponsored or anything, but it is to unload on you two items that I don't want to pack up and bring to the new house (you know, I could have spun that so it didn't sound so pathetic, but I'm in "Please, tell me you want this so I don't have to pack it" mode) The first is a book I have a duplicate of


This is a 16-inch necklace - or an 8-inch double bracelet. The blue part is soft and pliable and a bit stretchy. You know you want it 😼

Here are a few more pictures of the item you are guessing on to give you a better idea of what you are looking at.



So, what do you think this is?  I will pick a random comment on this thread and send the book and the necklace off to you.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

A Tale of Two Fleurps



First up is "Kitchen Fleurp" who is very hopeful that she will get a treat. Followed by "In the Sun Fleurp" who was also hoping for a treat, but was in the bedroom while I was taking some photos of Jack. I swear you can almost see the sparkles in her aura.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Kittenpillar watch 2017



There were a few cold nights over the weekend, and then I didn't go out and check on Toby and found he was still there and still green.

Getting photos of Pickle was much harder. Since he attached himself to the top of a mason jar and the leaves went right up to the top, my camera had no idea what to focus on and I wasn't doing a great job of getting the right focal point manually..


I wasn't thrilled with the small opening and the leaves all being up in Pickle's space, not to mention the poop that accumulated at the bottom of the jar was starting to mold, so I moved the cover to a wider mouth jar. What I am going to do in a few days when hatching starts, I'm not sure. Anyone have any suggestions?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...