Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Animal Communicator?


Ok, so I am not an official animal communicator, cause I have no idea what they are thinking at any moment in time - but I can generally figure out what they are about to do by their body posture - but I am starting to believe I have the ability to TELL the cats what to do..

now for the most part my kitties are much like other kitties, they don't listen.  They take a message and get back to you sort of thing.  Often if you want them off something they are on, you have to walk up to them and threaten physical removal in order for them to care.

but recently I have started asking my cats to to get down, or come here, or leave their sibling alone... and it worked!!

I am sure it has a LOT to do with my tone.  If I tell them to get down in a sing songy happy voice, they just bask in the praise they think they are getting.. but there is that no nonsense tone I have that means *I have absolutely had it with whatever you are doing and the next time I speak you are NOT going to like it*.  You know the one, when you say, no, get down, no, go away, leave my food alone, no, NO, GEEZE  COME ON!!, no, down, sit down.. and THEN you get the tone, so you could pretty much tell them to fly to the moon and they'd slink down and sit somewhere close and watch you.  Maybe I've come to be able to use that tone the first time, but I got Kit to lay down on the first command the other day when she was so excited over seeing DH that she was about to step in his dinner for the fifth time.  I got Fleurp to get off the counter, twice.  I got Ollie and Muffin to drop their little scuffle (those are interesting.  Muffin is 1.5 times the size of Ollie, but Ollie is older and meaner.  They've never actually fought, but they have been having quite a few vocal scuffles lately)

I also haven't been able to do anything in my house with out an entourage.  DH thinks it is quite funny when I walk down the hall with at least four cats following me around.  Last night when I got home from work, I had six, and they were all squeeking and whining wanting my attention.  I was in the kitchen trying to talk to DH and I almost couldn't hear myself from all the hubub.  I told them to be quiet a few times, but not in "the tone" finally I had it, and told them to leave us alone! and surprisingly a moment later there wasn't a kitty in the kitchen (they were all on the far side of the island which I refer to as the dining area of our great room kitchen/living room/dining room room) no crying, no noise of any kind.  I almost went giddy with my power.  If I could get Jack to not cry for treats, could I take over the world??

I then went down to exercise, and my entourage came with me.  Fleurp has taken to sleeping in a blanket that is on the floor in the basement where I work out.  She comes down with me and takes a cat nap while I work out.  I have not worked out alone since... well since I can remember :).  But last night I had Skippy running around playing with a ping pong ball and trying to goat Fleurp into playing.  Muffin was there too, doing her best to distract me with her beautiful belly.  She so loves to flaunt that thing at me when I'm busy knowing I have a very hard time resisting it. Life according to Muff is that NOTHING is more important then paying attention to Muff - unless she's busy. 






We do have a little bit of a situation though.  Twee has ended up with a few scabs on her head, so someone is not playing fair.  She had a tiny one at the base of her ear on the back side last week, and on Sunday I found a rather large scrape/scab under her chin.  I see her playing with Skippy and Muffin (ok so Muffin doesn't play she tells her to go away with some rather aggressive tones but I can't see her getting physical) and I've never seen anyone trying to hurt her.  Not quite sure what is going on.  She's lost several patches of fur on her head previous, but with no scabbing, no irritation of any type.  Just a small round patch of fur missing (maybe the size of a pea) and smooth white skin peeking through.  *shrug*  I'll have to keep an eye on it and see what comes of it.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Update on Doug & Boots


Well I checked in with Claudia, and Doug is doing well in his new home.  He was in isolation for a few days, but she noticed - much like I did - that Doug really wanted company, so she slowly introduced him into her home sooner then she was planning.  He integrated very well, and is enjoying life with other cats again.  He's still on insulin - and about the level I was giving him, so I don't feel like I completely failed him.  Learning a new insulin on a cat I had no history with was very challenging mentally and emotionally.

Boots is ... well he's Boots.  He loves to yell at me as most Siamese cats tend to do.  He's eating a lot.. DH feeds him a can of fancy feast in the AM and if it is all gone when I go down to see him I give him another one.  He gets a third can in the PM.  DH doesn't mix the food with water which is good to know he will eat straight food.  He's still drinking a lot (to me) and peeing a LOT (again to me) but he's putting on weight (although it is a bit slow for my taste) so I'm not going to push that he see a vet.  His mom will be back soon enough, and if he doesn't take a turn for the worse, I'll let his health be.

It's funny how I keep thinking of Boots the cat, but I keep calling him Doug.. I am constantly having to correct myself.

the silent vomit


Now this is incredibly interesting.

With eight cats, I am very attuned to the noise of the hurl.  It seems to come in waves, as my cats all seem to get hairballs at about the same time (yes, I know, if I brushed them more regularly that wouldn't happen) and they all seem to like to do it in the middle of the night, in the bedroom.  I know if I'm not paying attention I am ending up with a foot full of hairball.

Well the other day we found a small pile on the bed.  It was a really odd thing because it hadn't been there when we woke up, and for the most part either myself or DH was in the bedroom or the master bath all morning long.  We just couldn't figure out what was going on.  We chalked it up to we must have missed it and moved on with the day.

the other night, I woke up and realized that Skippy is turning into a really adorable boy.  As mentioned before, he has his attention quota, and will snuggle with me or DH every single day.  Not just a pat me sort of thing, but a crawl up on to your chest, rest his head on your shoulder sort of snuggle.  The other night he decided to snuggle up with me while I was sleeping.  I sleep on my side with my top leg curled up to me as if I were doing a knee lift if I were standing.  This leaves a nice little hole for a kitty (Skippy) to snuggle into.  My heart just about melted when I woke up and found him there.  Was a little perturbed when Muffin and Jack - realizing I was awake and set about to see who could stick their nose up mine first and disturbed Skippy so he got up and left.  As he started walking away, he seemed to be preparing to vomit - sans any noise at all.  I wasn't quite sure that was what he was doing, but I wasn't taking any chances at all. I pushed him along, and he took two steps and started making the same physical movements of preparing to vomit.  I finally pushed Muff and Jack off me and herded Skippy off the bed, and at that point I heard the tell tale noise of a successful evacuation of one's stomach contents.  It was the weirdest thing ever.  I have cats that vomit delicately, and I have cats that vomit much like you would imagine a drunk biker dude would.  I have never in all my years of cat ownership and cat fostering had a cat that vomited silently.

Not quite sure I like it.  Nope, I don't like it one little bit.  I just know there is going to be toe squishing ickiness in my future

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

not amused with blogger


not quite sure what I am going to do at this point.  Blogger recently announced it is no longer going to support FTP. 

Why does this bother me?? I mean if I hosted with blogger wouldn't everything be much more seamless?? well yes, but then none of my work - my images, my writings, my stories, etc would be on server space I own (ok, that I rent) it would be part of THEIR stuff and I wouldn't have access to it.

But does that matter?  really?  I mean how many times have I gone looking for images in my own server space?  on this blog almost never.  The few times I have looked for past history, I have done it through blogger's archive info.

I have really resisted being hosted on their servers, and I now have to decide if I want to continue with blogger and move everything over there?  or do I want to switch blogging services (OMG even the thought of that is overwhelming) and continue to host it myself?

I don't have all that much time to decide..   I am leaning towards going along with blogger, but let me reitterate, I am NOT amused..

Thursday, February 4, 2010

well at the least, he is eating better


Boots seems to be doing better.  He weighed 8lbs 4 oz when he first showed up, and then a few days later he was 7lbs 14 oz. I think I hit upon the trick to get him to eat more - by mixing his food with a lot of water to make a soup.  He was 8lbs 2 oz the other day when I weighed him.

But then my DH fed him a can of food this morning and he ate the whole thing despite the fact that it wasn't mixed with water.. so who knows.  Maybe the water isn't necessary??!?!?

I also noticed he isn't hunkering down to eat, but standing upright and leaning over, so I put his bowl up on a box to help him a little.  Some days he likes it, and some days he doesn't.  Poor thing probably has a ton of arthritis.

I must remember he isn't my cat.  What his mom wants to do for him is what will be done for him.  At least I got him eating a bit though so I'm not all that concerned about weight loss.. although I'm still not sure he isn't peeing excessively.

I'm kinda hoping he'll be up to 9 pounds by the time he goes home.
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